A phone call at midnight

  At night, Mitya had a dream again. In the dream, his mother was holding a kitchen knife and hacked his father to death. Then she laughed maniacally and cut her own neck with the knife. The two of them fell down in front of her, bleeding all over the floor.

  Mei Jia woke up with a start from her dream, her whole body trembling slightly, her forehead covered in cold sweat. She reached out to turn on the table lamp on her bedside cabinet, and the dim light illuminated the dark room.

  She sat up with her legs curled up, her teeth biting her lips, and for over a decade, she had been repeating this dream non-stop. Each time it scared her awake, and perhaps she would never forget that scene in this lifetime.

  Her mother and father were in love back then, at first her father eloped with her mother despite opposition from the family, soon she was born, but the initial romance was worn away by life, the intense emotions turned into trivialities of everyday life, when the family's life became dull and uneventful, her father started seeking thrills with women outside, until he was discovered by her mother, who couldn't accept that the man she deeply loved would do this to her, in the end she took a knife and killed him before taking her own life.

  All of this happened right before her eyes, love seemed like a ridiculous tragedy, and she was the product of that tragedy.

  She let out a long sigh, habitually reached for her phone to call Lu Xiaoxiao, who was currently leading a tour abroad. Lu Xiaoxiao was her best friend, and the two had been inseparable since elementary school until college, when she joined the family business as an office worker, while Lu Xiaoxiao became a tour guide at a travel company.

  She remembered that she had called Lu Xiaoxiao yesterday afternoon and didn't think much of it, directly pressing the dial button to make the call.

  The phone rang for several rings before it was picked up, but to some surprise, the voice on the other end of the line wasn't Lu Xiaoxiao's, but a man's low and husky voice with a hint of drowsiness.

  "Hello, anything wrong?"

  Mei Jia was taken aback, took the phone and looked at it, only to realize that she had dialed the wrong number. She remembered that the man who had gone on a blind date with her in the evening had used her phone to make a call and exchange numbers before driving back.

  "Uh, I... ...I... ..." Mika was at a loss for words when she realized she had dialed the wrong number.

  "What's going on?" Cheng Yue's voice on the other end of the phone was now completely awake.

  Mi Jia let out a soft sigh and shook her head somewhat helplessly, saying: "No, I just dialed the wrong number."

  On the other end of the phone, Cheng Yue seemed to be sitting up from bed and asked, "Do you have a habit of calling people in the middle of the night?" His voice was low and sounded somewhat bewildering in the quiet of the night.

  Meijia shook her head and said: "My friend is abroad, it should be noon over there."

  "What's wrong? You're calling so late at night?"

  Mei Jia was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and said: "Is your power of observation always this good?"

  "I forgot to tell you, I'm from Reconnaissance Battalion."

  "It seems I won't have any secrets in front of you from now on." Mitia said with a hint of jest.

  "I can pretend I don't know." Even if he was joking, Cheng Yue could say it with a completely straight face.

  Mi Jia'wan looked at the alarm clock on her bedside table, 2:20 in the middle of the night, and said, "I won't disturb your rest anymore."

  Cheng Yue didn't say anything else and just said, "Mm, you should get some rest too."

  After hanging up the phone, she looked out of the window and saw that it was quiet outside, not a sound could be heard. She thought to herself that she wouldn't be able to sleep again tonight, and she couldn't even remember how many times she had been woken up by that dream and stayed awake until dawn.

  The two of them then briefly got to know each other, and Mika found out that his name was Chengyue, a 33-year-old army lieutenant colonel. He had parents at home, but they didn't live in City A, so after getting married, there wouldn't be any mother-in-law issues. City A was where his military unit was stationed, and he also owned an apartment there, located near the city center.

  After listening, Mika felt like she had encountered a rare treasure, and this "rare treasure" was meant as a compliment.

  Meijia simply told him about her situation, and the only requirement was that after marriage she would continue to take care of her grandmother, to which Chengyue had no objection.

  About the wedding, they tacitly agreed to keep it simple, get a certificate and then have dinner with both families to meet each other, that's it.

  After everything was settled, the two of them left the coffee shop together. Cheng Yue had arrived in a military jeep and politely asked Mika where she was headed, offering to give her a ride.

  Meijia originally wanted to refuse, but thinking that they were already engaged and would be getting their certificate next month, it wasn't bad to bring him home to meet her grandmother today, so she nodded and told him the address.

  On the way, Mika told him that she wanted to introduce him to her grandmother. Cheng Yue thought for a moment and nodded without objection. When they passed by the fruit stand outside the residential area, he said he wanted to get off and buy a basket of fruit. Mika hugged him and said it wasn't necessary, but he insisted, saying it was a matter of courtesy.

  When the two of them carried the fruit basket upstairs, they really gave Mijia's grandmother a fright. She didn't expect that Mijia had just gone out and now could bring back a man, as if she had picked him up from the street.

  However, the grandmother who had been looking forward to her grandson-in-law for many years was so frightened that she came back to her senses and was delighted with the situation. She put down the bag in her hand and was about to go into the kitchen to cook noodles for him to eat.

  Mitya politely declined, but couldn't get past her persistence. In the end, he didn't want Grandma to work hard, so he took the initiative and went downstairs into the kitchen himself.

  Cheng Yue sat with his grandmother in the living room, and she told him a lot about Mijia. Before Mijia came out, she held Cheng Yue's hand and patted it, saying that Mijia was a poor child and asked him to treat her well in the future.

  When he left, Mika saw him off. Although they said they would get married next month, they had just met and the two were a bit silent and awkward on the way down.

  It was Cheng Yue who finally broke the silence, saying: "Your noodles are very delicious."

  Mei Jia smiled lightly and looked at him, saying: "You haven't had dinner yet, have you?"

  The more awkward smile, nodded.

  As he sent her to the car, Cheng Yue asked for her phone before getting on the bus. After pressing a few keys, a mobile ringtone sounded in his pocket. He returned the phone to her and said: "This is my phone number, if you have anything, you can call me."

  Mei Jia nodded in agreement and watched him drive away.

  When Dai Jia went back upstairs to her home, she saw her grandmother sitting in the living room holding a photo from over twenty years ago, with tears still welling up in her eyes.

  The girl in the photo is wearing a white shirt and black long skirt, looking 70% to 80% like Mitya. The woman is Mitya's mother.

  Meijia walked forward and handed over the photo in her hand, sat down beside her grandmother, hugged her grandmother and said: "Don't look anymore."

  Grandma wiped her eyes and smiled: "I just told your mom that you're getting married too, I found a great guy for you."

  Meijia didn't say a word, she just held her grandmother tighter.