"Stop! Don't run..."

"Catch him, catch the thief..."

"stop--"

In the evening in the city, there were shouts and shouts without much nourishment. Lan Zi was carrying his shabby little schoolbag and running through the streets under the sunset, with people shouting and chasing behind him.

Running through the alleys, across the streets, and across the pontoon under the sunset, the child, who was about eleven or twelve years old, had a baby face that looked childish, disheveled hair, and beads of sweat on his flushed face. He was made of canvas.

His small schoolbag was flying behind his back. He held the things in his arms and passed through groups of pedestrians desperately. In 1993, in a small town in southern China, the streets were not wide but not crowded. There were bicycles, three

There are wheels, trucks or tractors. The surrounding buildings have an earthy and old feel. They are not beautiful, but very practical. People coming and going look at the people chasing each other, and some people want to reach out.

He tried to help intercept it, but the children evaded it as nimbly as loaches.

Although he ran all the way for a long time, a child is a child after all. After running across the pontoon bridge, his breathing was completely disordered. The buildings on both sides of the road shrouded the street in darkness. After gritting his teeth and running past a few buildings, he saw

The little girl with pigtails standing at the entrance of the alley waved her head to her out of breath.

The little girl was a little panicked, but finally understood what she meant. She turned around and ran into the alley. After a while, the boy also ran in. The huge inertia made him bump into the wall, and then he ran in with some staggering steps.

The girl was at the end of the alley, clenching her two little fists in front of her body, jumping anxiously on the spot: "Brother Azusa, Brother Azusa..." Her slightly crying tone was filled with anxiety.

The setting sun shot over the wall at the end of the alley, creating a bright line of light and darkness on the wall of the building. The boy ran to the end, pulled up the girl's small floral cloth satchel, and put everything in his arms into it: "

Go quickly, go quickly..." Then he pushed the little girl towards a hole in the wall next to him.

In theory, this is a dead end, but on the side and bottom of the wall, there is a hole that a child can go through. The little girl quickly climbed over, then turned around to meet the little boy, only to find that the other person was using force.

Pushing some garbage nearby, trying to block the hole.

"Brother Azi, brother Azi, come here quickly..." The little girl's voice was filled with tears, her shoulders and hands stretched out again, trying to pull the boy over, but was kicked back by the boy.

"Take your things back quickly..."

Amidst the crashing sound, garbage blocked both ends of the hole. The boy turned around and collapsed on the ground panting, looking at the person who came in from the alley. On the other side, the little girl was holding a floral bag and leaning against the wall.

Crying loudly.

For a moment, the sounds of shouting and beating came from the alley...

*****************

When the sunset turned from golden to orange, Lan Zi walked on the road with a bruised nose and turned around two streets. When he was approaching the intersection, he stopped and then went to the corner of the building next to him and stuck his head out.

Next to the road was a large, dilapidated yard with a fence. Some children were playing in it. A little girl wearing old floral clothes and braided hair was standing at the door of the yard looking over. He glanced at it and shrank back.

When I came back, I touched the pain on my face, thought for a while, then turned around and walked to the other side, detoured a few streets, and then returned to a small courtyard filled with rags. Grandma was folding things under the shabby awning.

Comes in carton.

"Grandma, I'm back!"

Say something loudly, and before grandma can see clearly, she quickly runs into the small room.

The injury could not be hidden for long. Before dinner, he was discovered by his sharp-eyed grandma. Naturally, he was nagging for a while, but he had already taken care of the injury. After dinner, he returned to the small room to do his homework.

, while trying to glue up the torn textbooks, there was a conversation outside.

"grandmother!"

"Oh, little mustard..."

"Is Brother Azusa back?"

Not long after, the little girl who spoke appeared at the door. He sat in front of the wooden box that was used as a writing desk. He temporarily put the broken book aside and buried himself in his homework, ignoring her.

"Brother Azi..."

The little girl came over timidly and reached out to touch the wound on the corner of his mouth where purple liquid had been applied. The boy turned away and hit her on the head: "It hurts."

The small room with the bright yellow light fell silent, and the little girl did not dare to touch his injuries again. While the boy was immersed in his homework, she silently glued up the torn textbooks for him page by page...

…

After finishing his homework and gluing up his textbooks, the little boy put the things into his small schoolbag without saying a word. The girl said, "The fat man asked you to go out to play at night."

"I'm not going today." He shook his head and spoke, touching the sore spot at the corner of his mouth. The boy then asked, "Has the medicine been put away for Sister Xiuzhen?"

"Well, put it in the old medicine box. No one knows when I put it."

"I can't say it even to death."

"I know." The little girl nodded, "Brother Azusa, when will Sister Xiuzhen's illness be cured?"

"how could I know."

Night has enveloped the whole city, and every house has lights on. They sit down on the steps in the yard. The sky is filled with bright stars. The waning moon looks like a small boat made of white jade. In the distance, Lan Zi once stood there.

You can also see the lights of the large courtyard that you looked at at the intersection. It is the orphanage where the little girl named Mustard lives.

"Brother Azusa, why don't you run away today?"

"You don't have to worry about my affairs!" The little boy glared at her, and then said, "Stop talking, let grandma hear me beating you."

"Oh." The little girl hugged her knees and nodded, then laughed, "Chili Pepper wrote to us today."

"Um."

"The letter was still crooked. Sister Xiuzhen read it to us. She said that her parents were very good to her. They bought her new clothes, bought books to read, and gave her some kind of aristocratic elementary school. It must be very good... there are so many new things.

, and gave her a new name, Xue Ya, and if I see her again, I don’t know whether to call her Chili Pepper or something..."

The little girl's voice was sweet and soft, and she was talking about her friends. The boy turned around and looked at her: "It would be great if you could be picked up anytime..." The little girl smiled "hehe".

In fact, children in orphanages will be adopted. Generally, the younger they are, the better the chances. Although Mustard is cute and can be considered young to ordinary people, she has already gone to elementary school, so she is sensible in this matter.

There is already little hope.

The two of them sat like that on the steps, looking up at the sky. The summer night was clear, cicadas were singing, and the yellowish lights shone from the dilapidated houses into the small courtyard. The small mountain city was soaked in the same light.

middle.

*******************

The little boy will have a deep friendship with the children in the orphanage. In fact, it is because they all have similar life experiences. Although he is with his grandma, he is not actually a family member inherited by blood. He is a child adopted by a kind-hearted old man. , the memory of the past has been blurred. Although there are still some scenes, it is not enough to find out the trajectory of his life. In this year, in a city where the economy is not yet developed, there are not many old people who can make a living by picking up rags. The consciousness of seeking help from the government or other forces, just raising a sensible little boy directly and sending him to school has already cost her too much effort.

The sun rises and the moon sets, time passes, summer gradually passes, and autumn leaves turn yellow. In the days when the Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, the boy helps decorate the house and repair the fence in the orphanage. As the person in charge of the orphanage, Sister Xiuzhen She has always suffered from some kind of chronic disease, which has always been the focus of concern for the sensible children. Due to the financial constraints of the orphanage, she rarely takes injections and medicines. The recurrence of her condition a few months ago scared everyone, but fortunately Later, she gradually recovered. She lost her temper because of the medicine that suddenly appeared in the orphanage. Mustard and others were punished to stand in the yard for half the night. With everyone keeping tight-lipped, the details of the medicine were revealed. The origin has not been revealed in the end.

The orphanage is repaired and decorated once a year, but this time it has another meaning for the children. Someone is coming here to adopt a child. It is an opportunity for everyone, and in this There are not many similar opportunities in the dilapidated orphanage.

Most of the younger children were dressing up carefully, but the older children did not have any hope. Lan Zi encouraged the familiar children to behave well, including the little Mustard who often accompanied him, but Mustard Her mood has been a bit low recently. She is in an awkward position due to her age. She may be adopted, but the hope is not high. Of course she hopes someone can adopt her. Even a little girl is embarrassed by this embarrassing position. Become melancholy.

Therefore, in front of the little boy, she spent most of the time talking about other things and was unwilling to mention the adoption.

"The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming soon. I wonder what mooncakes Sister Xiuzhen will buy..."

"Last year's mooncakes were so delicious..."

"Brother Azusa, can I trade half of mine for your half..."

Whether it is an orphanage or a rag collector, the mooncakes of the Mid-Autumn Festival can never escape. The only difference is that they are better or worse. For children, this is also one of the most anticipated festivals every year. Little Mustard is known as The expectation of mooncakes diluted the expectation of being adopted, but the little boy still encouraged her: "Mustard is so cute, if you wear the floral dress you wore for the New Year... and put a white hair tie on your head..."

Young children don't know how to speak in a roundabout way, but simply put their inner thoughts into words. So within a few days, the little girl finally had a rare temper: "I hate you." She turned around and ran away.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, and everything in the city is starting to get lively. On the afternoon of the 14th day of the eighth lunar month, the boy was on his way home from school when he saw a noise happening on the road. This was not the first time that something like this had happened in the past few months. Once here, there were probably conflicts and quarrels between the aboriginal people here and people from a construction and development company. The construction company tried to turn this area into a development zone. To some extent, it had obtained government approval, but it was severely criticized locally. The resistance was very great. For the child, the specific meaning was not clear, but he was just watching the excitement. He stood on the outside and watched for a while, but someone pulled his clothes: "Brother Azi." He turned around. Look, it's Mustard, "Brother Azi, come with me."

The little girl pulled him mysteriously and ran through several streets. When she arrived at the back of a small construction site, she stopped panting and pulled something out of her pocket: "Here you go."

If you look closely, you will see that it is a beautifully packaged mooncake.

"Uh..." Lan Zi took the moon cake in his hand, "Sister Xiuzhen... have you bought the moon cake?"

"Try it." The little girl looked at him eagerly, showing a pure smile.

It was a mooncake with egg yolk and lotus paste. Its packaging was gorgeous for this period, and it must have been worth a lot of money. Although the little boy had seen it in the store, he never thought he would buy it at home.

It was naturally impossible for Sister Xiuzhen, who was always frugal, to eat. However, the little girl looked at him expectantly and said, "Eat, eat." He hesitated for a long time before tearing open the package, breaking out a small half of the mooncake, and then

Xiaodi took a bite.

"Is it tasty?"

"Yes." Lan Zi nodded and handed the other half of the mooncakes back to the little girl, "I'll save them for tomorrow. Why did you take them out today?"

"This is all yours, I still have it."

Mustard smiled, took out another moon cake from his bulging pocket, and said to himself: "There are also Fatty's ones, Ah Tang's ones..."

"Didn't Sister Xiuzhen buy this? Where did you get it?"

The little boy frowned. Mustard was still talking as if he was asking for credit. When he looked up and saw his eyes, he flinched at first, and then his face became tense: "Don't worry about it!"

"Where did you get it from?"

"I told you not to worry about it!"

Lan Zi grabbed her hand, and the little girl screamed. As she stepped back, trying to break away from his grip, the boy reached out and reached into her bulging pocket, and the little girl yelled "Ah——"

Standing, struggling desperately.

The age of the two is actually not that far apart, but the boy is stronger after all. After a while, the two cakes were taken out during the struggle and fell to the ground. The little girl's face was filled with tears and she pushed him away with all her strength.

Dao fell to the ground, but then the boy stood up again, blushing: "Where did you get it?"

"Those adults were fighting, and I was holding it from the side. No one saw it!"

"You stole something!" Lan Zi grabbed her hand again, "Let's give it back."

"Don't return it!" The little girl held the mooncake in her arms desperately, "No one saw it!"
To be continued...