Volume 1: Chapter 6

 Chapter VI

Brother Le was very efficient. Wei Zhiyuan’s household registration was quickly approved and was included in Wei Qian’s household registration book. Now there was no problem sending him to primary school.

It was not difficult to feed Wei Zhiyuan. Just feed him enough. Wei Zhiyuan ate everything and was not picky. He took the time to absorb all the nutrients he could. In half a year, he grew half a palm taller, perfectly explaining what “a little sunshine will make him brilliant”.

He could no longer wear Xiao Bao’s clothes, so Wei Qian had to wear his old clothes. Wei Zhiyuan still didn’t like to talk to people. Except for Wei Qian’s siblings and several brothers who often came to the house, he didn’t talk to them. He was still very wary of others.

Apart from this, Wei Zhiyuan had almost no other problems. He was very good at observing people’s words and expressions. As long as Wei Qian frowned slightly, he would immediately receive the signal and know that his elder brother was unhappy.

Within three seconds, he could disguise himself as a mural on the wall and pretend that he didn’t exist. He was very diligent at home, cleaning the house every day. Since Wei Zhiyuan came, the hot water in the thermos was always full, and the garbage never stayed overnight in the house.

If he saw someone throwing away clothes after taking them off, he would quietly take them and wash them. He was alert and flattering, positioning himself as a vassal, and like a dog guarding the house.

To strangers, his eyes were so scary, his eyes were like black beans, and he looked straight at people. He was a wild dog who was not easy to mess with.

A bastard is a bastard.

‘Anyway, this kid is not a problem. I am not at home most of the time, so it is good for him to keep Xiao Bao company.’

...Until something happened right after that. That day, a group of blind people came to Le Ge’s territory and chopped off the head of one of Le Ge’s brothers. That day, a group of brothers took their weapons and fought with the other party. Unfortunately, the location was on a street near Wei Qian’s house.

Just when they beat the other party’s head into a dog’s head, they suddenly heard the sound of a water pipe scraping the ground on the street behind.

Before Wei Qian had time to look back, he heard Sanpang yelling beside him: “Oh my God!”

Wei Qian was also shocked when he saw it – he saw that Wei Zhiyuan, the little brat, was holding a water pipe longer than him, dragging it on the ground, and running towards this side in an unusually funny posture.

 Wei Qian happened to see his eyes, and he found that what Sanpang said was right. The eyes of the little thing were really like a ferocious wild dog. Although he was dragging such a long water pipe and couldn’t even walk steadily, he was so strange that he could see his determination to kill all the enemies.

To put it more vividly, he had the kind of “killing intent” described in martial arts novels.

Sanpang: “My dear, what did you pick up?”

Wei Qian: “Don’t mention it. I didn’t bring a magnifying glass when I picked it up. I wish I knew.”

Sanpang was amazed and shouted to Wei Zhiyuan from a distance: “Okay, kid, we brothers have finished work today. You don’t need to show up. Let’s go back to the palace!”

Wei Zhiyuan knew Sanpang, and he stood still after hearing this. He blinked his big round eyes and looked at him, then looked at Wei Qian, threw down the water pipe, wiped his nose, wiped his snot, and said: “Oh.”

As a result, Wei Qian had a dream when he went home that night. He dreamed that Wei Zhiyuan had become a perverted murderer. After killing someone, he didn’t know how to run away. He sat calmly in a pool of blood and called him “Ge” expressionlessly.

Wei Qian woke up on the spot with cold sweat. He sat on the bed and saw the little kid sleeping soundly on the bed with his bare bottom. He couldn’t help but raise his hand to touch his soft hair. And Wei Zhiyuan rubbed his palm unconsciously like a little pig.

Wei Qian pinched his little arms and legs again and found that he was soft everywhere, as soft as Xiao Bao, not like a murderer at all.

He smacked his lips in his dream. Who knows what delicious food he dreamed of. He sat next to him and observed him for a while, thinking that this kid was so cruel at such a young age.

What will happen in the future? It doesn’t matter, just don’t go out and cause trouble for him. The future... Alas, “the future” is such a vague word.

Wei Qian couldn’t sleep, so he got out of bed, walked to the balcony, opened the window a little, and thought about his own illusory “future” in the dead of night, with the cold wind blowing in the cold winter.

The tuition for high school was much more expensive than that for compulsory education, so expensive that Wei Qian sold everything he had and only managed to scrape together enough for one semester.

In the six months of high school, the savings he got from his damn mother were almost spent. Now, as the weather was getting colder, Wei Qian was almost at the end of his rope, but he had no place to complain about this pressure, because he was the eldest brother.

Wei Qian dreamed of finishing high school, and dreamed of living a decent life like most people in this city, wearing a suit and tie, working from nine to five. “Respectable” was his dream, even though it seemed so stupid, far away and illusory.

Reality did not allow him to fantasize about the illusory future. The heavy high school curriculum took up all his time, and the teacher would not allow him to leave school alone to work when others were in evening self-study.

Xiao Bao was already seven years old, and it was time for her to go to school. However, as the eldest brother, he was selfish and only cared about his own tuition and dreams.

He missed the registration time for elementary school intentionally or unintentionally, which delayed her for this year. How could Wei Qian not dare to delay her for the next year?

Wei Qian quietly walked into the kitchen. There was less than two kilograms of old rice left in the rice jar, and there was also a green onion and a few rotten vegetable leaves in the kitchen. He still had ten yuan and fifty cents left in his pocket.

He had to buy food, daily necessities, and pay water and electricity bills... He needed so much money to maintain a basic livelihood. Such a life is like a sack with holes everywhere, which makes Wei Qian’s exhausted money flow out easily.

Wei Qian’s way of making money is still to do odd jobs every weekend. With one more person in the family, the money is not enough. When Wei Qian leaves every morning, he cooks a dish, leaves two steamed buns for the two children, and then claims to eat at school.

If he doesn’t save the lunch money, it will not be enough. But he is at the age of eating a lot and can’t be hungry, so Wei Qian will climb over the wall and sneak out of the school during the lunch break, go to Le Ge’s billiard hall to warm up for others, and eat lunch by the way.

After a semester, he feels that billiards is almost at a semi-professional level. Every day.... daily necessities are like a whip, from the moment he opens his eyes, whipping him to keep running and keep thinking of ways.

This made Wei Qian feel uneasy – under heavy pressure, anyone would feel uneasy. He took out half a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. Someone had given it to him during the fight in the afternoon.

He suddenly remembered how others smoked, so Wei Qian sat in the kitchen and lit the cigarette. He learned to smoke his first cigarette without any instruction while coughing. The lack of oxygen in his lungs made him feel dizzy and even nauseous.

Wei Qian sat on the floor and leaned against the door to rest for a while. Otherwise... I won’t go to school. He thought blankly. “I really have no other way.” Wei Qian said to himself, “I’m really at the end of my rope, there’s nothing I can do.”

He was so sad that he was about to cry, as if he was watching the door to another world and another life slowly close in front of him. He tried his best to rush, but it was always out of reach.

At this moment, Wei Qian remembered what Le Ge said – you can go to him if you have any difficulties.

Wei Qian opened his eyes wide and thought for a moment, then suddenly stood up as if he had grabbed a life-saving straw. He was still clumsily holding a cigarette between two fingers, and his whole body was trembling with fear for the bright road that suddenly appeared in front of him.

Wei Qian felt a little dry in the mouth, and he wanted to rush to Le Ge right now. Yes, Le Ge would definitely lend him money, and when he finished school, or even college, he would come back to repay Le Ge in a different identity.

As long as Le Ge was willing to support him, he would no longer have to worry about having no food to eat every day, and no longer have to calculate the little money at home to the point of heartache. He could study hard for the next few years, and he guaranteed that he would get first-class grades...

The hot cigarette ash fell on Wei Qian’s hand, burning him and making him shiver. He silently lowered his head, staring at the scattered cigarette butts of the low-quality cigarette for a while, then extinguished the cigarette butt and threw it into the trash can.

Wei Qian’s hot brain cooled down, and he found that he couldn’t do it. He always remembered the story of crossing the river, and remembered it particularly deeply – the experience of leaning on his mother’s arms to listen to the story was a unique and luxurious memory for him.

He remembered what the woman said, “People can’t live too comfortably. When you are full of fat and eat until dark every day, you are not far from burping and catching a cold.”

Le Ge can help him once, can he help him all the time? Help in emergencies, not in poverty. What obligation does Brother Le have to give him money, let him go to school, let him eat and wear warm clothes, and let him be worry-free?

And for some reason, when Wei Qian thought of that kind of worry-free life, he felt both yearning and creepy. He seemed to suddenly see the comfortable and weak self, like a pig in a pen.

Is there anything in the world that scares a teenager like him more than “weakness”? Is there anything in the world that makes a teenager like him more desperate than “no hope”?

If Wei Qian was not weak, he would have to drop out of school and take a hopeless path – leaving school, becoming a gangster, a thug, doing odd jobs, becoming a scum at the bottom of the city, and struggling to survive this life. This is almost a path that can be seen at a glance.

Wei Qian didn’t know how long he stood stiffly in the kitchen. He felt his hands were numb from the cold. Then he sniffed, went back to the small bedroom separated by a curtain in the living room, and lay back on the bed.

Wei Qian’s family only had one bedroom and one living room. After Xiaobao was three years old, he felt that it was not convenient for her to sleep with him, so he gave the bedroom to his sister. He pulled a curtain in the living room and put a bed in the corner, which was considered a bedroom.

Wei Zhiyuan always slept with him. When Wei Qian lay back on the bed, the little guy next to him moved a little. It was not known whether he was not asleep or was woken up. Wei Zhiyuan opened his eyes carefully, looked at his elder brother’s expression, and smelled a choking smell of cigarettes on him.

Wei Zhiyuan was not Xiao Bao. He had never been spoiled like that since he was a child, so he didn’t dare to be as heartless as her.

Xiao Yuan observed his expression and called out carefully and softly: “Ge.”

Wei Qian was upset and didn’t want to pay attention to him.

Xiao Yuan waited for a long time, but didn’t get his reply.

He gently tugged at his clothes and asked, “Ge, is it because you have no money and can’t support me?”

Wei Qian thought to himself, ‘You still know that’ – but he didn’t say it out loud, not to avoid hurting the child’s feelings, but because he felt that “admitting that he is incompetent and has no money” was very embarrassing, so he shook Wei Zhiyuan’s hand away angrily: “What nonsense are you talking about, are you still going to sleep? Shut up!”

Wei Zhiyuan didn’t say anything for a long time, and Wei Qian thought he was asleep.

Who knew that after a while, the little guy actually came over rustling, got into his quilt, and touched Wei Qian’s cold hands and feet – the house was very cold in winter, and heating was not popular in this forgotten old shantytown at that time.

There were children at home, and Wei Qian was worried about lighting the stove, so he used the money he had saved for half a year to buy a second-hand electric heater, but that thing was power-consuming after all, and they usually didn’t turn it on if they could.

Wei Zhiyuan shuddered instinctively at the cold temperature of Wei Qian’s skin, but the next moment, the boy came over tremblingly, hugged Wei Qian’s hands with both hands, stuffed them into his arms, and tried to stretch his legs, almost burying his head in the quilt, before he could barely reach Wei Qian’s feet and gently placed his feet on his brother’s cold feet.

In an instant, Xiao Yuan felt the temperature of his body quickly flowing away. After he did these things, he whispered with a little flattering meaning: “Don’t leave me, okay? I can work, I can also pick up rags, and I can also make money.”

These few gentle words almost made Wei Qian’s heart tremble.

Perhaps because he didn’t answer for a long time, Wei Zhiyuan began to panic. Wei Qian provided him with a safe and warm place to live, gave him a home that he envied and dared not imagine before, and never beat him, and even didn’t tell him to do much work.

Even this winter, Da Ge bought him and Xiao Bao a thick cotton coat each. Wei Zhiyuan felt that this was almost like a beautiful dream. He was afraid that when he woke up, he would be the unwanted vagrant again, wandering in the coldest place in the city, making a living by picking up garbage.

“Please.” Wei Zhiyuan’s voice was trembling, “Don’t abandon me.”

Two seconds later, he added, “Ge.”

Wei Qian felt mixed emotions. It was impossible for him to say that he didn’t want to abandon this kid and relieve himself of some of the burden.

However, he just scratched Wei Zhiyuan’s head and simply ordered, “Sleep.”

There was nothing else to say. But after raising even a cat and a dog for half a year, one develops feelings for them, let alone a person.

Not to mention that this little guy was always around him, trying his best to do things, just to make him happy and stay.

Wei Qian knew that he was soft-hearted. He thought he shouldn’t be soft-hearted, but he couldn’t help it. He was not a stone after all.

Forget it, he thought, listening to the tiny breathing beside his ear, thinking, this little guy, pitiful.