Global Film Emperor

Chapter 305 "Finding You" 4
Zhengzhou, a provincial capital city, is much more prosperous than his hometown. The endless stream of people makes Wang Jian feel a little lost. With two wooden planks hanging on his body, he keeps spinning in circles.

According to the photographer, the child was found near the train station. He walked across the street and recognized the location where the photo was taken, but the child had already disappeared.

When we asked the shopkeepers in the vicinity, they clearly remembered that the child had been lying in front of their shop, but they didn't know where he was now.

He finally asked an old man, who looked up at Wang Jian, saw the sign hanging on him, sighed, fanned himself with a palm-leaf fan, gently beckoned to him, and led Wang Jian into the alley.

“I don’t know exactly where the child went. I just know that every three to five days, those old bastards bring the child over to beg for food. The child was just taken away yesterday, and I guess they will come back in a couple of days.”

Wang Jian didn't understand what Lao Zha meant, but he could tell that the child might be brought over by that group of people in a couple of days. He got a little excited and kept thanking the old man.

"No need to thank me. I don't dare to say more to you. That's all I can say. You can go now and come back tomorrow. Be careful, those old bastards have killed people. They've killed several."

Ignoring the old man's advice, Wang Jian was filled with excitement at the prospect of finding his son. For the past forty days, he hadn't slept well for a single night, dreaming every night of Shuangxi asking him to come find him. This anxiety was driving Wang Jian crazy. Perhaps finding his child would bring him some peace of mind.

He ate a bowl of wide noodles at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant near the station. He had already chosen his accommodation for the night, which was in an underpass nearby.

I first went to a nearby labor protection supermarket and bought a quilt made of substandard cotton. I put some cardboard underneath it. It's not too cold to sleep like this in the current weather. When I get up, I roll up the mattress. It doesn't take up much space and can be put in a snakeskin bag.

Around 9 p.m., he spread his luggage on the ground. There were still quite a few pedestrians passing by. They all looked at Wang Jian in this state, but no one lingered for long. They glanced at him and quickly left.

Lying in bed, he couldn't fall asleep. He had mixed feelings; he desperately wanted to find his son, but he was also afraid that the child he found might actually be his son.

He would rather Shuangxi be sold to someone else's family. Even if that family was poor, they probably wouldn't be as poor as Wang Jian. At the very least, they would be able to have a full meal, which would be much better than what is likely to happen now.

After thinking for a long time, not knowing what time it was, Wang Jian gradually became sleepy, but he didn't sleep deeply. Occasionally, someone's footsteps would be loud enough to wake him up. Until the middle of the night, he vaguely felt someone rummaging through the bag he was holding in his blanket. Instantly, he was wide awake and stared at the other person, making eye contact with the beggar who was rummaging through his bag.

"Let go! Give it to me!"

"What are you doing! This is a robbery! This is my bag! Let go! This is the money I used to find my child!"

A beggar and a poor man who was in a similar situation were tearing at each other back and forth in this underpass, for a little over two hundred yuan in cash, a bank card with fifty thousand yuan in savings, and some other tattered items.

The beggar had been watching Wang Jian for a long time. If Wang Jian were a healthy person, he wouldn't have dared to make a move. But it was because Wang Jian was a cripple and his hands seemed clumsy that the beggar had evil intentions. Although he was a beggar, he was a healthy person.

And what about Wang Jian? He was furious. He couldn't understand why, after so many people had hurt his child, others would come and hurt him next.

He never blamed anyone for the disability he suffered from polio, nor did he feel any injustice for his childhood poverty. But now, even in his current state, why would anyone blatantly try to steal the money he was using to find his child? So he was furious, and in the ensuing argument, he bit the beggar's hand.

"Fuck your mother! Let go! I'll make you let go! Ah!"

"what!!"

Both of them made inhuman noises from their throats, like two wild beasts fighting wildly for food, their small-scale tearing escalating into a full-blown brawl.

The beggar released his other hand and continued to punch Wang Jian's eye socket. Even though he was beaten until his vision went black, Wang Jian did not let go. Blood flowed into his mouth, but he still gnawed at the skin and muscle like a crocodile, swaying and tearing at it, while swinging his fists to fight back.

In the end, it's unclear where he punched, but the beggar's resistance weakened as Wang Jian straddled him, repeatedly punching his face until he lay motionless. Only then did Wang Jian get off him, panting heavily and spitting out a mouthful of blood. Without even packing his bags, he grabbed all the beggar's belongings and quickly left the underpass.

"Ah poo, poo, ah. ha. ha."

He ran out of the underpass and found a public restroom by the roadside. Wang Jian rushed in, turned on the tap, rinsed his mouth thoroughly, splashed several handfuls of water on his face, then leaned against the wall and slowly slid down to the ground, breathing heavily. His eyes were bruised and in excruciating pain. Wang Jian could barely see with his left eye. After resting with his eyes closed for a while, he finally finished packing his belongings again.

A wave of exhaustion washed over him, and he was so sleepy he could barely keep his eyes open. But fearing that the beggar might recover and cause him more trouble, he dared not sit outside. Instead, he went into a stall in the restroom, spread cardboard on the floor, sat down, leaned against the wooden partition of the stall, and slowly closed his eyes while holding his luggage.

Can you imagine someone sleeping in a public toilet for three days? On the third day, he woke up a little late and was discovered by the toilet cleaner. He was then warned not to come to public toilets to sleep again, as it is a place for excrement. Was he excrement?
Wang Jian didn't argue with the cleaning lady. He nodded and left with his bedding roll under the cleaning lady's disdainful gaze. Only then did he understand what Shuangxi had told him.

"Dad, is a garbage truck just for carrying garbage?"

"Are public toilets just for storing excrement?"

Interestingly, all of this happened to his son first. Wang Jian believes that this is perhaps retribution for not understanding his son's feelings back then.

Seeing that he had very little money left, he had no choice but to start his side job again, carrying a sack and wandering around various garbage cans, collecting scrap to make a living.

However, the scavengers also banded together, and Wang Jian had a conflict with them during this time. Fortunately, Wang Jian's attitude of admitting his mistakes was good, so he was not beaten by them. But after they left, Wang Jian still put his hands into the stinking garbage can, after all, he had to survive.

After a few days, he looked no different from a beggar. His hair was greasy and tangled, his face was sallow, his beard was unshaven, and he had lost a lot of weight. But he still wandered the streets of the train station every day, waiting for that figure to appear.

Five days later, he saw another child in those photos, right across from the train station, lying on a trolley, begging from everyone who passed by.

Immediately, he dropped everything he was holding and began searching around the entire train station until he saw the child's back at the street corner on the west side of the station.

Wearing a gray cotton-padded coat, kneeling on the ground and kowtowing repeatedly, this pitiful sight tugged at Wang Jian's heart, but he was still unsure if this was Shuangxi.

Looking around and not finding anyone watching him, he nervously walked to a spot not far from the child and tried calling out softly.

Double happiness. Double happiness.

The child didn't answer, but continued to bow deeply to every passerby like a kowtowing insect. Seeing that the child didn't respond, Wang Jian slowly walked to the child's side, glanced back, gently squatted down, and with trembling hands lifted the child's hair. He then let out a long sigh of relief, feeling a mix of heartache, loss, and relief—his thoughts were complicated.

Once the hair was lifted, Wang Jian was certain that the child was not Shuangxi, or that the child's build and clothing were very similar. However, seeing the fear in the child's eyes and the empty mouth without a tongue, Wang Jian's hands trembled even more violently. How much suffering had this child endured!
"What are you doing? Get lost, don't you hear me?"

Suddenly, someone kicked Wang Jian from behind, knocking him to the ground. When Wang Jian turned around, he saw that the man was about thirty years old, with a scorpion tattoo on his arm. He looked quite fierce, had a cigarette butt between his fingers, and gave Wang Jian a warning with an unfriendly expression.

"I"

"What the hell am I talking about? Get the hell out of here! If I ever see you again, I'll kill you, you hear me?"

"Hey"

What could Wang Jian do? Besides, he was genuinely terrified. He stood up trembling, not daring to look the man in the eye any longer, turned around and left, not daring to linger for even a moment longer.

What he didn't see was that when the man saw the deformed leg as he left, he thoughtfully touched his chin, flicked the child's chin with his foot, picked up his phone, and turned to leave.

"."

(End of this chapter)