country bumpkin

By mid-June, the weather had started to get hot, and the sun was much hotter than in spring.

South of Kong Xiujuan's new house is her neighbor, Sun Youqian, Sun Zitao's second uncle.

When Sun Youqian was young, his family arranged a marriage for him. During an argument, he accidentally pushed his wife, causing her to miscarry and suffer severe bleeding, resulting in the loss of both mother and child.

The woman's family came and made a scene, causing a lot of trouble and taking away all the valuables from the house.

Later, his bad reputation spread, and no one was willing to marry their daughter to him anymore. His family was dirt poor again, and he had no money left to marry a wife.

And so Sun Youqian remained single, eventually getting used to living alone. However, life as a bachelor isn't easy, so he often keeps an eye out for attractive companions.

It was common for him to climb over the wall at night to spy on newlyweds. He also made sure to watch over every young woman and boy bathing in the yard during the summer. His busy figure could always be seen when the weather got hot.

Now that he's getting older, his favorite thing to do is collect recyclables. He takes home everything, from leftover food bones and fish bones to rotten fruits and vegetables, toys, furniture, clothes, shoes, and hats.

He would collect anything that others had thrown away and bring it home, piling it up in the yard.

What's most incomprehensible is that Sun Youqian also likes to pick up people. He once picked up an old beggar, but it's unclear what he wanted to do with him.

Perhaps only he himself knows the reason behind his peculiar habit.

The old beggar stayed at their house for almost half a year, and in the end, no one saw when the old man left or why he left.

His yard is very large, and with the house, it's nearly 200 square meters. It's twice the size of an average person's yard.

There was a row of houses facing south in the courtyard. There were three rooms: an east room, a west room, and a main room. To the south was the entire courtyard, and the open space in the courtyard was littered with piles of waste and garbage.

Every summer, the food scraps in the yard would be baked by the sun and become incredibly smelly. The stench could spread throughout the entire alley.

His neighbors, whose houses were right next to his, suffered terribly in the summer. His house was filthy and attracted many mosquitoes, rats, and flies.

Although his house smelled terrible, many beggars liked to visit it.

One day, a young man named Qin Shou came to our house. He looked about 16 or 17 years old. Judging from his clothes, he was a street urchin.

They were either slackers who failed to get into high school and just drifted along, or street urchins who dropped out of school early.

Qin Shou came to Sun Youqian's house and stayed there for half a year. Strangely, Sun Youqian did not kick him out, but instead provided him with food and lodging.

As for whether he paid for living expenses? The answer is self-evident. If he had money, he wouldn't be coming to such a stinking house to freeload.

As the weather grew hotter, Qin Shou set up a shed at Sun Youqian's gate. He first carried an old wooden bed to a corner of the gate and put up a mosquito net on it.

There is also a layer of oiled paper cloth outside the mosquito net, which can be used to waterproof it from dew or rain at night.

Another advantage is that when he sleeps inside, no one outside can see inside.

After a week in the park, Qin Shou started playing with the children who lived nearby.

He was old and cunning, and he always managed to get the children to fawn over him. Among them was Sun Limei.

In the summer, it gets dark late. Every day after dinner, the children would finish their homework and run out to play games in the alley.

No matter which child it is, as long as they shout, all the children in the neighborhood will run out and gather together to play.

Older children like to play with their own age. Younger children like to chase after children who are older than them.

Sun Guoqiang, for example, liked to chase after Yun Ya, Gu Yu, and Sun Fei.

Gu Yu's brother Gu Feng, Sun Fei's brother Sun Wang, and Sun Limei all liked to chase after Qin Shou to play.

Qin Shou is quite popular here; older children always pester him with a lot of questions.

Why can a balloon fly into the sky? Qin Shou's answer is, "Because of the wind, the wind blows the balloon into the sky."

Another child asked him, "Why does it rain?" Qin Shou replied, "Because the water on the ground is evaporated by the sun and rises to the sky, where it is stored in a large cloud. When the cloud is full and can't hold any more, it falls down, which is rain."

The children admired him even more because they thought he knew so much. He also taught them fancy ball-bouncing and fancy rope skipping.

By the second week, Qin Shou had become good friends with the children.

One Saturday evening, it was already dark, and the children were playing hide-and-seek. Yunya was looking for the people who were hiding.

She found several people who were hiding, but she couldn't find her sister. She asked the other children, but they all said they hadn't seen her either.

Yunya didn't mind. It was probably normal that her sister was hiding too well and no one could find her.

The children were so engrossed in playing that they forgot the time and didn't return home until they heard the adults call them to go home and sleep.

When Yunya returned home, she didn't see her older sister, but her younger brother was with her, playing together.

Kong Xiujuan asked Yunya, "Where's your sister? Why didn't she come back with you?"

Yunya said, "We couldn't see my sister when it got dark. I thought she was hiding well, so we couldn't find her."

Kong Xiujuan said worriedly, "What if she's been kidnapped?"

Yunya said, "Impossible. When we played, we were all people we knew. There were no outsiders around."

While Kong Xiujuan was still making wild guesses, Yun Ya continued, "Sister probably got sleepy when she hid, and maybe she fell asleep!"

Kong Xiujuan was still worried and thought of asking Sun Zitao to go out and look for her. Sun Zitao came over, and the couple took flashlights and went out to look for their eldest daughter.

Just as I reached the front gate, Sun Limei returned. She looked flustered, her eyes were filled with tears, her hair was a little messy, and her clothes were all wrinkled.

This sight terrified Kong Xiujuan, who quickly asked, "Limei, where have you been? Did something happen? Why are you only coming back now?"

Sun Limei was stunned by her mother's three questions. She came to her senses and said, "No, it's because I hid in a very secluded place. No one called me, and I fell asleep."

Kong Xiujuan still asked with concern, "Is that so? Then why are you crying? And why are your hair and clothes so messy?"

Sun Limei explained, "I woke up and saw that it was dark, and there was no one around, so I was scared and cried."

Kong Xiujuan still had some doubts about the truth of her daughter's words. But if her daughter wasn't telling the truth, she had no way of knowing.

Sun Zitao interrupted Kong Xiujuan's rambling, saying, "Alright, don't ask anymore. Let Limei go home, wash her face, and get some rest. We can talk about it tomorrow."