flawed

Qi Nuliang didn't know whether the kid believed his words, but at least he didn't run away.

He let go, and the two sat on the bench for a while, not knowing what the child was thinking.In short, Jiang Yu didn't move, and neither did he.

After about 5 minutes, Jiang Yu stood up and walked towards his building.Qi Nuliang also went upstairs with him.

"Can I stay at your place tonight?"

The boy neither agreed nor objected, but remained silent, and opened the door in the dark.Qi Nuliang followed him into the house.

There are still some street lights outside, and the house is completely dark.There are few street lights in the daily chemical factory, and the old house on the fourth floor cannot even penetrate the street lights.I don't know if it's because the sight is blocked, other senses are more useful, Qi Nuliang smells an inexplicable stench.

He didn't continue to walk in, but touched the wall twice, and quickly touched the light switch.He pressed it several times, only to hear the sound of "da da da", but no light came on.

After a while, there was a sound of "呵", and a candle on the window sill was lit by the match in Jiang Yu's hand.The orange flames danced, reflecting two warm lights in the boy's eyes.He flicked out the match in his hand, turned his legs, and entered a door on the left.Then the door closed with two clicks, the sound of the lock being locked and locked.

Qi Nuliang went over to hold a candle, the living room of about ten square meters was very spacious under the dim light.Because apart from an old and peeling sofa next to his legs, the whole living room is empty, cleaner than the most vicious thief in the house.

In addition to the room where Jiang Yu closed the door, there was another room on the right with the door open.After all, he is just a guest at the moment, so he didn't wander around, but lay down on the sofa with his clothes on.

Qi Nuliang crossed his arms and pondered, a child, how did he get through the past two years.

It can be seen that the child is having a hard time.Visible to the naked eye, he was thinner than a prisoner like him.

Qi Nuliang is also thin, but he is confident that he still has lean muscles, while Jiang Yu is like a straight bamboo pole.But the good news is that the child is still healthy, running so fast and very alert, thinking of this, Qi Nuliang couldn't help but smile bitterly.

He reached into the inside pocket of his coat, where there was a wallet with a picture of a woman in it.Qi Nuliang pressed the bulging square, as if he was pressing his own heart, and silently said in his heart to reassure the woman that he will take good care of the child until he grows up.

Qi Nuliang curled up on the broken sofa and fell asleep at some point.In the middle of the night, he hugged himself even tighter, and felt cold in a daze, as if there were cool winds blowing in from all directions.Obviously he slept in the house, but it was as if he was in the wilderness, and he even had similar dreams continuously.

Then he was awakened by a warm yellow light, and when he opened his eyes, he saw Jiang Yu walking shyly past him, holding a candle.Like Qi Nuliang, he wore all his coats, crossed his legs, and went to the toilet on the other side.

The moment the toilet door was pushed open, Qi Nuliang finally knew where the lingering smell came from.He heard the sound of Jiang Yu urinating, but he didn't hear the water flushing.Not only is there no electricity, there is no water in this house. No wonder the toilet is so smelly.

After Jiang Yu went to the toilet, he hurried to the room again. At this moment, Qi Nuliang saw his hand that was not holding the candle, and took a screwdriver.At a certain angle, the white gleaming light from the metal head of the screwdriver pierced into Qi Nuliang's eyes.

"Jiang Yu."

"Snapped"!The child's shoulders trembled in fright, the screwdriver in his hand dropped immediately, and rolled to the foot of the sofa several times.This frightened Jiang Yu, he ran over in a hurry, trying to pick up his only "weapon", but it was still a step too late.

Qi Nuliang reached out to pick it up: "What are you doing with this thing in the bathroom?"

Jiang Yu didn't speak, but couldn't help but his legs were weak, like a kidnapped who was about to break free from the rope and was discovered by the kidnappers, like an assassin who was exposed before showing his true colors, according to his past experience, all these would only speed him up court death.

Qi Nuliang walked towards him with a screwdriver, Jiang Yu wanted to run, but his legs were too weak to escape.Qi Nuliang handed him the screwdriver: "Take it."

How dare Jiang Yu stretch out his hand to take it, even if he holds this thing, he can't protect himself in front of such a tall adult man.

He swallowed nervously repeatedly, wanting to explain, wanting to say something to appease the other party.

"I……"

Qi Nuliang stuffed the tool into his hand, and scratched his bald scalp in annoyance: "Such a strange man suddenly entered the house, you must be very scared. I'm sorry, I didn't expect this."

"..."

"I'm going out first, you can go back to your room and sleep in peace."

After speaking, Qi Nuliang really went out and closed the door tightly.Jiang Yu stared blankly at the door, he was also a little dazed.

Sitting outside the door, Qi Nuliang took out a cigarette from the cigarette case and lit it.He himself is not good at expressing, and he doesn't like to talk.But he didn't expect to meet someone who was less talkative than him, if he didn't open his mouth nervously, Qi Nuliang even suspected that he was a mute.

It was even colder in the corridor, Qi Nuliang zipped his clothes to the top, but still felt the air was leaking.It was not an option to just sit and wait for dawn. He stood up and stamped his steps, planning to go downstairs for a walk.

It was almost dawn, and some empty crowing and barking of dogs came from the alley, and lights lit up in some dark windows.

There is always heavy fog on a clear winter morning, and the milky white mist rises out of thin air, gradually filling the dirty alleys.

Qi Nuliang shrunk his shoulders, the woolen woolen hat was covered with sugar-like hoarfrost, and even his long eyelashes were almost covered with frost. Only the bright red cigarette butt in his mouth flickered, and some off-white Smoke mixed with mist spit out from his mouth and melted into the white mist.

When the first ray of sky came out, Liang Mazi's breakfast shop opened the shutter door, and the warm moisture from the room and the vigorous aroma of food flooded into the street. Then a coal stove was moved to the door, and an oil pan was set up. Mazi fried youtiao pancakes and youguozi in the street.

Qi Nuliang shrugged his nose, raised his legs and entered the shop, becoming the first customer in the shop.

The hot soy milk just out of the pan, the fried fritters, and a plate of pickles were brought to Qi Nuliang together.There were no guests at the moment, the boss sat across from him and struck up a conversation with him.

"Look at your face, you're not from our area, are you?"

"No."

"Visit relatives?"

Qi Nuliang shook his head: "I'm here to find Jiang Yu."

"Look for that kid, who are you?"

"I'm his uncle."

Liang Mazi frowned, but he knew that this little waif had an older aunt who was in Hongcheng, and he was ignored, and he never knew what kind of uncle he had.

Qi Nuliang knew that he was going to live in this area in the future and had to deal with these people, and guessed that the child had probably been bullied a lot, so he said a few more words.

"I'm Yao Huilan's cousin. I wasn't in my hometown when she passed away. It was only recently that I got news that the child was left unattended, so I rushed back. From now on, Jiang Yu will be in my care."

From now on, he will no longer be just a lonely vagrant who will be bullied by others but no one will support him.

As soon as Yao Huilan was mentioned, Qi Nuliang felt a lot of sourness and sadness in his heart, and couldn't help asking about her situation: "Yao Huilan... my sister, does she have any good friends or something?"

"I don't know, I don't know." As soon as Yao Huilan was mentioned, Liang Mazi stood up suddenly, and hurriedly ended the topic, "Someone will come right away. You are eating, and you don't have enough soy milk to refill yourself."

Qi Nuliang held the bowl, feeling a little puzzled.

The first batch of customers are school children, elementary school students, middle school students, some with a few people, some with their parents, come here to buy a breakfast.

Qi Nuliang looked at these children carrying schoolbags and wearing red scarves, thinking that Jiang Yu was also at the same age, no matter what, the first thing to do was to take him back to school.But if, as the clerk of the Hongcheng Sub-district Office said, he was given the opportunity to go to school, and he kept running away, then this matter is still a bit troublesome.After all, Qi Nuliang has never raised children, and has no experience with children.

After breakfast, he sat for a while, until the sun was bright, he bought two more fried dough sticks, packed a cup of soy milk, and went back with it.

After knocking on the door for a while, he was just about to leave breakfast for Jiang Yu at the door, when the door opened a crack, revealing a slender fair face and a pair of round almond eyes.The skin on the face was rough and peeling, and there was chilblain on the right cheek, which looked like a mass of plateau red, but Qi Nuliang was almost dumbfounded at this glance.

The sky was dim last night, and he could only see his outline. Today, when he saw his face clearly, he firmly believed that this was Yao Huilan's child.The eyebrows and eyes here are almost a miniature version of Yao Huilan when she was still in Qijia Village and before she got married.

After being dazed for a while, Qi Nuliang remembered to pass the things in his hand through the crack of the door: "Soymilk and deep-fried dough sticks, I bought them downstairs."

Originally, he just wanted to pass things to Jiang Yu, and didn't plan to rush in again.Jiang Yu didn't take it for a long time, but opened the door.

Qi Nuliang walked in, and only then did he see clearly the sofa where he had slept half the night last night. No wonder he was uncomfortable sleeping, not only was it old, but the springs in the middle of the sofa were all protruding.He took another look at the house. The only thing better than the house in his hometown was that the four walls were still there.Other than that, it's really a poor family. It seems that the child has sold out everything that can be exchanged for money.

His eyes fell on Jiang Yu again, seeing that he was holding the things without moving, but his throat moved up and down to swallow his saliva.

"Eat, it will be cold later."

Jiang Yu still didn't move.

Qi Nu also realized that the child might be embarrassed, and pointed to another room: "Can I go in and have a look?"

Jiang Yu still didn't speak, Qi Nuliang walked in on his own, and saw Yao Huilan's portrait on the dressing table at the foot of the bed, with a few plastic flowers in front of it.

The black-and-white photos were plumper than he remembered, and they also had the beauty unique to mature women.She stared straight ahead quietly, but Qi Nuliang couldn't look straight into those dull eyes.

He turned his eyes away and saw Jiang Yu outside the door from this angle.

Instead of avoiding people and starting to eat as Qi Nuliang thought, he separated each fried dough stick from the middle, as if looking for the sandwich of fried dough sticks, but found nothing.Then, he lifted the lid of the soy milk again, carefully put his nose up to smell it, and licked it with the tip of his tongue.

Qi Nuliang just wanted to go over and ask him if he didn't like soy milk fritters, if he didn't like it, he could go down and buy another.As a result, in the next second, he saw Jiang Yu stuffing the deep-fried dough sticks he had just opened into his mouth in big gulps, gulped a few times, and then swallowed them down.After swallowing a few mouthfuls, he was obviously choking, and took another sip of soy milk.Seeing that the child was being scalded, but he just paused, and then swallowed it all.

Qi Nuliang silently retreated behind the door, wondering if he bought too little, not enough to eat.

When he returned to the living room a few minutes later, the door was wide open, and Jiang Yu was no longer there.