flawed

Hongcheng is a small city on the [-]th line at the junction of the north and the south. In winter, there are occasional heavy snowfalls like those in the north, but unlike in the north, every household has heating.

On days when it doesn’t snow, the sky is always gloomy, with dark clouds pressing over this old, gray town like a quilt.

On this day, the sky was exceptionally clear, and the morning sun cut eyes like a knife, but it was also extremely cold, a cold knife that had been frozen.Because it just snowed a little the day before, there was still a layer of clean snow on the eaves on both sides of the alley, but the potholes and bad roads in the middle of the alley, the trampled slush turned into cross-flowing sewage, which made it difficult to The road to go has become more muddy.

It's like the first snow of this winter, which finally washed the sky clean, but spilled the filth into the world, especially the old shantytown of the daily chemical factory.

There is a mahjong parlor at the entrance of the alley, and the business is booming in the morning, and the surrounding children also gather here with the adults.Adults play mahjong, and these children dressed in three layers and three layers outside are like dirty balls, dragging two shiny snot noses, rolling around all over the street.

Gradually, these children gathered together, among the chubby children was a tall and thin one.

Compared with these children who are also in their teens, the tall and thin one is only a little taller, but because of his skinny appearance, he stands out from the crowd.She was wearing a tattered cotton padded jacket, which was stretched tightly on her body, and a long thin wrist was exposed from the short sleeves.The pants are exactly the same, the blue ankles are all exposed, and a pair of old canvas shoes are under the feet.

He stood there like a bamboo pole growing out of nowhere, only his fingers full of chilblain, swollen bright red, like a bunch of red persimmons hanging from a tree trunk that had lost all its leaves in winter, his whole body was so festive place.

A little ghost wearing a peaked cap, giggling, holding a bunch of candied haws in his hand.He held the candied haws in front of the tall and thin man and shook it: "Puppy Jiang, do you want to eat it? If you want to eat it, just bark like a dog, bark, and I'll give you one."

"Yes, call quickly."

"Hurry up, candied haws are delicious."

Some of the other children beside them looked at the candied haws with great interest, and some looked at Jiang Yu with great interest, swallowing their saliva while watching a good show.

"Hurry up, Little Dog Jiang, don't tell me to eat it." The peaked cap deliberately brought the candied haws to his mouth, sniffed it, and then swallowed hard.

Jiang Yu lowered his head, his dirty and long hair curtain covered his eyes staring at the candied haws, and also covered his hungry and extremely longing eyes.His mouth was over-secreting saliva, his throat kept swallowing saliva, and his nose exhaled white mist one after another.

Candied haws, the cold and sweet taste in his memory lured him like poppies, and his empty stomach was instantly excited, secreting gastric juices excessively, and the swallowed saliva turned into sour water and came out of his throat.He stared at the bunch of candied haws, wishing that his mouthpiece would become a sharp claw, and then he would grab it and swallow it in one gulp.

As long as he barks like a dog, he can eat it.

But he just squeezed those hands that couldn't be clenched into fists, tightly pursed the corners of his mouth, and didn't speak.

The candied haws are not from the peaked cap, but from another, younger child.The child stared eagerly at the food he was eating as bait, and he was not as interested in letting Jiang Yu act like a dog barking than eating a bunch of candied haws into his mouth.

He stretched out his short hand to grab it, and begged again: "If he doesn't learn, give it back to me."

The peaked cap raised his hand, a little anxious: "You really don't bark? If you don't bark, you don't have to eat, and the stick won't even be licked by you."

At this time, a slightly bigger kid wearing glasses emerged from the crowd.Little Glasses folded his arms, looking confident, pointed at Jiang Yu and said, "He won't bark like a dog." He pointed at the peaked cap, "Go find an earthworm."

The peaked cap looked at the small glasses in surprise, until the other party urged: "Go quickly, I will hold the candied haws for you first."

He led a group of children to disperse quickly, and searched for the stones in the corners of the alley walls.

In this cold weather, snakes, insects, rats and ants are all hiding, and it is not easy to find.But as the leader of the peaked cap, this is his biggest career in front of him.He snatched other people's candied haws, never saying that he wanted to eat them, but inviting a group of people to watch the "performance", so he had to make this "performance" a reality.The hard work paid off, he buttoned his hands with dirty mud, but he found one.

He handed the earthworm to Little Glasses, wanting to see if he had any more fun and ridiculous tricks.

The little glasses held the twisted earthworm and handed it to Jiang Yu: "Eat it, and I'll give you the candied haws."

The onlookers shouted.

Jiang Yu's gaze shifted from candied haws to earthworms, the twisted worms made him sick.His gaze shifted from the earthworms to the candied haws. There seemed to be a perpetual motion machine hidden in his mouth. As long as he looked at the bright red bunches, his saliva would never dry up.

After waiting for a while, Little Glasses said again: "Don't you want to eat it? Forget it." He made a gesture to throw away the earthworm.

At this moment, Jiang Yu snatched the worm, stuffed it into his mouth, and swallowed it whole with a "gulu".

The surrounding area instantly became audible, and soon the voices of shouting and questioning erupted together——

"Has he eaten?"

"It seems to have been eaten."

"Eating such disgusting things, he is so disgusting."

"He was already disgusting. My mum said he was full of fleas."

……

Amidst all the voices, Jiang Yu looked indifferent, and stretched out his hand towards the glasses: "Give it to me."

The glasses were full of ambition just now, but suddenly he had no idea, and the candied haws were not his, so he looked at the peaked cap.The peaked cap's "performance" was a great success, but he couldn't be happy when cashing in the "reward", and the candied haws were not his. He looked at the "owner" of the bunch of candied haws.

The child looked at him pitifully, with tears rolling in his eyes, and as soon as the candied haws were given out, he burst into tears immediately.

This kid is not like Jiang Yu. His parents are playing mahjong in the nearby mahjong parlor. If he cries and complains later, the peaked cap will definitely have something to do with it.Besides, how could it be possible to give candied haws to Jiang Yu, a stray dog ​​without parents, is he worthy of eating?

The peaked cap rolled its eyes and looked at Jiang Yu: "You didn't chew, you just swallowed it directly, whoever eats without chewing twice, can't give you candied haws." The little devil turned his head and passed a look to the people around him, The child understands.

"That's it."

"It's not eating without chewing."

"Can't give it to him."

……

Before everyone could come to a conclusion, Jiang Yu suddenly stretched out his hand, grabbed the candied haws on the bamboo sticks, stroked them all off, and stuffed them all into his mouth.

Everyone was stunned, and they didn't dare to think that this stinking vagrant would dare to grab things.

At the same time, the real "owner" of the candied haws raised his voice and cried.

Jiang Yu covered his mouth, turned around and ran away.

The peaked cap reacted, and hurriedly instructed his "little brothers": "Grab him, don't let him run away." Then he turned to comfort the crying child, "Don't tell your mother, I will grab it for you." return."

Jiang Yu tried his best to move his legs upside down, his mouth was so stuffed that he couldn't chew, he picked out some more, chewed them and then swallowed them down.The situation was urgent, not to mention spitting out the seeds, and he didn't even have time to taste the taste. The hard crust formed by the icing sugar cut his mouth, and he didn't feel any pain.

Before he ran out of the alley, he was caught.After a while of pushing, he fell to the ground.Peaked Cap came over and saw that the candied haws could not be saved, so he was so angry that he punched and kicked him.The little followers of the peaked cap also grabbed mud from the side of the road and threw it at him.

Jiang Yu just lay on the ground and stuffed the rest into his mouth. Only then did he have time to have a good taste.Sure enough, it was just as he thought, sweet and sour, delicious.It's just a bit too cold, it's like swallowing a few ice bumps in his stomach, and he doesn't have much heat himself, so he can't warm up the cold candied haws.

"Hey, what are you doing!"

A man's yell shocked the gang of bullying children.

"Zhang Xiaoqiang, you are the one leading the way, and your mother is playing mahjong over there. Do you want me to call her over?"

"Old man Liu is here, run quickly." The peaked cap took the lead, and the children rushed away.

Mr. Liu is the owner of the mahjong parlor at the alley. He is short and a little hunchbacked. Because he is very fearful of guilt, the neighbors around him call him Boss Liu to his face and call him Mr. Liu behind his back.

He hurried over to pull Jiang Yu up, mumbling and cursing: "A group of little beasts... fell?"

Jiang Yu stood up and twisted his hand away.

The man handed him a few fried dough sticks tied in a plastic bag: "Eat it."

Seeing this kid wandering around the alley early in the morning, he went to buy fried dough sticks, but after queuing for a while, he turned around and was already bullied.Laodan Liu often can't bear it, but he can't help it. Isn't this a child who has no parents and no one to care about, but anyone can step on it.

"Take it and eat it, it's hot, it won't taste good when it's cold." Seeing that the boy didn't reach out his hand, he urged it again, and stuffed the fried sticks directly into his hand.

Jiang Yu waved his hand, and the fritters also fell to the ground.He tried to run, but the man grabbed his arm.

"You, you kid...forget it, let's go, I'll take you to eat something."

Jiang Yu didn't go with him, but fought back.

The man was very helpless: "I won't hurt you, it's winter, I want something warm..."

The two were arguing, when a tall and strong woman appeared at the entrance of the alley, furious, scolding at the man, walked over aggressively, and pinched one ear of the man with one hand.

"Where the hell did you go early in the morning? The person who made the tea couldn't be found, so you ran here to mess with this dead boy."

Mr. Liu covered his ears and sighed: "He was bullied by the children, I just gave him some food, how pitiful..."

"Poor, there are so many poor people in this world. I haven't seen you delivering food one by one? Why, I still want to be his father. That bitch has been dead for several years, and she hasn't died yet." With this heart, why didn't you die together at the beginning?"

"Let's go, let's stop talking... let's accumulate some virtue..."

As the yelling went away, the alley stopped.Jiang Yu rubbed his arm, those children didn't hurt him just now, but it's not that old man Liu hurt him.

After the person left, the disgust towards the man and his own dignity slowly subsided, and the feeling of hunger became clear again.He turned his head to look for the fritters he had swung away, and it fell two meters away, and he locked it at a glance.The mouth of the plastic bag is tied, and it is not dirty, so you can eat it when you pick it up.

Eating what you leave behind is not considered picking up garbage to eat.

With just a second of hesitation, a real stray dog ​​has already moved to the side of the fried dough stick.The big yellow dog was as thin as he was, with bony ribs wrapped in a layer of yellow skin, and he was also hungry.

Jiang Yu had a bad heart, he didn't dare to step forward rashly, and scolded him twice.The yellow dog was not afraid of him. He lowered his front paws and howled lowly, showing his white teeth.

Jiang Yu was terrified, but he couldn't withdraw, the fried dough sticks would be gone.He had just eaten a few candied haws since yesterday afternoon, and his stomach was so empty that he had to be brave because of his hunger.

He and the yellow dog confronted each other for a few seconds. Just as he was about to bend down to pick up a rock, when he mistook his eyes, the yellow dog immediately picked up the bag and ran away quickly.

He ran after him. The dog ran faster than him, but he was smarter than the dog. He took a few shortcuts and picked up a stick on the way.I thought that if the dog didn't let go, he would give it a stick. This breakfast was his.

The yellow dog ran to the edge of a pile of waste rocks, and instead of running away, turned around, pressed its front legs, and threatened him again by whining.Jiang Yu walked up slowly with the stick in his hand, and threatened, "Give it back to me, or I will kill you."

Because of his approach, the yellow dog was obviously a little scared, and slowly backed away.

Jiang Yu raised his voice: "Shut up!"

As soon as the words were finished, two little furry heads popped out from under the pile of rubble, and they hummed and chirped twice.No wonder the yellow dog didn't continue to escape here. It turned out that his pup was here.

Hearing the puppy's voice, the yellow dog whined more fiercely, and took a step forward against Jiang Yu, put down the food in his mouth, and started barking at him.

Jiang Yu's throat twitched, and finally he retreated slowly to a safe distance, and then left with the stick.

As he dragged his feet along this scattered alley, the wooden stick rattled against the wall, once he was free, the feeling of hunger immediately swept over him.The nausea from swallowing the earthworm just now also came up, making him want to vomit.But he couldn't vomit, otherwise what he ate would be in vain.He bent slightly to press his stomach, and went to the nearby elementary school.

The school was empty on the weekend, so he walked around the wall for a small half, found the gap, turned inside, and went straight to the men's room.

Turned on the faucet in the sink, drank two handfuls of ice water, and suppressed the feeling of wanting to vomit.The water was bitingly cold, and when I swallowed it, my whole body shivered, and my stomach hurt from the cold.

He squatted on the ground for a while before standing up and going to the toilet.After I came out, I washed my hands and picked up a dirty cloth to wipe the mud on my body and shoes.

Hungry is not an option. When he came out of school, he picked up a plastic bag somewhere, and he still did his old job - picking up waste.