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"Lin Ming lowered his head, feeling embarrassed.

"But isn't elementary school free of tuition?" Lin Qiao couldn't help asking, "Did your father never let you go to school?"

"It turns out that my uncle and uncle let me go to school at home, but my dad never cared about me."

Then why did he take you out!

"He wanted to come out alone, so the uncle and uncle asked him to keep some money. He didn't want to pay, so he took me with him."

In fact, Lin Changxi originally planned to leave the child behind on the way to City A, but he didn't find a chance along the way. The only time Lin Ming was found by the staff at the site. Not only did he not lose him, Lin Changxi was also criticized and educated.When no one was around, he grabbed the child by the ear and called him a bastard.

"He was drinking every day. It turned out that when his mother hadn't left, the two of them quarreled from morning to night, and they could quarrel about everything. If you lost something, you would get angry, and if you lost money, your temper would get worse. Then she left Never come back again, people around are always making jokes."

Lin Ming was still afraid of the cold, so he shrank into his clothes.Lin Qiao asked him to sit on the bed and covered him with a quilt.

"I don't like him. But I'm too young to beat him."

It’s not that Lin Ming didn’t try to resist before. He cried and went to his aunt’s and uncle’s house to complain, but they just looked at his wound and said sorry, or tried to persuade Lin Changxi; but when it’s time to get drunk or angry, fists It fell down like scolding or raindrops.His mother probably ran away from home because she couldn't bear it, and didn't leave a word.But his direct resistance will only invite more violence.Once Lin Changxi smashed a bench on his back, leaving a large bruise.The next day I developed a high fever and was sent to the hospital by my second aunt to hang salt water. The village cadres found out and reported it to the police, but they only criticized it, and no one asked after the fever subsided.Lin Ming once thought of running away like his mother.But he is too small, and the big yellow dogs in the village will bite him when they see him.

"I don't like Dad either." Lin Qiao explained to the child, "When I was young, he was very kind to me and took me out to play every day. But then he married another person in other places. I hardly see him anymore , Sometimes I don’t know whether I want to see him more, or I don’t want to see him more.”

"But I can't see it anyway. My grandfather passed away a few years ago, and it's even more impossible to see him."

Lin Qiao still had a lot to say. For example, it was difficult for a woman to live with a child at that time, so she took him and remarried.For example, he is more comfortable in his new family than before, but he is always uncomfortable.He suddenly jumped in his mind, thinking that he would have to ask for leave again today, and thought that he would see two patients at once this time, so he made full use of his time.Seeing the child squinting and sleepy, his heart felt like a puddle of water, and he stretched out his arms to hold the child in his arms.

It rained all day, and there was wind in the rain, and winter seemed to be approaching.

6. Lin Qiao came back from get off work.

It was already dark, and there was a north wind blowing in the yard.Usually at this time, everyone closes their doors, pinching the cracks of the doors to reveal a little white and yellow light.But someone left the door open that day, and the light shone on the door, casting a shadow.It was quiet all around, but there were rude shouting and cursing from inside the door.That house is the one in the farthest part of the yard, the house of Lin Ming's family.

Lin Qiao couldn't hear what the adults were cursing, but it was always very rude.The tone is very fierce.

Lin San is a short, fat man with a crew cut and often looks at people with frowning eyebrows.People in the small yard are usually unwilling to talk to him.But Lin Laosan was beating a child with a belt.The child is hidden in the shadow behind the adult, unable to see clearly.Occasionally call out.Lin Qiao ran over to snatch the things, and dragged the child behind him to protect him.Youngest Lin stared, "What are you doing?" He reeked of alcohol, and his neck, face, and even scalp were all red like an allergy.Some people have been attracted by the door of the house, and they hugged and looked inside.The landlady and another middle-aged man walked in and pulled the two of them apart.

"What's the matter?" they asked.

The people outside replied: "Brother Lin is beating someone."

Lin Laosan twisted his neck and cursed: "I'll beat my son, don't mind your business!"

Everyone shouted.

"Why do you beat the child!"

Lao Tzu beating his son seems to be the consciousness of Mr. Lin, and he always has a natural expression.But he didn't really dare to fight Lin Qiao.The other party is too young, he is tall, and he doesn't seem to know how to beat people.

The landlady understood it, and blushed at him too.

But Lin Ming hid behind Lin Qiao, blushing too.He didn't want so many people to look at him. In the past, being beaten was a matter of two people. Although it hurt...he felt unhappy, but he couldn't speak, and pulled Lin Qiao's shirt nervously.The middle-aged man on the side saw it, and closed the door to keep the onlookers out.Both Lin Qiao and the old man were a little confused.

The middle-aged man has always been warm-hearted, and he probably presided over justice in the Qiancunhoudian, so he asked naturally, "Do you want to talk to the police?"

Lin Qiao didn't care about it: "Call the police, call the police, and spread the word!" "Your mother..." Lin Laosan blushed and cursed again. The landlord pulled Lin Qiao aside and muttered softly: "It's hard to be an honest official!" Break up the housework, so what can you do if you call the police, make sense at the top, and the man who drove the car left." It was past nine o'clock, and the child snuggled up to Lin Qiao's lap, beating gently I yawned.Lin Qiao looked down at the twirled and loose hair on the top of the child's head, and said, "You can't let the child be beaten in vain?" A ten-year-old child, facing a man in his 40s, can only do whatever he wants. Bullying?

The middle-aged man persuaded Lin San on the other side, obviously to scare him more.

"That's it! Lin San, don't beat your child in the future. If you really break it, you will not only lose your son, but you will also have to live in prison. It will not do any good at all! Fortunately, this time it is not serious, so let's pretend we didn't see it!"

Lin Qiao thought for a while and said, "Can the child sleep with me overnight?" He was afraid that Lin San would take revenge on the child if he left.

None of them objected. In the end, the landlord kindly asked: "Don't let the child get sick."

7. The wind was blowing outside the house, and it got into the window and got into the crack of the door.Lin Qiao asked the child to wash up, stuffed him into the quilt, tucked the quilt up like his elders, and then went to tidy up his own.Lin Qiao's bed was piled up with all kinds of things, and there was only a little sleeping place left.While undressing, he observed the child: the child sat up on the bed and looked at him intently while pressing the quilt.He pulled out and went in, the quilt was already warm, the child's two legs stretched out, soft and cute.He pulled the child closer, and the quilt wrapped them tightly like an airtight cocoon.At such a close distance, he looked at the child's pink face in the light, and he loved it very much, and wanted to get close to him.That is something that other people, especially adults, cannot experience, as if he is a child's best friend, unique.

The child grabbed the quilt with both hands and blinked: "I can't sleep."

"Fall asleep in a while."

The adult found a comfortable position and lay down; the child moved restlessly from side to side.

The winter in the south is relatively cold, especially when you just got into the quilt late at night.Lin Qiao was scalding all over at first, but was cooled by the leaking wind after a while.He held the child down and said helplessly, "Go to sleep."

The child was also cold, so he unconsciously leaned over and asked Lin Qiao to sing.He was actually a little excited, maybe because he was beaten by his father, and the marks on his body were still hurting; maybe he was in a daze just now, but now he woke up with a jerk, and he was no longer sleepy.So he made a bold request.

Lin Qiao was suffocated by the heat and wanted to fall asleep.He forcefully opened his eyes and saw the child shining brightly like a cat in the night. "Blue sky, Milky Way tree, there is a little white boat..." Lin Qiao closed his eyes and thought about the lyrics for a while, and found that there was a soft breath next to him, and the breath rang in his ears, blocking the sound of hunting wind.

It snowed heavily at night.

In the end, Lin Ming still received a moderate beating, leaving a few blue marks on the ribs under his chest.Lin Qiao took a closer look, feeling angry and uncomfortable in his heart like a fire.But the child didn't seem unhappy either, and when he called him, he obediently turned his head.

It was already the middle of the twelfth lunar month, and friends from Lin Qiao's hometown packed their bags and prepared to go home.My hometown has always attached great importance to the New Year, as long as I can go back, I have to go back on New Year's Eve.The train is crowded and crowded, looking forward to going home for a reunion. Although city A is far away from my hometown, it is only a one-night journey by train.But Lin Qiao has no expectations for the new year.Grandfather had left the old house two years ago, and he went back purely so that his mother wouldn't feel guilty about remarrying him.

He folded the clothes and stuffed them into the box.The child has been drooping his head since the morning, very similar to Lin Qiao being scolded when he was a child.The child's hands were exposed, red with cold.Lin Qiao helped him rub his hands and warmed them up, and didn't let him move: "Why don't I take you back to my hometown."

Lin Qiao regretted it when he said it.His mother and stepfather may not be willing to see a strange child.But he just asked.But Lin Qiao always felt guilty: "I don't want to go back with you like this."

"Will your dad take you back home?"

"I won't go back." The child was sullen and pitiful. Lin Qiao couldn't help but hugged his head and kissed him, rubbing his head: "Don't worry, I'll go back for two days. Don't you It’s too screwy. There won’t be many people here during the Chinese New Year, but the landlord should not leave, and you can even call a white-bearded landlord grandpa.”

Lin Ming nodded.His eyes were a little red, as if he was about to cry