There was a bad smell in the cattle pen, Lu Rong curled himself up on the haystack, the smell of grass and trees filled his nostrils, and he felt much better.
He looked at the snowflakes flying outside and began to think wildly.
The children in the kindergarten have all been taken home, and I don't know if Wang Tu asked for leave for himself. If you don't ask for leave, the teacher will be angry.
He didn't think about whether he could go back to kindergarten, but just thinking about the teacher being angry made him feel very anxious.
There were voices and laughter in the distance, Lu Rong pricked up his ears to listen, then shrank himself back into the haystack.
At the beginning, the group of children led the cows and came back again. Each of them carried a large piece of ice with a hole in it, and tied it with a straw rope to eat while walking.
They stopped in front of the cowshed and waited for the older boy leading the cows to bring the cows in. As soon as the older child pushed the fence away, he stood still.
The other children also stopped chattering and stared at the front in a daze.
Lu Rong was a little nervous. He was leaning back on the haystack and wanted to sit up with his hands in a panic, but the soft hay was not strong enough, so he fell down and rolled around on the ground.
He hurriedly got up, stood up straight and looked at the group of children, and tightened his trouser legs with both hands.
In the silence, the eight or nine-year-old boy was the first to come back to his senses and asked Lu Rong, "Why are you in the cowshed? Where is the man carrying you?"
He spoke a dialect, and Lu Rong didn't quite understand it. He only heard the word "cowshed" clearly, and whispered timidly, "I'll be leaving in a while."
"Didn't we see that man by the stream just now? He walked alone." Another child next to him said to the older child.
"Yes, yes, I saw it too. He is walking towards the road alone, and he is probably going down the mountain."
"Why didn't he take this baby with him? Just left it in the cowshed?"
The group of children yelled at each other and crowded forward, lying on the wooden fence to watch Lu Rong, and the cows were all pushed aside.
Lu Rong didn't know what they were talking about, so he took a step back quietly, tripped over the haystack, and fell back to sit down again.
The beanie slipped onto his face, and he quickly pushed it up and put it back on. The two pom-poms tied to the top of the hat were loose, hanging over his face to block his eyes, and he moved the pom-poms to adjust their positions.
The group of children laughed loudly as if they saw something interesting, and stared at him for a moment.
Lu Rong was watched like this, and he didn't know what they were laughing at, so he wanted to find a place to hide in panic. But there was only this pile of hay in the cowshed, so he could only sit stiffly, his eyes starting to turn red.
The big kid leading the cow yelled at them, as if telling them not to make noise, and everyone fell silent.
He turned around again and asked again in substandard Mandarin.
"Why are you sitting in the cowshed? Did the man who carried you put you here? Where did he go?"
This time Lu Rong understood.
He didn't want to answer, but being blocked by these people, he felt a little scared, so he whispered back: "He left, I came in by myself."
A group of children looked at each other in blank dismay, and it was the older child who gave some orders. Two of them ran away quickly, and brought an adult over after a while.
Lu Rong was still sitting on the haystack, looking down at his feet, with his hands on his knees. He heard an adult's voice asking, but he didn't need to answer, the group of children were rushing to answer.
Someone walked in, and a pair of black and blue cotton shoes stopped in front of him.
"Baby, it's very cold for you to sit here, let's go back to the house to enjoy the fire." The man stretched out his hand to hold him, "Look, these gloves are wet, take them off."
Lu Rong's gloves were taken off, and his hands were held. He felt the dry and rough warmth, but he still retracted his hands desperately, and curled them into his sleeves.
"Your little hands have turned into lumps of ice, let's go back to the house to warm up." He didn't look up, but he could only hear the man's soft voice, like the grandfather of the kindergarten security booth.
"He doesn't understand, so he needs to speak Mandarin." The group of children shouted again, "Master Cai, you need to speak Mandarin."
"Caiye can't speak Mandarin, hahahahaha."
…
Cai Ye, who was squatting in front of Lu Rong, turned his head and said with a smile: "Cai Ye is the village head, why can't he speak Mandarin? Last time I went to the village for a meeting, there were a few people from big cities, and I only spoke Mandarin. .”
"Believe it or not." The children jumped and made fun of it, "Tell me something and let's listen. Do you know Pinyin? Recite a few more Pinyin letters?"
"Master Cai, do you know what aoe is?"
Just as he was talking, a few more adults who heard the news came outside the bullpen, and stood outside to communicate with Mr. Cai.
"It's a crime. I was so cold that I threw the doll in the cowshed. If no one finds out, it's hard to say if something happened tonight."
"Where did this doll come from?"
"It was brought by Gao Chenggang, and it was going to be sold to Wang Cuihua."
"Which Gao Chenggang?"
"The relatives at the head of Gao's house in Zengjia Village said in the early years that they moved to Guizhou, and now they are engaged in the business of selling dolls."
"Still doing it? Didn't you say you were arrested?"
"I didn't catch him, he ran away, and his brother was caught."
"Then what should we do now? Wang Cuihua will definitely not want it anymore, and Gao Chenggang ran away again."
…
Lu Rong knew that they were talking about him, so he just looked down at the shoes and rubbed his feet lightly, trying to get rid of the mud on the heels of the boots.
The hand that wanted to hold him just now stretched out again, holding one of his feet, and holding the hay with the other hand, wiping off the mud on it.
"Baby, you and Cai Ye go back first, we can talk about what's going on tomorrow, it's getting dark." The adult outside the wooden fence said to Lu Rong.
The children chirped again: "Speak Mandarin, he doesn't understand."
The adults changed it into broken Mandarin: "Baby, you and Cai Ye go back first, it's getting dark."
The children began to learn their tongues and giggled.
Lu Rong heard them laughing from time to time, so he was not so nervous at first, and secretly raised his head to look at the person who polished his shoes in front of him.
The rich man said while he was shining his shoes: "Baby, go back and enjoy the fire. Tomorrow the rich man will send you down the mountain."
"Baby, go back and enjoy the fire, the rich man will send you down the mountain tomorrow." The children followed suit.
In the dim light, every wrinkle of Cai Ye revealed kindness and softness. Lu Rong looked at him, then turned to look at the dark sky and cold snow.
After a while of hesitation, when everyone thought they had to persuade for a while, they saw the child leaning forward, with two small arms lightly wrapped around the rich man's neck.
Cai Ye seemed to be taken aback for a moment, but immediately came to his senses, hugged Lu Rong in his arms with a smile on his face and stood up.
"Walking around, we're all going home, so as not to freeze a few of your noses, and you won't know who's who's who after you pick them up."
The children surrounded Mr. Cai and followed him to his house, reaching out to touch Lu Rong's feet secretly.
As long as Lu Rong looked up at them from around Cai Ye's neck, they would laugh excitedly.
Lu Rong was taken into a courtyard, and the rich man drove the children home and closed the courtyard door.
After entering the house, he was put on a bench by the firepit, and the rich man said, "Sit down, baby, I'll go and light a fire for you."
Lu Rong sat on the bench without moving, watching the rich man blowing a long bamboo tube into the firepit. After a few blows, the wood inside lit up an orange-red, warm flame.
The rich man took off his scarf and gloves, brought him hot water to wash his face and hands, and finally soaked his feet in a large wooden basin.
"Hot it, so that your little feet won't freeze." Said the rich man.
The hot water was very comfortable. After soaking for a while, Lu Rong felt her feet growing back into her body, and she gently moved her big toe inside.
The rich man crouched beside him and watched with a smile, reached in and poked his big toe, and said, "Quack bug."
The two chubby feet immediately folded up, and a few toes curled up shyly. The rich man touched his head and said, "Soak well, I'll get you something to eat."
Lu Rong nodded lightly, put his hands on his knees and continued to soak his feet, and only rolled his eyes to look around when Cai Ye went out to the kitchen next door.
Cai Ye quickly brought over a bowl of noodles and put them on the table. Then go to the bedroom and open the large closet, and take out a brand new towel.
He cut the towel open with scissors, wiped Lu Rong's feet clean, and wrapped his feet with the towel like rice dumplings.
Put on a pair of big cotton shoes, and Lu Rong's snow boots are roasting by the firepit.
He picked up Lu Rong, put it beside the square table, and asked him, "Do you want grandpa to feed you?"
Lu Rong stared at the steaming bowl of noodles, with two poached eggs lying on top, swallowed and shook his head.
The rich man handed the chopsticks to his hand and said, "Then eat it while it's hot."
The bench was very high, and Lu Rong sat on it with his legs dangling in the air. But the square table was much higher than the bench, and he had to poke his head to see the noodles in the bowl.
He raised his hand and unskillfully used the chopsticks to pick up the noodles, but failed to pick it up a few times, and looked at Mr. Cai nervously.
He is not very good with chopsticks. Usually when eating noodles at home, he rolls them up with a fork and feeds them into his mouth.
Cai Ye didn't say anything, and took the bowl and chopsticks to feed him. Lu Rong no longer insisted on coming by himself, and started to eat noodles.
"Good boy, what's your name? Do you remember your family? Do you know the names of your parents?" Cai Ye asked in dialect, and seeing that Lu Rong didn't answer, he asked again in Mandarin with a rough accent.
Lu Rong stopped eating noodles immediately, turned his head to look at the bench and did not speak.
His long eyelashes drooped down, casting a row of shadows under his eyes.
"Grandpa, don't ask any more questions, let's eat first, eat first." The rich man said repeatedly, and then picked up a poached egg and fed it to Lu Rong's mouth.
Lu Rong swallowed the egg in his mouth, and then whispered: "My name is Lu Rong, Fluffy. I am four years old this year. I am in the middle class of kindergarten. I have had five good babies and three clean babies."
His voice became smaller and smaller, and finally only his mouth was squirming. Cai Ye heard the first half clearly and knew that his name was Lu Rong, and he was four years old this year.
After dinner, the rich man carried Lu Rong to the firepit again, and lifted the pillow covering on the long coffee table, revealing a TV set underneath.
"...Secretary Shen said that the development of Longtan Mountain's tourism resources is the top priority of the current work..."
The TV was black and white, very small. Lu Rong's eyes were attracted by the sound, and he saw Mr. Cai turning the knob on the side, changing the channel with a click.
"... Longtan Mountain's natural landscape and cultural landscape complement each other..."
Cai Ye changed out three channels with pictures, all of which were the same news, and he said to himself: "It's all local channels again, where do so many cartoons usually go?"
He continued to switch channels, and the rest was snowflakes. When he turned his head, he saw Lu Rong rubbing his eyes and yawning, so he turned off the TV and hugged him: "Rongrong, go to sleep."
Lu Rong was already very tired. When the rich man put him on the bed and took off his clothes, he habitually leaned on the rich man's shoulder and closed his eyes to sleep. As soon as he leaned on him, he remembered that this was not Wang Tu, so he quickly raised his head and tried to open his eyes. Eye.
The rich man stripped him down to only his autumn clothes and johns, stuffed his soft body into the warm quilt, and tucked in the corners of the quilt.
Lu Rong almost fell asleep right next to the pillow, and vaguely heard Cai Ye saying, "Sleep well, grandpa will take you down the mountain to the police station tomorrow to find your parents."