Extra: The protagonist's childhood (Part 1)
"The sound of the rain is like living by the stream. I would rather it rained every day, thinking that you didn't come because it rained." - Zhang Ailing
Early July in midsummer. Qiming Children's Welfare Institute, Nanhuai City.
It is the plum rain season again. The weather in the south of the Yangtze River is cloudy, rainy, hot and humid.
The clothes hung on the balcony of the dormitory building showed no signs of drying after being hung for several days. The corridor was damp every day, and the white walls were stained with gray marks. The floor underfoot had just been mopped dry, and a layer of fine water droplets covered the brick surface again.
The heavy humid water vapor clogs people's pores, making it difficult for people to breathe.
In the afternoon, Chang Qiushi walked into the dormitory building, fanning himself, and saw the nurse Aunt Liu coming towards him with a basket of salt water popsicles: "Teacher Chang, would you like to have a popsicle to cool down?"
"I won't eat it. Share it with the children!" Chang Qiushi waved his hands and suddenly called her, "Wait a minute, take one from me."
"okay."
Chang Qiushi took the salt water popsicle, walked to the end of the corridor, and knocked on the door of the westernmost room.
After not getting a response for a long time, he raised his voice and shouted, "Xiaojuan, it's grandpa."
After a moment of silence, the door was opened from the inside.
The nine-year-old boy was neatly dressed, had a fair complexion, and beautiful facial features, but his eyes were dull and lifeless.
Chang Qiushi smiled and shook the salt water popsicle between his fingers: "Grandpa is giving you a popsicle."
"Grandpa, I don't want to eat."
Chang Qiushi saw the sweat on his forehead and looked inside: "Why don't you turn on the fan in such a hot day?"
"not hot."
"You're not hot, Grandpa is. Let's cool down here for a while." Chang Qiushi went into the room and turned on the ceiling fan. He then opened the gauze curtain with only a slit to let more natural light in through the window. He turned around and stuffed the popsicle into his palm. "Grandpa can't eat too much sweet food. If you don't eat it, it will melt. What a waste."
Seeing him take the popsicle, look down for a while and finally open the package, Chang Qiushi laughed: "What are you doing alone in the room, reading?"
"Um."
"There are several teachers from outside the academy these days. Senior students like Xiao Qin are all here to listen to their lectures. Don't you want to go to class?"
"Um."
"Then it's okay if you prefer to study quietly by yourself. Just tell grandpa and grandma if you have any questions."
Chang Qiushi chatted with the child in a disjointed manner. He waited until the fan cooled the room before he got up and left the room, closing the door behind him.
Not long after I left the dormitory building, I looked back at the westernmost window on the first floor, only to see that the ceiling fan was not moving again.
Chang Qiushi shook his head and sighed.
Since being sent back by the Zhou family, this child who used to fight with his peers for food now saves as much as possible on food and clothing, and does not ask for anyone to take care of him, as if he is afraid of adding burden to the welfare home.
The children in the courtyard were enjoying their lively summer vacation and were eager to run around in the mountains and fields, but he was the only one who stayed quietly in the dormitory building every day and didn't go anywhere.
"Who said we don't dare! We'll catch him right away and show him to you!" A noisy voice came from afar, breaking the heavy atmosphere of the dormitory building.
Chang Qiushi turned around and saw two little girls running towards him hand in hand.
The older one is Wen Yin, a child from the orphanage. He was sent to the orphanage two years ago.
The smaller one is the daughter of a teacher in this year’s summer class. She is as pretty as a doll and has become friends with kids of the same age after only being a guest for a few days.
It had just rained, and the cement floor was slippery. Chang Qiushi hurriedly stopped the two of them and said, "Be careful! Xiaoyin, where are you taking your little sister?"
"Let's go catch a snail! Brother Tan Qin laughed at us for not daring to catch one, and said that if we caught one, all his popsicles for the week would be ours, and he would even teach us how to fold a paper airplane that could fly the farthest!"
"A snail crawls so slowly and can't run, why are you in such a hurry? You are the older sister, you have to take good care of your younger sister and not let her fall or get hurt, okay?"
"Got it, Grandpa!"
A quarter of an hour later, at the base of the dormitory building, Meng Shuyu and Wen Yin hid in the grass like mushrooms.
"Why aren't there any today? There used to be a lot of them here after the rain..." Wen Yin held a branch picked up from the ground and carefully picked through the pile of grass.
"Maybe I'm too beautiful?" Meng Shuyu squatted aside with his chin in his hand, thought for a while and said.
"Ah?" The branch in Wen Yin's hand got stuck in the grass.
"My father said that if a girl is too beautiful, flowers will be ashamed to bloom when they see her, fish will sink to the bottom of the water when they see her, and snails may also burrow into the soil."
"Oh..." Wen Yin touched her nose and nodded, "Teacher Meng is right."
Meng Shuyu sighed: "What if I leave you without popsicles? How about I bring you a planet cup tomorrow?"
"Okay, then I don't want any popsicles!"
"Then let's go back, it's too hot here!" Meng Shuyu patted the dust off his palms and stood up. When he looked up, he suddenly found a big snail stuck on the glass window above his head. "Hey, there's one over there!"
"I'll catch it!" Wen Yin stood on tiptoe and grabbed the branch to reach it. She jumped for a long time but couldn't reach it. She turned around and ran out, "I'll move the stool, you stay here and watch it!"
Seeing that Wen Yin had disappeared and the snails were climbing higher and higher, they might not be able to reach the stool even when it arrived. Meng Shuyu fumbled in the grass for a while and found a pile of stones.
She piled the stones higher up under the windowsill, then picked up a branch and stepped on them.
This step made the man rise a lot higher, and he could see a sculpture-like figure on the glass window.
Meng Shuyu was startled and his feet stumbled. Before he fell, he grabbed the window sill and managed to keep himself steady.
She breathed a sigh of relief and looked up to meet the boy's eyes in the window.
Their eyes met. Meng Shuyu was staring at the man with his mouth open in a daze when he suddenly heard Wen Yin shouting from behind: "Hey, this is very dangerous, come down quickly!"
Wen Yin hurriedly ran to the window with a bench and helped Meng Shuyu down.
Meng Shuyu's soul was still in mid-air, pointing at the window and asking, "Who's in here?"
"Who is it?" Wen Yin stepped on the stool and took a look. She saw the person in the window with his head down reading a book. She quickly climbed down and said, "Oh, it's a weirdo here. Don't play with him."
"wack?"
"Well, he just came last month, and he has been staying here all the time. He doesn't go out, doesn't come to the cafeteria for meals, and doesn't attend classes. We went to find him with food and toys, but he never paid any attention to us..." Wen Yin stepped on the stool and climbed back up, used a branch to push the snail into a disposable paper cup, and jumped down excitedly, "Let's go find Brother Tan Qin!"
"But he is very handsome..."
Meng Shuyu couldn't help wanting to take another look, so he stepped on a stool and looked inside.
But this time, no matter how she waved and knocked on the window, the person inside didn't look up.
After several days of continuous rain, the plum blossoms finally bloomed in Nanhuai near mid-July.
Taking advantage of the clear weather, the welfare home organized a general cleaning in the afternoon. The caregiver led a group of children to clean up the moldy and damp corners.
Chang Qiushi looked around and when he walked into the dormitory building, he saw a sneaky figure lurking in the corner of the corridor.
The little girl, who was not even as tall as his waist, was wearing a white dress and was staring at the other end of the corridor like a thief.
Chang Qiushi tiptoed behind her, followed her line of sight, and saw Zhou Jun sweeping the floor conscientiously.
After so many days, the child finally stepped out of the room because of a big cleaning, although he just wandered around in the corridor.
"What are you looking at, Xiao Shuyu?" Chang Qiushi patted Meng Shuyu on the shoulder.
Meng Shuyu suddenly turned around, raised his chin and pointed to the corridor: "Grandpa Chang, can I play with that brother?"
"of course."
"But he ignores me... Grandpa, can you let him play with me?"
"That may not work. You have to work hard on your own to make friends. But Grandpa can give you a broom. You can help this brother clean up. He will definitely not ignore you if you help him."
Meng Shuyu quickly got the cleaning tools, and hesitantly walked to Zhou Jun with a small broom in his arms, and took a deep breath: "Hello!"
Seeing that he was concentrating on sweeping the floor, as if he didn't see her, she tilted her head and leaned over: "I'm here to help you sweep the floor!"
Zhou Jun swept the pile of debris into the dustpan and still ignored her.
Meng Shuyu scratched his ears, picked up the broom, and shook it left and right a few times. The broom bristles fluttered across the ground, raising a layer of dust.
"Cough cough..." She choked and started coughing.
The person next to her finally looked at her.
Meng Shuyu swallowed his saliva and seized the opportunity to ask: "My name is Meng Shuyu, what's your name?"
Unexpectedly, the man turned his head away again, and this time with his back turned.
Meng Shuyu pursed her lips and continued sweeping the floor, shaking the broom from time to time.
I swept the room boringly for a while, and when I turned around I found that the person next to me was gone. He had already swept to the east side of the corridor.
She quickly ran over with the broom, this time keeping her eyes fixed on him and just swept behind him.
He took a step forward, and she followed suit.
After following for a while, the person in front turned around and looked like he wanted to say something.
Meng Shuyu blinked and waited patiently, but he just looked at her for a while, said nothing and continued to look forward.
After sweeping the east side, he turned back to the west and swept the area she had originally swept.
Meng Shuyu followed him with a broom in his arms. When he finished sweeping the floor, he put the broom against the corner, picked up the mop, swung it into the bucket of clean water, wrung out the mop head, and started mopping the floor again.
There was no second mop, so Meng Shuyu could only watch helplessly. When he finished mopping a floor and came back, he put the mop into the bucket to wash it clean, and then walked away again.
Meng Shuyu looked down at the bucket at his feet, squatted down, grabbed the pull ring with both hands, took a deep breath, picked it up, and followed.
The bucket was so heavy that she staggered with every step. By the time she staggered behind him, Meng Shuyu was so out of breath that she let go of his hand.
The bucket fell to the ground with a bang. Zhou Jun turned around and saw the full bucket of water shaking, and the dirty water splashed onto her snow-white skirt.
Meng Shuyu looked down and saw gray, wet spots on her skirt, and the corners of her mouth shrank.
When she looked up again, she found him looking at her, so she covered her face, turned around and ran away.
After running for a while, I heard someone following me from behind: "Why are you running?"
Meng Shuyu turned around and saw the boy, who was a head taller than her, catching up with her in three or two steps, holding a school uniform jacket.
"You can talk?" She blinked in surprise.
"… "
Zhou Jun handed her the coat.
Meng Shuyu thought of how he looked now, and his face turned sad again. He took the coat, tied it around his waist, and ran away in a hurry: "I, I will come to see you again tomorrow!"
Ten o'clock the next morning.
On a scorching day, Meng Shuyu, holding the school uniform jacket that had been washed by his mother, walked into the dormitory building of the welfare home under the scorching sun, groped his way to the westernmost end of the first floor, and knocked on the door.
Seeing no one opening the door, she put her ear to the door and listened, then shouted, "Is anyone there—"
Still no movement.
Meng Shuyu thought for a moment, took out a notepad and pencil from his small waist bag, and wrote on the notepaper stroke by stroke: Brother, thank you for taking off your clothes and returning them to you.
Then he tore off the first page of paper and stuffed it in through the crack at the bottom of the door. Then he put the school uniform jacket in the dust bag in his arms at the door.
After doing all this, Meng Shuyu turned and ran away, hiding in the corner and quietly looking at the corridor.
After waiting for a while, the door opened and the clothes at the door were picked up and brought in.
It's clearly inside.
Meng Shuyu stomped his feet in frustration, looked at the notepad in his hand, and tore off a page to write: Brother, I want to play with you.
Then he tiptoed to the door and stuffed the note into the crack as he had just done.
After squatting at the door and waiting for a while, Meng Shuyu got bored and tore off another piece of paper, folded a paper frog, drew eyes on it with a pencil, and continued to stuff it into the door.
Still no response, she folded another goldfish and stuffed it in.
Then there was a rabbit.
Another fox.
After folding four in a row, Meng Shuyu felt a little tired. He squatted down and leaned against the door, sighing.
Suddenly the door was opened at this moment.
She lost her backrest and fell to the ground.
Looking at the stunned person above his head, Meng Shuyu was also stunned.
She looked down at herself lying on her back, and she didn't look like a pretty little goldfish, little white rabbit or little fox, but more like the first frog she had folded.
She got up quickly, patted her overalls, her face gradually turned red, and she turned and ran away: "I'll come back tomorrow..."
Zhou Jun: “…”
The next day at ten o'clock in the morning.
When Chang Qiushi came to see Zhou Jun, he saw that he was still sitting by the window reading a book as usual, except that there was a row of small animals folded out of sticky notes near the corner of the table.
"When was this folded?" Chang Qiushi smiled and picked one up to look at it.
Zhou Jun took a look and lowered his head: "I didn't break it."
"Who gave you that gift?"
Zhou Jun raised his head, as if he was a little surprised by the word "gift". When he looked at the four animals again, there seemed to be something more in his eyes.
"I don't know him," he said.
"If you don't know him, go and get to know him. He must be a very cute kid to be able to fold such lovely little animals." Chang Qiushi smiled and patted his shoulder.
Zhou Jun flipped through his textbook and waited for Chang Qiushi to open the door and prepare to leave. Suddenly he turned around and said, "Grandpa."
"Um?"
"Is everyone in class?"
This was the first time Zhou Jun took the initiative to ask something in these days.
Chang Qiushi nodded in surprise: "Yes, they are all in Chinese class. Grandpa will take you to the classroom?"
However, Zhou Jun didn't seem very happy when he heard this. He shook his head and didn't ask any other questions.
After Chang Qiushi left the room, Zhou Jun looked at the pile of animals on the corner of the table, then glanced at the wall clock, and buried his head in reading again.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, in a pavilion near the dormitory building, Meng Shuyu and Wen Yin sat on a stone bench, eating frozen bayberries and chatting.
"You are so cute, you look beautiful even when you fall, what's the big deal!" Seeing Meng Shuyu with her head down and supporting her cheek, Wen Yin spat out a bayberry seed to comfort her.
"Really?" Meng Shuyu posed on the bench in the same upside-down position as yesterday, "But this is how I fell..."
"Uh..." Wen Yin ate another bayberry brought by Meng Shuyu and gave her a thumbs up, "Really! Not ugly at all!"
Meng Shuyu sat up and looked at the window on the west side of the dormitory building that was blocked by a gauze curtain with a depressed look: "Then he seems to be very unwelcome to me..."
"Why do you have to play with him?"
"Because he's the only one who won't play with me."
Wen Yin blinked in confusion: "Whoever doesn't play with you, you will play with them?"
"No," Meng Shuyu shook his head quickly, "She has to be pretty too."
"Then he is really the best-looking boy here." He nodded affirmatively.
"Right?" Meng Shuyu's eyes lit up, as if he was encouraged, "I'm going to go find him again!"
Ten minutes later, Wen Yin helped bring a stool.
Meng Shuyu moved the stool under the window, stood on it, raised his hand and knocked on the window.
Accustomed to no one answering, she started talking to herself: "Are you reading again?"
"My dad said that if you read in insufficient light you will damage your eyes, and if your eyes are damaged you should wear glasses like his."
"Glasses are ugly..."
"You are so beautiful, you can't become ugly."
"Pull open this curtain and look again." Meng Shuyu made a pulling motion across the window, and his fingers accidentally touched the glass window, moving a crack in the window.
Meng Shuyu was stunned, and with great effort he moved all the windows open.
The wind from outside the window suddenly blew in, blowing up the gauze curtain, and the person behind the curtain raised his head.
Meng Shuyu waved at him: "You didn't close the window!"
Zhou Jun looked at her without saying anything.
"Are you waiting for me with the window open?"
"no."
Finally hearing him speak, Meng Shuyu felt that it didn't matter what he said, so he smiled and said, "It doesn't matter if it's not, you've waited for me anyway!"
"."
She pulled the curtain aside, then leaned over the windowsill and glanced at the textbook in his hand: "What are you reading?"
Zhou Jun lowered his head and did not answer.
Meng Shuyu tilted his head to look, but after trying for a long time, he still couldn't see what was written in the book even though he twisted his neck.
Finally, she saw him close the book and turn the cover towards her so that she could take a look.
But Meng Shuyu didn't know what the word meant.
“Wow, this book is great!”
No matter whether it is thirty-one or thirty-one, just praise it first.
Zhou Jun glanced at her and continued to read his book with his head down.
After a while, I heard a long complaint from above my head: "Oh, it's so sunny outside!"
When I looked up, I saw her frowning, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand, and stamping her feet: "There are still mosquitoes biting my legs..."
"It would be nice if I could use a fan for a while, then I wouldn't feel so hot and the mosquitoes would go away."
Zhou Jun: "There are fans in the classroom."
"There are so many people there, the wind has been shared by everyone." Meng Shuyu licked his lips and looked into his room. He saw that the ceiling fan was not turning. "Can't you give me half of the wind here?"
Zhou Jun glanced at the ceiling fan above his head, stood up and turned on the switch.
"I can't get any breeze..." Meng Shuyu felt the wind with his hand and tried to get closer, with half of his body hanging on the inside of the windowsill, "Can I come in and get some breeze?"
Zhou Jun looked at her for a while, then stood up and stepped aside, apparently agreeing.
Meng Shuyu smiled and raised his foot, stepped onto the windowsill, then turned around, looked down and climbed down.
I was dangling and groping in the air when suddenly a hand grabbed me and pulled me in the right direction, landing me firmly on the desk.
Meng Shuyu jumped down and landed successfully.
Looking back, she saw the footprints on the desk and took out a wet towel from her waist bag to wipe them: "I'll clean it for you."
Zhou Jun sat down in the chair again.
After a while, I heard her ask again: "Where is the trash can?"
Zhou Jun pointed to the corner.
Meng Shuyu threw away the wet wipes and asked him, "Where should I sit?"
Zhou Jun pointed to the corner again.
Meng Shuyu looked around and found no other chairs except the bed. It was not convenient to sit on someone else's bed, so she had to walk towards the trash can he pointed to again.
Five seconds later, a cracking sound was heard in the quiet room.
"… "
Zhou Jun raised his head and looked at the stiff man on the lid of the plastic trash can: "I told you to sit there."
Meng Shuyu turned his head and saw the bedside table not far away.
The next second, the second cracking sound rang out even more clearly.
Meng Shuyu took a breath and opened his arms to him: "I'm about to fall in, come and save me-"
"… "
The author has something to say: Meng Shuyu, you are indeed a natural comedian.