Jiang Weimian lay on the chair in the Internet cafe and accidentally fell asleep.
He had a fragmented and vague dream, distant and misty. Just like a hand with clear bones wiped away the mist on the glass window, the scene outside was finally clear, and the long-standing memories of the past were finally recovered.
Jiang Weimian didn't live on campus when he was in high school. He often went to and from school by himself, and passed a crowded street every day. It was lively and noisy, prosperous and shabby coexisting. Well-dressed people often come here to hang out in the mall, but there are many children of unknown origin selling flowers on the cold and windy streets.
A basket full of cheap plastic roses that cost one yuan each was priced at ten yuan apiece. They shuttled through the streets, begging young men and women passing by to buy one, and followed them like followers, which was annoying.
Jiang Weimian often skips school, for no other reason than he gets sleepy easily during class. He was wearing a sports suit, carrying a black shoulder bag cross-body, and put his hands into his coat pockets. His face was always expressionless, and he seemed to avoid strangers.
However, someone hugged his leg without fear of death: "Brother, brother, buy a flower for your girlfriend."
Jiang Weimian hated brats, so he frowned and pulled away: "I don't have a girlfriend."
The other party hugged his legs and said persistently: "Brother, brother, buy some flowers. You can also give them to your boyfriend."
“…”
Jiang Weimian's steps stopped, and the fist in his pocket hardened. He frowned and looked at the child who was hugging him and not letting go, and found that the child looked about thirteen or fourteen years old, but had a kind of philistine cunning that was inconsistent with his age. His face was dirty, his eyes were dark and beautiful, but his arms and legs were thin, as if he was malnourished.
"If you don't buy it, go away."
Jiang Weimian only said these four words and wanted to leave, but the other party persisted and said with tears: "Brother, my grandma is sick. Please buy a flower. I want to earn money to treat her." sick."
The child is a naturally good actor. He sheds tears easily and cries sincerely. No one will doubt the authenticity of his words because they always feel that the child cannot lie.
Jiang Weimian didn't believe it at all, but he was not stone-hearted after all, so he finally relaxed and asked with a frown: "How much?"
The little boy made a pitiful sign: "Ten dollars."
Jiang Weimian happened to have something neat in his pocket, so he took out a ten-dollar note and threw it into the basket without taking the flowers, and left directly. The boy finally let him go and turned to target others.
However, when Jiang Weimian was ill, not only could he not remember things, he could even forget the way home. Twenty minutes later, he appeared at this intersection again. Looking at the familiar scene in front of him, he frowned, remained silent for a moment, and finally chose to find a bench on the side of the road to sit down.
When navigation was not yet popular, don’t panic when encountering this kind of thing. According to Jiang Weimian's experience, he should be able to remember in twenty minutes that there is no need to trouble his parents who have long been divorced and separated, let alone the police uncle.
However, if you suffer from this strange disease of lethargy and forgetfulness at a young age, no one will be in a good mood.
Jiang Weimian closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands. His mind went blank. The pale and powerless feeling was accompanied by a deep fear. It's not easy to detect, but it penetrates deep into the bone marrow.
He has trouble remembering things and forgets everything easily.
This also makes Jiang Weimian look like a freak in the eyes of outsiders, because he doesn't like talking to people, let alone making friends. He always keeps to himself, like a gust of wind, which makes people unable to catch traces.
Since you have to forget sooner or later, then just don’t remember anything at all.
It's just that Jiang Weimian's recovery of memory was a little slow this time, and he still didn't remember it until dark. Just when he was about to call his parents, a pair of dirty shoes suddenly appeared in his sight, and at the same time a familiar voice sounded in his ears: "Brother, brother, buy a flower for your daughter." friend."
“…”
Jiang Weimian looked up expressionlessly, only to find that it was the child he met this afternoon. The other party didn't seem to recognize him, and kept handing the flower basket to him: "Brother, look at how beautiful these flowers are. They only cost fifteen yuan each."
“…”
Jiang Weimian knew immediately that he was a small-time liar. He raised his hand and waved the flower basket and asked, "Didn't you pay back ten yuan a branch just now?"
The little liar was stunned when he heard this, then slowly blinked his beautiful eyes, and stammered: "It's dark... it's dark, the price has gone up."
Jiang Weimian stared at him expressionlessly and didn't speak.
The little liar was a little embarrassed when he saw this, and finally turned around and walked away.
Jiang Weimian kept staring at him and found that the little liar seemed to have set his sights on a new target and kept pestering the fat rich man to buy flowers. As a result, the other party had a bad temper and kicked him to the ground: "Where the hell did you come from, little beggar! Get out of here! If you don't leave, I'll kill you, believe it or not!"
The little liar fell to the ground, and the flowers in the flower basket scattered all over the floor. He clutched his stomach and fell to the ground, looking pale and huddled up.
Jiang Weimian frowned when he saw the inconspicuous situation, thinking that he really deserved it. He waited for the little liar to stand up on his own, but the other person remained in that position, motionless. The people around him came and went, casting strange looks at him, but no one stopped.
Seeing this, Jiang Weimian moved the tips of his shoes, and finally got up from the bench on the roadside and strode to the little liar. He helped the person up from the ground, frowned and asked, "Are you okay?"
The little liar was as thin as a stick, and his arms were so thin that only bones remained. On a cold autumn night, he was wearing a dirty and ill-fitting short-sleeved T-shirt, his skin was cold, and he looked like a refugee.
When he heard Jiang Weimian's words, he held his stomach tightly and said nothing. The dark hair fell on the pale face. After a long while, he finally uttered a weak word with a trembling voice: "It hurts..."
Jiang Weimian opened his clothes and found a purple bruise on his thin and sunken belly. He couldn't help but frowned: "Where are your parents? Do you have a phone number?"
The little liar remained silent.
Jiang Weimian asked again: "Where are your parents?"
The little liar still remained silent.
Seeing this, Jiang Weimian could only help him up from the ground and let him sit on the steps. Then I walked through the traffic and walked to the pharmacy across the road to buy an anti-swelling ointment. When he came back, he saw the little liar squatting on the ground picking up the scattered plastic flowers, holding his stomach.
There were two or three children selling flowers next to him. When they passed by him, they all shouted: "Axing, you are in trouble. If you don't finish selling flowers, your uncle will definitely beat you."
"You're going to be hungry again tonight."
There are many flower children nearby. They are of different ages and genders, the oldest is fifteen years old and the youngest is only seven years old. The only similarity is that the plastic roses in the basket come from the same wholesale market and are handed by the same man.
They called the man "uncle."
Jiang Weimian was keenly aware of something and paused slightly. Those children quickly dispersed and went to other places, leaving only the little liar behind.
A plastic rose happened to roll down at Jiang Weimian's feet. He slowly bent down, leaned over to pick it up, and then gently threw it into the flower basket.
The little liar sat on the steps, huddled in the cold wind. He held his stomach and looked up at Jiang Weimian helplessly. His eyelashes were thick and long, and his pupils were black and bright. At this time, he didn't have the cleverness he had when selling flowers. He just felt embarrassed.
“…”
Jiang Weimian looked at him quietly for a few seconds, and finally looked away in frustration, sitting down on the dark street. He took off his black cross-body schoolbag, threw it aside, then unzipped it and put his school uniform jacket on the little liar: "How old are you?"
The coat carried residual warmth, blocking the cold wind blowing in the face, and finally contained some warmth.
The little liar raised his hand in confusion and made a hesitant sign of fifteen: "I forgot..."
He was malnourished and looked to be in his early teens.
Jiang Weimian seemed to sneer, turning his head and looking away at the rolling traffic on the opposite side: "This is the first time I have met someone with a worse memory than me."
He handed the ointment to the little liar and asked him to apply it himself. He accidentally looked at the flower basket at hand and plucked the five plastic fake flowers left in it: "It's dark, why don't you go home?"
The little liar finally spoke in a small voice: "Uncle will beat me if the flowers are not sold out."
Jiang Weimian remembered that there seemed to be many flower-selling children nearby, and couldn't help but frowned: "Where are your parents?"
The little liar shook his head: "I have no parents, I am a wild child, and my uncle told me to make money."
Jiang Weimian: "Who is uncle?"
The little liar couldn't explain why, and stared down at the toes of his shoes: "Uncle is uncle."
Jiang Weimian didn't say anything, but took out fifty yuan from his pocket and handed it to the little liar: "It's getting dark, go home quickly."
The little liar didn't accept the money. He was a little embarrassed. He lowered his head and whispered: "You have a lot of pocket money. Your parents are so good to you."
Jiang Weimian's parents have been divorced and separated for ten years. Although they don't see each other very often, they have plenty of pocket money. He sat lazily on the roadside and stretched his legs: "Money is good, but there are some things that money can't buy."
The little liar had never read the book and subconsciously asked: "What is it?"
"memory… "
Jiang Weimian said: "Money can't buy your memory..."
He paused for a moment, and suddenly realized that he had talked too much to a stranger today, and he really shouldn't have. He patted his butt and stood up from the ground, threw his schoolbag over his shoulder, and was ready to go home. When passing by the little boy, he knocked him on the head and dropped a brand new fifty yuan note.
Jiang Weimian didn't look back, put his hands in his pockets, and walked freely and simply. The little liar sat on the steps, holding ointment and banknotes in his hands, staring at Jiang Weimian's back for a long time in the brightly lit night.
Later, every time Jiang Weimian came home from school, he would see that little liar. The other party no longer pestered him to buy flowers, but just followed him like a follower, carrying a flower basket.
One day, ten days, thirty days.
Jiang Weimian was too lazy to care at first, but finally couldn't help it anymore and looked back at him: "Why are you following me?"
The little liar held the flower basket with both hands and blinked: "You don't know the way, I'm afraid you will get lost."
He discovered that Jiang Weimian would hang out in the same place for a long time every day after school. When it got dark, he seemed to remember something and walked to the station on the opposite street to take the bus. Sometimes he likes to sit on a bench by the roadside and fall asleep in a daze. Many thieves and pickpockets on the roadside are staring at his schoolbag.
"It's none of your business."
Jiang Weimian frowned and was about to leave. However, after taking only two steps, he heard the little liar shouting from behind: "You are on the wrong track. The bus stop is on the right."
As if replacing Jiang Weimian's lost memory, he reminded him aloud: "You have to go to the bus stop opposite and take the No. 6 bus."
Jiang Weimian paused slightly when he heard this, and looked back at him again, only to see that the little liar was still wearing the dirty short-sleeved T-shirt and a blue and white striped school uniform jacket. Because it was too wide, it was inevitably a little bit... funny.
Jiang Weimian slowly put his hands into his pants pockets and stared at the other person expressionlessly. The little liar took a step back at a loss, but did not leave.
Jiang Weimian asked him: "You don't sell flowers?"
The little liar turned his head and looked away: "I'll sell it later."
Jiang Weimian didn't leave, but found a bench on the side of the road to sit down. There was no one at home anyway, and no one cared whether he could go back or not. He patted the seat next to him and motioned for the little liar to sit over. At the same time, he handed him a handful of candies in his schoolbag: "Have you ever been to school?"
He got an expected answer.
"No."
The little liar was eating sweets and sat happily next to Jiang Weimian. He carefully placed his flower basket at his feet and looked at his schoolbag with envy: "I have no money."
Jiang Weimian rarely had the patience to talk to him: "Do you want to study?"
The little liar nodded and shook his head again, looking very conflicted.
Jiang Weimian took out a pen and exercise paper from his schoolbag and asked aloud, "What is your name?"
"A Xing," the little liar approached him cautiously, his eyes brighter than the stars in the dark night, and repeated in a low voice: "My name is A Xing."
Jiang Ji Weimian: "You don't have a last name?"
Little Liar: "No, my name will be Axing. Do you want to help me choose a new name?"
When Jiang Weimian heard this, he flicked his wrist and wrote two beautiful and neat words directly on the exercise paper. Then he put the pen into Xing's hand, held his wrist and taught him one stroke at a time: "This is your name, Xing... can you write it?"
The little liar was so nervous that his hands were shaking, and he wrote two crooked words on the paper. When Jiang Weimian saw this, he chuckled and concluded: "It's really ugly, like a dog crawling."
The little liar blinked and looked at him in confusion.
Jiang Weimian: "I'll give you a pen and paper. Just practice more in the future."
The "paper" he called was actually a practice paper that had been scored after taking the test. When the little liar saw a bright red 147 written in the score column, he couldn't help but reach out and touch it: "Why do you skip school every day and your grades are so good?" ?”
Jiang Weimian raised his eyebrows: "Who told you that I skipped school?"
The little liar pursed his lips and lowered his head: "Brother Xiaozhi said that. They said that high school students finish school very late. If you go home every afternoon, you must be skipping class."
Jiang Weimian hit him on the head: "Who said you can't get good grades if you skip school? I can remember everything the teacher said."
The little liar covered his head, a little aggrieved: "Then why can't you remember the way home?"
Jiang Weimian paused slightly when he heard this and didn't speak for a long time. He slowly rolled up the exercise paper in his hand, folding traces one after another. After a moment, he said: "...I can't remember what I want to remember."
Parents, relatives, friends,
It was as if his brain had been cursed to never remember what was truly important. On the contrary, it is something as lifeless as knowledge that takes up most of my memories.
The little liar lowered his head and whispered: "What a strange disease..."
Jiang Weimian hummed: "It's quite strange."
The little liar raised his hand and patted his chest. The sleeves of his school uniform were wide and half slipped down accidentally. He said a little embarrassedly: "If you have something you can't remember next time, just tell me and I will help you remember it."
Seeing his serious face, Jiang Weimian couldn't help but want to laugh. However, with a casual glance, he saw the little liar's wrist, which was covered with bruises and bruises. He frowned, held his wrist and asked, "Who hit him?"
The little liar hesitated and said nothing.
Jiang Weimian thought for a moment: "Your uncle?"
The little liar lowered his head and shook the toes of his shoes: "I haven't sold out all the flowers, and my uncle is not happy."
Jiang Weimian probably guessed something. There were actually many street children nearby, and there were specialized human traffickers who would adopt them and then use them to make money.
Jiang Weimian paused: "Have you never thought about leaving your uncle?"
The little liar looked at him blankly and picked at the corner of his clothes: "But I only know my uncle. I left my uncle and had no food to eat..."
He has never been to school and knows little about the world. He only understands the ugliness of the human heart, but does not know how to save himself, so he can only live in a small cage and live in confusion.
Jiang Weimian asked one last question: "How many children does your uncle raise?"
The little liar was no longer confused this time, and stretched out his hand to sign with the number thirteen: "Thirteen."
Thirteen children of various ages were crowded into a small room. There was no bed, no pillows, just a few beds of smelly cotton wool. They lay on the ground, huddled together to keep warm, regardless of gender or season.
Jiang Weimian frowned: "Have you ever thought that your uncle might be a human trafficker and your biological parents are still looking for you?"
The little liar was stunned for a moment: "Uncle said that I am a wild child. I have no parents."
Jiang Weimian frowned slightly: "You didn't jump out of the cracks in the rocks, so how could you be a wild child? You should be studying now, not selling flowers on the street."
The little liar was confused and looked at Jiang Weimian at a loss, not knowing what to say for a long time.
And Jiang Weimian suddenly realized that this matter was too complicated for the little liar. He slowly raised his hand and tapped the other person on the head: "Where do you live? I'll take you home."
The little liar covered his head, his eyes bright, looking a little happy and a little embarrassed. No one had ever told him to send him home: "But you don't know the way..."
After Jiang Weimian sent him home, what if he forgot his way home
Jiang Weimian reached out and grabbed him from the chair: "So while I still remember it, I will take you home quickly."
He made up his mind to call the police, hoping to find out where the trafficker lived.
The little liar hesitated for a moment, and finally took Jiang Weimian to where he lived. It was a slum hidden behind a high-rise building, dilapidated and dirty. Jiang Weimian walked into the narrow alley and was already surprised that such a place existed. However, as if he was used to it, the little liar took his hand and carefully avoided the ditch on the ground, and finally stopped at a house. In front of the building.
"I live here."
The little liar probably also knew that this place was a bit shabby, and was a little embarrassed in a rare way. He quietly hid the flower basket behind him and looked down at the ditch on the ground, where his and Jiang Weimian's reflections were clearly reflected.
Jiang Weimian asked: "Which floor do you live on?"
The little liar said: "The second floor, the innermost room."
Jiang Weimian thought for a while, then slowly knelt down, eye level with him: "Little liar..."
The little liar was unhappy: "I have a name, I'm not a little liar."
Jiang Weimian insisted on calling him a little liar: "You sell fake flowers every day to deceive people, what are you other than a little liar?"
The little liar was even more unhappy. He lowered his head and kicked the gravel on the roadside with the toes of his shoes. He felt a little aggrieved and said, "Uncle forced me..."
Jiang Weimian was just joking at first, but he didn't expect that the little liar actually took it seriously. He raised his hand and gently placed his palm on the other person's head. This time, he did not hit him, but rubbed it twice: "Shall we call the police and let the police arrest him?"
The little liar looked at him in surprise: "Why?"
Jiang Weimian's tone was calm: "He broke the law and should go to jail."
The little liar's eyes were a little red: "What should I do if I am alone? My uncle has been taken away, so I am the only one. I have no father or mother..."
He didn't even have any decent clothes.
Jiang Weimian paused: "... I am the only one in my family. You can move in with me, as long as you don't lie to others again."
Jiang Weimian can go out to work in a few years and support himself. Raising another little liar shouldn't be a big problem. It would be great if he could help find the little liar's parents in the meantime.
Jiang Weimian looked cold, but he was actually a very kind-hearted person.
The little liar was a little flattered when he heard this. He picked at the corner of his clothes with his fingertips and asked cautiously: "Really...really?"
Jiang Weimian hummed.
The little liar's eyes lit up, and he nervously promised: "Then Ah Xing won't lie to anyone anymore... He won't lie to anyone..."
They were so focused that they didn't notice that a man had appeared at the window on the second floor and was staring at them with a frown. Jiang Weimian finally patted the little liar on the shoulder, signaling him to go upstairs and go home quickly, and left with her schoolbag on her back.
Jiang Weimian was thinking about calling the police and didn't notice anything behind her. After taking two steps, she suddenly noticed something moving behind her. Looking back, I found that the little liar had followed me at some point.
Jiang Weimian was a little helpless: "Why are you following me again?"
The little liar stammered: "I... I'm afraid you'll forget your way home..."
Jiang Weimian: "I won't forget it."
Hearing this, the little liar suddenly raised his finger slowly and pointed at himself, cautiously and with a hint of hope: "What about Ah Xing? Don't forget about Ah Xing, okay?"
Jiang Weimian gave a rare smile: "Yes, I won't forget it."
He turned and left, his back gradually disappearing at the end of the alley. Ah Xing stood there and stared blankly for a long time before turning around and going upstairs. However, as soon as he opened the door and entered the house, he suddenly felt a sharp pain on his scalp, and then someone grabbed his hair and threw him to the ground: "Damn it! I said you haven't sold a few flowers in the past two days. Turns out he went to play with someone else!”
I remember that the small rental house was packed with more than a dozen people. The only adult among them was the middle-aged man known as uncle. He grabbed Ah Xing's hair and dragged him into the living room, kicked him a few times in frustration, and then said with a sigh: "You are not allowed to have dinner today, and if you don't sell all the flowers tomorrow, I'll see if I can't beat you to death!"
Ah Xing received another kick in the stomach. He hit the back of his head without knowing where, causing a dull pain and dizziness in front of his eyes. He lay curled up on the floor. For the first time, he did not covet the food in the bowls of other "brothers and sisters". Instead, he drowsily remembered what Jiang Weimian had just said.
Call the police…
Take away the bad uncle...
Live with him…
No need to be beaten or hungry, you can go to school and learn to read...
He will no longer have to lie to people, sell flowers, or be a little liar anymore...
There were more than a dozen children squatting in the corner of the living room, each holding a bowl filled with rice. The uncle refused to let them eat too much, so they were thin so they could pretend to be pitiful and trick others into buying flowers.
One pot of rice to share among thirteen people.
When they saw Ah Xing lying on the ground, they didn't dare to make a sound. They could only lower their heads and eat the rice in their bowls silently.
One of the oldest girls stood up hesitantly: "Uncle... Ah Xing seems a little uncomfortable..."
She is very thin, but she is in the growth stage and has all the curves she should have. The uncle who was drinking and eating barbecue glanced inadvertently, as if he had discovered some treasure. His eyes suddenly lit up, a bit obscenely: "A Xing is not feeling well, what do you want?"
The girl lowered her head, shrinking back in fear: "Uncle... let Ah Xing eat... He only had one meal yesterday... "
"You do care about him." The uncle sneered and suddenly put the wine bottle on the table. He stood up and pulled the girl into the house: "Come on, uncle will show you something good."
The girl was confused, but she also felt scared. She struggled and cried out, but she still couldn't withstand the man's brute force and was forcibly dragged into the house.
Ah Xing didn't know where the strength came from, and suddenly he hugged the man's leg tightly, preventing him from moving, and yelled with all his strength: "You bad guy!"
After hearing this, the uncle paused and tried hard to pull out his leg, but he couldn't pull it out. He cursed and slapped him and said: "Little bastard, I gave you food and clothes, but you still dare to scold me, little bastard." White-eyed wolf!”
Ah Xing hugged his legs tightly and shouted to a group of shivering children in the corner: "He is a human trafficker! He is a human trafficker! We have parents, we should go to school, and we should not be beaten and starved here!"
Ignoring the fists raining down on his head, he endured the sweet taste in his throat and shouted over and over again: "He is a human trafficker... He is a human trafficker..."
"We have parents... we are not wild children..."
"We are going to school... We can't lie..."
The man's fists became harder and harder, and his voice became weaker and weaker.
The night outside the window was dark and the moon was high in the sky. It seemed that he couldn't bear to witness the scene in front of him and allowed the dark clouds to obscure his figure.
Later, the sky slowly dawned...
Later, a group of police suddenly rushed in and solved a child abduction case...
There were a total of thirteen abducted children inside. Twelve of them were identified and their separated parents were found. There was also a child who was found dead in a rental house early in the morning...
He was lying on the ground covered in blood, his body already stiff.
Jiang Weimian did not go to school that morning. He saw the police rushing into the rental house to arrest human traffickers and walking anxiously downstairs. Finally, after finally waiting for them to come out, he rushed forward and asked: "Officer Ye, where are the children? Is there one named A Xing?!"
In the cold morning breeze, the leading police officer was silent for a moment, then apologized and shook his head. People were coming and going in the back, and the forensic doctor carried out a body bag.
"Danglang-"
It was the sound of the schoolbag falling to the ground, and the candies in the side pockets were scattered all over the floor.
The picture began to blur again, like a sudden heavy rain, full of winding water marks.
Jiang Weimian was lying on the table in the Internet cafe, his breathing suddenly became rapid, and his whole body was stiff, as if he was trapped in a nightmare and couldn't extricate himself. He finally woke up from his sleep, hurriedly sat upright, and touched it with his hand, but his face was covered with cold tears.
Jiang Weimian was rarely in such a panic. He was in shock, his chest was rising and falling, and even Wang Dabiao and others next to him looked over in surprise.
Only Shen Zuixing lazily propped his head up, reached out and touched some of the tears on Jiang Weimian's face with his fingertips, then stuck out the tip of his tongue and tasted it lightly: "Salty..."
Chen Zuixing was laughing, although no one else knew what he was laughing at: "Jiang Weimian, you are crying."!!!