IPT 20.4

“Don’t you like bean cakes? The bean cake is also delicious.” Shen Qianqian swallowed his saliva and covered the remaining half pot of bud rice porridge.

 

He stared at the kettle for a few seconds, then opened the lid and sniffed it violently a few times before tightening it again.

 

Shen Qianqian felt that Chu Ya didn’t like to eat bean cakes, so he kept these bud rice porridge for him to eat, and ate the bean cakes by himself.

 

Chu Ya’s teeth were loosened and the spoon fell. Shen Qianqian collected the spoon and sat beside him to nibble on the bean cake. His eyes were fixed on his face as he took a bite and glanced at him happily.

 

“Woo woo woo ……” Bean biscuits are hard, but Shen Qianqian took a big bite. He shook his head and bit it fiercely. As a result, he made a wolf-like sound in his mouth.

 

After taking a big bite of the bean cake, he smacked his mouth and sniffed loudly, sucking back the snot that was about to slip into his mouth.

 

“The bean cake is very easy to eat…… Do you really not want to eat it…… Whoop…… They all say that my eyelashes are long but yours is definitely longer.”

 

When Shen Qianqian sniffed again, he saw that Chu Ya’s brows seemed to be slightly wrinkled. He hurriedly stopped his movements and watched with bated breath. But Chu Ya was still lying flat like that, without any expression.

 

Shen Qianqian ate two pieces of bean cakes, put the remaining one back in his satchel, and kept it for when he was hungry next time. Anyway, he was fine, and the new garbage was not delivered, not during working hours, so he brought a few treasures that he had picked up before and showed them to Chu Ya.

 

“This cup is flattened, but it looks- it looks good this way. Do you know what this is? It’s fish. Have you ever seen a fish? I’ve seen it in cartoons. It doesn’t have hands and feet, maybe the feet are twisted, just like you, just flapping in the water…… This is the sea, the sea has a lot of water, and it takes a lot of basins of water to hold a sea ……”

 

Shen Qianqian introduced the cup, put it on the ground, and prepared to get one. There was a brief silence in the room, but he heard Chu Ya speak as if he was talking, making a very soft murmur.

 

Shen Qianqian turned his head violently, and saw Chu Ya’s eyes closed with pain on his face,  his head tossing and turning.

 

“Are you awake?”

 

Shen Qianqian put his ear against Chu Ya’s mouth. He couldn’t properly hear what he was saying, but he heard the word mother.

 

He slowly raised his head, looked at Chu Ya in a daze, and saw two crystal tears hanging from the corners of his eyes. It then rolled down and flowed into his sideburns.

 

“Father…… Mother ……” Chu Ya’s tears kept pouring out, and his voice was indistinct, mixed with intermittent sobbing.

 

Shen Qianqian knows that when he had only been born for a few months, his parents had died, so he was sent to the Welfare Institute.

 

An old manager once compared to him: “When you were brought here, you do not had a name. So I was the one who had to give it to you. I saw that you were wrapped only in a blanket and your whole body was frozen, curled up. But still, you didn’t even cry. So I decided to call you Shen Qianqian.”

 

“Why didn’t you call it meat curling, sugar curling, and bun curling?”

 

The old manager said: “The previous registered child is surnamed Shen, and I don’t bother to think about it, so I just follow the surname Shen.”

 

Shen Qianqian was a little dissatisfied: “Then why didn’t you ask me when you named me? I don’t like that name. I want to be called a very powerful name, Chen Baolong or Wang Zhusheng. If it doesn’t work, it’s okay to call me Wang Zhusheng.

 

He didn’t like Wang Zhusheng and felt that this name was not powerful, but this name meant that there would be an unreasonable, fierce, but loving brother who loved him.

 

Shen Qianqian never saw what his parents were like. So his parents were just a title for him, far less than his brother made him full of longing.

 

But the new children in the courtyard would cry until their voices were hoarse, and they only wanted their mother and father. He was a little worried that Chu Ya would cry all the time, crying until his voice was hoarse, crying until his eyes were swollen – so he touched his hand a little helplessly.

 

As soon as his hand touched the back of Chu Ya’s hand, he was grabbed by a backhand.

 

Chu Ya’s palm was hot. He obviously unconscious, but he held Shen Qianqian’s hand very tightly. Shen Qianqian was in pain, struggling to pull his hand out, but Chu Ya pressed his hand tightly to his chest.

 

“Mom…… Mother ……”

 

Chu Ya’s mouth was dry and cracked, and his intermittent cry was filled with fragility and childish attachment. At this time, he was very different from the one in Shen Qianqian’s memory, not the one who carried his chin at any time, wore a straight coat, and every edge and corner of the coat was very sharp.

He is just a new child who has just entered the welfare home and is clamoring for his parents.

 

Shen Qianqian’s eyes quickly filled with water, and he sobbed and wiped Chu Ya’s tears with his other hand: “You cry, I cry.”

 

“Mom…… I’m pain,” Chu Ya tilted his head, and he rubbed his hand.

 

Shen Qianqian said with tears in his eyes: “Will you admit your mistake? I may, probably not be your mother. You’re crying, you’ve just taken the medicine, and you’re going to be pain-free right away.”

 

Shen Qianqian hugged Chu Ya’s head, not knowing why he was crying more sadly than him, and when Chu Ya gradually calmed down, he still cried non-stop.

 

It wasn’t until he felt that the head in his arms was hot, as if he was holding a big potato that had just been eaten in the cafeteria, that he found that Chu Ya was burning even more than just now.

 

Lin Duozhi often had a fever, and in addition to taking medicine, the children in their dormitory No. 16 would be instructed to cool him down with a cold water towel.

 

Shen Qianqian went to cool Chu Ya.

He didn’t like to wash his face in the first place, so he would never pick up towels and other items that he didn’t like, but he searched all over the house. He then took off the scarf around his neck.

 

There was a water pipe behind this row of tin houses, but he didn’t know if there was water and he couldn’t unscrew the rusty faucet.

 

Shen Qianqian and walked around, looked at his feet, and found that there was a lot of water in the depression of those metal blocks. The square pieces of metal overlapped very much, but there were also scattered. He stepped on the cement bricks, stretched out his hand as far as he could, soaked his scarf in the puddles and then ran back to the tin house.

 

The cold scarf was attached to Chu Ya’s forehead, and it soon became warm again. Shen Qianqian ran out with the scarf again and again, climbed the cement brick, and soaked it again and again before coming back.

 

He ran back and forth like this, his two hands wet with cold water were red from the cold, so he put his scarf on Chu Ya’s forehead and reached out to put it on his white bare chest.

 

“Warm, you’re so warm while my hands are ice cold for you. You warm me while I freeze you.”

 

Shen Qianqian was panting tiredly, tilting his head against Chu Ya’s chest. He listened to his heartbeat that became rapid because of the burn.

 

His eyes fell on Chu Ya’s arm, and he saw a black spot on his wrist. Thinking it was a mud spot splashed on it, he rubbed it with his fingers.

But the black spot could not be rubbed off. He came closer and thought it was a black mole, but it was strange to see.

 

Shen Qianqian with his wet scarf, wiped Chu Ya’s body and arms. He doesn’t know how long it took until Chu Ya’s body temperature dropped a little, and he realized that my stomach was starting to be hungry again.

 

There was still a bean cake and half a pot of bud rice porridge left for breakfast. He fed the porridge to Chu Ya, nibbled on the dried bean cake himself, and drank half a pot of water. He considered this as their lunch.

 

In the afternoon, Chu Ya did not have a fever anymore, nor did he talk nonsense. But he fell into a deep sleep. Shen Qianqian was beside him, and when he saw his brows furrowed, he stretched out his fingers to press the point flat.

 

“Where’s your mom and dad? Are they dead too? Shall I take you to the welfare home? You like me so much, gave me a scarf, and gave me black balls to eat. I like you too. I will be very good to you.”

 

After he finished speaking, he silently mouthed at Chu Ya: “…… Brother.”

 

Shen Qianqian began to imagine the scene when Chu Ya also entered the welfare home:

He stood in line in the class team, Wang Zhusheng turned around and called him a bedbug, and he shouted coquettishly at the large class team: “Brother, look, Wang Zhusheng glared at me and called me a bedbug~”.

 

Shen Qianqian could think that his voice was so loud that all the people in the canteen could hear it, and then Chu Ya separated and walked over and picked up Wang Zhusheng: “You shit shell Lang dare to say that my brother is a bed bug?” Then he stretched out his hand and pointed at Wang Zhusheng, who was trembling behind the group: “When you’re nothing but a big shell idiot!”

 

Shen Qianqian laughed out loud when he thought of this, got up excitedly, leaned over at Chu Ya and raised his eyebrows: “I want to use an iron rod to string those two shells together!”

 

Before he knew it, it was already noon. Shen Qianqian went to the welfare home to receive dinner. As usual, he closed the door tightly, inspected the hole in the wall to see if the stones were blocking the other side, and then eavesdropped on the door, beware that Chu Ya would run away if he woke up.

After listening for a while, everything was normal in the house, and then he returned to the welfare home with peace of mind, quietly walked through the playground, and hid in the canteen window.

 

“There is no bud rice porridge tonight, but there are yams.” Lin Duozhi pointed out a sweet potato from the window, “This is the food I’ve taken for you. I only have one, so I can’t give it to you.”

Shen Qianqian took the sweet potato: “Is there radish soup then?”

“No, we’re all drinking boiled water.”

Shen Qianqian took the empty kettle around his neck: “Then you help me get boiling water.” ”

 

Lin Duozhi was about to pick up the kettle, when he heard Wang Zhusheng’s sharp voice: “Brother, Shen Qianqian outside the window.”

 

Shen Qianqian was frightened while holding the kettle and Lin Duozhi stared at each other blankly. His other friends rushed over: “Wang Zhusheng and his brother are here.”

 

“Hurry up and run, go.” Tang Yuanyuan hurriedly urged when he saw Shen Qianqian without any reaction.

 

Shen Qianqian came back to his senses and didn’t dare to fetch any more water. He rushed to the staff building on the other side of the playground with an empty kettle.