IPT 43.2

“It’s rare for them to have buns as meal, so why not choose another day?” Dean Liu asked.
The officer said, “Your welfare home was informed yesterday, how come you haven’t prepared it?”
“It’s our negligence… Can’t you do it another day?”
“It doesn’t matter, we can go to the cafeteria… we won’t disturb them while they are eating.”
Dean Liu stood in front of the officer: “Let’s do it another day.”
“Dean Liu… you are making excuses… you are interfering with official business.”

Shen Qianqian was so excited that he didn’t realize that the conversation and atmosphere between them were not right. At this time, other children saw the two officers and rushed to the window: “Yunding is here to select children, Yunding is here to select children.”

The cafeteria was suddenly noisy and the children all rushed to the window. Shen Qianqian was quickly squeezed aside. Lin Duozhi stood beside him, clutching his sleeve tightly, his fingers trembling: “Qianqian, it’s time to select people again, we can go to Yunding.”

“Yunding is here to select children, Yunding is here to select children again.” A senior class student stuffed the remaining buns into his mouth, puffed up his cheeks and ran to the canteen door, but Manager Chen shouted: “Don’t move! Eat your meal, no one is allowed to go out!”

Two officers had already entered the canteen, and the children burst into excited cheers. The officers smiled at them, leaving only Dean Liu standing at the door with a bad look on his face. But when he saw the officers striding into the canteen, he had to follow them.

Manager Chen looked at Dean Liu and would ask a question but Dean Liu shook his head slightly at him. Manager Chen sighed imperceptibly.

Manager Chen did not ask the children to line up again, but they also stuffed the remaining buns into their mouths and consciously lined up according to the positions they had stood in the past.

An officer looked at Dean Liu and smiled, “Dean Liu has a good teaching method, and the children are all doing very well.”

Dean Liu’s facial muscles twitched: “Not bad.”

Shen Qianqian and the children in their dormitory had just squeezed by the window, and now they hurried back to the team. Lin Duozhi also hurriedly dragged Shen Qianqian to line up.

He tugged him twice but failed to drag him, so he urged: “Go, go to line up quickly.”
Shen Qianqian’s face was not excited, and he hesitated to break free of his hand and whispered: “I won’t go to the front.”
“Ah?”
“I won’t go to the front.”
“Not going?!”
“Yeah.”
“…Okay, then stay here, I’ll go first.”

Lin Duozhi got into the team while Shen Qianqian stood in the middle of the crowd, scratching the window frame next to him with his fingers, only occasionally turning his head to look, with a faint envy in his eyes.

He really wanted to go to Yunding, really wanted to be at the front, really wanted to hold his chest high so that the officer could see him at a glance. But he didn’t want to go now. He was afraid that if he was picked up, what would happen to Shen Miaomiao?

If he went to Yundian, who would take care of Shen Miaomiao? Who would find food for Shen Miaomiao?
Shen Miaomiao would definitely miss him so much that he would cry, and would push his wheelchair everywhere to find food. In the end, he would howl with hunger and die in the wheelchair, with only a small bulge of dirt on the wheelchair.

Shen Qianqian felt scared when he thought of that scene, so he shrank into the corner again, not wanting to be discovered by the officer.

“Ouch.”
“Ah!”

　　Suddenly, the cries of children in pain rang out in the cafeteria. As soon as Shen Qianqian turned his head, his head buzzed. The familiar pain came again, like an electric drill humming into his head.

Although the pain lasted less than half a second and then disappeared, Shen Qianqian staggered and sat on the ground. Many children fell down unsteadily, and then quickly climbed up while enduring the pain, looking at the officers with expectation on their faces.

But the officers did not smile as they did in the past. They walked out of the crowd to lead one or two children, and left the welfare home under the envious eyes of everyone.
They just shook their heads in disappointment and left the cafeteria without saying a word, while the expressions of Dean Liu and Manager Chen became relaxed and they walked out with smiles on their faces.

Suddenly, there was a burst of crying in the cafeteria. A boy from the senior class cried out loudly: “Why didn’t they choose me? Why didn’t they choose me…”

Shen Qianqian would have cried with everyone before, but this time he just stood by the window, looking at this and that.

He still remembered that Manager Chen asked him to go to him to get the buns, so he stared at his back, watching him stand at the gate of the courtyard and watch the military vehicle go away, and then he and Dean Liu turned around and walked slowly to the faculty building.

Shen Qianqian was delighted and was about to leave the cafeteria to follow, but suddenly heard a sharp cry.

“I want to go to Yunding, brother, I want to go to Yunding…”

He turned his head and saw Wang Zhusheng rolling on the ground again, and his brother yelled beside him anxiously: “What can I do?”

Shen Qianqian laughed out loud with gloating, but unexpectedly, Wang Zhusheng’s brother suddenly looked over. Shen Qianqian was startled before he could hide his expression, but Wang Zhusheng’s brother only looked at him with an annoyed look and then looked away.

Shen Qianqian hurriedly left the cafeteria and went to the faculty building. He knew that the administrators were all on the first floor, so he searched room by room. Just as he walked to the door of the last room, he heard the voice of Dean Liu from the half-open door.

“…It’s too strange, I have to find out what’s going on…”

Shen Qianqian poked his head to look, and the conversation immediately disappeared. Dean Liu, who was sitting facing the door, read out his name: “Shen Qianqian.”
“Yes.” Shen Qianqian answered as he walked into the room and saw Manager Chen sitting on a chair beside the room.
Dean Liu asked: “What are you doing here?”

Shen Qianqian remembered that Manager Chen had told him not to tell anyone, so he looked at Dean Liu, then at Manager Chen, and kept his mouth shut.

Manager Chen explained, “This kid is a big eater. He usually eats three bean cakes. Today, each person is given two buns. I’m worried that he won’t have enough, so I asked him to come to me after the meal. If there are any leftover buns in the cafeteria, I’ll give him one.”

Dean Liu said, “No need to go to the cafeteria. There’s a bowl in my office. We haven’t had breakfast anyway. Go get it and we’ll eat together.”
“Okay.”

The Dean’s office is also on this floor. Manager Chen quickly went to get the plate of buns and put it on the coffee table.
There were about ten buns in the bowl. Dean Liu and Manager Chen each picked up one, and said to Shen Qianqian, “Come on, take it.”

Shen Qianqian walked forward, picked up one, opened his shoulder bag with his other hand, took out the bag that still contained two buns, and put this bun in it.

“Hey, this kid, didn’t he say he didn’t have enough to eat?” Manager Chen asked.
Shen Qianqian nodded: “Yes, I can’t eat enough.”
“Then why are they in the bag still?”

Shen Qianqian kept his mouth shut as he usually did when he encountered a question he couldn’t answer, staring at him with his big eyes.

“I suspect you haven’t finished the food you usually ordered, so you’re going to eat here today. I want to see how much you’re going to eat.” Manager Chen said with a sullen face.

Shen Qianqian opened his mouth: “Am I going to eat here?”

“Yes, eat now.”

“Oh.”

Shen Qianqian reached out and took another one from the plate, brought it to his mouth and took a big bite.

Manager Chen hissed, “You’re still taking from  plate? Tell me, when are you going to eat these dumplings in the bag?”

Shen Qianqian didn’t listen to him, and said to the two of them in surprise, “This dumpling is stuffed with pickles!”

“Hey, that’s right–“

“There’s meat! I ate meat! Is there meat in this dumpling? It seems to be full of meat…” Shen Qianqian didn’t care what Manager Chen was saying at all, and just chewed quickly with big mouthfuls.

Manager Chen was about to say something, but Dean Liu raised his hand to stop him, “Let him eat.” Then he said to Shen Qianqian, “Sit down and eat slowly. Come, have some soup.”

Shen Qianqian continued to wolf down his food, smiling at Dean Liu while eating.
Dean Liu also smiled at him: “Slow down, slow down…” Then he asked: “This bag for buns is very beautiful, where did it come from?”

Manager Chen was stunned, and then he found that on the part of the bag exposed by Shen Qianqian, there was a clear word “sterile” printed on it, and the small words below it vaguely showed the medical device number.

This sterile bag did not show any signs of being used, so it was not picked up from somewhere, and it was an item that only the hospital had.