IPT 44.2

After a long while, Chu Ya hummed: “Just remember, don’t let me starve to death.”
“No, I won’t. If they chose me, I will roll on the ground–“
Chu Ya was a little anxious: “We can’t let them choose, you have to hide.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll hide.” Shen Qianqian gave him a look that said there was nothing he could do to him.

Chu Ya had seen two children from the welfare home who were chosen. Although he didn’t know the reason, it was not a good thing after all. He felt there were two possibilities, one was that the welfare home was unaware, and the other was that Yunding was in cahoots with the welfare home. He didn’t know the position of the welfare home at all, so he couldn’t rashly remind or stop it. He could only temporarily let Shen Qianqian avoid being chosen.

Under the heavy rain, this wilderness was full of puddles, and the sparse weeds were drenched by the heavy rain and stuck to the ground, covered with a layer of dirty black mud. Shen Qianqian was in high spirits. Every time his wheelchair ran over a small pit, he would exclaim exaggeratedly, and then laugh excitedly.

Chu Ya was also in a playful mood and deliberately walked on those potholes, making Shen Qianqian scream non-stop.

The two walked and played back to the small courtyard of Mixin Town. Chu Ya took off their raincoats and hung them in the bathroom. As soon as he turned back to the house, he saw a pile of buns on the table and was a little surprised.

“One two three, one two three, one two three.” Shen Qianqian lay in front of the table and stretched out his fingers to count them one by one.
Chu Ya asked: “How did you get so many buns today?”
“Yes, the management gave them to mw.” Shen Qianqian said happily.
“So many for you?”
“Yes, there were a lot of buns left on the plate, so they gave them all away.” Shen Qianqian was already pushing his wheelchair anxiously: “Come and eat, come and eat, there are pickles and meat in it!”

Chu Ya was a little confused at first, but when he heard that it was the leftover buns, he didn’t think too much. The welfare home probably wanted to avoid waste, so they distributed the leftover buns to the children.

He didn’t ask any more questions, but patted Shen Qianqian’s hand holding the buns: “Go wash your hands.”
“My hands are very clean.” Shen Qianqian touched the back of his hand.
“You should wash your hands before eating, have you forgotten?” Chu Ya took the plate of buns away: “The buns are cold. Wait until I heat them up before eating.”

When Shen Qianqian came back from washing his hands, Chu Ya broke open a hot bun, handed him half, and put the remaining half on the plate, asking him to eat the one on his hand before taking it.

“I’ve already eaten one.” Shen Qianqian licked his lips and said.

The buns in the welfare home were big and simple. Chu Ya could only eat one of these buns when he was six or seven years old. But he knew Shen Qianqian’s appetite very well: “Eat more, you’re not full.”

Qianqian hen  glanced at the buns: “Okay, I’ll force myself to eat more.”

He said that he had already eaten one, but he was still wolfing it down, stuffing it into his mouth one bite after another.

“Slow down, eat slowly. You might get choked… You need to swallow this bite before you can bite again… Slow down…”

Shen Qianqian nodded while eating, but suddenly stopped chewing and looked straight ahead. Then he stood up and walked around the room, his face flushed, and turned to look at Chu Ya in panic.

Chu Ya reacted immediately and put the chopsticks on the table: “Come here!”

When Shen Qianqian stood up, Chu Ya squeezed his chest and abdomen vigorously, and when he finally recovered, he brought the cup of water on the table for him to drink.

Shen Qianqian held the water cup and gulped down the water, panting and looking at Chu Ya guiltily with tears still on his face from the coughing.

Chu Ya wanted to say something to him, but seeing him staring at him with tears in his eyes, he finally softened his heart and took the remaining half of the bun, broke off some small pieces, and fed him little by little with chopsticks.

Shen Qianqian ate a few small pieces of buns, and then grumbled unsatisfactorily: “Bunnies should be eaten in big mouthfuls. Eating like this doesn’t feel like buns, and the flavor doesn’t taste good.”

“You have to choke while eating buns, and it’s so satisfying, right? Open your mouth!”

Shen Qianqian didn’t dare to say anything else. He opened his mouth aggrievedly and swallowed the bun in small bites.

In the afternoon, Chu Ya started to make a cotton-padded jacket for Shen Qianqian. Although Shen Qianqian’s cotton-padded jacket had been modified by him to be very thick. They were about to enter the middle of winter, so it would be better to wear a small jacket inside the cotton-padded jacket to keep warm.

Of the two quilts he had carried before, one had been undone and the other had been stripped of cotton, so he was going to get another one from the Supermarket.

Seeing Chu Ya was about to go out, Qianqian then  hurried to get his raincoat. Chu Ya saw that the rain was too heavy, so he quickly stopped him and told him to stay at home.

“How long will it take you to come back?”
“Very soon.”
“How long is very soon?”
“At most ten minutes.”
“What if you don’t come back in ten minutes? Then I’ll come to find you.”
“Okay.”

Shen Qianqian reluctantly stayed, watching Chu Ya disappear into the passageway connecting to the front yard, and then rode his bicycle under the eaves, turning back and forth.

“Child, life is like this. Instead of being unhappy, it’s better to sing with grandpa and bask in the sun… Grandpa’s bicycle beep, da da da, beep da da…”

After singing a verse, he turned his head and headed back to the passageway, pedaled the bicycle again, and sang another verse.

“It’s been ten minutes, right? Has it been ten minutes?” After going back and forth a few times, he said to himself, “It must have been ten minutes. Okay, let’s go find him then.”

Shen Qianqian quickly ran to the bathroom to get his raincoat, but after running two steps, a large black mass of something suddenly appeared in his field of vision.

The thing was on the courtyard wall in front of the left. He doesn’t know if it was because of the heavy mist or something else, it was blurry. But there was a large piece in the middle, like a large table on the courtyard wall, with an oval tabletop and four supporting legs.

This thing just appeared out of thin air, and Shen Qianqian was startled. He didn’t remember there was a large table on the courtyard wall, so he rubbed his eyes and wanted to be more specific.

But the large table suddenly began to flicker, like a TV screen with unstable signal, and soon disappeared on the courtyard wall.

Shen Qianqian stood there in a daze, his mouth opened, and he looked around blankly. He didn’t know what he was thinking about, and his expression immediately became nervous.

The black wolf had been standing on the wall for a while. When Shen Qianqian was walking under the eaves, it also walked back and forth on the wall, with its eyes fixed on the child.

It observed the human child, judging whether he would pose a threat to Chu Ya. When it glanced at the thin neck, it felt that it should be impossible. But it thought that Chu Ya had fought with it for the first time because of him, and a bit of resentment and anger was revealed in its eyes.

It wanted to pounce on him, tear the child in half easily with its sharp claws, and then bite off the fragile neck in one bite. But it also knew the consequences of doing so, which was definitely not what it wanted, so it suppressed the thought and withdrew its gaze with a struggling face.

It hesitated, followed the child and hurried to the bathroom, and saw him suddenly stop halfway and stare blankly in this direction.

The black wolf felt that it was meeting his gaze at this moment, and it was stunned. It realized that he could see it, narrowed its eyes and leaned down, posing a posture ready to attack at any time.

But the child quickly retracted his gaze and looked around aimlessly. Obviously, meeting the gaze was just an illusion.

Shen Qianqian watched the black thing that looked like a table disappear. Suddenly, a bedtime story circulated in the welfare home came to his mind:
One night, a ghost suddenly appeared in the backyard of our welfare home. He hid under those tables, preparing to steal bean cakes from the cafeteria at night, and of course, eat the two children…

Is there a ghost here too, carrying a table and hiding on the wall of the courtyard? Is it hiding around here somewhere?