CH 2

Jiang Wang suddenly found it difficult to reason with his seven-year-old self.

“I’m not going to sell you.” He said slowly, “Actually… I am a relative of your mother. She told me to come here and take care of you. According to seniority, I am your cousin.”

“You are safe now.”

Peng Xingwang hadn’t seen his mother for several years. At this moment, his eyes started to fill with tears from the pain, he raised his head to look at him.

“Really?”

Jiang Wang breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he had finally found a decent reason to explain himself in the future. His tone finally turned gentle as he talked to Peng Xingwang

“Well, actually, don’t I look a lot like her? Take a closer look.”

Peng Xingwang thought for a few seconds.

“Can you give her a call?”

Jiang Wang was expressionless, “I don’t have a mobile phone.”

“There is a landline at the front desk of the hostel.”

“Go to sleep.”

Peng Xingwang looked disappointed, he almost made an ‘I know you’re really lying to me’ expression on his face but held back. Instead, he inhaled deeply, crawled back to the bed and wrapped himself into a ball. After a while, his breathing evened out as he fell asleep.

Jiang Wang sat alone by the bed, holding the remaining half-roll of gauze.

He never thought that things would get to this point.

Inexplicably, he took away the juvenile version of himself, and now, it was absolutely impossible to return the child. He could only bite the bullet now and continue to raise him.

Him, who had zero experience in love so far, and would even get annoyed when hearing a child’s cry. He originally planned to stay single until he became old. Then before leaving this world, find a place to dig a hole and lie down. This kind of life would also save him a lot of money.

He looked at Peng Xingwang a little annoyed.

At dawn the next morning, Peng Xingwang slid out of the bed with his bare feet. He glanced at the bulging quilt on the next bed, and then ran out quickly.

But in just three steps he hit an iron-like eight-pack abs.

“Hiss–”

Jiang Wang looked down at the child with a bag of soy milk fritters in his hand, his shadow looming over the other.

Peng Xingwang turned his head and ran, he jumped back into the quilt and forced himself to sleep pretending that nothing happened.

“Get up.” The man said coldly, “After eating, take a shower and go to school.”

The child thought he had heard it wrong, “…Go to school?”

Jiang Wang had already bought a cheap T-shirt and put it on, he turned to collect the shirt and jacket that had already dried on the balcony, “What time does school usually end? I will pick you up later.”

The child was quiet for a while, his voice had become much softer when he spoke.

“No one has ever picked me up from school.”

Peng Xingwang was seven years old this year. According to the usual customs of early admission in City A, he should already be in second grade.

But he had never even been to kindergarten. His father has been soaked in alcohol and vomit all day since he was born. His mother fled the country in a hurry within two years after giving birth to him. He only lived to this day, depending on the neighbors’ hundreds of meals.

After children were born alive and kicking, some were left behind with nowhere to go. Some children would end up picking up garbage on the street, and others would tease stray cats and dogs all day long. Thanks to the strict implementation of making progress in urban civilization this year, the children could now be taken to primary school by the aunts of the neighborhood committee. There, they would undergo nine years of compulsory education.

But after all, they were not biological children of the family, so the neighbors could only care about them intermittently. If they got too close, let alone wasting money, the other family members would also have something to say.

How else could the children choose, they could only make do with it.

Jiang Wang went silent for a few seconds, he folded his old coat neatly and held it in his arms with one hand. He then led Peng Xingwang out.

Hongshan Elementary School opened its doors at seven o’clock in the morning. The school uniforms were brown and yellow all over with black stripes. From a distance, they looked like a group of puppies and bees lining up to enter the door.

The tall man took the little boy and stood for a long time next to the bus sign diagonally opposite the school entrance.

Jiang Wang suddenly remembered that Peng Xingwang didn’t have a school uniform.

To be precise, he didn’t get clean clothes until he was about to graduate. He had only worn rags like a beggar before.

Peng Xingwang didn’t understand what this brother was thinking, so he tilted his head and said, “Should we not go over?”

Jiang Wang frowned, he turned around and said, “Let’s go.”

He had to get some money first to buy him a school uniform.

The adult and child walked aimlessly along the street, then turned to go into a sports lottery shop after a while.

The old TV still had a black and white screen, and the signal of the football program was not so good. From time to time, the TV would flash static, making the old man hit it several times.

This kind of place was mostly reserved for retirees to play cards and chat. Few businesses opened early in the morning, but there were already many people sitting inside.

The old man guarding the counter saw the young man holding a child, with an unfriendly expression he said, “Is there something wrong?”

Jiang Wang stared at the TV and said after a while, “World Cup?”

“You have to buy lottery tickets to watch the game,” the old man said unceremoniously. “There is no seat left, you can only stand.”

Peng Xingwang looked out onto the street timidly, not knowing whether he should run or not at this moment.

Jiang Wang didn’t like to watch football.

His interests were ridiculously few, and he had lived autistically all these years.

In his first few years of working, the rental house he stayed in had a projection screen in the living room. One roommate would watch football there when he was free on weekends. He would even dig out games of the previous few years and smack them on to watch over and over again.

Jiang Wang would occasionally be handed drinks by the other party. The cheerful roommate would still drink even if he was half asleep next to him.

Occasionally, when a certain team scored, loud noises would erupt in the living room that could even be heard upstairs. Jiang Wang would sip his wine and watch the screen for a while with bleary eyes, and then fall asleep on the sofa.

The old man made up his mind to drive these children away, but he didn’t expect these young people would take out a stack of bills.

Looking at the hundreds of bills, it felt like they broke in here just to lose money.

Jiang Wang counted an amount of 108 then handed the money to the man at the counter.

“Poland vs. Ecuador, 0-2.”

The old man glanced at him suspiciously, then checked all the 50 and 20 bills with the money detector, slowly moving to register a ticket.

Next to him, a middle-aged man who was hiding from his wife to watch the ball laughed.

“You bought Ecuador?”

“Last year, Poland won 3-0 in a friendly match against them. Young man, don’t play if you simply want to bet on the unpopular.”

“Zhuravsky’s attack on the thief is f*cking awesome,” the person next to him smiled and dusted his cigarette. “Listen to me, Poland is not at a loss when it is full.”

Peng Xingwang found a small stool and sat down, after a while he fell asleep on the table.

Two hours later, the man put the brand-new 500 yuan in his pocket, bent over and flicked the child on the head.

“Ouch!” Peng Xingwang stretched out his hand to protect his head, “It hurts!”

“Do you drink soda?” Jiang Wang looked like he was asking a question, but he had already opened the freezer with his hand, “Which one?”

Peng Xingwang was very alert, “I don’t drink it.”

Jiang Wang still did what he wanted and took two bottles of Arctic Ocean Soda.

The boss opened the bottle for them, while he was idle and had nothing to do he inquired about some news.

“Is this kid your son?”

“How is that possible?” The corner of Jiang Wang’s mouth twitched, “I couldn’t have given birth to such a fool.”

At noon, the two returned to school and went to the Academic Affairs Office to buy a set of school uniforms, white shoes, red scarves, and small yellow hats.

When paying, a classmate recognized Peng Xingwang and looked at him. He then raised his neck curiously to look at Jiang Wang.

“Classmate Wang, who is he?”

Peng Xingwang shouted crisply and brightly.

“My Big Brother!”

The air pressure around Jiang Wang inexplicably lowered.

The teacher had been bothered about the child’s family not paying any money for a while now. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that someone was finally willing to take care of it. He took out the well-fitted clothes and handed it over.

The child hugged his clothes with bright eyes, and rushed to the bathroom to change. After changing, he rushed out and pulled at Jiang Wang’s clothes, laughing stupidly.

“Does it look good?!”

Jiang Wang thought to himself how the color matching a mud dog could look better, but still, he nodded reluctantly with his eyes squinted.

Peng Xingwang’s smile became brighter, he could finally blend into the other mud dog-colored primary school students, “Am I going to class?!”

As soon as Jiang Wang raised his head, his gaze suddenly stopped.

A familiar figure was on the other side of the corridor.

The man was thin, and a piece of white jade dangled on his right wrist, his eyebrows were as beautiful as a summer night’s moon.

The flow of time seemed to slow down as Jiang Wang took a step forward. He felt like a student who had finally returned to school to visit his teacher after 20 years.

The man saw Peng Xingwang wearing a new school uniform. He smiled and touched the child’s head to praise him for his good looks, then held his hand and led him to class.

Jiang Wang stood stunned as he observed the man on the other side at a distance, he watched as his shadow faded down the steps like a tide. He stared for a long time, before glancing down at the old coat he had been holding in his arms.

He doesn’t even remember his name.