Chapter 3 third chapter

"Little Ritsu's mother is a thief." Whispering rumors spread from around Ritsuko's house.At that time we had entered the fifth grade of elementary school. We're used to most of the whispers, and our "secrets" are shared as a matter of course, like unwritten laws.After all, there is only one class in a grade.Who's parents divorced, who kissed who in class, these things seemed to be talked about in the end, and they were all discussed by everyone. Shuri called me to the balcony, and when I heard her say the word "thief", I froze. I was thinking of the thief in the cartoon "Miss Salamander" with a cloth wrapped around his head and a swirl-shaped bag on his back.Otherwise, it is the handsome group in black that ganged up to rob banks in the movie my father and I saw on TV. "Thief" is so foreign to me that I can only imagine it.I thought she was joking.

"Thief?" Shuli nodded solemnly. "You really don't know. There is a lot of rumors around their house, but Yumiko lives far away from Xiaoman's house, so I think maybe you don't know. Everyone said you should know better." It seems to be around the tree, which is a well-known fact. The area where our primary school is located is neither urban nor rural, and the agricultural land and residential areas are clearly divided.The area where the house faces away from the rice fields seems to have been subdivided from a less extensive residential area.Many houses have no walls or gates, and the boundaries of courtyards are also blurred. The boundaries between houses can be said to be based on tacit understanding.

"I heard that Ritsu's mother would go into nearby houses to steal things. Like our class, Miki and Shota's house was stolen." "When you say stealing things, do you mean stealing money?" "Nonsense. The two thousand yen that Meigui put in the drawer under the TV cabinet was stolen." Two thousand yen is a lot of money for us.I have been to both Meigui's house and Shota's house, and I know the layout of their houses, and I also know what the drawers under the TV cabinet look like.I imagined the picture of Ritsuko's mother standing in the living room of their house, and I immediately thought it was very weird.

"I heard that the adults have been passing it on since last year. It seems that Maya was told by her mother that it's okay to play with Ritsu, but don't let her come to the house. She said it's best not to let her stay in the room alone." "It's not Xiaoli who stole things, it's her mother who stole it?" "What if she went to someone else's house for a pre-investigation?" The strange feeling just now came to my heart again. survey. I know that's just Juri's unilateral conjecture, but I still imagine the scene where Ritsuko, who always plays together, steals open the drawers and cabinets in my house while I'm not around.Her expressionless face appeared in vivid imagination, and it puzzled me.

There was a mention in the tree about the theft. Ritsuko's mother would sneak into the neighbor's house and steal.People in this area don't lock the entrance door when they go out, let alone farmers.Most people have farmland or rice fields near their homes, so they go out to do farm work with a mentality of going out and coming back.It is said that Ritsuko's mother took this opportunity to sneak into other people's homes. She stole cash and passbooks.The number of stolen cash is as high as tens of thousands, but most of them seem to be several thousand won.Unlike ordinary thieves who rummaged through boxes and cabinets, she only attacked cabinets or file boxes within the target range.As far as the tree heard, even if the passbook was stolen, it seemed that it was not stolen.

"How do you know that Xiaoli's mother stole it?" "I was caught on the spot. And not just once." Shuli replied. "When she was stealing, that family came back. The uncle next door to Xiaoli's house told her angrily several times not to come again, but she still remained the same." "Hey!" I couldn't help shouting.Juri seemed inspired by my surprised reaction, "So is Mitaka's family," she continued. "I heard that after Meigui's mother caught someone, she gave the two thousand yuan to Xiaolu's mother and told her not to come again. Xiaolu's mother would repent when she was caught, but she was not caught. Sometimes she refuses to admit it. Even if she was seen by neighbors when she walked out of the house, she would say that she was not an active criminal. She refused to admit it, which made everyone troubled. But I heard that after interrogating her, sometimes the passbook will be sent back .”

Pretending to be an adult, he used the term "current offender", but because of the unfamiliarity, he seemed naive.I felt a reflexive revulsion. Inside the thin door panel of the narrow balcony, Ritsuko should be preparing a nutritious lunch right now.We are in the same group.I don't know what expression to use when I go back to my seat to have lunch with her. I stare into the tree.Knowing these rumors, what kind of mood did the parents of classmates in the neighborhood face Ritsuko and her family?During the sports meeting in May, I saw them sitting on the adjacent floor mat, chatting and laughing with Ritsuko's family nonchalantly.

"Did you call the police?" "No one called the police. It's because they are all neighbors. Wouldn't it be too pitiful if things got bigger?" Shuli raised his head and chest, shook his head on the spot and said. "It's all neighbors", I think this kind of tone should be learned from adults. "I heard that Xiaoli's mother has always been like that." Shuli said in a low voice. "In the previous school, it was also because Xiaoli's mother stole other people's things. The incident spread, and it seemed that they were reported to the police. As a result, they could only stay for about a year, and they had to move every year. Last year's ball game, Xiaoli was not Didn't come?"

"Huh? Yes." I was startled for a while, and nodded. "Probably because she doesn't want to meet classmates from her previous school. She seems to have changed a lot of schools." "...I don't know if Yumiko knows about this." When I mention Yumiko's name, it's like yearning for clean air.What Juri said, and the imaginary Ritsuko's mother, made me almost suffocate. "I don't know, but we're going to find someone to tell her too." "Can you join me then?" "Yes you can." I want to talk to Yumiko.I think I can use my own words well, instead of using what I heard from adults. The person I'm discussing is Yumiko alone.

Everyone likes Yumiko, so it may be that they want to pick on Ritsuko.Maybe they wanted to pull Ritsuko away from Yumiko.Jealousy finally found an outlet and turned into a sharp spike attacking Ritsuko——such an image could not help but emerge in his mind. What's it like to sneak into someone's house?Last year, the Sasayama family near my home remodeled their second-generation house. My mother said, "Please let us visit it for reference," and took me to see it together.After seeing the living room, the bathroom and the kitchen, we were taken to the study room of the boy who was studying in junior high school. The aunt apologized and said, "Little friend, let's take a look." Then she introduced in a polite voice to outsiders: " This kind of cabinet is very convenient." The boy spread out the book on the table in embarrassment without looking up.Auntie said that nearby residents often come to visit, and the rooms are spotlessly cleaned and tidy. "It's great." My mother nodded and said, I tried not to look at the boy beside me, I just wanted to go home quickly.

"By the way, I heard that Xiaolu's father works in Fengyue Hotel, and is responsible for making beds for people." Shuli said again as if he was chasing after the victory, but I could only respond: "That's it." Back in the classroom, Ritsuko was reading a book in her seat.She lowered her head expressionlessly, staring at the open pages.My heart skipped a beat.She didn't even look at me in the seat in front of her, she lowered her head and muttered something in her mouth occasionally, as if she was reading from a book. I couldn't help looking away, thinking that things had been exposed.Ritsuko usually doesn't read any books at this time before lunch, let alone muttering to herself like this. I remained silent, and went to the grocery store to line up to receive my nutritious lunch.The line is almost over, and the only ones who haven't gone to pick up the meal are me and Shuli. Ritsuko had also changed schools before. Every time rumors spread, she changed schools.Then in our school, rumors have spread more and more widely.Is Ritsuko leaving here soon?Can't we graduate together?We clearly agreed with Ritsuko to borrow her mother's electric soldering iron to make a graduation project together. I thought of Ritsuko's mother's face again.Casually perfunctory, falsely claiming that the baby is not the adult of his own child.It will be exposed sooner or later, so what's the point of hiding it from us all of a sudden?I also don't know what I can do with the two thousand won I stole from Meigui's house.Is she that short of money? Almost like a child. I thought of the muddy paddy field in front of Ritsuko's house.The muddy mud that was stirred up was filled with countless lobsters.I thought of the earthy smell of their clips and hard shells, and even seemed to hear the croaking of frogs, and couldn't help but "wow".I can barely eat lunch.

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