Chapter 2 first quarter
It was a good day to go to the orphanage, but Xiao Su unexpectedly developed a fever.Yang Chi and I stuffed a fever-reducing medicine into his mouth, put him in a taxi, and halfway through the car, it rained unexpectedly.I remember this day, a good day in 1997, we went all the way from the southern suburbs of Daicheng to the back of the mountain far in the northeast corner. There was a temple there, which has been a tourist attraction in Daicheng for many years, but as a Natives, we seldom set foot here, it's too wild and too far away.As the car left the city, crossed the flat road in the development zone, and entered the hilly area, the roadside scenery became sharper, tall buildings disappeared, houses gradually thinned out, and the dense trees seemed to explode.The driver drove faster and faster. Lao Yang sat in the passenger seat and kept turning his head to look at him.
We were looking for orphanages in no man's land, taxis ran in circles, and finally Yang Chi found the entrance road, it was very gloomy, the bamboos on both sides seemed to fall down, the road was full of stones, and the car ran over and made a noise La sound.I casually said, reading the newspaper yesterday, a taxi driver was killed nearby.
Our driver broke down, stopped the car, jumped out of the driver's seat, and ran down the road.We watched him go away, and Yang Chi said, "Give this car to us?" At this moment, the driver ran back, took a very long bamboo pole, stood in front of the car, and shouted like a dead fish: "Give me back the car, give me back the car, give me back the car, please."
Yang Chi got out of the car to comfort him: "We didn't hijack the car, nor were we kidnapped to throw the body here. We're going to the orphanage."
The driver held the bamboo pole and said: "I won't pull it anymore, you go, I don't want the fare."
Yang Chi said, "That's not okay. We have a patient here, and it's still a long way to go. Besides, it's raining again."
"I don't want to pull it anymore, I just don't want to pull it anymore." The driver said holding the bamboo pole.
His hair was stained with rainwater and stuck to his scalp, obviously bald.He's old and soft and wouldn't have been a match for the three of us lads even when he was young, but we really weren't here to kill him.
He confronted Yang Chi and talked.Lao Yang is a gold medal salesman of Daicheng Pesticide Factory. In 1997, he traveled to various counties in inland China, instructing farmers to use the Longyang brand methamidophos produced by the factory. Suspicious heart.But this driver, he was obviously overly frightened. He held the bamboo pole to prevent Lao Yang from approaching, and kept a distance of two meters. He believed in Lao Yang, believed that we were good people, and the purpose of our trip was to adopt an orphan in the orphanage, but he still said: I really don't want to be dragged anymore.
I said, "The newspaper said that the dead taxi driver was strangled to death by a wire from behind, and thrown by the river. It seems that he also robbed some money."
Yang Chi said through the car window, "Shut up."
Xiao Su propped up her weak body and said, "If you really don't want to drag it, let's go over there."
Xiao Su is a good person.He is the gentlest person I have ever met in my life, the most honest, and the most patient. He is the laboratory technician of Daicheng Pesticide Factory.Patience, gentleness, and honesty are the necessary qualities for a laboratory technician, otherwise he will screw up.I'm unemployed and I don't need any qualities unless someone wants to hire me.
So we got out of the car and walked along the gravel road.The driver threw down the bamboo pole, jumped into the car, stepped on the gas pedal and backed away, and quickly slipped away.Xiao Su said, "We didn't pay for the car."
That's pretty good. Thirty yuan.
The drizzle filled the air, and the bamboo branches on both sides seemed to be lower.I said: "This kind of bamboo is called Fengwei bamboo." I have a classmate in Ye University who is a gardener, and he likes to take me to recognize various plants when he has nothing to do.Lao Yang said: "What about the phoenix bamboo?" I said no, the phoenix bamboo is the phoenix bamboo, and its name represents itself.
Up a slope, the bamboo is gone, and there are garbage dumps piled up with waste bricks and rotten tiles on both sides.Yang Chi said that the orphanage is not far away, and he called to ask about it before, and he can walk there if he persists.Xiao Su said: "I'm fine, I just sweated in the car." Then I saw a very high wall, almost catching up with the prison.Needless to say, this is a welfare home.After walking along the wall for a while, I saw two large iron gates closed tightly.There was no one around, and in the cold rain, I heard birds calling in the enclosure.
Lao Yang stepped forward to knock on the door, the corner door opened, and a lazy old man's head stuck out from inside.Lao Yang said: "I made an appointment with the dean to adopt the orphan today."
"Which Dean?"
"Dean Yang Lizhen."
"She's the vice president." The old man said and moved away to let us in.
Welfare homes are not orphanages.At first, Lao Yang said that he would go to an orphanage to adopt a child. This was a promise he made when he was studying in Shanghai, but he returned to Daicheng after graduation. There is no orphanage here, only a welfare home.The elderly and mentally handicapped still live in the orphanage. Adoption is not adoption either.Lao Yang cannot adopt orphans, the law does not allow it.The law allows Lao Yang to give birth to and beat his own children, but he is not allowed to adopt orphans.He can only adopt, which is equivalent to the nature of mutual aid, post some money, and buy some food for the child.In 1997, this kind of news was often broadcast on TV, and some people made documentaries, and it soon became a popular trend. That morning, Dean Yang of the orphanage was sitting in the whitewashed office. She was a capable-looking middle-aged woman.Lao Yang prepared a handful of documents, but Dean Yang didn't look at them all, and directly took us out of the office building and walked in along a clean cement road.As usual, like all national units, we went around a circular flower bed, there were no flowers in it, only a circle of holly and grass, and the rain fell on it, shining and not so monotonous.Everywhere is peaceful. Dean Yang said: "You are all good young people." The teaching building is right in front of you, and it has also been renovated. It is divided into upper and lower floors.There are more buildings behind this house, but we stopped here. Only one classroom was open. Dean Yang led us to the door, greeted us, and a young teacher came out.Her surname is Lin, and Dean Yang introduced her.Teacher Lin said, "Oh, then come in and pick one." At that time, Lao Yang said: Don't say that, Mr. Lin, we are not here to buy vegetables in the small vegetable market.Teacher Lin nodded silently.I looked at her, she was petite and thin, with shoulder-length hair and pale face.There was a strange aloofness and resistance in her expression, as if she was not a teacher in an orphanage, but a shepherdess, and three rich men came to pick a fat sheep.I thought to myself, you misunderstood, Lao Yang prepared real money this time to be a good person. We walk into the classroom.Eight, eight, sixty-four children sat behind double desks, all the abandoned, school-age, state-raised orphans in the city in full view.They are of different heights, the older may be eleven or twelve years old, the youngest's head has just popped out of the desk, and it seems that they are not here to study, but there is a fixed seat that needs to be filled by them. Teacher Lin walked up to Lao Yang and said flatly, "Then, why don't you find one?" That's right, we have to "find" one, walk along three narrow aisles, from the podium to the last row, what is it if it's not picking vegetables?This was the first time we went into an orphanage and saw orphans. I had guessed two situations, one was like I read in Dickens novels, full of sad children, ragged, yellow and emaciated, and the other It's like what I saw in domestic movies, they are extremely happy, laughing and singing, praising the people's government, as if they don't know that there are parents in this world.Unfortunately, my guess was wrong, the scene was very dull, they were sitting, neither messy nor neat, their clothes were simple and well-fitting, they were of different heights, and there were some mild and detectable disabilities: open mouth, albinism , Alopecia areata.There are also some sick and disabled that I can't see, and I can't ask. Like three people who are not good at cooking, we walked into the drowsy vegetable market at noon, and we were dumbfounded for a while.Not a single child rushed forward and said to Lao Yang, "Father, take me home." They sat quietly, as if they had already predicted the ending, or this kind of scene had already been experienced thousands of times, so there was no need to be moved by it .I saw a deep mockery from the corner of Teacher Lin's mouth: You are such a caring person, take a boy with a gaping mouth out, or this girl like a sparrow shivering in winter? I almost said, are there any children who are a little better? At this moment, there was finally one thing that relieved our embarrassment, and dinner was served.Two canteen workers came in with a bucket of vegetable soup and a bucket of steamed buns, and each child was given a steamed bun and a bowl of vegetable soup.I took a look and there was no oil in the soup.The children struggled to chew on the steamed buns. Xiao Su said: "The food is terrible." Dean Yang said: "We need social support." Years later, Lao Yang and I recalled that day.I asked Lao Yang, do you remember what vegetable soup was like?Lao Yang said that he remembered that if the soup was left in the canteen of the pesticide factory, the cook would have been beaten to death.I asked Lao Yang, do you remember what Teacher Lin did at that time?Lao Yang said, I remember, a child dropped a steamed bun on the ground, he picked it up and ate it, Teacher Lin went over to stop him, and replaced him with a clean steamed bun, Teacher Lin is a good person.I asked Lao Yang again, do you remember that one-eyed boy?Lao Yang said he didn't remember. It's like this, I walked past the one-eyed boy and found him looking at me with a steamed bun in his hand.He was already very big, the biggest boy in the class, the steamed bun looked a little small in his hand.At that time, many children were looking at us, only his gaze was deeply noticed by me.I responded to him and saw a black pupil and a white pupil. He didn't look at me with the black one, but the black and white ones.I felt a little sorry, Lao Yang would not pick a ten-year-old boy to adopt, it is not suitable for you to follow us, you will grow up soon, become a man, more difficult to mess with than us.I found out later that he wasn't asking for help, he was looking at me with hatred. No matter how we look at us, we don't adopt a boy with black and white pupils, take him to the zoo on Sundays, or buy him sneakers.God, why did I accompany Lao Yang to this place? Dean Yang took us to the last row. She seemed to conjure a girl out of thin air. She was not as tall as a desk, and her face was full of chapped faces. In this season, she could tell she was crying.She sat on the stool with her legs dangling in the air, and looked at Dean Yang blankly.This one doesn't look so ruthless, not so difficult to get.I kicked Yang Chi to tell him to make up his mind quickly.He's really about to turn himself into a picker. Lao Yang nodded.The three of us breathed a sigh of relief at the same time. The whole process was like a difficult tug-of-war. After a long and embarrassing tug-of-war, the victory suddenly fell to one side.We picked the right orphan, and the atmosphere suddenly became lively. Lao Yang knelt down and said to the child, "What's your name?" Dean Yang said, "Her name is Dai Dai." At this moment, Teacher Lin interjected, "Dai Dai can't." Dean Yang waved his hand to signal Teacher Lin not to speak. This detail was remembered by me, but I didn't understand what she meant at the time.I looked at my watch, it was exactly twelve noon, and the rain outside didn't stop. Teacher Lin squatted down, touched the child's face, and said to Lao Yang who was also squatting down: "Dai Dai is four years old this year, and she has no disabilities." Afterwards, we sat in the management office of the orphanage, and Lao Yang paid the money. At this time, he had to show his identification.Teacher Lin said: "You are from the pesticide factory, no wonder." Lao Yang asked, what is the necessity of the pesticide factory.Teacher Lin said that the pesticide factory had good benefits. In 1997, there were laid-off workers everywhere, and the society was not in a good mood. However, the pesticide factory has no worries of closing down for the time being. It is said that it has been successfully transformed, and the factory director has become a major shareholder, which is enviable. "I think orphanages are the ones that will never close down," Lao Yang said. Lao Yang paid the adoption subsidy for one year, totaling 1,200 yuan.Dean Yang left, and Teacher Lin accompanied us.I turned to a wall, looked at the management list posted on the wall, and read a string of interesting names: Dai Zong, Dai Li, Dai Yunong, Davis... I asked Teacher Lin what it meant.She said: "These are lonely old people who have been abandoned. They are all insane and can't remember their own names. We will name them." I said, "The orphans in Daicheng are also surnamed Dai. I thought they were all surnamed Dang. The orphan's surname is Dang, right?" Teacher Lin said: "Orphans are also surnamed Dai, but the name sounds better than this." "What will it be called?" "Over there, Dai Dai is in this row." Teacher Lin pointed to the side and said, "Dai Jianhua, Dai Cheng, Diana. We will still think carefully about naming our children, after all, they will last a lifetime." "Where's Dai Zong?" I said, "Shenxing Taibao." "I've said it before. They are old people who have lost their memory. I'm afraid they won't leave here. We just want to remember it better." Teacher Lin said a little impatiently, "We can't number people like a prison, right? " It's ridiculous, but it makes sense.This was the only interesting thing I saw that day. Later, I found that there was a person whose gender column said "intersex person". These three words appeared on the wall majestically. He was sixteen years old. I don't even want to talk about it.
The name Dai Dai sounds nice, with repeated sounds, and pleasant to the ear, but it feels like a prank if you pronounce it too much.Just like Fengweizhu is called Fengweizhu, she has the name Dai Dai.Teacher Lin said that the orphans will use these names for a lifetime. Later, she said that it is not necessarily true. If they are adopted, they can have another name. The surname Dai (and the associated name) will also It is void.From this perspective, the names of orphans are both sacred and like a game. Some expect to change their names, some never change them, and some change their names but are returned to the orphanage and have to use the name given by the hospital. "What if abandoned orphans have a note or something with their name on them?" "That has to be changed." Teacher Lin said, "At least it's like this here." "Does Dai Dai have a real name?" "She has nothing, not a note." When we left the orphanage, it was still raining. When we looked up, we saw Tiger Mountain in the distance. A crooked tower stood on the top of the mountain. Through the misty rain, it shrank into a silhouette, like a reflection in the water.According to experts' measurements, its inclination exceeds that of the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. In time, it will fall down from the hill headlong. Teacher Lin sent us to the door, and she kept walking behind us. "Where is the bus stop?" Lao Yang asked. "Didn't you come here by bus?" she asked. "I came here by taxi." Lao Yang said, "There are too few taxis in this area, so I guess I have to take a bus back." Teacher Lin pointed to a direction and continued along the small road. There will be a main road passing through this area. The road makes a bend around the mountain here, and the small road cuts across like a bowstring.Turn at the main road, cross the railway bridge, there is a bus stop there, and there is a bus that will take us back to the city. We walked out, and the door of the orphanage slammed shut behind us.There isn't even a recognizable sign in this place. The road is easy to walk, paved with a thick layer of gravel, not very slippery.At this time, the wind started to blow, and the raindrops were sparse and full of strength, as if they were thrown on my face by a pair of invisible hands.It's the season of cooling, and there's a cold snap that's making its way south from Siberia.We all wrapped up our clothes tightly. "Come by bicycle next time." Xiao Su said. That would be too far away, and winter was about to enter.It's perfectly reasonable for you to take your own child and ride your bike on a winter street blowing the wind, but it's just too damn mean to be with an orphan. Xiao Su was speechless.When passing under the railway bridge, a freight train was rumbling overhead.We stood in the bridge hole sheltered from the wind and lit our cigarettes, waiting for the train to leave. It is said that the taxi driver died in the bridge hole.In our city, there have been murders and robbery before, but it seems to be the first time to kill a taxi driver, and people say the situation is very tragic: the driver was strangled to death by the assailant with a steel wire around his neck from behind. Lao Yang said that strangling to death is actually nothing serious.Lao Yang has been to many counties in the south, north, and west. None of them are fuel-efficient lamps. They are both fun and scary.Now he casually told a story about killing a pesticide salesman with a gunpowder gun.Xiao Su couldn't take it anymore and said, "Don't talk about this in front of children from now on." Lao Yang said: "I'm crazy, should I adopt a child and tell her this kind of story?" Xiao Su said, "Even if you have a child of your own, don't talk about it." At the corner that Teacher Lin mentioned, I saw a crooked stop sign.There was a bus rushing forward in the rain.We tossed our cigarette butts and ran, trying to catch up to it, yelling and waving.I'm sure the driver must have seen it in the mirror, but the jerk didn't intend to pick us up, and at one point he didn't even accelerate, leaving us in a situation where we could catch up but couldn't.Then it ran away with a bang. I looked back and saw that I was about 100 meters away from the platform, and there was a lot of mud on the bottom of my trousers. You said why wasn't the bus driver strangled to death?
When I was on the station, I remembered Dai Dai's appearance, and Teacher Lin's words: she has nothing, and there is no note.As if the mere existence of the note would change nothing, and its absence would be insignificant.Teacher Lin is quite cool, speaking in a cold and wary tone, as if we are monsters.It's kind of weird for us three guys to adopt orphans, isn't it? In February, Yang Chi and I did a weird thing. We went out to drink at night, and when we got drunk, we met a little girl selling roses on the street.She followed us and asked Lao Yang to buy a flower for me.I'm so proud, Lao Yang was furious.According to the usual method, playing fierce can scare her away, but Lao Yang can't do this kind of thing. He has never been violent to a girl on any occasion in his life, even if he is a flower seller.So he turned his head and chatted with her very inappropriately, and the girl said: Today is Valentine's Day.The two of us looked at each other, and finally I couldn't help asking her: "Do you think we are like lovers?" She actually nodded at me.Lao Yang said: "So, I want to buy flowers for him, right?" She nodded again. Now it's my turn to be angry.I said: "If you don't buy flowers, I will buy you home." Are all the children begging and selling flowers on the street waiting for this day?Anyway, she was chasing me with flowers in her arms, and I ran away.Lao Yang didn't want to run away, she just followed Lao Yang, because we live in the same building, if you find Lao Yang, you can find me.I ran to the bridge, hugged the railing and vomited for a while. I looked up and saw these two idiots standing five meters away and looking at me. One was tall and the other was short. One was holding an umbrella in his hand and the other was holding a flower in his arms. I said to Lao Yang, leave her behind and run.Yang Chi quit.I said that this kind of children are always brought by adults, and they are richer than us. This is fucking China, not a Dickens novel.The child shook his head and said, I will also sleep in the bridge hole when I go back tonight, which is not as comfortable as you think.I said, take me to the bridge hole, and I will beat your master out of shit.She said, I will go home with you, you promised. I'm a little more sober.It was very cold that night, snowdrops fell from the sky, and the hair seemed to be freezing.I gave the child five yuan, no need to spend, and told her to go back, but she said that she didn't know the way back when it was dark.She actually followed us into the intricate buildings in the new village.I feel like I've been fooled, why didn't an adult rush over to take her away?I led her in without thinking, and then she seemed a little restrained, standing in the kitchen and looking at my house.There is no doubt that the place is very dilapidated. The gas stove has been used for more than ten years, and it still has some gas leaks, which cannot be repaired all year round.The fluorescent lights crackled and flickered. This was because it was cold and not usually like this.Lao Yang said: "Would you like some water? Have a meal?" Then he opened the pot of our house, making him seem like the master.At this time, my mother came out wearing cotton wool trousers. Seeing this scene, she couldn't help being a little confused: "Where did the child come from?" "We picked it up on the street." "You picked up a child?" My mother rushed over to look, and couldn't help yelling, "Damn, I really picked up a flower seller. Tell me, how much did you drink? You're stupid, right?" In the long ten years before that, Lao Yang and I have done many outrageous things. In my mother's opinion, this time is the most unreasonable.Because Lao Yang and I look poor and ruthless, and we don't seem to be such caring people at all—even if we are caring, you can't pick a living person home.Lao Yang was also dumbfounded. He squatted on the ground thinking for a long time and said, "Why don't we send her to the police station." The child ran away after hearing this.She is more awake than any of us. We searched for people in the freezing night. We searched everywhere in corridors, trash cans, and flower beds, but there was no sign of her.In the middle of the night, when I got home helplessly, my mother got up again and asked, "Why did she run away as soon as she heard about the police station?" I explained: "If you send him to the police station, you will be deported to your place of origin." My mother understood, nodded and said, "It's poor." It was definitely a sad experience. I lay on the bed, and after the alcohol in my head was blown away by the cold wind, I couldn't remember the girl's appearance. I only remembered the image of holding flowers.When I woke up the next day, I saw a tattered rose about the size of a strawberry in my daily teacup.My mother said that the child fell while running yesterday.The next day, Lao Yang went to the neighborhood committee to ask about it, fearing that a child would freeze to death on the street, but there was no whereabouts of her.God knows where she went with that rose in her arms.
At noon that day, the three of us stood by the stop sign called Tuanjieshan.Xiao Su said that in another hour or two he should have a fever again.But he didn't babble any more, that's what he's good at, he doesn't talk too much. There was a figure coming from around the corner, and we could see it was Teacher Lin.She was wearing a small umbrella, and she was dressed differently than before, looking a little prettier.Meet again and say hello.Teacher Lin said, "You haven't waited for the bus yet?" "We missed the car." "The next bus will come within ten minutes." Teacher Lin said. So we stood and waited.When waiting for the bus, people will cast their eyes at the direction of nothingness at the same time. In fact, it doesn’t matter whether there is a car coming or not, it will come if you don’t look at it.But you always look, otherwise you just have to look at each other. Teacher Lin said, "Yang Chi, I heard that you are a salesperson of a pesticide factory. The salesperson usually has to run supply and marketing?" "I don't sell or supply." Lao Yang said, "It's just selling pesticides." "What exactly do you do?" "Specifically, we sell pesticides here, and pesticides over there." Lao Yang said, "If there are no insects in the field, I will bring some insects to the field, and then tell the farmers that there are insects here, and they need to use pesticides." "Really do that?" "Just kidding." Teacher Lin glared at Lao Yang, obviously she was not used to our speaking style.After a while she said again: "Then you often travel to other places, will you have time to see Dai Dai?" Lao Yang looked at Xiao Su and me.We shook our heads at the same time, saying that Lao Yang was in charge of this matter, and we were purely here to join in the fun.Teacher Lin said: "How did you think of adopting orphans? I have been in the orphanage for so long, and this is the first time I have met young men adopting orphans. Are you a party member?" "I'm a member of the League." Lao Yang covered his face and said, "My father is a member of the Communist Party." I lit a cigarette out of boredom and asked Teacher Lin, "What are you doing in the city now?" "Watch a movie. It's the weekend." "Usually live in the orphanage?" "yes." "Why do girls have such ugly haircuts?" "What did you say?" "Girl, Dai Dai," I said, "her hair is short and cut so badly it looks like a gardener cut it. You should get a better barber and put more oil in the soup for lunch. " Teacher Lin seemed to be choked by me and stopped talking. The car came, and the seats were all empty. We jumped on it, shaking off the rainwater on our bodies, and the cold air was suddenly isolated from the car window.Lao Yang and Teacher Lin sat in front of each other, and Xiao Su and I chose the double row seat next to us.The driver actually recognized Mr. Lin and greeted him from afar.The car started, and the rain-shattered landscape moved behind me. Lao Yang said, "Teacher Lin, where do you live?" Teacher Lin said, "I live in the orphanage." Lao Yang asked, "What about my family?" I grew up in the orphanage, and now I work in the orphanage." We all oh at the same time, as if relieved. "Why is your last name Lin and not Dai?" I asked. "Because I have a note." Teacher Lin said, "My name is Lin Hua. After entering the orphanage, I will be called Dai Hua. I changed my name back three years ago."
Welfare homes are not orphanages.At first, Lao Yang said that he would go to an orphanage to adopt a child. This was a promise he made when he was studying in Shanghai, but he returned to Daicheng after graduation. There is no orphanage here, only a welfare home.The elderly and mentally handicapped still live in the orphanage. Adoption is not adoption either.Lao Yang cannot adopt orphans, the law does not allow it.The law allows Lao Yang to give birth to and beat his own children, but he is not allowed to adopt orphans.He can only adopt, which is equivalent to the nature of mutual aid, post some money, and buy some food for the child.In 1997, this kind of news was often broadcast on TV, and some people made documentaries, and it soon became a popular trend. That morning, Dean Yang of the orphanage was sitting in the whitewashed office. She was a capable-looking middle-aged woman.Lao Yang prepared a handful of documents, but Dean Yang didn't look at them all, and directly took us out of the office building and walked in along a clean cement road.As usual, like all national units, we went around a circular flower bed, there were no flowers in it, only a circle of holly and grass, and the rain fell on it, shining and not so monotonous.Everywhere is peaceful. Dean Yang said: "You are all good young people." The teaching building is right in front of you, and it has also been renovated. It is divided into upper and lower floors.There are more buildings behind this house, but we stopped here. Only one classroom was open. Dean Yang led us to the door, greeted us, and a young teacher came out.Her surname is Lin, and Dean Yang introduced her.Teacher Lin said, "Oh, then come in and pick one." At that time, Lao Yang said: Don't say that, Mr. Lin, we are not here to buy vegetables in the small vegetable market.Teacher Lin nodded silently.I looked at her, she was petite and thin, with shoulder-length hair and pale face.There was a strange aloofness and resistance in her expression, as if she was not a teacher in an orphanage, but a shepherdess, and three rich men came to pick a fat sheep.I thought to myself, you misunderstood, Lao Yang prepared real money this time to be a good person. We walk into the classroom.Eight, eight, sixty-four children sat behind double desks, all the abandoned, school-age, state-raised orphans in the city in full view.They are of different heights, the older may be eleven or twelve years old, the youngest's head has just popped out of the desk, and it seems that they are not here to study, but there is a fixed seat that needs to be filled by them. Teacher Lin walked up to Lao Yang and said flatly, "Then, why don't you find one?" That's right, we have to "find" one, walk along three narrow aisles, from the podium to the last row, what is it if it's not picking vegetables?This was the first time we went into an orphanage and saw orphans. I had guessed two situations, one was like I read in Dickens novels, full of sad children, ragged, yellow and emaciated, and the other It's like what I saw in domestic movies, they are extremely happy, laughing and singing, praising the people's government, as if they don't know that there are parents in this world.Unfortunately, my guess was wrong, the scene was very dull, they were sitting, neither messy nor neat, their clothes were simple and well-fitting, they were of different heights, and there were some mild and detectable disabilities: open mouth, albinism , Alopecia areata.There are also some sick and disabled that I can't see, and I can't ask. Like three people who are not good at cooking, we walked into the drowsy vegetable market at noon, and we were dumbfounded for a while.Not a single child rushed forward and said to Lao Yang, "Father, take me home." They sat quietly, as if they had already predicted the ending, or this kind of scene had already been experienced thousands of times, so there was no need to be moved by it .I saw a deep mockery from the corner of Teacher Lin's mouth: You are such a caring person, take a boy with a gaping mouth out, or this girl like a sparrow shivering in winter? I almost said, are there any children who are a little better? At this moment, there was finally one thing that relieved our embarrassment, and dinner was served.Two canteen workers came in with a bucket of vegetable soup and a bucket of steamed buns, and each child was given a steamed bun and a bowl of vegetable soup.I took a look and there was no oil in the soup.The children struggled to chew on the steamed buns. Xiao Su said: "The food is terrible." Dean Yang said: "We need social support." Years later, Lao Yang and I recalled that day.I asked Lao Yang, do you remember what vegetable soup was like?Lao Yang said that he remembered that if the soup was left in the canteen of the pesticide factory, the cook would have been beaten to death.I asked Lao Yang, do you remember what Teacher Lin did at that time?Lao Yang said, I remember, a child dropped a steamed bun on the ground, he picked it up and ate it, Teacher Lin went over to stop him, and replaced him with a clean steamed bun, Teacher Lin is a good person.I asked Lao Yang again, do you remember that one-eyed boy?Lao Yang said he didn't remember. It's like this, I walked past the one-eyed boy and found him looking at me with a steamed bun in his hand.He was already very big, the biggest boy in the class, the steamed bun looked a little small in his hand.At that time, many children were looking at us, only his gaze was deeply noticed by me.I responded to him and saw a black pupil and a white pupil. He didn't look at me with the black one, but the black and white ones.I felt a little sorry, Lao Yang would not pick a ten-year-old boy to adopt, it is not suitable for you to follow us, you will grow up soon, become a man, more difficult to mess with than us.I found out later that he wasn't asking for help, he was looking at me with hatred. No matter how we look at us, we don't adopt a boy with black and white pupils, take him to the zoo on Sundays, or buy him sneakers.God, why did I accompany Lao Yang to this place? Dean Yang took us to the last row. She seemed to conjure a girl out of thin air. She was not as tall as a desk, and her face was full of chapped faces. In this season, she could tell she was crying.She sat on the stool with her legs dangling in the air, and looked at Dean Yang blankly.This one doesn't look so ruthless, not so difficult to get.I kicked Yang Chi to tell him to make up his mind quickly.He's really about to turn himself into a picker. Lao Yang nodded.The three of us breathed a sigh of relief at the same time. The whole process was like a difficult tug-of-war. After a long and embarrassing tug-of-war, the victory suddenly fell to one side.We picked the right orphan, and the atmosphere suddenly became lively. Lao Yang knelt down and said to the child, "What's your name?" Dean Yang said, "Her name is Dai Dai." At this moment, Teacher Lin interjected, "Dai Dai can't." Dean Yang waved his hand to signal Teacher Lin not to speak. This detail was remembered by me, but I didn't understand what she meant at the time.I looked at my watch, it was exactly twelve noon, and the rain outside didn't stop. Teacher Lin squatted down, touched the child's face, and said to Lao Yang who was also squatting down: "Dai Dai is four years old this year, and she has no disabilities." Afterwards, we sat in the management office of the orphanage, and Lao Yang paid the money. At this time, he had to show his identification.Teacher Lin said: "You are from the pesticide factory, no wonder." Lao Yang asked, what is the necessity of the pesticide factory.Teacher Lin said that the pesticide factory had good benefits. In 1997, there were laid-off workers everywhere, and the society was not in a good mood. However, the pesticide factory has no worries of closing down for the time being. It is said that it has been successfully transformed, and the factory director has become a major shareholder, which is enviable. "I think orphanages are the ones that will never close down," Lao Yang said. Lao Yang paid the adoption subsidy for one year, totaling 1,200 yuan.Dean Yang left, and Teacher Lin accompanied us.I turned to a wall, looked at the management list posted on the wall, and read a string of interesting names: Dai Zong, Dai Li, Dai Yunong, Davis... I asked Teacher Lin what it meant.She said: "These are lonely old people who have been abandoned. They are all insane and can't remember their own names. We will name them." I said, "The orphans in Daicheng are also surnamed Dai. I thought they were all surnamed Dang. The orphan's surname is Dang, right?" Teacher Lin said: "Orphans are also surnamed Dai, but the name sounds better than this." "What will it be called?" "Over there, Dai Dai is in this row." Teacher Lin pointed to the side and said, "Dai Jianhua, Dai Cheng, Diana. We will still think carefully about naming our children, after all, they will last a lifetime." "Where's Dai Zong?" I said, "Shenxing Taibao." "I've said it before. They are old people who have lost their memory. I'm afraid they won't leave here. We just want to remember it better." Teacher Lin said a little impatiently, "We can't number people like a prison, right? " It's ridiculous, but it makes sense.This was the only interesting thing I saw that day. Later, I found that there was a person whose gender column said "intersex person". These three words appeared on the wall majestically. He was sixteen years old. I don't even want to talk about it.
The name Dai Dai sounds nice, with repeated sounds, and pleasant to the ear, but it feels like a prank if you pronounce it too much.Just like Fengweizhu is called Fengweizhu, she has the name Dai Dai.Teacher Lin said that the orphans will use these names for a lifetime. Later, she said that it is not necessarily true. If they are adopted, they can have another name. The surname Dai (and the associated name) will also It is void.From this perspective, the names of orphans are both sacred and like a game. Some expect to change their names, some never change them, and some change their names but are returned to the orphanage and have to use the name given by the hospital. "What if abandoned orphans have a note or something with their name on them?" "That has to be changed." Teacher Lin said, "At least it's like this here." "Does Dai Dai have a real name?" "She has nothing, not a note." When we left the orphanage, it was still raining. When we looked up, we saw Tiger Mountain in the distance. A crooked tower stood on the top of the mountain. Through the misty rain, it shrank into a silhouette, like a reflection in the water.According to experts' measurements, its inclination exceeds that of the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. In time, it will fall down from the hill headlong. Teacher Lin sent us to the door, and she kept walking behind us. "Where is the bus stop?" Lao Yang asked. "Didn't you come here by bus?" she asked. "I came here by taxi." Lao Yang said, "There are too few taxis in this area, so I guess I have to take a bus back." Teacher Lin pointed to a direction and continued along the small road. There will be a main road passing through this area. The road makes a bend around the mountain here, and the small road cuts across like a bowstring.Turn at the main road, cross the railway bridge, there is a bus stop there, and there is a bus that will take us back to the city. We walked out, and the door of the orphanage slammed shut behind us.There isn't even a recognizable sign in this place. The road is easy to walk, paved with a thick layer of gravel, not very slippery.At this time, the wind started to blow, and the raindrops were sparse and full of strength, as if they were thrown on my face by a pair of invisible hands.It's the season of cooling, and there's a cold snap that's making its way south from Siberia.We all wrapped up our clothes tightly. "Come by bicycle next time." Xiao Su said. That would be too far away, and winter was about to enter.It's perfectly reasonable for you to take your own child and ride your bike on a winter street blowing the wind, but it's just too damn mean to be with an orphan. Xiao Su was speechless.When passing under the railway bridge, a freight train was rumbling overhead.We stood in the bridge hole sheltered from the wind and lit our cigarettes, waiting for the train to leave. It is said that the taxi driver died in the bridge hole.In our city, there have been murders and robbery before, but it seems to be the first time to kill a taxi driver, and people say the situation is very tragic: the driver was strangled to death by the assailant with a steel wire around his neck from behind. Lao Yang said that strangling to death is actually nothing serious.Lao Yang has been to many counties in the south, north, and west. None of them are fuel-efficient lamps. They are both fun and scary.Now he casually told a story about killing a pesticide salesman with a gunpowder gun.Xiao Su couldn't take it anymore and said, "Don't talk about this in front of children from now on." Lao Yang said: "I'm crazy, should I adopt a child and tell her this kind of story?" Xiao Su said, "Even if you have a child of your own, don't talk about it." At the corner that Teacher Lin mentioned, I saw a crooked stop sign.There was a bus rushing forward in the rain.We tossed our cigarette butts and ran, trying to catch up to it, yelling and waving.I'm sure the driver must have seen it in the mirror, but the jerk didn't intend to pick us up, and at one point he didn't even accelerate, leaving us in a situation where we could catch up but couldn't.Then it ran away with a bang. I looked back and saw that I was about 100 meters away from the platform, and there was a lot of mud on the bottom of my trousers. You said why wasn't the bus driver strangled to death?
When I was on the station, I remembered Dai Dai's appearance, and Teacher Lin's words: she has nothing, and there is no note.As if the mere existence of the note would change nothing, and its absence would be insignificant.Teacher Lin is quite cool, speaking in a cold and wary tone, as if we are monsters.It's kind of weird for us three guys to adopt orphans, isn't it? In February, Yang Chi and I did a weird thing. We went out to drink at night, and when we got drunk, we met a little girl selling roses on the street.She followed us and asked Lao Yang to buy a flower for me.I'm so proud, Lao Yang was furious.According to the usual method, playing fierce can scare her away, but Lao Yang can't do this kind of thing. He has never been violent to a girl on any occasion in his life, even if he is a flower seller.So he turned his head and chatted with her very inappropriately, and the girl said: Today is Valentine's Day.The two of us looked at each other, and finally I couldn't help asking her: "Do you think we are like lovers?" She actually nodded at me.Lao Yang said: "So, I want to buy flowers for him, right?" She nodded again. Now it's my turn to be angry.I said: "If you don't buy flowers, I will buy you home." Are all the children begging and selling flowers on the street waiting for this day?Anyway, she was chasing me with flowers in her arms, and I ran away.Lao Yang didn't want to run away, she just followed Lao Yang, because we live in the same building, if you find Lao Yang, you can find me.I ran to the bridge, hugged the railing and vomited for a while. I looked up and saw these two idiots standing five meters away and looking at me. One was tall and the other was short. One was holding an umbrella in his hand and the other was holding a flower in his arms. I said to Lao Yang, leave her behind and run.Yang Chi quit.I said that this kind of children are always brought by adults, and they are richer than us. This is fucking China, not a Dickens novel.The child shook his head and said, I will also sleep in the bridge hole when I go back tonight, which is not as comfortable as you think.I said, take me to the bridge hole, and I will beat your master out of shit.She said, I will go home with you, you promised. I'm a little more sober.It was very cold that night, snowdrops fell from the sky, and the hair seemed to be freezing.I gave the child five yuan, no need to spend, and told her to go back, but she said that she didn't know the way back when it was dark.She actually followed us into the intricate buildings in the new village.I feel like I've been fooled, why didn't an adult rush over to take her away?I led her in without thinking, and then she seemed a little restrained, standing in the kitchen and looking at my house.There is no doubt that the place is very dilapidated. The gas stove has been used for more than ten years, and it still has some gas leaks, which cannot be repaired all year round.The fluorescent lights crackled and flickered. This was because it was cold and not usually like this.Lao Yang said: "Would you like some water? Have a meal?" Then he opened the pot of our house, making him seem like the master.At this time, my mother came out wearing cotton wool trousers. Seeing this scene, she couldn't help being a little confused: "Where did the child come from?" "We picked it up on the street." "You picked up a child?" My mother rushed over to look, and couldn't help yelling, "Damn, I really picked up a flower seller. Tell me, how much did you drink? You're stupid, right?" In the long ten years before that, Lao Yang and I have done many outrageous things. In my mother's opinion, this time is the most unreasonable.Because Lao Yang and I look poor and ruthless, and we don't seem to be such caring people at all—even if we are caring, you can't pick a living person home.Lao Yang was also dumbfounded. He squatted on the ground thinking for a long time and said, "Why don't we send her to the police station." The child ran away after hearing this.She is more awake than any of us. We searched for people in the freezing night. We searched everywhere in corridors, trash cans, and flower beds, but there was no sign of her.In the middle of the night, when I got home helplessly, my mother got up again and asked, "Why did she run away as soon as she heard about the police station?" I explained: "If you send him to the police station, you will be deported to your place of origin." My mother understood, nodded and said, "It's poor." It was definitely a sad experience. I lay on the bed, and after the alcohol in my head was blown away by the cold wind, I couldn't remember the girl's appearance. I only remembered the image of holding flowers.When I woke up the next day, I saw a tattered rose about the size of a strawberry in my daily teacup.My mother said that the child fell while running yesterday.The next day, Lao Yang went to the neighborhood committee to ask about it, fearing that a child would freeze to death on the street, but there was no whereabouts of her.God knows where she went with that rose in her arms.
At noon that day, the three of us stood by the stop sign called Tuanjieshan.Xiao Su said that in another hour or two he should have a fever again.But he didn't babble any more, that's what he's good at, he doesn't talk too much. There was a figure coming from around the corner, and we could see it was Teacher Lin.She was wearing a small umbrella, and she was dressed differently than before, looking a little prettier.Meet again and say hello.Teacher Lin said, "You haven't waited for the bus yet?" "We missed the car." "The next bus will come within ten minutes." Teacher Lin said. So we stood and waited.When waiting for the bus, people will cast their eyes at the direction of nothingness at the same time. In fact, it doesn’t matter whether there is a car coming or not, it will come if you don’t look at it.But you always look, otherwise you just have to look at each other. Teacher Lin said, "Yang Chi, I heard that you are a salesperson of a pesticide factory. The salesperson usually has to run supply and marketing?" "I don't sell or supply." Lao Yang said, "It's just selling pesticides." "What exactly do you do?" "Specifically, we sell pesticides here, and pesticides over there." Lao Yang said, "If there are no insects in the field, I will bring some insects to the field, and then tell the farmers that there are insects here, and they need to use pesticides." "Really do that?" "Just kidding." Teacher Lin glared at Lao Yang, obviously she was not used to our speaking style.After a while she said again: "Then you often travel to other places, will you have time to see Dai Dai?" Lao Yang looked at Xiao Su and me.We shook our heads at the same time, saying that Lao Yang was in charge of this matter, and we were purely here to join in the fun.Teacher Lin said: "How did you think of adopting orphans? I have been in the orphanage for so long, and this is the first time I have met young men adopting orphans. Are you a party member?" "I'm a member of the League." Lao Yang covered his face and said, "My father is a member of the Communist Party." I lit a cigarette out of boredom and asked Teacher Lin, "What are you doing in the city now?" "Watch a movie. It's the weekend." "Usually live in the orphanage?" "yes." "Why do girls have such ugly haircuts?" "What did you say?" "Girl, Dai Dai," I said, "her hair is short and cut so badly it looks like a gardener cut it. You should get a better barber and put more oil in the soup for lunch. " Teacher Lin seemed to be choked by me and stopped talking. The car came, and the seats were all empty. We jumped on it, shaking off the rainwater on our bodies, and the cold air was suddenly isolated from the car window.Lao Yang and Teacher Lin sat in front of each other, and Xiao Su and I chose the double row seat next to us.The driver actually recognized Mr. Lin and greeted him from afar.The car started, and the rain-shattered landscape moved behind me. Lao Yang said, "Teacher Lin, where do you live?" Teacher Lin said, "I live in the orphanage." Lao Yang asked, "What about my family?" I grew up in the orphanage, and now I work in the orphanage." We all oh at the same time, as if relieved. "Why is your last name Lin and not Dai?" I asked. "Because I have a note." Teacher Lin said, "My name is Lin Hua. After entering the orphanage, I will be called Dai Hua. I changed my name back three years ago."