Chapter 1269 Ordinary World
In an alley near the Ma Temple.
The north wind penetrates into people's bones like a knife.
Li Xiangnan placed Ge Dongxu on the threshold of a house, used his body to block the cold wind from blowing towards him, unbuttoned his coat, and took out a pack of Hongmei cigarettes from his inner pocket, but when he took it out, there was not a single cigarette left inside.
"Dongxu, please sit down for a moment. Haiyang is here. I'm going to buy a pack of cigarettes!"
As he said that, he patted Ge Dongxu's shoulder gently, smiled, then turned and left.
"..." Ge Dongxu suddenly became nervous. He raised his hands and grabbed in the air. A word was stuck in his throat for a long time. He saw Xia Haiyang sitting on the hitching post looking at him, so he quickly lowered his head, not daring to look at him.
Xia Haiyang smiled, walked to the wall and jumped.
Ge Dongxu turned his head and looked, with a surprised expression on his face.
He found Xia Haiyang eating snow, grabbing handfuls at a time. After grabbing some from the wall, he looked at it in his palms and then put it into his mouth.
Perhaps noticing his gaze, Xia Haiyang looked back and asked him, "Are you thirsty?"
Ge Dongxu quickly lowered his head, and after a long time, he shook his head.
After eating the snow, Xia Haiyang sat down on the hitching post again, looking away, but talking to Ge Dongxu: "We ordinary people don't have the conditions to drink hot water in the winter! I can't even afford to burn coal at home. Every Sunday after the coal truck delivers the coal, I go to the coal store to pick up the coal slag. I make coal briquettes. After I light a fire at night, I will wash my face and soak my feet!"
"..." Ge Dongxu looked at his toes without saying anything.
"Let's go! Xiaoxia, where do you live?" Li Xiangnan's voice sounded briskly.
"It's just ahead..." Xia Haiyang stood up and answered, then he saw Li Xiangnan waving at him. He then saw that the other person's net bag contained two bars of soap, a bag of sugar and five pounds of flour.
He was a businessman, and he knew at a glance what was in the bulging net bag of the other party. His eyes immediately turned red, and he "complained": "Brother Li, what did you buy these for!"
"It's almost noon, let's have some steamed buns for lunch! Let's go to your house and make them!" Li Xiangnan smiled, knowing that he was unwilling to accept it, so he urged: "Hurry up, don't waste time, let's go!"
Xia Haiyang had no choice but to pick up the shoulder pole and lead the way.
Li Xiangnan squatted in front of Ge Dongxu again and shouted, "Dongxu, let's go!"
He waited for a long time but there was no movement. He turned his head to look and suddenly his whole body was shocked.
I saw Ge Dongxu had already stood up from the threshold, his eyes following Xia Haiyang's figure.
Li Xiangnan was delighted, grabbed his arm and said with a smile: "Let's go!"
Nianwei Hospital is on the North Fifth Ring Road, and Ma Shenmiao is within the Third Ring Road, a full eleven kilometers away.
But he did not choose to ride a bike or take the bus, but just walked with Xia Haiyang all the way from the hospital.
Along the way, Xia Haiyang talked about his family background and every little thing that happened over the years. Even Li Xiangnan admired him.
Li Xiangnan wanted Ge Dongxu to understand that it was not easy for Xia Haiyang to live on his own until now. He didn't know how many times he walked this 11-kilometer road every day!
He also hopes that Ge Dongxu understands that he is already living a happier life than many people!
Now, Ge Dongxu can stand up and walk on his own, and he believes that the other party must be touched.
Soon, the three of them followed closely and entered the alley.
Xia Haiyang's home is not in a courtyard house or a tube-shaped building, but in a shantytown.
After walking around for a while and Li Xiangnan couldn't remember the direction, Xia Haiyang finally stopped and stood in front of a low, dilapidated house.
The door of the room didn't even have a lock. It was made of a string of iron wires hooked on several iron nails hanging nearby. It opened with just a flick of Xia Haiyang's finger!
"In my house, thieves will leave crying. There's nothing to steal!" Xia Haiyang smiled when he saw Li Xiangnan's eyes fixed on the lock.
Li Xiangnan nodded calmly, but felt a little sad in his heart.
There were only two rooms in the house, less than 40 square meters in total. The reed mat on the roof was blackened by smoke, and the cracks in the corners were covered with three layers of newspaper, but the cold air still seeped in through the window cracks, making people shiver.
Inside the room, a wooden bed was packed full, with bricks stuffed between the bed boards, for fear that it would collapse any day.
The bedding was made of old cotton wool donated by the subdistrict office, revealing the yellowed cotton core, with the name of the Xicheng Subdistrict Office in 1971 written on it.
Behind the door was a stove made of red bricks. The bottom of the iron pot was covered with a thick layer of grease. On the chopping board lay half a head of frozen and wilted cabbage with blackened stalks. It was unknown how many days had passed since it had been eaten.
There were pieces of broken coal piled up in the corner, stacked crookedly. The top layer was covered with blue cloth, the corners of the cloth were worn out.
"Brother Li, Ge Dongxu, please sit down! I'll prepare the meal right away!" Xia Haiyang said with a grin, brought two bamboo dustpans into the house, took a ladder to lift a bright tile on the roof, brought in an enamel basin from outside, and jumped off the ladder.
Li Xiangnan stretched his head to take a look and felt even more that this child's life was not easy.
"It's okay in the winter. The temperature outside is low and can keep the buns fresh. If I leave them like this, they will last a long time! If I leave them indoors, I'm afraid someone will find them!"
The boy spoke calmly and with self-deprecation, yet his words revealed hardships that were not typical of his age.
Li Xiangnan turned his head and saw Ge Dongxu's gaze resting on the table in the northwest corner of the room.
There are two shocking black and white photos there. That is where Xia Haiyang's parents stayed.
Although there is an incense burner, the table is spotless and is the cleanest place in the room.
The sound of water splashing could be heard; Ge Dongxu had already carried a bucket of water outside to wash the cabbage.
Li Xiangnan shifted his gaze from the bare house and saw that there were three or two sweet potatoes and several potatoes at the feet of the squatting Xia Haiyang. He took a basin and started soaking vermicelli.
He didn't know where the boy hid these things or where he found them from, but he thought they were not hidden in the house.
Ten minutes later, Xia Haiyang came into the house, smiled at the two of them, ran to the wall, moved a corner of the vegetable jar, and reached in to take something out of the wall.
He quickly took out the black coal balls from inside.
"The security around my house is not good. Not to mention vegetables, even coal briquettes are stolen! To live here, you have to show your poverty openly, but you also have to be really careful about thieves, otherwise you won't be able to survive!"
The young man has his own "business philosophy" towards life.
"Very good! Life will take its time!" Li Xiangnan smiled, and seeing the other party start to cook, he asked with a smile: "Xiao Xia, you sell a pair of socks for 2.5 yuan, so you shouldn't end up in such a situation, right? I see you have a way of doing business!"
"Brother Li, you don't know!" Xia Haiyang stared at the smoking pot, "My father borrowed 300 yuan from outside to treat my mother's illness! Later, he was gone, and so was the money! He couldn't bear the blow and jumped into the river! Over the years, I have been doing odd jobs everywhere to pay off the debts in my father's account book... selling odds and ends, I just started not long ago, and the rest..."
"I see!" Li Xiangnan nodded and asked, "What about the rest?"
"You can pay the rest back slowly!" Xia Haiyang smiled calmly as he turned around.
Li Xiangnan also laughed.
An hour later.
The three of them came out of Xia's house. Xia Haiyang was going to the Forbidden City to sell goods, and the other two were going back to Nianwei Hospital.
On the street, when the bus came, Li Xiangnan reminded: "Let's go, get on the bus, and go back!"
But Ge Dongxu shook his head and pulled the corner of his clothes.
"What's wrong?" Li Xiangnan looked at him puzzled.
Drip!
"Are you going or not?" the driver shouted from above.
"Master, I'm not going to come anymore, thank you!"
Li Xiangnan waved his hand, pulled Ge Dongxu aside, and asked, "What's wrong? Dongxu!"
Ge Dongxu raised his head and looked at the sunlight hanging in the sky, choking up and saying, "Brother, I miss my mom! I want to walk back by myself, can you accompany me?"
"..."
Li Xiangnan pursed his lips and pressed his shoulders, nodding his head like pounding garlic, and laughed loudly: "Okay! Dongxu, okay!"