The welfare home’s cafeteria was on the third floor, the same level as the children’s dormitories.
Tonight’s dinner was mushroom meat buns and mung bean soup. Each child could also get a carton of yogurt drink.
The serving window was still too high for Can Can. He had to stand on his tiptoes to hold his little stainless steel bowl steady.
Thump. A plump, white bun landed in his small bowl.
“Wow,” Can Can exclaimed, then shakily raised his bowl again. “Auntie, can Can Can have another bun, please?”
The middle-aged woman serving the food said impatiently, “Come back after you’ve finished that one!”
Behind him, Wang Xiao Tiao, balancing his own bowl on his head, said anxiously, “Auntie, Can Can is a slow eater. By the time he finishes, there won’t be any left!”
The middle-aged woman snapped at them in a local dialect, “Hurry up and move, don’t cause trouble. How can a kid that small eat two buns!”
Wei Cheng, at the end of the line, narrowed his eyes. Just as he was about to step forward, he saw Teacher Xiao Mei, who was ladling soup for the children at a wooden table, hurry over.
“Yun Jie, Yun Jie, please don’t be angry with the children.”
Teacher Xiao Mei was clearly a little afraid of this middle-aged woman. She smoothed down the short hair that covered half her face, her tone somewhat fawning and humble. “Yun Jie, you see, you just got here so you don’t know. Can Can may look small, but he has a huge appetite. Director Wang Lao even took him for a check-up, and the doctor said the boy was just born with a big appetite. He needs to eat two or three buns this size for a meal, or he’ll wake up crying from hunger at night…”
The middle-aged woman rolled her eyes and, rather reluctantly, tossed another bun into the bowl. “Fine. But even if he can eat, we can’t give it all to him. If he’s not full, he can have two more bowls of soup. The kids might not know the situation at the welfare home, but you should, right? Besides, there are still several older kids who haven’t gotten their food yet! The rest of you, hurry up and get in line!”
Teacher Xiao Mei opened her mouth, but in the end, said nothing and lowered her head, guiding Can Can away by the shoulders.
Can Can held his little bowl and looked up at Teacher Xiao Mei. “Teacher, if Can Can eats two buns, my tummy will be full, and I won’t cry at night.”
“Yes, good boy. Teacher will get you some soup.”
Teacher Xiao Mei sighed. Ever since the last cook had left due to illness, Director Wang’s daughter-in-law had taken her place. This woman was now in charge of purchasing and cooking, and since then, the meals in the cafeteria had become strictly rationed.
She wanted to report this to the director, but she was afraid of losing this hard-won job. After all, given her situation, finding such a stable job was already a blessing.
Teacher Xiao Mei helped Can Can carry his soup, while Can Can toddled along, hugging his two buns and a small carton of yogurt.
Wang Xiao Tiao ran over, biting into his bun. “Can Can, what flavor is your yogurt?”
Can Can generously showed it to him. “Stlawbelly!”
Wang Xiao Tiao said, “Wow! Mine is yellow peach. After we finish, can we trade and lick each other’s cartons?”
Hearing this, Teacher Xiao Mei quickly interjected, “No, you can’t. That’s not hygienic. Drink your own. Wang Xiao Tiao, you’re not allowed to secretly pick up other people’s yogurt cartons to lick anymore!”
These yogurt drinks weren’t very nutritious and didn’t offer much benefit to the children’s health. They left an artificial sweetness in the mouth after drinking. They were just a little treat for the kids, all donated by kind-hearted people. Their welfare home had limited resources, so naturally, they drank whatever they were given.
As soon as Teacher Xiao Mei left, Wang Xiao Tiao was once again itching to pick up other people’s yogurt cartons.
Can Can was devouring his bun, his cheeks stuffed full. He stuck out a short, chubby finger and wagged it. “Teacher said no licking!”
“The cartons have already been licked clean, so there’s nothing for me to lick even if I pick them up!” Wang Xiao Tiao whispered. “In the days you were gone, Ming Ming and I collected a lot of yogurt cartons! We’re going to sell them to the scrap-collecting grandpa! We can make a lot of money! We can buy lots of ice cream!”
Upon hearing “ice cream,” Can Can’s eyes lit up. “Can Can wants to collect scraps!”
Just as Wang Xiao Tiao was about to reveal his scrap-collecting plan, he suddenly choked up. He buried his head, slurping his soup loudly while sneakily shielding both his and Can Can’s yogurt.
Wei Cheng walked over with his tray and glanced at the empty seat next to Can Can. “Can I sit here and eat?”
Can Can tilted his little face up and said obediently, “You can, big brother.”
Wei Cheng glanced at the flourishing little curls on Can Can’s head. He really looked like a plump little lamb.
He had already noticed Wang Xiao Tiao’s protective gesture over the yogurt, so he placed his own carton between the two of them.
“You two share this. I don’t like it.”
Wang Xiao Tiao forgot his fear of the older boy, his eyes widening. “It’s strawberry flavor too! You don’t like yogurt? How can anyone not like yogurt!”
Can Can reached out with a chubby little hand and pushed the yogurt back. “Big brother drink. Drinking milk makes you grow tall!”
A warmth spread through Wei Cheng’s heart. He tore open the yogurt and placed it in front of them. “Big brother is already very tall. You two share it.”
Wang Xiao Tiao was drooling with desire. “Oh, I couldn’t possibly!”
“Go on, it’s fine.” Wei Cheng finished his two buns in a few bites, drank all his mung bean soup, and returned his empty tray before leaving the cafeteria.
Wang Xiao Tiao watched Wei Cheng’s retreating back. “He’s so cool, even cooler than Ming Ming!”
Can Can thought in a daze, Then why were the cool big brother’s eyes raining?
.
After dinner at six, the children were taken to the yard to digest their food and exercise.
The entire yard was paved with concrete, with only a single, weathered and paint-chipped children’s slide, which had long been occupied by a few eight- and nine-year-old kids. Younger children like Can Can and Wang Xiao Tiao never got a turn and could only gather together to kick a faded watermelon-patterned ball.
Wei Cheng watched this scene from a distance.
It was currently July, during the summer vacation. This welfare home originally had about twenty children, but about ten of them had come of age this year. Some had been accepted into vocational colleges and were now working part-time jobs near their schools to earn money. Those who didn’t get into college had left the welfare home directly to make a living in society. Now, only about ten children remained. The oldest was in the fourth grade of elementary school, and the youngest, like Can Can, had not yet started kindergarten.
Besides Can Can, Ming Ming, Wang Xiao Tiao, and the only girl, Qi Qi, who were true orphans, several of the remaining six older children were temporarily fostered at the welfare home due to family reasons. One was staying there as a de facto unsupported child.
Wei Cheng touched his pants pocket.
He had a total of one thousand yuan on him right now.
This was the pocket money his grandmother usually gave him, which he had saved up bit by bit.
After his grandmother passed away, his distant maternal granduncle was his only relative. It was human nature that he was unwilling to raise a burdensome child with no assets. But secretly pocketing the gold jewelry his grandmother and deceased mother had left for him was just morally corrupt!
In his past life, when his grandmother was issued a critical condition notice, Wei Cheng had been so overwhelmed with grief that he fainted. That granduncle’s family were the last people to see his grandmother. As soon as she was buried, Wei Cheng, still running a high fever, was mercilessly thrown into this welfare home.
After his grandmother fell ill, she had told him that the things she and his mother had left for him were buried in the yard of their old house in the countryside. Having lived a long life, she knew she couldn’t rely on anyone. She was afraid that the young Wei Cheng wouldn’t be able to hold onto these things. If the granduncle’s family was willing to raise him, he should give them some. If they weren’t, then he should wait until he was older to dig them up.
But man proposes, and God disposes. Back then, Wei Cheng’s illness dragged on. By the time he recovered and secretly returned to his home in the countryside, he found it had already been ransacked, dug up three feet deep.
It turned out that his grandmother, on her deathbed, couldn’t let go of him and had said many delirious things, revealing this crucial secret in the process.
It was a kind of karmic retribution, he supposed. After he grew up, he ran into his granduncle, who had become a minor leader at a certain base. Wei Cheng beat him up, looted his belongings, and left the base. Not long after, he heard that the granduncle’s family had tried to flee with most of the base’s supplies, and the entire family ended up as food for the Zombies.
In this life, Wei Cheng hadn’t given those people a chance to get close to his grandmother, so now, only he knew the secret of the old house in the countryside.
He silently looked up at the sky, a magnificent canvas painted by the evening glow. The children’s cheerful laughter filled his ears. No one knew that such a beautiful scene would completely vanish from this world in three months.
An infinite sense of urgency and sorrow rose in his heart.
Thwack. An old watermelon ball landed at Wei Cheng’s feet.
He looked up and saw Can Can standing not far away, nervously clasping his small hands.
Wang Xiao Tiao and Qi Qi also watched him nervously, as if afraid he would kick the ball far away.
It seemed the older kids bullied them quite a bit.
Wei Cheng forced the corners of his lips into a stiff smile. After ten years in the Apocalypse, he had long forgotten how to smile.
He held back his strength and kicked the ball to Can Can.
The smile on Can Can’s face widened. While the ball was still rolling, he kicked it to Qi Qi.
Wang Xiao Tiao shouted, “Kick it to me, kick it to me!”
The few children played with increasing joy, causing the older kids occupying the slide to look over at them frequently.
Just then, a whistle blew.
Teacher Xiao Mei stood on the first floor and shouted, “Hurry back inside, it’s time to wash up and go to bed! Wash up and go to bed!”
“Bath time! Bath time!” Can Can loved taking baths. The moment he heard the call, he hugged the watermelon ball and dashed toward the building.
Teacher Xiao Mei shouted again, “Can Can, leave the watermelon ball on the playground, don’t bring it in!”
Can Can obediently listened, placing the watermelon ball on a pile of sand, and the group of children obediently ran into the building.
Wei Cheng lagged two steps behind and heard a nine-year-old named Zhou Zihao whisper to his companion, “This ugly woman bosses us around every day. When is Director Wang going to get us a pretty teacher! I heard her real name is Liu Meizhen, pfft, with a birthmark that big on her face, she still dares to be called ‘Mei’. Hearing those little brats call her Teacher Xiao Mei makes me want to puke…”
Before he could finish, he seemed to trip on something and fell flat on his face!
“Zhou Zihao, Sun Xiaoqiang, stop fooling around. Hurry back and wash up for bed!”
Zhou Zihao clutched his knee and fake-cried, “Teacher, my leg hurts so much…”
Teacher Xiao Mei said with a stern face, “Stop pretending. Go take a bath!”
Wei Cheng gave him a cool glance and quickly left the first floor.
Some children are born bad seeds, unworthy of sympathy or salvation.
It was hot in the summer, so each room had a total of four small beds. In the winter, when heating was limited, it was common for about ten children to sleep in one room.
Room 302 housed Can Can, Ming Ming, and Wang Xiao Tiao. The other empty bed frame was piled with miscellaneous items.
While drying a drowsy Can Can’s hair, Teacher Xiao Mei said, “Wei Cheng, you’ll have to squeeze in with Can Can tonight. Director Wang will go buy you a quilt tomorrow.”
Wei Cheng’s hair was short, drying after a few rubs with a towel. “Okay, Teacher Xiao Mei.”
Teacher Xiao Mei smiled and added, “Teacher saw you give your yogurt to Wang Xiao Tiao and Can Can, and you played with them tonight. You’re a good boy. Now that you’re here, try not to think about your old life. Although our town’s welfare home can’t compare to those in big cities, there are fewer children here, so the teachers can focus all their attention on you. Don’t be so withdrawn in the future. Just think of this as your home, and think of good kids like Can Can, Wang Xiao Tiao, and Ming Ming as your own family.”
Wei Cheng looked at Teacher Xiao Mei, and some bloody, cruel images flashed through his mind. He opened his mouth, “Teacher, you, you…”
“Shh.” Teacher Xiao Mei put down the hairdryer and placed the chubby child, dressed in faded teddy bear pajamas, onto the small bed.
She then whispered, “What is it?”
Wei Cheng shook his head. “It’s nothing.”
“Alright, then get into bed and sleep.”
Teacher Xiao Mei waited until Wei Cheng was lying on the bed before turning off the light.
The room was plunged into darkness, and the sound of Wang Xiao Tiao’s snores filled the air.
Wei Cheng gently hugged Can Can’s soft, small body, a lump forming in his throat.
He had to make Can Can trust him as soon as possible, then take him away from the welfare home to seek refuge in the countryside. In this life, even if he had to die, he would die with his little brother. As for the kind Teacher Xiao Mei and the other children…
Would anyone believe the words of an eight-year-old child?
That night, a sudden downpour began.
Author’s Note:
[Fireworks] Here I am.