“Get lost, you little bastard. I don’t have any money. Your shameless mother should’ve died long ago.”
“Auntie, please… Mianbao is begging you. I’ll kowtow to you.”
The three-year-old girl wore clothes torn open with cotton stuffing exposed. She knelt on the ground, knocking her head over and over.
The north wind howled. Her little face was blown red, and her forehead bled from the repeated kowtows.
The middle-aged woman in front of her, wrapped in a thick coat, spat on Mianbao’s hair.
“Your mother got pregnant with some wild man’s child before she was even married. If the family hadn’t pleaded for her, she would’ve been drowned in a pig cage long ago.”
“Your mother is a jinx to the Xia family, and you’re a little jinx too. Get lost!”
The woman grabbed a broom and struck Mianbao again and again.
The tiny figure fell to the ground, curling into a ball as tears silently streamed down her face.
Someone nearby couldn’t bear to watch anymore.
“Wang Cuihua, have some mercy. She’s just a child. How can you be so cruel? If you beat her to death, that’s a life on your hands—you’ll be executed for it!”
Only then did Wang Cuihua stop.
“Bah, a lowly brat born of a lowly woman. If you come again, I’ll break your legs.”
“Bang…”
The wooden door slammed shut.
Mianbao climbed up from the ground and walked home with her head lowered. Cotton stuffing floated out from her padded pants, revealing part of her pale little leg.
“Jinx! The jinx is here!”
A group of children giggled maliciously, throwing stones at her.
One struck her head. She stopped, clutching it, then lifted her face. Her eyes were red, her thin little face dirty, yet she glared stubbornly at them and shouted, “Mianbao is not a jinx!”
“Bleh bleh bleh, jinx born from a whore!”
Enraged, Mianbao picked up a stone and threw it back.
The children swarmed her, and she ended up wrestling with them in a chaotic scuffle.
By the time she got home, it was already evening. The winter of 1978 was cold enough to seep into the bones.
Mianbao was filthy and disheveled, her clothes torn with another big hole. Her lips had turned purple from the cold. After entering the house, she shut the door, climbed onto the wooden bed while clutching her rumbling stomach, and lay beside her mother through the blanket.
As if afraid her mother might feel cold, she tucked the worn cotton quilt more securely around her.
“Mom, they hit me again today.”
“Mom, can you hug Mianbao?”
Her voice trembled with grievance.
“If you hug Mianbao, it won’t hurt anymore.”
She sniffed. “Mom, go to sleep obediently. Mianbao will definitely borrow money to treat your illness.”
Her eyelids drooped shut, and hungry and cold, she fell asleep.
Unbeknownst to her, the mother she was holding had already become a cold corpse, unable to respond to her grievances, unable to protect her anymore.
…
“Oh dear, what will happen to this child now?”
“Has no one from the Xia family come?”
“How could they? They wish they never had that daughter.”
“Sigh… Xia Pan’er was so stubborn. Even until death, she never said who the child’s father was.”
“Auntie, are you taking Mom to the clinic?” Mianbao tugged at Zhao Guizhi’s sleeve.
“Your mother’s already started to smell. How could she go to the clinic? She’s being taken up the mountain to be buried,” another woman answered.
Mianbao froze.
She cleaned her mother every day. Her mother didn’t smell.
Zhao Guizhi sighed and crouched down to hug her.
“Mianbao, your mother is gone.”
Mianbao’s big eyes filled with tears. She didn’t understand what death meant. In her soft little voice, she asked unwillingly, “Can she not go?”
Zhao Guizhi choked up before replying, “She’s going to the sky to become a star.”
Mianbao looked at her, then at the others. From the fragments of adult conversation and their sighs, she understood one fact—
She no longer had a mother.
Mianbao was sent to the Xia family.
The wooden door remained tightly shut no matter how much she called.
She curled up at the doorway and spent the night there.
The next day, Zhao Guizhi arrived with a man in blue work clothes, his hair already half gray.
“Oh my, the Xia family really has no conscience, letting such a small child stay outside all night.”
Zhao Guizhi stepped forward and touched Mianbao’s forehead. Her body was burning—she had a fever.
The man, Qin Shanhai, couldn’t bear the sight either.
Zhao Guizhi picked Mianbao up, revealing her dirty little face. Mianbao instinctively shrank into her arms.
“Mom…” Mianbao called weakly, opening her eyes in a daze.
Qin Shanhai saw her eyes—dark as obsidian—and was momentarily stunned.
They were beautiful and clear, giving him an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
Almost instinctively, he reached out and took Mianbao into his arms.
“The child’s fever is serious. The clinic isn’t equipped—she needs to go to the county hospital.”
With that, he hurried off carrying her. Just as Zhao Guizhi was about to follow, the wooden door behind them opened.
Wang Cuihua shouted harshly, “If you ever dump this jinx at my door again, I’ll throw her into the river and drown her!”
Zhao Guizhi was furious.
“Wang Cuihua, the way your Xia family treats Xia Pan’er and Mianbao—you’ll regret it one day!”
Wang Cuihua spat disdainfully and slammed the door shut.
Zhao Guizhi hurried after Qin Shanhai.
…
At the county hospital, when Mianbao woke up, she heard Qin Shanhai telling the doctor to take good care of her. There were matters at the factory—he had to leave.
Suddenly, a scene appeared in Mianbao’s mind.
Qin Shanhai rushed out of the hospital, about to ride his bicycle to the factory. But as he unlocked it, a perfectly fine wall suddenly collapsed, crushing one of his legs on the spot.
“Hey, why are you crying?” Qin Shanhai panicked when he saw her tears. “Do I look too fierce? Did I scare you?”
He did look stern, and he was usually serious. The children in the workers’ compound were all afraid of him.
Mianbao suddenly grabbed his rough, calloused hand.
“Grandpa, don’t go.”
Qin Shanhai froze, staring at the dirty little hand in disbelief.
This child… wasn’t afraid of him?
But something had happened at the factory—he had to leave.
“Be good, Mianbao. Grandpa will come see you tomorrow.”
“No!”
Mianbao clutched his hand tightly. “Grandpa, don’t go! Don’t go!”
Qin Shanhai was shocked.
He had lived most of his life—children usually avoided him…
The doctor smiled. “Looks like the child knows you saved her and can’t bear to part with you.”
Qin Shanhai laughed at himself. “Ah, what does a little kid know?”
Children were never fond of him.
“Grandpa really has to go. I promise, tomorrow I will—”
Mianbao shook her head, tears streaming. “No! No! Don’t go! Mianbao wants Grandpa!”
Qin Shanhai thought maybe he should buy her a couple of White Rabbit candies—if she had sweets, she wouldn’t cry.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, a loud crash came from outside.
“Ah! The wall collapsed!”
“Whose bicycle is that?!”
Hearing the commotion, Qin Shanhai suddenly realized something. Through the ward window, he saw his newly bought bicycle crushed beneath the rubble.
His pupils shrank. His mind went blank for a moment.
If Mianbao hadn’t held onto him just now, the one crushed beneath it would’ve been him.
“I was wrong… It wasn’t me who saved this child. It was her who saved me…” he murmured, still shaken.
Mianbao let out a breath of relief, released his hand, and lifted her tear-streaked face, breaking into a sweet smile.
“Grandpa can go now.”
Something in Qin Shanhai’s heart stirred.
He looked at the helpless Mianbao, then at the crushed bicycle, and made a bold decision in his heart.