lanterns illuminate rivers and mountains

As night fell, Ye Zhen trotted through the alley and quickly got into the back door of a small restaurant.

The kitchen was in full swing, when the fat chef saw him coming in, he immediately reached out and patted him on the head: "Where did you go, I'm looking for you! Hurry up, give these two dishes to table number three." Send it to table four!"

Ye Zhen let out a hurried "Hey", before he even had time to change his clothes, he rushed out after picking up the dishes.

The chef rushed to the back and called: "Little brat! Have you eaten yet? Fry some noodles for you?"

"Thank you fat uncle!"

It was lunch time, and the lobby was full of people.The price of this restaurant is reasonable, the taste is good, and the rare thing is that the market is very convenient, so the business is always booming.

The boss and his wife are nice people. They took in Ye Zhen, who was homeless and whose identity was unknown at all, a few months ago. Seeing that his arms and legs were weak, they asked him to help in the kitchen, do some chores, take care of food and lodging. 500 yuan per month.

Although 500 yuan is shabby, Ye Zhen is already very satisfied.

He looks like he has been suffering from chronic illness, he is underage, he doesn't have an ID card, and he can't even name his parents.If the boss and his wife hadn't taken him in, he would really have to sleep in the bridge hole.

So Ye Zhen cherishes this job very much.

He knew that in this era, without a job and without a source of income, it is absolutely impossible to survive.

Ye Zhen quickly delivered the dishes, and when he turned around, he saw the guests at the table at the door beckoning to pay the bill, so he immediately took the order from the front desk, rushed over and said, "78 yuan, thank you."

The guest came every day, so Ye Zhen took advantage of this opportunity every day and ran over to look at him more.

The man was about 20 years old, wearing glasses, his face was very gentle, with sword eyebrows and thin lips, he was a standard "human appearance" according to the old saying.

He lowered his head to get the wallet, his side face looked very gentle under the light, Ye Zhen stared helplessly, and vaguely recalled another similar gentle face in his memory.

That's what his mother looked like.

The guest took out a one hundred sheet and put it on the table, but Ye Zhen didn't take it immediately, his eyes froze on his face for a while.

"No change, sorry." The guest misunderstood what he meant, and immediately said: "No need to change, it's for you."

Ye Zhen blushed: "No, no, no, no, no..."

The young customer smiled at him, got up and walked out of the shop.

Ye Zhen collected the money and put it at the front desk, staring at the direction the guest was leaving for a few seconds, then suddenly ran after him.

It didn't know when it was raining outside, and the ground was very slippery. The customer turned around the corner, and Ye Zhen staggered after him: "Hey... hey! Wait! Wait!"

The guest raised an eyebrow and looked at him suspiciously.

"This is yours." Ye Zhen quickly took off the black wool coat and handed it over with both hands: "You left it in the store that day, I'm sorry I wore it for a few days... Well, if you think it's dirty, I can wash it wash……"

The guest's eyes shifted from the coat to the boy who was only wearing a thin shirt. After a pause, he said, "No need, you can keep it."

Ye Zhen hugged the clothes, his face turned red, but he couldn't help but look up at the man's face.

"..." The guest leaned down slightly so that his eyes were at the same level as the boy's: "Little brother, what's your name?"

Ye Zhen murmured, "Ye Shisan."

Thirteen was his ranking at home. Since he came to this era, he has always called himself this name, but Ye Zhen's real name has never been used again.

"Hello Ye Shisan," the guest said, "My name is Long Jiwei."

Ye Zhen nodded, "Ah".

Long Jiwei unfolded his coat and put it on Ye Zhen, and asked casually: "Every time I go to eat in your restaurant, you always stare at me, have we met before?"

"..."

"When the weather is cold, you need to wear more clothes. How did your parents raise children? Look, your shoes are all torn... Why are you still staring at me? Is there something on my face?" Long Jiwei Wiping his face, he asked doubtfully, "Nothing?"

He put one hand on Ye Zhen's shoulder, the boy felt the warm body temperature, and his nose couldn't help but feel sore.

"mother……"

"..." Long Jiwei was stunned for a while, and asked, "What did you call me?!"

Ye Zhen didn't care.The sadness, panic, hesitation and despair of the past few months finally broke out at this moment.

He threw himself into Long Jiwei's arms, pressed his face tightly, and cried, "Mother—!"

Long Jiwei: "..."

Half an hour later, a coffee shop in a large shopping mall.

Ye Zhen's whole body was completely new, with a dark gray cashmere scarf on his shoulders, a snow-white shirt collar turned out of a black woolen sweater, and clean shell buttons on the cuffs.A pair of thick-soled leather boots were replaced under the jeans, and the poor toes were no longer visible.

Ye Zhen finally stopped sobbing, the corners of his eyes were still red, making his skin more transparent.

Long Jiwei didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and asked, "So I look like your mother? This is too ridiculous... Kid, where is your home? Are you in school?"

Ye Zhen whispered: "Lushun."

"Oh, Lushun, it's not far from here... Where's your mother?"

"She died, killed by the Japanese."

"..." Long Jiwei was full of question marks, and asked again: "What about your father?"

"Dead too." Ye Zhen paused, and said with hatred: "Killed by the Japanese."

Long Jiwei was a little mad: "Then you should stay in the orphanage. Why did you come here? Did you sneak out? To work and earn money? Are you still in school?"

It was the first time Ye Zhen heard the word "welfare home", he was in a daze for a while, and silently shook his head.

The second monk Long Jiweizhang was puzzled and felt very irritable. He asked again: "Then how did you get here? Shouldn't you be in Lushun? Your parents are migrant workers? How could they be killed by the Japanese?"

Migrant workers, this is another new vocabulary for Ye Zhen.He was stunned for a while, then said: "I... I don't know. I went up the mountain to retreat for a month, and when I went down the mountain, all the people in the city were dead... I ran out of the city and saw many Japanese soldiers..."

Long Jiwei: "..."

"And then I just—I don't know what happened, it just came out of nowhere. I don't know how I got here."

Long Jiwei: "..."

"There's a lot of blood, everyone I know was killed. People all over the city, people all over the city...even babies..." Ye Zhen buried his head deeply, and the palms covering his face trembled violently: "Being bayoneted Dressed in two, intestines spilled all over the floor, the streets were covered in blood, corpses were everywhere..."

Long Jiwei broke down: "What is this? So who, little student Ye Shisan! Do you surf the Internet too much? Internet addiction syndrome? You sneaked away from the correctional center where Internet addiction is forcibly given up. Did you come out?!"

Ye Zhen shook his head pitifully, his eyes were as red as a rabbit.

The two of them looked at each other for a while, one with a broken expression, and the other innocent.

Ye Zhen finally asked carefully: "Can I go with you?"

Long Jiwei deeply felt that he was defeated.

He supported his forehead and moaned: "I really have a generation gap with the kids these days... Little classmate Ye Shisan! You must go back to the orphanage! —By the way, how old are you this year? You are a minor, right?"

What is the difference between minors and adults has always been a question in Ye Shisan's heart for a long time.So he nodded, then shook his head, like a young animal terrified and at a loss as to what to do.

Long Jiwei softened his heart and asked, "When were you born? What are your parents' names?"

Ye Zhen immediately said: "Guangxu five years."

Long Jiwei: "..."

Just when Long Jiwei couldn't bear to flip the table to call 110, a hand held him down from behind.

A tall man in black smiled and hugged Long Jiwei in his arms, then bowed his head and kissed again: "Dear Biao is excited, the fifth year of Guangxu is 15 A.D. Edison invented the light bulb, and Japan invaded Ryukyu, China. The first Cuban War of Independence ended, and the great scientist Einstein was born... At this time, there are still [-] years before the Lushun massacre in [-]. This little brother," the man in black smiled and nodded to Ye Zhen , asked: "How old are you?"

Ye Zhen said innocently: "Fifteen."

Long Jiwei: "..."

Ye Zhen: "..."

Long Jiwei threw the man in black off his shoulders, and said angrily, "How many times have I told you not to rub your head against your face in public? Do you think you are a domestic curly-haired prosperous dog—— !"

The man in black fell down, got up in a hurry, wagged his tail and said, "My dear, if you want, I can become a Wangcai dog. Curly or straight hair is fine, and Samoyed is also fine—!"

Long Jiwei said desperately: "You'd better sit down, can you behave a little bit more like a human being, that whoever, the waiter, can you stop watching, please take a fly swatter to smother this black-clothed and Send each child back to Namek one by one to thank you..."

The man in black and Ye Zhen filled their stomachs in the coffee shop. During the meal, the man in black kept chatting with Ye Zhen. He was very skillful in asking questions. After eating, Ye Zhen All I know is that his name is Xuan Lin, but Xuan Lin has almost found out all about him.

So the three of them went out of the mall together, Xuanlin hooked Ye Zhen's shoulder affectionately, and asked, "Do you have a place to go, little brother?"

Ye Zhen gave a sudden pause: "Oops!"

He ran out of the store without saying hello to others. The boss and the others must be in a hurry.

"I have to go back to the store and explain it to them. Fat Uncle even fried noodles for me. I have to stay in the store tonight..."

Ye Zhen turned around and wanted to run, but was held back by Xuan Lin: "Don't panic, don't panic, come and call Dad, I will take care of all the big things for you. Come, come and call."

Ye Zhen opened his mouth halfway, staring at him blankly and innocently.

"Didn't you call Long Jiwei Mom, then of course you should call me Dad. Come on, good son, and come home with us if you call Mom and Dad."

"..." Ye Zhen immediately turned to Long Jiwei for help.

While waving for a taxi, Long Jiwei said with a straight face: "If you dare to call, I really won't take you home, little student Ye Shisan! What about mom and dad! Go home and take a shower first, it's about the hotel." Don't worry about it for the time being, I have to come up with a charter on how to deal with your affairs."

Ye Shisan primary school student is like the five black children waiting to be ruled by the people's democratic dictatorship. The low-browed and pleasing to the eye was taken into the car by Long Jiwei, and he snuggled up to Long Jiwei's side when he got in the car, with panic in his eyes for fear of being abandoned .

Xuan Lin looked back at him from the passenger seat, and commented: "The child was frightened, I'm sorry."

Long Jiwei patted Ye Zhen's back lightly, probably because he was well fed and warmly dressed, and it was very hot in the carriage, Ye Zhen fell asleep after a while.

After this sleep, I slept all the way downstairs in the community. Xuan Lin paid the fare and carried Ye Zhen back home. Long Jiwei packed up a spare bedroom and came out to settle down the unconscious classmate Ye Shisan .

The sleeping boy's cheeks were slightly pink, as if he was truly carefree and unaware of the sufferings of the world.

Long Jiwei closed the door and came out, Xuanlin sat in the living room, looking through the old clothes and worn-out shoes that Ye Zhen had replaced.

"We can't let him go to the small restaurant anymore, this kid must have committed a crime." Xuanlin gestured at the dots of blood on the shoe, and said, "It's fresh, human blood, it's been stained for less than a few hours."

Long Jiwei said: "How can I come back from all the troubles? It was you in the first place, and now it's this kid..."

Xuanlin immediately flew up, drooling, begging for a hug and rubbing his face: "Honey~~~ See how lucky you are, as soon as you pick it up, you will pick up a husband, and if you pick it up again, you will pick up such a big son. What an auspicious and happy family!"

Long Jiwei stretched out his hand expressionlessly, and blocked Xuanlin's handsome face half a meter away: "Second, it's contagious, stay away from me!"

Xuanlin danced and danced for a long time, finally grabbed Long Jiwei, rubbed his hands intoxicated and said, "Oh dear, I know you love me, otherwise you wouldn't run away from Beijing with me... What should we do now? Lushun University The massacre happened 110 years ago."

Long Jiwei asked: "Do you think he looks insane?"

Xuan Lin said: "Our son is not only not messy, but also very smart."

"Can you not mention the word son? Forget it, let him go to school first, find a relationship to get him a proper identity, just say he is a black registered permanent residence from the countryside."

Xuan Lin buried her head in Long Jiwei's neck, and suddenly laughed when she heard this.

Long Jiwei asked coldly, "What are you laughing at?"

"It's nothing," Xuanlin said with a smile, "I was just thinking, when I was in Beijing, everyone said that you were fierce and cruel, like the king of Hades, but in fact, you'd better deal with it, because you are soft-hearted and easy to be fooled. I was bullied one day, what should I do?"

After finishing speaking, without waiting for Long Jiwei's answer, he stretched out his arms to hug him, and said contentedly: "—but it's nothing, there's me.... I love you, and I won't let you suffer."