They Regretted it After Their Hearts Turned to Ashes

Early the next morning, Zhao Lan sat in the tea restaurant ahead of time.

She came a whole hour earlier than the appointment, brought all the gifts prepared by her family, and still couldn't help asking her husband, "Would my brother not want to come?"

"No." The husband took her hand and answered her seriously, "My brother is as brave as you."

Zhao Lan held Mr.'s hand tightly, and carefully adjusted his collar.

She looked out the window, retracted her gaze, and turned the teacup slowly.

She knew her brother was brave.

The child she carried back from the woodpile seldom spoke even after waking up. A few days later, she knew that the child was called Huo Miao.

Those people forbade them to remember their own names and asked them to forget everything before, otherwise they would beat them until they couldn't move.

So they made an appointment, she called her younger brother "Huo Miao", and Huo Miao called her "Sister".

In those three years, apart from working day and night and being beaten, they kept trying to find a way to escape.

There were not many opportunities to find them, they were closely watched, and once it rained heavily, they took advantage of the opportunity to mow the grass and ran as hard as they could, and almost succeeded.

That time they ran into a crop field and hid among the corn stalks. The sharp blades scraped blood all over their hands.The rain was terribly heavy, the thunder roared and the lightning blinded the eyes, the footsteps of the people who searched them were close at hand, and the light of the flashlight swept everywhere.

"Sister." The boy squeezed her hand tightly, "I was the one who ran away."

"I ran away, you came to find me... just tell them that."

It was impossible for them to escape that time, and they had to think of a way to explain it, otherwise it would be impossible for both of them to go back to that level.

"I'm too young to take care of the two of us. You can't be beaten."

The younger brother's voice was very low, trembling slightly in the raging rainstorm: "You are well, we can escape."

"I will live on." The younger brother promised her, "Sister, I promise you, I will live on."

"I want to live." The younger brother told her many times, "I have a younger sister, and she will be afraid without an older brother."

The younger brother will survive every time, and will struggle to tell her every time that his family is looking for him and he is going to escape and go home.

What followed was another nightmare.She watched the boy turn around and rush out. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to act according to the agreement. She watched the fists and wooden sticks fall down unceremoniously, and they all fell on her brother.

She watched the child gradually become silent, and finally couldn't take it anymore... She learned how to be a crazy mother-to-be who wanted a child and wanted a child with a mental illness.

She went to make trouble with those people hysterically, snatched the child out of her fists and feet, held him in her arms, and kept holding the hanging, cold hands, shaking and calling baby in her arms.

By this time, those people were satisfied, what they wanted was such a "goods", thinking that she had finally figured it out, put away the thing and scattered away.

Huo Miao woke up a week later and was still lying in bed unable to move.

The broken rib hurt the lung, so the local doctor connected it. Herbal medicine was pasted on the injured area, and hemoptysis would occur when I sat up a little.

The child opened his eyes and suddenly recognized her after a while, with a smile in his eyes, and called her "sister" silently.

……

Three years passed like this.

During those three years, the two depended on each other for life, one couldn't hold back and fell asleep, and the other kept vigil with the iron rod in his arms, and any movement would wake him up immediately.

Zhao Lan knew very well that Ming Chi was very brave, and as long as Ming Chi agreed, he would definitely come.

But she was still worried that this appointment was too early.

"We can also chat." Zhao Lan was held by the husband and whispered to him, "He said that mom didn't do it on purpose, it was an accident that no one expected."

"He said that he lost him and his sister, and my mother must be very guilty. My brother is abroad, but I should be worried when I hear about it."

Zhao Lan said in a low voice, "He blamed himself very much. He felt that he shouldn't have lost it. He said that day he should be more vigilant and more self-protective."

They don't just talk about how to escape every day, that way people will be suppressed and suffocated, they also talk about after escaping and after returning home.

This is the biggest motivation for them to survive desperately and flee desperately.

This is their happiest time.

Only at this time, they are like college students under 20 years old and children under ten years old.

"As soon as I get home, I have to hold my parents and cry."

Zhao Lan hugged her knees and put her arm on her chin: "I still have a younger sister, and my younger sister has to grab it and cry."

Huo Miao also followed her example, hugging her knees and resting her chin with her arms: "I want to hug my parents and sister and cry."

He found out that he had won a game, and immediately added: "I still have an older brother in my family."

"Such a fool!" Zhao Lan nodded his head, "Then I will sleep on the bed at home for a day and a night without getting up."

The flames doubled immediately: "I will sleep for three days and three nights."

Zhao Lan couldn't help laughing, and pretended to be angry: "Okay, then I have to make up for the past few years - I want to celebrate three birthdays in one go, and add up to 20 years old."

"I want to pass four in one breath." The flame hit with precision, "The day I lost it was my birthday, and there were 34 candles on the cake."

Zhao Lan was completely defeated by him, and decided to take the final punitive measure, breathing a few breaths on his hands, to touch his ticklish places.

……

The two of them collapsed on the haystack laughing, and those were the happiest minutes for them in those three years.

Zhao Lan dreamed that she was going home that night, and she guessed that Huo Miao also dreamed about it.But I don't know why, that boy is not as happy as before, on the contrary, he seems to have something more on his mind.

"What's the matter?" Zhao Lan bent down and asked him while cutting the wheat, "Worried we won't be able to escape?"

Huo Miao shook his head without thinking, wiped off his sweat with his sleeve, and smiled briefly.

Zhao Lan forbade him to do heavy work again, and asked his brother to stand still and squat down to check his waist.

A bone protruded from the thin waist.The local doctors did not dare to press it, saying that it was an injury. If the press was not good, he would not even be able to walk, so he could only wait to go back to the big hospital in the city for treatment.

"When you get home, you must tell your parents to heal your waist."

Zhao Lan put down his clothes, turned in front of him, and raised her hand to touch his ear: "There is still here, remember?"

Huo Miao nodded obediently, and also stroked her hair: "Sister also needs to take care of her body."

"Sure." Zhao Lan clenched his fists, "When we are all ready, we will make an appointment for dinner."

She was so hungry when she thought about it: "I'm so hungry when I think of the cafeteria. Wow, there is also a New Year's Eve dinner. The whole family has a big table of food. Later, our two families will eat together, which will be two big tables of food. It's great. "

Huo Miao's eyes also smiled, and they clenched their fists together: "About dinner."

……

This meal has been delayed for 13 years.

"It's not any of your fault."

The husband said to her: "Fate makes people."

A few days before they successfully escaped, they were crazily retaliated by those people. This time, Zhao Lan didn't let his younger brother stop him.

Those people still don't believe that a ten-year-old child has the ability to steal a mobile phone and call the police. Zhao Lan pushed the flames behind her, and was locked in a completely dark room by those people.

Even if those three years are counted, those three days are probably the most terrifying, and those three days are enough to destroy a person's entire sanity.

Zhao Lan's memory was broken there, and she only vaguely remembered the frightening sound of fighting. She was lying in the corner of the room, and the door of the room was pushed open forcefully, and someone in uniform rushed in.

After that, Zhao Lan was rescued, diagnosed with psychogenic amnesia caused by stress, and had been ill for a long time.

Zhao Lan came out little by little, faced the past again, retrieved the memories of the past, and remembered that she owed her brother a meal.

"I died once in those three days." Zhao Lan said to her husband, "It took me 13 years to come back to life."

"That child." Zhao Lan said, "My younger brother."

She lowered her head and said, "He died slowly in those 13 years."

None of the things that kid said came true.

Why did Huo Miao have something on her mind when she woke up that day, what was she thinking?

Did you vaguely realize that maybe everything may not be as expected, even if you go home, you won’t have four birthdays to make up, and you won’t have a bed that you can sleep on for three days and three nights?

Could it be that the child who got lost at the age of seven and grew up to the age of ten after stumbling outside, actually already had a vague premonition about his family and guessed part of the possible future?

But I'm afraid I can't guess more.

How can a ten-year-old child guess how many times he died and escaped with injuries all over his body? What awaited him was thirteen years.

——Just two days ago, in order to finally confirm the authenticity of part of the information, Zhao Lan followed Mr. Gong to visit the person in the Ren family.

"That person." Zhao Lan said, "He didn't become crazy recently."

Zhao Lan has lived in the hospital for a long time and recuperated for a long time. When Ren Chenbai took Luo Cheng to meet Teacher Gong, she already suspected that there was something abnormal about him.

So Zhao Lan also took the initiative to open his own wounds, to remind the other party that memory is not necessarily the truth.

But a person who seeks the truth is destined not to be able to understand the person who weaves lies to cover up the truth.

Just like this time Zhao Lan accompanied Teacher Gong to see Ren Chenbai in the specially managed ward.

Dean Xun didn't deliberately conceal the news, nor did he forbid people to visit. Ren Chenbai knew that Luo Zhi was still alive—it should be the Ren family who told him.

Ren Chenbai behaved very normally.

Normal enough to look like a person who is not sick, and greet them politely as if in a coffee shop.

Even the new nurse would have mistakenly thought he wasn't sick—if he didn't look at the empty hospital bed, which was carefully covered with a quilt.

Ren Chenbai didn't say a few words to them, and apologized that Xiaozhi was going to take medicine, and returned to the empty hospital bed.

The things he did, it was as if there were real people there.

Probably still a very indifferent and resistant patient who did not cooperate with treatment at all.It took Ren Chenbai to coax him softly and slowly for a long time before he was willing to take a mouthful of medicine, and then he stopped responding.

So Ren Chenbai had no choice but to put down the medicine, he was not angry at all because of this, nor was he impatient because of it, he just sat on the ground beside the hospital bed.

Facing the empty hospital bed, he apologized in a low voice, counting the crimes he had committed.

...This is the limit he can accept.

When sending them away, Dean Xun told them that Ren Chenbai couldn't imagine other possibilities.

Ren Chenbai couldn't imagine how Luo Zhi, who had been treated like that by him, could still gritted his teeth and swallowed his blood, desperately cutting out the old sores and chronic diseases, and rushing into a new life without looking back.

No matter who treats him like this, Ren Chenbai only thinks that this is an illusion that they came to deceive him.

Because if it was him himself, even if he was called a hundred times and a thousand times, it would be absolutely impossible for him to survive.

……

Teacher Gong actually didn't think of it either.

She knew that the child would not disappoint Shuangmei, but she didn't expect it to be so soon—so fast that even she wasn't ready.

Probably people themselves are animals that think about what if.When Gong Hanrou was filming the following documentaries, he couldn't help asking Zhao Lan when he finished work late at night.

If she hadn't stubbornly abided by the principle of non-interference in documentary filming, hadn't blindly believed in Xin Chenbai, and hadn't avoided the subject for so long because of her friend's death, wouldn't everything have come to this point.

This is probably a question that every documentary director will encounter. There will be no answer, and she doesn't want Zhao Lan to give an answer.

It's just that she feels regret, this kind of regret does not belong to any identity or occupation, just because it may be possible—even if there is a change in any place.

Even if there is any difference, maybe it is possible, they can lift the child out of the dark cold water.

……

Zhao Lan was suddenly distracted by the notification tone of the news.

When she saw the message from Ming Chi, she immediately became nervous and kept shaking Mr.'s hand: "Here they are, they are downstairs."

"I'll pick it up." Mr. stood up, "What's the license plate number?"

Zhao Lan tapped the screen a few times, forwarded the message to him, and immediately ordered a large table of Cantonese-style morning tea, specifically asking not to use egg white products.

These teas should be eaten while they are hot. If they are ordered early, the taste will not be so good. It is most suitable to order now.

The people who were worried and thinking about it just now are obviously full of anticipation and busy excitedly.

The husband stood by the side, patted the back of her hand with a smile, and hurried down to pick up her according to the address given in the message.

Zhao Lan finished ordering in one go.

She couldn't wait to go back to the dining table, and was going to tidy up her collar and cuffs again, so that her younger brother would not see the scars on her hands and neck.

Zhao Lan took out the small mirror from her bag, and when she saw someone coming from another direction, her gaze suddenly froze.

...someone was walking towards her.

The other party obviously waited for her husband to leave before coming to her. She felt that this man's figure looked a little familiar before, but she didn't pay much attention to it.

Someone who shouldn't be here at all.

Zhao Lan's heart sank.

She put down the mirror, grabbed the mobile phone beside her, and called out the person's identity: "Mr. Luo."

Luo Jun paused and stopped in front of the table.

Although Zhao Lan has always been aware of the existence of this person, Zhao Lan has not seen Luo Jun very much.

So even though the other party found her somewhere and followed her all the way, Zhao Lan couldn't immediately notice that the last time she saw this person was actually in Ren Chenbai's ward.

When they were about to leave, Zhao Lan saw Luo Jun visiting Ren Chenbai.

...It was said to be visiting Ren Chenbai, but to use a more accurate and weird way of saying it was actually going to visit "Luo Zhi".

Dean Xun told them that Luo Jun was sober, he just tacitly acquiesced to Ren Chenbai's ridiculous hallucination when he came to see Ren Chenbai.

Luo Jun's care was even more careful, thoughtful, and restless than Ren Chenbai's.No one knew what he meant by doing it—because there couldn't have been any.

Luo Jun stood still in front of the table.

Zhao Lan didn't know what he was like before, but the life of the eldest son of Luo in front of him was probably not satisfactory.The bruises under his eyes are extremely heavy, his expression is numb and sluggish, and he is completely depressed, obviously he has completely collapsed in this turmoil.

It can be seen that Luo Jun has tried his best to appear a little decent today, but this so-called decent is only barely supported by clothes, in fact, the inside has long been rotten.

"Miss Zhao, I don't intend to offend." Luo Jun spoke with difficulty, his voice a little hoarse, "I heard..."

Zhao Lan asked him, "Who told you?"

Luo Jun shut his mouth.

Zhao Lan has already sent a message to her husband, asking him to take Huo Miao for a stroll first, and not to come up in a hurry.

She met Ming Chi for content review, so someone in the crew must know about it, and it's not surprising that Luo Jun asked someone to find out.

……

It's just that she really couldn't figure out what this man was doing.

"Mr. Luo, who are you taking care of?" Zhao Lan asked, "Who are you looking for?"

Luo Jun's pupils shrank, and his face was faintly pale.

Zhao Lan didn't want to talk to him at all, but Mr. Luo's mind was pretty good, and he could understand some things even if he didn't say them.

He is taking care of ten-year-old Luo Chi.

Looking for a ten-year-old brother who escaped from a nightmare scarred and wanted to go home.

When Zhao Lan was interviewed as the person involved, he mentioned this incident in the documentary, and Luo Jun watched every frame of the documentary over and over again.

Luo Cheng didn't want him to watch it, saying that he would have nightmares and had a few troubles.

But if Luo Cheng still wants to rely on him to do odd jobs to make ends meet, he can only endure this, because he is not Luo Cheng's second brother who will always protect her.

If Luo Cheng doesn't want to endure him, he can figure it out and live by himself.

Luo Jun remembered the scene in the documentary, and the young actors recruited by the crew also reproduced this part.

The young actor was chosen very well, his body shape and voice were very similar, sometimes he thought he saw Luo Chi in a daze.

"I still have an older brother."

The boy in the picture is squatting beside the haystack, comparing childishly with his sister: "My brother is abroad, but he will worry about me when he hears about it."

The older sister has no older brother, staring at him enviously: "It's so good!"

"Your brother must hate those bad guys to death." My sister took his hand, "When you go home, he will love you the most, protect you wherever you go, and take care of you personally to accompany you to recuperate."

My sister said, "Your brother will definitely beat up the bad guys for you."

The boy's pale face turned red, he pursed his lips and smiled, and added in a low voice after a while: "No need."

"No need." The boy said, "It would be nice if you could lead me home."

The boy raised his head and gestured with his hands: "My brother should be this tall."

He straightened his shoulders and closed his eyes, as if he had really seen his brother: "I raised my hand, he doesn't have to bend down, just move his hand, and he can lead me home."

……

Luo Jun's arm suddenly convulsed, and he managed to regain his senses.

"I just want to see him." Luo Jun said hoarsely, "Miss Zhao, I know I can't help it..." He paused for a moment before uttering those words with difficulty, "It's too late, if you make a mistake, you won't be able to go back. I just, he's my brother—"

"He's not, Mr. Luo."

Zhao Lan said: "I want to see my younger brother today. My parents and sister asked me to take him home. If he is willing, we can celebrate the New Year and have a reunion dinner together this year."

Luo Jun stayed where he was.

His expression was a little dazed, and he opened his mouth with difficulty, but he couldn't make a sound.

There is no problem with what Zhao Lan said.

This is the result he wanted.

This is the result they want.

No one led Luo Zhi home.

They asked Luo Zhi repeatedly why they disturbed the whole family and why they wanted to go home.

New Year's Eve dinner, reunion dinner?

Luo Jun tried hard to recall, and he found that he couldn't remember any New Year's Eve dinner that Luo Zhi had, after all, it was a time when there should only be celebrations.

"I will not let you see him, and I will never tell you where he is."

Zhao Lan told him: "Mr. Luo, I want to protect my brother."

Zhao Lan couldn't say anything excessive. She has been cared for and protected by her family for 13 years. She has never seen such a person.

Zhao Lan took one last look at him, turned around and walked out.

Luo Jun chased after him in a panic. He staggered a little, wanted to catch up with Zhao Lan, and stretched out his hand to grab him: "Miss Zhao—"

Zhao Lan's face changed slightly when he saw the hand stretched out.

She would still be afraid of this, but she would not let this person find her younger brother. She gritted her teeth and was about to slap him away, but someone was faster than him.

The cane was firmly placed between the two of them, and Luo Jun's hand was lifted, and it was placed in front of Luo Jun.

Luo Jun hurriedly stopped.

Ming Chi withdrew his cane and blocked Zhao Lan behind him.

He was already taller than Zhao Lan, and his stature was straightened by the windbreaker. His dark pupils were as calm as water, and he looked cold when he had no expression or spoke.

Zhao Lan's husband was quite merciless in his attack, Luo Jun took a few steps back in embarrassment, bumped into the table, stared at Ming Chi, his chest heaved violently.

Ming Chi looked at him with a strange gaze.

There is no indifference or resistance as Luo Jun imagined, or even the indifference that lowered his head and carelessly after he no longer had any expectations for him in the past—only pure unfamiliarity, confusion and incomprehension.

Luo Jun's pupils froze.

He could no longer speak a word, and he didn't know how to move.

……

Zhao Lan firmly grasped Ming Chi's arm.

Her eyes lit up uncontrollably, she thought she would not be able to hold back the tears and sadness, but it turned out that there was none.

There is only the extreme relief and relief that can't be described in words when the breath is completely relieved.

They all seem to have a little problem with the exit.They all lost their way and traveled a long way, but they bypassed the vast sea of ​​people, traveled through time, and met here again.

The road was not easy to walk, but we had already reached the end when we met, so we had time to fix it.

Zhao Lan couldn't take care of anything else, and concentrated on looking at the grown-up younger brother in front of him.

The younger brother was already taller than her, but he still bent his shoulders to let her touch his head, and helped her tidy up the messy sleeves.

Zhao Lan couldn't help laughing. She rubbed Ming Chi's hair, looked at her handsome, calm and skilled younger brother, and coughed: "Excuse me, my sister asked me to bring a remote control car."

"13 years, that's a long time." Zhao Lan sighed, "We're all so mature, I'd better take it for myself, the baby may want to play in the future."

Ming Chi slightly bent his eyes: "It's troublesome."

He took out the hand hidden behind his back, handed the shell boat to Zhao Lan, and discussed with his little nephew who hadn't even written his horoscope: "I'm just thinking of changing to a remote control car."