Literary Heroes of the Republic of China

Li Zhenyao only feeds these children two meals a day, only porridge and pickles.

Of course, porridge is relatively dry, and there is more to give.

For these children who had been starving all year round, it was very good to be able to eat like this every day. They even suspected that Li Zhenyao had ulterior motives, such as trying to sell them or something.

But for them, as long as they can eat enough, it doesn't matter where they stay, so they don't care, and they still stay here.

When Mu Qiong said at the beginning that he would let them work, they had a feeling that it was true.

Just say, how can there be such a good thing as eating and drinking for free in this world?Now it's normal for them to work!

But to their surprise, Mu Qiong actually said that as long as they work hard, they can eat meat and eggs.

Before they came here, most of them were begging for a living, or they would pick up leftovers that others didn't want. In short, the food was very poor, but now, someone told them that they would eat meat and eggs.

The child with curled lips opened his eyes wide in surprise, and there was light in the eyes of those stunned children.

Mu Qiong knew that among these children, most of them were "bad children" who would usually sneak around, but even bad children were still children, and if he could teach them well, he would be willing to teach them.

Pasting envelopes is not a difficult task, but among these children, there are probably a few who can't do it, such as the very young, or a little silly, but they can do something else.

For example, those three- and four-year-old children can help arrange envelopes and pass things. As for those stupid ones...they can survive, not because they are very stupid, and they can help Mama Wu to some extent. Do the work of sweeping the floor and carrying water.

"I can't do the job of pasting envelopes, and I won't starve you, but the meat and eggs are gone." Mu Qiong said: "I will teach you how to paste envelopes later, now you go wash your hands first, Wash your face."

Mu Qiong originally wanted these children to take a bath, but the weather is not warm enough and they have no change of clothes, so letting them take a bath rashly might make them sick instead, so he didn't mention it.

Wait for him to find a way to get some clothes, and then find a sunny day for them to take a bath.

When Mu Qiong came, she had asked Mama Wu to boil hot water, and now she took out soap, and asked the children to wash their hands and faces with hot water.

Most of these children had never seen soap, and they would use it only after Mu Qiong taught them, and then they started rubbing soap bubbles with surprise on their faces, producing a pile of black muddy water.

Mu Qiong put a basin of water on the ground and washed several disabled children. At the same time, he also noticed that these children basically had many wounds on their hands, and those with disabled legs had injuries on one hand and the other. cocoon.

After washing, he began to teach them to cut paper: "Today is the first day, I don't ask you to do a good job, as long as you learn how to do it."

Cutting paper is very simple, but these children have no concept of size at all, and they can't cut at all. Mu Qiong can only cut out some pieces of paper by himself, and then ask them to draw lines with a pencil and cut them out one by one.

When he taught, these children listened very carefully, but some children did not dare to take a pen, but that child who loved to express himself and was extremely flexible, saw that Mu Qiong had finished, and said: "I will, I will ,let me."

Mu Qiong gave him the pen, asked him to cut the paper, and encouraged other children to try.

Mu Qiong was busy, and Wu Ma, who was carrying two children, came over: "Sir, can I paste the envelope?"

"You don't have to be confused." Mu Qiong smiled: "Just take care of the two children."

"I can take care of the child and make a mess at the same time!" Wu Ma said, "The meat and eggs..."

Only then did Mu Qiong realize that she wanted to paste the envelope so that she could eat meat and eggs: "Don't worry, you won't be left without food."

Only then did Wu Ma feel relieved, she didn't want to paste the envelope, and poured a cup full of hot water for Mu Qiong.

Li Zhenyao hired Mama Wu because she wanted her to take care of the younger children, but probably because these children had never been pampered before, it was very easy to take care of, and the two baby girls under one year old didn't even cry much, so Wu Ma can still use her hands to cook - it's just a pot of water and a few bowls of rice, and then a fire.

Seeing that the older children had learned how to cut paper, Mu Qiong asked them to cut slowly, and then cook with Mama Wu.

The pork he buys is all lean meat. It's not because he is greedy for cheap - lean meat is cheaper than fatty meat these days. It's just because he is afraid that it will be too greasy and these children will spoil their stomachs.

People who are hungry all the year round should not suddenly eat greasy things.

Mu Qiong cut half of the pork and minced it. When the porridge was cooking, he threw it into the porridge along with the chopped pickles, and took another twenty eggs and steamed them on the stove.

By the time lunch was ready, these children had already cut a lot of paper, and they were salivating while looking in the direction of the kitchen while working.

The meat porridge is really delicious!

Mu Qiong shared a large bowl of porridge with lean meat and pickled vegetables for each of them, and cut half an egg for each of them: "You all eat the same thing today, but there will be differences in the future."

These children held the bowls, no matter how hot they were, they kept pouring the porridge into their mouths, and at the same time responded vaguely, and the leader who was the most eloquent put down the bowl and said, "Don't worry, sir, we Must work hard!"

After speaking, he drank again.

This child is called Street Lamp, a boy. According to him, when he was seven or eight years old, his father always beat him and almost killed him. Then he escaped. He has lived alone outside for many years. He started it himself, because he thought the street lights would be bright, which was very powerful.

The street lamps are very oily, and this kind of low-level oiliness is not very flattering, but Mu Qiong is not prejudiced against him.

It's not easy for this kid either.

In the afternoon, Mu Qiong asked the person who cut the paper the fastest to cut the paper, and then taught the rest to cook the paste.

The paste is made from flour, which takes a long time to cook, but there is no technical content in making it, so Mu Qiong asked a silly child to cook it.

As a result, he went to a hut in the middle, and when he came back, he saw street lamps stealing paste to eat.

Mu Qiong: "..."

"Sir, let me see if the paste is ready." Lu Deng giggled, "It's already very sticky. The flour you chose is really good!"

Mu Qiong took a look at him: "Let me see you again, and you'll be eating oatmeal every now and then!"

Street lamp said: "Sir, you are willing to let me eat the paste every time. You are a very kind person! In this world, there is no one better than you, sir."

He kept complimenting, and Mu Qiong could only say: "Go to work."

The child responded and went to work.

After the paste was boiled, they had already cut a lot of paper, so Mu Qiong taught them how to fold the paper and how to paste it.

At that time, the envelopes were all made by hand, but the ones sold in the store looked very delicate, not much different from the ones made by machines in modern times. The ones made by these children are different, most of them are crooked.

But Mu Qiong didn't say anything.

It's good enough for these kids to learn.

After a day of tossing around like this, most of the children have learned to make envelopes, and a few of them can't do it, so Mu Qiong arranged for them to cook the paste and sweep the floor.

In the evening, he gave them lean meat porridge and eggs before leaving.

The next day, Mu Qiong did not send Zhu Wanwan to Ping'an Middle School, he came to the house where these children lived early in the morning.

The cover of the house was open, Mu Qiong went in, and suddenly saw many children gathering together to paste envelopes.

The children with disabled legs and feet were even covered in a large pile, but the street lights were not there.

But he came quickly.

"How much do you burn? Give me some quickly." Street Lamp said as he came in from the outside and saw Mu Qiong at a glance.

The expression on his face froze, and he quickly smiled again: "Sir, I got up early in the morning to urge them to paste the envelopes, and I was planning to count them for them to see how much they have glued."

"Come in." Mu Qiong said: "You are already late, don't make a little bit more, and there will be no eggs to eat later." He knew that the street lamp was actually trying to steal the fruits of other people's labor, but he didn't speak out to reprimand him. It's definitely useless to raise children to reprimand him, and secondly...he noticed that those children were not afraid of the street lights, and some of them showed worry after the street lights were caught by him.

Of course, there are also people who just concentrate on pasting envelopes and turn a blind eye to the streetlights.

The street lamp responded, and went to paste the envelope with a smile, while Mu Qiong paid attention to the child who turned a blind eye to the street lamp.

This is a girl, she is also disabled, one leg is probably congenitally underdeveloped, small and short, in addition, one hand is also twisted.

But she pressed the paper with that twisted hand and folded it with normal hands, and the speed of pasting the envelope was no slower than others.

Mu Qiong bought some steamed buns, and in the morning, in addition to giving these children porridge, he also gave each of them a steamed bun, and then began to stare at them pasting envelopes.

Pasting envelopes is very boring, and modern children would definitely not be able to sit still, but these children... the vast majority of them are obsessed with relish.

The street lamps deserted from time to time, looking at this and that, but the movements of their hands did not stop.

At noon that day, Mu Qiong gave them meat porridge as usual, everyone had it, but the porridge contained vegetables instead of pickles, and also gave them some salted fish to eat with the porridge.

Then, for those who worked more, he brought some tamales for them to choose.

Some wanted eggs, and some wanted meat. The girl with a handicap asked for eggs.

As for the street lamps... Although he was a quick learner, because he was always distracted, he didn't paste it early in the morning, instead he didn't paste much, and he didn't get the meat and eggs rewarded in the round.

He looked at the food in other people's hands and was very greedy. Seeing him like this, a child wanted to give him the meat he picked.

"If you don't want to eat, you can give it back to me." Mu Qiong looked at the child and then looked at the street lamp: "If you want to eat in the afternoon, work hard."

The street lamp responded with a grin, and Mu Qiong said to the children again: "I don't allow anyone to steal other people's things here. Whoever should belong to them should belong to them. If I know that someone is robbing other things to eat, I will immediately put them on the table." Get out."

These children listened very carefully, and Mu Qiong said again: "You work hard, if you do well, you can eat white rice, chicken and duck in the future, and when you are a little older, I will pay you a salary. "

After Mu Qiong finished speaking, he always felt that the eyes of these children lit up.

While Mu Qiong was busy with these children's affairs, Fu Yun'an went to Ping'an Middle School again.

The last time he came here, he wanted to find an opportunity to tell Mu Qiong about the sale of the house next door without any trace. He didn't want to run into Mu Qiong's mother, but soon Wei Ting and others came again, and he never had a chance to say anything.

Today, he had thought out his speech in advance, so it should be fine.