Found a little sparrow

After lunch at a small noodle restaurant, Jiang Gufan drove to pick up the people from the village committee. After getting out of the town, he drove to the fork in the road. He went on the dirt road and drove for ten minutes trembling all the way. Parked on a relatively spacious roadside.

Jiang Gufan got out of the car and stepped on the mud. The man pointed to a stone-paved path and said, "It's only ten minutes from this road. You can see it here. It's just that one, an earthen house."

Jiang Gufan followed the path pointed by the man, and saw that it was an old tile-roofed house, and the surrounding area was also deserted. There were only a few houses across a small forest, and they were all brick houses on the second floor.

"Let's go." Jiang Gufan pulled the little mute out of the car, and saw that it was not far away but the road was not easy to walk. There were weeds on both sides, growing very strong, with dew after the rain, sweeping wet pant legs.

"Those families have moved to the town in the past two years, so there are fewer people walking." The man walked in the front, picked up a branch from nowhere in his hand, and slapped the weeds in front of him, shaking out a large amount of water.

"He's not the only one in this area, is he?" Jiang Gufan looked around, the fields were deserted and overgrown with weeds, and no one could be seen.

"He was the only one left. There were a few vacant houses in the village committee for him to live in. He refused, so he dragged his sacks all day long and ran all over the mountain. When he was hungry, he came back to get some food. You can’t give it clearly, you have to put it at the door secretly, and when you go back next time, you can still see a small box at the door, which is full of change.”

"His grandma taught it?" Jiang Gufan asked, knowing that he couldn't take it for nothing.

"Maybe, I can't speak and I don't know what he's thinking." The man pointed to a mound of dirt on the side of the road with a stick, and there were a few red notes hanging on it, "That's his grandma's grave."

Jiang Gufan took a look, the grave was covered with weeds, and it looked very bleak.The little mute also looked over, without any emotional fluctuations, and looked very calm.

"Why is his grandma gone?"

"I fell down on a rainy day and broke the back of my head. Someone heard the little mute crying and rushed to the hospital, but he couldn't be saved." The man sighed, "He was terrified, kept crying, had a high fever and coughed up blood, and arrived at the hospital. I dare not go there now."

The man pointed to a mountain road behind the earth house, which should be the place where the little dumb grandma fell down.

Jiang Gufan didn't speak, the little mute had already pushed open the door and went in, quickly hugged a wooden chair and placed it under the eaves, looking at him expectantly.

"Brother won't sit down, why don't you take him into the house?" Jiang Gufan looked into the house from the door. The main room was empty, and there was another room inside, which was a bit dark and hard to see.

The little mute looked in, shook his head, and patted the chair to make Jiang Gufan sit down.

"Why didn't you let brother in?" Jiang Gufan asked, he came here just to know what kind of place the little mute lived.

The little mute lowered his head, clutching the backrest with both hands, with a coy look on his face.

"At first glance, you are a rich man from the city. He is afraid that you will find it dirty and messy, and that you will dislike him."

Jiang Gufan listened to the man's words and then looked at the little mute. He understood, as if he had been stabbed in his heart, his beautiful eyes were covered with mist, and he felt like he was about to cry.

"Don't cry, brother won't be happy to see you cry." Jiang Gufan stretched out his hand to cover his eyes, his long eyelashes brushed his palm, a little itchy.

The little mute sniffed, and rubbed his eyes against his palms without getting wet.Jiang Gufan then took his hand away and said to him, "Didn't you agree to live with brother? Is there anything in the room you want to take away?"

The little mute nodded and took a look into the room, but he didn't want Jiang Gufan to enter the room, as the man said, it was dirty.

"Yesterday you were covered in mud and threw yourself on me, and I didn't leave you behind." Jiang Gufan smiled, "Can it still be full of mud?"

This time the little mute shook his head, how could the room be full of mud.The little mute looked at Jiang Gufan and thought for a while before pulling him inside.

There is nothing in the main room, it is empty, there is a crack, it is quite big, and the trunk of the tree can be seen outside.The back room was still very dark, and the glass of the window was broken, so it was covered with a cotton cloth, which looked like an old bed sheet.The little dumb pulled the light cord, and the light bulb on the roof turned on. It was dark yellow, illuminating the furniture in the room.

An old wooden bed, an old wardrobe, and a large TV set on the wooden cabinet. There is a big clock hanging on the TV set, but it has stopped.

The little mute opened the closet, and Jiang Gufan looked over. There were clothes inside, including old people's clothes, children's clothes, and middle-aged men's clothes.The little mute found out his clothes. They were very old, some had patches, and some didn't fit well. They didn't seem to be bought.

"Do you want to take them all away?" Jiang Gufan asked, and picked up one casually. It smelled damp and musty, and it felt cold in his hand.

The mud house was damp and not waterproof, and the windows for ventilation were sealed, so the house was not ventilated, and the ground was also dry and uneven. There was a puddle of water on the TV cabinet, which seemed to be a rain leak.

Jiang Gufan doesn't quite understand this kind of life. It didn't seem like a big deal ten years ago, but now.He was the only one on a hillside, guarding a dilapidated house and a lonely grave...

The little mute tugged at the pile of clothes, and the one he just bought, then shook his head.

"No more or something else?" Jiang Gufan couldn't understand the little mute. Although he couldn't speak, Jiang Gufan was thinking about teaching him to read.

The little mute thought for a while, and seemed to be looking for a better way to express it, then took out the two dollars, pointed to the old clothes, then put the two dollars in his pocket, and took a special pat.

"If you have old clothes, you don't need to spend money to buy new ones, right?" Jiang Gufan finally understood, the little mute nodded cooperatively, and pointed to the old clothes to look at him.

"What else is there besides clothes?" Jiang Gufan avoided this question for the time being. Although he didn't care about buying some clothes for the little mute, the little mute cared about it very much.

The little mute led Jiang Gufan to the side of the TV, and opened the drawer in the cabinet. There were a bunch of messy things in the drawer, and there was a pretty iron box in it.The little mute took out the iron box and held it in his arms very preciously. Jiang Gufan didn't pay much attention to the box, and his eyes were fixed on the photo that was suppressed by the box.

The photo was turned upside down, and Jiang Gufan picked it up to look at it. The photo showed a man in his 30s, slightly fat, and looked ordinary.The village committee said that the little mute's father, Liu Ping, was the only child and he was the only one in the family, so the person in the photo should be Liu Ping.

Jiang Gufan picked up the photos and looked at them. There are a few more photos below, basically all of them are alone photos. The only group photo is with another man. The two have a good relationship and are holding each other's shoulders.

"Do you recognize the person in the photo?" Jiang Gufan showed the group photo to the little mute, who stared at the photo and tried to think about it, but Jiang Gufan was very puzzled by his next reaction.

The little mute suddenly squatted down with his head in his arms, and the box in his hand fell to the ground with a clang.

Jiang Gufan looked at the photo in his hand, there was nothing strange about the people in the photo, why the little mute would have such a reaction, fear and instinctive self-protection.

Jiang Gufan didn't think too much, turned the photo over and put it down, leaned down, put his hands on the hands of the little mute, and slowly let the little mute raise his head.The little mute cried, tears slid down his cheeks, eyes full of fear!

"Look at brother! Look at brother! Brother is here! Don't be afraid!" Jiang Gufan wiped away the tears on his face with his hands, and the little mute bit his lip in a daze, and slowly heard Jiang Gufan's voice. Let go, and there is a slight change in his eyes.

Afterwards, the little mute reached out and hugged Jiang Gufan's neck, and a hoarse voice came out of his mouth, "Brother!"

This hoarse sound is unpleasant, like eating a handful of sand in the mouth, constantly grinding the throat, dry!Rough!

Jiang Gufan patted him on the back and picked up the little mute, wrapped his legs around his waist, carried the little mute out of the earthen house, and put him on a chair under the eaves.

"What's the matter?" The man had been waiting outside, and couldn't help but ask Jiang Gufan when he saw Jiang Gufan coming out with the little mute in his arms.

"I showed him the photo." Jiang Gufan touched the little mute's head, the tears had stopped, but his body was still stiff.

"What picture?"

"I'll talk about it later." Jiang Gufan looked at the little mute who had been on the bed, "Brother, go into the house now and take out your treasure box, but not the clothes, there are too many."

The little mute didn't nod or shake his head, so he probably hasn't reacted yet.

"Look at brother, don't be afraid." Jiang Gufan said again, then got up and went back to the house to pick up the iron box on the ground, and put the group photo in his coat pocket by the way.

During the whole process, the little mute sat on a chair and watched him, neither smiling nor crying, and his emotions had not stabilized yet.

Jiang Gufan gave the box to the little mute, walked aside with the man, and showed the photo to the man.

"The fat one is Liu Ping. As for the one next to him, I don't remember him. He probably isn't from our place." The man said, "Did you show him this photo?"

"Well, if you can't find Liu Ping, you can try to start with the people around him. If the relationship is so good, he should have met." Jiang Gufan looked back at the little mute, but he was emotional after seeing this photo. Out of control, in fear.That was a primitive instinctive reaction. The person in this photo had caused harm to the little mute and became an indelible shadow in the memory of the little mute.

"But he shouldn't be able to do anything about it."

"The key is that he will have a self-protective reaction when he sees this photo, covering his head with his hands. It is possible that one of these two people beat him, and it was not a general lesson." This is Jiang Gufan's judgment. If it's just the reprimand of the little dumb as an elder, there is no reason to be afraid of this.

"Liu Ping did hit him, but as a parent, it's not like..."

"He is not worthy of being a parent, nor is he worthy of being a child." Jiang Gufan interrupted the man, took out his phone and took a photo.

The man did not refute, as a man and child, Liu Ping did not fulfill his filial piety, even when his old mother passed away, he never came back to add a handful of loess and a stick of incense to the grave.

Be a parent, beat your children, let their illnesses die, and keep silent for life, abandon your children and travel far away, and never return!Do not ask!Not looking for it!

It is really rare in the world to be a child and a parent like this!

Jiang Gufan lit his cigarette and took a puff, resisting the urge to burn the photos, went back to the house and took out the rest of the photos to the man. "Leave it there, lest he see it again."

"Okay!" The man accepted, "Do you want to live with him?"

"He can't live alone now. I will stay here for a few months and live in the old house of Liang Chen's family. The house is just ahead of the fork in the road. There is a slope of peach trees behind the house."

"I know, I know! Old Liang's family! Liang Chen is one of the few college students in our town, with a bachelor's degree! Now he works in the city, are you his friend?" The man seemed to have a good impression of Liang Chen.

"Yes! Friend!" Jiang Gufan said, "I have to go back to the city during the Chinese New Year. If I can't find Liu Ping during this time, I will take him away too."

"This can be done, but it needs some formalities."

"The formalities can be done." Jiang Gufan turned his head to look at the little mute from time to time, fearing that his mood would change, "By the way, is he famous?"

"No! He didn't even have a registered permanent residence! His grandma just called him a little mute."

"He doesn't have an account?"

"No! Liu Ping is not married, and the child does not even have a birth certificate. Later, the village said that it would be treated specially. As long as a paternity test is confirmed, he will be given a household registration, but Liu Ping ran away before it was too late."

"Okay, I'll handle the household registration, but it won't fall here, and it won't fall under Liu Ping's name." Jiang Gufan threw away his cigarette butt and waved to the little mute, who ran away with a small iron box in his arms. Come over, "Go! Close the door, let's go home."

The little mute nodded, put the iron box under the eaves, moved the chair back into the room, closed the door and took the iron box back to Jiang Gufan, looking at him expectantly.

"Let's go." Jiang Gufan patted the back of his head, and the three of them returned the same way. Jiang Gufan also sent the man back to the town before driving back to Liang Chen's house.