Xiao Cheng's father became addicted to gambling and lost all the family's wealth. Even selling the wonton shop wasn't enough to pay off the debts. His mother abandoned him and ran away, and his father ignored him completely.
He borrowed money from relatives and friends, paid off his debts, and then continued gambling.
Xiao Cheng's father later remarried.
Xiao Cheng's stepmother treated him badly... He often went hungry and cold, and several times she chased him out of the house in freezing weather.
He nearly froze to death on the street.
After graduating from junior high school, his stepmother interfered even more, preventing him from attending high school.
When Xiao Wei was four years old, his fiery stepmother and father had a fight, and in a fit of anger, she committed suicide by drinking pesticide.
That same year, on a stormy night, my father was accidentally electrocuted and died on his way back from the casino.
The sound of steady, even breathing came from beside her, and Bai Lu returned to reality from her memories. Xiao Cheng was already asleep.
From her perspective, his straight nose was prominent and sculpted, his long eyelashes cast a shadow on his eyelids, and his thin lips were tightly closed, conveying indifference and coldness.
They forgot to turn off the lights.
Bai Lu looked at the glaring orange light bulb on the wall, sighed helplessly, and quietly got up.
She carefully stepped over the man and pulled the cord to turn off the light.
She was fine going there, but on the way back, just as she took a step, Xiao Cheng suddenly turned over and tripped her.
It fell directly on him.
A cool, soft sensation touched my lips, followed by a sharp pain, as if... I had bumped into the corner of his lip.
Xiao Cheng groaned and opened his eyes. His scarlet eyes were like those of a ferocious beast awakened from its slumber, with flames burning beneath them as he stared unblinkingly at Bai Lu in front of him.
Bai Lu paused for a moment, then instantly sprang up and rolled back to her little corner of the wall.
"You turned over first and tripped me."
Family rules and etiquette taught her to apologize when she did something wrong, but they didn't make her take the blame, and she resolutely refused to.
Xiao Cheng seemed to have not yet recovered, and only when he heard her voice did his unfocused pupils gradually become clear.
I got up and turned on the light.
He raised his hand and wiped his mouth, a bright red stain illuminating his fingertip. His tone was not friendly: "Sharp-tongued."
Bai Lu then noticed that his lip was injured.
In the dim light, a crack appeared at the corner of the man's lips, from which bright red blood oozed. He pursed his lips, managing to stop the bleeding for a moment, but his lips were soon stained red again.
If you don't look closely, it's hard to notice that there's another old mark next to the cracked corner of the mouth.
Fortunately, Bailu looked at it intently and with her eyes glued to it.
"What kind of look is that?"
Xiao Cheng gave her a cold glance.
Bai Lu immediately denied it: "I wasn't thinking anything."
He firmly denied that he had just thought of Widow Wang.
Xiao Cheng chuckled and said coolly, with a hint of sarcasm, "She doesn't have the guts."
Bai Lu: "..." I must have eaten the gall of a bear and the heart of a leopard!
The injury on Xiao Cheng's lip was actually from a fight he had a couple of days ago when he went to a casino in a neighboring city to collect debts. He got into an argument with the casino owner and couldn't dodge in time, resulting in an accidental scrape.
After collecting the money, he also gave a message to those guys in the bureau, telling them to sweep through the area and earn merit.
The big boss has been taking on increasingly borderline jobs lately.
Although he's a slacker, he knows what he's capable of and what he's not, and it's time for him to change careers.
Xiao Cheng's gaze inadvertently fell on Bai Lu's stomach, which terrified her.
It was still cold, and she was wearing a thick, loose sweater. Unless you looked closely, you couldn't tell that her belly was flat and not at all like someone who was more than five months pregnant.
Bai Lu wasn't confident she could challenge the intelligence of a future business tycoon: "I'll go get you some salt water to wipe it off."
A belly that costs 30,000 yuan!
She didn't dare to cross the line. What if something went wrong and the truth came out? Where would she find a child to give birth to?
Bai Lu tiptoed to the foot of the bed, as if walking on thin ice, and then took small steps to the kitchen.
I took a bowl from the cupboard, mixed some salt with well water, and now I had the salt water, but I still needed cotton swabs.
There was certainly no luxury like cotton swabs at home, so Bailu grabbed a few toothpicks, went back to her room, put the bowl on the table, opened the drawer, and took out a small clump of cotton.
Use a toothpick to poke the side, and slowly start to roll it up from the outside in.
Xiao Cheng watched the girl's busy little figure, a ripple passing through his eyes, lost in thought.
He never used to take this minor injury seriously.
It will be fine in a couple of days, and nobody will care.
Unexpectedly...
"I didn't mean to," Bai Lu explained again, but this time her voice was much softer than before.
At first, she thought it was just a small crack, but after wiping away the congealed blood, she realized that the wound was quite large, and the red flesh inside her lip was clearly visible.
Xiao Cheng could feel the careful wiping of his lips. Bai Lu sat on the edge of the bed, her small face close to his, her hand holding the homemade cotton swab, slender and fair.
Those clean, pure eyes were half-covered by thick, curled eyelashes; she didn't dare to look up at him.
Xiao Cheng pursed his lips and whispered, "Mm."
Bai Lu had originally hoped that when the truth came out, Xiao Cheng would remember even a little of her good qualities and not kill her.
Now, it seems that even meritorious deeds cannot atone for one's sins.
After finishing everything and tidying up, Bailu could finally go to sleep. This time, she didn't toss and turn; she lay down on the bed and quickly fell asleep.
Xiao Cheng, however, couldn't sleep.
My gaze shifted from the girl's sleeping profile to above, where a ray of light was slowly descending.
There's a transparent tile on the roof that lets you see directly into the sky. What used to be an endless expanse of darkness now has a bright, dazzling star shining through it.
In the darkness, the light of dawn is ignited.
—
The next morning, when Bailu woke up, there was no one beside her, and the quilt was neatly folded at the foot of the bed.
Bai Lu got up, stretched, and habitually folded the quilt into a neat, square block.
She only realized when her hand touched the mosquito net that this was the 1990s, and she was no longer in the 21st century.
She can actually do whatever she wants.
Just fold them neatly like Xiao Cheng does.
She acted on her thought immediately, throwing off the blanket and folding it over and over again, finally managing to make the blanket look as neat and tidy as she had wanted to for a long time but had never managed to do.
Xiao Cheng watched from outside the window as she tossed the blanket around for a long time.
He was still shaking it while grinning like an idiot.
Bai Lu had no idea until she came to the kitchen and saw the steaming bowl of noodles on the table.
It was topped with a poached egg, steaming hot, clearly fresh out of the pan.
Xiao Wei has already gone to school, and Xiao Cheng isn't here either. Who cooked the noodles?
Bai Lu rolled her eyes and scanned the front and back yards several times. Apart from the old hen in the backyard clucking to announce the good news after laying an egg, she didn't see a single person.
Perhaps, when Xiao Cheng was making breakfast, he also made her a portion, and she ate it before leaving.
Bai Lu didn't think much of it. She picked up the enamel washbasin, towel, mouthwash cup, and toothbrush, squeezed toothpaste onto it, and went to the hand pump in the yard to pump water to brush her teeth and wash her face.
After washing up, I ate breakfast.
After eating, we went to the backyard to collect eggs.
There was no chicken coop in the backyard as I had imagined; instead, a circle of bamboo was inserted into the ground, forming a long oval chicken pen.
In the corner of the chicken coop, there was a straw nest covered with a small straw shed, so it wouldn't get wet in the rain. Inside the nest was a large egg.
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