scorching sun
The feeling of fullness brought by the bowl of hot porridge offset some of the discomfort caused by the headache. The sleepiness that Zhou Min had previously suppressed came back again, and he fell into a deep sleep soon after turning off the lights.
She dreamed about the past again. Fortunately, it was a long time ago. It was not a very good childhood, but it was not a very bad childhood either.
"Why are you throwing food away? Don't you know it's a waste?"
Not long ago, the director repeatedly told all the children to please Zhou Qiting and not to make her angry, otherwise everyone would go hungry in the days to come.
But when Zhou Min saw Zhou Qiting ordering people to throw away the remaining food without hesitation, she couldn't help it and expressed her dissatisfaction to Zhou Qiting while the dean and teachers were not paying attention.
"What else?" The word "waste" has never appeared in Zhou Qiting's dictionary.
When Zhou Qiting was at home, the chef at home always cooked different dishes for her, just hoping that she would eat more. Therefore, the dishes on the table every day far exceeded the amount a child should consume.
As a result, the chefs changed one after another, the dishes changed again and again, but Zhou Qiting's appetite gradually declined.
It tasted good, but she didn't want to eat it. She looked at the carefully prepared meal in front of her and the servants standing by with their heads lowered, like never before, and she felt that eating was really boring.
It's far less interesting than watching those golden eyes burn with anger.
Zhou Qiting did not satisfy other people's wishes for her hobbies, but followed her arrogant habit, which aroused different emotions in Zhou Min, which was really an unexpected surprise.
Most of the dogs around him were docile, and the rare wildness in them naturally caught Zhou Qiting's attention.
Zhou Qiting found it very interesting. She held Zhou Min's face in her hands and looked at his eyes, which had become even angrier because of her careless words. She rarely praised him: "You have beautiful eyes."
It is very beautiful, like the scorching sun sinking into the sea, a boiling golden color.
Zhou Min's anger was dispelled by Zhou Qiting's sudden praise, and he was suddenly at a loss.
This was the first time that someone other than Teacher Xiao He had praised her for her beautiful eyes.
Unlike the director’s disdain of “No one wants to adopt you because of your eyes”, and unlike the other children’s fear of “Don’t look at me, your eyes are scary”, Zhou Min received the second kindness in his life on an ordinary day.
Zhou Qiting became even more interested when he saw Zhou Min, who was shy and had his eyes wandering around, not knowing where to look.
So for the next period of time, she specially designated Zhou Min to stay with her as her new "toy".
"Can you sing? I want to hear you sing." Zhou Qiting sat on the steps, raised his chin, and signaled Zhou Min, who was sitting on the lower step, to listen to his orders obediently.
Zhou Min was a little embarrassed, but he still sang in his childish voice with a trembling cry: "An orphan like me, stranded at the bottom of the valley, I'm afraid I'm already the aftermath of a passionate love affair..."
The lyrics are very straightforward, so straightforward that it's pitiful.
Zhou Qiting was obviously dissatisfied and frowned, saying, "Sing something else."
"I only know this one," Zhou Min rubbed the frayed edge of his knee patch with his skinny fingers. Seeing Zhou Qiting's increasingly unhappy expression, he added hastily, "The dean said that knowing this one is enough..."
At the end of every year, the welfare home holds an open day and invites some kind-hearted people from the society to visit. In order to make money by playing the victim, children's chorus performances are one of the more important parts.
Because of Zhou Min's special appearance and bright eyes, which looked particularly creepy on her shriveled face, the director always arranged her in the last row of the choir, with taller children in front to block her so as not to scare the sponsors and hinder the welfare home's financial resources.
The director told the children participating in the choir that they did not have to sing beautifully, but they had to sing sadly enough, and it would be best if they could move the audience to immediately open their wallets and donate all their love into the donation box.
What does "sadness" mean? At first, the young Zhou Min couldn't understand the word, and the dean replied impatiently, "Just think about the saddest thing and sing it."
Zhou Min knew the word "sad". It was the feeling of feeling sour in the heart, eyes and nose.
It was the feeling of Teacher Xiao He sighing as she gazed at the dilapidated welfare home, the feeling of Xiao Yi watching the other children run with her trouser legs hanging loose, the feeling of Xiao Yue being unable to hear Zhou Min's words no matter how close she got...
It is a feeling that the girls in the welfare home can feel with every breath.
After Zhou Min was chosen as a "toy" by Zhou Qiting, the dean specifically told Zhou Min that as long as he could please Zhou Qiting, they would be able to get new bedding before the cold winter came, Xiaoyi would be able to sit in a wheelchair and play with everyone, and Xiaoyue would be able to wear hearing aids to hear everyone talking.
The dean also promised to clean out the bookshelf used to store miscellaneous items and fill it with Zhou Min's favorite books.
Zhou Min counted on his fingers and told the dean a series of book titles in one breath. They were all stories that Teacher Xiao He retold to them every night before bed. The dean agreed to all of them.
To please Zhou Qiting.
Zhou Min made up his mind. Before Zhou Qiting could lose her temper, he looked at her with moist eyes, pleadingly. His already humble attitude became even lower. He said timidly, "What kind of stories do you like to hear? I'm willing to learn them all."
The person who had questioned me before now seemed like a puppy wagging its tail and begging for mercy.
An inexplicable joy instantly filled Zhou Qiting's chest. She was silent for a while, and then she said, "Forget it, I'll teach you."
"This line is sung in the wrong beat."
"You sang this line wrong again. Oh my, you're so stupid. How come you're as stupid as Zheng Siying?"
"Why can't you learn this sentence..."
…
Zhou Qiting sat in the car, looking up at the dim window of Zhou Min's house, and concluded that the sick person was now sleeping peacefully.
Soothing music flowed in the small space, but Zhou Yiting's heart could not calm down.
She thought a lot, about the pleading eyes from long ago, about the upward gaze from bottom to bottom on that night of escape, and about Zhou Min's rough hair being gently stroked by the woman's hand.
Sprouting, rising, and withering.
These were the memories of paintings that she once despised and avoided.
The friend she thought was her lifelong friend turned out to be just a tool to be used against her.
What about you, will you betray me?
She raised her hand and took a closer look. The palm of her hand seemed to still retain the tingling touch of being rubbed by her forehead. The girl's behavior made the idea of "confinement" that she had forced herself to suppress that day come to a boil again.
Many desires swirled and intertwined in her mind, fermenting and expanding. The desire for control that she thought had long disappeared was now revived.
There was no way she could ignore the elephant in the room any longer.
The soothing music seemed even more noisy to Zhou Yiting's ears. She simply turned off the music, took out a box of peach candies from the glove box on the passenger side, opened the package, picked up one and put it on her tongue.
It's too sweet. Zhou Yiting looked at the icing on her fingertips and laughed.
Anyone would do, or did it have to be her? Zhou Qiting wanted to find out.
If it's the former, she won't open up to the other person. She'll use the same tricks as before until he's no longer interested.
If it was the latter, she would have to consider more things. She would have to exchange sincerity for sincerity. No, that was not enough. She wanted more than sincerity. She wanted the other person to be inseparable from her forever, preferably to stay in her small space forever.
Unconsciously, the sweetness in her mouth disappeared, but the desire in Zhou Qiting's heart began to clamor.
The balance has tilted.
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