Chapter 457 Parallel Time and Space (XII)
Something urgent happened on Saturday morning, so after Lin Xiaotong finished her business in the morning, the messages on her phone stopped.
People cannot stay indoors for a long time. Less time exposed to the sun will lead to vitamin D deficiency, making people particularly tired and listless all day long.
Lin Sujuan was discharged from the hospital a few days ago. Today, after Lin Xiaotong finished her work, she took her things and went directly to the welfare home.
She didn't tell me in advance that she was coming today.
The welfare home is located in the suburbs of the county, in a relatively remote location, and you can see the surrounding farmland. Fortunately, there is a direct bus.
Take the wobbly bus, take a nap on it, and when you wake up you will have reached the terminal.
After getting off the bus, you have to walk a few hundred meters forward. When you see the red flag fluttering in the air, you have reached your destination.
She looked up at the house number, the writing on which had become a little blurred after being weathered by wind and rain, and there were things drying on the cement floor at the door.
It was already past two in the afternoon and the nap had just ended.
Mother Lin must be sitting in her office as usual, with a cup of tea at hand, wearing glasses and concentrating on working on things.
She stepped in and found it quiet inside. It must be that the kids who were still in bed had not gotten up yet.
The welfare home covers a large area. When you enter from the gate, there is a large courtyard in the middle, surrounded by small buildings.
On the left is a row of three-story dormitory buildings. This is the girls' dormitory, with two bunk beds in each room.
A long time ago, this place was very lively and there were many children in the welfare home.
To be precise, the population of welfare homes exploded during the period between the introduction of the family planning policy and the introduction of the two-child policy.
Lin Sujuan is kind-hearted. Whenever she finds a child abandoned at the door, she will bring the child in.
Many of them were baby girls who were only a few days old. Their little bodies were curled up in bamboo baskets, crying loudly. They were hungry and howled at the top of their lungs.
So most of her companions are girls.
Some cruel parents are reluctant to give their children even a small quilt, and just wrap their children in a single piece of clothing and send them over.
Mother Lin told her that one winter morning it snowed heavily.
The weather was too cold and she got up late. When she went out with a broom to sweep the snow, she found a small pile of snow at the door.
When they opened it with their hands, they found a baby girl who had frozen to death.
It was only a few months old. Its face was frozen, its lips were pale, and its body was stiff. It was very likely that it was sent here overnight.
When people living nearby found out, they looked unhappy, sighed and shook their heads.
All I can say is: "What a sin!"
A few steps inside the back door of the welfare home is a small hill where some children are buried. They are their deceased brothers and sisters.
Every year before Qingming Festival and Chinese New Year, everyone would take time to fold gold ingots, write blessings on the paper, and burn them for their family members who were buried in the ground.
In comparison, children who can live safely in welfare homes are a little luckier.
The welfare home is well-known. In the 1990s, some people from nearby went south to do business and made a lot of money.
When he returned home to repair his house, he felt kind-hearted and donated some money to the welfare home.
Lin Sujuan renovated the welfare home and used the remaining money for the children's living expenses.
Make sure every penny is spent wisely, save wherever possible, and ensure that children can eat meat twice a week.
When the real estate bubble burst on the southern island in 1995, kind-hearted people were timid and did not dare to get involved in the speculation of pre-sale properties, thus keeping their money.
Many of his companions relied on their big appetites and invested all their fortunes, only to end up bankrupt and separated from their wives and children.
Some people even jumped from the roof, staining the ground with blood.
It is a pity that people risked their lives just to make money.
Kind-hearted people feel a chill down their spines when they think about it, and after much reflection, they feel that it is the result of their good deeds.
So they donated a sum of money to the welfare home every year and also set up scholarships to provide additional financial support for people in high school and university.
Lin Xiaotong is one of the people who benefited from it.
By the time she was in high school, the two-child policy was relaxed and the number of children in the welfare home gradually decreased.
Lin Sujuan raised the child, but there were still relatively few parents willing to adopt the child.
After all, life was not easy for every family at that time, and one more child meant one more mouth to feed.
Those who come here to adopt are parents who are infertile and are willing to come here to choose a young boy.
Children are young and don’t remember things, so they are easy to raise.
Beautiful ones are more likely to be adopted.
When Lin Xiaotong was a child, she was good-looking, smart, and sweet-spoken, so several parents were willing to adopt her.
Mother Lin said that whenever someone hugged her, she would cry and would refuse to leave.
I don't know where I got the strength from, but I pulled her legs hard and refused to let go. I cried so hard that my tonsils got inflamed.
In the end, the adopter's head was buzzing with noise and he let go.
She became an elderly person in the nursing home and lived there peacefully until she graduated from junior high school.
I had to live on campus during high school and only moved my bed out after the college entrance examination.
Directly across the line of sight are the cafeteria, classroom and Lin Sujuan's own small room.
On the right is the boys' dormitory building. There are not so many people living there now, and many rooms are vacant.
At that time, there were 8 people living in one house, but now it has been changed into a single room.
Some of the vacant houses have been turned into storage rooms. Without anyone living there for a long time, they have become a happy nest for rats and spiders.
There is a small indoor basketball court next to the cement ground in the middle of the yard, and some sports facilities are placed around it.
There is an osmanthus tree in front of the girls’ dormitory on the left. College student volunteers previously helped build a tree house.
More than one meter above the ground, a platform was built with wooden boards on a tree branch, and on it stood a small wooden house with pointed corners.
It is surrounded by railings and connected to the ground by a slide.
When she was a child, she always loved to climb up and stay in the tree house with her friends.
With their heads pressed together and their arms as pillows, they counted the stars through the skylight.
There is also a vegetable patch at the back door. Everyone has their own small vegetable garden with a sign next to it. Everyone will run over to take a look after class.
If you are lucky, you may catch the vegetable thief on the spot. He will be angry and holding a shovel, chasing each other, and the noise can be heard for two miles.
There are a lot of laughter and joy in the days of living here, and batches of people leave the welfare home after they become adults.
I started living independently, but no matter how far I went, I would always find time to come back and visit.
There are also those who are too busy at work to come back, so they set aside part of their salary to send to Mother Lin.
Perhaps it's because of the passage of time that the walls that were once painted white have become mottled.
The wall paint has fallen off at the base, the ground is covered with pieces of white lime, and the exposed wall bricks can be seen.
Rainwater flowed down the drain pipes, leaving several dirty marks on the wall.
The tall and beautiful dormitory building in my memory is now old, and the wood of the tree house is old, and the planks are infested with insects and brittle.
Surrounded by nets, the slide can no longer be used for play, and the wooden platform has become a home for birds.
Lin Xiaotong saw a child squatting stealthily under the wall, holding a ruler in his hand and smearing something on the wall.
She tiptoed over, patted his shoulder, and whispered:
"Xiao Wuzi, what are you doing?"
"Sister Tong, you're back! Look, I'm mending the wall! Am I awesome?"
He turned around, saw who was coming, and answered in a low voice, not caring about the white ash rubbing against his body.
Little Radish Head pulled her forward and tried hard to invite her to see his masterpiece that he had just completed.
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