Chapter 15 Preface 'The Bible and the Butcher's Knife'

Time: October 17, 1997, Summer Pre-note: ['Jesus in the World']

"Dad, where is our home?"

I sat on the ground and looked at the sloppy man in front of me.

The man looked slovenly, not caring about the looks of people around him. He picked up a plastic bottle from the trash can and said, "We have two families."

"Where is home?"

"Don't worry, it will arrive soon."

My name is Sun Jiang. Actually I don’t have a name, but my crying by the river woke up the man under the bridge, so he took me away and named me Jiang, after his surname.

He is a beggar, so I am naturally a beggar too.

He said he was a rat, a rat in his fifties or sixties, the kind that everyone wanted to kill, running around on the streets, making a mess of the trash cans, with flies and mosquitoes flying around him.

I said I was a little mouse and had been a mouse since birth. I was a mouse hiding beside the street on the way to school, watching the children carrying schoolbags and being escorted by their parents to school.

He said that one should be content with what he has. Actually, I am quite content because I have a girl who plays with me.

The girl's name was Bai Xuhong. She was uglier than me and had followed Big Rat earlier than me. She seemed like the daughter of a homeless man. Big Rat wouldn't let her take a bath or wash her face. She wouldn't let her wipe the eye boogers off her face, and she wasn't allowed to talk outside. She often whispered these words to me.

I followed her and cursed the big rat.

later.

The big rat is dead.

Before he died, he called me over with a pale face, touched my head, and said:

"I'm going home first."

After saying that, the big rat closed his eyes.

I didn't understand. He said he was going home, but he never opened his eyes or left. He just lay in this alley, among the garbage.

Xiaobai and I waited for a very long time. The big rat had a strong stench, so we wanted to give it a bath, but soon a few people came and took the big rat away.

I think the big rat has gone home.

Where is my home? I walked aimlessly, and everything I saw was a daze, but I felt at ease when I held Xiaobai's hand.

Xiaobai is very lively. She can’t talk outside, so she tells me everything in private.

We lay under the stars, looking at them and chatting.

She said that when she grows up she wants to wear nice clothes and eat ice cream. She thought about it and added that it was not picked up from the trash can.

I said, I want to have a family when I grow up.

Xiaobai thought about it, patted his chest and said proudly, "We will have a home together."

Later we walked together and hid together.

Other mice would come to bully us and take away the bottles we had picked up.

There are old people who are obviously not rats who come to rob. I think, they can survive, why rob? Forget it, I can't beat them anyway.

But there were people who came to see us from time to time, and because of him, Xiaobai and I learned to read.

We live like this on and off, but very happily.

I know I'm growing up.

The big mouse said, we have two homes, as long as we survive, we can always go home.

later.

Flowers appeared in the sky. Xiaobai and I walked out of the dilapidated temple and looked at the flowers in the sky. It felt very novel.

It seemed like flowers would bloom in the sky every once in a while, and it was also very lively below.

Xiaobai looked for a long time, then looked at herself. She said she wanted to take a bath, so she went to the house of the person who taught me to read.

Xiaobai is very beautiful after taking a bath, prettier than me.

I thought about it and went down the mountain to ask for food.

This festival is really great. Every time I knock on the door to ask for food, many people give me food, and it’s delicious.

I was thinking about eating it with Xiaobai when I get back.

I'm going back.

The bowl fell to the ground.

I saw several figures doing something to Xiaobai. I didn’t know what it was and my mind went blank.

I chased after him. I didn't know why, but I chased after him anyway.

They came back and I seemed to be invisible.

When I woke up, I met the person who taught me how to read.

He took me to the top of the mountain, and I saw Xiaobai. Xiaobai also closed her eyes, and there were a group of people around her. According to the big rat, she had gone home.

I don't understand, but I feel pain in my chest.

I was speechless and tried to move forward, but the man suddenly grabbed me.

He put his hand to his mouth.

"Shh~"

Zhao Kang is a politics teacher.

Not only is he a teacher, he is also the head of the grade and is very authoritative.

He is meticulous. If he sees gangsters or lazy students, he feels sorry for them, so Zhao Kang will take them back to school in a serious manner.

Zhao Kang knew that these students would call him Zhao Baopi behind his back.

But it doesn’t matter. A little criticism is nothing. If they can come back to study and leave the countryside, then let them criticize.

Later, he brought back a few students from outside.

Please...collect 6_9_book_bar (Six//Nine//Book//bar)

Several children like this kind of brotherhood the most, but they don’t know that this kind of behavior will only ruin their own future and eventually become an ordinary person at the bottom of society, busy and doing nothing.

He wanted to save the other person's future.

Zhao Kang gave them a good beating and took them back to school. He didn't ask them to go to college, but even going to a technical secondary school was a good way out in that era.

But what a pity.

He underestimated the other person's character.

The other side strangled his destiny.

A few people who felt embarrassed, under psychological coercion, blocked his son and robbed him, and killed him during the fight.

His wife also went crazy and jumped into the river when he was not at home.

Zhao Kang never recovered from this setback.

So, the textbook in Zhao Kang's hand became a Bible.

The Bible filled the emptiness in his heart, and he became a most devout believer, holding the Bible in his hand day and night, and constantly doing good deeds to atone for his sins.

Until later.

He discovered that two of the children he looked after from time to time were in trouble. He grabbed the boy who was about to go forward. He knew what the consequences would be if he went forward.

He didn't understand, were these kids guilty?

He asked again, was he guilty?

Zhao Kang went to ask God, but God did not answer.

God didn't give him an answer.

Zhao Kang needs an answer.

He gave the boy a seed, and the boy planted it.

Four years later, the seed has grown into a small sapling, lush and green, exuding vitality.

He looked at the other person with a questioning look in his eyes.

The other party held a sharp knife and cut off the sapling.

He smiled.

So Zhao Kang closed the Bible.

Zhao Kang clenched the butcher knife.

On September 2, 2003, Sun Jiang was handcuffed and sitting in the detention center.

The big rat said that people like them only have two homes.

The big rat went first.

Sun Jiang came to the second one.

(Case closed) September 4th, 6:30 in the morning.

“Swish!”

Xu Hao suddenly jumped up from the bed, his eyes were bloodshot, and he sat on the bed in a daze for a while.

Various scenes from his dream emerged in his mind. His lips moved for a moment. He wanted to say a lot, and thousands of words finally converged into one sentence.

"Damn dog system!"

This is the first time I write such a long preface.

If you don't like it, I won't write any more, or I can make a special extra chapter (end of this chapter)