cake
This day was Shao Linyin's eighteenth birthday. He had worked diligently for two years without taking a day off, but he specially asked for leave.
I came back from work at six in the afternoon and wandered in front of a cake shop for a long time. Finally, I made up my mind to buy a 4-inch small cake.
After all, eighteenth birthday is different from other birthdays and it must be commemorated.
He persuaded himself like this, and as he persuaded himself, a small cake appeared in his hand.
Humming a little tune, my steps became unconsciously brisk, the aroma of cream lingered on my nose, and I looked at the tube-shaped building 300 meters away. My brisk walk turned into a jog, and I wanted to quickly return to my rented house to try the cake I had been dreaming about for many years, to see what it tasted like.
Three hundred meters is not a long distance. There are small stalls on both sides of the small path.
At the stinky tofu stall, the sizzling of boiling oil was heard; the iron shovels and iron pans used for fried rice and noodles kept clashing against each other; the smoke from the barbecue charcoal fire was constantly blown in by the wind...
Between the two rows of stalls, bicycles, electric bikes and crowded crowds of people are mixed together, and the sounds of beeps, hawking and swearing can be heard one after another.
In the past, when he walked this road, he always felt crowded. But at this moment, he felt as light as a swallow. Humming a little tune, he nimbly moved sideways to bypass the crowded people in front of the stalls, carefully protecting the 4-inch cake in front of him, and walked past the last stall selling Sichuan braised dishes.
Whenever he came here, he would always slow down and smell the food more. He didn't like these braised dishes, but he loved braised chicken feet. Braised chicken feet were the most expensive, so he always smelled them more than he bought them.
But today he didn't want to.
Today, the tip of my nose is filled with the scent of cream, and my taste buds only want to be left to this little cake.
Finally, he arrived in front of his building. He held his cake in one hand and reached into his trouser pocket with the other to take out his key...
Before I could even take out the key, my other hand felt empty...
null……
Empty?
Empty!
He was stunned for about two seconds, and without even bothering to take out his keys, he turned around and chased after him.
"Stop! Thief! Robbery!!!"
He chased after it, getting closer and closer to his little cake, but he only saw a small figure running away in a somewhat embarrassed manner in the night. The square transparent plastic box of the little cake reflected some dim light from time to time.
As he chased, his pace slowed down.
He looks like a child of about ten years old, just a child...
He thought about when he was in his teens. Why not, give it to him?
I stopped thinking, "Well, I've smelled the food for 300 meters. How can this not be considered eating? How can this not be considered a meaningful birthday?"
He walked back with his hands in his pockets, kicking his feet with every step. He passed by a fried rice stall and bought himself a bowl of fried rice with an extra egg.
I carried the fried rice upstairs and placed it on a small square wooden table with two eggs.
Then he took off his dusty T-shirt and sweaty jeans, put them in a small basin, poured in detergent and soaked them, then went into the bathroom to take a shower, and felt refreshed.
After taking a shower, he washed and hung up the soaked clothes, shook off the water stains on his hair, and sat on the small plastic stool.
Staring at the golden fried rice in the fast food box, what appeared in front of my eyes was the snow-white cream cake, and I somehow lost my appetite.
He got up, closed the lunch box, and put it in the small refrigerator in the corner.
I have to find something to do, otherwise the cake will always appear in my mind.
I picked up the garbage at home, wiped the floor, and went downstairs with the garbage bag.
There are only three or four garbage disposal sites in the urban village, and the nearest one is not close to Shao Linyin's building.
He walked about three hundred meters with the garbage bag in his hand, and two meters away from the garbage disposal site, he threw the black garbage bag from a distance, and it landed accurately in the trash can.
He turned around to leave, but suddenly stopped.
First, the scent of cream that he had been smelling for three hundred meters appeared at the tip of his nose again, and then he heard the sound of smacking lips.
Following the sound, he went around.
The cramped environment in the urban village is so cramped that there is no light at all. There is usually only a gap of less than one meter between two buildings.
He leaned against a wall, his hands in his pockets, and stared at the child squatting in the crack with his head slightly lowered.
He was dark and thin, with dry and yellow hair that was messy and unkempt. His clothes were black and dirty, hanging on his body empty.
The square little cake was placed on his knees, with a small black hand holding it to prevent it from falling, and the other hand carefully holding the spoon, feeding the cake into his mouth one spoonful at a time.
Seeing that look, Shao Linyin couldn't help but smile in his heart. He seemed to be eating more sacredly than him.
Nearly an hour had passed from the time he was robbed to the time he came down from the shower and wandered here. Such a small cake should have been eaten long ago.
After finishing the last bite, there was still a small bright red cherry left. The child looked at it, put it in his mouth, and chewed it slowly, looking as if he was still reluctant to leave.
He couldn't help but ask, "Why are you eating here? Where are your family members?"
The child was so frightened that he looked up and looked into his face, then ran away!
Shao Liyin is tall and has long legs. If the child hadn't deliberately given way to him, how could he have outrun him?
After only three or five steps, he was holding the child by the collar like a chicken.
Who would have thought that this child was like a loach, twisting left and right in a few seconds and slipping out of the loose and tattered clothes, running out with his bare chest.
Shao Liyin reached out and grabbed his arm: "Hey kid, why are you running away? If I wanted to embarrass you, why would I wait until you finish eating before speaking?"
The child couldn't run away, so he could only look up and stare at him vigilantly.
Shao Linyin looked at the child. He was really thin, with ribs all over his bare body. One could tell at a glance how many bones he had.
He pondered for a moment: "Your family isn't here?"
The child kept silent and just stared at him as if he were a bad guy.
"Are you lost? Can't find your home? Do you remember your family's contact information?"
The child still didn't speak.
In the end, I was half-pulled and half-dragged back home by him unwillingly.
He closed the door and began to rummage through his simple wardrobe.
He didn't have many clothes of his own. He had two sets of work clothes, which he changed into when he went to the construction site, and two sets of clothes for home, one for going out and the other for wearing as pajamas after taking a shower.
There were only four pieces, and after he put on the pajamas, there was only one left. After thinking for a while, he took it out and handed it to the child.
"Your clothes are torn. You can't stay naked like this forever. Let me compensate you."
The child took it and tried to put it on, but he grabbed it and pointed to the bathroom: "Go take a shower first."
The child looked at him with wariness in his eyes.
He just pretended not to understand the look: "No? You want me to help you?"
The child finally went into the bathroom reluctantly. After a while, the sound of water splashing came from inside, followed by the smell of super high-end imitation shower gel from the small supermarket downstairs.
Shao Linyin looked towards the bathroom, stunned for a long time. He couldn't understand how he brought the child back.
Maybe it’s my eighteenth birthday, so there has to be something different.
He smiled helplessly, stood up and took out the fried rice from the refrigerator, turned the gas stove that was rarely used, and fortunately it could be turned on.
I stir-fried the fried rice a few times and put it back into the lunch box.
As soon as I put it on the small table, the child came out of the bathroom.
The child, after washing, still looked very fair. His loose T-shirt fell directly to his thighs. He stood there, staring at Shao Linyin with misty eyes, looking a little embarrassed.
Shao Liyin glanced at it and gestured towards the fried rice on the table: "A small cake isn't enough for you, right? Come over here and have some more."
The child hesitated for a moment, then moved over.
There was only a small plastic stool in the house. Shao Linyin stood up and leaned against the bed, flipping through a book on the bedside table.
His eyes fell on the book, and out of the corner of his eye he saw the child move to the stool. He was embarrassed at first, but then he picked up the fast food box.
I originally thought that the other party would eat voraciously, but I didn't expect that he would use chopsticks to feed the food slowly and steadily.
Shao Linyin smiled inwardly for a while, but it seemed that he could be full with just one cake, so he couldn't eat much.
While reading the book, I felt a little hungry, so I thought about waiting for him to put down his chopsticks and then eating a few bites myself.
When I stood up, I found that the other person had eaten the whole portion slowly, bite by bite!
At this moment, he was holding chopsticks and picking up the rice grains, fried egg flowers, and even chopped green onions on the box, bit by bit, and putting them into his mouth.
This is, not full yet?
Shao Liyin, who was about to go to the table to eat a few bites, met the child's eyes as he tilted his head to look at him...
"I... am going to the bathroom..." He walked into the bathroom with a blank face and legs and washed his face.
He came out with the key and looked at the child: "Are you full? I'll take you downstairs."
Shao Linyin lived on the fourth floor. He walked all the way to the first floor, swiped the door card, opened the security door, and signaled the child that he could go out.
The child followed him out of the door reluctantly, and Shao Linyin let go of his hand, and the automatic iron door was about to close slowly.
Just as it was about to be locked, a thin hand grabbed the crack of the door and pushed it open again, staring at him with bright yet timid eyes.
The first words he said that night were: "I have nowhere to go. If you stay with me, I can wash your clothes, mop the floor, and cook for you, and I can also earn money."
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