Cats care, Akutagawa appears
After listening to what the old man said, I frowned unconsciously.
"How could a cat not care? Grandpa, every cat loves this world, so no cat wants to leave this world easily. Cats must care...
Besides, Grandpa, I found the cat on the beach, and the cat must have disliked the smell of the sea for a long time."
The old man sighed silently and patted my head.
What else can we do? In today's world, even adults can hardly protect themselves, let alone children and weak kittens?
Seeing my grandfather like this, I felt like I should say something to comfort him.
"It's nothing, Grandpa. Kittens will die, flowers will die, grass will die, we will all die... I just think it's a bad death for these two kittens.
The little flower will die, but it has seen the world; the little grass will die, but it has seen the sunshine it loves; but these two little cats died without ever receiving the love the world gave them. So I think it’s a pity.”
"Grandpa, don't be sad. I have already collected them. The land will give them darkness and eternal warmth."
The old man was stunned, then suddenly raised his head and laughed, even laughing out loud, "I was actually comforted by a little kid, hahahaha..."
Even children know that it is a pity that the world does not allow the weak to survive.
The old man laughed so loudly that I felt like he wanted to attract the attention of everyone in the world.
I just laughed at the end, and when he looked at me, I found that his face was almost completely covered with tears.
He embarrassedly took out a handkerchief to wipe his face and said something incoherent to me.
"Because many lives have left this world without ever feeling the love it has given them,
This is where we adults have failed in our duty, and this is where our sin lies.”
"Little friend." He squatted down and looked me straight in the eye.
He seemed to have a thousand words to say to me, but when he met my eyes, all he could say was a sigh and a lousy compliment that adults used to give.
"You're a good boy."
I should have felt unhappy or flattered by this, but on Grandpa's face, I could only feel sadness.
"Grandpa, are all adults as weird as you?" I reached out and touched the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.
He laughed and said, "That's not necessarily true. There aren't many strange adults like me nowadays."
*
Picking up trash is not an easy job. Trash from anywhere has an unspeakable stench, let alone the coastal city of Yokohama.
When I was unlucky, I even had to search for those few scattered bottles amid the stench of garbage and rotting salted fish.
But even so, there were at least ten people around me rummaging through the garbage like me.
You know that mountain of garbage that no one is in charge of but is accepted by everyone around it as a dumping ground?
In places like this, there is not only ordinary garbage that others think of, but also leftover bones and flesh, fruit peels, and some strange, disgusting, sticky vomit-like things - I saw several wild dogs fighting for food, and there was even a lot of feces - these are also food for those stray dogs.
I don't want to go to that kind of place at all. But the things that can be used to exchange money are all in the garbage dump. If you want to exchange more money, it would be a good choice to take the bottles taken out from here to the beach and wash them.
It was horrible. As I washed the bottle and put the cap and bottle body apart, I marveled at people's adaptability.
Habit is a terrible thing. After getting used to this disgusting smell, I don’t even think it stinks anymore.
Although I only started picking up trash recently, I cannot deny that I already have a sense of being the leader of the scavengers around me.
Who told me that I can always find a lot of bottles, but I am always reluctant to pick up the particularly dirty bottles. I am still a child who can't beat the adults.
These days, whenever I show up, someone follows me, and whenever we find a new garbage mountain, the adults always rush over first to go there.
Despite this, I still picked up more bottles than them.
I don't think it's a big deal because even though I tried very hard, I could only drag a woven bag to the recycling station.
At that time, the adults who followed me had been waiting for me for a while.
*
When I got back to the sheep's base, I sat down on the sofa that the other sheep had picked up. I was all dirty, but the sofa was as dirty as me, so I didn't mind.
I saw Nakahara Chuuya walk in, and proudly took out two bills to show him. "Look, Chuuya, this is the small change I got this week, isn't it great?"
I found so many bottles by myself, picked them up by myself, and dragged them to the recycling station by myself.
If my brother wasn't around, I would have slapped the money in front of him, put on my sunglasses and said arrogantly, "I earned all this by myself!"
From Nakahara Chuuya's perspective, the child actually wanted to jump up the moment he saw him, but then he pretended to be calm and sat back down.
She showed him the fruits of her hard work as if to show off. Although Rong seemed to have tried her best to conceal her feelings, the child's eyes had already written the words "Please brag!" on his face.
So Nakahara Chuuya chuckled and walked in front of Xun.
“That’s good work.”
"Of course!" The child smiled and crooked his eyes accidentally.
*
Because of the side effects of my recent job, I begged Yuxing to help me tie my hair up.
Yes, an eight-year-old who can earn his own living still hasn't learned how to tie his own hair.
The clever Yuxing helped me divide my hair into two waves, tied them into two low ponytails, and then twisted the sides into the same style as the little bump on her head.
Ever since that morning when she tied my hair, the position of the chief barber in my heart has successfully shifted from Dazai Osamu to Yuzen.
*
I dragged my woven bag through the streets and alleys and finally got rid of the adults.
Don’t they know anything about social distancing?
Having so many people following me made me feel particularly uncomfortable. Even with the blue bracelet given to me by Nakahara Chuuya, I still felt uneasy.
I knew they meant no harm to me, but when they stared at me with such calculating eyes, for some reason I felt like a drowning person.
I have tried my best to avoid them these days, but once they see me, they are like wild dogs smelling meat buns. I can't get rid of them.
I finally got rid of them today. I wiped off the cold sweat and couldn't help feeling very proud of myself.
I was going to pick up ten bottles right away to reward myself, so I quickened my pace.
——
At this moment, I seemed to see something out of the corner of my eye.
A boy with gray hair, a black and red monster emerged from behind him... and killed a man!
The warm blood splashed even on my face.
At the same time, the boy seemed to have seen me as well. Time seemed to freeze at this moment. I clearly saw the indifference in the boy's eyes. His hair blown by the wind and even the dust in the air were all within my sight.
This person is so scary.
I finally landed on the ground and was out of his sight, but my heart was still gripped. The blood dripping down my face reminded me of something all the time.
Will I die?
People say that before death, there will be a revolving lantern flashing before your eyes.
My brain felt like a mess, even dark. I couldn't hear anything, even the sound of the wind had quieted down. It was all so quiet that I felt like I had just had an illusion.
It wasn't because I was so talented and brave, nor was it some weird curiosity. My head was spinning slowly, but my brain and heart were going crazy, telling me to run away.
Alarm bells were ringing all over my body, but I had no control over my body.
"Run away", "Don't stand there", "Leave quickly"
But my eyes had already seen the body, and the boy had disappeared.
——
"Plop" My legs went weak and I knelt on the ground.
That is, what...
Oh, it's a corpse.
When it really came to this, I unexpectedly remained calm because I saw a wooden warehouse.
I saw Kikura in Yokohama so often that it seemed to complete the first eight years of my life, so I naturally recognized it.
He crawled and picked up the wooden basket, but his eyes still caught a glimpse of the terrified expression of the corpse and the bullet marks on the wall in the direction the corpse was looking.
It was in the direction of the boy just now, so was he just defending himself?
I picked up my tears, and it seemed that I had used up all my courage. My face was wrinkled from trying so hard to hold back my tears.
Although he was extremely scared, he still remembered to wrap the wooden container with clothes to prevent others from seeing it.
I ran all the way back to the sheep and hid the wooden warehouse. Finally, I couldn't control myself and burst into tears - in front of Nakahara Chuuya.
Who told me to hide my things so that the first thing Nakahara Chuuya said when he saw me was "What's wrong with you?"?
I couldn't hold it together, and I was gesticulating with my hands.
“I’m so scared! I just saw a dead person! So scared! Chuuya, so scared! So ...
Nakahara Chuuya pulled a handkerchief to wipe my face. "Okay, okay, okay, I got it. Lift your face."
"Chuye, sob, sob... He, his blood is all over the floor, his clothes are covered in dirt, and his face has no color at all, like a mannequin..." She started crying again, and her nose naturally started to run.
Nakahara Chuuya found it funny, so he washed the handkerchief and then wiped the face of the fox.
The cry of Rong just now attracted the attention of almost everyone who was currently at the sheep's place. I don't know if she will be so embarrassed that she will want to die after everything is over.
As for whether it would leave any psychological shadows... I can just spend more time with her and it should be fine, right? Nakahara Chuuya thought uncertainly.
The simple and honest folk customs of Yokohama gave Nakahara Chuuya a wrong perception, as if the death of a person was a very normal thing. He did not expect that this greatest normality was also the greatest abnormality.
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