The next morning, Zhao Lan sat down in the tea restaurant early.
She arrived a full hour earlier than scheduled, bringing all the gifts her family had prepared, but still couldn't help asking her husband, "Will your brother not want to come?"
"No." The gentleman held her hand and answered her seriously, "My brother is as brave as you."
Zhao Lan held her husband's hand tightly and adjusted her collar carefully.
She looked out the window, then looked away, and slowly turned the teacup.
She knew her brother was brave.
The child she took back from the firewood pile rarely spoke even after waking up. A few days later, she learned that the child's name was Huo Miao.
Those people did not allow them to remember their names and asked them to forget everything in the past, otherwise they would be beaten until they could not move.
So they made an agreement that she would call her brother "Huo Miao" and Huo Miao would call her "sister".
During those three years, apart from working day and night and being beaten, they were always trying to find ways to escape.
There were not many opportunities to find them, and they were being watched closely. Once when it was raining heavily, they took the opportunity to go mow the grass and ran as fast as they could, and they almost succeeded.
That time they ran into a field and hid among the corn stalks. The sharp leaves scratched their bodies and hands, leaving blood marks all over them. The rain was pouring heavily, the thunder was roaring and the lightning was blinding. The footsteps of the people searching for them were very close, and the light of their flashlights was sweeping everywhere.
"Sister." The boy held her hand tightly, "I was the one who ran away."
"I ran away and you came to find me...just tell them that."
It was impossible for them to escape that time, so they had to come up with an explanation, otherwise neither of them would be able to get through and return.
"I'm too young to take care of both of us. You can't get beaten."
My brother's voice was low, trembling slightly in the raging rainstorm: "You have to be well, so we can escape."
"I will live." The brother promised her, "Sister, I promise you, I will live."
"I want to live." Her brother told her many times, "I have a sister. She will be scared without a brother."
The younger brother would survive every time, and would struggle to tell her that his family was looking for him and he wanted to escape and go home.
What happened next was another nightmare. She watched the boy turn around and rush out. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to act as agreed, watching the fists, kicks and sticks fall down without mercy, all hitting her brother.
She watched the child gradually stop moving, and finally she couldn't stand it anymore... She learned without any instruction how to be a crazy, mentally ill expectant mother who wanted a child so badly.
She went to argue with those people hysterically, snatched the child away from their fists, held him in her arms, kept holding his hanging, cold hands, held him in her arms, rocked him, and called him baby.
At this point, those people were actually satisfied. This was exactly the kind of "goods" they wanted. They thought she had finally figured it out, so they packed up their weapons and left.
A week later, Huo Miao woke up, but was still lying in bed unable to move.
The broken ribs injured the lungs, so I asked a local doctor to reconnect them. The injured area was covered with herbal medicine, and I would cough up blood if I sat up a little.
The child opened his eyes, and after a while suddenly recognized her. A smile filled his eyes, and he called her "Sister" without uttering a word.
…
Three years went by like this.
During those three years, the two depended on each other. If one of them couldn't hold on and fell asleep, the other would hold an iron bar and keep watch, and would be immediately awakened by any noise.
Zhao Lan knew very well that Mingchi was very brave and would definitely come as long as Mingchi agreed.
But she was still worried that the appointment was a little early.
"We also chatted." Zhao Lan held her husband's hand and whispered to him, "He said that mom didn't do it on purpose. It was an accident that no one expected."
"He told me that his mother must feel very guilty about losing him and his sister. His brother is abroad, but he will probably be worried after hearing about it."
Zhao Lan whispered, "He blames himself. He feels that he shouldn't have lost it. He said that he should have been more alert and more aware of self-protection that day."
They don't just talk about how to escape every day, as that would make people depressed and drive them crazy. They also talk about what will happen after they escape and return home.
This is their biggest motivation to fight desperately to survive and escape.
This is their happiest time.
Only at this time, they looked like college students under 20 years old and children under 10 years old.
"As soon as I get home, I hug my parents and cry."
Zhao Lan hugged her knees and propped up her chin with her arms: "I still have a younger sister. She will also come over to cry."
Huo Miao also imitated her, hugging her knees and supporting her chin with her arms: "I want to hug my father, mother and sister and cry, too."
He found that he had won a round, and immediately added: "I have an older brother at home."
"You're such a jerk!" Zhao Lan nodded his head, "Then I'm going to sleep in my bed at home for a whole day and night without getting up."
The flames immediately doubled: "I want to sleep for three days and three nights."
Zhao Lan could hardly hold back her laughter, but she pretended to be angry: "Okay, then I have to make up for all the things that happened in the past few years - I want to celebrate three birthdays in a row, and turn twenty years old directly."
"I want to get four in one go." The flame struck accurately, "The day I lose it will be my birthday, and there will be thirty-four candles on the cake."
Zhao Lan was completely defeated by him and decided to take the final punitive measure. She blew a few breaths on her hands and touched the places where he was ticklish.
…
The two of them fell down on the haystack with laughter. Those were the happiest minutes they had in those three years.
That night Zhao Lan dreamed of herself returning home, and she guessed Huo Miao had the same dream. But for some reason, the boy didn't seem as happy as before, and instead seemed to be a little more worried.
"What's the matter?" Zhao Lan bent down and asked him during a break in the wheat harvest, "Are you worried that we can't escape?"
Huo Miao shook his head without thinking, wiped the sweat off with his sleeve, and gave a very brief smile.
Zhao Lan forbade him to do heavy work anymore, and asked her brother to stand still and not move, and squat down to check his waist.
There was a bone protruding from his skinny waist. The local doctor didn't dare to press the button, saying that it was a blow. If the pressure wasn't done well, the patient wouldn't be able to walk. He could only wait and go back to a big hospital in the city for treatment.
"When I get home, I must tell my parents to get my back healed."
Zhao Lan put his clothes down, turned in front of him, raised her hand and touched his ear: "And here, remember it?"
Huo Miao nodded obediently and stroked her hair: "Sister, you also need to take care of your health."
"Sure." Zhao Lan clenched her fist, "When we are all well, we will arrange a meal."
She was so hungry just thinking about it: "I am dying of hunger when I think about the cafeteria now. Wow, there is also the New Year's Eve dinner, a big table of food for the whole family, and then when we two families eat together, it will be two big tables of food, which is great."
Huo Miao's eyes also smiled and he clenched his fists: "Let's have dinner together."
…
This meal had been delayed for thirteen years.
"It's not any of your fault."
The gentleman said to her, "It's fate."
A few days before they successfully escaped, they were retaliated against by those people. This time, Zhao Lan did not let his brother stand in his way.
Those people didn't believe that a ten-year-old child was capable of stealing a cell phone and calling the police. Zhao Lan pushed the flames behind her and was locked in a dark room by those people.
Even if those three years were included, those were probably the most terrifying three days. Those three days were enough to destroy a person's entire sanity.
Zhao Lan's memory was broken there. She only vaguely remembered the terrifying sound of a fight. She fell in the corner of the room. The door of the room was pushed open and people in uniform rushed in.
After that, Zhao Lan was rescued and diagnosed with stress-induced amnesia. She recovered from the illness for a long time.
Zhao Lan came out of it little by little, faced the past again, recovered her memories, and remembered that she owed her younger brother a meal.
"I died once during those three days," Zhao Lan told the teacher, "and then I came back to life in thirteen years."
"That child." Zhao Lan said, "My younger brother."
She lowered her head and said, "He slowly died during those thirteen years."
Nothing the child had said ever came true.
Why was Huo Miao worried when he woke up that day? What was he thinking about?
Have you vaguely realized that maybe everything may not be as you imagined, and even if you go home, you won’t get to make up for your four birthdays, and you won’t have a bed to stay in for three days and three nights?
Is it true that the child who got lost at the age of seven and grew up stumbling around outside until he was ten actually already had a vague premonition about his family and guessed part of the possible future?
But I'm afraid I can't guess more.
How could a ten-year-old child guess that after so many life-and-death experiences, he would escape with injuries all over his body, and that thirteen years would be waiting for him.
——Just two days ago, in order to finally confirm the authenticity of some information, Zhao Lan followed Teacher Gong to visit the person from the Ren family.
"That guy." Zhao Lan said, "He didn't go crazy recently."
Zhao Lan had been in the hospital for a long time and had been recuperating for a long time. When Ren Chenbai brought Luo Cheng to meet Teacher Gong, she already suspected that the man was a little abnormal.
So Zhao Lan took the initiative to reveal her own wounds to remind the other party that memory is not necessarily the truth.
But a person who goes looking for the truth is destined to never be able to understand a person who weaves lies and tries desperately to cover up the truth.
Just like this time when Zhao Lan accompanied Teacher Gong and saw Ren Chenbai in the special management ward.
Dean Xun did not deliberately conceal the news, nor did he prohibit people from visiting. Ren Chenbai knew that Luo Zhi was still alive - it must be Ren's family who told him.
Ren Chenbai behaved very normally.
He was so normal, like a healthy person, and greeted them politely as if they were in a coffee shop.
Even the new nurse would mistakenly think that he was not sick - if he didn't look at the empty bed carefully covered with a quilt.
Ren Chenbai didn't say a few words to them, then said apologetically that Xiaozhi needed to take medicine and returned to the empty bed.
The things he did were as if there was really someone there.
He is probably still a very indifferent, resistant patient who totally refuses to cooperate with treatment. It took Ren Chenbai long time to coax him gently before he was willing to take a sip of medicine, and then he stopped responding.
So Ren Chenbai had no choice but to put down the medicine. He was not angry or impatient about this matter. He just sat on the floor beside the bed.
Facing the empty bed, he apologized in a low voice, one by one, and counted the sins he had committed.
...This is the limit of what he can accept.
When seeing them off, Dean Xun told them that Ren Chenbai couldn't imagine any other possibilities.
Ren Chenbai couldn't imagine how Luo Zhi, who had been treated like that by him, could still grit her teeth and swallow her blood, desperately cutting out her old wounds one by one, and rushing into a new life without looking back.
No matter who treated him like this, Ren Chenbai just thought it was an illusion to deceive him.
Because if it were him, even if you asked him to do it a hundred times or a thousand times, he would never be able to make it.
…
Teacher Gong actually didn’t think of it either.
She knew that the child would not disappoint Shuangmei, but she did not expect it to happen so soon - so soon that even she herself was not ready.
Maybe humans are the kind of animals that think about what ifs. When Gong Hanrou was filming the later episodes of the documentary, she couldn't help but ask Zhao Lan when she was finishing work late at night.
If she had not stubbornly adhered to the non-interference principle of documentary filming, had not blindly believed in Ren Chenbai, and had not avoided this subject for so long because of the death of her friend, everything would not have come to this.
This is probably a problem that every documentary director will encounter. There is no answer, and she doesn't want Zhao Lan to give an answer.
It's just that she felt regretful. This regret did not belong to any identity or profession, but because it might be possible - even if there were changes in any place.
If there had been any difference, perhaps they would have been able to get the child out of the dark, cold water.
…
Zhao Lan was suddenly brought back to her senses by the message alert sound.
When she saw the message from Mingchi, she immediately became nervous and kept shaking her husband's hand: "Here they are, they are downstairs."
"I'll pick it up." The gentleman stood up. "What's the license plate number?"
Zhao Lan pressed the screen a few times, forwarded the message to him, and immediately ordered a large table of Cantonese-style breakfast tea, specifically asking for no egg white products.
These snacks should be eaten while they are hot. If you order them too early, they will not taste as good. It is best to order them now.
The person who was worried and overthinking just now is now obviously full of expectations and busying himself excitedly.
The gentleman stood by, patted the back of her hand with a smile, and hurried down to pick her up according to the address given in the message.
Zhao Lan placed all her orders in one go.
She couldn't wait to return to her seat and adjust her collar and cuffs to prevent her brother from seeing the scars on her hands and neck.
Zhao Lan took out a small mirror from her bag, and when she saw someone walking towards her from the other direction, her gaze suddenly froze.
Someone was walking towards her.
The other party obviously waited for her husband to leave before coming to see her. She had felt that the man looked a little familiar, but she didn't take it too seriously.
Someone who shouldn't be here at all.
Zhao Lan's heart sank.
She put down the mirror, held the phone beside her, and called out the person's identity: "Mr. Luo."
Luo Jun paused and stopped in front of the table.
Although Zhao Lan has always been aware of this person's existence, she has actually rarely seen Luo Jun.
So even if the other party found her somewhere and followed her all the way here, Zhao Lan couldn't notice it immediately - the last time she saw this person was actually in Ren Chenbai's ward.
When they were about to leave, Zhao Lan saw Luo Jun going to visit Ren Chenbai.
...He said he was visiting Ren Chenbai, but to put it more precisely and strangely, he was actually visiting "Luo Zhi".
Dean Xun told them that Luo Jun was sober, and he just tacitly agreed to the other party's ridiculous illusion when he came to see Ren Chenbai.
Luo Jun's care was even more careful, more thorough, and more tireless than Ren Chenbai's. No one knew what the point was—because there couldn't have been any point.
Luo Jun stopped at the table and didn't move.
Zhao Lan had no idea what he was like before, but she was afraid that the eldest son of the Luo family in front of her was not living a satisfactory life. The dark circles under his eyes were particularly dark, his expression was numb and listless, and he looked completely depressed. It was obvious that he had completely collapsed in this turmoil.
It can be seen that Luo Jun has tried his best to appear a little decent today, but this so-called decency is just barely supported by the clothes. In fact, the inside is already rotten and unrecognizable.
"Miss Zhao, I don't mean to offend you." Luo Jun spoke with difficulty, his voice a little hoarse, "I heard..."
Zhao Lan asked him: "Who told you?"
Luo Jun shut up.
Zhao Lan had already sent a message to her husband, asking him to take Huo Miao for a walk first and not to rush up.
She met Ming Chi to discuss content review, so someone in the crew must know about it. It's not surprising that Luo Jun was able to find out through someone else.
…
But she really couldn't understand what this person was doing.
"Mr. Luo, who are you taking care of?" Zhao Lan asked, "Who are you looking for?"
Luo Jun's pupils shrank and his face turned pale.
Zhao Lan didn't want to say anything more to him, but Mr. Luo had a pretty good brain and could understand some things even without them saying them.
He is taking care of ten-year-old Luo Chi.
Looking for my ten-year-old brother who escaped from the nightmare, scarred and wanting to go home.
When Zhao Lan was interviewed as a party involved, she mentioned this incident in the documentary. Luo Jun watched every frame of the documentary over and over again.
Luo Cheng didn't want him to watch it, saying it would give him nightmares, and it happened several times.
But if Luo Cheng still wants to rely on him to do odd jobs to make a living, she can only endure this, because he is not Luo Cheng's second brother who will always protect her.
If Luo Cheng doesn't want to endure him, he should figure it out and live his own life.
Luo Jun remembered the scene in the documentary, and the young actors hired by the crew also reenacted this scene.
The young actor was very well chosen. His figure and voice were very similar to Luo Chi. Sometimes he would think he saw Luo Chi.
"I have an older brother at home."
The boy in the picture squatted next to the haystack and childishly compared himself with his sister: "My brother is abroad, but he will also worry about me when he heard about this."
The sister, who doesn’t have a brother, stared at him enviously: “So good!”
"Your brother must hate those bad guys." His sister held his hand. "When you come home, he will love you the most. He will protect you wherever you go and take care of you personally while you recover from your injuries."
My sister said, "Your brother will definitely beat up all the bad guys for you."
The boy's pale face flushed a little, and he smiled with his lips pursed. After a while, he added in a low voice: "No need."
"No need," the boy said, "Just take me home."
The boy tilted his head back and raised his hand to indicate: "My brother should be this tall."
He straightened his shoulders and closed his eyes, as if he had really seen his brother: "I raised my hand, and he didn't have to bend down, just move his hands, and he could lead me home."
…
Luo Jun's arm suddenly spasmed and he barely came back to his senses.
"I just want to see him." Luo Jun said hoarsely, "Ms. Zhao, I know there is no way..." He paused, then said those words with difficulty, "It's too late. If you make a mistake, you can't go back. I just, he is my brother-"
"He is not, Mr. Luo."
Zhao Lan said: "I am going to meet my younger brother today. My parents and sister asked me to take him home. If he is willing, we can celebrate the New Year together and have a reunion dinner together this year."
Luo Jun stayed where he was.
He looked a little dazed and opened his mouth with difficulty, but no sound came out.
There is nothing wrong with what Zhao Lan said.
This is the result he wanted.
This is the result their family wanted.
No one took Luo Zhi home.
They repeatedly asked Luo Zhi why she wanted to disturb the whole family and why she wanted to go home.
New Year’s Eve dinner, reunion dinner?
Luo Jun tried hard to recall, but he found that he could not remember any New Year's Eve dinner with Luo Zhi present. After all, that was a time for celebration.
"I will not let you see him, and I will definitely not tell you where he is."
Zhao Lan told him: "Mr. Luo, I want to protect my brother."
Zhao Lan couldn't say anything excessive. She had been meticulously cared for and protected by her family for thirteen years and had never seen anyone like this.
Zhao Lan took one last look at him, then turned and walked out.
Luo Jun hurriedly chased after her. He stumbled a little, trying to catch up with Zhao Lan, and reached out to pull her: "Miss Zhao——"
When Zhao Lan saw the hand extended to her, her expression changed slightly.
She was still afraid of these things, but she would not let this person find her brother. She gritted her teeth and was about to slap the other person away, but someone was faster than her.
The cane was placed steadily between the two of them, lifting Luo Jun's hand and pressing it in front of Luo Jun.
Luo Jun stopped hastily.
Mingchi retracted his cane and blocked Zhao Lan behind him.
He has grown taller than Zhao Lan, and his windbreaker makes him look tall and straight. His dark pupils are as calm as water, and his expression looks cold when he has no expression or doesn't speak.
Zhao Lan's husband was quite ruthless. Luo Jun took a few steps back in embarrassment and hit his head on the table. He stared at Ming Chi with his chest heaving violently.
Ming Chi looked at him with a strange gaze.
There was no indifference or resistance as Luo Jun had imagined, nor was there even the kind of nonchalant indifference that came from lowering one's head after no longer having any expectations of him in the past - there was only pure unfamiliarity, confusion and incomprehension.
Luo Jun's pupils froze.
He could no longer speak a word and didn't know how to move.
…
Zhao Lan held Mingchi's arm tightly.
Her eyes lit up uncontrollably, and she thought she would be unable to hold back her tears and sadness, but it turned out that none of that happened.
There was only that feeling of complete relief, an extreme ease and relief that could not be described in words.
They all seemed to have some problems with the exit. We all got lost and wandered a long way, but after bypassing the vast crowds and passing through time, we met again here.
The road was not easy to walk on, but when we met we had already reached the end, so we had enough time to get ready.
Zhao Lan didn't care about anything else and focused all her attention on watching her grown-up brother in front of her.
Her brother was taller than her, but he still bent down to let her touch his head and helped her straighten her messy sleeves.
Zhao Lan couldn't help laughing. She ruffled Mingchi's hair, looked at her handsome, calm and skilled brother, and coughed, "Sorry, my sister asked me to bring the remote control car."
"Thirteen years is so long." Zhao Lan sighed, "We are all so mature now, I'd better keep it for myself. The baby may want to play with it in the future."
Ming Chi slightly bent his eyes: "Sorry for the trouble."
He took out his hand from behind his back, handed the shell boat to Zhao Lan, and discussed with his little nephew who hadn't even started yet: "I was thinking of changing to a remote control car."
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