Late at night, when everyone is asleep, the lights are dim.
Perhaps it was because his emotions fluctuated too much before going to bed, or because he happened to mention that "little friend", Song Yecheng was unable to fall into a deep sleep quickly after washing up and going to bed that night.
His body was sleepy, but his subconscious was replaying a movie, causing his mind to involuntarily recall the long-forgotten past from many years ago.
It was a midsummer evening.
The thunderous rain shook the gloomy sky, and the lightning that occasionally streaked across the sky made the whole world flicker.
The heavy rain hit the car window, the windshield wipers were useless, and the nearby cliffs and distant mountains were blurred by the rain and fog.
Song Sheng, who was driving in the front seat, and Qiu Mingyue, who was sitting in the passenger seat, kept muttering about how suddenly the rain came. Young Song Yecheng, who was sitting in the back seat, was holding a kitten he had picked up on the roadside a few days ago, gently soothing it from being frightened by the thunder.
Their destination was a small town in the south near the border.
Song Sheng and Qiu Mingyue visit the welfare institutions in poor areas that they fund or support every year. This year, the time they set happened to be during the summer vacation, so they simply took Song Yecheng, who was on vacation, with them and drove all the way south from the capital. It was a rare trip for the three of them to be together.
The small town was surrounded by mountains, and the winding mountain road they were driving on was the only way to get there.
The mountain road is narrow, with a vertical cliff on the right and an abyss-like cliff on the left. The sudden rainstorm made the already rugged road even more dangerous.
While slowing down the car and turning on the high beam, Song Sheng optimistically told Qiu Mingyue and Song Yecheng not to worry, saying that summer thunderstorms come and go quickly and will stop soon.
Just as he finished his words, a black shadow suddenly staggered out from the abyss on the left and fell into the beam of the car headlights in an instant!
Sizzle—bang!
Song Sheng slammed on the brakes, and a sharp friction sound cut through the rain. The off-road vehicle with excellent braking performance gripped the ground almost instantly, but it still hit the black shadow!
The three people in the car were nearly suffocated by the seat belts. The kitten in Song Yecheng's arms rolled over and was about to fall to the ground. Fortunately, he was quick-eyed and quick-handed to pull it back.
As soon as the momentum stopped, Song Sheng and Qiu Mingyue immediately unbuckled their seat belts and got out of the car. Song Yecheng also quickly put the kitten aside and pushed open the car door.
A little boy about five or six years old was sitting in front of the car.
His entire body was filthy, as if he had rolled around in mud. He was wearing ill-fitting, worn-out clothes and was barefoot. The heavy rain washed his short black hair, and his thin, pale neck and arms were covered with scars. Even the cracks between his nails were stained with bright red blood.
The scars did not look like they were caused by a collision, but rather by scratches from a sharp object or grinding from a rough object.
Seeing this, the three of them suddenly understood.
——He climbed up from the steep cliff with his bare hands.
After realizing this, the three of them couldn't help but look down at the abyss-like cliff and found that the cliff was at least seventy degrees upwards. It was almost unimaginable what kind of hardships such a thin child had gone through to climb to the top of the cliff.
However, compared to the pain, the child seemed to be more afraid of being noticed. When he saw the three people get out of the car, he immediately buried his head in his arms, curled up and shrank back desperately under the high beam.
Although his resistance was obvious, Song Sheng and Qiu Mingyue could not just leave him alone. After squatting down to check his injuries, they immediately decided to take him to the hospital and almost irresistibly carried him into the back seat.
The off-road vehicle was restarted and drove over mountains and hills to the town.
The little boy huddled by the window with his head down and his knees hugged, half of his face buried in his folded elbows, his wet black hair dripping with water, and his exposed arms and insteps were covered with shocking bloodstains.
He said nothing, but his whole body was trembling slightly, and it was not known whether it was because of the cold, pain or fear.
Song Yecheng held the kitten and stared at him. Suddenly, he felt that he was even more fragile than the kitten. He turned around and took out a blanket from behind the chair and gently put it on him.
The little boy shuddered, and looked up at him timidly as if awakened from a dream. Then his eyes were attracted by the kitten in his arms, and he stayed there for several seconds before quickly looking away.
In an instant, Song Yecheng seemed to have received some revelation.
He looked down at the kitten, then at the little boy, and then, as if possessed by a ghost, he reached out his hand and gently touched his head, imitating the motion of touching a cat.
Surprisingly, the little boy did not resist. He just shrank his neck reflexively the moment Song Yecheng touched him, and then he did not move again. He just blinked quietly, allowing Song Yecheng to gently and soothingly stroke the top of his head.
Town hospital, doctor's office.
It was already pitch black outside the window. The fluorescent light above my head made a buzzing sound. Occasionally, a few moths would fly into the light tube, making slight rustling noises.
At his desk, slightly mottled by peeling paint, the gray-haired old doctor showed no surprise at seeing a big star like Qiu Mingyue in this remote village. He simply meticulously checked the examination report in his hand with his reading glasses, and then turned to Song Sheng and his wife to report the examination results:
"The child was hit by the car on the outside of his thigh, but because you were not driving fast, the impact was not serious, only causing some bruises and congestion."
"As for the wounds on his hands and feet, most of them were superficial scrapes. They weren't deep and didn't injure his bones. After disinfection and hemostasis, they're no longer a problem."
After hearing this answer, Song Sheng and his wife breathed a sigh of relief, but they found that the old doctor's expression was a little serious, as if he had something else to say.
"Are there any other questions?" Song Sheng asked.
The old doctor nodded solemnly, frowning as he said, "This child is not only severely malnourished and anemic, but also has many old wounds. Some are bruised, some are bleeding. Some of the wounds that are bleeding have already scarred or even grown. Others appear to have only appeared recently and are not healing very well. This may be due to repeated cracking or secondary injury..."
In the empty corridor of the hospital.
Under the cold light, Song Yecheng followed his parents with the kitten in his arms, and couldn't help asking, "Mom, could it be that he ran away from home because he was often beaten and scolded by his parents?"
It was hard not to associate the old doctor's words with domestic violence, and even the young Song Yecheng quickly came to this conclusion.
The same goes for Song Sheng and his wife, but speculation is just speculation after all, and it cannot be accurate until it is confirmed.
Qiu Mingyue raised her hand and pinched the back of his neck: "I don't know, let's ask him first and see if we can contact his parents."
Song Yecheng nodded slightly.
In the ward.
The little boy in hospital gown was much cleaner and tidier than before. There was an IV needle in his hand, but he still kept his knees hugged, with his lower back against the iron railing at the head of the bed. He looked weak and alert.
Song Sheng and Qiu Mingyue sat side by side on a bench against the wall facing the end of the bed, while Song Yecheng sat beside another empty bed holding a cat.
"What's your name?" Qiu Mingyue asked softly.
The little boy looked up at her, but then, as if dazzled by her exquisite appearance, he quickly withdrew his gaze and looked back at the bed in front of him, mumbling softly, "Bell..."
At that time, the three members of the Song family thought he was talking about "Lin Dang", and naturally assumed that his surname was "Lin".
"Where do you live?" Qiu Mingyue continued to ask, "Did you have a quarrel with your parents and run away from home?"
The little boy was silent for a long while, and finally shook his head: "I don't have a home, and I don't have...a mom or a dad."
The three of them were stunned for a moment, then realized what he meant. Song Sheng quickly asked, "Where do you usually live?"
The little boy seemed reluctant to answer the question. He hugged his knees and hesitated for a long time before finally uttering a few words, as if he had no other choice but to say, "...Ankang Home."
As soon as these four words came out, Song Sheng and Qiu Mingyue seemed to finally understand the reason why he was malnourished -
Ankang Home is a charitable project established by the Ankang Group. It is a privately-run orphanage. Its original intention was to share the pressure on social welfare institutions in poor areas. However, in recent years, due to the group's own poor management, the funds invested in charitable projects have become less and less. Many Ankang Homes in remote areas have been facing a shortage of staff and a shortage of food and clothing for orphans.
but……
"Then what happened to your injuries?" Song Sheng asked.
Even if the funds were insufficient and the orphans were hungry and cold, they shouldn't have been so injured. This made him have some negative speculations: "Did someone at Ankang Home beat you?"
The little boy shrank back reflexively, as if his question had touched a switch. His arms, which were wrapped around his knees, trembled and clenched, like a wounded chick who just wanted to hide himself in his tender wings.
His reaction almost silently confirmed Song Sheng's guess. He couldn't help but look at Qiu Mingyue, and both of them had the same solemn expression.
Song Yecheng, who was sitting on the next bed, also frowned. He stood up and walked to the little boy's bed and sat down. He lowered his head to look at his trembling eyelashes, raised his hand and gently touched the back of his head: "Don't be afraid, we will help you."
He was obviously only in his teens and logically did not have the ability to save people from danger. However, he said this not because he was young and frivolous, but because Song Sheng and Qiu Mingyue's examples over the years had given him extremely strong confidence. He knew that they would definitely not ignore the current situation.
Perhaps it was because his tone was too firm, but the little boy seemed to be comforted and gradually calmed down. He slowly raised his eyelashes and looked at him, as if for a final confirmation.
Song Yecheng smiled at him and reaffirmed: "Don't be afraid, as long as you tell us, we will definitely help you."
The little boy stared at him quietly for a long time, and finally seemed to let down his last defense.
He pursed his cracked lips, lowered his eyelashes again, and said in a very low voice: "It's... Teacher Liu. He always... asks us to go to his dormitory and play games with him."
Song Yecheng, who was still young at the time, didn't immediately understand the chilling meaning of these words. He was waiting for the little boy to continue when he heard Song Sheng suddenly call out from behind him: "Acheng."
Song Yecheng turned around in confusion, only to see that Song Sheng and Qiu Mingyue both looked very unnatural. Song Sheng, who had just called him, gave him a slightly awkward smile and said casually, "Why don't you go out for a while and let my mother and I talk to him alone?"
Song Yecheng was keenly aware that they seemed to want to get rid of him. Although he didn't know why, he still chose to believe that they had their own reasons.
So he nodded and stood up, then bent down and comforted the little boy as if he was worried, then he picked up the kitten and temporarily left the ward.
That day, Song Yecheng waited alone in the hospital corridor for a long time. He didn't know what kind of conversation took place in the ward later, nor did he deliberately try to spy on them. It was not until a few years later, when he had matured and finally understood the dirty secrets hidden in the little boy's words, that the Song Sheng couple told him the whole truth:
The "Teacher Liu" the little boy mentioned was not a real teacher. He was not even a formal employee of Ankang Home. Instead, he was a part-time caregiver hired locally due to lack of funds at a low salary with food and accommodation provided.
He worked part-time at the Ankang Home for several years, during which time he frequently took advantage of his position to coax young, disabled or mentally retarded orphans into satisfying his perverted and twisted needs under the pretext of "playing games". If the children disobeyed or resisted, he would beat and abuse them.
The little boy was one of the few physically and mentally healthy children in the orphanage. After discovering the evil deeds of "Teacher Liu", he tried to expose and seek help, but the Ankang Home, which was in chaos at that time, had no one in charge. Even the nominal director was too lazy to interfere, and was perfunctory with the mentality of "less trouble is worse than more".
So the young boy could only watch helplessly as the devil stretched out its claws again and again, wantonly destroying them. He had tried his best to stop and resist, but it was like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, and he would always end up with bruises all over his body.
Finally, after enduring the pain of countless beatings and the despair of having no one to turn to for help, he desperately escaped from that hellish prison on that midsummer evening, stumbling all the way over mountains and across rivers, and in the pouring rain, he used up his last bit of strength to climb up the steep cliff leading to the winding mountain road.
The gears of fate are turning.
The two originally parallel trajectories collided violently.
It created an encounter with a sudden but safe car accident, and used a beam of headlights that should have indicated danger to illuminate the dark and desperate path ahead for the child.
After that day, Song Yecheng's family never left the border town for the rest of the summer vacation.
Just as Song Yecheng promised the little boy, "We will help you," Song Sheng and Qiu Mingyue immediately set off for the Ankang Home where he was and thoroughly investigated its dark past.
Song Yecheng stayed in the small town surrounded by mountains, waiting for the outcome with the child.
"So your name is Lingling?"
The setting sun spread the sky all over with sunset glow. Beside the golden wheat field, Song Yecheng leaned leisurely on the haystack, holding a ripe wheat ear in his mouth and looking at the little boy.
The kitten rolled happily between the two of them. The boy sat cross-legged beside them. He stopped pinching the cat's paw and took out a bell hung with a red string from his collar.
"This is what my mother left for me."
Song Yecheng turned over and moved closer, gently plucking the bell twice. Amidst the crisp and pleasant sounds, he smiled and looked at the boy: "Isn't this name too cute?"
The summer breeze swept across the fields, creating golden waves of wheat like water ripples. The little boy's pretty eyes drooped shyly, casting a faint fan shadow in the afterglow of the setting sun.
The fan's shadow spread with the clouds, turning into ink mixed with water on the rice paper, winding out the contours of the mountains and embellishing the lush shadows of the trees in the morning light.
The cicadas are chirping incessantly, and lush vegetation is growing freely in the mountains in the early summer morning.
The abandoned stone house halfway up the mountain is covered with lush green ivy. The mountain stream cascades down from the top of the cliff like a silk waterfall, gathering into a crystal clear pool that reflects the green trees and mountains and kisses the gravel at the bottom of the cliff.
The little boy sat on the shore, his feet wrapped in the cool stream water. The little kitten sat obediently beside him, watching with him the figure moving nimbly under the water not far away.
The young man swam towards the shore like a fish, creating ripples. When he was near the shore, he suddenly surfaced, wiped the water off his face and smiled, "Are you really not coming down? The water is cool."
The little boy shook his head slightly and pointed at the cat beside him: "It will be scared if it is alone."
"It's not a person, it's a cat." Song Yecheng raised his eyebrows and teased.
The little boy choked slightly and blinked: "So... a cat would be scared?"
Song Yecheng was amused by him and laughed non-stop. He raised his hand and splashed water at him: "Okay, then I'll go catch a fish for you."
The young man dived into the water again. The little boy watched him walk away and subconsciously licked the water droplets on the corner of his lips.
The mountain spring is sweet.
He turned to look at the kitten beside him, and saw that it was also licking its pink lips with its little tongue.
Two pairs of tender eyes looked at each other innocently, and gentle silhouettes were reflected in each other's clear eyes, frozen into the most tranquil and beautiful picture in the morning light and mountains and rivers.
White clouds drift over the mountain tops, leading the sun to rise in the east and set in the west, covering the sky with a dark blue night sky and sprinkling bright stars in the night sky.
Under the distant and vast starry sky, the boy and the boy lay side by side on the grass. The kitten nestled in the boy's chest. From time to time, it was attracted by the flying fireflies and rolled unsteadily into the grass, chasing and playing in a childish and stumbling manner.
Insects chirp nearby and frogs croak in the distance.
Song Yecheng put one hand behind his head and pointed at the stars in the sky with the other hand: "Look, does the shape formed by those stars look like a small bell?"
The boy was caught off guard when his name was called. He looked in the direction of his finger but couldn't figure out what it was for a long time.
"Did you see it?" Song Yecheng turned his head and asked.
The little boy searched the starry sky for a long time but still couldn't find the "little bell". He could only respond vaguely: "Hmm..."
"Did you really see it?" Song Yecheng asked suspiciously.
The little boy fell silent with a sense of guilt, turned his head quietly to look to the side, and happened to meet Song Yecheng's mischievous gaze.
His twinkling eyes were so innocent that Song Yecheng couldn't help but laugh with his chest shaking: "I was just teasing you."
As he spoke, he reached out and gently scratched the tip of the little boy's nose: "Isn't the little bell right here? How did it run up to the sky?"
The starry sky was filled with fragmented light and shadow, and the little boy's slightly red face was gently concealed by the darkness of the night. However, the faint smile in his eyes was purer than the starlight, sparkling in the wilderness and mountains.
The night wind blows through the tips of your hair, through the leisurely blooming wild flowers and green grass, through the uneven eaves, and into the window lattices where the moonlight pours in.
In the quiet ward at midnight, Song Yecheng listened carefully to the movements in the bed next to him. Hearing the breathing that had not lasted for a long time, he knew that this depressed child had probably fallen into his usual insomnia because of his heavy heart.
He worried in the dark for a moment, and suddenly an idea flashed in his mind. He took out a small object from the pocket of his folded clothes beside the pillow.
The button was pressed lightly, and the small ballpoint pen-like object immediately emitted a red light, projecting a lifelike cartoon fox on the dark ceiling.
Soon there was a rustling sound coming from the bed next door. The little boy was attracted by the scene and sat up, staring at the top of his head without blinking in the moonlight.
"Is it fun?"
Song Yecheng got off the bed holding the laser light, and grabbed the pile of parts in his pocket. He walked to the little boy and sat down. He casually changed the lamp head and pressed it again. The picture on the ceiling suddenly changed from a fox to a duck.
In a moment, the little boy's gaze shifted from the top of his head to the laser light in his hand, and he looked very curious.
This is a toy that Song Yecheng bought at the gate of a primary school he passed by to entertain the kitten after he picked it up a few days ago. It comes with a total of twenty light bulbs, all with different cartoon patterns.
This kind of toy is actually very common in the city, but for the little boy who grew up in a remote mountainous area and rarely left the orphanage, it was still an unheard-of novelty.
Song Yecheng handed him the lamp and stuffed the lamp heads into his hands: "This is for you, keep it for fun."
The little boy instinctively wanted to refuse, but he heard Song Yecheng say nonsense: "I have a lot of them at home, this set is a duplicate."
The little boy hesitated for a moment, and finally said shyly: "...Thank you, Brother Acheng."
Maybe it was because he heard Song Sheng call him "Acheng" that day, but the little boy has been calling him "Brother Acheng" for a while now. This name made Song Yecheng secretly happy. After all, he had wanted a younger brother since he was a child, but Song Sheng and Qiu Mingyue had never intended to have a second child.
Song Yecheng smiled and touched the back of his head, then turned on the bedside lamp and temporarily put the laser light and parts in his hand into the drawer of the bedside table: "Okay, you can play with this later. Now you should go to bed."
Like a little adult, he pressed the little boy's shoulders and made him lie down, pulled the quilt over him, and tucked in the corners carefully.
However, after doing all this, he suddenly didn't know what else to do. After all, he had never had the experience of coaxing a child to sleep in his life. This was really the first time.
He pondered, turned his head and looked around the ward, and found a yellowed booklet on the bedside of the next bed. His eyes immediately lit up and he took it over. He leaned against the bed, lowered his head and touched the little boy's eyebrows with his fingertips: "Close your eyes, brother will read to you."
"Okay." The little boy closed his eyes obediently.
When Song Yecheng opened the book and saw the obscure words, he was actually a little speechless, but fortunately his English level was pretty good, so even if the translation was not very accurate, it was not a big deal.
"All things were made by him... In him was life... and this life was the light of men..."
Although most of the sentences sounded like hieroglyphics, and even Song Yecheng himself didn't quite understand them, the little boy still listened quietly, as if he was satisfied just by the company of this voice.
“…the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…”
Only after hearing this did the little boy quietly open his eyes with a hint of doubt and asked softly, "Why doesn't darkness accept light?"
In fact, Song Yecheng had no idea why, but his sense of mission as an "older brother" made him feel that he needed to try to answer questions and resolve doubts. He thought about it seriously, and then analyzed: "Maybe it's because I've been in the dark for too long and I'm not used to the light..."
Although this explanation was not thorough, it was enough for the little boy. He nodded obediently, closed his eyes and continued to listen quietly.
The night wind blew the gauze-like curtains, and the moonlight flowed silently in front of the window, accompanied by Song Yecheng's slow recitation, filling the quiet night with a soft light of endless warmth.
The sun and the moon alternate, and the clouds roll and disperse.
The noisy chirping of cicadas gradually faded away as time passed day by day.
As autumn was approaching, Song Sheng and Qiu Mingyue had already handled all matters related to Ankang Home.
After the incident of "Teacher Liu" was filed for investigation by the police, the procuratorate brought public prosecution and he will soon receive the punishment he deserves. All relevant personnel have also been investigated and dealt with. Those who should be dismissed have been dismissed, and those who should be removed from office have been removed from office. They have all paid the corresponding price for their previous inaction.
In addition, Song Sheng contacted the Ankang Group and took over most of the Ankang Homes in remote areas, including this place. He used strong human, financial and material resources to fill the gaps in facilities and personnel in these orphanages, and carried out a thorough replacement of non-compliant staff.
This was actually the best situation, and the matter should have come to an end here. However, just before they were about to return, Song Yecheng suddenly proposed an idea that caught the Song Sheng couple off guard.
He wanted his parents to adopt the boy and take him home with them.
This idea was almost out of line, but Song Yecheng had never been a child who would make trouble since he was young. So when he proposed such a seemingly outrageous idea, Song Sheng and Qiu Mingyue did not reject it immediately. Instead, they discussed it seriously for two days, and finally had a serious talk with Song Yecheng:
"Ah Cheng, adopting a child is no small matter. It means that from now on, you and we will all shoulder the responsibility of being parents and brothers. It's not that Mom and Dad are unwilling to shoulder this responsibility, but the prerequisite is that you are fully prepared. This isn't something you do on impulse, and you won't suddenly realize one day in the future that you were just impulsive. Do you understand?"
The Song Sheng couple always communicate with their child by treating him as an adult and communicating on an equal footing. This also enables Song Yecheng to think independently and make rational decisions in many cases, instead of being unreasonable and saying "I want this or that".
In fact, before coming up with this idea, Song Yecheng had already carefully considered it in his mind for a few days, but it was only "a few days" after all. He knew that for such a major event that concerned himself, his family and the boy's life, his consideration for only a few days was far from enough.
At this moment, Song Sheng and his wife presented him with the advice they had reached after discussion: "This is what Mom and Dad think - we hope you won't make a hasty decision on this matter. When you go back, you can try to understand what problems other families with brothers have encountered and whether you are prepared to face those problems. By the way, you can also use this time to think calmly and judge whether you are acting impulsively."
"We will bring you here twice more during next year's winter and summer vacations. If you are still determined by then, then Mom and Dad are willing to support your decision unconditionally."
This proposal, similar to a "cooling-off period", is very sensible. It not only prevents Song Yecheng from being confused and impulsive, but also provides him with "preparation time" to become a qualified brother.
So, Song Yecheng agreed to the proposal.
He did not rashly tell the boy that he would take him away. Instead, he asked Song Sheng to greet the newly appointed dean, who was considered "one of his own", and asked him to take better care of the little boy. Somewhat unconventionally, he left the kitten to the little boy as a companion.
The day the little boy was sent back to the orphanage, it was raining heavily, just like the day they first met.
But just as they were about to arrive, the heavy rain outside the car window miraculously stopped, and even a gentle rainbow hung in the evening sky.
In front of the orphanage, the boy said goodbye to them while holding the kitten in his arms.
Song Yecheng patted the kitten's head and leaned over to whisper in the boy's ear: "Wait for me, I'll come to see you during the winter vacation."
The whispered promise was like an unexpected surprise, lighting up the glimmer in the boy's eyes, and sealing it together with the clear sky and the quiet Rainbow Bridge into that distant, dreamlike summer with the chirping of cicadas and the bright starry sky.
However, the more beautiful the dream is, the more lost one will feel when waking up.
When autumn turned to winter, Song Yecheng failed to meet him as promised. Because of that coincidence, he never saw the boy again. He only received a letter from the boy, which was written in childish handwriting but sincere words.
Day after day, year after year.
The children and teenagers of the past have grown up quietly, and those dreamlike memories seem to be covered by a veil with the passage of time and hidden in the softest corner of the heart.
And the gears of fate are still turning secretly.
It is like a far-sighted but low-key creator, leaving subtle clues in countless seemingly ordinary moments, laying the implicit foreshadowing for the long-awaited reunion.
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