Chapter 1 Freak
As winter arrives in Yuancheng, the sky is covered with heavy snow and the cold is biting.
Just as the sky was getting light, a short and fat figure walked out from the snow.
"Ha..." The woman in the colorful headscarf blew into her palms from time to time, her teeth chattering constantly, but she couldn't stop complaining: "It's so cold, I should have known not to come to this shabby place, with no water and electricity in the middle of winter!"
Cursing, he carried two buckets to the river and said, "Fortunately, the water hasn't frozen yet, otherwise there would be nowhere to get water."
He kept on talking, but his men scooped up a bucket of water swiftly.
The old lady did a lot of rough work, so carrying buckets of water was no problem for her. In no time, she filled two large buckets with water. When she was done, she stamped her frozen feet and prepared to go back, cursing.
Before she could muster the strength to lift the bucket, she was startled by the cry of a baby and stumbled.
"Ouch!" The old lady fell to the ground, her face wrinkled in pain.
It was still dark, and she was very nervous and scared when she came to fetch water alone.
She moved her heavy body to her feet, rubbing her buttocks while bravely walking towards the place where the sound came from.
Having worked in an orphanage for decades, she knew that many people who had the nerve to give birth but no money to raise them would abandon their children in front of the orphanage. Out of a bit of conscience, she decided to go there and take a look.
I walked to a big rock and took a peek inside. Sure enough, there was a baby lying on the ground. The exposed little face was frozen purple. It was probably crying because it was hungry.
She picked up the child, opened the swaddling clothes and saw that it was a girl. No wonder her unscrupulous parents had abandoned her and searched other places to see if she had any disabilities or something.
"Yeah, he's a good kid." She muttered in surprise, but she had seen this many times and was no longer surprised.
The old lady's hands were not gentle enough and she rolled the child over, causing him pain. He started waving his arms and legs and started crying loudly.
"Bang--" As the child moved, a golden object fell and hit the ground with a sound that was neither loud nor soft.
The old lady saw it out of the corner of her eye and her eyes lit up immediately. She threw the child back to where he was, quickly picked up the objects on the ground and put them into her pocket.
He looked around with a guilty conscience, and after making sure that no one was around, he hid behind a big rock and quietly took out the thing he had hidden.
It looks like a longevity lock made of gold.
She took a quick bite and weighed it, figuring it was solid. She had truly found a treasure. She thought, with amusement, it was a good thing that the bitch had been lazy and hadn't come with her to fetch water, or else she wouldn't have been able to keep this treasure to herself.
She was not well educated, but she knew a few Chinese characters. After carefully touching the piece of paper, she suddenly discovered the Chinese character for "joy" (乐) engraved on it.
"Le, Lele, oh, this should be the name of this girl." The old lady muttered to herself as she stuffed the longevity lock into her innermost trouser pocket. After a while, she tied a knot around her belt out of concern, and only felt relieved when her stomach ached.
After a long time of hustle and bustle, she finally went to see the child. There was only one orphanage here, and if she didn't take the child back, the child might freeze to death. But if she did, the director might be unhappy.
In recent years, the director has always complained that the price of things sold outside changes every day, but the government doesn’t give him any extra money, and he can no longer afford to support the children inside.
As she hesitated, the child's cries grew weaker and weaker. The old lady couldn't bring herself to do it. "What a bad luck! If I hadn't felt sorry for you, I wouldn't have bothered to care about you."
She didn't care about anything else, picked up the child and ran back to the welfare home.
The welfare home is not very big, with only two three-story dilapidated buildings, a dozen rooms, and a small bungalow which serves as the director's office.
In the middle was a medium-sized courtyard, dotted with slides, swings, and other recreational facilities. Near the small, dilapidated building stood an old notice board, listing various rules and penalties.
The adults included the director, a woman in her fifties, and another younger woman. The children were separated by gender and physical condition, each entertaining themselves in their own room.
The entire welfare home is well managed and there is no noise from the children at all.
The director was unhappy for a long time when he saw the baby girl she brought back. It took the auntie's persuasion to finally get the director to give in.
"Tsk, do you think humans are easy to raise like kittens and puppies? If you're so kind, why don't you take them home and raise them yourself? You're so hypocritical." The woman who was sweeping the floor rolled her eyes.
The woman was extremely thin, with cheekbones so prominent that they seemed to reach the sky. She would occasionally utter some sarcastic remarks to mock the old lady.
A few years ago, there was a vacancy for a team leader in the welfare home's logistics department, who could earn dozens more yuan. The old lady and the thin woman had been vying for this position for half a year.
As luck would have it, the thin woman broke her leg and couldn't do heavy work, so the director gave her the position on the grounds of her seniority.
Although they said so on the surface, the feud between the two was completely over.
The old lady rolled her eyes at her, too lazy to pay attention to her, turned around and carried the child into a room where there were not many children.
Lele, who seemed to have popped out from a crack in the rock, settled down in this small and shabby welfare home.
Life was relatively easy with an aunt looking after one or two children, but as the children grew older, they suddenly started to get sick every day, suffering from vomiting and diarrhea from time to time.
The hospital in town couldn't find any illness, so they just prescribed some cold medicine and sent me away.
The old lady thought that she was the one who picked it up, so she wanted to ask the dean for some money to go to the city to have a look.
After several requests, the director got annoyed with her and simply said to her, "You're just living a worthless life here. Why are you looking for medical treatment? There are dozens of mouths to feed here. We don't have that much spare money to treat her illness. Just take whatever medicine the hospital prescribes. Aren't all children like this? Look at those others who went through the same thing."
The old lady was afraid of being fired by the director, so she didn't dare to say anything. She always felt sorry for the sick child in her arms.
"Oh, is it dead or something?" The woman limped over with a gloating look on her face, stretching her neck to take a look.
"Wa ...
The woman pinched the child harshly. She ignored the old lady's curses and said with a smile, "Look, he's very energetic. There's nothing wrong with him. He just needs a few pinches, and if he cries and screams, he's definitely not seriously ill."
The old lady scolded the woman for a long time and hesitated for a long time with the gold lock in her hand.
When Lele was three years old and couldn't speak yet, the aunt couldn't sleep every night because she would touch this baby and think of her pitiful appearance.
Finally, her conscience couldn't bear it anymore, so she reluctantly sold the longevity lock and got more than a thousand yuan. She felt much more at ease and happily took Lele to a big hospital in the city for a check-up.
It would have been fine if she hadn't checked, but once she did, she was shocked.
Seeing her expression, the doctor sighed and advised in a simple and easy-to-understand way: "Auntie, your child has a tumor in his brain. Fortunately, it is benign and the location is not too dangerous. As for surgery, the chances of success are very high now. Do it as soon as possible. If you delay it, the tumor will grow bigger or become malignant, and the child will suffer. It will cost more money and the child may die..."
The old lady was speechless and asked in a trembling voice: "How much, doctor?"
"It will cost about 40,000 yuan." The doctor tried to speak in a lighter tone.
The old lady felt a buzzing in her ears, her vision went dark, and she almost lost her balance. She couldn't even come up with 4,000, let alone 4,000. She quickly waved her hand and said, "No, no."
It was as if he was afraid that someone would steal the money, or as if he was afraid that the child would hear the verdict, so he grabbed the child and ran away.
The doctor was used to seeing people like this. He sighed and went back to his work.
After returning to the welfare home, the old lady never mentioned taking the child to the hospital again.
"It's a pity that you came here, but you are just a stray dog with a miserable life." The old lady touched the child's thin and pale face.
The child was hurt by her thick calluses, so he opened his big wet eyes, climbed up, blinked at the old lady, and then curiously turned his eyes to explore to the side.
I had a lot of fun playing with myself.
–
The thin woman is in charge of the children's meals, and every time it's Lele's turn, she always gives him a few pounds less.
Ever since the old lady stopped paying attention to her, the thin woman has become even more aggressive.
Lele was the last one holding the bowl of rice. He looked at the woman eagerly, opened his mouth and made a few sounds, trying to beg for food.
"Le Le, come here, you can eat here." The woman smiled maliciously and led the child to the kitchen.
Although Lele couldn't speak, he understood what the woman said and followed her into the kitchen.
The kitchen had no windows, and the only ventilation hole was completely blocked by grease. Once the door was closed, it was instantly plunged into a suffocating darkness, with only a faint light coming in from under the door.
Lele has poor eyesight, and when she came into such a dark place, she was seized by a huge fear. She was so scared that she held the bowl and chopsticks tightly in her hands, trying to get a little comfort from the cold iron bowl.
"Le Le, come here, I'm here." The woman stood in the corner, feeling very happy when she saw the frightened child.
Driven by hunger, Lele tried to go over to the source of the sound, but he stumbled and fell several times along the way, crying out in pain.
When he was about to touch the woman, she snorted and turned around, causing Lele to hit the sharp corner of the table.
"Ah——" Lele covered his forehead with tears in his eyes, then opened his arms and cried out "ah ah" several times, begging the woman to hug him.
But how could this woman do as she wished? She grabbed the child's collar and dragged her to the corner with a limp.
"Eat, you dumb fool, why don't you eat?" She pressed the child's head tightly into the bowl of rice and laughed loudly with her teeth bared.
The child was scalded by the hot rice and screamed and struggled to get up. She couldn't speak and could only put her hands together and beg the woman to let her go.
After a long time, the child dared not move anymore, and the woman pulled her up. The child's face was burned red, and she wiped away tears.
"Why are you crying?" the woman grabbed her skin and twisted it around. "If you cry any more, you won't have anything to eat!"
The child quickly covered his mouth and shook his head frantically, indicating that he would never cry again.
The woman nodded in satisfaction and threw a handful of rice into her bowl. "Eat it, kneel down and eat it. Why don't you thank me for giving you food?"
The child could only lie on the ground, grabbing grains of rice and stuffing them into his mouth because he was so hungry.
Lele came out of the kitchen in a dishevel and was seen by other children.
The children here have seen people's expressions many times, so they naturally know how to adapt to the situation. In order to please the woman, they also join in bullying her.
Or make faces at her, or snatch her food, or stretch out your legs to trip her...
Lele couldn't bear it any longer, and his thin body knocked someone to the ground like an angry calf.
"The boy was caught off guard and stumbled backwards. The back of his head hit the sharp corner of the steps with a thud, and blood immediately flowed out!
“Ahhhh!! The little mute killed someone!!”
"Blood! So much blood!!" The screams broke the dead silence of the welfare home in the afternoon.
Afterwards, she was locked up by the director in a small dark room used to punish bad kids.
"I've raised you up so brave, haven't you? You're even fighting with me." The dean kicked Lele and then kicked the bleeding child.
She was always like this. When the two children had a quarrel, she would give them both fifty lashes and then let the matter go. After dealing with it, she would go back to her office, too lazy to pay attention to these annoying children.
After the dean left, a group of children quickly gathered outside the house.
Outside the door, a group of children quickly gathered, banging on the wooden door and shouting excitedly and rhythmically.
"Bad boy! Bad mute!"
"LeLe is in solitary confinement! He deserves it!"
"Kill the little mute! Kill her!"
The tender child's voice was now filled with vicious curses and carnival-like malice, like countless cold needles, piercing through the thin door panel and stabbing into Lele's ears.
The dean's accusations, the woman's shrill laughter, the mocking voices of the children surrounding her, countless voices swirled in her mind.
She hugged her knees and curled herself up into a ball, trying to block them out.
She was locked up for a day and a night, and no one cared about her except for the old lady who brought her some food.
When the heavy wooden door finally opened, dazzling light poured in. The old lady looked at the small figure in the corner and called out, "Le Le?"
Lele raised her head, her eyes hollow, her face still stained with dried tears and stains. She watched the old lady's mouth move, watched the child peeking out the door, watched this cold world.
However, all the sounds seemed to be separated by a thick layer of frosted glass that could never be penetrated.
Since then, Lele has become a veritable mute freak.
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