Ferocious Dog of Old - Chapter 1

[Chapter 1]

it’s too cold.

Tao Huainan was lying on his side and huddled in the back seat of the car, covered with his brother’s coat. There was a lot of noise outside, and he heard his brother talking to others.

The van’s doors and windows were not tightly leaking, so Tao Huainan tugged on his coat and shrunk his face in half. My brother’s clothes smelled of smoke and paper dust.

They have burned a lot of paper in the past two days. My brother has always had this choking smell, and Tao Huainan has it himself.

The door was pulled open, Tao Huainan’s eyes widened, although he couldn’t see anything.

Open your eyes to express that you are awake.

– He is blind.

“Awake?”

was his brother’s voice.

Tao Huainan calmed down, got up and sat down, with his arms stretched out, he handed his clothes forward.

His brother said, “Cover it up.”

Tao Huainan still stretched out his arms: “Brother wear it.” Tao

Xiaodong only had a sweater on his body and was cold. He didn’t sit next to him. He took the clothes from his hand and put them on his gloves, and asked, “I’m hungry. Not hungry?”

Tao Huainan said “not hungry”.

Tao Xiaodong’s body became less cold before he sat down and touched his head. Tao Huainan heard his brother say, “Go down when you wake up, and kowtow to your parents later.”

Tao Huainan nodded and said, “Okay.”

In the past two days, Tao Huainan was held by his brother, and he kowtowed many times. He couldn’t see anything, only knew that there were many people around him all the time, and these people were always sighing.

Tao Huainan has a good ear. Others say that his life is hard not far away, that the future will not be easy for the two brothers, and that the little blind man will drag his brother down for the rest of his life. Tao Huainan heard it. He held his brother’s hand tightly, and his brother’s palm was always warm.

They came back here the day before yesterday to bury their parents’ ashes. Since half a year ago, Tao Huainan has no parents, only his brother.

My brother is much older than him and loves him very much.

There are many customs in their hometown, and the white affairs process is long and cumbersome. They have to live in their hometown for a week. Tao Huainan has never been here, he was not born here, and he has never lived here. This place is too unfamiliar to him, and he doesn’t know anyone here.

It’s too cold here. Tao Huainan wears a woolen knitted hat with a snap button on the front of his face. When he buckles it, he can even cover his head and face, leaving only his eyes. But despite this, Tao Huainan still felt a pain in the bridge of his nose from the cold, and the little bone between his eyes was aching as the wind blew.

In the cold winter and twelfth lunar month, when people speak outside, they are stiff in the cold wind, as if their lips and tongues are not so flexible.

Tao Huainan spoke loudly and coughed twice from time to time. On the first day he came here, he caught a cold, and he took several medicines, but it was still not getting better. Tao Xiaodong has a lot of things to do, so he can’t take care of him all the time.

It was at this time that Tao Huainan met the child, in front of his parents’ spiritual shed, in a freezing winter.

At that time, he was standing outside holding a cup to drink milk, the snap button on the hat was lifted, the piece of cloth in front of his face was hanging down at his chin, and the hot air from the cup of milk sprayed all over his face.

Behind him was the still noisy spirit shed. A cup of hot milk made Tao Huainan not so cold at last, and his palms were so warm that he was a little reluctant to drink it.

——Tao Huainan was startled when the cup in his hand was suddenly snatched away, and he shrank back in shock. He couldn’t see anything, and in a place where everything was unfamiliar, such sudden changes always frightened him.

Some milk splashed on his hat and front, Tao Huainan called out “brother” in a panic.

It was a naked boy, a little shorter than Tao Huainan, as thin as a handful of bones, with protruding ribs one by one, bruises all over his body, and an unhealthy red swell on his face.

He held Tao Huainan’s cup in both hands and swallowed the milk, his hands were cracked and dirty.

The uncle from my hometown snorted, because Tao Huainan shivered again because of the sudden roar.

Tao Xiaodong walked over and hugged him, Tao Huainan immediately pressed against him.

The uncle in my hometown said that he was a kid from the Chi family. Seeing that Tian’er was so naked, his father was stupid when he drank too much. He would beat him if he drank too much.

“Chi’s family?” Tao Xiaodong asked, “Chi Zhide?”

“Yes, do you remember?”

Tao Xiaodong and the Chi family’s drunkard were not different in age. The Chi family has been an alcoholic for generations. He beat his wife and children when he drank too much. Chi Zhide was beaten on one side of his ear by his father since he was a child. Tao Xiaodong never liked seeing their family, and walked around.

“His son is so old?” Tao Xiaodong looked at the child. He was naked from head to toe, not even a piece of cloth. The wounds and scars on his body were obviously beaten out. Tao Xiaodong couldn’t stand it any longer, put down Tao Huainan, took off his coat, and wrapped the child.

The boy swayed back and forth, shaking violently in an exaggerated and uncontrollable manner, his teeth rattling.

The coat was covering him with body temperature, and the boy was holding Tao Huainan’s large cup that kept the temperature in his hand, and looked up at Tao Xiaodong.

Tao Xiaodong also looked at him, this child looks like his father, not good-looking or likable. Although Tao Xiaodong has no intention of taking care of other people’s affairs, but in such a cold day running outside naked and barefoot, if he is not careful, he may freeze to death.

Tao Xiaodong glanced at the little bit between the boy’s legs that was frozen purple and shrunk. If it was so frozen outside for a few hours, the chicken would be useless if it didn’t fall off. He wanted the boy to go to the house to warm up, but before he could open his mouth, the child turned and ran away.

Coats and drinking glasses were thrown on the ground, covered in dirty snow and mud. The old uncle shouted and scolded, and picked up the things: “I don’t want to mess with their family. His father is a lunatic. When he is crazy, he will beat anyone.”

Tao Xiaodong asked: “What the fuck?”

“Let him beat him away. Come on, who can live with a lunatic, leave early!”

Tao Xiaodong put on his coat, squatting down and hugging Tao Huainan regardless of the mud on it. Tao Huainan still had the temperature of the milk on his hands, and the hot little palm was pressed against Tao Xiaodong’s neck.

Tao Xiaodong asked him, “Are you startled?”

Tao Huainan nodded in a low voice: “Scare me.”

Tao Xiaodong then rubbed his head through his hat and coaxed: “It won’t scare you if you touch the hair. ”

At that time, Tao Huainan was guarded like a baby by his brother, the little blind man was too fragile, Tao Xiaodong was tied to his body every day to protect his eyes.

A boy of this age is said to be the age to be foolishly running around on the street. When he gets angry, his parents are so angry that he can pull him over and take a meal. Tao Xiaodong himself came here like this.

But it’s not all like that. There is a little blind man who can’t live without his parents, and there is a little dirty dog who is better off without his parents.

In the final analysis, people have different fates. Good fates have their own good ones, and miserable ones can also have their own misfortunes.

Tao Huainan drank a large glass of milk that his brother re-warmed, and the child was well nourished. He couldn’t lack a large glass of milk every day. He drank it until the child’s milk was white and milky, and the whole body was full of the stinky smell of milk.

After drinking milk, he took a long sleep in the afternoon, and was put on the kang by his brother, covered with his own little blanket. Inside and outside of the dream are the mourning sounds of mourning from time to time in the spirit shed outside, and Mr. Yin Yang’s sudden roar always makes him shrink his shoulders even when he falls asleep.

Because of this sleep, I couldn’t sleep at night.

Even if his eyes can’t see, there is still a difference between day and night for him, and the faint light in front of him can make the world of the blind divide day and night.

Tao Xiaodong didn’t sleep at night, his uncle’s dark yellow-green military coat was wrapped around his padded jacket, and the collar stood up to protect his ears and face.

He came in to see Tao Huainan once, Tao Huainan heard him come in, reached out to touch him, and whispered, “Brother, I’ll go with you.”

His brother touched his hand with the back of his hand and coaxed him: “It’s too cold outside.”

“I’ll put on a padded jacket.”

“It’s also cold, so sleep in the room.” Tao Xiaodong sat down with him for a few minutes. Went out again in a while.

Tao Huainan hadn’t been able to fall asleep for a long time, and he slept a lot in the afternoon. The glass windows in the countryside are not tight, and it is windy at night. The kang under him was burning hot, his face and hands exposed outside the quilt were cold, and the tip of his nose was cold.

Tao Huainan raised his hand to the tip of his nose from time to time, the palm of his hand smelled of firewood on the kang leather.

When the old lady’s cries reached her ears from far and near, Tao Huainan shrank into the quilt.

The old but sharp shouts made Tao Huainan even colder, and the man’s roar and scolding could be heard when he was close. The footsteps were chaotically mixed with the human voices, getting closer and closer.

The man scolded “little bastard” and yelled “I’m going to beat you to death today”.

The old lady cried aloud and begged him to stop chasing her, occasionally saying “run quickly”.

Tao Huainan lay there quietly and listened, his eyes staring in vain in the darkness. He wanted to find his brother, but he was always uncomfortable when he was not around.

A spirit shed was set up in the courtyard. The gates of these heavenly courtyards were not closed, and they were always open.

When the courtyard door was knocked “bang”, Tao Xiaodong was sitting cross-legged in front of the brazier smoking. He looked up and saw that he was still the child of Chi’s house during the day.

The bare-bottomed child hid at the base of the wall, his father chased him, and was dragged back by the old lady’s arm. It couldn’t be dragged, but it kept being pulled and staggered.

“Stop beating! If you fight again, you’re going to be killed! Zhide!!”

The man was drunk and scolded in the direction of the boy.

Tao Xiaodong didn’t finish smoking a cigarette, he still sat there.

“Zhi De! That’s your son!!” The old lady’s voice had long since become hoarse, and her voice raised even more with hysterical despair.

One old, one young and one drunk, in the yard with the spirit shed, seems to be playing a mournful farce.

Tao Xiaodong looked at it coldly for a long time, and it was hard for them not to think the two coffins containing the ashes were scary. Tao Xiaodong lit again and burned a stack of paper money into the brazier.

This is where Tao Xiaodong lived since he was a child. This yard and these two rooms are his childhood home. He was foolishly running around here to get the roof and tiles, and then his father yelled and frightened him to slap his butt twice, and he kept his hands when he slapped it.

At that time, the last alcoholic in the Chi family was Chi Zhide’s father. He beat his son after drinking too much. Every time Chi Zhide was beaten, he would run around. At that time, if Tao Xiaodong’s father met him, he would definitely stop him, saying that he had the ability to go out and use it. What kind of ability is it to beat a child and play drunkenness. Every time Chi Zhide sees Tao Xiaodong’s father, he hides behind him, crying and calling “Uncle Tao”.

At this moment, Chi Zhide beat his son, and the child looked much worse than when Chi Zhide was a child. “Uncle Tao” is gone, and the ashes are kept in the coffin. The child who was crying and shouting for help at the beginning has now become the next alcoholic, staring at a pair of scarlet eyes that are not at all human-like.

All this is funny and sad, and the farce in front of me also reveals a sense of fate that is separated by a generation and a span of time.

After he finished smoking a cigarette, Tao Xiaodong threw the cigarette butt into the brazier, stood up, and took the long stick next to the fire.

The child ran out of numbers, and his legs and feet were freezing. He wanted to get around Tao Xiaodong, but he couldn’t, and he slammed his head on Tao Xiaodong.

When Chi Zhide scolded him from behind, Tao Xiaodong slapped him on the neck with a stick, which directly knocked the alcoholic to the ground, unable to recover.

“Go away.” Tao Xiaodong looked coldly at the alcoholic who was squatting on the ground, clutching his neck and moaning.

[End of This Chapter]