Ferocious Dog of Old - Chapter 2

[chapter 2]

Tao Xiaodong drew three sticks in total.

The drunkard is irrational, and it will definitely not subside if someone smokes, and he will leave. He deliberately wants to give Tao Xiaodong a few slaps, and before he can stand upright, Tao Xiaodong will fall again with a stick.

The old lady cried and stopped Tao Xiaodong again, calling him “Boy from the Tao family” and telling him to stop beating.

Later, both the drunkard and the old lady left. When they were leaving, they picked up a brick and threw it into the yard, and threw it on the ground and broke it in half. After walking quite a distance, I picked up a brick and came back and smashed it on the courtyard gate. The sound of “Dang” sounded abrupt and startling at night.

Tao Xiaodong didn’t wait for him to smash this time, he had already entered the house, and turned on the light to see his brother.

Tao Huainan groped and put on a small sweater, and was squatting on the ground to touch his shoes. Hearing someone come in, he raised his face high: “Brother?”

Tao Xiaodong picked him up, patted him on the back and said, “It’s alright.”

“Who…” Tao Huainan blinked his empty eyes, and touched his brother’s face with both hands from both sides, his palms were wet and hot, “Did he hit you?”

“No.” Tao Xiaodong’s face was cold , the coat on his body was also cold, put Tao Huainan back on the kang, and rubbed his head twice, “Afraid?”

“I’m afraid someone will hit you.” Tao Huainan whispered.

“I can’t fight, I can’t beat your brother.” Tao Xiaodong coaxed him.

The sweater on his body was reversed, and Tao Xiaodong took it off for him again. The uncle from the hometown next door listened to the news and got dressed and walked in, asking what was going on.

Tao Xiaodong poured some hot water from the kettle, threw a towel, and was wiping Tao Huainan’s feet. Just now, he stepped on his bare feet and got dirty, and the soles of his feet were cold. Tao Xiaodong wiped his feet and said, “It’s okay, Chi Zhide ran here to be drunk.”

“Zuo Zuo came here in the middle of the night?” Said, “Are you startling Xiaonan? Would you like to take Xiaonan to my room to sleep? Live with his aunt.”

Tao Xiaodong said no, Tao Huainan also shook his head.

“Here,” Tao Xiaodong wiped his feet, patted the soles of his feet and told him to go back to lie down, “I’m outside anyway.”

Tao Huainan honestly went back to the quilt and lay down, covering his back tightly.

The old uncle sat for a while and went back after seeing that there was nothing to do. Tao Xiaodong looked back and looked around the house, but didn’t see the Chi’s child.

“Brother don’t turn off the lights, I’ll leave the lights on for you.” Tao Xiaodong said.

Tao Huainan nodded and said yes.

Tao Xiaodong found Tao Huainan’s clothes that had been splashed with milk in the daytime, and took it to the outside.

The child huddled up and squatted beside the brazier. The brazier had already been extinguished. He held the outer ring of the brazier with both hands, trembling like a crippled animal that was shot in the snow.

Tao Xiaodong put the clothes next to him and said, “Put them on.” The

boy looked up at him, and the “click” sound of teeth knocked out very quickly. He stretched out his hand stiffly, skinny and skinny, and even looked a little scary.

Tao Xiaodong glanced at him a few times, and then walked over to pick him up, and picked up the clothes on the ground along the way. The child struggled a bit, Tao Xiaodong frowned and said, “Don’t move.” The child may not have the strength to struggle, as Tao Xiaodong’s arms were tucked around his waist, his arms and legs were hanging down, and he was half dead.

Tao Huainan lay still and heard his brother open the door again.

Tao Huainan heard his brother put something on the other side of the kang, and then heard the sound of clucking his teeth, it was an exaggerated and out of control sound.

At that time, Tao Huainan thought his brother had brought back a cold dog.

“Lie down for a while.” Brother said.

“Your dad was like you when he was a child, and he’s like his dad when he grew up.” Tao Xiaodong looked at the dirty child who was lying on the kang feeling the temperature, “It has been passed down from generation to generation, and it’s a sin.”

Hearing this, Tao Xiaodong Huainan felt that it was not a dog again. It sounds like the kid who stole his milk during the day.

The child didn’t speak, he leaned his face on the kang and twitched, his teeth chattering so much that he couldn’t speak.

There was only one set of bedding at home, and it was taken by my uncle in my hometown. Now Tao Huainan covers it, and Tao Xiaodong took off his military coat and threw it on the dirty boy to cover it.

“You can sleep here tonight.” Tao Xiaodong dropped a sentence.

The child didn’t say a word, only clucked his teeth.

Tao Xiaodong went out for a vigil, and the sound of his teeth clicked for an hour. Tao Huainan had been lying on the other side of the kang with his eyes open, listening to his clicking, the frequency became slower and slower, and then he fell silent.

Only then did Tao Huainan turn over quietly. He was too timid. He was in the same room with a child who was completely unfamiliar and who stole his milk during the day. He didn’t dare to move.

Turning his back to face, Tao Huainan tugged up on the small blanket that was covering his body, and hid his face halfway.

In the end, it’s still skinny, and the kid didn’t freeze for a day with his bare buttocks frozen. Tao Xiaodong let him wear Tao Huainan’s dirty clothes, and he didn’t hear anything from him, so he couldn’t say “thank you”. When Tao Xiaodong was feeding Tao Huainan to eat porridge, he also served him a bowl, which was two large bowls for vegetables. He looked up at Tao Xiaodong, reached out to take it, and went to drink directly from the bowl.

Tao Xiaodong blew the porridge in the spoon, and asked casually, “Your dad always beats you?”

The child raised his head from the bowl and looked over here, his eyelids drooping and he didn’t say a word.

He didn’t speak and Tao Xiaodong didn’t bother to ask again.

Tao Huainan was always thinking about someone over there, and his invisible eyes glanced over there from time to time. Tao Xiaodong tapped his side face with his knuckles to turn him back.

The Chi family’s ancestry is not popular. Normally, such an old child will take care of such a family and such a father, no matter how cold the village adults are. But this kid never said a word when he met anyone. He didn’t say anything when he asked him, and it didn’t hurt anyone. In addition, he was very annoying to his alcoholic father and was afraid of getting into trouble, so the adults didn’t care a few times. No matter what, at most, when he ran out of the house naked like this, let him go into the house to warm up and give him something to eat.

He is like a dirty dog in the village. He eats leftovers from hundreds of households and wears old clothes from hundreds of households. He has to go home after hiding, and beat his dad when he catches up with his drink.

Tao Xiaodong didn’t even think about it, he couldn’t. In this world, except for the affairs of my own family, it is the affairs of other people’s families. There are too many other people’s family affairs. He just said to the boy, “Just stay here for a few days, and don’t go back when your father is at home.”

Tao Huainan glanced over there again, with the timid curiosity of a child in his empty eyes.

Tao Xiaodong asked him to stay here, and the child really stayed for several days. When it got dark in the evening, he went home. In the morning, he came as soon as dawn. He didn’t make a sound when he came. He shrank to any corner, no sense of existence, and no one else noticed him. When eating, Tao Xiaodong usually takes a bowl to order food for him, and he takes a bowl and eats it.

He has been wearing Tao Huainan’s suit all the time, with the milk stain on his chest all the time. The sleeves and front are dirty and dark, and he has never seen it changed.

Apart from the fear of being unknown at the beginning, Tao Huainan later got used to the presence of such a silent presence around him. The child was always far away from him, leaning against the wall. Occasionally, when Tao Xiaodong couldn’t take care of him outside, Tao Huainan went to squat with the child. Although he had no sense of belonging, it was better than standing blankly in an unknown place.

A true blind man, a false mute, silently took a company.

Tao Huainan has a big glass of milk every morning and has to urinate several times in the morning. The ashes of his parents were buried that day. Tao Huainan was carried to the cemetery early in the morning. The coffin fell to the ground. Tao Huainan was led by his brother and knocked on the head nine times. It was too cold in the morning, and Tao Xiaodong didn’t let him follow him after the tedious process, and sent him back.

Tao Huainan was wearing a small sweater and was sitting on the kang.

The mute child stood opposite him against the wall, looking at him.

Tao Huainan frowned, turning his head from time to time, listening to the sound. The big iron gate rang once. Tao Huainan listened carefully, but he didn’t hear anyone coming in. He asked in front of him, “Is that my brother?”

His voice was soft, low, and milky.

The child across from him glanced at the window and opened his mouth for the first time. His voice was not as soft as Tao Huainan’s, and he said “no”.

Tao Huainan opened his mouth and said “Ah”. He sat still with his head lowered, pursed his lips, and kept scratching his fingers gently on the kang leather.

There was no movement outside, and after a while, Tao Huainan said again: “You help me find a bottle…”

He blinked his empty eyes, and this time he sounded like crying: “…I want to pee. ”

Blindness is such a waste, an eight-year-old boy can’t even pee without anyone around him.

The boy on the opposite side also blinked, then raised his drooping eyelids to look around, and turned over half of the hanging curtain to go to the outhouse.

When he came back, he had a rice bowl in his hand, which was a circle bigger than the two big bowls. Tao Xiaodong sometimes used this bowl to serve him rice. The aluminum basin was knocked on the edge of the wooden kang. He shook his long sleeve and pushed it forward again, then turned his head back to the wall where he was standing before.

Tao Huainan touched forward and touched the cold round basin. He didn’t use it to take it, but he didn’t hesitate. He couldn’t hold back.

After a long time, I put on my trousers and gently pushed the rice bowl forward. The voice became even smaller: “You helped me pour it…”

The concrete floor was not so flat, and the sound of the soles of the shoes rubbing against the ground was more pronounced when the boy was dragging cotton shoes that did not fit well. Tao Huainan heard him coming, and then heard him open the door and go out, and then the door rang again, and the aluminum pot landed on the side of the pot in the outhouse with a “dang” sound. When the sound of the friction between the cotton sole and the concrete floor came back step by step, Tao Huainan, who was comfortable urinating, smiled embarrassedly towards the wall.

The adults were not at home, and the two children secretly did bad things and urinated in the basins they used to eat.

Feeling ashamed after urinating, Tao Huainan was still digging at the kang leather, and without raising his head, he snorted quietly, “…Let’s not talk about it?”

[End of This Chapter]