damaged

"Auntie, shall we go back to my house to do homework?" Zhang Ailin stood at the door of the shooting gallery and said with a smile to Yuan Liu.

Although there is a hundred reluctance in my heart, what can I do?

No matter what the excuse, the little girl can always find an irresistible counterattack.

"As smart as Zhang Yeqiu." Yuan Liu cursed inwardly.

In Yuan Liu's mind, he repeatedly recalled the lesson plan that he had assigned to Meng Wenjun after returning home, and an inexplicable resentment was suffocating in his heart.Being with Zhang Ailin is just a waste of time.

"That's a while, I'll pick up Wenjun later."

"No need, let dad send Wenjun up, just go up and down the stairs." Zhang Ailin said.

Yuan Liu shook his head and said, "No need, I'm not in a hurry later."

Before Yuan Liu could finish speaking, Zhang Ailin had already taken out her small button cell phone, and said to the phone, "Hello, Dad?"

Before Yuan Liu could react from being stunned, Zhang Ailin had already ended the call.

She smiled and said to Yuan Liu, "Auntie, Dad agrees."

?

What does agreed mean?

Do you still need to go directly to your parents to pick you up when you go up and down the stairs?

Isn't this the same as telling Zhang Yeqiu to the face that Yuan Liu doesn't want Meng Wenjun to stay longer, and is anxious to take him home?

Meng Wenjun stood aside, although he didn't understand what was going on, but he knew in his heart that he could escape the heavy schoolwork today.

Before Yuan Liu could reply, Zhang Ailin dragged Meng Wenjun away.

Meng Wenjun subconsciously followed her.While running, he turned his head and saw Yuan Liu standing there with a pale face, his figure getting farther and farther away from him.I secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Instead of heading straight home, the two of them bypassed the building and ran in the direction of the Ferris wheel.

"This is the amusement park?" Panting, Meng Wenjun looked up and saw the colorful amusement facilities not far away.

Zhang Ailin was very surprised by his words: "You haven't been here? Even if you have seen it, you haven't seen it."

Meng Wenjun pursed his lips and refused to answer her question.The meaning is affirmation in the meaning of negation.

He changed the topic elsewhere: "But we don't have the money to go in."

Zhang Ailin smiled and said, "What kind of money do you need?"

"You come with me." After saying that, Zhang Ailin turned around and waved to Meng Wenjun, motioning him to follow behind her.

The two went around to the back of the amusement park, an unattended grass field, and a mottled wall showed the desolation here.

Meng Wenjun did not expect that the meaning of her smile refers to the hole in the corner of the wall in front of her.

Zhang Ailin proudly puffed out her chest, waiting for his approval and admiration.

Meng Wenjun only showed his bewilderment and said, "This is a dog's hole. Are you going to get in?"

After hearing this, Zhang Ailin frowned, her tone was full of dissatisfaction, and she asked: "You mean 'you'? Don't you plan to go in with me?"

Meng Wenjun squatted down and looked at the hole in the corner.Although he didn't know why the ground below the hole was mixed with muddy water, he didn't want to know either.

He didn't even want to confirm whether the thing shaped like feces was what he imagined.

Zhang Ailin also followed his example and squatted down, looked at the hole, then at him, and asked, "What are you doing?"

"We may have other ways to get in," Meng Wenjun said.

"Ah Ding! You don't believe me!" Zhang Ailin shouted.

"It's not that I don't believe you..." Meng Wenjun continued to look at the messy hole.

Zhang Ailin frowned and asked, "Then shall we go or not?"

Meng Wenjun was silent.

Want to go, but can't walk in here.

Zhang Ailin hated him the most, and couldn't understand what was going on in his mind.The superficial silence is the meaning of rejection.She stood up, and angrily strode back the same way.

Meng Wenjun hurried to catch up and shouted, "Are you angry, Arlene?"

"You are not allowed to call me!"

After a day of training, Meng Wenjun's legs were sore and weak, and he almost fell down.He took two steps forward and grabbed Zhang Ailin's arm: "Alin?"

Zhang Ailin subconsciously shook her hand back, trying to shake off his arm, and shouted: "Don't call me Arlene anymore!"

In an instant, Meng Wenjun's body lost its center of gravity, and the whole person fell backwards, falling heavily on the ground, with a painful expression on his face.

"I'm sorry!" Zhang Ailin blurted out involuntarily, reaching out her hand to help him.

"Hush." ​​Meng Wenjun supported the ground with one hand, stretched out one hand, and made a gesture of silence.

"What's wrong?" Zhang Ailin asked.

"Don't talk." Meng Wenjun said softly, looking around carefully.

Finally, he got up from the ground and walked to a place not far away where the grass grew extremely tall.He gently pushed aside the blades of grass and saw a tattered cardboard box.Inside the cardboard box was a dirty gray blanket spread crookedly.

Zhang Ailin also followed and leaned over.

"Look, kitty." Meng Wenjun said.

Zhang Ailin followed his gaze and looked over.

Inside the cardboard box lay a female cat, the hair on her neck was stained with blood that had solidified into purple-black.

She quietly curled her body into a ball, forming a circle, tightly surrounding the three cubs in the middle.

Of the three little raccoons, only one made a hoarse sound from its throat.

She tried to twist her body, but it didn't take long before she lay down again, whimpering weakly.She tried to get under her mother's body, but the mother cat's body was completely stiff.

"Are the kittens asleep?" Zhang Ailin asked.

Meng Wenjun paused for a while, then said slowly: "It must be death."

Just today, the word death came out of the textbooks of primary schools and jumped in front of them all at once.Live and bloody.It's so close that it's in front of you.

"What will happen to death?" Zhang Ailin asked Meng Wenjun carefully.

Meng Wenjun swallowed his saliva, suppressed the inexplicable panic in his heart, and said: "The kitten will live alone, and will never find its mother again."

Zhang Ailin recited Meng Wenjun's words silently, and looked at the only living cat in the mother cat's arms, bringing herself and her mother, feeling endless sadness, as if a heavy stone was pressed in her heart.

"It's a survivor." Meng Wenjun said, looking at the crawling kitten.

After saying that, he suddenly regretted saying that.

His regret and the confusion in Zhang Ailin's heart overlapped and mixed into one color.

"Should I say it is a survivor. Luckily, is it dead or alive?"

The two thought in unison.

"What will happen to it?" Zhang Ailin suddenly remembered something and asked.

Meng Wenjun was silent.

His silence is like an ellipsis continuation of the sky above his head.

There was no sun to be seen, nor birds to fly.What can be seen is only piled up in the sky, crowded in the sky, large expanses, such as mountains, like lakes and seas, burning clouds, continuous into a never-ending flame, continuous into a golden red magnificence and stalwart.

After a long time, he reached out and gently picked up the kitten from the cardboard box, clumsily hugging it in his arms.

"I'll raise it."

The little Lihua with half-opened eyes lay weakly in Meng Wenjun's arms, and had no strength to struggle.

Meng Wenjun stretched out his finger and stroked the kitten.

Soft, fresh, and warm life.

"We can't leave them alone." Zhang Ailin squatted down and picked up the cardboard boxes. "We need to find a place to bury them, just like what is written in a book. Bury them just like burying people."

Meng Wenjun nodded, looked around, searching for any suitable places around.

Seeing Meng Wenjun's movements, Zhang Ailin said, "Don't leave them here, this is where they disappeared, it's a cold place."

"Bury them under the tree." Meng Wenjun suggested.

"Buried under a very old tree. Let the big tree protect them, so they don't have to die like this again." Zhang Ailin said.

"Okay." Meng Wenjun nodded, stroking the kitten in the crook of his left arm with the palm of his right hand.

Feeling the warmth of his palm, the kitten raised its head and purred softly, then continued to lie in his arms.

……

When they hurried home, it was completely dark.

Two gray-faced children, with no clean spot on their bodies, stood with their heads down in the middle of the living room.For the cat's funeral, the two forgot the time.

There were two parents sitting on the sofa, Ji Shui and Zhang Yeqiu looked at their daughter's messy body, and laughed like crazy.

And Yuan Liu, who was sitting beside Ji Shui, had a stern expression, and looked up and down at Meng Wenjun and the dirty kitten in Meng Wenjun's arms with scrutiny.

Hearing the laughter of her parents, Zhang Ailin suddenly raised her head, ran to her parents' arms, pouted and acted like a baby.

Zhang Yeqiu frowned, but did not lose the smile on his face, while supporting his daughter's shoulders with both hands, he said: "A Lin is like a homeless child.

Ji Shui smiled and patted Zhang Yeqiu's shoulder, pretending to be angry and said, "How can you say that about your daughter!"

Zhang Yeqiu pushed Zhang Ailin onto Ji Shui with a little force, saw the mud on Zhang Ailin's body sticking to Ji Shui's brand new dress, and smiled from ear to ear: "Then I will return the little dirty bastard to you."

Ji Shui didn't care about the mess on his dress, put his arms around Zhang Ailin, and asked softly, "Where did Arlene go? Why did she get so dirty?"

While being coquettish in Ji Shui's arms, Zhang Ailin gave a general account of what happened.

In order to protect Meng Wenjun, she deliberately concealed their purpose of going to the amusement park, and lied that they were a kitten they met by chance on the road.

She didn't see that Yuan Liu's face was getting darker and darker, almost dripping water.

Yuan Liu's thin lips were tightly pressed together, and a sword-like gaze shot out from his eyes, slashing at Meng Wenjun viciously.

She quietly clenched the roots of her back teeth, tightly clenched her hands on her knees, and her nails were deeply embedded in the flesh.She used all her strength to suppress the anger in her body.

Meng Wenjun stood in the living room, like a prisoner waiting to be judged.He lowered his head and lowered his eyes, not daring to raise his head to look at Yuan Liu.He kept stroking the kitten in his arms, feeling its body temperature and breathing.

Suddenly, Yuan Liu stood up, facing Zhang Yeqiu's family, with an ugly smile on his face, and said: "Since the children are back, I can rest assured. It's getting late, I will take Ah Ding and leave first." gone."

Ji Shui and Zhang Yeqiu hurriedly stood up to see off the guests.

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Yuan Liu finally pulled Meng Wenjun into the elevator.

Standing behind Ji Shui, Zhang Ailin looked at Meng Wenjun, and their eyes met.

There was a signal of worry in Zhang Ailin's eyes.

Meng Wenjun pursed his lips and did not speak, his eyes were full of firmness.

Just like the firmness with which he wrote the answers on the answer sheet during the exam.