innocent year

Chapter 4

Early the next morning, the sky was bright.

Xu Minghai was entrusted by others, and he was the last person's business.He was sitting on a chair with his legs crossed, trying to "watch the child" with 120 vigor.

After an unknown amount of time, Xu Minghai felt that he was almost in a trance, and only then did the person on the bed move a little.

The child turned over, stretched out the curled body a little bit, and then the two brush-like eyelashes trembled for a while and finally opened.He stared at the dusty fluorescent tubes on the roof for a long time, as if thinking about where this was.Finally, he turned his head slowly and gave Xu Minghai his eyes.

"You're awake!"

Xu Minghai quickly stood up, and then took a piece of pancake from the table that was fried black and smelling fragrant, and greeted Qiushi in a posture similar to teasing a dog: "Do you want to eat it? Sugar pancake ~"

The child didn't speak, just stretched his neck and looked around.

"Godfather took auntie to the street, and said that he needs to go through some formalities with the people in the office." Xu Minghai turned around and put the pancake back on the plate, urging, "Don't wilt on the bed! Godfather is going out I specifically asked you to let me watch you brush your teeth, wash your face and have breakfast."

After Xu Minghai announced his temporary "kindergarten auntie" identity to the public, he lifted the quilt wrapped around Qiushi.The white lotus-like arms and legs in front of Xu Minghai made Xu Minghai feel that the other party looked like a little doll sitting on a lotus flower—that is, the fisher boy in the cartoon about how two groups of people rob baby.So he immediately breathed out at his fingers and scratched Qiushi's armpit.

It's a pity that the child didn't roll on the bed laughing like he expected, no matter how much he scratched, the other party's disgusted expression only conveyed one meaning: keep your oily hands away from me.

Xu Minghai was quite disappointed: "Are you not ticklish?"

Qiushi reached out and took the clothes on the side and put them on one by one, and said in a low voice, "No."

"People say there is no itching and less pain!" Xu Minghai picked up which pot he didn't open.

Qiu Shi sat on the edge of the bed and put on his socks, trying to reach his cotton nest with his feet.It took a long time before he muttered: "I'm not afraid." After speaking, he stood up and was about to run outside.

"Hey! Why are you going?" Xu Minghai hurriedly pulled him back, but immediately realized, "The public toilet is at the entrance of the alley! It's so cold outside, let alone your buttocks are freezing. Isn't there a basin under this bed?" ?”

Qiushi quit and insisted on going out.

"Why are you doing this?" Xu Minghai didn't know what to do, and felt that he was shouldering the heavy responsibility of "watching the children", so he had to urge Qiushi to put on a cotton coat and a scarf hat.Then Xu Minghai copied a roll of pink toilet paper from the window sill, and led Qiushi out of the courtyard to the entrance of the alley.

Today is Sunday, and there are quite a lot of people in the alley.Catch up with years ago, everyone was pushing bicycles, coming out and going in, it was a busy and lively scene.

"This is Uncle Sun's house. It used to be a handlebar, but now it's changed to making kites. This is Qian Xiaoliu's family. His family is very famous for making hairy monkeys. Do you know what hairy monkeys are? Forget it, I guess you don't either." Know."

Xu Minghai said to himself: "It's just using the shed skin of Cicada, together with Huaguduoer, to make a little monkey, and I'll take you there sometime, it's really fun!"

"Oh, this is Uncle Luo's canteen. There are a lot of delicious food in it. There is also a public phone. Anyone in the alley can call here if they have anything to do."

While Xu Minghai was serving as Qiushi's tour guide, he also had to say hello to the passing uncles and aunts from time to time.

"Xiao Hai, whose child is this? He's so handsome!" Someone found out.

It's been a long time, and Xu Minghai waited for someone to ask him with his neck stuck, so a pleasant dimple appeared on his face immediately: "My brother!"

"Hey, why did you suddenly have such a big brother? Go home and tell your mother that human trafficking is against the law!"

"It wasn't kidnapped," Xu Minghai coughed teasingly, "I delivered it to my door!"

Li Yandong said a few years ago that he would give birth to a younger brother or younger sister for Xu Minghai, and Xu Minghai was very excited about it for a while, showing off to anyone that he was going to be a brother.

But later, without knowing what happened, Li Yandong fell on the ground when he went out, and was rushed to the hospital immediately.When I came back again, my big belly was deflated.At that time, Xu Minghai saw that his mother was crying in secret all the time, so he didn't dare to yell about being a brother anymore.

Li Yandong originally planned to make a comeback, but he caught up with family planning.The small plan can't keep up with the big plan, no matter if it's a younger brother or a younger sister, anyway, Xu Minghai was completely devastated by the plan.

He sometimes went to visit his classmate's house, and when he saw other people's brothers and sisters bustling around the room, he felt jealous.Where is it like home?The only sideshow was when Li Yandong scolded Xu Yong for being worthless, or scolded his son for failing the exam again.And Xu Yong has already practiced the ability of copper skin and iron bone for so many years.The lyrics of Taiping that I like to hum most on weekdays are: I went out of the west of the city when I was free. I saw others riding horses and I rode donkeys.

This idle attitude of non-violence and non-cooperation seriously affected Xu Minghai.So the father and son united the front, often secretly doing some small tricks under Li Yandong's nose, which was very exciting to do underground work.So despite Li Yandong's repeated warnings last night "Don't play with that bastard who has more parents than mother!", Xu Minghai has the right to ignore it.

Especially when sleeping last night, Chen Lei was lying on the steel wire bed, and for the first time explained to Xu Minghai like an adult why he wanted to vacate the room for Qiu Shi and the others.He also said that you can't bully other people's orphans and widowed mothers, because "it's not righteous" and "it doesn't show face".Xu Minghai can't do things that are neither righteous nor face-saving, so he treats himself as the brother of other people's children very often.

Standing outside the men's room, Xu Minghai handed the paper to Qiushi: "I'll wait for you right here."

"I know how to get back."

"Don't mess around," Xu Minghai insisted on standing in the cold wind where the knife cut his face, stomping his feet and said, "You have time to talk, you come out." Then he pushed the person in.

Later, Xu Minghai recalled the past between himself and Qiu Shi, and suddenly realized that this protracted waiting seemed to have started from the entrance of the toilet in the alley in the cold winter months.It was precisely because of such unromanticism that he was convinced that all of this had really happened, rather than a long series he had compiled, when he dreamed back at midnight and stared in a daze.

After Qiushi came out, Xu Minghai led the people back to the courtyard with pride.He was going to urge Qiushi to wash his hands, wash his face and brush his teeth in an adult manner.But I didn't expect that the other party was very conscious, with a correct attitude and standard actions, leaving no room for others to pretend to be pretentious.

In the end, Xu Minghai had no choice but to nitpick, insisting that the children's cream that Qiushi dug out from Zhou Yingying's bag was a counterfeit product.Turning around, she took a bottle of "Yu Meijing" from her room with a little girl holding her chin on the side face.

Xu Minghai usually doesn't bother to use this thing at all, usually only when Li Yandong is staring at him, he would fool around like a cat.He unscrewed the cap and gave a generous dollop, carefully spreading the fragrant paste all over his face, not even his neck.

At this moment, Qiushi's obedient and cooperative appearance is completely different from his viciousness when he bit someone yesterday.Xu Minghai even couldn't help but suspect that everything that happened yesterday was made up by his brain after eating too much.

In the process of being smeared by Xu Minghai, Qiu Shi had a close-up look at the "masterpiece" he had left on the opponent's tiger's mouth. There were dark red scabs on the distinct teeth marks, which looked thrilling.

"What are you doing?" Xu Minghai noticed Qiu Shi's gaze, and immediately became alert, "Don't think about giving me another bite while I'm not paying attention! I didn't invite you today."

Qiu Shi wrestled with himself for a long time, and finally whispered awkwardly: "I didn't mean it, I'm sorry."

"Didn't you bite like this on purpose? If you did it on purpose, you wouldn't have bitten off my hand?" Xu Minghai laughed heartlessly.

Then he saw the other party blushing, and hurriedly changed his words: "Hi! I'm just kidding you, I'm kidding, it doesn't hurt anymore. Godfather said that we don't know each other without a fight."

Xu Minghai digested the remaining Yu Meijing on his own, and then brought the porridge and oil cakes that had been kept warm on the stove back to the table, and then gave an instruction, "Start rubbing!"

Qiu Shi felt a little closer to Xu Minghai's cheerful and ungrateful personality.So he sat on the chair, picked up the spoon and drank the sweet and thick Laba porridge in one gulp.

Xu Minghai upholds the professionalism of doing what he does and loving what he does, and he really wants to continue this work of "coaxing children".But helplessly, this new brother really doesn't need to bother coaxing him, making him useless as a hero.

So Xu Minghai laid one elbow on the table, resting his chin on his forearm.Seeing the people on the opposite side draw materials from the local area, he muttered to himself: "Don't be greedy, children. After Labaer, it's the New Year. Drink Labaer porridge for a few days, and you will be la lala 23..."

Relying on the Beijing film raised in Yizui Hutong, Xu Minghai recited this folk song in a daze, and it sounded very carefree and mischievous.

At this moment, the fresh and warm winter sun shines through the window, and the fine dust cooperates with the crackling sound from the hearth, bouncing vigorously above their heads as if alive.

Qiushi looked at Xu Minghai, and while drinking the porridge, he couldn't help but also silently recited the nursery rhyme in his heart.

"23 sticky melon, 24 cleaning the house, 25 making tofu, 26 cooking meat, 27 killing chicken, 28 making dough, 29 steaming steamed buns, playing all night at [-], walking all over the street at the beginning of the new year..."

Xu Minghai looked at the other person, stared at him with good eyes, and nodded his head lightly, an indescribable satisfaction suddenly surged in his heart.One is that he thinks coaxing children is such a sense of accomplishment; the other is that he thinks that "Guozi" is more pleasing to the eye than other people's younger brothers-I want him not to bite people.

What Xu Minghai didn't know was that it was less than 10 minutes before Li Yandong called.