Chapter 236
Chapter 236
I woke up at the hotel that morning.
I video-called Seventh Master and told him about Rat and Xiao Xuan.
After hearing the story, Seventh Master turned solemn too.
Over the video, he said, “Pitiful, yes. But those who should undergo Exorcism still have to undergo Exorcism. Don’t forget that ironclad rule.”
Of course I hadn’t forgotten. Once a person died, everything from when they were alive no longer had anything to do with them.
Song Xiaotian came over carrying a bowl of noodles and said, “Seventh Master, what about Xiao Xuan? Who’s going to take care of him?”
Seventh Master said, “I know the director of a children’s welfare home. I’ll give him a call. This afternoon, I’ll come over with him and discuss it with that Blind Old Man. We’ll have the child go to the welfare home.”
Song Xiaotian still seemed worried. He asked, “Is that reliable? How come I’ve heard those places all abuse children…”
Seventh Master snapped, “Where did you hear that? Watched too many foreign movies, have you? Besides, I know the director of that welfare home. He devotes himself completely to charity. There won’t be any child abuse.”
“And the child you’re talking about has to go to the welfare home. Otherwise, are you going to raise him?”
Song Xiaotian said, “Oh. No, I can’t. I can’t even support myself.”
After hanging up, I called Anning and asked her to come over.
As for Rat, we had to catch him tonight for sure. But that kid wouldn’t be easy to catch. Even I, who was top-notch at running away, couldn’t catch up to him.
It would be safer with more people.
Around two in the afternoon, Anning arrived, and Seventh Master came with the director of the welfare home as well.
The director shared my surname, Chen. He was a middle-aged man, tall and thin, dressed very plainly, and he seemed kind and approachable.
Originally, none of us really trusted welfare homes. We always felt that in this society, anyone with a bit of power in their hands would be greedy for money.
But Director Chen had been introduced by Seventh Master. Since we trusted Seventh Master, we naturally trusted Director Chen too.
After we met up, our group headed straight to Xiao Xuan’s home.
Before we even reached Xiao Xuan’s place, the surroundings nearby were already extremely poor. To ordinary people like us, this kind of place simply wasn’t fit for human habitation.
After Director Chen listened to our brief explanation of Xiao Xuan and Rat’s story, his mood turned heavy.
He said, “In my whole life, the saying I hate most is that there are no parents in the world who are wrong. If there truly were no parents in the world who were wrong, there wouldn’t be so many pitiful children. Giving birth to a child and then refusing to raise them isn’t a mistake. It’s a sin!”
Just from those few words, I felt that Director Chen was reliable.
Soon, we arrived at Xiao Xuan’s home.
Xiao Xuan wasn’t there, but the Blind Old Man was. He was sitting by the door. Because he couldn’t see, he could only feel around as he stomped flat the bottles Xiao Xuan had picked up, then put them back into a woven snakeskin sack, preparing to sell them.
He looked frightening, even in broad daylight.
One of his eyes was an empty socket, and the eyelid and lower lid had nearly wrinkled together with the skin on his face.
Anning and Director Chen were both startled, but they quickly calmed down.
A blind person’s eyes couldn’t see, but their hearing was sharp. The Blind Old Man had already heard us arrive.
I walked up to him and greeted him.
“It’s you two young men.”
He smiled, though even his smile was a little terrifying. “Seems like a lot of people came today? I never thought a place like ours would have guests.”
He hurriedly stood up, wanting to offer us his chair.
Director Chen walked over and helped him sit back down. “Sir, I’m from the welfare home. My surname is Chen. I came today because I heard about Xiao Xuan, and I’d like to take him to the welfare home.”
When the Blind Old Man heard that Xiao Xuan was going to be taken away, he immediately grew nervous. “A welfare home? What’s a welfare home? Why are you taking Xuan away to a welfare home?”
“Please don’t get worked up,” Director Chen said soothingly, then hurried to explain what a welfare home was.
The old man hadn’t seen much of the world, but he understood some of it. Still, he could hardly believe it. “So after Xuan goes there, he’ll have food and a place to live, and he can go to school too?”
Director Chen said, “That’s right. If Xiao Xuan goes to the welfare home, he’ll be well taken care of and he’ll be able to attend school. He won’t have to suffer in the wind and sun, and no one will bully him. I can promise you that.”
Out of habit, he took out a few photos of the welfare home, wanting to show the old man what the place was like.
But the old man couldn’t see, so he had no choice but to put them away again.
“But… we don’t have that much money. A place like that must cost quite a lot, right?” the old man asked, tense again.
He felt that if it was such a good place, Xiao Xuan ought to go, but he still hadn’t fully understood what a welfare home was.
“Sir, it doesn’t cost anything. We’re a charity organization. Many kindhearted people donate money to us. If Xiao Xuan goes there, you won’t have to pay a single cent, and we’ll still take very good care of him,” Director Chen explained once more.
“There really is such a good place…”
The old man couldn’t quite believe it. He wanted Xiao Xuan to go, but he probably still felt uneasy.
After thinking for a moment, he suddenly stood up from his chair, making as if to kneel before Director Chen.
“Director Chen, then please take Xiao Xuan with you. I’ll kowtow to you. You have to take good care of him. This child has had such a hard life.”
Director Chen was startled and quickly helped the old man back up. “You mustn’t. Aren’t you trying to shorten my life? Just believe me. I promise you, if I treat Xiao Xuan badly, may the heavens strike me with lightning. May I get hit by a car the moment I step outside.”
Director Chen was an emotional man too; he even swore such a vicious oath.
The old man held his hand and nodded. “I believe you. I believe you. I believe these two young men too. I believe all of you.”
He kept smiling. We could all tell that his smile was full of ingratiation.
He was afraid Director Chen wouldn’t treat Xiao Xuan well.
But he couldn’t see us, and he didn’t know which direction to smile toward.
I asked him, “How long have you been taking care of Xiao Xuan and Rat?”
The old man said it hadn’t been that long, just about eight months.
Back then, on the night of New Year’s Eve-this year’s Spring Festival-he had gone out to collect trash when he ran into a teenager in his teens who knelt down in front of him.
The boy said his younger brother was sick and about to die. He didn’t know what to do, and he begged the old man to save his brother.
That boy was Rat. The younger brother Rat spoke of was Xiao Xuan.
After that, the old man brought Rat and Xiao Xuan straight back to his home, took out his own savings, and used them to get Xiao Xuan treated.
But that little bit of money wasn’t enough for them to go to a hospital, so the old man could only take Xiao Xuan to a nearby clinic.
Because Rat was dressed in rags, the doctors at the clinic wouldn’t let him in. The old man stayed inside the clinic to look after Xiao Xuan, accompanying him through three days of IV drips. They prescribed some medicine as well, and afterward, the old man brought Xiao Xuan back home to care for him.
After Xiao Xuan recovered, he and Rat stayed at the old man’s home.
Two children and one old man, none of them with any family, depended on one another like that and lived together for eight months.