Cheng Shi and Old Jia

But reality was far more tragic than imagined. When Cheng Shi followed Old Jia back to that so-called home, he found out that Old Jia had no job at all. When he was short of money, he would pick up scraps and do odd jobs.

His entire outfit was fake.

It is indeed an old fake.

This "home" was far too dilapidated for Cheng Shi, who had grown up in an orphanage; it was even worse than the attic storage room where he was often locked up.

There was no longer a warm bed, no longer a clean desk, no longer any companions; all that remained were four walls, a bed, a desk, and a missing corner of the desk.

There wasn't even a single electrical appliance in the entire house, except for the light bulb overhead that flickered on and off.

Strangely, Cheng Shi wasn't frustrated or even disappointed when he saw this scene. He simply asked calmly, "Where do I sleep?"

Old Jia pointed to the dark kang (heated brick bed): "You sleep inside, I'll sleep outside."

"Oh."

Cheng Shi responded, climbed onto the bed without even taking off his clothes, pulled the greasy quilt over himself, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

Old Jia stared blankly at the child, then turned to look at the blazing sun outside, shook his head, smiled, closed the door for him, and left.

However, since this was Cheng Shi's dream, Jiang Wu Mei did not know where Old Jia had gone. He only knew that shortly after Old Jia left, the fox-like Cheng Shi woke up pinching his nose.

He listened intently to Ear sounds, then jumped out of bed, grabbed his little schoolbag, and headed outside.

This is an urban village. The road into the village is so winding that even the wandering knight himself almost forgot it. But this little boy just followed along once with his head down, and then walked out along the same road as an old horse that knew the way well.

It seems that Xiao Cheng Shi had no intention of living with Old Jia at all.

"Run away? Interesting."

Jiang Wu Mei followed Cheng Shi Chengshi like a ghost. Just as they stepped out of the urban village, they spotted Old Jia in a supermarket at the village entrance.

Xiao Cheng Shi shut up and stood close to the wall, and then he heard the voices of the shop assistant and his "father" coming from inside.

"Hey, Old Jia, you've struck it rich! Now you're willing to buy ham?"

"I won't eat it if I don't get rich; the children will."

"Huh? When did you have a child? Was it adopted?"

"Don't talk nonsense, it's not good for the kids to hear."

"Okay, let's go, let's go. The smell is making me nauseous. It's so dirty even with kids in the house. You'll catch a disease. Go wash up quickly."

"I know, but it's none of your business."

Old Jia packed up his things and headed back. Xiao Cheng Shi stood by the wall, frowned, and hesitated for a moment. Then he sighed, dejectedly picked up his schoolbag, and headed back as well.

But he walked faster than Old Jia, so Xiao Cheng Shi woke up in bed just before Old Jia got home.

"Awake? Come on, eat something, there's meat."

"Oh." Xiao Cheng Shi jumped off the bed, looked at the bare walls of the house, and pouted. "How are we going to wash our hands?"

Old Jia was taken aback and scratched his head.

"Wait here, I'll go borrow a basin."

"..." Watching Old Jia leave in a hurry, Cheng Shi stood in the room and laughed heartily. But as he laughed, he didn't know what he was laughing at anymore. He picked up the sausage, glanced at it, and muttered with a strange expression, "It's good, at least it's not expired yet."

This seems to be a not-too-bad start. At least the old man and the young man have accepted each other, and Xiao Cheng Shi has settled down obediently in this poor home.

But he never abandoned his "tools." Although the family wasn't wealthy, he could at least use his hands—or rather, his mouth—to swindle some things to supplement the family income.

Next door lived a wealthy man surnamed Sun, who was quite old but well-maintained.

No one knew why a rich person, especially a rich woman, would live here, but Jiang Wu Mei discovered that a large area of houses in this urban village seemed to belong to her. She was a rich and idle landlady.

Xiao Cheng Shi quickly discovered this and started going to Aunt Sun's house every few days to freeload some food.

The woman surnamed Sun didn't look down on him, but her attitude wasn't very good either; she treated him like a little pet.

But freeloading isn't a long-term solution. Many things that were available for eating and drinking in the orphanage became luxuries for Old Jia. So one day, Xiao Chengshi, who was craving food, Cheng Shi couldn't resist anymore. He found a bottle cap at the door and, with his skillful hands, painted "Win Another Bottle" on the back of the cap. Then he took it to the supermarket to exchange it for a drink.

The shop assistant didn't notice at all, and he actually got the replacement.

However, as soon as he left the supermarket, he was caught by Old Jia.

Old Jia had just finished work and came back when he saw Xiao Cheng Shi gulping down a Coke. His expression darkened, and without saying a word, he took out some money from his pocket and went to the supermarket to pay.

Xiao Cheng Shi saw this, but didn't say a word. He just lowered his head and followed him home.

This was the first time Old Jia had ever been angry. No matter how Xiao Cheng Shi explained along the way, he didn't laugh once. After arriving home, he even made Cheng Shi lie on the bed and not move.

Cheng Shi's stubbornness flared up, and without saying a word, he lay down on top of it and didn't move.

He guessed what Old Jia was going to do.

Sure enough, Old Jia picked up the broom handle by the door and swung it at Cheng Shi's buttocks.

It hurt a lot; even Jiang Wu Mei felt the pain, but Xiao Cheng Shi didn't utter a sound.

Old Jia trembled with anger. He said, "A person should be honest in this life. It's wrong to lie, and liars never have a good ending. Do you understand?"

Xiao Cheng Shi tilted his head to the other side, holding back tears as he retorted, "I always lied when I was in the orphanage, and I had a much better life there!"

"..." Old Jia choked, his hands trembling as he dropped the broom. After a moment of silence, he said, "So you met me. This is the retribution for lying."

"..."

Now it was Xiao Cheng Shi dumbfounded.

The father and son spent the night awkwardly together, without saying a word.

The next morning, Old Jia went out, Cheng Shi, having been hit with a broom, couldn't get out of bed and just lay there in a daze for half a day.

When it was noon, Old Jia came back, covered in sweat, and brought back a case of Coke, a brand new case of Coke.

Xiao Cheng Shi looked at the box of cola with a complicated expression.

He didn't cry when he was hit with a stick yesterday, but he cried now.

When Old Jia saw that Xiao Cheng Shi was crying, he didn't say anything, but just spread out the lunch he had bought and put it on his bed.

Cheng Shi sobbing for a while, Xiao Chengshi asked in a muffled voice, "Let's eat together."

Old Jia chuckled foolishly, "The construction site provides meals, and I've already eaten my fill. Otherwise, how would I have the energy to work?"

No sooner had he finished speaking than his stomach growled.

"..."

Xiao Cheng Shi stared blankly at Old Jia's stomach. Old Jia didn't even blush. He covered his stomach and ran out, saying as he ran, "Look, I ate too much and got diarrhea. You keep eating, I'm going to take a dump."

"..." Xiao Cheng Shi looked at his father who had disappeared, and curled his lips in disgust. "A person should be honest in this life. It's wrong to lie... Who said that?"

But after muttering to himself, he started crying again, eating while crying, leaving no bite for Old Jia and wasting not a single bite.

When Old Jia returned, he looked at the plastic box, which was even cleaner than if it had been washed, and smiled with satisfaction.

From that day on, the story in that dream was no longer exciting.

Because Cheng Shi stopped lying.

He seemed to have discovered that one could live well without lies, so he settled down and lived peacefully with his father.

Time began to fly by. After Cheng Shi enrolled in school, Jiang Wu Mei found less and less enjoyment in his dreams. Like the third member of the family, he witnessed Cheng Shi's growth, accompanying him from elementary school to middle school to high school, and then to university with a passable score.

But before enrollment, this impoverished family faced a second major challenge: tuition fees.

Jiang Wu Mei knew all too well what this family had, even better than the father and son. The two of them probably didn't even have enough money for the travel expenses to go to university. Under such circumstances, it seemed that there was no other way but to borrow money.

But just as Cheng Shi was worrying about this, one afternoon, Old Jia came back with 20,000 yuan.