Xu Mei's mother and son lived in the apartment in the market town. Although their life was relatively peaceful, Xu Mei's mood was always restless. She always felt that the family was suffering from bad luck, so she always frowned and never smiled happily. , which made her look much older, with obvious wrinkles and eye bags on her face, and a bunch of eye-catching white hair growing out of the black hair on her head.
Later, she developed diabetes and almost all the savings from selling her apartment were spent. She still hasn't recovered. So she simply stopped taking medicine. She kept trying, but she couldn't survive, and it also caused eye problems. She couldn't afford medical treatment. She cried all day long and shed tears all day long, which led to blindness in both eyes.
When Shi Lan saw his mother stumbling while walking, he did not support her as a guide so obediently, but just played by himself. When there was no food to eat, he called his mother. She was cooking with her hands, but the rice was not cooked yet. When I'm hungry, I clamor for food.
That time, her mother fell down while cooking. Shi Lan cried when she saw her, but didn't know how to help her. Xu Mei fumbled around, but instead of continuing to cook, she found a rope, touched a chair, and put it under the window. Then she stood up, put the rope on the wooden railing at the top of the window, tied a buckle, and tied herself up. He slowly stretched his neck in until the buckle covered it.
She finally said to Shi Lan, who stopped crying, "My child, my mother is old and unable to take care of you. You have to cook this meal yourself. My mother is leaving."
As soon as she finished speaking, Xu Mei kicked over the chair under her feet, and her neck was tied tightly by the rope buckle. Under the window, she bounced and rustled for a while, and then her eyes turned white and her face turned black. Tilt, a large portion of her purple tongue came out of her half-open mouth, and she stopped moving.
Shi Lan, who was dumbfounded, ran over, hugged her mother and shouted. When her mother didn't respond, Shi Lan burst into tears. The crying alarmed the nearby neighbors. A woman stuck her head in the door and shouted, "No, no, no, Mrs. Xu has found a short circuit and hanged herself!"
Then the woman pulled away the wailing Shi Lan, quickly untied the rope around Xu Mei's neck, touched Xu Mei's nostrils and there was no air, and the person had passed. The woman kept complaining about Shi Lan, why couldn't your mother come out and call someone when she was looking for a shortcut? Shi Lan continued to cry as if he hadn't heard anything.
At this time, groups of people from the neighborhood came over. Knowing that Shi Lan was a stupid son who couldn't do anything, they all made plans and tried their best to provide for Xu Mei's funeral.
After his mother passed away, Shi Lan could not take care of himself. There was a man named Zou Haoshi in the neighborhood who was always good at charity. Seeing Shi Lan's condition, he discussed with his family that every time he had breakfast, lunch and dinner, he would cook an extra meal and ask Shi Lan to come over to eat.
His wife, Hu Qin, initially disagreed. The reason was that if there were more people to eat, there would be more expenses. It was enough to provide relief to others once or twice, but long-term relief was beyond financial resources.
She often scavenges and engages in a capital-free business of turning waste into treasure, that is, she picks up some rags and gives them to the scrap collection station in the market town to exchange for money to supplement her family's income. In fact, it is quite difficult to make money this way. She has been dealing with waste for a long time, and it is rare to wear clean clothes. , and most of the waste products are messy and spoiled, so the process of sorting and sorting them is indispensable, which will inevitably lead to bacterial infection. The hands often become itchy, red and swollen, and in severe cases, the infection can spread to the body.
If she is too particular or works too hard, she won't get anything done, so she feels that work and life are difficult. She already has two children at home, both underage, and the burden is heavy. If there is one more person to feed, the burden will be even greater. pressure.
Hu Qin told Zou Haoshi all the analysis, and Zou Haoshi saw that Shi Lan had big arms and a round waist, so he conjectured that Shi Lan was a bit mentally retarded. If there was someone to guide him, he would be quite good at doing things. You see, he was in great shape and could beat a bull to death. Hu Qin still frowned, Zou Haoshi looked at her and said, Well done, Shi Lan will still be your helper in scavenging.
After hearing this, Hu Qin's eyes lit up and she looked Shi Lan up and down. He was a little taller than Zou Haoshi, who was only 1.68 meters tall, about 1.7 meters. Will he be able to work after being trained? ? Don't jump to conclusions, Hu Qin wants to give it a try.
After calling Shi Lan home for dinner, Hu Qin took him out to collect the red and green cylindrical cardboard boxes scattered on the ground in front of the opening ceremony of a salute. He went there and laughed. Huadi bent over to pick up, but he picked up a lot. He picked up a lot, but he didn't know that they were gathered together. In the end, he was like a monkey tearing off buds. He didn't know how much he broke, but he only had one on hand. Hu Qin didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so she decided to do it herself.
During the meal, Hu Qin told Zou Haoshi that Shi Lan was a useless person. Then he told him about scavenging. Zou Haoshi pondered for a moment and said, "He is a waste and our family needs to take care of him more. We must turn waste into treasure!"
Can people turn waste into treasure? Hu Qin asked puzzledly.
Zou Haoshi continued, from now on, you can ask Shi Lan to do simple things, such as gathering scraps into piles and letting him sit there and sort them. Hu Qin did as Zou Haoshi said, but asked Shi Lan to sort the scraps, which made her very angry. She had already taught her how to do it, how to put the scrap metal together in the first step, and then put the iron into iron, copper into Make copper, aluminum make aluminum...
He just didn't know, so he could only gather the iron into a pile, which took too long. To put it simply, it would take him three or four hours to finish what ordinary people would spend half an hour on, and he couldn't finish it while sitting there. He stood there for a while, twisted his buttocks and looked around, always smiling as if possessed by a laughing devil. I didn't care about the progress of the work at all, but focused on playing.
Hu Qin was a little annoyed, but considering that he was not mentally retarded, she asked him to go away and asked her children to come over to help. It only took half an hour to finish the work that Shi Lan had not finished all morning. .
It's autumn, when the wind blows, the fallen leaves cover the ground. Of course, on a day when the sun is shining brightly, the weather is still hot, especially at noon, so you need to take off your clothes while walking on the road. Shi Lan failed in his work. After being called away that day, Hu Qin never asked him to help or ignored him.
When Zou Haoshi asked during the meal, she sent someone or went out personally to find Shi Lan to come over for dinner. If her husband was not at home, she would not bother to look for Shi Lan who was wandering around during the meal.
One day after lunch, a villager said to Hu Qin who came out with a greased mouth, you know? Shi Lan was wandering alone in the fields. It was hot and maybe he was thirsty, so he drank from the water in the ditch. Hu Qin didn't say anything. The villager then said that the water in the ditch was not drinkable because it came from the fields that had been sprayed with pesticides. Wouldn't it be strange if it wasn't poisoned?
After hearing this, Hu Qin began to not care. A few days later, probably on the fourth day, she smelled a foul smell, which seemed to be coming from Shi Lan's house where the door was half closed. She opened the door and saw a fat maggot rolling on the threshold. .
She glanced into the room, and a stench floated with a gust of wind, making her take a few steps back. She saw Shi Lan's body lying on the sofa, covered with maggots. His face was pitted, black and damaged, with distinct It was bitten by a mouse.
How did Shi Lan die? She suddenly remembered what the villager had said, that Shi Lan drank the dirty pesticide-laced water from the fields.
