Wei Qian got up late that morning. He had had a vague dream the night before. He could not remember the content of the dream as soon as he opened his eyes, but it was definitely not a pleasant one. He felt uncomfortable in his chest until he got up.

He sat on the edge of the bed for two seconds, and suddenly remembered that his two children still had to go to school and breakfast was not ready yet, so he quickly got up. Unexpectedly, when he went to the kitchen, he found Wei Zhiyuan stirring the frozen dumplings in the boiling water pot with a big spoon with a serious face.

Wei Qian leaned against the kitchen door and asked softly, "Why didn't you call me?"

Wei Zhiyuan turned around and grinned at him, revealing two extremely white little fangs, which was very endearing.

Wei Qian touched his head, turned and went into the bathroom. He rubbed his eyes hard - his eyelids kept twitching for some reason.

After he finished washing his face, Wei Qian remembered that he had originally wanted to ask Mazi to fry some dough sticks for him this morning.

Wei Zhiyuan cooked a pot of dumplings meticulously as if he was doing a chemistry experiment. The three of them had just sat down at the dining table when suddenly, there was a loud noise downstairs, as if something had fallen, followed by a sharp scream, and then chaos.

Wei Qian held the bowl, pushed open the window and looked down. Then he jumped up as if his butt was on fire. He didn't even bother to eat, grabbed his wallet and ran downstairs.

I only had time to hurriedly tell them, "You two go to school by yourselves, and drive slowly."

In a few minutes, the fat guy from upstairs also came down. At this time, a circle of people had gathered downstairs.

The accident happened at Mazi’s breakfast stall.

Mazi gets off work in the early hours every morning and helps his mother set up the breakfast stall, frying dough sticks and selling soy milk, and closes it around 9:30.

The breakfast stall is an open-air one, with a few simple tables and chairs, a soy milk bucket and an oil pan.

The cause was a taxi driving over. This road is usually not used by cars because it is too narrow. A car coming in almost took up the entire road. The driver might have lost his way or accidentally came in. Just as the taxi was driving forward cautiously, an electric tricycle suddenly turned in from the intersection.

The owner of the electric tricycle was in a hurry and driving very fast. When he turned, he found there was a car in front of him, and it was too late to brake.

The owner of the electric tricycle instinctively twisted the handlebars, and the car rushed to the side of the road due to inertia, crashing into a small stall with an oil pan without any buffer. Ma Zi's mother was frying dough sticks behind the oil pan, and the pot of boiling hot oil poured down and splashed all over her. Together with the oil pan and the person, the tricycle was pushed more than a meter away by the unstoppable tricycle.

When Wei Qian forcefully pushed his way through the crowd, his scalp almost exploded. Because it was a hot day, Ma Zi's mother was only wearing a very thin short-sleeved shirt and cropped pants. The large area of ​​skin exposed was burned by the hot oil and became unsightly in an instant.

For a moment, Wei Qian felt that she was ripe.

There was even a strange meaty aroma in the air.

Ma Zi was completely stunned, his eyes were almost wide open, and he stood there with a dazed look on his face, motionless, as if he had become a statue.

Wei Qian slapped him in the face and yelled into Ma Zi's ear, "What the hell are you looking at! Huh? Your mother is already dead, why don't you go call an ambulance!"

He turned around and yelled at the person next to him: "Car! Move that tricycle away!"

Several passers-by stepped forward and hurriedly moved the tricycle away. The tricycle owner, seeing that the situation was not good, instinctively tried to escape, but Wei Qian pulled him back with one hand, kicked him on the knee, and threw him to the ground.

Sanpang shouted from behind: "Qian'er! Don't worry about that grandson. I've called the police. Hand him over to the police. The fucking pot is stuck to the meat. What should I do?"

Wei Qian turned around and shouted at him: "How should I know!"

Finally, Sanpang's parents carried a large bathtub filled with cold water and carefully poured it onto the boiling oil pan. It was not known whether they handled it correctly or not. Then the ambulance and police car arrived and took Mazi's mother away for rescue.

Wei Qian didn't know why his instinctive reaction when he realized what was going on was to grab his wallet and rush downstairs. Perhaps at this moment he already had the instinct to become a money-grubber, and subconsciously felt that he would only feel safe if he carried money with him.

But it was fortunate that this was the case. The idiot Ma Zi only had twelve dollars and fifty cents on him. He was stupid and knew nothing. Wei Qian followed him, and as a one-armed hero, he ran up and down and was exhausted.

Near noon, Sanpang and a policeman came over and brought the other two parties involved in the accident.

It was really unlucky. One of the two men was a taxi driver, and the other was a grocery vendor. The driver looked as if he had lost his parents, and the vendor didn't know if it was because of the kick by Wei Qian, but his legs were shaking all the time. Even when he stood still, his legs were trembling and he was about to fall, just like a leaf drifting in the wind.

Traffic accidents cost money to resolve. It would be easy if Ma Zi's mother died, but if she survived, with such severe burns, who knows what her condition would be like in the future, and she might have to bear the responsibility for the rest of her life.

The worst thing is that these two people have no money.

But in the hospital corridor, facing several pairs of silent eyes that seemed to want to peel off their skin and pull out their tendons, they could not say the words "I hope the person being rescued dies" no matter what.

Unable to vent his huge fear and helplessness, the tricycle vendor suddenly fell to his knees and burst into tears.

The accompanying police officer asked Sanpang: "Who are you to them?"

Sanpang: “Neighbor.”

The police said "Oh" and then asked: "The child is her son, right? Who else is in the woman's family? Where is her husband?"

Sanpang: "If she dies, there will be only orphans and widows."

The policeman was quite moved, but he didn't know what to say or what advice to give. After a while, he sighed and said, "This is not easy. We have no money. The person who caused the accident is definitely unable to afford the compensation. You... Well, let the family members be mentally prepared."

Sanpang raised his eyes and asked blankly: "Then...what if I don't pay the money?"

The policeman thought for a moment and said, "The family can sue - but I'm telling you the truth, forget it, there's no point in suing. In this case, the court will most likely order the party responsible to pay compensation, but it doesn't matter whether they can afford it or not. They still can't afford it."

As if to prove his words, the peddler who was kneeling on the ground suddenly kowtowed his head so hard that the floor was shaking. He looked like he was going to die by banging his head against the ground, and he shouted incoherently: "Please let me pay for her life... I have a sick woman at home, and my child is only five years old... What should I do? I have no choice, please, please... Let me pay for her life!"

Ma Zi, who had been silent all this time, suddenly rushed forward and punched and kicked the man like crazy. Everyone rushed over to stop him. Wei Qian struggled to hold his waist with one arm and said, "Alright, alright, what's the point of beating him to death?"

A hoarse roar erupted from Ma Zi's throat, like a wounded beast, roaring out all his strength.

Then he suddenly staggered a few steps as if he had lost all strength, slid down with his back against the wall, covered his face, and his shoulders trembled violently.

The victim was still being rescued, and his life or death was unknown. The perpetrator and the victim's family were crying face to face outside.

The accompanying policeman was probably a young man who had just started working. He still had a childish look on his face and had not yet gotten used to the helpless birth, aging, illness and death in the world. Before leaving, he searched his body but could not find anything valuable. He could only say to the fat man in a self-deprecating way: "I am also a poor man."

Then he took out his ID and cards and left his wallet, which contained two hundred and thirty yuan in bills and a handful of coins.

Wei Qian and Sanpang stayed with Ma Zi in the hospital for the whole day. In the evening, Wei Qian's eyelids began to twitch inexplicably again.

He said hello to Sanpang, went out for a breath of fresh air, smoked a cigarette, calculated the time and saw that the two children were almost home, so he used the IC phone at the hospital entrance to call home.

At that time, mobile phones were already available on the market, but people like them could not afford them. However, home landline phones came down from their pedestal and became cheaper as mobile phones came on the market.

Despite this, only Brother Le and a few good brothers knew Wei Qian's home phone number. The family rules set by the Wei family's parents strictly prohibited the abuse of the phone - phone charges would be charged.

The call went through, but no one answered.

Wei Qian frowned, hung up the phone, waited for a while, and dialed again, but still no one answered.

When no one answered the third call, Wei Qian's heart was already beating wildly. The person waiting in line behind him urged him impatiently: "Hey, young man, are you done with your call? So many people are waiting!"

Wei Qian looked up at him with murderous intent, and the other party dared not say a word immediately. He muttered a few curses and turned to look for another public phone.

Wei Qian didn't give up and called several more times, but no one answered. His fingertips were numb from the cold.

"Qian'er, what's wrong?" Sanpang saw that he had not come back for a long time, so he came out to look for him.

Wei Qian managed to remain calm, licked his cracked lips, and forced himself to lower his voice and slow down his speech: "I... I don't know, no one answered the phone at home, and those two brats..."

He could not continue, realizing that if he continued he might start yelling.

Sanpang pushed him on the shoulder and said, "Go back first. I'll keep an eye on you. I'll find a few more people to help you. You don't know where the two kids might go to play today without anyone to supervise them. Don't worry."

Wei Qian ran away.

Sanpang was stunned: "Slow down, watch the car!"

Sanpang felt that he was born in poverty, but among all the people he had met in his life, there were very few children as unlucky as Wei Qian and Ma Zi, especially Wei Qian. It seemed that this kid had never had a comfortable day in his life. He was either worried or worried. Sanpang always worried that sooner or later, he would worry himself to death.

This is the case where good fortune never comes alone, and misfortune never comes alone.

Wei Qian ran all the way home until he saw Sanpang's brothers Lei Zi squatting at the door from a distance. He was probably called by Sanpang to help.

Wei Qian stopped only when he saw Lei Zi squatting and talking to Song Xiaobao. At this time, his back was soaked with sweat. He bent down, supported his knee with one hand, and took a deep breath. A drop of sweat fell from his forehead, seeped in between the thick eyelashes, did not fall into his eyes, and flowed down along the edge of his eyelashes, just like crying.

Wei Qian wiped the sweat from his forehead, then strode over with a sullen face.

He greeted Lei Zi first and thanked him, then he grabbed Song Xiaobao's shoulder with one hand and roughly pulled her to him. He looked her up and down and saw that she didn't have a scratch except for a little redness under her eyes. He felt relieved, but his face was still fierce and he interrogated Xiaobao like a criminal: "What's the matter? Why don't you answer the phone? Why don't you come home? Where's Xiaoyuan?"

Xiaobao's mouth pursed, as if he had finally seen his relatives, and he blinked his eyes and was about to cry.

Before she could cry, Wei Qian stopped her from crying: "Don't cry! Where's Xiaoyuan?"

Xiaobao forced himself to hold back his tears.