Ma Zi seemed to know that Wei Qian would squat at his door to block him, so he simply decided not to go home.

He even stopped going to the hospital. He only went there quietly to pay when his account was almost empty. Ever since he was seen by Wei Qian once in a nightclub, he made up his mind to avoid Wei Qian.

That night, Wei Qian was off duty, and he and Sanpang were hanging around Mazi's house for the umpteenth time. Sanpang snatched a cigarette from Wei Qian, squatted on the ground, stared at the ant nest and said, "He's really good at hiding. Hey, Qian'er, if that kid had this devious mind when he was in school, would he be able to count even one ant?"

Wei Qian was annoyed by his nagging: "Shut up, you have so much to say, why are you talking so much?"

Sanpang covered his chest and said, "You little bastards, you are no longer under the control of your mother, right? I take care of everything from shit to piss..."

Wei Qian gave him a cold glance.

Sanpang's words suddenly stopped. After a moment, he said meaningfully in a half-joking tone: "Haven't you noticed that you've become more and more aggressive recently? Have you eaten too much maoxuewang?"

Wei Qian ignored him. On the third floor, Wei Zhiyuan leaned on the window, pointed in a certain direction, and mouthed words to them.

Sanpang: "That monkey kid is lying on the window like a gecko, what is he doing?"

Wei Qian grabbed Sanpang and turned into the alley behind Mazi's house. He whispered to Sanpang, "I'll ask him to keep watch for me in the distance."

Sanpang Daqi: "Because of this, you also bought him a telescope?"

Wei Qian: "No, he got a plastic concave-convex lens from somewhere, adjusted the focus and pasted it himself with cardboard."

Kim Jong-un was filled with emotion: "Great, clever, a good candidate for a scientist... What the hell, what is this?"

Wei Qian picked up a sack and a roll of hemp rope from the corner, picked up the sack himself, and threw the rope to Sanpang: "Are you hiding from me? Tie him up."

Sanpang looked down at the roll of hemp rope in his hand, and was even more moved: "Great, murder and kidnapping, a good seedling for Liangshan heroes!"

Wei Qian took two steps and came to his senses: "Are you calling me a bandit?"

Sanpang: "Oh my, baby, you are really self-aware."

Wei Qian: “…”

Sanpang couldn't stand him, so he would find fault with him every now and then. Wei Qian knew it, but he didn't care.

He followed the path he had chosen, regardless of life or death, without any regrets.

But if he was walking alone in the rain, in the bitter wind and covered in mud, and someone was willing to hold him in the palm of their hand, he would just feel comforted and not disgusted.

Ma Zi peeked from afar and made sure that Fatty and Wei Qian were not at home. Then he returned to his home like a thief. Ma Zi was extremely nervous. He took out the key tremblingly and searched around furtively. Finally, he inserted the key into the keyhole and breathed a sigh of relief.

However, before he could completely relax, his eyes went dark and he was pushed against the wall. The man pressed his knee against his body and twisted his arms with hands that seemed to be made of iron. Then, Ma Zi's hands were tied.

Ma Zi's heart sank, and he felt an irresistible urge to urinate. His first reaction was that he was caught by the police. There were only two words in his mind - it's over.

Wei Qian and Sanpang, one on each side, carried Ma Zi to Wei Qian's house.

Song Xiaobao looked at her pockmarked brother who was tied up with ropes and jumped out and shouted, "Kidnapping! Hand over your gun and you won't be killed!"

Sanpang smiled bitterly: "My dear sister, you really made a mess."

Wei Zhiyuan quickly grabbed her and pushed her into the hut, imitating his elder brother's tone and saying, "Have you finished your math homework? I won't let you copy it."

Having no place to copy homework is a big deal. Song Xiaobao pouted and lost interest in kidnapping.

Wei Zhiyuan pushed her into the house and peeked out through the crack in the door. Sanpang saw it and immediately smiled and gave him a thumbs up to encourage him. Wei Zhiyuan smiled at him to show his friendliness, but still waited for his elder brother's reaction.

Wei Qian fished out a box of mints from his pocket, the kind that nightclubs provide to guests for free, and threw it over. This time Wei Zhiyuan smiled widely, happily reached out to catch it, then closed the door and left contentedly.

Sanpang felt that this scene was extremely familiar, and later he remembered that this was a standard dog training action - Wei Zhiyuan almost opened his mouth to catch it.

"You," Sanpang said to Wei Qian, shaking his head, "are so wicked that even kebabs are being roasted on your ancestors' graves."

Then the two of them worked together to remove the sack from Ma Zi's head.

Neither of them had expected to scare Ma Zi so much - Ma Zi's eyes were scattered, and it was not until a long while after he saw the two of them clearly that his dull eyeballs turned around. He took a deep breath as if he was gasping for breath, his legs went soft, and he sat down on the ground.

"My second uncle," Sanpang squatted down and looked at his face carefully, "Your acne turned pale, how many bad things have you done, brother?"

Wei Qian didn't plan to waste time talking and pushed Sanpang away: "Who was the person you met that day? What did he give you? Why did he give you money? Why did you run away when you saw me?"

Sanpang pulled him and said, "Slow down, slow down, don't burn his brain."

"It's better to burn it!" Wei Qian grabbed Ma Zi's collar and said, "Do you want to tell me yourself or let me search you?"

Ma Zi looked at his brother who was so close to him, his tongue seemed to be tied and he could not utter a word. He could only look at Wei Qian deeply, his eyes reflecting some kind of thrilling sadness.

Wei Qian didn't care whether he was sad or not. He kept his word and began to search his body. Soon, he found several small paper bags in Ma Zi's pocket.

Of course Wei Qian knew what it was. He would never forget what his mother looked like when she was dying. However, he found it hard to believe it for a moment. After a moment of stunned silence, he slowly opened one of the paper packages. The fine white powder inside finally became his inescapable reality.

"What is this?" Wei Qian asked, and then his voice suddenly changed tone, "What is this?!"

A line of tears flowed from the corners of Ma Zi's eyes, like a dying turtle beside a dry riverbed.

Wei Qian suddenly jumped up and kicked him in the chest, but unfortunately he missed the kick and was grabbed by Sanpang and dragged to the sofa. Wei Qian struggled to break free from him: "Since he doesn't want to die anyway, why don't I just beat him to death? It will also be clean, environmentally friendly, energy-saving and emission-reducing!"

As a non-combatant, Sanpang couldn't stop him and quickly said, "Children, children, the two children are still in the house, don't shout and kill here."

This one sentence miraculously calmed Wei Qian down. Wei Qian subconsciously looked back at the hut and found that the door was pushed open a crack. Two pairs of small eyes were peeking out furtively, one above and one below. When the two kids met his gaze, they were startled and slammed the door shut, making it even more obvious.

Wei Qian felt a surge of anger in his heart, but most of it dissipated in a helpless manner.

But Ma Zi could hold it in no longer. It was as if the whole world's desolation and hopelessness was suppressed in his chest. He leaned back and lay on the ground on his side. His hands were still tied. He curled up like a shrimp, banging his head on the ground and crying loudly, as if only this way could he vent the depression in his heart.

Sanpang let go of Wei Qian, squatted down, and touched the powder that was accidentally spilled on the ground with his chubby fingers.

He waited quietly for Ma Zi to cry for a while, until his crying subsided, then San Pang asked softly: "Is this 'white flour'?"

Ma Zi just cried and was unable to speak. Sanpang lowered his head, and when he raised it again his eyes were red. He looked desperately to the other side, trying to hold back his tears, and his lips unconsciously pursed into a line.

"I know you didn't smoke it yourself. You can't do such a thing. I also know that it's because our mom doesn't have enough money..." Sanpang's voice was hoarse, and he couldn't continue. He took several deep breaths, and his broad back was like a bellows. Then he continued, "But this is a dead end, brother. I can't watch you go down this road to death! If our mom knew, she would hang herself on the radiator in the hospital tonight. Why... why are you all so ignorant!"

Wei Qian had a wooden face and remained silent. Ma Zi's tears seemed to have dried up, and he lay there dying, with no reaction.

Sanpang wiped his eyes with his fingers to prevent others from seeing that he was crying.

The three of them sat in silence in the small living room for a long while. Wei Qian suddenly walked to the bedside table and opened it. There was a small stack of RMB in it, all of which he had saved recently. He stuffed the money into Ma Zi's pocket where he kept his drugs and said word by word, "Third brother has parents and can't be the head of their family. I'm the head of our family and I have the final say. Look at my house. If I sell it, how much can it be worth? How long can it support our mother? Tell me when you run out of money. If you have money, I'll give you money. If you don't, I'll sell it."

Ma Zi's gaze slowly fell on the two of them, his eyes full of bloodshot.

Wei Qian said impatiently: "What are you looking at? You cry over every little thing you encounter. What are you two up to? Isn't it all about money? Isn't it all about money?"

He couldn't continue talking after this.

Yes, what's so great about money? But they just don't have any!

Wei Qian stood up and sat down on the worn sofa, trying hard to calm his heartbeat - he could hear the voice of the trapped beast in his chest.

Sanpang sighed, untied Ma Zi's rope, helped him up, picked up a few packets of "white flour", and flushed them all down the toilet.

That night, Ma Zi took the money given to him by Wei Qian and San Pang and left without saying a word.

He walked to the front of the building - where he and his mother used to fry dough sticks, and suddenly stopped. Ma Zi raised his head and shouted upstairs: "Ah!"

Wei Qian and Sanpang opened the window and looked down.

Ma Zi knelt down on the spot with a plop, his back bent like a shrimp. He kowtowed to his brothers for their sincere friendship, then reached out and touched the dirt and grass debris on his forehead, stood up and left.

He is not good at speaking and is speechless at critical moments, so this is the only way.

A new moon rises in the sky, and when it becomes fuller, it is Mid-Autumn Festival.

The pervert who specialized in bullying children has not been found yet. Perhaps the pervert did not expect that there are many kinds of people, and among the sweet, soft and easy-to-bully children, there are also brave men like Wei Zhiyuan who fight to the death. The pervert was probably made impotent by Wei Zhiyuan's poke, and he never appeared again.

In the first week of August, Wei Qian got into big trouble. As the saying goes, if you are in the world, you will inevitably get hurt. He has just made a name for himself and really wants to make a name for himself in this small world. He will not be able to make it without getting hurt hundreds of times.

This was the first time Wei Qian was hit by a knife. He was carried back by others. Although he had only superficial injuries, the blood all over his body was still scary.

However, although he was defeated in the end, he still managed to hold on. Brother Le was very grateful to him and thought that he was a promising person. He gave him a large sum of holiday money and let him go home to recuperate for a month before coming back. Wei Qian took a "paid" vacation.

Money could comfort Wei Qian's heart, but it could not comfort Xiao Bao's heart. Xiao Bao had never seen so much blood in his life. At that time, he was like a rat whose butt was blown off by a bamboo stick. He howled at him loudly, like bursts of thunder in Wei Qian's ears, which annoyed him to death.

Sanpang has completely become their family's babysitter, patting Xiaobao on the back: "Hey, don't cry, don't cry, it's okay, your brother is thick-skinned, it's okay."

Xiaobao was crying and hiccuping.

"Third, Third Brother..." She said intermittently, "My brother, my brother... is he... going to die?"

"..." Sanpang was silent for a moment, "Go to hell, you unlucky kid, you are talking nonsense, can you hope for something good?"

Xiao Bao cried even more bitterly: "I, I saw him...rolling his eyes!"

Sanpang sighed heavily: "My ancestor, that clearly made you angry!"

Compared to her earth-shattering response, Xiao Yuan's reaction was much calmer. He kept his head down and squatted silently beside Wei Qian's bed, like a ghost with no sense of existence. Wei Qian had a headache from Xiao Bao's noise, and seeing her crying so sadly, he couldn't yell at her, so he had to try to distract himself.

Wei Qian stretched out his gauze-wrapped hand and roughly touched Wei Zhiyuan's head. He twisted the back of his head to make him raise his face: "Hey, why are you lowering your head? Are you picking up money?"

Wei Qian's voice was interrupted abruptly. He saw that Wei Zhiyuan, who had originally lowered his head, had red eyes and was crying silently. He was gritting his teeth and clenching his small fists. He looked sad and angry.

Wei Zhiyuan was less than ten years old that year. He had grown a little taller, but had not yet entered the rapidly growing puberty. He felt clear and unbearable sadness and anger in his heart, thinking that he was a burden to his elder brother, making him work so hard for a little money.

Only children who grew up in a honey pot don't want to grow up, but Wei Zhiyuan is not one of them. At that moment, he hysterically wanted to become strong and became a real man.

Song Xiaobao's loud crying only made Wei Qian feel helpless, but Wei Zhiyuan moved him. Wei Qian was soft-hearted, so he moved aside to make a little space for Wei Zhiyuan, and patted him with his hand: "Come up."

Wei Zhiyuan obediently climbed onto the bed and carefully nestled into his arms.

Song Xiaobao looked at him eagerly: "Brother, I want to sleep with you too."

Wei Qian had no way to deal with her look, so he had to compromise: "Okay, come over here too. I'm warning you, Song Xiaobao, this is the last time. You're a woman, how can you always sleep with a man? You're so old, but you don't know shit."

The fat guy was amazed. The little wolf Wei Zhiyuan was tugging at Wei Qian's clothes like a boneless cat, clinging to him. On the other side, Song Xiaobao became a mynah bird who could only nag, repeating the same words over and over again: "Brother, we don't want to do this anymore. You are not allowed to do this anymore."

And Wei Qian, a man with a negative patience index, didn't even get impatient with them.

At first, Xiaobao said one sentence and Wei Qian responded one sentence. Later, he found that her words were like a wheel, and he laughed angrily: "Go to bed quickly, and stop talking!"

Xiaobao: "Brother, you are not allowed to do this."

Wei Qian: “…”

He sighed, reluctantly sat up, and patted Xiaobao to coax her to sleep: "I'll listen to you. You're my boss, okay?"

Sanpang quietly locked the door for them and left. He suddenly felt that it was not that serious. With two children to tie him down, Wei Qian would never reach the point of not recognizing his relatives.