Xiaobao was eleven months old, still a little ball in open-crotch pants, and had just learned to walk a few steps on the ground with her hands tied together, when her father passed away.

He died in a rather brutal way, in a car accident - he was walking home in the dark after finishing his night shift. On the way, he thought he could take a shortcut while no one was around, so he rode his two-wheeled bicycle onto the motor vehicle lane. As soon as he got on, he was hit by a truck and thrown several meters away.

The people and the car were all crushed together and could never be recovered.

Wei Qian's family once again found themselves in the situation of an orphan and a widow.

This is actually nothing. There are so many families with orphans and widows all over the world, such as Mazi’s family who sells fried dough sticks every morning.

Others also wiped away their tears, straightened their backs, and continued to live their lives like normal people.

But Wei Qian soon discovered to his horror that his beautiful and kind "mother" had turned into a fucking wicked woman overnight.

In her grief, she seemed to have decided that her life was more bitter than that of bitter herbs and she no longer wanted to live, so she became more and more determined to commit suicide. She was gifted and experienced in this regard, so she was very good at committing suicide.

Wei Qian's life was filled with fear and anxiety every day - he had to go to school, find ways to earn money, take care of his little sister who couldn't even speak, and be on guard against the crazy woman who could explode at any moment.

Later on, Wei Qian didn't even dare to leave Song Xiaobao alone at home.

Every day when he went to school, he would send Xiaobao to Sanpang's house upstairs or to Mazi's house who ran a small restaurant, and ask Sanpang's mother or Mazi's mother to take care of Xiaobao for the day, and then pick Xiaobao up after school in the evening.

Wei Qian was exhausted from living like a child. The pressure of life made him unable to lift his head. Even an adult could not bear it, let alone a child.

For a while, Wei Qian secretly hid a small knife. Every night before going to bed, he held the knife in one hand and held Xiaobao in the other. When he saw the knife, he wanted to rush out and kill his mother. But when he saw Xiaobao, he had to calm down, lie back on the bed, pat her back gently, and coax the little girl, who was whimpering and about to be awakened, back to sleep.

He also has a little sister, who is a living being, a human being, and has the same miserable life as him. She was born in such a family, and as the eldest brother, he had to raise her.

Hamlet struggled with a long question, "To be or not to be", and Wei Qian also spent his childhood struggling with an even longer question - "To kill his mother, or not to kill her".

He lives like a dog, yet he still has the mood to ponder such philosophical questions. Perhaps he is destined to be a big shot in the future.

During this period, Sanpang's mother and Mazi's mother helped him a lot.

Sanpang and Mazi are both his childhood friends. Sanpang's family is vulgar and vulgar, and Mazi and his mother are cowards who can't even fart if kicked - there are no high-end people in society among their neighbors - but these vulgar and vulgar neighbors are kind-hearted, and the cowardly and silent little people are willing to help him as long as he asks.

Sanpang's mother was not like Mazi's mother who dared not speak out. Sometimes she couldn't stand it and was so filled with righteous indignation that she wanted to spit in Wei Qian's mother's face, but she never did it.

It’s nothing. Wei Qian knew she wouldn’t dare to do that, because although Sanpang’s mother was poor and domineering, she was a good woman after all. Good women wouldn’t dare to provoke bitches easily, just like decent people wouldn’t dare to provoke hooligans easily.

Later, Wei Qian's mother finally died as everyone expected.

Wei Qian calmly accepted this fact. He knew that she actually didn't want to live anymore.

Wei Qian's mother was suddenly awakened from the happiest life in her life. The depression in her heart was incomprehensible to others. She couldn't get over it or adapt to the new situation. So naturally she fell into depravity again and returned to her old ways. Later, it got even worse - she started taking drugs.

She first accompanied the customers to smoke white powder, and then they had sex together in a misty way. If the customers were happy, they would stuff tips into her bra and panties. She also relied on this moment of time to escape the reality that she was powerless to resist.

Later, her drug addiction escalated uncontrollably and she began to inject herself into her muscles with trembling.

During that period, there were many needles in Wei Qian's house. He was afraid that Xiaobao would see him putting needles in his mouth, so Wei Qian had to clean the house three or four times a day and collect and destroy any needles he saw.

After his mother died, Wei Qian burned all her things - she eventually died of AIDS, which was transmitted by needles.

You will always have to pay for what you have done.

This is the motto that the gangsters use to show off, and it is also the last words that the woman left for Wei Qian and his sister.

When Wei Qian's mother was dying, she looked like a monster. She was as thin as a bag of bones, her hair was almost all gone, her face was severely deformed, her eyes, which were originally larger than others, bulged out, and her skin was festered in large areas. There was no trace of her youth and beauty. She was simply a dirty and smelly toad.

Toad was about to die, but her words were kind. She looked at her two children with almost tender eyes and said frankly: "Alas, you will have to pay for what you have done. I knew this day would come."

Wei Qian sneered, thinking she was talking nonsense. If she had known this day would come, she should not have been out fooling around, should not have taken drugs, and should not have dressed up as a monster and worked as a hostess in a nightclub just for a few dollars and curiosity.

She should be like countless crane-like girls, wearing a school uniform that may not fit her well, with a silly row of bangs on her forehead, sitting upright in the classroom listening to the teacher explain analytic geometry, then getting admitted to a university, working, getting married or being single... no matter what, she should live like a serious person.

Even if she was extremely dumb and couldn't learn anything, at least she could still work as a babysitter, do odd jobs, or sell breakfast...

That way she might live until she is ninety and see her grandchildren get married and have children.

But she refused to do that. She chose to be a lazy and crazy woman, and it was all in vain that she had such a beautiful appearance.

Wei Qian realized that he had finally gotten rid of this crazy woman and would never see her again. He felt uncontrollably sad, as if he saw a lot of life and time rushing past him at lightning speed, and he didn't even have time to smell the exhaust fumes before everything disappeared.

But he didn't want to show any emotion. He believed that he deserved to hate this woman, and that any feelings he had for her were weak and despicable, so Wei Qian forced himself to think like this - she deserved it.

Wei Qian ordered himself to recall his five years of hellish life, and asked her with his deepest indifference: "Bitch, why did you give birth to us?"

The woman thought for a long time with a confused look on her face, and then answered, "Who knows?"

Wei Qian was extremely angry. If it weren't for her saying "who knows", maybe he would have been reincarnated as a rich second-generation or a second-generation official, and might be a decent person now!

So he pushed her lightly on the shoulder and cursed, "Fuck you."

It was really just a gentle push - who knew that she would be unable to bear it the next second.

Her whole body twitched, her eyes opened as big as ping-pong balls, and then she gasped for a full five minutes, her breath coming out like a shriveled bellows. She suffered a bloody sin before she finally died successfully.

That year, Wei Qian was less than thirteen years old, still a young boy, just in the second grade of junior high school, with a little sister with two lines of snot hanging from her nose - Xiaobao was five years old, knew nothing, and could only stare blankly at her big brother and mother.

Wei Qian let the woman's body be exhibited at home for two days until it started to stink, and he still hadn't figured out what to do with it.

The place where the dead sleep is more expensive than that of the living. Even if they sold their property, the two siblings could not afford to buy a plot of land for a cemetery - not to mention that Wei Qian was not even planning to pay for the crematorium - his mother was already dead, and the dead could be accommodated in any way, but he had to live, he had to pay for tuition, and he had to support his sister.

Finally, Wei Qian decided to find an auspicious day, wrap the body in a worn-out mat, and throw it directly into the garbage dump, allowing it to degrade on its own and return to nature.

However, before it could be implemented, Wei Qian's mother's sisters found their home and proved that even Qin Hui had some friends.

They pooled their money together to take care of her funeral, which was considered to be a way of sending her off. One of the women told Wei Qian that she was born in an undignified way and should not die in such an undignified way.

They left the little money left after the funeral to Wei Qian and his sister Xiaobao. Wei Qian then rummaged through the boxes and sold some of the jewelry left by the woman. It turned out that these things were the woman's life... no, more precious than her life.

Her beloved son had long been displeased with them, and as soon as she closed her eyes, he immediately shook them out and sold them.

With his meager savings, Wei Qian lived a life of supporting a small burden. After more than a year of hardship, he graduated from junior high school.

The high school entrance examination lasted three days. On the last day, Wei Qian handed in his paper and rode his bike home.

He took his studies very seriously, and working odd jobs and being a gangster did not affect his grades, because school was his only connection with the words "future", "hope", and "decent life", and he tried his best to hold on to them.

Along the way, Wei Qian bought a few steamed buns, parked his bike in a simple bicycle shed built in a large tube-shaped building, and was walking home with his things when he saw the little brat.

The kid has thin hands and feet and is very skinny, which makes his head look big. He is a little taller than Xiaobao, but not much taller. Maybe he is about the same size as her.

He was wearing an adult's "two-bar" vest, with nothing underneath him and no shoes. His vest was covered with soup and all kinds of stuff, making it look like a beautiful, colorful motherland. He was picking up garbage to eat next to a garbage dump in a small alley.

No one knew how such a small thing survived. Even wild dogs bullied him. When Wei Qian passed by, the kid was confronting a dog in a small alley - for half a can of beef that someone had thrown away.

The wild dog was skinny but not small in size, with red eyes. I don't know if it had rabies, but it was able to survive when the dog-killing campaign was in full swing in the city. It was probably a hero among dogs.

Originally, Wei Qian was not going to pay any attention to it. You could see a kid like this every month or so. They might be born accidentally and survived accidentally, but they didn't have both parents. They would probably die after a while. But just when Wei Qian glanced over there, the kid who was still in love with the human happened to look up at him.

The wild dog seized this brief opportunity and pounced on its opponent when it saw that he was distracted. The kid had probably been chased and blocked for a long time, so he reacted very quickly and dodged by jumping to the side. As a result, the wild dog luckily fell under the feet of the young Wei Qian.

The beast's eyes were red, and it made a wheezing sound from its nostrils, as if it was so anxious that it couldn't tell friend from foe. It barked wildly at an innocent bystander, showing its big yellow teeth.

Wei Qian was thinking about how to pay for his tuition if he was admitted to high school, so he didn't intend to pay attention to it and raised his leg to leave. But he didn't know what the beast was thinking, as it actually lowered its head and bit his ankle.

Wei Qian quickly retracted his foot and missed the bite.

Wei Qian was 13 or 14 years old at the time, his parents were dead and he had a runny-nosed sister. Although he performed very well in the exam, he was not sure if he would be admitted, so his situation was miserable. If a child who grew up like this didn't have a cynical temperament, it would be unusual - because that meant he was too good at acting and would probably become a highly intelligent antisocial person in the future.

So the middle school boy, who was full of worries, got anxious on the spot and kicked the wild dog. He grew up with gangsters and was used to fighting, so the kick was quite strong and kicked the big dog directly against the wall. The wild dog still refused to give in and bit Wei Qian's shoes again - fortunately, the shoes were plastic shoes that he had picked up, and although they were hard and not breathable, they were strong and the dog did not bite through.

Wei Qian tried to shake it off, but found that he couldn't get rid of the dead dog, so he stepped hard on the dog's belly with his foot, picked up a brick from the side, and smashed it hard on the head of this hero among dogs. After one hit, the hero let go, and after two hits, the hero's head was broken and bleeding, and he completely became a ghost hero.

People and dogs are actually the same at this time and place - just like some people wear suits and have nice houses and cars, and some dogs have regular grooming to keep them smooth. But some people and dogs are destined to fight for their lives and bleed and sweat for some ridiculous and pathetic reasons on such a garbage-filled path.

The same person has different fates, and the same dog also has different fates.