85: Chapter 84: Wanting Face, But Not Too Much 85: Chapter 84: Wanting Face, But Not Too Much The fellow in front of him was the person Zhang Dahu hated to the extre.
He had seen him in the police station.
He watched as he interrogated his parents and grandparents, indifferent to their tears and pleas.
He heard them call him “Brother Cheng.”
He hated Wang Wei, hated the villagers who humiliated them, but he hated this so-called Brother Cheng even more.
If it weren’t for him, he and his little brother wouldn’t have beco children neglected by everyone, nor would they have been driven out of their ho.
Su Yuncheng looked at the little guy’s resentful face and pushed the stead bun forward again: “If you starve to death, you won’t be able to seek revenge on .”
This low form of provocation is negligible for adults, but for a nine-year-old child…
it’s quite effective.
Zhang Dahu stomped his foot, snatched the stead bun from Su Yuncheng’s hand, turned around, and ran back to the old house to stuff the stead bun into Zhang Erhu’s hands.
“Here, eat it quickly.” Zhang Dahu licked his fingers.
Zhang Erhu, holding the stead bun in his hands, was at a loss: “Brother, where did this co from?
Can we eat it?”
He swallowed his saliva, wanting to eat, but not daring to.
Just a couple of days ago, so village kids had given him sothing to eat — a “bun” filled with stones, and before giving it to him, they even spit on it seven or eight tis.
Of course, he didn’t know that he had lost half a front tooth because of that.
Now, looking at the white flour stead buns that they couldn’t even get when their parents were at ho, Zhang Erhu was drooling with desire, but he didn’t dare eat.
Stones hurt his teeth too much.
Zhang Dahu was also afraid; would that bad man have mixed rat poison into the stead bun?
He hurriedly snatched the stead bun back to tear it open.
The stead bun was just a stead bun, with no filling.
Su Yuncheng, listening to their conversation from outside, stepped in.
He didn’t say a word, squatted down next to Zhang Dahu, casually broke off a piece from the stead bun in his hand, and put it into his mouth.
He chewed, swallowed.
“Eat it, it’s not poisoned.”
Zhang Dahu looked at the stead bun in his hands, hesitated, and took a bite himself first.
The white flour was fragrant and sweet, without any small stones or other bitter tastes.
He was still just a child, who only understood that bitter was bad, and nobody had taught him yet that so evils are coated with sugar.
Zhang Dahu wrinkled his face as he swallowed the stead bun, waiting painfully for a long ti — not dead, no pain, and no other sensations whatsoever.
“Brother…”
Zhang Erhu watched him blankly, instinctively calling out.
Maybe his brother was hungry too, so he could go without this stead bun.
Zhang Dahu, holding the stead bun, looked at Su Yuncheng for a mont with hesitation, then, with a hard determination, stuffed both halves of the stead bun into Zhang Erhu’s hands.
“Eat it.”
Eating it might kill him, not eating would definitely kill him.
Zhang Dahu realized, he actually had no choice.
Zhang Erhu carefully took a bite of the stead bun, chewing finely.
The pain in his front teeth taught him to take small bites of food, no matter how hungry he got, he didn’t dare to gobble it down anymore.
He then pushed the other half of the stead bun towards Zhang Dahu: “Brother, you eat.”
“I’m not hungry.” Zhang Dahu turned away, avoiding looking at the tempting stead bun.
Su Yuncheng said indifferently, “The elder one letting the younger eat would then starve the younger to death eventually.”
This was a phrase commonly muttered by the elderly during famine years, advising adults not to starve themselves by leaving all the food for their children — if the adults died of hunger, how much longer could the children survive?
Zhang Dahu disliked hearing Su Yuncheng talk, gave him a glare upon hearing the words, and then took the stead bun.
He chewed on the stead bun, his eyes heating up, but he stubbornly refused to let tears fall.
That stead bun, he only ate half of it, and tucked the rest into his chest.
Su Yuncheng asked knowingly, “Were the two of you driven out?”
Actually, he had been there all along, including when Wang Wei, his face full of hypocrisy, drove the two boys out of the house.
But he didn’t step forward to stop it, because that wouldn’t change anything, and he couldn’t be by their side forever.
Zhang Dahu glared at him, glared at him fiercely.
Su Yuncheng wasn’t particularly good at dealing with children, he furrowed his brows: “Answer my question, and I can let you two survive.”
Zhang Dahu: “Okay.”
Zhang Dahu had a bit of the Zhang family’s genes, like…
for survival, he could also shalessly.
Su Yuncheng was no longer surprised by such rapid emotional changes, having seen them too many tis during the trial of the Zhang family.
He asked directly: “What does he want your house for?”
Zhang Dahu didn’t conceal anything, and directly answered: “The Team Leader said he wants to use our house for the Educated Youth Corps.”
“Oh, but I heard that the Nine-miles Team, due to overcrowding at the Educated Youth Corps, has applied to the commune for a batch of bricks and tiles.”
Zhang Dahu hesitated for a mont, rubbed his belly, and didn’t feel any pain.
He glanced at Zhang Erhu again, and whispered: “I saw Uncle Niu delivering bricks and tiles to the Team Leader’s house.”
Su Yuncheng nodded: “Besides Uncle Niu, have you seen anyone else visit his house?
A stranger.”
Zhang Dahu thought for a while, then shook his head.
He was recently busy picking grass for the pigs; they wouldn’t let him do field work, so he could only earn as many points as possible by collecting pig feed, to support the two of them.
At this mont, Zhang Erhu beside him lifted his head and said softly: “I’ve seen one, that ti when Erhanzi and the others were beating , I went to the Team Leader’s house…
There was a man in his house, he looked really fierce.”
Saying this, Zhang Erhu pursed his lips, his voice even lower: “Then the Team Leader kicked out.”
Su Yuncheng asked: “Do you rember what that man looked like?”
Zhang Erhu tilted his head and thought for a while, then drew a line on his own face from forehead to chin: “He had a scar this long on his face, as if it was split open.”
Before he finished speaking, Zhang Dahu nervously covered his mouth.
Zhang Dahu was panicked, shaking his head vigorously at Su Yuncheng: “That, that thing, big brother, my little brother doesn’t know any better, don’t believe the nonsense he’s talking!”
Su Yuncheng looked at this boy who was extrely guarded against the outside world, chuckled and nodded: “Hmm, I didn’t believe.”
After speaking, he stood up and casually picked up a stone, throwing it out the window.
Zhang Dahu was scared into a cold sweat by Zhang Erhu’s words, and no longer dared to ask Su Yuncheng how he planned to let them survive.
He only hoped that the Team Leader would never find out that it was Erhu who blabbed, otherwise they’d surely be driven out of the village.
While Zhang Dahu was worried, a round little chubby boy ca in.
The chubby boy looked at Su Yuncheng with a wronged expression and said quietly: “Brother Cheng, why did you give my stead bun to these two little bastards?
I only get to eat white flour once a month!”
Feng Wei was wronged, Feng Wei was bitter inside, but Feng Wei didn’t dare to speak too loudly.
It was said that a few days ago, Zhou Xu got nearly beaten up by Brother Cheng for calling out too loudly outside…
Obviously, this distorted story was spread by Zhou Xu himself; in his view, getting beaten up was less embarrassing than admitting his limp legs were from riding a bike too hard.
Su Yuncheng glanced at Feng Wei, took out all the cash and coupons from his pocket, and gave them to him.
Feng Wei’s eyes widened in shock: “Brother Cheng, this this this…
just for a bun, it’s not necessary between brothers…”
“Take these boys ho, ask the auntie to look after them for a while, I didn’t bring much money with , I’ll give you more when I go back,” Su Yuncheng ignored his astonishnt, and continued, “In another two months, their mother should be out.”
Feng Wei responded with an “oh”, saying nonchalantly: “How much can two little guys eat, no problem.”
Zhang Dahu didn’t expect that Su Yuncheng not only found them a place to stay, but also told them their mom would be back soon.
Zhang Dahu looked at Su Yuncheng with a complex gaze.
The person he thought was good drove them out of their ho; the person he thought was bad arranged a place for them to go.
He felt his mind was a ss, unable to distinguish the true from the false, the good from the bad.
He stunnedly pulled his brother along, following the chubby uncle through the woods, and pushed a bicycle out of a pile of grass.
Feng Wei originally wanted Su Yuncheng to carry one of the boys, but he just hitched up his leg and rode off on the bike.
Feng Wei called out to him from a distance: “Brother Cheng!
Where are you going?”
“Sothing ca up.”
Su Yuncheng dropped the words and didn’t even look back once.
Feng Wei had no choice but to let the older one sit in the back seat and held the younger one on the bicycle beam, and after riding for a while, he suddenly realized—
When he just called out to Brother Cheng, did he not control the volu properly?
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