The next day, the relatives left with the cousin’s family.
At lunch, Fu Songcheng looked at his parents.
“Dad, Mom. Yesterday in the complex, I saw a kid digging through the trash bin.”
Both parents looked surprised. Fu Songcheng wasn’t one to lie, so they hurriedly called the community office to ask about it.
After the call, Fu’s father walked back to the living room.
“The property management said that family has been owing property fees all along. When they went to collect, they discovered only that child was living in the apartment.”
Fu’s mother asked, “What about the child’s parents?”
“I heard there’s only one guardian left—his aunt.” Fu’s father sighed. “The property management contacted welfare services. But the moment welfare steps in, his aunt runs back. She takes the child home with a great attitude, and once he’s back, it’s the same as before.”
Fu Songcheng frowned. “But what about him not going to school?”
Fu’s father patted his son’s shoulder and instructed, “Songcheng, you can’t help everyone in the world. If someone pulls him out and takes him to the police station, and the child still wants to go home with his aunt, outsiders can’t say much more. Understand?”
Fu Songcheng didn’t argue, but fell into thought.
After this matter, the boy seemed to start deliberately avoiding him.
Every day going to and from school, Fu Songcheng never ran into him again.
Until three months later.
One weekend afternoon, Fu Songcheng had just reached the bottom of his building when he saw Yu Huaiting standing below the steps.
The boy had changed.
He was washed very clean, wearing a well-fitting white T-shirt and shorts.
The boy looked up at Fu Songcheng.
“Can I be friends with you now?” the boy asked.
Fu Songcheng was surprised at his change, assuming his aunt had finally treated him better.
“Why the new clothes?”
He couldn’t help asking a couple more questions.
This time the boy walked straight up and took Fu Songcheng’s hand.
“Because I want to treat my new friend to snacks.” The boy said seriously.
Fu Songcheng was caught between laughter and tears. He let the boy lead him by the hand to the little shop at the entrance of the complex.
The boy walked to the shelf, took two packs of small spicy strips, and went to the counter to pay.
The boy turned and held the two packs of spicy strips out to Fu Songcheng.
Fu Songcheng looked at the spicy strips in his hand. He didn’t much like eating these, but under the boy’s expectant gaze, he still reached out and took them, tucking them into his pocket.
Fu Songcheng felt a little awkward—especially being treated by such a small kid.
“Then let me treat you to cake.” Fu Songcheng took the boy’s hand.
He led the boy to the bakery at the street corner.
Walking to the display case, Fu Songcheng casually pointed.
“One Black Forest cake.” Fu Songcheng told the clerk. This flavor was usually a bestseller—few people disliked it.
Yet the boy shook his head.
“I don’t want this one.”
Last time, Fu Songcheng and his cousin had bought this flavor.
Fu Songcheng looked down at him.
The boy raised his hand, reached past the Black Forest cake, and pointed at another cheesecake mousse beside it.
“I want that one.”
“Alright, let’s get this cheesecake mousse then.” Fu Songcheng nodded to the clerk.
The two sat on the high stools by the window. Yu Huaiting picked up the little spoon and carefully dug out a piece of the pale yellow cake, bringing it to his mouth.
His eyes widened slightly.
“Good?” Fu Songcheng asked.
The boy nodded, scraping a bit more with the spoon. “Salty, and a little sweet too. Like the milk bricks Grandpa bought me before, but much softer than that.”
It was his first time eating something with this texture. He curiously took tiny sips, afraid that if he ate too fast, it’d be gone.
Fu Songcheng propped his chin on one hand, watching him eat, and asked casually, “Why did you insist on being friends with me?”
He swallowed a mouthful of cake and answered with perfect justification. “Because you’re good-looking.”
Fu Songcheng was amused by him and deliberately put on a stern face to scare him. “Good-looking means a good person? Aren’t you afraid I’m a bad guy who’ll abduct you and sell you off?”
The boy didn’t even pause, digging another spoonful of cake into his mouth and saying indistinctly, “Not afraid. You’d pick me a good buyer.”
Fu Songcheng shook his head helplessly and changed the subject. “You don’t go to school normally? I heard from my parents that you seem to never have gone to school.”
The little boy’s cake-eating slowed.
He lowered his eyes, staring at the mousse base on the plate, and said vaguely, “Can’t take in the studying.”
“How could you not take it in?”
“I fought with people at school.” His voice wasn’t loud. “They had foul mouths, so I hit them. The teacher made me transfer, and after my aunt took me home, she found it too much trouble, so she didn’t find me a new school. And I don’t want to go anyway.”
Fu Songcheng couldn’t help frowning and took on the manner of an older brother, lecturing seriously, “How old are you and you’re already not going to school? What will you do in the future then?”
He shook his head honestly. “Don’t know.”
Looking at this kid, a nameless sense of powerlessness rose in Fu Songcheng’s heart.
No one lifted him toward the clouds, and he himself didn’t strive.
Though Yu Huaiting was young, he’d roamed outside year-round and was still very good at reading expressions.
He sensed the helplessness and faint displeasure in Fu Songcheng’s tone and voluntarily set down his spoon.
“Actually, not going to school is pretty good too. I can support myself.” He looked at Fu Songcheng and started telling his own story. “I pick up cardboard and plastic bottles others don’t want, save them up, and sell them to the grandpa who collects scrap on West Street. That grandpa’s really good to me. When others sell to him, he weighs it by the jin, but when I go, he often gives me a little extra money.”
Fu Songcheng’s frown deepened.
Yu Huaiting’s heart couldn’t help tightening. That day he’d been caught digging through trash by Fu Songcheng and had been so ashamed he wanted to bang his head against a wall. Now, seeing this expression, he was afraid Fu Songcheng, like other kids, would look down on him too.
But that wasn’t what Fu Songcheng cared about.
“Does your aunt not care about you at all?”
Yu Huaiting’s hanging heart settled, and he very reluctantly brought this person up. “She has her own life.”
Fu Songcheng fell silent.
Yu Huaiting’s story was another kind of life he’d never experienced.
He’d originally assumed he’d have nothing to say to a brat so much younger than him, but Fu Songcheng found that chatting with Yu Huaiting was actually quite smooth.
This illiterate kid was, surprisingly, not as hard to deal with as other children.
“Next time we meet,” Fu Songcheng still couldn’t stand the thought of a kid like this not studying, “I’ll bring some books down and teach you to read. You can’t go through life not even able to read, after all.”
Yu Huaiting clearly wasn’t too keen on studying, but his eyes darted, and he immediately bargained, “You teach me!”
Fu Songcheng laughed. “If I don’t teach you, would you learn on your own?”
The two walked out of the cake shop.
At a fork in the road, Yu Huaiting waved at him and turned to run into the alley.
They hadn’t agreed on a specific time for their next meeting.
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