Strange, there is no under the bridge, so where is he? Lei Xiaobo stood under the bridge, looking at the wide river in a daze. After a while, Wen Meilin and Zhu Yafang also arrived one after another. Wen Meilin shouted at Lei Xiaobo under the bridge: "Is there anyone under the bridge?"

Lei Xiaobo shook his head. Zhu Yafang stood by the river without embarrassment and guilt, looking at Lei Xiaobo under the bridge, thinking that her youngest son might live under the bridge, she was so sad that she just wanted to cry.

At this time, on a cement boat by the river on the left, a middle-aged black-faced man asked curiously, "What are you looking for?"

Lei Xiaobo said to him: "We are looking for a child, about 15 years old, skinny, have you seen it?"

The middle-aged man thought for a moment and said, "I've seen it, it seems to be on that boat." As he spoke, he pointed to a cement boat on the other side.

Lei Xiaobo's heart jumped and looked at the cement boat on the other side. I saw bundles of garbage neatly stacked on this boat, all yellow paperboard, old newspapers, bottles and other things. On the ship, there was a shirtless man, his face was charred and his skin shone with a bronzed sheen, and he was busy on the ship.

Lei Xiaobo climbed the river slope, walked onto the bridge, and ran towards the opposite bank. Walking to the riverbank of the boat, he shouted at the burnt-faced man on the boat, "Hey, do you have a 15-year-old kid on board?"

The man was stunned, hesitated to glance at the cabin, and shook his head: "No." Lei Xiaobo said: "Strange. Some people say, "Why didn't you see this child on your boat?"

The scorched-faced man waved his hand and said, "No, no, what am I lying to you for?"

At this time, Wen Meilin and Zhu Yafang also came over and stood by the river looking at the boat. Lei Xiaobo said to the burnt-faced man on the boat: "She is the mother of this child, how hard she is looking for him, do you know? You should understand the feelings of a mother." She's going to get him back to high school, and it's going to be school soon. ”

The scorched-faced man listened to Lei Xiaobo's words, and his expression changed slightly. He involuntarily glanced towards the hatch in the stern. The careful Wen Meilin discovered this detail and said: "This boss, I am a police officer from the Hongfeng Road Police Station in Jiangbei City, we are looking for this child to go back to school, please cooperate." ”

When the man saw that she was wearing a majestic police uniform, he hesitated for a moment, and without saying a word, he carried a gangplank to a concrete step on the riverside, and then snorted at them to the stern cabin, and then motioned with his eyes for them to come up from the gangplank.

Lei Xiaobo was the first to walk down the river slope, step on the narrow gangplank, and walk to the boat. He walked from the side of the ship to the stern, and bent down to look into the dark hole in the cabin, where he saw a large boy curled up in the sweltering bilge with his face to the dark corner.

"He's inside, come quickly. Lei Xiaobo shouted to the shore in surprise.

Wen Meilin and Zhu Yafang hurriedly walked down the river slope. Wen Meilin can still tiptoe, walk across the gangplank step by step, and walk onto the board by herself. Zhu Yafang couldn't, her feet stepped on the bouncing springboard, and she was too frightened to take a step. Lei Xiaobo went up and stretched out his hand to pull her, pulling her onto the boat step by step.

Walking to the aft cabin, Zhu Yafang leaned down and looked into the cabin hole, and cried out "wow": "Xiaoshi, my son-why are you hiding here?

Lei Xiaobo and Wen Meilin also had red eyes, and their faces blurred. Lei Xiaobo wiped his eyes with his fingers, stepped forward and shouted into the cabin: "Xiaoshi, come out quickly." We'll take you back to school. ”

Wen Meilin wiped her eyes dry with a tissue, came up to persuade Zhu Yafang, and then pulled her aside, let Lei Xiaobo go down, and pulled Xiaoshi up. When Lei Xiaobo was a child, he played peek-a-boo with his friends in the countryside, and he drilled through this kind of cabin, so it was not difficult at all. He was very agile, he sat down on the edge of the hatch, put his feet into the hole, stood on the deck, and then retracted his upper body and burrowed his head into it.

He saw Xiao Shi's face and body clearly, his heart tightened, and his brows couldn't help frowning. The child was very thin, with almost no muscles visible on his long face, all skin. The immature skin has been roasted by the sun to the color of the sauce duck. The clothes on his body were dirty, as if they had been picked up from a garbage heap. The head of the left foot of the leather shoe on the foot is cracked, and the heel of the right foot is falling off.

"Xiaoshi, you, why are you hiding in the cabin?" Lei Xiaobo squatted there, looked at him distressedly, and asked softly.

Xiao Shi just twisted his body and didn't respond. Lei Xiaobo said again: "Today is August 17th, and in more than ten days, school will start." Come out, come back with us, get ready, report to school. ”

Xiao Shi stretched out his foot, but his face still refused to come. After a while, he said to the wall of the boat, "Go back first, and I'll be back at the end of the month." "There are only a few days left at the end of the month?" Lei Xiaobo reached out with some excitement, grabbed his right hand, pulled him around with force, and then pulled him to his side. Then he turned his face to the burnt-faced man standing by the hatch and said, "Come, ship boss, help me pull him out." ”

The captain of the boat bent down and said to Xiao Shi in the cabin: "They are also for your good, take you back to school, you can go back with them." As he spoke, he put his hand into the hole, grabbed Xiao Shi's right hand, and pulled him up hard. Lei Xiaobo tried to support his body up below, and the two of them pulled him out of the cabin hole together. Lei Xiaobo was able to drill out of the cabin hole with a vigorous posture.

Xiao Shi stood firmly on the plank, his body long, and he stayed there still, like a little Hanako. Zhu Yafang looked at her son as if she didn't know him, first looked at her son in a daze, then jumped up and hugged him, and then cried.

"My son, how did you get like this?" she cried and stroked her son's hair and thin face in distress, so guilty that she wanted to slap herself.

Xiaoshi also lay in his mother's arms, pumping his body, and his face was full of waves. "Mom, I'm so miserable—" He finally cried out, crying out the bitterness in his heart, "I want to earn my own money and go to school." But, I, I almost died—woo-"

The mother and son hugged their heads and cried. The three people next to him also burst into tears.

After a while, Lei Xiaobo stepped forward to persuade them to disperse, and the boss of the Jiao Yan boat asked them to sit on the garbage bundle on the boat, and said to Lei Xiaobo and them: "I found this child on July 8. When he found him, he was groggily sleeping under the bridge. There was only a shabby snakeskin bag underneath him, and his clothes were very tattered. I first called him on the boat, but he didn't make a sound and didn't move. I was in a hurry and jumped ashore to see him. Finding that his face was fiery red, I reached out and touched the corner of his forehead, which burned like fire. ”

Lei Xiaobo and Zhu Yafang and Wen Meilin were all stunned.

(End of chapter)