July 15, Midyear Day.

Liu Ting got out of the evening self-study and slowly walked in the direction of home with a bicycle bigger than her.

Her family lives on the edge of the city, and she has to cross a pontoon bridge to get home from school.

The pontoon bridge is the only connection between the rich modern and the poor past, and it is also the place where Liu Ting stops every day.

She didn't want to step on the pontoon, she didn't want to go home.

The failed exam papers were still in her school bag, and the cool evening breeze blew up her half-length black hair, revealing a young and childish and gloomy face. A pair of big dark eyes hide old age and sorrow that don't match their age. An electric motorcycle drove from the pontoon, and the headlights swept across her face, revealing the horrible bruises around the corners of her eyes and lips.

Soon, she was engulfed in darkness again.

She pushed the bicycle to the head of the pontoon bridge, put it down casually, and took off her heavy schoolbag with her arms bent.

The pontoon bridge had several dim night lights, barely able to teach night walkers to see clearly and not fall into the water, but due to disrepair, most of it was broken, and now it is impossible to distinguish between the bridge deck and the water surface. In the darkness looms the dilapidated houses on the other side of the bridge, inhabited by the city's losers, homeless people, and even criminals. They exude an unpleasant stench and fishy smell all day long, like a piece of moldy kraft candy sticking around the splendid city, which is made more and more ugly by the rules, brightness and neatness of the city.

No one in the city was willing to go to the other side of the pontoon, and Liu Ting's classmates were not afraid to express their disgust for the slum and her family in front of her.

Yes, she belongs to the pontoon, she was born and raised there, even if she studied hard and was admitted to the key middle school in the city, she is still her, still with the symbols of poverty and vulgarity, and even more conspicuous among the bright city symbols around her.

She has no friends, and two years after she entered junior high school, she is still alone.

The rough drunkard father began to get into the bad habit of gambling half a year ago, and when he lost the gambling, he went home and beat her. Her mother couldn't stand running away with people for a long time and didn't take her away.

Every time the drunkard beat her, she didn't say a word, and when he was tired, Liu Ting wiped the blood on her face, picked up the big oil jar at home, and continued to write her homework on it.

"What's the use of studying, give me a part-time job!" That's what the drunkard's father kept repeating.

Liu Ting has never given up studying, she understands that reading is her only way out, and it is the best way for her to get rid of her bad luck.

Learning is her pontoon, and it is her shortcut from poverty to brightness.

But her father didn't give her a chance to study.

He forced her to go to the hotel to wash the dishes, and the meager money she earned was snatched away by him, and then she went to gamble; After losing the gamble, she found a job as a food delivery for her. Liu Ting will always remember that she delivered a beautiful cheesecake to a family in the city, and it was her classmate who opened the door. The classmate was wearing a champagne-colored dress, a small crown on her head, and her long curly hair was on her clean and immaculate shoulders, she recognized Liu Ting and was a little surprised when she took the cake:

"You...... How to deliver food? ”

The lively and warm sound in the house and the aroma of food formed the word "home", which struck Liu Ting's heart. She flew out of the apartment and shivered on an electric motorcycle.

She saw what she longed for most, and at the same moment understood how far away she was from what she longed for.

The future she wanted would probably never come.

Because she was forced to work part-time, she had less and less time to study, and she never failed the newly added physics subject, and the total score was immediately pulled down, and her name fell rapidly from the top ten in the grade and disappeared into the vast ranking.

Last night, her father brought a woman back, and the woman twisted into the house wearing clothes that couldn't cover her chest and couldn't cover her buttocks, and glanced at Liu Ting, who was doing her homework in the corner, and exclaimed: "How can there be a child!" ”

Her dad said it's out of the way, you don't exist when she doesn't exist.

The woman was not pleased, and her father picked her up and threw her out.

Liu Ting slept in the park for one night and received the exam papers that she failed the midterm exam the next day. This time it's not physics, it's math, which she's always preferred.

The math teacher talked to her and asked her how she was doing lately and why her grades had dropped so quickly. Liu Ting lowered her head and didn't speak, and the teacher stepped forward to take a look and found the bruises on her face.

"What's going on? Who did you get beaten up against? Schoolmate? ”

Liu Ting shook her head and retreated.

"Or your parents?" The young female teacher stood up suddenly, grabbed Liu Ting's hand, and stared into her panicked eyes, "Really I said it?" What did your parents do to you? ”

Liu Ting withdrew her hand nervously, ran out of the office without saying anything, and even skipped class for the first time.

The young female teacher was only a math teacher, not a homeroom teacher. The head teacher had noticed the wound on her face, and his curious gaze stayed on her face for a moment, and then he looked away indifferently.

Liu Ting didn't want to be noticed by anyone, she wasn't used to it, and she didn't know how to respond to these concerns. And the little self-esteem she had didn't want to be sympathized with by the people in the city.

Just like the head teacher, just be an indifferent city person.

Liu Ting stood by the river for a long, long time, and she knew that the river drowned many people every summer, and countless ghost stories originated here.

It is said that water spirits gather here late at night, and those who pass by the pontoon bridge in the early hours of the morning can hear the terrible cries. If anyone dares to look down, they will see a pair of terrible eyes floating under the dark green river, they are all water ghosts drowned in the river, they are resentful and unwilling to be reincarnated, as long as they find a substitute for the dead ghosts, they can get a good afterlife. So, they wait under the bridge every night, waiting for their prey to appear.

Taking off her heavy schoolbag, Liu Ting, who was relaxed, quietly walked towards the river.

There is hope for being a water ghost, so she would rather give up her life.

A wonderful afterlife...... Can she have it too?

The sound of paddling at her feet was especially clear in the empty midnight, and when the water flooded her waist, there was no ripple in her heart.

She is not afraid of death because she has no concern for the world. Even when she thought that death could take her away from her troubles and despair, help her be free, and even give her some hope, she had an unprecedented affection for death.

She wanted to embrace hope, embrace death.

At the moment when the river slowly rose and swallowed her, there was a sudden sound of paddling behind her, as if someone was shouting her name.

"Liu Ting! Don't do stupid things! Grab my hand! Liu Ting! ”

Liu Ting was dragged ashore by the people behind her, drank a few sips of water, her mind was dizzy, and she couldn't see anyone in front of her.

The man shook her a few times and she didn't respond, her body went limp and collapsed, the man turned her over, put her on his lap, and slapped her the back. A large wave of water was stuck in Liu Ting's mouth, nose and chest, but she couldn't spit it out, and she was so uncomfortable that she lost consciousness.

Seeing this, the man turned her back and lay on her back, hurriedly gave her artificial respiration, and pressed her chest hard.

When she was confused, Liu Ting felt a pair of gentle lips sticking to her again and again, and she struggled to pull her back from the brink of death.

"Wake up! Wake up! ”

The voice was somewhat familiar, as if it had been heard somewhere.

By the way, this is her math teacher, the young female teacher who graduated from college not long ago, what is her name, I think of it, her name is Meng Xin.

"Liu Ting! Liu Ting! ”

Meng Xin's voice was very anxious, pressing harder and harder, and outputting more oxygen at a time, until Liu Ting finally coughed loudly and vomited out a large puddle of water, and when she gradually regained consciousness, Meng Xin breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed to the ground.

Liu Ting coughed incessantly, as if she was going to cough out all her internal organs.

Meng Xin gasped for her back, and said angrily: "I've been with you all night, and when I saw you at the pontoon, I thought you would definitely go home, but I didn't expect you to run into the river for me...... What the hell is wrong, who bullied you, you said, how can you help you if you don't open your mouth?! ”

Meng Xin had long felt that this little girl was in a bad mood, and had been observing her for the past few days, and after finding that her math scores had plummeted and seeing the obvious scars on her face, Meng Xin was very worried, and she didn't go back after school, and waited in the carport for a long time before seeing Liu Ting come to get the car slowly. Meng Xin just wanted to determine who did it to her before she followed her, but she didn't expect to save her life by the way.

"I don't need anyone else to help me." Liu Ting was like a puddle of algae fished out of the bottom of the river, lifeless, and without the mood fluctuations that had just broken free from the death line, and her voice was very calm, "Do you want to show your greatness?" Do you know you're in the way? ”

Meng Xin didn't expect that she would be treated like this: "I'm in the way? I saved your life, and you still say I'm in the way? You just want to die? ”

Liu Ting stood up and staggered to the river to find her bicycle.

Meng Xin couldn't understand that this child was only 13 years old, and he could be so calm in the face of life and death.

She stepped forward quickly and pressed Liu Ting's bicycle handlebar.

"Why kill yourself?" Meng Xin looked directly at her and asked very sternly, "Didn't you think about how sad your parents would be after you died?" ”

Liu Ting's unwavering eyes looked at Meng Xin's face from behind her dripping hair.

Meng Xin is young, beautiful, and very tasteful, she changes her clothes every day, and she has been teaching them for more than a year, and she has never seen her wear the same dress repeatedly.

She lives on the other side of the pontoon, receives a good education, and lives a prosperous life - that is the life that Liu Ting yearns for.

"Do you care about me?" Liu Ting asked in a low voice.

Meng Xin paused, and restrained Fang Cai's sharpness a little: "Of course I care, you are my student." ”

"Can you keep caring about me? Do you care about me forever? ”

Meng Xin was a little puzzled, and soon, she noticed the tears on Liu Ting's face.

Meng Xin held her hand and said: "I can't guarantee anything 'forever', I can only go through the road of junior high school with you, and when you go to high school, college, and step into society, you will understand that there is no eternity in the world at all." But what I can guarantee is that I will do my best to teach you all my knowledge in the three years I have been teaching you, and I will also keep you safe. I am your teacher, you can tell me if you have any difficulties, and I will do my best to help you solve them. ”

Meng Xin's words are very calm and true, Liu Ting understands that this is the truth that belongs to adults.

But it was this truth that knocked on the heavy defense in Liu Ting's heart.

What year did this night's encounter take place, Liuting no longer remembers, she only remembers that she was still alive at that time, and she still had the name of a human being-the "Liu Ting" who had long been abandoned.

At that time, she had not met Liu Kunyi, and at that time she did not know that her life was about to reach a subversive inflection point.

She only remembered that the night was very dark that night, and Meng Xin was the only bright.

For the first time, the young governess made her less eager to die.

Because she began to have a little hope in life. 166 Reading Network