……

Because the Xishan Children's Welfare Home is located in the easternmost part of Dongyue City and is close to the suburbs, it took several buses to reach their destination.

As soon as they got out of the car, they saw the gate engraved with the words "Xishan Children's Welfare Institute" not far away, and there were four five or six-year-old children standing on both sides of an old woman smiling and waving to everyone at the gate.

——

"Dean, I'm here." Gong Tachibana introduced the people behind him to the old man, "This is some of my friends, and they also want to play with Xiaoshan and them today." ”

"Good, good." The old man laughed again and again, "Xiaoshan, they miss you too." ”

As soon as the words fell, the four children beside the old man hugged the calves of the cherry-haired girl, like cheerful birds.

"Sister Gong Tang, we miss you so much."

Gong Tachibana immediately squatted down, took out some candy from his pocket and distributed it to the four children, touched the top of one of the little boys' head and smiled, "Sister misses you too." ”

At this time, the black-haired Lori, who was standing behind the cherry-haired girl, looked at the old woman with a cane and a wrinkled face and a stiff back, and asked curiously, "How old do you say this dean is this year?" ”

"It should be in his seventies." Bai Ling hesitated for a moment and replied.

"Fifty-two." Su Ye said calmly.

The black-haired Lori and Bai Ling both showed a look of surprise, obviously shocked by the precise number of men.

For Su Ye, he can not only look at age from the root bones of people, but even see that life span is also a breeze. It's just such a mysterious thing, even if he explains it like this, these two little girls won't believe it, rather than that, he might as well keep a mysterious attitude and let it guess.

"It's windy outside, so you'd better come in first." The old woman said to the crowd.

——

So everyone followed the footsteps of the old woman and the children, and finally stepped into this Xishan Children's Welfare Home.

Although it was expected that this welfare home would be a little dilapidated, everyone still felt a lot of emotion when they were there.

The building of the orphanage is only a small three-story building, the entrance of which is supposed to be the children's favorite slide, and there are unfinished building blocks on the stone table, but all that remains is flowers and potted plants on both sides of the road.

A lot of skin has peeled off from the white walls of the small building, revealing the gray concrete inside, and in order not to be monotonous, the children deliberately used crayons to draw cute colorful graffiti on the concrete.

Walking into the small building, the first floor is equivalent to the hall and the cafeteria. On the left side of the second floor are the children's beds, which are neatly arranged with nearly 30 beds, which shows that there are still a lot of children living here in the past, but now there are only 4 children staying here. On the right is the dean's bedroom, which houses an old TV with small benches in front of it. People can even imagine many children sitting on the bench watching TV with relish.

On the top floor of the small building is a balcony, where a nylon rope is tied to the bamboo erected on both sides, and a change of clothes is hung on the rope and swayed in the wind.

——

"I almost forgot, there is not much salt and vinegar in the kitchen, I always want to buy it but always forget," the old man smiled self-deprecatingly, "People are old, and some things can't be remembered." ”

"It's okay, Dean, I'll just go." Gong Tang hurriedly spoke.

The old man shook his head and smiled at Gong Tang, "I'd better go, just take a walk." I'm more relieved to have you here, besides, it's almost noon, and you still have to cook, Xiaoshan, they like your dishes the most. ”

"But—"

"You're not familiar with this place, there's no supermarket here, so I'd better go. A handful of old bones, it's not okay to never go out to exercise. ”

"Okay."

——

The final verdict was that the dean went out to buy salt and vinegar, Gong Tangerine Bailing and the oldest boy named Xiaoshan prepared the ingredients in the kitchen together, and the rest of Su Ye and the three of them happened to take a child with each other.

"How old is she, Dean?" Bai Ling, who was washing the vegetables, suddenly thought of what the man had just said, and asked with some curiosity.

"Fifty-two, I just had my birthday last week."

"It turned out to be true." Bai Ling's tone was a little surprised.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Bai Ling didn't plan to mention anything about that man to the Sakura-haired girl.

"Fifty-two, why does it look so-"

"It's going to be that old, isn't it?" Gong Tang smiled, held the hand of the kitchen knife, and said softly, "We often ask the dean why she ages so fast, she always says that people will always get old, this is common sense in the world, and she is no exception." ”

"And the dean was only in his early twenties when he first came here, in other words, the dean has been here for thirty years."

"Thirty years?" Bai Ling was a little incredulous.

"Isn't it incredible?" Bai Ling smiled, "But that's the truth. The dean gave the best years of her life here, and we watched the dean Shaohua pass by, and her gray hair gradually dyed. ”

"When the director first arrived, he was just a volunteer and used to play with the children there, but later because the orphanage was about to close due to lack of funds, in order to prevent the children from being separated, the director took out all the money he had saved and donated it to the orphanage, and gave up his good job to devote himself to the orphanage. I stayed there for 30 years, witnessing the loss of many children from my side, and I was one of them. ”

"Because almost all the funds of the welfare home come from donations from the society, it can be said that there is little pitiful, there is no extra money to ask the aunt to take care of the children, and there are fewer and fewer volunteers who are willing to come. Not only playing the role of a mother, but also a teacher, a friend, and a relative. Almost everything is done by one person, so he looks so old even though he is only in his early fifties. ”

"I can help rebuild this place so that these children are better cared for." Bai Ling couldn't help but speak.

Gong Ju shook his head slightly and smiled faintly, "Didn't I say it, this welfare home is about to close." ”

"I can pay for it to keep it afloat—"

"Don't you understand?" Gong Tang turned his head to look at Bai Ling, and his tone was calm, "It's us who want it to be closed." ”

Bai Ling's body froze when she heard this, and her eyes were a little stunned, while the boy named Xiaoshan on the side shed tears.

"Mom is tired, we want her to rest, if this place is still there, her heart will stay here, and there will be no peace at all! She's very old, and if she continues like this, she will be gone from us soon, and we just want her to live a little longer so that we can have time to take care of her. ”