After the heavy rain, the stench in the slum became heavier, and the garbage heap was soaked in rainwater to completely release the stench that had been hidden.

All kinds of filth mixed with rainwater flow everywhere.

It's really not like the environment in which humans live.

There is garbage everywhere, there is hardly a clean road, and everywhere you go, you can smell the stench; Most people have no shelter at all, sleeping in garbage heaps, and the better ones can only set up a rudimentary tent; The land is barren and food is scarce, less than 5% of the land can produce food, and without the intervention of outsiders, more than 60% of the Yilun people will even starve to death, and even after the intervention of outsiders, many people are still forced to dig through the garbage heaps every day to make a living; There are only three drinking wells in the entire slum, but even the water drawn from the wells often has a faint yellow tinge, and when you drink it, you can clearly feel that you are drinking a handful of sand at the same time; As for personal hygiene...... Not to mention, all the people of Yilun do not know what bathing is from birth to death, and there are more than 100 infectious diseases raging in the slums.

This is the environment in which the Iren people have lived for decades, and if they have not seen it with their own eyes, perhaps no one will believe that there are really people who can survive in such an environment.

The rain was still falling, and the two boys were slowly moving forward in the rain with an oil-paper umbrella.

The older boy took the younger boy to find a relatively quiet location with relatively little garbage, swept the stagnant water on the ground casually, and sat down straight.

Stagnant water of unknown composition quickly wet his pants, but he didn't care.

The little boy glanced at him, sat down carefully beside him with an umbrella, and frowned tightly when he smelled the stench of water on the ground.

The older boy did not seem to notice this, and when the little boy sat down, he took out a large piece of bread from his bosom, broke it in half, and handed half of it to the little boy who was holding an umbrella.

The little boy reached out and grabbed the bread, looked at the other party's face in a daze, and whispered, "Thank you...... Thank you. ”

Although he is still a rookie who doesn't understand anything at the moment, the experience of "weaning" in just two days has made him understand...... In the slums of Yilun, food is more important than anything else.

The piece of bread he had stolen during the day was not as big as this, and the man was already furious, as if he wanted to kill himself.

And this kind-hearted big brother gave himself so much at one time......

The older boy smiled and touched the little boy's head: "Don't talk about those useless ones, let's eat them first." ”

"Uh-huh." The boy nodded heavily, and then quickly shoved the large loaf of bread into his mouth.

Probably because he hadn't eaten for too long, he stuffed so quickly that the bread stuffed his entire mouth, and when he tried to chew, he found that he couldn't even lift his teeth.

Looking at the little boy's embarrassed eating, the older boy shook his head and scolded with a smile: "No one is robbing you again, it's not good for your stomach to eat so quickly." ”

Unexpectedly, the little boy's mood was obviously low after hearing this, and the emotions full of happiness and excitement when he got the food disappeared inexplicably at this moment.

The little boy ate slowly, he no longer gobbled up as before, and after swallowing the bread stuffed in his mouth, he began to tear the bread in his hand into crumbs little by little, and put it into his mouth one by one.

“…… What happened to you? The little boy's low and lost mood was almost written on his face, and the older boy naturally couldn't take it as if he hadn't seen it.

The little boy looked up at him, and cried out again.

The little boy suddenly cried loudly, and the older boy was a little at a loss, and he looked at each other with an inexplicable face, wondering why this bear child was crying.

"What are you crying about...... Eh, if you have something to say, don't cry! The older boy felt that the bear child in front of him was really like a legendary girl, crying at every turn, and it was really troublesome.

Little girls are raised by outsiders from birth until they are able to give birth and are not released back into the slums, so for those of them who grow up in the slums, little girls are creatures that exist only in the description of adults.

Girls love to cry, and older boys know this from an early age.

The little boy did not stop crying when he heard his words, but cried even more sadly, tears pouring out of his brown eyes, and his whole body twitched.

The older boy who was forced to be helpless could only come up with a killer idea: "I don't care about you anymore!" ”

It worked wonders, and the boy did stop sobbing under his threat, but the boy's eyes were still red, and his throat was choking, as if he might cry again at any moment.

"So what the hell is wrong with you?" The younger boy's performance made the older boy feel very helpless.

"I ......," the little boy sobbed, "I miss my mother......"

The older boy of "......" was obviously silent for a long time after hearing this.

Mom...... For him, this is really an incredibly distant word.

"What about your mother?"

As soon as he said this, he realized that he had said the wrong thing, because the little boy had burst into tears when he heard this, and the tears were rolling in his eyes, and if it weren't for the threat he had just made, the little boy would probably have cried again.

"Mom...... Mom she's dead...... I died when I was three years old. ”

"Your mother, she ......" The older boy didn't know how to comfort the other party, so he could only stubbornly continue to ask, "Is it sick and dead?" ”

"No...... She was starving to death. ”

"Starving?" He was taken aback by this answer, for it was the first time he had heard of a woman who could starve to death when her child was three years old.

Children in the slums have only mothers, not fathers - they are basically raised by women who are mothers, without knowing who their fathers are.

And the vast majority of these mothers will deprive their children of some of the food to a greater or lesser extent.

This is not to blame, because it is not easy for women to survive in the slums - the food provided by outsiders is entirely based on the workload of the day, and the food that congenitally disadvantaged women have to go by day is itself minimal.

In addition, after they give birth, their bodies will actually be in a relatively weak state for a long time, and they will naturally get less food during this time.

They also have to survive, and they have to live in this slum.

Even kinder mothers, when they are really hungry, usually take some free food from outsiders from their children for emergencies.

So when he heard that the boy's mother had starved to death when he was three years old, he really didn't expect this to be the case.

"Your mother, she...... Never eat your food? His eyes widened, his face full of incredulity.

The little boy nodded, "For as long as I can remember...... My mom worked on her own to earn food and never ate my food...... Sometimes I saw that she had eaten too little, so I offered to give her some of my own food, but she kept saying that it was enough for her......"

"But one day when I was three years old, my mother suddenly didn't go back to the area where we used to live, and she used to come back before dark, but she didn't come back that day when it was completely dark......"

"I was terrified, but I didn't dare to run around alone, so I stayed alone with my mother all night, until the next day, when a man came to me and asked me if I was XXX's child...... I said yes, and the man looked at me and told me......"

"My mom is dead, xxx is dead." The little boy touched on his sad past as he said this, and began to choke again.

"I didn't even know what 'death' meant, and I stupidly asked the man what 'death' meant. Does my mother's 'death' mean something good happened to my mother?

The man sighed when he heard my question and said to me, 'Dead, you will never see her again, you will never hear her again.' ’

I didn't understand much of what he said, but I was really scared at the time...... Because I can't meet my mother, I can't talk to my mother, what a terrible thing to think about. So I cried and cried and said to him, "Where is my mother, I want to see her." The man pointed behind him, and I realized that my mother's body was actually behind him.

When I saw my mother, I suddenly became very happy, and I thought to myself, isn't my mother still here, why did that person lie to me?

I threw myself on it, trying to get into my mother's arms as I always did, and to say so many things to her as I always did.

But my mom didn't reach out to pick me up......

Gradually, I realized that something was wrong, my mother's body was usually so warm, but that day it was as cold as a stone, and my mother usually smiled at me gently when she heard what I said to her, but when I said a lot that day, my mother's face didn't even have a little expression.

I became scared because I realized that I really couldn't talk to my mom anymore, and she didn't seem to hear what I was saying. But I still didn't know what the concept of 'death' was, so I anxiously asked the man for help: 'Please help my mother, my mother can't hear me!' ’

The man looked at me, then at my mother's body, and said to me, 'Your mother is starving to death and is hopeless.' ’”

The boy finally couldn't hold back his tears, and the sad cries soon overshadowed the sound of the rain, which sounded like the only source of sound in the secluded area.

But the older boy didn't say anything to stop him this time.

He thought for a long time to the sound of the little boy's cry, and then suddenly said to the little boy, "Is it cold?" ”

The little boy, who didn't feel anything, suddenly felt really cold after hearing this, so he quickly hugged his arms and nodded vigorously.

An oil-paper umbrella can block most of the raindrops, but it can't dampen the chill brought by the raindrops.

When the older boy heard this, he immediately laughed: "Look at me showing you a hand." ”

Out of nowhere, he found two sticks, one very thin and the other a little thicker.

He inserted the extremely thin wooden stick into the other wooden stick, and then rubbed the extremely thin wooden stick vigorously with both hands, and kept rotating it from side to side with the wooden stick as the center.

"Big brother...... What are you doing here? The little boy looked at him with a puzzled face.

"Shh The older boy motioned for the younger boy to be silenced, his face full of mystery.

He rubbed and swirled the stick in his hand vigorously.

After a long time, a small spark suddenly bloomed at the junction of the two wooden sticks.

Mars is so faint that it has almost no heat.

But with the appearance of this little bit of spark, a puff of white smoke came out of the stick, and at the same time there was a crackling burning sound. A moment later, a bright flame rose from the stick, standing proudly against the rain.

The flames crumbled in the rain and wind, as if they were going to be extinguished at any moment.

But even so, the burning flame made the little boy feel unusually warm.

The firelight illuminated the faces of the two boys, one of whom was very immature.

The other face is less immature.