People are always good at forgetting.

On October 17th, the weather was clear, cloudless, the sun in Sky Mountain was not as vicious as in the past, and the golden sunlight spread on the earth, making people warm and dispel the layers of haze in people's hearts.

In a separate ward of the First People's Hospital, on a single bed, there was a little boy of twelve or thirteen years old, the little boy's face was ruddy, but his eyes were covered with a layer of gray, and he looked a little dull.

There was a man sitting next to the hospital bed, the man's face was a little sickly ruddy, he was holding a fruit knife in his hand, he was meticulously peeling the apple, the apple was not big, with the rotation of the apple and the knife, a layer of apple peel was like the clothes worn by the person, slowly sliding down, the man would occasionally raise his head to look at the boy lying on the hospital bed, his eyes were very complicated.

The room was eerily quiet, except for the rustle of men peeling apples, except for the sound of liquid dripping.

The boy lying on the bed is Li Taiping, he moved from the intensive care unit to this ordinary ward a few times ago, Li Taiping woke up, which was originally a very happy thing, but after Li Taiping woke up, like Zhang Lei, he chose to be silent, extraordinarily silent.

Since Li Taiping woke up, he likes to look out the window, whether it is the sun shining outside the window, or the dark clouds, or the autumn rain, this twelve-year-old boy always likes to look at everything outside the window, it seems that only by watching the sun rise and the moon set, his scarred heart can get a moment of peace.

The man sitting next to Li Taiping is none other than Zhang Lei, who resigned from the second criminal investigation team not long ago, Zhang Lei's physical injuries are not completely healed, however, only regular visits to the hospital to change dressings can be done, the thirteen children in the orphanage, except for Liu Siya, who left with Shangguan Jing, only seven children survived, except for Li Taiping, who was the most seriously injured, the other six children have already been discharged, and now, these children are living in a new orphanage, and there are special people to take care of these children.

It is also strange to say that when Zhang Lei got such an orphanage, the person responsible for taking care of those children was not a volunteer in the society, nor a volunteer, nor an employee of Zhang Lei's parents' company, but two young people who came out of the poor mountain village in the northwest, they were very young, just twenty-two years old this year, as early as June, they had graduated from college, and after graduation, they went to Zhang Lei's parents' company for an internship and work, of course, at the beginning, They didn't know that the company was owned by Zhang Lei's parents.

This pair of young people is a pair of twin siblings, their parents are facing the loess with their backs to the sky, honest farmers, their father died when they were very young, it was their mother who didn't know a word to pull them up, the parents were uneducated, but they always hoped that their children were educated, at least know how to read, and hoped that they would one day be able to get out of that poor mountain village and break into the outside world, so, this inconspicuous mother, relied on those few acres of thin land to send this pair of sisters and brothers to high school.

This young man is also very competitive, although the family is poor, but very hard-working, perhaps because the children of poor families are in charge of the family early, they know how to bear hardships and stand hard work, they have been very good in their academic performance from primary school to high school, and they are at the top of their class, but, many years ago, when they were just admitted to their key high school, their only relative, their mother, fell ill because of perennial hard work and malnutrition.

That year, they were only fifteen years old, and that year, Zhang Lei was only twenty years old and still a college student.

In the summer of that year, there was still a period of time before the start of school, Zhang Lei and several young people of the company went to the northwest for a trip, for Zhang Lei, who was born in a coastal city, the northwest is a new world, where there are high mountains, white clouds, and yellow land, it seems that the sky over there is bluer than S City.

Zhang Lei remembered that it was a rainy day with heavy rain, and they drove the car into the mountain village, not because they wanted to go to the mountain village, but because they were lost.

The boy had a hemp rope around his neck, and his hands were holding the two handles of the cart, leaning forward, step by step, and walking forward with great difficulty, and there was a girl wearing a simple plastic raincoat next to the cart, she helped push the cart with one hand, and held a not very big umbrella with one hand, the umbrella did not cover any part of the girl's body, but all blocked the simple cart, on the cart, There was also a woman who looked to be about fifty or sixty years old.

The dirt road was not wide, Zhang Lei and the car they drove was an off-road vehicle, and their car was parked on the road, blocking the way of the three of them, because they were lost, they didn't know what was in front of them, so when they saw someone in front of them, they were particularly excited, Zhang Lei got out of the car with the driver and came to the front of the three people.

After a simple chat, they knew what place was ahead, and they also knew where they were going, they were going to the county seat thirty miles away to treat their critically ill mother, but it was pouring rain and the roads were muddy, so they had a hard time.

In fact, at that time, Zhang Lei and they could have driven away directly after asking for a clear direction, but Zhang Lei didn't know what he thought at the time, he asked the woman who was actually less than forty years old on the board car to move to the car, and they drove the car to the county seat under the guidance of the two sisters and brothers.

However, the level of medical care in the county was limited, and the woman was suffering from cancer, and it was already in the advanced stage, and it was raining heavily before coming to the hospital, and after some emergency rescue by the doctors, the woman, who looked to be fifty or sixty years old, was actually only thirty-nine years old, and finally left.

When the woman was leaving, she was lying in the simple ward in the county seat, the woman's face was pale like a blank piece of paper, the woman's hair was already gray, her skin was dark and wrinkled, her hands were full of calluses and scars, but her eyes were very bright, and when she was leaving, there were only four people in the ward, the mother who was lying on the hospital bed and was about to die, a pair of children who had just been admitted to a key high school, and Zhang Lei, an outsider.

The mother first supported her body and expressed her deep gratitude to Zhang Lei, and then, she took the hands of the children, just telling them to go to school well, no matter what, the mother in the last period of her life, she did not ask her children to have much benefit, she just hoped that they would not live in that poor mountain village like herself in the future, she hoped that they would be able to go out, that's all.

In the end, under the gaze of three young people, the mother who had worked hard all her life, and finally, in the sad cry of her children, passed away quietly, perhaps, for most people, since they gave birth to children, it is a matter of course for them to go to school, but for such a rural woman who has not even been to the county town, children may be her only hope, yes, the older generation always pins their hopes on their children.

Originally, Zhang Lei was going to travel to the northwest that time, but because of this incident, he chose to stay, and with his help, they took the mother's body back to the poor and backward mountain village to help the siblings deal with their mother's funeral.

When Zhang Lei left, he didn't leave too many things, and he didn't say anything, he just asked his family to silently help the sisters and brothers go to school, and paid the tuition for three years, and when the summer vacation was about to end, he returned to S City from the poor mountain village, and since then, while he went to school in the university, he began to work part-time, using his spare time to do part-time work, and then, he began to cut down on food and clothing, and sent the money he earned and the money he saved to the sisters and brothers in the mountain village.

In this way, day after day, year after year, seven years have passed, Zhang Lei has already graduated from college and started his career as a policeman, and Zhang Lei has changed from a person who was not a gentleman to a very stingy person, no one knows why he became like this, only him, the pair of sisters and brothers, and the children in the mountain village know why.

After three years of high school, the siblings worked very hard, perhaps because they wanted to inherit their mother's last wish, and they were finally admitted to college with excellent grades.

When they were admitted to college, they first told Zhang Lei, who was far away in S City, that they planned not to study after knowing that they were admitted, and planned to come out to work, after all, they were eighteen years old at that time and were already adults, but Zhang Lei stopped them from thinking and let them continue to study and continue to go to college, because Zhang Lei knew very well that only reading could change their fate and really get out of that poor mountain village, so, Zhang Lei is still silently sponsoring them as always, as well as the group of children in their hometown.

Four years have passed, and the two siblings have finally graduated from college, and some of the children in their hometown have been admitted to high school, of course, most of them have only graduated from junior high school, and they have followed their parents to start farming.

This year, the two sisters and brothers came to S City from a distant mountain village and began their careers in job hunting, they came to visit the kind-hearted person who helped them seven years ago, and visited the kind-hearted person who was actually a few years older than them, when they knew that Zhang Lei was actually a policeman, they were particularly happy, because, in their hearts, the police is a sacred profession and the patron saint in the hearts of the people.

When looking for a job, they did not ask Zhang Lei to help them find a job, but to find a job by themselves, and in the end, they went to work in the company owned by Zhang Lei's parents.

Only children who have really suffered hardships know to cherish everything in front of them, they work very hard, and they are very diligent, although they still have a lot of places to understand, and the work experience is also very lacking, but they are constantly learning, constantly working hard, they are always outside, they can have this job is obtained by their efforts, however, when they inadvertently saw that the kind man in the police uniform appeared in the company, they knew that it turned out, Zhang Lei is not just a policeman, their mood is very low, originally, they planned to leave the company where they have worked for several months, because they don't want to trouble this kind person anymore, because they feel that Zhang Lei has helped them enough.

However, just when they were about to resign, the 921 case happened, Zhang Lei was seriously injured and hospitalized, in addition to Zhang Lei's injury, many children were also injured, but, they didn't know it at the time, so they submitted their resignation report, but after their resignation report was submitted, there was no follow-up, and it was dragged until Zhang Lei was discharged from the hospital and got an orphanage out, and someone needed help.

Zhang Lei's parents found the siblings and asked them if they would like to go to the orphanage to take care of those children, probably because of their own experience, or because they thought of Zhang Lei's previous help to them, so the siblings agreed without hesitation, and they left Zhang Lei's company, went to the orphanage, and began to take care of the newly opened orphanage.

In fact, what Zhang Lei has done for so many years, his parents know that if it weren't for his parents who have been silently helping the siblings behind their backs and helping the poor mountain village, Zhang Lei's meager salary is completely insufficient, for Zhang Lei's son, his parents value it very much, when Zhang Lei did not choose to study abroad, but chose to be a policeman, they did not object, but, at Zhang Lei's repeated insistence, they finally compromised and respected their son's choice, and now, Zhang Lei chose to resign, chose to return to the company to work, and chose to do something within his ability, his parents were very happy, of course, if it weren't for Zhang Lei's open-minded parents, the second criminal investigation team would not have a joke, a pistachio.

After peeling the apple, he threw the apple peel into the trash can at his feet, cut a piece with a fruit knife, handed it to Li Taiping, and looked at the little boy.

Facing the apple stretched out in front of him, Li Taiping took his eyes back from the window, he glanced at the apple, and then looked at Zhang Lei, barely squeezed out a smile on his immature face, then shook his head and said softly: "If you don't want to eat, you can eat." ”

Li Taiping has not spoken much since he woke up, during this time, there are not a few people who come to visit him, but most of them are uniformed policemen, they came to visit Li Taiping, the main purpose is to ask clearly, why he is in the basement of the Chengxi orphanage, why he is tortured like that, why this situation occurs, he knows the unknown inside story of the Chengxi orphanage, however, these policemen are greeted only by silence.

Except for the occasional few words with Zhang Lei, Li Taiping spends most of his time either sleeping or looking at the scenery outside the window.

The boy's hands were covered with gauze and bandages, the nails that had been pulled out had not grown up until now, and his thin body was also scarred, except for lying quietly on the hospital bed like a mummy, he did not dare to turn his body easily, because, as long as he moved, those wounds would collapse, they would bleed, and they would all be painful, however, this little boy who was only twelve years old, as if he did not feel it, he had no extra expression except for silence, and occasionally smiled, but, His eyes, which were supposed to be very bright and clear, were no longer as bright and clear as before, and they were once more gray.

Ning Yanran came a few times, visited the little boy, and asked him a lot of questions, but I don't know for what reason, I don't know if it was because he suffered a huge torture, so that the boy didn't want to think about the past, or because he forgot everything in the past under the huge torture, in short, he didn't say anything, Xu Lang also came twice, however, Xu Lang didn't ask anything, every time, when he came, he came with Zhang Lei, Zhang Lei sat on the edge of the bed, chatting with Li Taiping about some trivial things in life, chatted about the new orphanage, while Xu Lang chose to be silent, standing by the window, looking at the scenery outside.

Xu Lang didn't want to ask, but he didn't know how to ask, Li Taiping was not Zhang Lei after all, he was not a criminal suspect, he was just a little boy who was only twelve years old, just a victim who was almost tortured to death, Xu Lang didn't want to uncover the scar in his mind that had not yet scabbed when the little boy woke up, if Xu Lang did this, it would be really cruel, however, Xu Lang didn't ask, it doesn't mean that others didn't ask, although, Xu Lang and Zhang Lei both knew that they learned the truth from Li Taiping's air earlier, can solve the case one day earlier, however, Li Taiping chose to be silent, Zhang Lei and Xu Lang didn't ask anything, they were waiting, waiting for the little boy to tell the truth by himself, Xu Lang and Zhang Lei both believed that sooner or later, Li Taiping would take the initiative to tell the unbearable past.

The wait is long, the most torturous, and the most heart-wrenching, but, except waiting, it seems, they can't do anything, yes, waiting, long waiting.

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