Adjutant Liu noticed that Miss Zhang's eyelashes seemed to flicker, and as soon as she turned her head, they disappeared.

They walked out of the corner of the Four Seas Hotel, and saw a child in tattered cotton wool huddled under the eaves of a house, beside a dead woman, the owner of the house scolded and drove away, but the child was no longer able to move, his eyes were wide open, he turned a little, and clutched his mother's clothes.

Shen Mengxi walked over, untied his woolen scarf, wrapped the child, asked Adjutant Liu to take him to the car, gave the family five oceans, and asked him to bury the woman.

Some onlookers sighed that this kid had met a good person.

The child shrunk into the car seat, trembling, and looked straight at Shen Mengxi, but couldn't say a word.

"Can you hold on, I'll give you dinner at the hotel."

The child's eyes lit up and he nodded slowly.

Shen Mengxi's thoughts turned to the name Li Huixian again. Jilin Province, the work of the Railway Bureau, the year of birth, the name, and the appearance are all matched, what a deep fate this has to be,—— three generations have a fate.

The name reminded her of too much, many past lives. When he arrived at Madier, Adjutant Liu consciously took the child out, and Shen Mengxi was awakened by the cold wind pouring into the car door and got out of the car.

A bowl of warm rice soup made the child no longer tremble so much, and looked at the empty bowl longingly.

"You're too hungry to eat too much at once, you have to take your time, can you wait?"

The kid nodded and looked at Shen Mengxi with trust.

"Can you speak? What's your name? ”

"Erniu." The sound is faint and small.

After twenty minutes, Shen Mengxi gave another bowl of rice soup, "Take a sip and drink it, it's all yours." ”

Erniu really slowed down, and this child's obedience was distressing.

Adjutant Liu bought back his clothes, bathed Erniu, shaved off his hair, and put on new cotton jackets and new cotton shoes. The exposed hands were as thin and cracked as chicken paws. Shen Mengxi smeared ointment on him.

"I gave the family money to help bury your mother. If you want, come back to Shanghai with me, and you won't be hungry and cold. ”

Erniu cried and lay on the ground to kowtow to Shen Mengxi.

Shen Mengxi checked Erniu's body, there was no major problem, just excessive hunger, "Rest well, go to your mother's grave tomorrow to have a look, and then we should go back to Shanghai." ”

Erniu nodded.

"How old are you?"

"Nine."

"Nine years old? I thought you were five years old at most? Nine years old, right? Shen Mengxi found a beanie hat for him to put on, covering his bald head, Adjutant Liu was very curious about what this Miss Zhang wanted in her suitcase.

Erniu, who had regained some energy, slowly told what happened to him. His home is in a place called Dawa Village on the periphery of Harbin, and I don't know which county it belongs to. His surname is He, last year his father was recruited by the Japanese to do coolies, saying that he could have a lot of wages, and he has not come back until now, his sister died of illness, and after the New Year, Japan came to recruit workers, and the people in the village did not want to go, because the first batch did not come back, and there was no salary to bring back. The Japanese secretly arrested people at night, regardless of men, women, and children. The two of them hid in the vegetable cellar and escaped. Not daring to stay in the village, the mother and daughter ran away the next day, and when they saw the railway line, they came to Harbin, where their mother gave him all the food they begged for, and they starved to death under the eaves of that family.

Wang Shouqing, who was busy with official business, returned to Modern and listened to Adjutant Liu talk about picking up a child, and also came to Shen Mengxi's room.

"I suspect that they are doing human experiments, does the Northeast Army know all about Japan's behavior in our country?"

Wang Shouqing sighed deeply, "After Zhang Dashuai's death, the situation has changed a lot. The power of just a few people cannot change the situation. ”

The disparity in strength, the loose hearts of the people, the obedient and numb people, Shen Mengxi looked at the snowflakes falling outside the window, and his heart was gloomy.

The next day, Adjutant Liu drove Shen Mengxi and Erniu to the house where Erniu was found yesterday, and the head of the household was shocked when he saw Shen Mengxi. In a fit of rage, he pulled out a gun and held it against his head.

The man was so frightened that he peed his pants, knelt on the ground and kowtowed like pounding garlic, and then crawled and took them out of the city, and found the body of Erniu's mother in the mass grave, half of which was covered by a rotten straw mat, and the other half was being torn by a wild dog, and Erniu hissed like a beast, and rushed up, and the wild dog saw that there were many people, and hurriedly ran away. Looking at it from afar, reluctant to find food that is easy to find.

One of the carcass's legs was torn off by the wild dog, because the weather was cold, and the carcass was frozen and hard, and the wild dog could not get out of his mouth. The head of the household knelt down and kowtowed again, "Please, please, As he spoke, he trembled and held five oceans in his hands.

"Erniu, people die like lights out, do you agree to cremate your mother's body?"

Erniu nodded, "Okay." It is better to burn it than to let the wild dog eat it. ”

The head of the household went to find some dead branches, Adjutant Liu took out a spare bucket of gasoline from the car, and several people cremated Erniu's mother. Erniu has been kneeling not far away, chanting words in his mouth.

The corpse quickly deformed, as if suddenly sitting up, waving his arms, and the head of the household was so frightened that he knelt down and kowtowed.

When everything was calm again, nothing but ashes and bones remained on the ground.

Shen Mengxi took out a round iron box, only two times larger than the ocean, filled it with some ashes, picked a small piece of bone, put it in, buckled it and handed it to Er Niu, "Put it away." ”

Erniu put away the box closely, and kowtowed three more times to a pile of ashes.

"Mother! Erniu has met a good person! You can go with confidence! Erniu shouted with a crying voice.

A gust of wind blew, and the ashes on the ground drifted away with the wind, blending into the vast field, and disappeared without a trace.

******

Ah Huan was very curious about Erniu, an unusually thin child, he didn't know how there could be such a thin person in this world, and there was no meat under his skin. He pinched Erniu's face, "I'm going to eat more in the future!" ”

Shen Mengxi came back this time and made an exercise plan for Ah Huan, and gave him the task of getting up early every day to walk the dog, and he had to stand in the yard for an hour. Erniu is very conscious, staying by Ah Huan's side, whatever Ah Huan does, he sits.

Helen didn't like this dirty child, and complained that Shen Mengxi picked up all cats and dogs at home, she carried the back of Erniu's neck and arranged him to a bungalow in the backyard to live next to Ah Qing.

Helen was a special presence in this family, she was neither a master nor a servant, but she often did the work of a servant and exercised the power of a master. She treats Ah Huan very attentively, and Ah Qing once said unintentionally that Helen is more like a mother than her own mother.

It's not a big deal, and Shen Mengxi generally doesn't care about her.

"Erniu, I'll change your name, it's always called Erniu Erniu, and I think I'm a subordinate."

Erniu nodded.

"Your name is He Hongzhi, Honghu Zhizhi, I hope you will make great achievements in the future."

"Hmmm! My name is He Hongzhi! ”

"Okay, Hongzhi, in the future, follow Ah Qing and them to learn to speak, and learn to read and write with Ah Huan."

Hongzhi agreed, and knelt down again. was stopped by Shen Mengxi, "Hongzhi, you will be an upright man in the future, a man has gold under his knees, and he can't bend his knees easily, you know?" ”

"My father said, people kneel to heaven and earth, kneel to their parents, my wife is my second parent, should kneel!" After speaking, he still knelt down and kowtowed three times.

Shen Mengxi was helpless, "Hongzhi, you keep kowtowing, you have knocked my blessings away, don't call me Mrs. in the future, call me Miss Zhang, or Aunt Zhang." ”

"Miss Zhang!"

"In the future, you will live in the house next to Ah Qing, are you afraid of being alone?"

"Don't be afraid."

"Brave. However, my family does not support idlers, and you have to do something in the future, and if you have paid for room and board, and you have done more, I will pay you wages. ”

"I don't want to be paid, I'll work for you for the rest of your life!"

"Silly boy, a lifetime is so long, how can you say it so early, you stay with me until you are eighteen years old and you have to go out into the world! As soon as I saw you, you were a good person, how could you bury yourself with me for the rest of your life. Shen Mengxi touched the back of his bare head and smiled and let him go back.

Zhao San'er is very good to Hongzhi, a little fellow, he doesn't live in Shen Mengxi's house, he comes early and leaves late every day, eats two meals, what work is there at home, he takes the initiative to help when he sees it, usually stays in the small house next to the gate, Hongzhi often goes to him, learns some Shanghainese with him, and sometimes goes out to run errands.

******

A Russian Jewish photographer named Shen Shidi in Chinese opened a photo studio at 73 Nanjing Road, and his portraits were as beautiful as oil paintings, attracting many Chinese and foreign people to take pictures.

Shen Mengxi also admired it, this photo studio called Shanghai Art Photo Studio is very large, with 11 rooms, 31 staff, several of whom are foreign employees, the photo studio is located on the second floor of No. 73 Nanjing Road, there are many portraits hanging in the glass window, there is a sign upstairs that reads "Portrait and Commercial Photography Expert" in English, and downstairs is the Suzuki Brothers motorcycle shop and Bao Xing Yu Kee jewelry and watch shop.

Shen Shidi came to China since he was a child and is fluent in Chinese, and he chatted with Shen Mengxi, trying to understand her personality from the conversation, so that he could capture the most suitable moment during the shooting.

Shen Shidi is only 28 years old, handsome, Shen Mengxi especially likes the beauty groove on his chin, which is similar to Lin Qingxia, he is very affinable, knowledgeable, has a wide range of friends, and communicates with all kinds of people.

There is a full-time makeup artist in the photo studio, but Shen Mengxi insisted on putting on light makeup and changing into the clothes he brought, and the shooting room did not have a gorgeous background.

Shen Mengxi said that he had taken some photos in Harbin and wanted to print them here, and Shen Shidi readily agreed.

In the end, Shen Mengxi took three photos, left three rolls of film, and set up to take the photos ten days later.