Chapter 17: The Past (Part II)
As the electric current entered my body, as a needle of medicine flowed into my bloodstream, I survived tenaciously in the trembling.
But the next second I opened my eyes, I realized that I had lost all my memories and even who I was.
Not only that, but the high IQ that I used to be proud of has also dropped from 141 to 60, which is so stupid that even the black African natives are not as good.
I went to the doctor and anxiously asked him why he was the way he was.
The doctor told me that this was a sequelae of carbon monoxide poisoning, which was only temporary, and that with active treatment, intelligence and memory could be slowly restored.
Things did go as the doctor said, and they were better than he expected.
I stayed in the hospital for two months, and my brain really got a lot better, and I remembered a lot of things little by little.
But as my memories returned, I fell into the pain of losing a loved one.
During that time, I thought about the family members who loved me every moment, every minute, every second, their voices and smiles, and the bits and pieces of my life with them.
In the third month of the hospital, the government's emergency relief funds ran out, and I was very politely asked out by the hospital before I had fully recovered.
When I got out of the hospital, my first thought was to go home.
When I took the most familiar No. 16 bus and got off at Hongyuan Community Station, I remembered that my home no longer existed. And those family members who love me have long been separated from me forever.
On that day, I sat alone all day in front of the open space in Building 7.
The home is gone, not even the masonry and rubble are left.
It is said that a rented couple quarreled because of their husband's cheating, and the wife lost her mind and killed her husband, and then committed suicide by lighting a gas pipe, and finally dragged the whole building to be buried with men, women and children.
Who am I to blame for all this? Blame the crazy woman, or the man who broke his shoes?
Does it make sense to blame them? Do you blame them for getting my family back to me?
I do not know! I don't even know what I'm going to do next?
I'm a 16-year-old boy, and in this city where I don't have any relatives, how am I going to face my future life?
My stomach was growling, but I hadn't eaten for a day, and now I don't have 3 quick money to buy a loaf of bread.
That day, I walked alone on the road blankly, looking at those indifferent pedestrians, looking at this city that was so cold that I wanted to cry, and walked a long way.
It was late at night, and I was shivering with cold in the bridge hole under the overpass.
When it was dawn, I wandered like a lonely ghost on the road, opened a garbage bin near the supermarket, and dug out an expired sandwich from it, and ate it so sweetly.
In this way, I wandered around this cold city for a long time, until a classmate found me and took me home to take a bath and have a meal, and I felt as if I was alive again.
Early the next morning, my classmate's mother gave me 100 yuan and kicked me out of the house in disgust.
I should have felt humiliated for all this, but I looked at the 100 yuan in my hand, and I was very happy, and then shamelessly knocked on the door of another classmate.
I lived like a beggar, one family, two families, 50 yuan, 100 yuan for more than a month, until in the end, no one of my classmates was willing to open the door for me.
My classmates had no money to ask for, and I thought of my father's colleague when he was a police officer, but I didn't think about my father's colleague where I lived.
Thinking of the end, I laughed myself, laughing sadly, laughing two lines of tears.
Because it wasn't until this moment that I remembered that the most taboo thing for those anti-narcotics police officers who want to play mosaic on TV is that their home address is discovered.
How could I possibly know where their families lived?
In desperation, I went to the anti-narcotics brigade of the Municipal Public Security Bureau.
But when I entered the office building, when I saw the photo of my father with a mosaic on his eyes and only a YCW code name on the honor column, I retreated with shame.
For a moment, I was glad I didn't find my father's colleague, and I went to disgrace my father's face like a beggar.
I'm sixteen years old, and although I'm not an adult, I'm already a big boy and I should be able to support myself.
With the courage and longing of a young man, I went to a factory with a job posting, hoping for a job that I could live for.
However, I was told that I needed an ID card or a household registration book to apply for a job, and people like me who didn't have anything could use it.
I went to the police station to reapply for an ID card, but the police at the police station told me that Wei Chihui's household registration had been cancelled, and he said that Wei Chihui died on the night of the explosion. He also said I was an imposter and wanted to arrest me.
I was so frightened that I ran through the door, and I even lost the only 20 yuan I had on me, which was my food money for a day.
Things seem to be back to square one, and after more than a month of eating and drinking, I am back to the cold bridge hole again, and to the miserable life of making a living by rummaging through garbage bins.
It's late autumn, and the wind is getting cooler, and on a cold night, the wind blows on your body like a knife.
I curled up my thin body, as if I was hugging myself tighter, and the temperature of my body was able to withstand the cold of the autumn night.
I was so cold that I walked into the train station for the Nth time, wanting to take a break in the warm environment inside.
I knew that I wouldn't be here for more than half an hour, and I'd be kicked out by the security guards.
In fact, half an hour is enough, because for me, even if I am here to warm my frozen feet, it is a great pleasure.
But this time, I underestimated the capabilities of the security guards.
I had just been at the train station for five minutes when a couple of security guards set me up and stuffed me into a van with an aid station logo on it.
Looking at the three words of the aid station, a trace of ignorance and joy flashed in my mind, which had not yet fully recovered, and I even thought that I was going to be rescued, and then there was a place to shelter myself from the wind and rain and have enough to eat.
But in fact, I and two other people who were in a similar situation were pulled by this damn van to a small nearby county town, and then the driver shouted and scolded and drove out of the car.
Salvage? That's how they rescued me? I wrapped myself in dirty clothes and thought weakly.
In this strange little county town, I had nowhere to go but to run to the train station to spend the night.
The county seat is not as good as the prefecture-level city, where the railway station is very dilapidated, there is no air conditioning, and there are air leaks everywhere.
But luckily, there were no security guards to drive me away, and there was no van that took me to the next county like garbage.