When I woke up again, it was already dark. There are already some people walking around the streets. Cleaners are cleaning the streets.

My father took me to the station. It should be too early, the station is still empty. We sat in the chairs at the station and slept for a while (maybe my father didn't sleep). When I woke up, there were a lot of people out of nowhere in the station. There are also a lot of people on the streets. There was a shouting coming in from outside the station.

My father told me that he had already bought a ticket, and I asked him where he was going, and he told me a name, and I asked him if he was familiar with it, and he said that he didn't know anything like me, he only knew which train he bought the ticket for the first time.

I was pleasantly surprised by the horror. Surprisingly, we were going to a strange place. A completely unfamiliar place is still attractive to a small child. The horror is that I don't know when our fugitive life will end.

After all, it was the first time I had taken a car, and I was more happy than worried.

Watching the trees fall straight backwards, watching the mountains turn with the car, I can't appreciate it yet, who would think that this is far away from their homeland? Who would have thought that this departure would take nine years to return? And when the joy wore off, the weariness returned, and I sat down in my seat and fell into a deep sleep again.

We walked all night the night before, and the next day we were in the car for another day. The first time I sat in the car, I sat for so long and so tired that I felt dizzy whenever I sat in the car.

We made three transfers. At the station where I changed trains, my father ruthlessly took me to a restaurant near the station for a bowl of dumplings.

As my father pulled out the money, I noticed that his hands were shaking. He wrapped the money in a piece of cloth, layer after layer. He opened the cloth with trembling hands, and I realized that I had run out of money.

At dusk we arrived at a small county town, a completely unfamiliar place.

I never dreamed that this small county town would become my second hometown.

It is a very quaint and old mountain city, and even the name is very quaint - Qijiatun County.

When I arrived in Qijiatun County, my father told me that I would not transfer trains again.

I guess my father actually didn't have the money to ride, and if he did, he would have taken me farther away. My father had saved up all the money he had saved up for so many years, and the few trips had already consumed it — he had to save some money to live on.

My father took me by the hand and walked out of the station with the flow of people. The crowd in front of the station is slightly crowded. There were hardly any high-rise buildings on both sides of the street, most of them were two or three storey low, old houses, and I noticed that several pieces of glass had fallen off the glass windows of one house, some of the glass was broken, and some of the remaining windows were pointed sharper than daggers.

We stepped out of the crowd and walked aimlessly in the direction of the street. I didn't know where I was going, and neither did my father. My father always walked to the left and right, as if he was looking for something, and from time to time he looked behind him with a worried expression.

This anxiety tormented my father for nearly a decade, and it was not until his death that he was completely freed. Later, I realized that my father was worried about being arrested by the police. He always identified himself as a fugitive.

We walked aimlessly on the streets for a long time, turning from street to street.

It was getting dark.

At this time, we walked to the edge of the city, and a small river appeared in front of us. The river flows quietly. The surface of the river is glowing with stars. There is a road along the river bank that runs north. The road surface is extremely uneven.

My father took me down this path.

"Dad, where are we going?" I couldn't help but ask. I really don't know what my father meant.

"Find a place to live."

"Why are you looking for a place to stay?" I don't understand my father's approach anymore. The place where you live should be in the city, how to go outside the city?

"I'm sorry, Kiki, we're running for our lives, we can't stay in a hotel, because that kind of place is easy to find, if the police are looking for us."

"We've all fled to this place, who will know us?"

"They'll send pictures. They'd send pictures of my dad all over the country, and they would easily recognize us by looking at the photos, you know? ”

"Got it." In fact, I still have a mystery in my heart - how can the police have a photo of my father? But I know, I can't ask more.

"I'm sorry, Kiki, you have to be prepared, there will be a lot of suffering waiting for us, are you afraid?"

"I'm not afraid, Dad." I say. But to be honest, I was terrified.

"We couldn't stay in a hotel, so we had to find a shelter from the elements. Shelter from the elements, that's where we stayed. Also, we're likely to go hungry because the money Dad brought in the car is almost gone. ”

"I know."

"How do you know?"

"I saw your hands tremble as you took out the money."

"What an attentive child, but Dad will try to find something to do, and as long as we find something to do, we won't starve." Dad touched my head.

"But, isn't my class delayed a lot?" I voiced my concerns.

"What? Do you still want to read? Can we still read like this? Now it was my father's turn to be surprised.

"No, I'm going to read. I can endure any hardship, but Dad, you must find a way to let me study. "I almost cried.

"Kiki, good, it's not that Dad won't let you study. In this place, my father doesn't know anyone, how can he let you study? We don't even have a place to live. ”

"But I just want to read. I must read. I burst into tears.

Reading is the only way I can shorten the distance between me and my brother, how can I not read?

"Don't cry, don't cry, Kiki is good, is this good? When Dad settles down here, I'll find a way to let you study, okay? ”

"It's a deal."

"It's a deal."

I burst into tears and laughed.

"Do you want to pull the hook?"

"Retractor?" I was stunned for a moment, then immediately shook my head, "I trust you, Dad." ”

"Okay."

Actually, why I didn't want to hook up with my father, it was because I suddenly remembered to pull the hook with my brother a few times, and I felt that keeping my promise had nothing to do with hooking.

"The hook hangs for a hundred years." I used to believe in this article, but my brother still returned to the city, and my brother still went to be a city person.

On that road along the river, we couldn't find a suitable place to stay, so we had to turn back to the county seat. I was hungry, but I couldn't bear it. The street lights are on, and so are the shops on both sides.

We walked for nearly half an hour, and finally found a place to shelter from the wind and rain in the northern district of the county.

For some reason, there was a levee that resembled a river embankment in the east-west direction, which was higher and straight than the embankment at home.

The road we walked passed under the embankment, and it formed a passage that sheltered us from the wind and rain, and according to my father, was exactly what we were looking for.

The father was very happy, and he stepped up his pace. On each side of the passage is a countertop nearly a foot above the road, and the countertop is covered with newspapers and paper shells. To our surprise, there were already people sleeping on that table.

We sat down in a suitable place, my father put the cloth bag on the ground, and I put down the cloth school bag that my mother had sewn for me.

"Hungry, Kiki?" Father asked.

I nodded.

"I still have a sweet potato here. I'll go find some water to wash for you to eat. ”

"Okay." I swallowed.

The father took the sweet potatoes and left.

There was a sudden silence in the passageway, and the silence was broken only when a car approached or someone rode by. I seemed to hear the voice of the man who was lying on the ground sleeping.

I couldn't help but get scared and hoped that my father would come back soon.

Father finally returned. I took the clean sweet potatoes he had washed and ate them with relish. I took several bites before I remembered that my father hadn't eaten it, so I handed him the sweet potato, but my father didn't want it, he said he wasn't hungry, so I ate the whole sweet potato.

I was really stupid. My father walked the same way as me, ate less than I did, and was terrified, so how could he not be hungry? What's more, he's still an adult.

Hey, I was so smart.

While I was eating sweet potatoes, my father picked up nearby newspapers and paper shells and spread them on the floor to make our beds to sleep in. When I finished eating the sweet potatoes, we lay down on the ground. A chill hit my body, it was late autumn after all, but we fell asleep quickly because we were so tired.

I don't know how long I slept, but I was woken up by a loud noise. I felt someone kick my calf and I couldn't help but scream.

"Get up. , get up! "The man who kicked me yelled.

By the starlight, I saw two men, one tall and one short.

Father was already on his feet. "Excuse me, what's the matter?"

"What's the matter? You're fucking taking my place, how are we going to sleep again? The taller man said. His tone was very unfriendly. His loud voice vibrated through the passage.

I quickly got up from the ground.

"Is this place yours?" Father asked tremblingly.

"It's not mine, is it still yours? The place where Lao Tzu sleeps every day is not my place, whose place is it? ”

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." The father apologized again and again.

"What are you arguing about? Still make people sleep? From the other side of the passage came a shout.

"Get out of here!" The tall man scolded in a low voice.

My father hurriedly picked up our bags and took me out. That's when I noticed that there were people lying in the middle of the countertops on both sides of the passage.

In the middle of the countertop is the warmest part of the aisle, and the further you go, the windier and colder it gets.

We sat down again a meter or two away from the exit.

"Dad, why are they so fierce?" I asked my father in a whisper.

"We have taken their territory. Also, the newspapers and paper shells they used to sleep. ”

"Oh, how are we going to sleep without paper shells and newspapers?"

"Hold on, Kiki, when it's dawn, Dad will also go find some newspapers or paper shells."

"Are we going to sleep here all the time?" I couldn't believe my ears.

"We'll probably all have to live here before Dad finds something to do."