Chapter 1: Fatherless

In the evening of the end of November, the sky was already completely dark. The mountains stretching in the distance only left a winding silhouette, shrouded under an ink-colored dome, like a rift valley that separated the world from the earth.

The withered silence of the small mountain village, the hazy silence of the gesture, like an ancient and lonely waiting.

The night wind in late autumn was already chilly, pouring in through the cracks of the makeshift hearth, and the coldness spread all the way up the cuffs and trouser tubes to the limbs, and little Lin Jian, who was kneeling in front of the sacrificial table, shivered hard.

He sniffled, looked up at the incense offering in the censer, which was still lit without breaking, and silently averted his eyes again.

When he was younger, someone from the same village died, and he was taken on his father's neck to see the funeral. In mountainous areas, especially in small villages like theirs, where development is slow and the modern economy is highly underdeveloped, when it comes to such white meetings, there are always some old customs preserved, and the old practice is quite elaborate, with white streamers, copper coins, and paper figures invoking the souls of the gods and ghosts, and the things of the gods and ghosts are more feared than revered for the four- or five-year old Lin Jian.

Today, however, the man who had lifted him above his head and sat on his shoulders became the protagonist of folk tales that terrified him. So eight-year-old Lin Jian, sitting on his knees in the hut, seems to have suddenly realized a truth that no one had ever taught him before, in the bone-chilling wind of the night.

If the one offered in the hearth is one's next of kin, one is actually not afraid.

Even though he had been cremated into a single 抷 of ashes and was contained in a square wooden box.

The night wind is thorough, blowing the dim light in the yard to the fragmented, but also around the neighbors who heard the news to come over to "see the fun" whispering voice blowing to the ear.

Someone whispered, "This Da Lin life is bitter, just thirty six, this life year has not even passed, so lost ...... tsk, sinning it ......"

There are also people echoed: "Yes, I heard from the construction site pulled to the hospital when already swallowed, save can not save ...... should have been cremated on the same day, the result is hard in the morgue stopped for half a month, this morning only sent the crematorium ... ...hey ......"

When these words came out, an old aunt next to her who didn't understand what was going on couldn't help but ask, "Ouch! Why did you stop at that place for so long?"

The old aunt next to a sister-in-law stretched her cuffs, chin to is standing next to the hearth and a few relatives of the family to talk to the direction of the woman nu, quietly said: "It's not Da Lin his sister, said the person is in the construction site did not, what is considered to be a ...... Oh, work-related injuries, these days days to Da Lin that site run to the boss to find compensation, saying that the money is not given to the person will not be buried, and then delayed directly to Da Lin from the hospital to the site, this project they do not want to do ...... Da Lin that site to run, looking for the boss to compensation, said the money is not given to, the person will not be buried, and then delayed, directly Da Lin from the hospital to the site, the project they do not want to do ......."

"That's not a bad thing to say ...... ......"

"The rationale is such a rationale, but this compensation seems to go through the insurance, the insurance company that set of formalities down, which is ten or so days to give money ......"

"...... So how did this guy end up being cremated?"

Suddenly a mournful wailing sound came, interrupting the surrounding people's whispering, Lin Jian's neck and legs kneeling has been a little numb, he raised his head in hindsight, saw his great aunt led a few familiar but can't call the name of the relatives walked to the sacrificial table, relatives side by side on the table of the statue of the three bowed, their faces can't see the special sadness of the expression, on the other hand, it's the side of the great aunt, once again, "plop" to the table, fell down to the black and white photo of his father, and repeated the words that have been shouted many times today - to the black and white photo of his father. "Putong" a plop to the sacrificial table, to his father's black and white photo, and wailed and repeated the words that I do not know how many times I have shouted today ---

"Da Lin hey - my brother ah ...... third uncle they sent you here, you open your eyes to see hey - and then look at your son it ...... once you leave is light, leaving such a half-grown child to me, let me how to do ah - Da Lin hey ......"

It was only after Lin Jiangyue cried and howled that the surrounding neighbors, as if waking up from a dream, turned their attention to little Lin Jian in the hearth.

"Aiya ...... Da Lin so go, left this child can do ah ...... only seven or eight years old, the dog even smacks the age, mom gone dad no longer ... ...This is a sin!"

"Will the child not follow his great aunt in the future, who has been raising him for Da Lin for so many years?"

"You have to listen to the whole story, but don't say Lin Jian followed his aunt, these years Da Lin or Che will work hard to earn money, but not a single penny has been saved in his hands, it's all given to his sister, if not for Da Lin's monthly repayment, how could she be like that, how could she give her brother to raise a child for nothing... ..."

The wave of relatives who came to offer condolences were led to the backyard by "Caoer", the family hired a master chef to prepare a banquet with pots and pans and set the fire. Little Lin Jian was still kneeling on the grass mat, keeping the kneeling position for half a day, and his kneecaps were aching, so he loosened up his strength a little bit and reached out to rub himself.

Lin Jiangyue took advantage of the empty space in front of the hut to bend down into the hut, squatted down beside little Lin Jian, deliberately lowered his voice, and muttered to him: "Don't be a fool when you kneel down here, and you are also smart! I asked you to be a mascot next to your father's picture, didn't I? When someone comes, you should cry twice! It's either a relative or a neighbor. Maybe they'll give you a $200 bill for pity's sake! What, your dad's gone and you don't deserve a few tears? You think you've got gold beans in your eyes?"

Little Lin Jian slowly raised his head, a pair of black grape-like eyes dark and heavy, looking at Lin Jiangyue's eyes without ripples.

"Hey ...... look at me what to do, with you said remember did not ah! Tsk, don't look at me like this, this eye ...... looks like that your mom, looks like a heartless, in the heart may be how many calculations!"

When Lin Jian heard her say that, his lips moved but he didn't make a sound, he just misplaced his eyes.

Big Aunt looked at him for a few seconds, then gave a "tsk" of disgust, and went to the backyard besides the hearth, muttering as she went-

"This stupidity is with your father, for a do not know the old man blocked the disaster star, put their own lives are involved, such a big boy left me here ...... who pity me this family how to live in the future yo...... "

The people in the front yard to join in the fun also gradually dispersed, the surroundings quiet again, the back yard, some people open the relatives to sit down and open the table, but no one came to shout Lin Jian, he did not expect this time can be remembered to his own, in addition, he can not go.

Listen to the big aunt said, tonight he had to stay in the hut overnight, with his father did not go "soul", but also have to guard the incense burner incense can not be extinguished, looking at which one of the incense burned to the head will have to be immediately renewed, otherwise it is "broken incense", a major taboo.

With no one else around, Lin Jian slowly sat down on the straw mattress, stretched his numb legs out in front of him, and whacked himself little by little.

He knew what his great-aunt meant when she said that his father had "taken the fall."

Ten days ago, he was from the school aunt in a hurry to pick up out, directly to the county center hospital, from the town to the county is not close to the road, the aunt unprecedented taxi to take him to take a taxi to go, accompanied by an uncle in the same village, the way the two people keep talking, Lin Jian squeezed in the back against the door of the position, in their disorganized conversation, a heart falling in fear.

The accident occurred at Lin Jianghe's construction site, where the tower crane erection and dismantling personnel violated the rules, causing one end of the jacking beam to become unstable under load, and eventually the tower crane superstructure pier fell.

At the time of the accident, a provincial-level visiting group was observing the project at the site. Accident struck, the ground operation of the workers screamed and scattered, the tower crane arm broke, the huge steel beam slanting plunged to the ground at the moment of great importance, running Lin Jianghe suddenly will be around a person to push!

A huge boom shook the earth.

13 dead and 25 injured, belonging to a major safety accident, the accident scene is bloody and disorganized, while the people crushed under the beams can no longer be seen when they are lifted out from the scene.

In fact, in that situation, Lin Jianghe was in a position where the possibility of his survival was almost zero, but this generous, kind and silent young man, but in the last moment of his life, his rough hands burst out of the human nature hidden in the purest of the best.

Perhaps it was too late to think at all, just a reaction under instinct, but that push in the depths of desperation saved another man's life.

Little Lin Jian followed the adults, almost muddled into the hospital, surrounded by a crowd, a jumble of voices coming from all directions, gradually converging into a side of overwhelming waves of sound, in the sharp and persistent ringing in the ears and the smell of antiseptic water around the child of eight years old was forced to accept the fact that he had lost his father.

These days, the hysterical wailing, the hoarse cries and roars, intermittent but always lingering, and little Lin Jian was like a puppet with broken strings, pushed numbly from this person to that person, no one had taught him how to face such scenes, just as no one had taught him that when losing a close family member, if he was afraid, he could in fact cry out wilfully and heedlessly.

When the meal in the backyard was in progress, some people who had finished eating in advance were preparing to leave one after another, and when they passed by the hearth in the front yard, they would inevitably look at that skinny child one more time, and then they could only sigh heavily, shaking their heads, as if they were witnessing a sorrowful and joyful reunion, and then left after being helpless.

The eldest aunt's family of four sent their guests to the courtyard gate, and when they turned back, he heard his first cousin muttering that he was having a hard time with the strips of meat he had just eaten, and asked his aunt if there were any more antidieting tablets in the house.

Auntie returned without a word, "Ask your sister for it, don't ask me."

Cousin said it was in the drawer under the TV cabinet and told him to find it himself. Cousin walked toward the house, and Big Aunt suddenly remembered something as if she was yelling behind him, "There's change I put in the drawer, so take the medicine and don't move the money!"

"Got it!" He Zhou waved his hand impatiently, "It's only a few dozen dollars in total, who cares!"

"Finished stuff, not rare you take less?" The backyard has another guest out, the big aunt lowly scolded his son, replaced with a smiling face and greeted again.

Lin Jian kneeling for most of the day, under the hunger and cold, the surrounding people's conversation is not very clear, but in a trance, but heard a car engine sound from outside the yard, a brief mechanical roar stayed for a moment, and then turned off.

Shen Zhangqian's personal assistant pushed the door from the passenger side, walked to the back and opened the door, holding the roof of the car with his palm down, "Young master, we're here."

Sitting in the back row of the young man is only twenty years of age, the roof of the car interior lights fall clear light, outlined his between teenagers and young people's facial contours, nose high and straight, eyebrow bone deep, jaw line sharp and resolute, eye color is obviously very deep, but the eyes of that pair of eyes in the demeanor is more a touch of peace and composure, and therefore neutralized some of the whole person exudes the sharpness of the gas.

Shen Ke nodded, bowed and got out of the car, the incandescent light in front of the hearth flickering under his eyes as he looked up in the direction of the courtyard gate.