The door of the courtyard house has been welded dead

late at night.

Unlike previous years, it seemed that no one in Beijing set off firecrackers on New Year's Eve this year.

To be precise, there was no large-scale explosion, but you could still hear some scattered firecrackers occasionally, like children setting off small firecrackers.

Banggeng was not sleeping. He was lying quietly on the glass window, staring out of the window with his dark eyes. The white snow reflected the moonlight, which was even brighter than inside the house.

The hot air from his mouth condensed into misty drops on the glass window. He understood the meaning of New Year's Eve better than the children in the orphanage, and more deeply.

We set off firecrackers on New Year’s Eve and had fun running around the yard with my two younger sisters.

The whole family gathers around the table and eats hot dumplings freshly taken from the pot.

You have to kowtow to your elders and then get lucky money. Most of it is taken by your mother, but you still have a few cents to a dime left to buy candy at the supply and marketing cooperative.

You can wear new clothes and new shoes, visit every household to pay New Year’s greetings, and if you are sweet-mouthed, you can get red envelopes.

It means staying up all night to celebrate the New Year, which means that in the eyes of adults, you are one year older. This year, you are twelve years old.

However, today, New Year's Eve, it seems like everything is gone.

In the dark room, the child, who didn't quite know what to do on New Year's Eve, still slept obediently under the quilt. No one was like him.

He crawled back into the bed, but there was no heat inside. Banggeng still couldn't sleep. The quilt was a little damp, which was not warm enough for him and was difficult to keep warm. It also didn't smell as good as the quilt at home.

When I think of home, I think of the courtyard house where I grew up and the new home behind it.

Zero hour one minute.

"Crack, crackle, crackle~!"

Banggeng, who was daydreaming, heard the sound of firecrackers almost simultaneously set off outside. He immediately stood up, sat up from the kang, and looked outside in a daze.

Outside the window, the flames of firecrackers exploding kept flashing, and the sound came from afar. Even through the window, Bang Geng seemed to smell the unique smell in the air when firecrackers were set off.

“Wow! Wow!”

"Woo~, woo, mommy, I want mommy~!"

"Dad, where are you~!"

There are children of all ages in the orphanage, including babies. When the firecrackers outside sounded, the frightened children inside the house could only cry.

Suddenly, footsteps were heard upstairs, and the sisters and aunts on duty ran down from the dormitory upstairs in an anxious manner.

"Didn't you say that you want to show your determination and break the old and establish the new, and not set off any firecrackers this year? Why are you still setting them off~?"

"If they don't, then it's still the New Year. The rules are fixed, but people are alive. It's already twelve o'clock in the evening, who will come out to take care of it~!"

The staff hurriedly opened classrooms one by one and began to comfort the children who were frightened by the sound of firecrackers, mainly those who were crying and fighting.

"Oh, those are the ones in our alley. They said they wouldn't let us set off fireworks, but we bought them anyway. I guess they hid them at home. When I came out after lunch this afternoon, I saw them tying up poles, planning to put them back through the windows after they were done~!"

The teachers were comforting the children while eating. Compared to these homeless children, those who had to change shifts and could not return home were more heartbroken.

"Jia Geng, lie down and go to sleep. Don't run out all day and never see anyone. After you turn fourteen, you can do whatever you want~!"

The sound of the baby's crying gradually subsided as the firecrackers ended. The teachers patrolled the rooms one by one and saw Banggeng still sitting there. They greeted him and left when there was nothing else.

The orphanage has always been short of manpower, and today is Chinese New Year, so there are not many people on duty. The energy that can be invested in half-grown children cannot be as much as that in infants and toddlers.

"Teacher, do we have dumplings to eat?"

The teacher was about to raise his hand to close the door, but when he heard Jia Geng's question, his arm paused and he closed the door silently.

Dumplings require meat and fine grains. If conditions do not allow, it is not easy to have three meals a day.

Well, it's useless to ask. He crawled back into bed and covered himself with the quilt. Bang Geng didn't have much hope to begin with, so he decided to just forget it. At worst, he could just go out and spend money on food.

There is not much left of the seventy-plus yuan I stole from Sha Zhu, but I still have enough money to buy a plate of dumplings. But what should I do after spending the money?

"Jia Geng, I want to eat dumplings too~!"

"We haven't eaten here for a long time. Was it the year before last or the year before last? I can't remember exactly~!"

Several children of similar age were no longer sleepy at this time. They opened their eyes, turned over, and lay on the kang, whispering to each other.

"You can't eat it. You don't have money to eat dumplings. You know the ones with pork and cabbage filling? When you take a bite, your mouth is full of juice~!"

“Gudong~, gudong~!”

"Guluulu~!"

The sound of swallowing saliva, accompanied by the empty sound after the stomach has digested the food, and a dumpling stuffed with pork and cabbage, made half of the children in the classroom unable to sleep.

"Little spy, you're also stuffing cabbage and pork. Look how capable you are. Where does your pork come from?"

"That must have been sent by a big spy. The big spy is his mother, so his mother was shot and sent to us~!"

In the middle of the kang, two half-grown children sang in unison and pushed the sticks directly into the corner. Anyone could hear the mocking sounds.

"What did you say, Shitou, Erdan, are you two looking for a beating~!"

Before, Banggeng might have been shrinking, but recently he boasted that he had gathered a few people to form a small group by offering cheap food, and Banggeng felt that he was doing well again.

"I really don't believe it. Come on, come to Grandpa Tiger and see who is the coward, who is the grandson, and who is showing off~!"

"Oh, you've finally caught up with the new country. To be fair, otherwise you, a little spy, would have been shot down a long time ago. A little spy raised by a big spy, huh~!"

"And you guys, don't think you can mess around with him just because I brought you some food. His parents are spies, so you'd better draw a clear line between you and him. Didn't you see that the teacher doesn't like him~!"

Shit! Two older boys climbed up from the kang in the middle with fierce looks on their faces. Fighting, even better. This kid refuses to admit defeat and likes to stir up trouble. He can’t see his place clearly. It would be good to teach him a lesson.

Others may not care so much, but for a small spy, if he wants to stand out here and form cliques, that is impossible. This is a contradiction between the enemy and us.

On the left he calls me a small spy, and on the right he calls me a big spy.

For some reason, Banggeng thought of the scene where his mother was shot right under his nose.

He was so angry that his whole body was shaking, his eyes turned red, and he jumped up from the bed, his momentum was no less than that of the other two.

"Get up~!"

Their momentum was not weak, but they were obviously outnumbered, and the opponent was half a head taller than him. Bang Geng, who had suffered losses at the hands of the two before, kicked his companion who had been feeding him.

However, at this time, those accomplices became dumb one by one, buried their heads in the quilts, and even though Banggeng kicked them twice, there was no movement at all.

I don’t know whether he was persuaded by the two kids or because he didn’t want to be disliked by the teacher.

"I'll fight you~!"

After all, he was all alone, and seeing that he couldn't escape, Bang Geng gave it his all, and rushed forward even though he knew he couldn't win.

In the chaos, pillows, quilts, and taken-off cotton jackets all became weapons.

Then, a lot of tickets flew out from nowhere.

“My money…!”

A shrill roar. (End of this chapter)