The sky curtain makes you a useless class monitor, yet you act arbitrarily for eternity?

"Grandma, it's Xiao Cong! Not a bear!"

Xiao Yancong immediately retorted.

"Haha, Little Bear sounds better!"

Grandma smiled and patted his head.

"Alright, Grandma has to go now. It's sunny outside, Little Bear, go back inside and enjoy the fan!"

"No, Grandma!"

"I don't want to go back!"

Xiao Yancong shook his head.

The grievances I had been holding back just couldn't be contained anymore when I saw my grandma.

"There's no one home. I tried to play with these two candies with other kids, but they wouldn't play with me!"

As he spoke, tears welled up in his eyes.

"They even called me a jinx, saying I killed my parents..."

Grandma's smile froze for a moment.

She quickly squatted down.

With calloused hands, he gently wiped away the tears from Xiao Yancong's face.

"Don't cry, little bear."

"You're not a bad luck charm!"

"Your parents went to heaven to protect our country, not because of Little Bear."

Xiao Yancong sobbed.

"Then why don't they play with me?"

Grandma's eyes darkened slightly.

She looked down at her dusty cuffs, then at the tricycle behind her loaded with cardboard.

After a long while, she managed to force a smile.

"Because they despise us for not being human..."

"Human-like?"

"What does 'human-like' mean?"

Xiao Yancong didn't understand.

Grandma hugged him.

She turned her face away so that Xiao Yancong wouldn't see the tears in her eyes.

"Being a decent person means standing out from the crowd, it means many people envy us!"

"Then I must make something of myself in the future!"

Xiao Yancong seemed to understand, but not quite.

But he understood "to stand out from the crowd".

He immediately raised his head, waved his little hand, and solemnly swore an oath.

Grandma paused for a moment.

Then she nodded with a smile.

"well!"

She wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes and took a deep breath.

He placed his hands on Xiao Yancong's shoulders.

"Little Bear, promise Grandma you'll go home now and wait for me obediently, okay?"

"No...no good!"

Xiao Yan pouted, her voice full of grievance.

"Grandma always comes home very late, after it's already dark, and I'm scared."

Grandma's eyes reddened again.

She opened her mouth, wanting to say that her grandmother also wanted to go back soon.

I was thinking that we were almost out of rice at home.

The thought is that if this truckload of cardboard doesn't sell today, we won't be able to afford meat tomorrow.

But she didn't say a single word of those words.

suddenly.

Xiao Yancong held up two candies in front of her.

"grandmother!"

"I'll give you two candies, will you play with me for one day? Just one day!"

His face was full of expectation, and his eyes shone so brightly it was heartbreaking.

Grandma stared at the two candies for several seconds, stunned.

Finally, she smiled and nodded emphatically.

"good!"

Grandma spent the whole day playing with the teddy bear!

"Yay!!!"

Xiao Yancong jumped up immediately.

He kept circling the tricycle, overjoyed.

Grandma carefully put the candy into her pocket, then turned and walked to the car.

She turned the car around and smiled at Xiao Yancong:

"Little Bear, would you like a ride?"

"I want!"

Xiao Yancong excitedly raised his hands.

Grandma smiled and lifted him onto the tricycle seat.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!"

"Rush, rush, rush—"

"Okay~"

The setting sun casts its light on the old alleyway.

An old man and a young boy, a tricycle loaded with cardboard, slowly drove away into the distance.

The wheels creaked and groaned.

Xiao Yancong sat in front, gripping the handlebars with both hands, and making his own voiceover.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!"

"Grandma, faster!"

"If you go any faster, Grandma's old bones will fall apart!"

"Then I'll push Grandma when I grow up!"

"Okay, Grandma will wait."

On the high platform of Wuzhong in Jinling.

Yan Cong lowered his eyes, as if looking at the sky, or as if he wasn't looking at anything at all.

Su Xiaoxiao asked in a low voice, "What happened to those two candies?"

Yan Cong remained silent for two seconds.

Then, he twitched the corner of his mouth.

"Who knows?"

"Maybe that old lady hid it."

He spoke casually.

But Su Xiaoxiao noticed that his Adam's apple bobbed slightly.

Available in the next second.

The colors in the sky have changed.

The sun sets.

When it lit up again, the style of the scene changed abruptly.

The dim yellow light bulbs flickered.

The exhaust fan whirred and spun erratically.

The smells of blood, grease, and disinfectant mingled together, seemingly able to penetrate one's nostrils even through the sky.

That was a workshop for processing monster meat.

The workbenches are lined up one after another.

The dismantled monster skeletons were piled in an iron basin, and the blades scraped against the bones, making a piercing sound.

In front of the camera.

Young Yan Cong stood by the desk.

He has grown quite a bit taller, but there is still a hint of childishness on his face.

But those hands were already calloused.

He held the boning knife, and with a swift cut along the bone, strips of bloody meat were cleanly peeled off.

Sweat dripped down his forehead and into his eyes.

He just blinked and continued cutting the meat.

A burly young man was leisurely fishing nearby.

He leaned closer with a wicked grin as he trimmed the meat.

"Hey Yan Cong, we have a three-day holiday tomorrow! How about we go back to our hometown for a visit?"

"I'm not replying!"

Yan Cong didn't even look up.

"Also, hurry up with your work, or we'll have to work overtime again!"

The burly young man rolled his eyes.

"Hey, we're just doing summer jobs, do you think the boss will give us a raise if we work that hard?!"

Yan Cong didn't reply, and the boning knife continued to move downwards.

With a flick of his wrist, he completely pulled out the entire tendon.

The burly young man's lips twitched as he watched.

"You've really turned your summer job into a family heirloom."

Yan Cong ignored him and continued picking at the meat.

Seeing that he wasn't taking the bait, the burly young man rolled his eyes and continued to grin mischievously.

"I met a spirited young woman from my hometown on a slow-paced social media platform!"

"I'm going back this time to see her. I heard she has a few really nice girlfriends!"

Are you sure you don't want to reply?

Yan Cong paused for a moment.

Just once.

The next moment, the boning knife fell again.

"I'm not replying!"

The burly young man clicked his tongue.

He slammed the knife onto the cutting board.

"Sigh, we've been working summer jobs for over a month now, haven't we?"

"Even if you don't want a girl, aren't you worried about your grandma?"

These words were spoken.

Yan Cong stopped moving.

The cold wind was still blowing in the workshop, and blood was flowing down the groove of the cutting board.

He lowered his head, his fingers tightening their grip on the knife handle.

The image of that little old woman sitting at the entrance of the courtyard came to mind.

A palm-leaf fan.

A low stool.

Every time he came home, she would stand up and call out to him with joy.

"Little Bear is back."

Yan Cong tightened his grip on the knife little by little.

He wanted to say he wasn't worried.

I want to say that making money is the most important thing.

I thought the train ticket back was too expensive, and half of it would be spent on the three-day trip back and forth.

But those words swirled in his throat, and he couldn't utter a single one.

He looked down at the monster bones on the table.

After a long while, he gritted his teeth.

"Book me a train ticket, I'll transfer the money to you later!"

The burly young man burst into laughter on the spot.

"Okay, all done!"