Yan Qing had an extremely long dream. So long that it seemed like he had lived someone else's life.
In the dream, his name was not Yan Qing, but Zhou Meng. He was a boy born in Haicheng. He had a disabled mother and a domestically violent father.
He grew up with his mother's tears and his father's violent temper. At a young age, he didn't learn anything else but to use his fists to grab what he wanted. It seemed to be a gene in his bones.
Until one time, when he came back from school, he saw his father beating his mute mother to the ground, who was crying hoarsely with an underdeveloped throat and curling up to avoid his father's iron fist.
At that moment, he realized that bullying with fists were so disgusting. He was 7 years old and had just entered the first grade of elementary school. That was the first time he rushed out and stood in front of his mother to protect her.
Since then, his mother has not been beaten as much as before, but there is no good skin on his body anymore. He is young, and even if he jumps up to resist, he is still no match for the strength of an adult.
Sometimes he is beaten really hard. If he couldn't bear it, he would drag his mother and run out, but not every time he could run successfully. Sometimes if he failed to escape, he would only be hit with heavier fists.
It's not like he hasn't thought about taking his mother away from here, but his mother just smiled at him and shook her head every time.
When he was a child, he didn't understand. He didn't understand why she stayed in this house where the devil lived when it was obviously so painful being beaten. She had hands and feet, she could at least support herself by picking up rags and rummaging through trash cans.
When he grew up, he understood. Unfortunately, when he had the strength to protect his mother, his mother was no longer there.
Alcoholism and domestic violence seem to be the standard features of every similar unfortunate family. Only when his father drinks too much and drinks to the point that he can't get up can the family seem to have a little peace.
Whenever this happen, he will drag himself to the top floor of their house with an injury, and then a child who lived in the shack on the top floor would come over and give him a candy.
The situation of the child's family is not much better than his, but the only good thing is that his parents still love him no matter how hard their life is. Even if they can't afford to rent a normal house and can only live in a shack on the top floor. At least they were willing to buy candy for their child.
It's not that he has never eaten sweets. When he was in kindergarten, he used his big fists to steal many cookies and candies from other children. Sometimes those children would take the initiative to hand over their own snacks.
But those foods, the taste was not retained in his memory. Instead, it was the taste of the inferior hard candy, that seemed it could dilute the pain on his body every time, he remembered very vividly.
The days passed day after day in such a muddle. When he was 14 years old, his mother was hit by a truck on her way to do her handiwork. After the hit, the driver ran away, delaying her. There was no time for treatment, and when she was discovered, she was already cold.
Later, the driver was caught. Although the driver's family was in ordinary condition, he bought car insurance and sold some of his belongings, including the truck. The insurance company paid 420,000 yuan, and from the truck driver himself the compensation was 140,000 yuan, a total of 560,000 yuan. One life was only worth that much.
The money came into the account all at once. His father had earned more than half a million yuan from losing his wife. If he hadn't been poor back then, how could he have married a mute woman with a slight limp in one leg?
This woman made him tired. He had worked hard all his life, and when she died she had earned some money, but it was not that he had made a fortune. However, even before the money came in, he started eating and drinking with his friends all day long.
At that time, he watched with cold eyes as his father was as happy as if he had just gotten lottery.
On the day when the money hit his father's account, when his father was drunk, he picked up a hammer and broke his leg.
There was no way to withdraw so much money at once without an appointment at the bank, but fortunately his father has a card, not a passbook, and he knew the password. In one day, he went to countless counters and took out all the money in the card until there was nothing left.
He carried a bag of money, leaving behind the man with a broken leg. He left for the first time from that small seaside city.
But big cities are not easy to live in, especially since he didn't even get a diploma from junior high school. If he hadn't been tall and strong, with a height of 1.7 meters at the age of fourteen, he might not even be able to get into the construction site.
The 500,000 yuan may seem a bug sum, but it was actually not much at all. At first, he just wanted to take away the money, which was the money that bought his mother's life. Even if he threw it all away, he would not give it to that man to used it to live and drink.
But when he came to the big city and looked at the prosperity in front of him, he suddenly felt an inexplicable ambition in his heart. However, he didn't study much, and his vision was just that much. The eagerness in his heart could not found an outlet.
Until he met the child who lived on the top floor again in this strange city. He was 16 years old that year, and the child was only 10 years old. He had a small-town accent and was bullied in a primary school in a big city.
After that, he finally found someone he could talk to in this strange city.
It is said that after he left, his father called the police, but their place was small to begin with, and no one knew anyone else's family affairs. If calling the police was useful, his mother wouldn't have been beaten so badly back then.
When the police came, they just asked for routine questions and then left. His father had no money, not even for leg treatment. Fortunately, he still had a lot of food at home, so he wouldn't starve.
The child said: "Uncle Zhou was miserable. He found a board to tie his legs. All the friends he had eaten and drank with before were gone. He couldn't even find anyone to borrow money from.
"I don't know where he got the money later, then he went gambling. After losing all his money, he tried to default on the bill, but was beaten and the leg will never recover.
"When he meets anyone he would scold you, calling you a little beast, the thief who stole his money, but no one paid attention to him. Those people would said behind his back that he deserved it. He deserved to die at home with no one to care for him."
The child said and looked up at him: "So you won't go back and give him money for him taking care of himself?"
He smiled and said, "It's good if I can support myself. Who can take care of him?"
Because he had an older brother outside of school to support him, the child's life in school was much better, and he didn't have to worry about getting bullied anymore.
It is said that the child's father took on some project and finally got rich, so he moved to a big city just to let his child go to a better school. A rustic child began to learn to dress up from the city people, he no longer eat the low-quality hard candies in the past, but instead buy imported chocolates.
But he knew that although the child's parents had some money, all the money was spent on the child's tuition, his food, clothing, housing and transportation. In order not to be looked down upon, they had to buy good clothes for the child even if they lived frugally.
Later, when the child entered junior high school, he also began to work with others on construction site projects, from a child laborer who did not even dare to show his ID card, moving bricks, to a contractor.
However, an accident occurred and a person died on their construction site. All the money from his mother's life was lost, and the project naturally failed.
Once again having nothing, he sat on the rough building, looking at the bright lights in the distance, and for a time he couldn't find the meaning of living.
The child found out about him and brought him a bowl of rice from home every day. He said he wanted to thank him for taking care of him all these years. That he, a country boy, had not been bullied much when he came to this big city.
Those days were very difficult. He was penniless, sleeping in an empty rough-and-tumble building at night, and surviving on the bowl of food the child gave him all day long.
Until one day, the child brought food and told him that he might never come again because his father's career had been robbed. If things got worse, they might have to go back to that small sea city.
But the child didn't want to leave, and asked him with a confused and puzzled face: "Why is there no place for us in such a big city?"
He couldn't answer this question, so he could only eat in silence.
He listened to the child saying that his relatives had looked down on his family a long time ago. Later, when his family became prosperous, all those relatives got involved one by one, fawning over him, and smiling as brightly as possible.
When his father's career was cut off and was likely to lose everything, his relatives who had come to visit with a smile just a few days ago suddenly turned against them.
The child said that one day he would get back at all the people who looked down on his family. At that time, he would wear gold and silver, live well and enjoy life, and trample back one by one those who wanted to trample them into the mud!
He also said to him: "You have to work hard. Your father has died in that small sea city. You can't do worse than him. Let's work hard together. Look at the lights in the distance. Sooner or later, one of them will we have it!"
After that day, the child did not come again, and he no longer messed around. Through the introduction of a previous acquaintance, he changed to a construction site again. As long as he was willing to work hard, the wages at the construction site were actually pretty good.
Although in the eyes of outsiders, the wages at the construction site may not be as decent as those white-collar workers who live in office buildings, but their wages may not be lower than those of white-collar workers.
Sometimes after getting a salary, he would change into a set of clean clothes and wait at the gate of his child's school.
He is very aware of the prejudices of these city people. In order to prevent the child from being looked down upon in school and feeling embarrassed to have a friend who moves bricks at a construction site, he pays special attention every time.
The child's parents still work hard to stay in this city, although life is harder than before. After all, the tuition fees from high school to college are not cheap. They have to work hard to save money, so they can give their child a better material life.
Anyway, he was alone and had no money to spend on food and drink at the construction site every day, so as a thank you for the meals before, every month he would take the child to have a good meal.
When he saw the other person eating happily, he suddenly felt that he found a direction for living in this city.
He didn't dare to spend the money he earned arbitrarily. He always remembered that the child wanted to light up a lamp in this city. Even though what he had now was far away from this goal, it didn't matter. He was still young. There is still time.
But slowly he found that he was getting farther and farther away from the child. The child had more outstanding friends. The topics they talked about and the places they went were all things he didn't understand.
Even that time when he was in the child's home. Downstairs, he saw a luxury car whose brand he couldn't even name carrying the child back.
That night the child said to him: "Don't come to me again. You can't give me what I want. I don't need to hug each other for warmth. What I want is good clothes and good food."
He watched the child go upstairs, and he endured the pain and kept shouting: "Yan Yan..."
Unfortunately, the person he shouted didn't stop or look back.
After that, he worked day and night, and once again invested all his savings in co-contracting projects with others. This time it went smoothly. After two years of hard work, he earned his first million in life.
He believed that this was a great opportunity. A good start. With the first one, there will definitely be a second one. He can also afford the good food and clothing.
But fate is so unpredictable. A fruit knife brought his life to zero. He looked at the streetlight downstairs of the child's house where he had waited countless times for the last time.
The moment he closed his eyes, what he was thinking about was not who he had blocked or who had killed him, but the one who he had not given the money he finally earned.
He really wanted to tell Yan Yan that he didn't have to go against his will to stay with those he didn't like. He just had to be happy every day, and he would work hard for the food and clothing he want.