Rainy season.
The rainstorm came without warning. The sky, which had just been sprinkled with sunshine, was instantly shrouded by dark clouds. The heavy rain poured down. The slum residents who wanted to come out to exercise immediately hid in their houses in fear of being splashed by the rain.
The rain accumulated in the streets and quickly spread in the slums. Some of the low-lying houses were submerged in the rain. The drainage system that hadn't been repaired was useless at this moment. In a moment, the entire slums of the outer wall had become a vast ocean.
Meishan Orphanage.
At the entrance of the residential house, a woman who looked to be in her thirties was leading a dozen children, ranging from seven to twelve years old. They were hurriedly carrying sandbags that had been made long ago and piling them on the doorsill to block the surging rainwater.
"Dean, come and help!"
"It's useless to call him. He is a fool."
"It's really annoying!"
The boys were sweating from carrying the sandbags. When they saw a little boy standing quietly in front of the window not far away, they were a little angry, but they knew it was useless to say anything. They could only grit their teeth and continue to place the sandbags in their hands at the door.
The little boy in front of the window looked to be about seven or eight years old. He was thin and weak, but his height was similar to that of other children of eleven or twelve years old. The most eye-catching thing about him was his extremely fair skin, even a little sickly pale. Compared with other people's dark and dirty skin that had been exposed to strong light and ultraviolet rays, he was out of place. This made many children envious.
But Dean was sighing in his heart. This was the sequela caused by the freezing chamber. Although he had left the freezing chamber for more than three months, but his body had not recovered. His whole body was weak. In modern medicine, it was called myasthenia gravis.
It was very tiring to just stand there.
Not to mention carrying sandbags to block the rain.
However, such a situation was a blessing in misfortune. After all, when the disaster spread to Huaxia, the research institute had just made the first freezer and had not had time to enter the experimental stage. No one knew if there would be any kind of failure. It was already a small miracle that he could sleep in the freezer for three hundred years unscathed.
But he did not feel happy.
He did survive, but his parents and sister, who made the freezer, stayed behind. Facing that terrible disaster, even if they were very, very lucky to survive, now that three hundred years have passed, they have long been buried in the dust.
In this vast world, he no longer had any relatives. From now on, he would face the world alone.
He didn't despair. Although he was sad and sad, his parents had given him two lives. He would never allow himself to be dispirited. Not only did he want to live well, he wanted to live a life that he could be proud of. He also wanted his deceased parents and sister to be proud of him!
Fortunately, God still protected the human race in the end. When he crawled out of the freezer, he thought that he was the only one left on Earth. It was not until he walked out of the garbage dump where the freezer was buried that he found that the human race was not extinct. It seemed that a few people had survived the disaster, and after three hundred years of reproduction and development, they had reached a good scale.
Unfortunately, the civilization and technology of three hundred years ago had been completely destroyed by the disaster. During this time, he didn't see or hear anything that symbolized the technology of the old era. Humans not only lost the power to conquer the planet, but even the basic life was extremely difficult.
While he was lost in his thoughts, the storm outside the window gradually stopped.
Seeing that the water level in front of the threshold had stopped rising, everyone in the room was relieved. It was as if they had experienced a long battle. Everyone had a feeling of exhaustion. At this time, the middle-aged woman looked at the sky. She saw that the dark clouds had gradually dissipated, revealing a cloudy sky. Knowing that it would not rain for a while, she immediately said: "Get ready to go to the cafeteria to eat. Put on your wax straw shoes."
All the children's eyes lit up when they heard the word 'eat'. Their previous exhaustion was swept away. They went back to their rooms, put on their wax straw shoes, and obediently lined up.
"Dean, put on your shoes and get ready to eat." At this time, a voice called out to Dean from the back of the line. It was a seven or eight-year-old boy. As soon as he finished speaking, he seemed to remember something. He patted his head and stepped forward to pat Dean's shoulder. He gestured with one hand and pointed to the direction of the cafeteria. The other sleeve was empty.
Dean remembered him. His name was Barton. He was one of the few children in the orphanage who was kind to him. This was probably related to him. Three hundred years had changed, and the language had been changed. When he first came to the orphanage, he neither understood what others said nor could speak their language. He could only be silent. Over time, everyone thought that he was a bit silly, and maybe there was a problem with his IQ.
So naturally, he was classified as a deformed child like Barton.
The children in the orphanage were divided into two factions. One was the able-bodied ones who were abandoned by their parents, and the other was the deformed ones who were abandoned by their parents. In this world, even children have long learned to survive together.
Dean nodded, indicating that he understood, and then followed Barton to the back of the line. Barton was about to ask Dean to change into the wax shoes, but inadvertently looked down and found that under Dean's trousers, he was already wearing a pair of light green high-heeled shoes. He could not help but be dumbfounded.
In this world, plastic had not been invented yet. Shoes made of wax grass had become the most commonly used rain gear. This was a kind of natural mutant grass. It could be seen everywhere. Its leaves were large, and the waxy layer on its surface could effectively block the radiation rain. It had become an essential item for every household.
Everyone carefully walked along the narrow stone path in front of the threshold. The accumulated rain only reached their ankles. If they accidentally fell into the water, even the strongest adult would inevitably get seriously ill.
When they arrived at the cafeteria, everyone immediately began to grab the seats. The limited seats were immediately swept away by the able-bodied children in the front. Dean, Barton, and other deformed children had long been used to it. They came to the back corner, where there were several piles of stones. This was their dining table.
"Have you heard? Among the adopters, there are doctors and wall builders."
"Auntie Dai said that we should seize this opportunity and perform well."
"If I can be adopted by the doctor, I will be very happy."
"I hope to be adopted by the wall builders. Maybe there is hope to climb the giant wall of Sylvia and see the world outside the giant wall."
The food had not been delivered yet. Barton and several other children whispered to each other. These children were either missing an ear or half of their face was covered with small lumps of flesh. None of them looked normal.
When Dean heard their words, his eyes flashed, but he did not say anything.
"Unfortunately, Dean's brain is not good. Otherwise, with Dean's appearance and body, he will definitely be selected by those people." After chatting for a while, Barton suddenly sighed, looked at Dean, and said with some regret.
The other children looked at Dean, who did not respond, and shook their heads and sighed.
They had already discussed that no matter who was adopted, they should do their best to come back to help the rest of the people. Based on appearance alone, Dean was undoubtedly the most promising to be adopted. But brain problems were more serious than physical problems. For example, the child with half of his face was covered with lumps of flesh. Although it looked scary, his hands and feet were sound, and his IQ was normal. At least he could do hard work and find a job.
"Well, a group of broken things, but they want to compete with us for the opportunity to adopt." At this time, a thin child in a nearby seat heard the words of Barton and others, and said coldly and contemptuously.
His words immediately attracted the attention of other people. For a time, disdainful eyes fell on Dean, Barton, and others.
Compared to deformed children, these healthy but abandoned people had a heavier hostility in their hearts.
Dean faintly looked at these people and did not say anything. Although he was also a child, he had seen a lot of things, and his heart had a depth that many adults did not have.
In the eyes of these people, his current appearance was that of a "fool".
"Look at this fool, he doesn't even understand the scolding."
"A guy with a broken head, no wonder he was abandoned!"
"Still want to be adopted? Obediently wait for the age of 13 to be thrown into the mine to mine! "
These children did not hide their disdain and disgust, and they took pleasure in it.
At this time, the food was delivered, and the middle-aged woman who brought them here said softly, "Quiet, don't you want to eat?"
Hearing this, these children restrained their arrogance, and their faces were innocent, as if nothing had happened just now.
…
The next day.
The silver-gray clouds gradually stretched out, and the sun shone on the slums.
In the rainy season, this was a rare sunny day.
It happened to be a long-awaited big day for the children of the Meishan Orphanage — adoption day!
All the families who had made appointments in advance came to the orphanage on this day to choose the children they were satisfied with.
Early in the morning, Dean got up on time. Although there was no alarm clock in this world, his biological clock had never gone wrong. After getting up, he tidied up the bedding and washed his face with simple filtered well water. He picked up another set of white coarse clothes next to the pillow. When he was about to change into it, he suddenly felt a soft ball inside. He touched it and saw that it was a purple handkerchief that had been rolled into a ball.
Dean was startled, and could not help but think of the little girl who led him to the orphanage in the cold night. Unfortunately, the sky was dark, and he could not see her appearance. In the past three months in the orphanage, he naturally knew that the people who could afford this exquisite cloth were absolutely the upper class of the outer wall.
The handkerchief still had traces of black stains on his face, and could not be washed clean.
After a moment of silence, Dean put the handkerchief into his arms, put on his clothes, and rushed to the open space outside the orphanage.
Although he only had one parent in his heart, he had to let himself be adopted as soon as possible. If a child was not adopted by the age of 13, the orphanage would give up raising him, and send him to the mines controlled by the Meishan Coal Chamber of Commerce behind the orphanage. He would become a permanent free labor until he died of exhaustion or old age, and would never have a chance to see the light of day again.
Like Dean, on this day, all the children in the orphanage were dressed up. They washed themselves clean, and put on clothes that they were reluctant to wear for a long time. These clothes were coarse clothes that were distributed when they first entered the orphanage.
If your body emitted a bad smell, no one would want to be close to you.
This was what Aunt Dai warned them.
Looking around, in front of the sand soaked by the rain, stood a large group of children, but faintly divided into two camps, healthy and deformed.
After all the children stood in place, the adults who came to adopt, led by Aunt Dai and other caretakers of the orphanage, came to the front of the children, and looked at the group of orphans who might become their children.
"Hello, uncle, aunt."
Under the guidance of Aunt Dai, except for Dean and a few other deformed people who could not speak, all the other children were obediently shouting. Their black eyes were full of innocence, and their faces were full of longing and hope as they looked at the adults. Their fiery gazes made some of the adults sigh and feel sorry for them.
Soon, Dean, who was thin but tall in the crowd, became the target of all the adults' attention. His pale as snow skin was too eye-catching, and his temperament was completely different from the children around him. The adults could not tell what was different, but they only felt that this child was very calm, with a kind of noble air. Yes, noble air.
This surprised many adults. They did not expect that there would be such an excellent seedling in the orphanage of the slums.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
