Beast Tamer, Wither Skeleton's Storm Journey

All the neighbors knew that Mrs. Li had adopted another abandoned baby, and they were no longer surprised.

Even in the current situation, even if one lives in the lowest level of society, there are still people who have good intentions.

It's like even in a peaceful era, there are still people who harbor malice towards the world. It's simple, outrageous, but normal.

This is the number of children she has adopted?

I heard that Mrs. Li was an abandoned baby who was adopted by someone else. She grew up in a difficult situation and lived in the slums in the downtown area for most of her life. She never went to school.

When you are young, you work for others and barely make a living. When you get old and can no longer work, no one wants you.

He used half his life savings to buy a small shabby house on the edge of the city wall and made a living by collecting garbage.

Why can I buy a house? Because although the place is close to the city wall, the possibility of expansion is basically zero. Above it is the southern animal and plant ecological park of the extended upper city. It is impossible to reduce the upper city in order to expand the lower city.

I heard from people around me that before Mingli, Mrs. Li adopted several children, but without exception, they all died.

Some died of disease, some died tragically in the aftermath of gang warfare, some died when strange beasts sneaked into the city walls, or some abandoned babies were born with deformities and did not live long.

In short, everyone around Old Lady Li respected her very much. Although they thought that what she did was just cutting meat to feed the eagle, even the darkest people in their hearts admired Old Lady Li from the bottom of their hearts.

Mingli grew up in this environment until she was four years old. As far as she can remember, she was very well behaved, not like a child.

"Ming Li, don't run too fast!" Old Mrs. Li looked at Ming Li who was picking up bottles in front of her, bent down, quickened her pace, and tried to catch up with her.

"Grandma, I picked up another bottle!" Mingli heard his grandma's call, stood up from the ground, raised his hands, and shook the bottle in his hand.

Hu~hu~

Old Mrs. Li panted, took the bottle from Mingli's little hand, and smiled happily. The wrinkles on her face mixed with dust looked like blooming flowers.

"Let's not pick it up today. Let's go back."

Ming Li was stunned when he turned around and was about to move forward, pointing at a tall building in the upper city in the distance.

"But, Grandma, the sun hasn't reached that building yet."

Old Mrs. Li looked at the sun hanging above her head, wiped the sweat from her face, and shook her head.

"No more picking up, go back."

"Yeah," Mingli nodded, without saying much, but ran behind Grandma Li's bag and started helping push the bag.

It was almost evening when she returned to the dilapidated garbage station. Old Mrs. Li threw down the sack, went back to the broken bed, took off her coat, and just lay there.

"Grandma...I'm hungry."

Grandma Li looked at Mingli, who was standing on the ground and looking at her with his golden eyes wide open. She sat up, put on her slippers, and walked towards a cupboard.

"There's still some porridge left. Drink it."

Old lady Li took out half a bowl of porridge and handed it to Mingli. Mingli took it with both hands, held the ceramic bowl and drank it. She looked at her grandmother beside her.

"Grandma, don't you want to eat?"

"You eat, grandma is not hungry."

Mingli finished eating very quickly. Children want to sleep after eating. Mingli was no exception. After she finished eating, she ran to the bed and fell asleep.

The sky gradually darkened, but Old Lady Li couldn't sleep. She knew she couldn't work any more, no matter what she did, she was about to burn out.

But she couldn't let go of the child beside her. She was the only child she raised. She was very healthy and beautiful. She was a beauty even when she was young.

Just like her adoptive father, she can't let go of Mingli.

The dim old eyes looked at the dark night outside the window. There was no light in the broken house. There were no dark clouds today, and the bright moonlight shone from the sky.

Old Mrs. Li knew she couldn't wait any longer, so she put on her shoes, walked out quietly, and walked along the dark path to a local gang.

"Hey! Who's that in front? What are you doing here so late at night? Hey, old lady Li, what are you doing here at night?"

A gangster who was guarding the door saw a figure approaching in the middle of the night and shouted loudly. After seeing the figure's face clearly, he stopped shouting.

Everyone around knew this old lady Li. She was a well-known kind person and she often came to their place to pick up garbage. They were all quite familiar with her.

"I'm looking for your head"

Old lady Li's voice was hoarse. She looked at the gangster and said

"Okay," the gangster nodded, opened the door, and let Old Lady Li in.

......

"Old lady Li, why are you here so late at night? It's not garbage collection time yet."

The gangster leader was smoking a cigarette, wearing pajamas, with lipstick still on his face. He was wearing a coat and came over and sat down on the sofa. He looked at the old lady Li standing beside him and asked

"I'm dying"

Old lady Li spoke, and there was silence in the air for a long time.

“You are ninety-nine this year, right?”

"Well, ninety-nine."

"Can doing good things really help you live longer? You are the longest lived person in the entire slum, right?" The gangster boss finished smoking and blew out a smoke ring, "Then why did you come to me this time..."

"I want to sell my house," said Old Lady Li. "Mingli, I want to send her to an orphanage in the central city. I heard you have a channel."

The gangster was silent for a while, lowering his head. I don't know what he was thinking. Then he tapped the ash and blew out a smoke ring.

"I have watched Mingli grow up, so I can help him."

"Your house is 2000 square meters, of which only square meters are habitable, and the yard is more than square meters. I will give you federal coins per square meter."

The gangster put the cigarette butt into the ashtray and said

"About 128,000 yuan. I'll take 100,000 yuan, and another 20,000 yuan is needed to pay for admission and the orphanage. You can only get 8,000 yuan."

"How about it, do you agree?" the black boss said, looking at old lady Li.

"Thank you, I agree." Old Mrs. Li understood that the gangster boss was taking good care of them by giving her almost the original price when she was so anxious.

"So when are you going to leave?" The gangster took another cigarette and looked at Old Lady Li and said

"Tomorrow, let's send Mingli to an orphanage tomorrow."

"So anxious?"

“I don’t have much time left”

Bang~Huh~

The gangster turned off his lighter, blew out a puff of smoke, and nodded.

"Okay! Tomorrow afternoon, someone will pick up Xiao Mingli, and someone else will take over the house."

"Thank you"

......

After the conversation, Old Lady Li stumbled back to her shabby little house.

She stood at the door of the dilapidated yard for a long time, thinking back to the time when she had worked hard until she was over 50, saved up for more than 40 years, and bought this dilapidated house in the corner, just to have a place to stay in the future.

Later, she lived here for more than 40 years and remembered the location of every item here.

She slowly supported the mud wall and stroked it bit by bit. This wall was built bit by bit by her and her fourth child. If he hadn't died from a stray bullet from the gang, he would have been in his thirties by now...

She looked at it slowly, stroked it slowly, then moved a stool and sat in the middle of the garbage dump, smelling the familiar smell around her and looking at the bright moonlight in the sky.

A series of moons, so perfectly connected together, she didn't know when was the last time she saw the moon so clearly.

The sky in the slums used to be covered with dark clouds and was rarely this clear.

This was the last time she looked at the moon. She was silent, raised her head high, felt the evening breeze, and enjoyed the last moments of her life.