Chapter 76

Ma Tianbao pulled the borrowed crate and walked with hope. He kept talking to comfort his parents at the back.

Ma’s mother tilted in a corner of the cart, her face constantly dripping tears, but did not dare to make a sound for Ma Tianbao to hear, for fear that he would be sad, just kept responding to the sound of “hmmm, hmmm”.

She wiped away her tears and also wiped away the tears of Ma’s father who was lying on the cart.

Ma’s father in this short months of aging, his hair all white, but also almost lost, wearing a hat on his head to protect the scalp, to avoid catching a cold. He was lying on a cart, covered with a quilt and padded with a layer of grass, so that he could lie softer and warmer.

He had lost a lot of weight, like a handful of withered bones. Even so, he endeavored to hold Ma’s mother’s feet in his arms to keep her warm. The couple tried to lean together, not wanting to add more trouble to their son.

Ma Tianbao had been talking non-stop for the past few days.

“This is going to be great. After we move there, I’ll be able to get a better job and make more money. Mom and Dad’s medicine will be better, you can lie at home, I’ll work outside, and it won’t take me long to get there, and there’s a stove, a door, and a light! The house is bright and clean, it’s quite spacious, I’ve cleaned it all, but I mopped the floor yesterday and it’s a bit wet, but there are beds! Ms. Zhu lent us two beds, and quilts and pillows.”

Ma’s mother opened her mouth several times and finally asked, “You and that girl …… still ……”

Ma Tianbao instantly quiet, after a long time, long enough for him to pull the crate gasping more and more, he said, “I don’t deserve her. She is a good girl, I do not want to delay her. Mom, just forget about her.”

Ma’s mother wiped her tears, nodded heavily, and responded hoarsely, “Good! This is better!”

Ma Tianbao didn’t dare to take another risk. He had managed to see a little bit of hope now that he could bring his whole family to live, he didn’t want anything to happen again.

What if he and Yang Yuchan continued their relationship and Ms. Zhu kicked them out?

They were really different.

He realized at this point that his previous thoughts were wrong.

He thought he went to college on his own, but he didn’t, it was the Jin family that made him go to college.

He thought that he and the Jin family could be separated. But in fact, he was favored by the Jin family too much, he and the Jin family can not be separated clearly.

He was not only helped by the Jin family in terms of money, but he also used the Jin family’s power in his own mind.

In the past, when he talked and laughed with the Jin family’s sons and daughters, he also viewed himself as an equal to them. He just didn’t have the wealth of the Jin family.

He just happened to not want wealth either. He was more interested in realizing his ideals!

But after stripping him of these halos given to him by the Jin family, he realized that he was dead wrong.

He was a rootless duckweed.

His parents, who couldn’t read a word, were much more lucid than he was.

They worked hard to provide him with the most excellent conditions, using their flesh and blood to pave the way for him, so that he could go to college and obtain the opportunity and conditions to change his fate.

He talks presumptuously about ideals, but he has not put his feet on the ground at all!

He did not see that under his feet was the flesh and blood of his parents!

So, when his parents fell, he was shocked to realize that what he thought he was was not there.

Now was the time when he had to give back to his parents.

To repay them with his real hands, his real feet.

They had fed him with their flesh and blood, and he would prove to them that their efforts had not been in vain!

He will definitely let them live well!

Ma Tianbao started talking again, he couldn’t help it, going on and on about the good life he envisioned, as if it was close at hand and within reach.

“I can go to the bank to seek employment, I can English, can read and write, even if it is just a porter! And there must be a lot of paperwork at the copying …… bank, I could ask them if they need letters copied, letters in English! They must need …… more money from this! More profitable than copying anything else, I can write letters in English! Not many people know English, not many write well, and there’s formatting, which I know!”

“There are a lot of companies over there, too! Department stores, trading companies …… they definitely need people who know English and understand it. I’m good at listening, reading, and dictating English, and I can answer the phone and stuff. I can also transcribe things for them, documents, letters, whatever, I know the format.”

“There are also many Chinese medicine halls over there, I’ll take you to see a doctor, it’s very convenient to see a doctor and get a prescription for medicine, go and see more often, there’s sure to be a doctor who can cure you.” He looked back at Ma’s mother and said, “Mom, your illness is not serious, you will definitely get well soon!”

Ma’s mother quickly nodded, “Will! Will!”

Ma Tianbao looked at Ma’s father again and asked him, “Dad, are you in pain again? The medicine you drank in the morning should be hurting by now as well.”

Ma’s father clenched his teeth tightly, his back was covered in cold sweat from the pain, waving his hands and saying, “It doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t hurt, the medicine is working very well.”

Ma Tianbao is very clear that the morning of the medicine has been faded only light brown, that medicine boiled no less than ten times, long ago there is no efficacy. The doctor said that the medicine can only stop the pain, no other use, has been letting him take the horse father to take a look, although the back and waist bone injury, people can not stand up, but quite two months did not die, that did not hurt the internal organs, the doctor said as long as the people brought to take a look, there may be salvation, and now has been in pain, it may be the bones of the place where there is still a problem, a corrective bone, or acupuncture, may not be no use.

Ma Tianbao has always wanted to send Ma’s father, but Ma’s father has always refused.

He was afraid that he could not be cured even if he spent money. He didn’t want to be cured.

He wanted to leave all his money to Ma Tianbao.

Ma Tianbao had already made up his mind that after settling down in Zhujialou, he must hurry to send Ma’s father to see a doctor! He can now find a better job and earn more money, there is already hope.

The pedestrians on the bus gradually grew, horse-drawn carriages, automobiles, and bicycles could also be seen.

The houses on the street also became more and more neat and nice, and there were street trees and flower beds along the road.

The pedestrians looked richer and richer, their clothes were clean and tidy, their faces were white and red, and they had a mouthful of neat teeth.

When they saw Ma Tianbao and the broken cart he was pulling, as well as Ma’s father and mother sitting on the cart, they all showed unhappy looks and would avoid them.

Ma Tianbao then took the initiative to avoid the crowd and walked on the side.

Their family of three is now with the beggar almost, in the dump that place everyone is the same, to here is very conspicuous.

Ma Tianbao accelerated his speed, just wanting to get to Zhu Jia Lou as soon as possible, not wanting to cause trouble.

Several times he saw the figure of the gendarmerie, all hurried to avoid. He dug into the alleys several times, hiding and dodging, and then realized that the gendarmes only stayed in the busy places, and wouldn’t come to the alleys, so he made many detours, and only went through the alleys, and it took him a few times longer to arrive at the Zhu Family Building.

In front of the Zhu Family Building was still so busy, people and cars passed by the road in front of the building. Many yellow buses were hauling passengers on this street, and they would also stop at the intersection in front of them to wait for customers.

Small vendors hawked along the street, and they were disgusted when they saw Ma Tianbao.

“Obscure! With you here, how can I get any customers to look at the candies in my basket?” A sugar seller disliked that Ma Tianbao’s cart was parked in the wrong place, “You go over there! I’ve been selling candy here for ten years!”

Ma Tianbao didn’t want to cause trouble, so he parked the cart farther away, then carried Ma’s father, letting Ma’s mother look after the rest of the things in the cart, and he first sent Ma’s father to Zhu Jia Lou.

The candy vendor saw him walk in and wondered, “Strange, what kind of business did he go in for? And with a crippled father.”

Then he saw Ma Tianbao come back to carry Ma’s mother in.

Finally, he also took some broken cans on the crate in.

The peddler couldn’t understand, so when Ma Tianbao came out again and tried to put the crate somewhere, he went over and asked, “What kind of business are you in?”

Ma Tianbao: “I live there.”

The peddler immediately laughed: “What a braggart! How can you possibly afford to live in a building!”

Ma Tianbao found an alley and put the crate inside for the time being.

He returned to the Zhu Family Building and saw a few more good tenants gathered around the entrance, who probed in and covered their noses as they tsked. Seeing him return, one of them blocked him and said, “You don’t have any lice on you, do you?”

“That needs to be disinfected!”

“Is that garbage? Will there be cockroaches?”

Ma Tianbao pushed them away and walked in, turning back and closing the door.

There were no windows in the house, and once the door was closed, it was immediately pitch black.

He pulled on the electric light, and instantly that little bit of dimness illuminated the entire room.

Two wooden beds, seems to be a child used single bed, removed the head and tail of the bed to set up, but also can only be placed next to each other side by side, put together a big bed, and so set up, the whole room is only left Ma Tianbao standing in this little bit of space.

Ma’s father was lying on the bed, and Ma’s mother was leaning on the end of the bed packing things.

In fact, they didn’t have anything, but it was the quilt that Ma’s father had covered when he arrived. That quilt had been picked up at the dump, and it was indeed trash. But they didn’t have anything better at the time. Ma Tianbao had saved all his money to buy medicine.

It wouldn’t have been necessary to use anything too good at the junkyard, and they would have been robbed if they used anything too good.

But now their bed was covered with a quilt that was a bit old, but still clean and tidy.

After Mother Ma cleaned up a bit, she sighed and said to Ma Tianbao, “Take it out and throw it far away.”

There was also a casserole for boiling medicine.

Ma mother picked it up and looked at it and said, “Just brush this one.”

There is also a small broken stove, this is also picked up, a small tin can stove, although shabby, but all rely on it to Ma father boiling medicine.

Ma’s mother couldn’t throw it away, and said, “This one will be put away.”

Ma Tianbao picked up the broken quilt ready to throw out, just when someone knocked on the door.

He opened the door, and outside was Zhang Ma, and behind her was the tenant who had called Zhang Ma down.

Zhang Ma stood in the doorway, took a look, covered her nose and said, “What more do you want? Throw it all away! Don’t you have a quilt? If it’s not enough to cover you, I’ll find you another bed.” She saw Ma’s mother and nodded gesturally, “I still have two old clothes there, come up with me later and bring them down.”

Ma’s mother hurriedly greeted her and wanted to get out of bed, but Zhang Ma waved her hand and said, “You’re sick, don’t move. My clothes are a bit old and have a few patches, if you don’t mind, you can wear them first.”

Ma Ma quickly said, “I don’t mind, I don’t mind.”

Zhang Ma also said to Ma Tianbao, “I still have some insecticide there, you can take it over later and sprinkle it under the bed to kill cockroaches or something. Oh yeah, go take a shower. Boil some water for your parents to scrub clean, I have soap there, I’ll cut you half a bar later.” Zhang Ma saw the small broken stove on the floor again, tsked in disgust, and added, “Are you burning coal or wood? You can cook in the corridor, but you can only burn coal, not firewood! It won’t do to blacken the walls! You’ll have to pay for it!”

She pulled Ma Tianbao out and pointed out the water room to him, “You can use water over there, and the monthly water bill is shared by the whole building, no matter who has more or less. However, you have to pay 20 cents a month, and then in the second month, you can see how much you have used and then deducted. The same goes for electricity. There’s the rest of the sanitation, security, and fire-fighting fees, which are also shared by the whole building.”

A few tenants who had nothing better to do and loved the news had been watching from the sidelines.

Zhang Ma then solemnly explained, “The toilets are all kept in their respective houses, and are not allowed to be brought to the corridor! Every morning, someone will come to collect it, offer to clean it up, and put it back in your own house, not in the corridor or the water room! If you find it, you’ll be fined. Even more not to pour feces and urine in the sewer of the water room, whoever did it immediately leave, this place does not accept.”

Ma Tianbao all promised one by one.

Only then did Zhang Ma smile a little, “I know you’re a cultured person and filial, okay, go in.”

Ma Tianbao turned around to go back, and heard Zhang Ma being pulled by the tenants and asked, “Zhang Ma, this family is so poor, how can they afford to rent this place?”

Zhang Ma: “Don’t underestimate this kid! He’s a serious college student. If it weren’t for his own father’s sudden accident and his own mother’s collapse, the family’s wealth would have been completely wiped out, and he would be wearing a suit and tie right now! Our wife is also seeing him as a college student, although this time is a bit difficult, but after this disaster, it will be able to slowly get better, which is why she is willing to rent the house to him. Don’t underestimate him.”

Hearing that Ma Tianbao was a college student, the tenants were relieved, as if college students meant high character and good morals.

“No wonder.”

“So it is. I said, really beggars run this side to live what? Garbage dump side is not quite good.”

“Then their family is quite poor oh.”

“Alas, all of a sudden two old people are down, a thousand kilograms of burden are placed on that little child, how he can withstand Oh.”

When Ma Tianbao came out again holding the broken quilt out to throw, found that the tenants look at his gaze is much softer, not so harsh.

He threw out the garbage and went to the water room to wash his feet before he dared to knock on the Zhu family’s door.

When he heard footsteps on the other side of the door, he tensed and stiffened.

The door opened and it was Zhang Ma. Zhang Ma pushed him, not to call him in, put the clothes in his hands to hold him, and put on a packet of medicine, but also put on the two dollars.

Ma Tianbao immediately want to refuse, Zhang Ma impatiently interrupted him: “Do not talk nonsense. You use this money to get a haircut, take a bath, and buy some things you should use. Now that you’ve moved here, I can’t afford to go downstairs every day to bring you food, it’s not easy to explain when people see you, so if you don’t mind, come over at eight o’clock in the evening and take some leftovers back.”

Ma Tianbao even ate rancid food during this period of time, and the garbage cans have been rummaged through, where would he care about the leftovers? Not to mention that the said leftovers were all good. The Zhu family had all good intentions and did not mean to insult them.

He quickly said, “Good, good! Thank you, Mrs. Zhang.”

Mrs. Zhang: “Thank me for nothing! It’s all because our wife is as kind as a Bodhisattva. Don’t feel bad about the leftovers. In the past, without you, they were all Mr. Su’s, and Mr. Su ate them for half a year. Just for you, I have to put half a bowl of rice in the steamer every day.”

Ma Tianbao was full of excitement and didn’t know how to express it, all he could do was dryly say, “Thank you.”

Zhang Ma sighed, “Alright, it’s hard for you too. Go downstairs and take good care of your parents. By the way, our wife used to have a familiar doctor who told me to give you the address, take your parents to see him.”

She turned back and took out another note with the address from the cabinet and handed it to Ma Tianbao: “Our wife called, you can go there directly and I’ll see you. There’s also a bicycle at home, so you can use it to hump your dad over there.”

Ma Tianbao hugged the clothes, in his pants pocket was a heavy two dollars, in his hand was a note with the address, one foot deep and one foot shallow down the stairs, back home.

It was as if he was dreaming.

From this moment on, it seemed as if everything was really starting to change for the better, and it was all starting to look hopeful.

It was more real to him than in the morning, than on the way here, than last night.

At this time there was another knock on the door, he went to open the door, at the door was a tenant, she took a broken basket and said, “This is a garbage basket, it’s the old one that my family used, if you don’t mind it, you can keep it.”

Ma Tianbao hurriedly took it and bowed to thank her.

After that, someone else sent a few broken bowls and plates, although they were all dusty, I don’t know how long they had been sitting there, but they were only cracked or broken edges, they were all still usable.

Towards the end of the day, someone else brought in an old wooden basin, though it was moldy and had holes in some places.

Tenant: “It can still be used, look, just catch the water and don’t diffuse through this hole.”

Ma Tianbao took it with both hands and solemnly said, “Thank you.”

The tenant said, “You’re quite a nice person, not so noble. In fact, we also want you to live in, you know? The security fee has gone up! It’s forty dollars. That’s almost three dollars per family. If there’s one more of you, we’ll be able to pay a few cents less.”

Ma Tianbao listened to the tenant talk a lot of gossip and sent him away before closing the door.

Ma’s mother sat on the bed and asked him in a low voice: “…… This money, we also have to give it, right? How much in total? So many fees ……”

Ma Tianbao shook his head, half a day before saying, “Ms. Zhu …… did not look for me to ask.”

Ma’s mother froze and reacted, “It’s hard …… to believe that all this money, she paid for us? How can this work!”

Ma Tianbao remembered the two dollars in his pocket, and that address, and the more than thirty dollars of savings he now had left.

If he paid these fees, this thirty dollars would only last for the next month.

“I’ll make money. When I make money, I’ll be able to pay it back.” He murmured.

He would be able to repay the Zhu family in the future, for sure!