He dreamed that he planted a field of purple sweet potatoes, worked hard in the field every day, sweated, filled the purple sweet potatoes with delicious nutrient solution, and was very happy.
Suddenly one day, a purple potato vine stood up from the ground. Like the beanstalk in the fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, it leapt up into the sky.
How can this be? His precious purple potato was not yet ripe and he has not tasted its soft and firm insides, how can it run away!
So Lian Qiao rushed forward and grabbed his precious purple potato. The purple sweet potato vine was still growing, sending his whole body to the sky. Lian Qiao hugged his precious purple potato tightly and dared not let go. The baby purple sweet potato struggled a bit and the whole purple sweet potato became more and more purple, more and more purple…
It went from purple to black.
Lian Qiao thought: It’s over, this purple potato is poisonous, I’m afraid I can’t eat it.
As soon as he thought of this, he was inexplicably startled. Immediately afterwards, his whole body was shocked, like falling into a cloud. His whole person woke up in a cold sweat.
When he woke up, he found that RenDong was pressed under the blanket by him and he was about to suffocate to death. Immediately shocked, he quickly hugged Little RenDong and fanned him while apologizing.
Poor RenDong’s bitter face has turned a purplish red, almost black, and he has the temperament of a sweet potato in a dream. The small mouth moved and panted for a long time and then gradually regained his strength. He rolled his eyes at Lian Qiao.
Lian Qiao: “…” He already learned to roll his eyes even before talking, it feels a little scary.
Lian Qiao said sorry to RenDong 10,000 times in embarrassment and guilt and then carefully put him back on the small bed. Seeing that RenDong still refused to sleep, a pair of small swollen eyes stared straight at him, obviously angry.
Lian Qiao felt that just saying sorry was not sincere, so he knocked on the principal’s door and asked her where the washboard was.
principal: “???” What kind of clothes do you want to wash in the middle of the night?
Although he didn’t know why, the kind principal still gave him a washboard in response to his request. So Lian Qiao knelt down in front of the cradle with a plop, and pushed RenDong’s cradle very piously while torturing himself.
Little RenDong in the Cradle: “…” What’s the use of kneeling on the washboard? Can I suffer less if you kneel? !
Although RenDong didn’t relieve his anger, he couldn’t blame Lian Qiao for thinking of it. After all, Lian Qiao didn’t have any experience in raising a baby. What’s more, he wanted to get closer to him and protect him better when he was put on the bed.
Little RenDong was lying in the cradle and seeing Lian Qiao kneeling on the washboard whilst yawning again and again, his heart softened all of a sudden.
“I’m sorry…” Lian Qiao was so sleepy that he couldn’t open his eyes, and apologized as if he was still chanting, “I won’t next time…”
Little RenDong stretched out his hand from the swaddle with difficulty, trying to grab his fingers. However, the fingers of newborns are too short and the immature palms cannot be opened at all. He could barely grasp Lian Qiao’s fingertips and gently scratched Lian Qiao’s fingertips.
“…” Lian Qiao didn’t notice this. He leaned against the bed rail, his head drooping little by little. The hand was still pushing the cradle, it seems that muscle memory has been formed.
From RenDong’s perspective, the whole world shakes slightly with Lian Qiao’s movements. The frequency of the slow shaking made him feel a little dizzy and sleepy, but it was very comfortable. It was kind of strange, but it made him very nostalgic for the warmth.
RenDong slowly fell asleep amidst the flickering tenderness. There was peace in my heart that he had never had before.
The next day.
Before dawn, Lian Qiao woke up. He was so exhausted last night that he knelt on the washboard and fell asleep. At this time, his legs were numb from kneeling and his waist was sore and painful.
How was RenDong?
The cradle was close at hand but, due to the angle, the face of little RenDong cannot be seen.
Lian Qiao stood up in a hurry. His whole body lost his strength and leaned to one side, almost falling down. He managed to stand up with the help of the bed rail, feeling dizzy for a while.
Amidst the tinnitus, he caught a strange sound.
“Hoo, hoo, hoo…”
The source of the voice seems to be a cradle?
Lian Qiao hurriedly pulled the cradle, only to find that the baby RenDong was panting heavily. The small mouth was opened as far as possible and a snoring sound came out of the throat. The wrinkled little face was flushed red and the eyes were closed tightly, spinning around under the eyelids. It looked a little scary.
Did he have a fever? !
Lian Qiao stretched out his hand to touch him and his heart suddenly sank.
RenDong’s forehead was terribly hot, and there was a whistling sound in his throat, like bellows. Lian Qiao called him a few times but, instead of waking up, Little RenDong even looked up and rolled his eyes.
Immediately afterwards, the little hands and feet began to twitch. Lian Qiao instinctively held him down, fearing that he would fall out of the cradle.
But he can’t hold it down at all! The small twitching of the limbs soon turned into a big twitching of the muscles of the whole body. The small body jumped wildly like a fish on the chopping board and even foamed from the mouth!
Lian Qiao panicked immediately, and hurriedly went to the principal with RenDong in his arms. While banging on the door of the principal’s bedroom, he shouted in tears: “principal! Come out quickly! RenDong is bad! He can’t stop seizing!
Putting on a padded jacket, the principal opened the door barefoot.
Seeing RenDong twitching constantly, she said decisively: “It’s a febrile convulsion! Take off his clothes quickly and cool him down!”
Lian Qiao hesitated: “He’s burning like this and still needs to take off his clothes? Isn’t that… …”
“Take it off!” The principal raised her eyebrows and there was a bit of determination in her kindly eyes. She didn’t give Lian Qiao a chance to think and directly grabbed RenDong and put him on the bed, pulled off the swaddling clothes, revealing his bare buttocks.
RenDong was still twitching, his small face was contorted and there was a gurgling sound in his throat, which made people feel flustered.
“Find something for him to bite! Chopsticks or towels, don’t let him bite his tongue!” The principal said this and then opened the closet with her hand and took out the medical box from it.
In a hurry, Lian Qiao didn’t bother to look for chopsticks, so he opened RenDong’s small mouth and stuffed his fingers into it.
RenDong, who was twitching, opened his mouth without hesitation and bit Lian Qiao hard. The little child’s teeth were already pointed. Although they were not strong enough to bite off his fingers, the muscles twitched and stiffened with amazing strength and those little fangs directly bit Lian Qiao’s fingers. Blood flowed.
Lian Qiao didn’t care about the pain and just slightly touched RenDong’s face. He was afraid that blood would flow into RenDong’s mouth and choke him. He turned his face so he wouldn’t drink blood.
At this time, the principal finally found the medicine and stuffed it into RenDong’s mouth. Lian Qiao exclaimed: “Why is it a pill! How can he take medicine now? Is there no antipyretic patch? Or an antipyretic suppository?!”
The principal was stunned: “What antipyretic patch?”
Lian Qiao remembered that this time should be in the 90s, how could a poor social welfare institution have antipyretic patches!
Helpless, he could only cooperate with the principal and feed the pills together. As expected, RenDong choked, coughed desperately, and coughed out the pills within a few moments.
The principal ordered: “Again!”
Lian Qiao’s heart was bleeding. In desperation, he suddenly had a lightbulb moment. He pointed to the snow outside the door and said, “Just lower his body temperature, right? Then apply an ice pack to him?!”
The principal was surprised and, after thinking for only a second, she said decisively: “Let’s try it!”
The two made a quick decision, picked up RenDong and rushed downstairs. Lian Qiao grabbed a handful of snow in the yard and squeezed it tightly, the fluffy snowflakes turned into lumps of ice in his hands. He took the small towel from the principal, wrapped ice cubes in the towel and placed it on RenDong’s forehead.
Using this method, he put three more ice packs on RenDong’s armpit and chest respectively.
The physical cooling was very effective and RenDong gradually became less scary. After changing several rounds of ice packs, Little RenDong finally stopped convulsing. Both breathed a sigh of relief.
Everyone else in the orphanage ran out to watch the excitement. Only then did Lian Qiao notice that, besides the children, there were other people in the orphanage. It looked like it was other players this time, probably people who had arrived at the orphanage one after another last night.
Lian Qiao had no time to take care of others but just took the little RenDong back to the room and put it back on the little cradle.
Although Little RenDong stopped burning, he still didn’t wake up. His whole little face was flushed red and his mouth opened and closed, panting desperately like a dying fish. His immature chest rose and fell, and he struggled to breathe. His whole body seemed deflated.
Although his body was kept cold by the ice pack, his panting never stopped. He didn’t wake up either.
After more than an hour, Little RenDong no longer had the strength to breathe. His throat let out a low cry like a kitten begging for help, his eyes were closed tightly and his two little hands waved unconsciously in the air, as if trying to grab something.
Lian Qiao grabbed his little hand and called desperately: “RenDong!”
However, RenDong did not wake up at all.
The panting sound gradually became weaker, and the low meowing like a kitten was finally inaudible. With all his might, the young RenDong sucked in his last breath—and then, something got stuck, and he couldn’t breathe anymore.
Immediately, the little hands and feet went limp. His whole little body relaxed.
The immature lungs that were overworked slowly exhaled their last breath.
RenDong was dead.
Lian Qiao felt like falling into an ice cave, feeling dizzy and disassociated. His heart ached so badly that he couldn’t breathe.
At the same time, the expressions of the other onlookers suddenly changed. They covered their chests one after another, their eyes widened, and they all opened their mouths to breathe heavily.
“Ha, ha…”
“Huh—”
“Uh…”
In an instant, the air in the whole world seemed to be sucked dry, and everyone could not breathe.
From suffocation to the depletion of the last trace of oxygen in the body. Everyone experienced an extremely slow and painful death process.
When death came, Lian Qiao knelt beside the cradle, still holding RenDong’s little hand.
When he slid down, the cradle was knocked over by him. The cold little body rolled out of its swaddling clothes.
Lian Qiao exhausted his last bit of strength and hugged RenDong into his arms. Like hugging a piece of ice, like hugging a knife. It was like stabbing a knife out of the freezer into his heart, it was terribly cold and painful.