The exterior walls of the bungalow are not beautified, let alone kept warm. The red bricks are exposed, light snow is falling outside the window, and the couplets on the door are still bright red but have been damaged.

Getting up at 3:30 every day is already an instinct for Wang Jian. His son is still sleeping next to the bed. He gently tucks the dirty quilt for his son, gets up and puts on the cotton-padded jacket that has become lint-free, and puts on the outer layer. orange sanitation vest.

My legs and feet were a little inconvenient, and my feet were uneven when I walked, but the pain was no longer there. I went to the back room, picked up some branches, picked up the matchbox with the word "囍" on it, lit a match, ignited the newspaper, and threw it into the furnace.

The furnace smoked so much that the induced draft fan had been broken for several months but had not been repaired. He lit the fire in the smoke-filled room, coughed occasionally, wiped the smoked tears, and took out a The slingshot-shaped branches branched out to serve as pot curtains, on which were placed the unfinished rice from last night, a plate of chili and potato shreds, and a few sweet potatoes.

After the rice is heated, put the food on the edge of the stove, scoop out the water made from the gourd, scoop out the hot water from the bottom of the pot, pour it into a basin, add some cold water, test the water temperature, and hold the basin. , limping into the bedroom.

"Double Happiness, wake up, let's eat."

"father......"

Wang Shuangxi rubbed his eyes, was picked up by Wang Jian, and put on a green sweater and cotton trousers. Wang Jian rinsed the dirty towel and wiped his son's face. As for washing his hair and brushing his teeth, it took him a few days to do it. One time job.

You pulled out the light cord, but the dim room still didn't light up. You can't expect a light bulb with a low wattage and full of dust and oily smoke to provide enough brightness for this dark room.

In short, the two of them were sitting around the stove in this dark little room, sitting on a small mat and eating. Shuangxi seemed to have not woken up yet, dozing off from time to time, with grains of rice sticking to his face. Wang Jian smiled after seeing it, He reached out to pick off the rice and stuffed it into his mouth.

The child ate slowly and lingered for more than 20 minutes. Wang Jian did not rush, but waited for him to wake up completely. After eating, he threw the bowl into the sink, soaked it in some water, and did not wash it.

After the father and son left the house, Xi'er got on the tricycle by himself, sat in the corner obediently, and rubbed his little fingers. There were some frostbite on them and some black mud between the nails. He clasped them gently and asked in a low voice. One sentence.

"Dad...are garbage trucks just for garbage?"

"No! I have to pretend to be you. Sit tight, dad, hurry up."

Wang Jian is a rough man. He has not gone to school for a few days and did not hear the sadness in Shuangxi's words. This little figure is holding on to the edge of the car and burying his head in his legs. He heard other children say yesterday that the garbage truck is It's garbage.

So...what is he?

There were snowflakes in the sky. Wang Jian finally rode to the street sanitation office, signed and registered, and then rode all the way to the street he was responsible for. Shuangxi was very obedient and took a small broom to help Wang Jian clear the snow on the road. This job has never stopped since he became wise.

It was still dark, and the snowflakes were particularly obvious under the lights. After a simple cleaning, Wang Jian greeted Shuangxi to get in the car and began their work of making extra money.

The streets they are responsible for belong to the suburbs. During the early morning hours, there are always many large cars that do not obey the traffic rules, drive very fast, run through red lights, disturb the residents, and cause several accidents.

The two were riding on a crosswalk when a large truck passed by at high speed. There was a pothole in the road. Maybe the driver of the truck didn't pay attention and ran directly over it. There was a loud bang, which made the father and son shrink their necks in fright.

There was a mineral water bottle on the roadside, which had been crushed. Shuangxi's sharp eyes found it immediately. Knowing that Wang Jian had difficulty with his legs and feet, he hurriedly got out of the car, picked up the bottle, and returned to the car.

No matter who drank it, he unscrewed the bottle cap and blew into the mouth of the bottle. It may be because the cap was not tightened tightly, but the bottle did not leak. It was blown up by Shuangxi, then he twisted it vertically a few times and put the bottle cap back on. , put into sacks.

Garbage trucks start cleaning the trash cans at 5:30 every morning. Before 5:30, Wang Jian has to clear more than a dozen large trash cans along the way, which is a huge task.

I opened a trash can, ignored the unpleasant smell, and rummaged through it with an iron hook. There was a broken cardboard box inside, which was mostly wet. The moment I picked it up, a big mouse jumped out, and I was frightened. Wang Jian shivered, but Shuang Xi laughed.

Children are naive, and sadness is always temporary. In childhood, children always regard their father as too majestic, which leads to them always showing good-natured gloating when their father is frightened.

Where is Wang Jian? With a third-grade elementary school diploma and not much ability, he regarded double happiness as the whole meaning of life. When he saw double happiness, he smiled too.

He took off his worn-out labor protection gloves and pinched Shuangxi's red cheeks from the cold. His smile looked a little silly. He put the gloves back on, held the handlebars, stepped on the left pedal with his left foot, and kicked with his right leg. On the ground, the wheel slid for about five meters, then he stepped up with his right leg and kicked off the three wheels hard.

.......

"Hoo~ bah, one-five, one-ten, fifteen, twenty...twenty-three and four, just right, take it."

"Boss, I often sell scraps at your place. Can you give me twenty-four lines to make up for it? I will have to come to your place next time."

"You don't think so. I collect so much junk in a day. This one costs six cents, and that one costs a piece. I have to pay dozens of dollars a day. If I can't collect it, you can take it away without selling it."

Seeing the boss's tough attitude, Wang Jian had no choice but to turn his head and glance at Shuangxi who was sitting in the car in a daze, nodded, and before leaving, he did not forget to take away the woven bag he brought.

During my lunch break, I came here to sell some scraps. How much I could sell for it all depended on how much I could pick up. I usually pick up items worth five or eight yuan to make a living, but today I picked up a lot, so I could save some of it.

Back in the lounge of the Environmental Sanitation Office, Shuangxi was a well-behaved child. Many of Wang Jian’s colleagues didn’t like him. They laughed at the way these colleagues who were older than him were teasing Shuangxi. Wang Jian picked up the kettle from the stove and gave it to him. I got a cup of hot water and put the aluminum lunch box on the stove lid to wait for the fire to heat up.

I walked out of the house, pried off a branch, and went to the lawn that was already bare in winter. I used the branches on the ground to calculate simple addition and subtraction, mumbling to myself.

"Twenty-four minus ten, plus...two thousand seven hundred and thirty-two, equals...two thousand seven hundred and forty-six, the rent and water bill minus two hundred and five, two thousand four hundred Ninety four......."

This account is for Shuangxi's tuition. Shuangxi is almost four years old and will go to preschool. Wang Jian is a local, but his family is in the most remote rural area in the country. He came here in order to allow Shuangxi to receive a better education. The city, although it is only the suburbs.

The salary of a sanitation worker is 800 yuan, plus a bonus of 200 yuan. If you add rag picking, you can earn 1,200 yuan a month. After working as a sanitation worker for more than a year, you can save more than 10,000 yuan.

But because Shuangxi caught a bad cold at the beginning of winter, most of Wang Jian's savings were spent on hospital treatment. Now he only has more than two thousand yuan left in his entire family.

Kindergartens in the suburbs here cost 800 yuan a month, and food is included, but when the children go to school, they have to wear new clothes, right? Miscellaneous, I estimate that I will spend half of my savings in the first month of school.

There is no problem with the tuition for the first three months, but what to do with the tuition after that? Wang Jian is a little worried. During the period of kindergarten and preschool, life should become extremely difficult. Wait... After entering elementary school, Compulsory education will be good. When the time comes, it will be good to save enough money to go to high school and college for double happiness.

After figuring out the little calculation in his mind, Wang Jian stood up, stretched his legs to rub the numbers off the ground, stamped his feet, and returned to the sanitation station to serve Shuangxi for dinner.

.......

On February 27th, Shuangxi was going to school. When Wang Jian parked his tricycle at the entrance of the kindergarten, many pairs of eyes were looking at the father and son.

The cotton-padded jacket was too expensive, so I didn’t buy a new one for Double Happiness. Instead, I wore a new sweatshirt underneath. As for pants and shoes, they were not actually classified as new clothes by Wang Jian. Clothes are just clothes, and they are different from pants and shoes. what relationship?

So before Shuangxi took off his cotton-padded jacket, he was still a child in rags. The only change that could be seen outdoors was that he had a blue Ultraman Tiga schoolbag, which was now being carried by Wang Jian in hand.

These eyes stared at the father and son. Wang Jian was used to this kind of scrutiny, but Shuangxi didn't. He pulled Wang Jian's trouser leg and stood behind his father.

In fact, the children who go to school here come from very ordinary families. They are either local families with low incomes or children of migrant workers from other places. But no matter what, their family conditions are much better than Wang Jian's.

There are only a few cars parked at the entrance of the kindergarten, and they are all of Wuling Hongguang and Jetta quality. Most of them are electric cars, which are messily placed at the entrance. But Wang Jian is really the only one who rides a sanitation tricycle. .

Pulling Shuangxi into the house, it was much cleaner than the home of the father and son. Wang Jian lowered his head and looked at Shuangxi who was hesitant to enter the house. After a little urging, Shuangxi quietly took off his clothes. A pair of unglued shoes and socks with exposed toes were on the floor.

Shuangxi took the initiative to let go of his father's hand, pulled the edge of the sock's loophole, and stuffed the sock between his toes. Then he handed his hand into his father's palm, looked up at Wang Jian, and pursed his lips.

The children were sent to the classroom, and Wang Jian followed a large group of parents to pay the tuition. Then he walked to the door of the classroom and stretched his head to look at the children sitting on the stools.

Shuangxi sat in the corner of the last row, deliberately far away from the other children. The teacher was smiling in class, but the four-year-old child had a melancholy look on his face.

At the end of the short class, Wang Jian, like other parents, smiled at the teacher and hoped that the teacher would take more care of him. However, the teacher who treated the children sincerely and warmly treated these parents a bit perfunctorily.

Until the parents were about to leave, the children who were going to school for the first time began to cry while hugging their parents' laps. With few exceptions, Shuangxi did the same, hugging Wang Jian's lap, hoping that Wang Jian would take him away.

But Wang Jian understood that the reason why Shuangxi cried was different from other children. It was not because he was afraid of his parents leaving, but because he simply had an extreme fear of this place full of warmth and innocence.

"Have a good time in class, and dad will pick you up in the afternoon."

He still broke away from Shuangxi's hand, gritted his teeth and gritted his teeth against the face wet with tears, walked out of the outdoor activity area of ​​the kindergarten, and watched Shuangxi clinging to the fence, like a little beast trapped in a cage.

"father!!!"

Ignoring the cry, Wang Jian didn't even dare to look back. He exhaled a shaky breath, put on his gloves, waited for the electric car in front to go ahead, stepped on the pedals hard, and slowly disappeared in front of Shuangxi... ..

"..."

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