Chapter One: Brother and Sister

  "Brother, I picked up a 5 jin grain coupon!"

  With a shout of surprise, beside a mountainous pile of garbage, a frail figure emerged. Only five or six years old, a little girl held up a grain coupon in her hand, with a smile all over her pitch-black face.

  In this era when planned economy was still in place and food coupons had not yet exited people's lives, a five-city-jin coupon could be exchanged for two hot buns sprinkled with sesame seeds, enough to fill the bellies of two children for one meal.

  "Ge ge, once I've saved up enough money, I'll send you to school," said Old Wang's son. "As long as you can pay the tuition, that's all that matters!" From about 7 or 8 meters away, a boy's big head popped out from behind a pile of trash.

  Although the boy has a big head and a small body, with a pale complexion that looks malnourished, his eyes are very bright, looking like he's only eleven or twelve years old.

  "Brother, I don't want to go to school, they call us garbage collectors, I don't want to play with them."

  The little girl pouted, pulled her feet out of the trash heap, and walked to the boy's side with a shallow step, invitingly putting the grain ticket into the big boy's olive green shoulder bag, and then patted it with her small hand before saying: "What's good about going to school? I want to be with my brother. You didn't go to school either, did you?"

  "My brother actually wants to go to school!"

  The boy, although not much older himself, was very doting on his sister. He reached out and gently patted the little girl's head, saying: "Silly girl, how can you not go to school? Are you going to pick up trash for the rest of your life?"

  "Isn't picking up scraps for a lifetime good enough?"

  The little girl's eyes were filled with confusion, but in her heart, as long as she could be with her brother, that was the happiest thing. The hardships of life and the cold shoulders she suffered from day to day couldn't erase the child's innocence.

  "Alright, from now on let's be a junk king."

  Seeing the mist in his sister's eyes, the boy hastily stopped this topic. He couldn't go and tell his sister about the logic of going to college and becoming a better person. Even if he said it, Xiao Yaotou wouldn't understand, because even the boy himself hadn't figured it out yet.

  Although he didn't mention going to school anymore, the boy was still calculating in his heart that as long as he had 18 more yuan, he could send his sister to school.

  The boy had already found out last year that because they didn't have a local household registration, if he wanted to attend the railway elementary school one kilometer away from their residence, the cost would be much higher than for locals. The total annual tuition was 76 yuan, and he had already saved 58 yuan, just 18 yuan short of being able to pay the tuition for his sister to enroll.

  As for the 30 yuan book fee, it can be saved.

  In these days, many families have several children. The eldest child uses the textbooks and then they are passed down to the second child after changing the cover, so generally schools do not strictly require purchasing textbooks.

  The boy had already collected all the textbooks from primary school to sixth grade at the waste collection station, and even wrapped them in calendar paper as book covers, which looked almost new.

  "Hurry up, let's go! Brother will buy you some shaobing (a type of Chinese pancake) to eat!"

  The sky gradually darkened, and the boy looked at the harvest in front of him, shaking his head helplessly.

  In the early 90s today, luxury and waste have nothing to do with people's lives, every household can't bear to throw away even used toothpaste skins.

  So the profession of picking up scraps that created countless millionaires in the past is now undoubtedly a sunrise industry, and most practitioners are still in a state of warmth and fullness, and it can be imagined what the brother and sister gained.

  The boy picked up that small bundle of rusty iron wire that could still be sold for some money, took his sister's hand and walked out of the garbage dump.

  There was a garbage dump by the railroad tracks, and the last rays of the setting sun cast a long and short shadow on the brother and sister, although they looked so thin, but gave people a very warm feeling.

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  "Uncle Hu, this is a five-kilogram grain coupon, give me two buns!"

  More than half an hour later, the boy who had sold the iron wire to the scrap collection station and his sister appeared in front of a pancake stall more than 100 meters away from Tie Lu Primary School.

  Although there were rumors that grain coupons would be abolished, grain shops are still in use, but because of this rumor, the value of grain coupons has shrunk greatly, and five kilograms can only exchange for two baked buns.

  The two children's dirty little hands had already been washed clean, and although their clothes were tattered and shabby, after washing their faces and hands, they looked like a different pair from the ones who used to pick up scraps.

  Especially the little girl, with a small face and a delicate complexion, it can be vaguely seen that she will definitely become a beautiful woman when she grows up. However, this future beauty's attention is currently focused on those fragrant and savory buns.

  "Little breeze, a few baked cakes are still affordable for Uncle Hu, you can keep the grain tickets yourself!"

  The person making the buns was a middle-aged man in his thirties, who hastily took down two hot buns sprinkled with sesame seeds and salt from the wall of the stove, blew on them lightly, and placed them in front of the girl.

  "Brother?" The girl looked at her brother. She had grown up with him since childhood and knew that without his permission, it was not allowed to take other people's things.

  "Be careful, don't get burned!"

  The boy patted his sister's head, looked at the pancake boss and said: "Uncle Hu, I don't buy wheat flour, I don't need this grain coupon, you can take it, I picked it up!"

  Although the aroma of sesame wafted from the tip of his nose, the boy's Adam's apple rolled up and down, but he still stubbornly placed the grain ticket in his hand on the chopping board, with an air of not taking it back if you don't want to bake a pancake.

  "What's wrong with Uncle Hu cooking noodles for you two?"

  Old Hu sighed and knew that if he didn't accept the grain tickets, the boy would really take his sister away.

  Moreover, he also believed that the grain coupon must have been picked up by the boy, because in these five years or more, he had never seen the little boy reach out to take something from someone else.

  Shaking his head, Old Hu took out a piece of oiled paper and removed another pancake from the wall of the stove. He put it together with the other two and handed them to the boy, saying: "Qin Feng, Uncle Hu can't take advantage of you. Five catties of grain tickets for three pancakes, you'd better take them..."

  "Thank you, Uncle Hu!"

  The boy called Qin Feng did not decline this time, but took over the oil paper, tore off half a pancake and handed it to his sister. Watching his sister gobble up the food, his tense little face finally cracked a smile.

  "This poor child!"

  After Qin Feng and his sister left, Old Hu let out a sigh. If it weren't for the fact that he had three kids of his own and their family circumstances were also quite ordinary, he would have probably taken this sensible brother and sister in already.

  Qin Feng and his sister arrived in this town on the outskirts of Cangzhou City five years ago, when Qin Feng was only seven years old, and his sister was only three years old.

  The brother and sister seemed to have gotten off a train that was passing through here, but no one knew where they came from.

  Qin Feng, although very young, had a strong sense of self-respect. By collecting trash and scraps, he single-handedly raised his three-year-old sister, without stealing or robbing. The adults around him always had an inexplicable affection for this mature child.

  Of course, Qin Feng and his sister, who are often used as role models by adults to educate their own children, do not have a good relationship with the group of children in this area. When they take trash to the recycling station, there is always a group of kids following behind them, calling them "Trash Kings".

  "Da Huang, your dinner is here."

  After walking for more than 20 minutes, Qin Feng brought his sister back to their "home", a big yellow dog with a bald tail came up quietly and rubbed its head against the siblings' bodies, looking exceptionally delighted.

  Qin Feng poured a bag of pork from his hand into the basin outside the door, and then took his sister to open the door and enter the house.

  This is a house adjacent to the railway track, with only one room. Due to the diversion of the train, there is only one train passing through this road every day, so it has been excluded from the key maintenance section.

  As a result, the house that was originally used for maintenance workers to rest also became old and worn out. Fortunately, it was made of brick and tile structure, so it didn't leak wind from all sides, otherwise the two children would really not be able to get through the northern winter.

  It is fortunate that in the early 1990s, Cangzhou, which had relatively little population movement at that time, did not yet have the large number of vagrants it would later have; otherwise, Qin Feng and his sister might not have been able to afford this house.

  "Hey, don't drink raw water, it'll give you diarrhea. I'll pour you some boiled water instead."

  After returning to his "home", Qin Feng saw his sister about to go to the water pipe that adds water to the train to drink, and hastily stopped her. He picked up an iron thermos from under the house and poured a basin of water for Qin Jia, who had been shouting with thirst.

  "Brother, the pancake is delicious!"

  The little girl licked her lips, and then she picked up a sesame seed that was left on top with her tongue and put it in her mouth. Her eyes stared at her brother's green canvas bag, knowing there was another pancake inside.

  "Be good and finish your homework, brother will be back tonight to check it. If everything is correct, I'll reward you with a pancake."

  Qin Feng took the porcelain jar from his sister's hand and drank all the remaining water in one gulp, making a "gulping" sound. After wiping his mouth, he pulled out two textbooks and a stack of letter paper with words written on them from the drawer of the table that was propped up with bricks because it had lost a leg.

  Although every day during the daytime, she has to go pick up trash and collect scraps, from when her sister was five years old, Qin Feng started teaching her to read books and recognize characters. Now eight-year-old Qin Jia has almost reached a primary school third or fourth-grade level.

  As for Qin Feng himself, before his family encountered any changes, he was taught by his father to recognize many characters. With his clever talent, in these years of self-study, he had already thoroughly studied the junior high school curriculum. If not for wanting his sister to have more contact with people of the same age, Qin Feng would have no need to let her go to school at all.

  "Got it, brother! Come back early!" Qin Jia pouted and shook her brother's arm, then obediently sat down in front of the desk that was missing a leg.

  "Don't run around randomly, go straight to bed when you're tired."

  Qin Feng smiled and turned around to leave the house. By this time, the sky outside had already completely darkened, and the grassy wasteland around the house was filled with the chirping sounds of various insects everywhere.