Chapter 2 — Ten Children?

There are always bruises on Ba Trieu Da's body. That was the mark left by his alcoholic stepfather who often beat him. The other brothers also had their own family events. Some people were abandoned at the train station, some people wandered the streets after their parents passed away. During those years, neighbors in the alley often talked bad about her behind her back. They told her that she liked to keep her bad luck to herself, specializing in picking up "unwanted" children, and sooner or later she would be angered to death by these little scoundrels. She really hated that saying. Every time she heard it, she stopped walking and looked seriously at the other person.

“They are not without need.”

Her voice was tough, not allowing anyone to refute.

“I need them now.”

But when they first arrived, none of the nine brothers were grateful. They are like hedgehogs, always ready to hurt anyone who comes close to protect themselves. Someone climbed the wall to escape in the middle of the night, was found by a lady with a flashlight and brought back from the Internet cafe. Someone got into a fight with a classmate and broke their head, causing their parents to come to their house and scold them. There were also people who deliberately slammed their rice bowls on the ground, craned their necks to look at her, testing to see if she was like the adults before, scolding them and then sending them away. She never pampered them, but she also never chased them away. After fighting, she led them to the hospital, bowed her head and apologized to the victim, and compensated them for medical expenses. Skipping school, she carried a small chair and sat under the porch, watching them make up for all the knowledge they missed, even if they had to stay up until midnight. Intentionally destroying things, whether they are in the house or someone else's, she absolutely does not clean up the consequences for them. If you break the glass of someone's house, you have to go to work to compensate, sweep the floor, clean the table, move coal, and do it until the homeowner is satisfied. But no matter how big their mistakes were during the day, no matter how long they were punished by her to stand, when they came home at night, under the pale yellow light, there was always a hot bowl of rice on the table for them. In her house there are no long moral lectures, there are only three rules that are not allowed to be violated. She used a marker to write three sentences on the calendar and posted it in the most visible place in the main house:

“Don't steal.”

“Don't bully people who are weaker than you.”

"It's dark and we have to go home to eat."

03 I am the last person to come to this family. That winter it snowed heavily. She discovered me in front of the welfare camp gate while visiting an old colleague. At that time I was less than a year old and could not walk yet. I had a high fever, my throat was hoarse from crying, and I was wrapped in an old adult life jacket. In the pocket of his shirt, there was only a piece of paper with his date of birth. When she took me home, nine brothers all gathered around the small old bed that had just been temporarily made. Nine heads huddled together, no one dared to raise their hand to touch me. At that time, Elder Chu Tranh was sixteen years old, at his most rebellious age. His hair was dyed messily, alternating red and yellow, he wore torn jeans, his eyes were arrogant and careless, and he looked the fiercest. However, when I cried until my heart was torn apart, no matter how much someone else carried me, it was useless. Only when he clumsily supported me in his elbow, stiffening his body and gently swaying, did I miraculously fall silent. Mr. Tran Thuc saw that I was so hungry that I cried so he took the initiative to make milk. I haven't When I used to do this, I thought adding powdered milk was like adding salt when cooking rice, the more it was, the richer it would be. He scooped out more than half a bottle of powdered milk, mixed it into a thick lump and fed it to me, causing me severe constipation for two days. Then he was chased and beaten all over the yard by a woman holding a broom. Mr. Ba is the quietest person. He secretly went to the auto repair shop on the corner of the street and fixed people's bicycle tires for two weeks, his hands covered in black mud that couldn't be washed clean. On payday, he ran straight to the shopping center and used that little change to buy me a pair of red soft-soled leather shoes. The shoes were placed next to my pillow, blindingly red. At that time, Chin Lam Xuyen was only three years older than me. He still talked in a childish voice, but he knew how to carry a small chair to sit next to my bed. It seems he has realized his "older brother" status. Every day he would sit by the bed, runny nose and tirelessly sing to me nursery rhymes that were completely out of tune. After the initial newness wears off, the mundane tasks of taking care of a newborn start to bore these teenagers. She created a duty roster for the brothers. The elders are in charge of washing diapers and making milk. The young person in charge of delivering things kept an eye on me. When he discovered I was crying, he immediately called someone over. They gathered to protest, frowning, looking impatient:

"Why? Why do we have to look after children?"

She was holding scissors to fix my clothes, without raising her head, she calmly replied:

“Because from now on she will call you brothers.”

That sentence was like a curse, somehow it suppressed nine disobedient children. Later, when I started learning to speak, the first syllable I said was not "ma'am". It's a vague "you". That day, the normally quiet yard immediately exploded. Elder Chu Tranh insisted that I was looking at him so I called him. Mr. Tran Thuc pointed to the milk bottle and said I looked at the person making the milk so he must have called me. Mr. Chin Lam Xuyen used a childish voice to say that every day he sang for me, that "him" was definitely calling him. Nine people argued over who I was calling and pushed each other, even bringing up old matters, arguing all night long. It wasn't until she threw a basin of water to wash their feet in the middle of the yard that they finally shut up.