Home...I wish he had never said that, Hao kept repeating it to himself over and over again, even though it had been 16 years since the event , Hao wished he had the power to turn back time and change those events.
Both children returned home, looking around them, the streets decorated with Christmas motifs and colored lights, the Christmas music brought by the wind, so far away, more and more distant, they were two little ones trying to survive life and human cruelty, abandonment, hunger, cold, but they never forgot only one thing... to smile.
At last they had arrived at the house, a neglected place that was barely standing, both children opened the rusty gate, although they didn't say it, they both wished their father wasn't home, but he wasn't, in life you can't get what you want, it's a vile lie, things just happen and Hao learned the hard way that you must be prepared for the worst... always.
People come and go, people are born and die, days are precious, they are not eternal, and time has a very high value, too much, so much... that no one can buy.
Both children entered the house on tiptoe, looking at their father's face, an absent father, lost in drink, with the smell of alcohol emanating from his breath, from his breath, so penetrating that it penetrated even the nostrils, their brother managed to cross the living room, their father was lying on the sofa almost dead, they were about to go to the room that served as their kitchen, but Hao was clumsy, in one of his steps, while looking at his father, he kicked the liquor bottle and it spilled completely, the noise of the bottle was so loud that his brother immediately turned to Hao and looked at him with terror in his expression, Hao will never forget that expression, never.
His father woke up and enraged at what had happened, grabbed Hao by the hair and lifted him up to slam him against the wall.
Hao could hear his own scalp thundering between his father's fingers, he felt he lost his sight for a fraction of seconds, and followed by that, he saw multiple colored lights....
"They are like fireworks..... " Hao thought in the middle of that stormy scene, he wanted to think of kind things, so while his father was giving him the beating of his life, Hao smiled at the same time as a trickle of warm blood ran down one of his nostrils
His father ran to take the bottle in his hands, let out an angry shout and ready to hit Hao with the bottle in his hands, he lunged at him like a rabid beast. His brother dropped the bag in his hands and interposed himself between Hao and his father, took the little Hao and covered him with his body.
There are heroes who don't wear capes, there are heroes who are less than 150 cm tall, with thin arms and a childish face, heroes who don't wear a special costume? Jian, was one of those, who without caring ran to his brother and hugged him to serve as a human shield.
His father smashed the bottle on Jian's head, blinded by fury, pain, resentment with life, right there between each blow he had unloaded each and every one of his frustrations and pain.
The bottle broke on Jian's head and the remains of glass cut the man's fingers, but even that was not enough, because he continued to hit with his fists, and whipped his head again and again against the floor and when he satiated his rage, he fled the place. Hao witnessed everything in silence, he had managed to get away to a corner, and when his father left, crawling through the pool of blood, he approached his brother to talk to him....
-Jiang... Little brother, wake up, aren't we going to eat bread? Dad is gone, you can open your eyes now.... Jiang... JIANG, you're scaring me!... if you don't wake up, I'll eat your bread... Jiang! WAKE UP!...-
But Jiang, never woke up again., his little eyes had closed forever, the brightness had gone out, and then Hao felt as if all the lights that illuminated, had gone out, he felt lost, scared, he felt so cold.
"Jiang... you are so cold... I'm going to hug you so you won't feel cold..."
It wasn't until days later that the lights from the police car made him wake up, there was a foul smell emanating from his brother's remains, the natural process of decomposition had begun, still Hao was clinging to his little body, he refused to leave him, he wanted to warm Jiang, because he was so cold, he saw the paramedics come in, to try to separate him from the corpse, the blood was dry around them, but despite the circumstances Hao refused to pull away.
" Please help my brother, he hasn't woken up for days... tell him to get up, we have to go gather cans".
The scene had been so heartbreaking for everyone present, they felt immense pity for Hao, the junkyard man had come running, when he struggled to enter, the first thing his eyes saw, was the pair of shoes placed on the feet of little Jiang, the man cried silently and approached Hao to take him by force between his arms and allow the corpse of the little boy to be taken away.
Of course all the relevant investigations had been carried out, Hao had testified against his father, and after that inquiry, he had been sent to a home right after his brother's humble funeral.