The wound in my heart - I didn't steal money

I remember when I was a kid, the air was always cold in the early morning in winter and the sky was grey.

The people around were wearing heavy and dark clothes. When they got up, they looked out the window at the fog and gray, and felt that it was late in the morning.

Although I don’t need to arrive at seven o’clock to go to kindergarten, my father doesn’t allow me to stay in bed, dawdling, and I’m late for school.

Brushing my teeth and washing my face, changing clothes and combing my hair, and waiting for breakfast, I hope I can eat sesame fritters or scallion fritters.

Otherwise, the vegetable bag is also good, I really don't like to eat porridge.

In those days, breakfast was still eaten at home or porridge was more.

Side dishes, pickled melon, meat floss, fried pickles, fermented bean curd, or pinto beans, red and sweet bean sticks.

There is an Obasan riding a bicycle with a kitchen cabinet on the back seat, selling all kinds of pickles.

She always parked in the open space in front of the small courtyard where we lived. There were mothers and mothers nearby, and there were also children carrying large plates to choose and buy pickles.

My mother habitually asks: Do you want to eat that?

I stood beside her, stood on tiptoe and looked at the bowls of vegetables in the cupboard,

Lack of interest, I said casually: fried peanuts, salted egg yolk, bean sprigs...

My mother always buys salty yam melon, fermented bean curd, sour bamboo shoots and pickled melon.

So, my mother chose her pickles, and I dug out the cracks in the red brick wall to pick out fine brick powder.

Or, kick small rocks and let them roll down the gutters.

The small stone rolled forward and rolled, I chased it, and Xiao Meng's mother called me through the window frame: Did you see Xiao Meng?

I looked back at the crowd around the pickle cart. Xiao Meng was crowded among the adults in a bright red sweater, holding a white plate in both hands.

I mean the crowd, there.

She didn't bring enough money, you help me bring this dollar to her.

Xiao Meng's mother held a dollar bill between her thick fingers and handed it out from the window frame.

I looked at the face of the founding father on the one-dollar note, but didn't reach for it.

Xiao Meng's mother urged a few times, and Xiao Meng's sister's face also appeared,

Milky voice: Hurry up and give my sister the money, Junjun wants to eat bean sticks.

He took the banknotes, walked back to the pickle cart, tugged at Xiao Meng's sleeve, and gave her a dollar.

And told her mother to buy bean sticks and sweet beans instead of pickled melon.

She grabbed the banknotes and shouted: Eat ~ Eat ~ Xiao Meng speaks with a big tongue,

In the fourth grade of elementary school, under the teacher's suggestion, I took the tongue clipping to correct it.

We were still eating, and Xiao Meng's mother brought her to ask me for the dollar!

The money is not for you. I say.

Xiao Meng said: You didn't give it to me, so I didn't buy bean sticks and sweet beans. Her sister is crying at home.

One dollar, you obviously took it. I think back to someone who saw me giving her the money.

Xiao Meng insisted that I didn't give her the money, and when we argued,

Xiaomeng's mother smiled: Xiaoyu, return the money to Auntie, don't hide it, it's no different from stealing money.

Dad grabbed my hand and walked to the yard and ordered: Where to hide? Give the money back quickly.

I didn't hide it, I already gave Xiao Meng a dollar.

Dad searched my pocket in front of the crowd, pulled out the toilet paper from my coat,

There was no sign of a dollar, so I took off my coat and searched for my vest pocket. I was so angry and ashamed that I cried.

That's enough, don't be too much on your kids! Mom stopped Dad from asking me to take off my vest,

Dad turned around and brought out my small schoolbag, poured out the copybook and pencil case inside,

Pencils, crayons and erasers roll off the ground, just not a dollar.

You stole other people's money, your aunt calls the police, you will be arrested and locked up, take out the money quickly! Dad scolds.

I didn't steal money!

My mother-in-law Chen, who lives in the same yard with us, said: fellow countrymen, when so many people searched the children in front of them,

How will she face her teachers and classmates when she goes to school? Do your kids really steal other people's money?

I usually want to give her a piece of cake and a piece of candy, but I don't dare to take it, or if you ask if your child will steal money?

Does she have the guts to steal money? Even if she took that dollar, where would she hide it?

Did you search for so long to find it? No, it means that a dollar is not on her.

Xiao Meng, you want to tell the truth, did the money go away or did you buy something else? Blaming others is also a sin.

Xiao Meng frowned and looked away.

That day, when I didn't go to kindergarten, my mother said that my swollen eyes formed a line when I cried, I would fall down when I walked, don't go to school.

A few days later, Xiao Meng came to my house, sat at the table watching me paint the coloring book, and asked if I really didn't talk to her?

She's bored to death, and Afen's mother doesn't let her play with her..., we're reconciled,

I listened and thought to myself: You talk nonsense like that, causing me to be suspected of stealing money by adults,

How can you ask for reconciliation in front of me as if nothing happened?

Many years later, Xiao Meng heard from Lao Hui that I had two "Nile River Daughter" comics.

Come to borrow it, I don't borrow it, she is stalking, rambling, and pleasing people, I still don't borrow it, she leaves angrily.

My mother only told the truth about where the dollar went back then. She asked Obasan, who sold pickles,

Xiao Mengchao didn’t have enough money to buy pickles, so she went home to get the money. Her mother said in front of her mother-in-law that she had given enough money.

In order to be afraid of my mother-in-law's scolding, my mother-in-law helped pass a dollar, but unfortunately she was falsely accused.

My parents are honest people. They didn't scold them or ask for an apology to seek justice for me.

It will only ask me to ignore Xiaomeng. They didn't know that they were suspected of stealing money that morning.

It has become an indelible wound in my heart, making me unwilling to be entrusted to buy things,

It's not your own money, don't let me here, even if it's only ten minutes.

I'd rather be said to be solitary, difficult to negotiate, difficult to get along with, than to be suspected again: money, did you steal?