Wang Jian ran away cursing.

I lay by the shore and used an umbrella to pull my mom over.

Just like that, I held my mom, afraid the water would carry her away again.

Mom's eyes were big, now they seemed even bigger.

Mom, with no body temperature left, still had a look of panic on her face.

She must be still worried about dad.

I don't know how dad is doing.

He said that once he finished this project, he'd have money to pay my book fees, so I wouldn't have to owe the school anymore and could hold my head up high there.

Looking closely, mom's hand was still tightly clutching dad's medical insurance card.

So cold, so cold.

When I woke up, I was already at home.

Aunt Wang was chattering beside me, saying something about how pitiful it was.

Somehow, there were now two coffins in our home.

Grandma was cursing the sky and the earth in front of the coffins. Tired of cursing, she cried, kneeling in front of the coffins and crying.

I was filthy all over, and no one cared about me.

I slipped out in the chaos; I wanted to see that resort.

After the rain, the sky cleared, and the winter sun shone on the villas in the resort, like paradise.

So this was the beautiful house my dad built—

I sat on the meticulously maintained marble steps, feeling like the world had abandoned me.

“Hey—are you okay?”

A voice came from inside the villa.

I looked over; it was a child about my age. He was wearing a clean and warm white down jacket and a white knit hat.

White, my mom never bought me clothes in white. She said it wasn't practical to keep clean.

But even when I wore brown clothes, they still got dirty.

I shook my head.

He ran out: “My name is Xiao Ming, can I invite you to play with me?”

His eyes were so bright, I couldn't look at them directly.

For a moment, I didn't know what to say and just stared at him blankly.

“Xiao Bao, stop playing. Come taste some farm-style dishes.”

A beautiful noblewoman walked over, sized me up nonchalantly, and led the little boy away.

A car stopped behind me, and a man got out.

The noblewoman quickly ran over and took the man's arm.

“So, how did it go? Was it settled?”

The man said, “Yes, seventeen thousand. The worker fell due to improper operation. Such bad luck, let's not ruin our reputation.”

“Yeah, such a large sum of money, for them, probably something they could never earn in a lifetime.”

She patted her son's head with her left hand and looped her right arm through her husband's: “Forget about those troublesome things, go taste some farm-style dishes.”

What a happy family.

I sat on the steps, realizing that people like us were called bad luck when we died.