"But at least you always wear sunglasses during the day, never an exception, and occasionally you wear sunglasses at night, but on the other hand, there is never a time when you don't wear sunglasses during the day, not even once Passed."

　She always wears a pair of sunglasses during the day.

"Why do you always wear sunglasses?" I finally couldn't help but ask her.

　“Not always, I usually don’t wear it at night.”

　It’s 7 o’clock in the evening. The summer sun goes down very late, and the dazzling sunlight still shines through the window glass in the cafe. There were only five customers in this cafe, including us. Considering it is dinner time, business here can be said to be quite light.

　“But at least you always wear sunglasses during the day, never an exception, and you occasionally wear sunglasses at night, but on the other hand, there is never a time when you don’t wear sunglasses during the day, not even once. "No."

　"It was an accident."

　At this time, the waitress came over and asked us what we wanted, so the conversation stopped. The weather was very hot, so I ordered a cup of iced coffee , but she ordered a cup of hot milk tea.

I watched the waitress walk away and waited until she could no longer hear us before continuing the conversation.

　“Huh? What did you just say, was it an accident?”

　“Well, an accident.”

　“This is the first time I’ve heard of it. Why haven’t you told me before?”

　“Well, it’s about When I was seven or eight years old - no, maybe it was when I was younger."

"But have you never let your parents know about this? Or is this a secret only to me?"

"It's not a secret, it's just that only two people know it... In a sense, it's probably a secret, because I've never told anyone about it."

"Then why?"

　She stared at me for a long time, and finally she said as if she had made up her mind, "When I was a child, there was a toy repairman near my house."

　"That's the one. The children nearby often broke the toys. If you take the fallen toy and repair it, no matter what kind of toy it is, it can be repaired.”

　“I just mentioned the toy repairer... By the way, does this toy repairer have no name?”

　“Yogsothotev. ", she replied.

　"Is it Russian ?"

　"What do you mean?"

　"Because I have never heard my name mentioned by myself. That name was completely guessed by children. It is said that there is a child - a little boy. I was a little kid at that time - I saw a toy repairer say "Yogsothotev" while repairing a toy, so people called the toy repairer that name. The other children insisted that what they heard was 'gutexiu-luxiu'; but what I heard was 'nuvai ai lulayithautep'.

"Then tell me, that one." What kind of person is 'Yogsothotev'? "

" There are no features on that person's face, including gender, age, and race. There are no clues that can lead to speculation. The color of the hair, well, for example, it's like the kind of color a kindergartener would put all their crayons on a piece of paper and mix. The clothes are also sewn together from various rags. The style is very poor and there is no overall sense at all. The trousers don't look like trousers and the skirt doesn't look like a skirt. I don't know what they are. And if you look closely, that thing is not even a piece of clothing, it's probably just a lot of cloth wrapped around the body. The parts that stick out from the inside of the cloth - that is to say, the hands, feet, face, etc. are always sticky, as if they are thickly coated with grease. This man rarely talks. Even if children come with broken toys, he can only say two or three sentences at most, but he can always fix the toys. ”

“So what does the store look like? ”

“There is no store, they are all taken directly to the toy repairer’s home.——Ah, but maybe we just think of it as a toy repairman’s home. It was a small room located between two unoccupied houses. The small house seemed to be made of many large and small colorful stones. Small stones are only as big as a grain of rice, and large stones may be as big as an adult's head. Those stones are like wood products made by carpenters, all smooth and tightly combined. When you look at it from a distance, it looks like a hill made of gravel; but when you look at it up close, it feels a little like home for some reason. ”

　“If children’s toys are broken, they will take them to the toy repairer. New or old, simple or complex, gyro, , kite, bamboo dragonfly, , water spray gun, robot, remote control car Whether it is , game consoles, or game cards, as long as it is a broken toy, we will take it and repair it. ”

“The fact that children bring broken toys to toy repairmen to repair is a secret from adults. Because if you let an adult know that the toy is broken, you will be scolded. But with a toy repairer, you can rest assured. No matter how expensive a toy is, you don't need to tell the adults or secretly use your pocket money to repair it. You can just leave it to the toy repairer. "

" So," I said, breaking the silence, " when will we talk about the accident? "

" I've seen it. First of all, the toy repairman will dismantle the broken toy piece by piece. Even the parts stuck with glue can be disassembled very cleanly. If there are more than two toys, they must be removed first. Disassembly - dozens or hundreds of parts are often taken apart, and then the toy repairer will carefully observe these parts with a satisfied expression, and then start to make weird noises. "

" One day it was very hot. At two o'clock in the afternoon, the temperature was almost 40 degrees. But even in such hot weather, I was still forced to act as a nanny to take care of my ten-month-old brother Michio. I have never been able to figure out which dynasty this custom was left over, and why older children must act as babysitters. But my parents are very strict and don't even allow me to ask.

Once, when I was carrying Michio on my back, I accidentally hit Michio’s head on a pillar, and then I was severely scolded. My mother grabbed my hair and said, ‘Let you taste Michio’s pain’ while banging my head against the pillar. And that night, after my father heard about it, he tied me to the doorpost of his house and didn't let me go until the next morning. Tears welled up in my eyes all night, but I didn't dare to cry out. I didn’t know what kind of punishment I would receive if I cried out. Moreover, in the endless darkness, I didn’t dare to close my eyes until morning. But the more I stare into the darkness, the more I see things I don’t want to see, things I can’t see. In addition, there were a lot of wild dogs nearby, and dozens of them took turns running over to sniff me, which really scared me.

"That day, I met a child dragging a dead cat." She completely ignored my question and continued on, "I asked the child, 'Why are you dragging a dead cat? A dead cat? '

'You ask this, my father bought me this cat. But when I was playing with it, it scratched me, and I stepped on it hard, and then it It won't move, so take it to Yogu Sothoutov to have it repaired, otherwise your father will definitely scold him if he finds it. '"

"This child's idea is very strange, I think.Maybe it's because they are too young and can't tell the difference between pets and toys - or rather, at that age they don't understand the difference between living things and non-living things. When you grow older, you will gradually learn about the knowledge about nature.

　"After the child finished speaking, he continued to drag the dead cat to the toy repairman's cabin, and I started to climb an overpass across the national highway.

　The weather was really too hot, and everyone stayed at home as much as possible. Come out, so there is no one on the overpass. There are very few cars on the national highway, and it takes a long time for one to drive over. Looking back now, maybe there was no need to climb the overpass at that time, but at that time I I was so young that I couldn’t even imagine that.

The steps on the overpass are very steep for children. Halfway up the climb, I couldn’t stand upright and my whole body was covered in sweat, as if I was soaking in water. , Michio also kept crying. I felt nauseous and wanted to vomit, and I was so cold that I couldn't climb up any more. But looking back, I thought, if I take longer than necessary, my mother will die. I didn’t know how to get angry, so I dragged my legs and climbed up step by step - and at that moment, Michio and I fell down the steps."

Listen to her. When I said this, I couldn't help but clenched my fists tightly, and my nails almost dug into my flesh.

"For a long time, I couldn't move my body - I said I couldn't move, but in fact, I completely fainted at first. When I woke up, I couldn't move at all because of the shock and pain, and then I suddenly felt that the pain on my face was unbearable, so I tried to reach out and touch it. When I touched it, my hand was covered with sticky blood, as if there was a serious wound from my forehead to my nose, and the blood was dripping. There were puddles of water in many places on the overpass.

At this time, I suddenly remembered that Michio was not crying, and then I found that he was actually pressed under my body, motionless. I hurried. I jumped up and put him down from behind to check, but there was no bleeding anywhere on his body, but he couldn't move at all, and he couldn't even breathe."

"Wait a minute." , I started to sweat coldly, "Are you kidding me?"

"Michiro is dead." She continued, "At the beginning, I thought that I would no longer have to take care of him, and I felt a sense of relief. But after a while, I suddenly thought about how furious my parents would be if they knew about this, so I started to feel very scared.

- Could I just hide Michio's death like this? Pretending that Michio is still alive? What if I coax the dead Michio and feed milk into his mouth? Maybe I can help him take a bath... Yes, I can also practice ventriloquism , and then do it with Michio. Make a hole in your back, put your hand through it, and let him move from time to time. That way the secret will not be revealed! But if you really pretend like this, how long will you keep pretending? Although he is still a baby, he will grow up. What should I do? Maybe I can get by by stretching his body a little bit every day. But then Michio will go to kindergarten again, and I can't follow him. Let's go to kindergarten... maybe I can hollow out Michio's body and get in there myself and pretend to be Michio? But then I might be bigger than I am now. What if I can't get in? Children are completely different from boys. How can I get away with it? Also, if Michio gets married, how can I marry a woman?

Michio was staggering and walking aimlessly. If anyone saw him, he would be horrified. However, there were no pedestrians at the time, and the occasional cars passing by were very fast and did not notice us at all.

Two hours have passed, and the weather is still hot. Michio gradually begins to smell bad, and the color on his face gradually turns black. There is no way to pretend that he is still alive. His tongue also hung out, and juice dripped from his eyes, ears, and nose. As for the wound on my body, although the bleeding gradually stopped, it still gave off the same stench as Michio's body - at that moment, a good idea suddenly popped into my head. "

　"Toy repairer? I asked while wiping the cold sweat with my sleeve, "Just like that dead cat...?" "

"Yes, I'm going to take Michio to the toy repairman. Although I dare not say that he will definitely be able to repair it, I have always heard of the reputation of the toy repairman and know that he can repair any kind of toys. Therefore, if I can deceive the toy repairer and say that Michio is It's a toy, so I can let him fix it for me.

I staggered towards the toy repairman’s hut, but I didn’t know exactly where that hut was, so I could only think about what I usually said to my friends and slowly walk through the alleys one by one. Find him in the alley.

　‘Where are you going? ’

is the little girl dragging the dead cat.

　‘How is your cat? ’

I asked hoarsely.

　‘Already taken. Yogu Sothoutov has collected a lot of toys and hasn’t started repairing them yet. I thought he would definitely not be able to finish repairing it today, so I went home first and picked it up in two days. ’

‘Oh… Well, if you want to ask Yogu Sothoutov to repair it, what should you tell him? ’

‘It’s very simple, just go to Yogusothotev’s house, wait for Yogusothotef to come out of the back room, show him the toy and ask him to help repair it. ’

　‘Then what? ’

　‘Then...hey? What’s wrong with you? What is that, blood? ’

‘It’s nothing, I accidentally fell down. Never mind that, what should Yogu Sothoutev do after he comes out? ’

‘Why do you suddenly ask about that kind of thing? ...Oh, the blood is even stained on your clothes. ’

　‘It’s not a big deal’

　If I tell her all the facts, maybe I will report it to my mother in the future.

　‘I have a doll with a broken hand. I want to repair it, but it’s still at home...’

　‘Do you have a doll? Never knew! Lijia doll? barbie ? ...Oh, look, something is dripping out of Michio's mouth. ’

　‘Well, the doll was made by my mother and has no name. ’

　‘Wow, that’s great! ’ The girl’s eyes shone with envy, ‘Then you can give her a name you like. What should I call it? ...Wait a minute, something is leaking out of your mouth too. ’

I wiped the corners of my mouth with my hand. It was a liquid that was a bit like ink.

is not finished. . .