On the hospital bed, the child stirred slightly and then drowsily opened his eyes. What greeted him was the stark white ceiling of the hospital. For an instant, he thought he had gone to heaven.
But the sounds around him quickly told him otherwise—he wasn't in heaven. He was in a hospital.
That couldn't be right. He still clearly remembered last night, when the cold gnawed at him, when the surrounding sounds were like maggots chewing on food, when the stench had numbed his sense of smell.
Cold, hungry, his whole body aching—he had thought he was going to die. Just like those people had said, he was a mongrel, unwanted by anyone…
Yet now he was lying here, covered with a blanket. His body still hurt, but it was clearly clean, treated with medicine, and he no longer felt waves of fever and chills.
