Chapter 106 In Chapter 106, Tang Mingli specifically recounted Zheng Hao's deeds…

Tang Mingli shared her guess.

She thought that Aunt Caiping might have made the call to try and find out if there was any way to get a quota for having a second child.

Hearing this, Madam Fu also thought it was possible. After all, Fu Caiping had repeatedly said on the phone that she only had one child with poor health and no guarantee of support.

What kind of protection do you need?

Naturally, they were worried that with only one child, what if something happened to them in the future? Wouldn't their family line end up without anyone to carry on?

Madam Fu sighed, "People are never satisfied. Those without children are eager to have them. Those with daughters want sons. Those with sons want more."

Tang Mingli nodded.

She strongly agreed.

Before the one-child policy, people could have as many children as they wanted, but that didn't necessarily mean that parents who had many children loved their children as much.

Many people may not understand why they want to have children, or even have considered this question. It's all just a matter of reaching a certain age, following the crowd, and calling it the natural order.

When did most Chinese people begin to reflect on why they have children? It was probably during the decades of the one-child policy and the widespread education on eugenics.

Thinking about eugenics, Tang Mingli thought of Tang Mingmei.

She was a rare only child in an era that encouraged multiple births. Can you say that she wasn't a model parent?

The more I think about it, the more I feel that having children is like opening blind boxes; making money is simpler, more straightforward, and more secure.

Gu Lin and Tang Mingmei, who haven't faded out of their lives in the past two years, are the best examples. They seem to have been taking steps in the direction their elders hoped for, but in the end, it all turned out to be a mess.

Oh, and Zheng Hao, whom I met only recently.

She should have been the one who suffered the most.

Fortunately, when all hope seemed lost, he changed direction and managed to pull himself out of the predicament step by step on his own.

After learning about Zheng Hao's situation, Tang Mingli admired her even more.

Before having children, her life was a model for women.

She was smart and pretty from a young age. After graduating from junior high school, she was assigned to a sock factory. When she reached marriageable age, she found a suitable partner through blind dates and got married smoothly.

Up to this point, her life had been so smooth that it was the envy of many.

However, the change occurred after the child was born.

She gave birth to a daughter with legs of different lengths.

The moment the husband saw the child, he broke down and, disregarding her weakness after giving birth, shouted that he wanted to throw the child away.

Zheng Hao refused. Even if her daughter was considered disabled by others, she was still her own flesh and blood.

The couple developed a huge rift because of their daughter.

The husband is indifferent to the child and has never held the child once since the child was born.

Zheng Hao endured it for several years, but after her husband got drunk and almost hurt their child, she finally made up her mind to divorce him and took the child back to her parents' home.

The first two years after the divorce were not a time of relief for Zheng Hao; rather, they were a time of misfortune piling upon misfortune.

The socks produced by the sock factory couldn't be sold and were piling up in the warehouse.

When the factory's performance is poor, employee benefits naturally decline as well.

Looking at his daughter, who was already old enough to run and jump but could barely walk steadily, Zheng Hao knew that he had to work harder than other parents to provide his daughter with enough security.

So after careful consideration, she gritted her teeth and resigned from the sock factory to work at the Liren Clothing Store.

As it turned out, her decision was correct.

When you reach the end of the road, you must destroy to build something new.

With her outstanding sales skills, she not only supported herself and her children but also greatly improved her family's life, completely changing her sister-in-law's opinion of her, who had previously had some reservations about her.

When Tang Mingli visited her aunt's house a while ago, she specifically told Tang Mingmei about Zheng Hao's deeds, hoping that she could learn something from them.

If it were the old Tang Mingmei, she definitely wouldn't have said anything, because it would have been pointless.

But Tang Mingmei is different now. Tang Mingli feels that she should be able to learn something from another strong mother about what it truly means to be a mother's strength.

That is indeed the case.

Zheng Hao's incident had a huge impact on Tang Mingmei, and it did change her mind.

Previously, she only knew that having a job and being able to earn a salary every month was very important.

As for what changes it can bring? All she thinks is that she has value only when she has a job, and she has confidence only when she has a salary.

But after having a daughter, she understood the importance of money even more.

You can't count on Li Dazhu or his family anymore. If you want your daughter to have a better life, she has to rely on herself.

Tang Mingmei was holding her child and was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't even hear the knocking.

Finally, Li Hong, who had returned from outside, opened the door.

Among the people who came, Li Hong recognized one of them; wasn't he a staff member from the local street office?

Li Hong had never met the other one, but she thought the two should be from the same unit.

We usually just chat and drink tea at work, so why did you come to her house today?

Especially after entering the house, the two men stared intently at their daughter and granddaughter, making Li Hong even more uneasy.

She changed the subject, asking with a smile, "I wonder what brings you two here today?"

The comrade from the neighborhood office whom Li Hong knew snapped out of her daze, said "Oh," and then replied, "It's nothing, just a routine visit to check on how the people are doing."

Who would believe that?

Li Hong pursed her lips, but could only force a smile to invite the two to sit down, and even made them tea with great enthusiasm.

The neighborhood committee comrade who had previously visited Li Dazhu's home didn't beat around the bush and directly started talking to Tang Mingmei: "Are you having a conflict with your husband?"

Tang Mingmei wasn't afraid to admit that having conflicts with her husband wasn't illegal, so they couldn't possibly arrest her.

So she simply said, "Yes, that bastard Li Dazhu didn't care about his daughter being sick and hospitalized. I was so angry that I took the child and went back to my parents' home."

Upon hearing that this was the case, the comrade from the neighborhood office immediately felt empathy.

"I've never seen a father like this before. He doesn't even care when his daughter is sick and hospitalized." As he spoke, he looked at the daughter in Tang Mingmei's arms. Seeing that the child was fair-skinned and cute, as beautiful as a snow dumpling, he blurted out, "It's a good thing your child doesn't look like her father, otherwise you'd be worried."

Anyone could understand that this meant the child's father was ugly.

Tang Mingmei no longer cares at all when people say Li Dazhu is ugly. She also feels that she was blind before, how could she not have thought Li Dazhu was ugly back then?

Now it seems, he's no different from Pighead C.

Tang Mingmei wholeheartedly agreed, "That's right, if she had a father as stupid as her, I would be really worried."

She really couldn't bear to think that if her daughter looked like Li Dazhu, wouldn't she be a little pig-headed idiot?

She probably broke down the moment she saw her baby in the delivery room.

The person from the neighborhood committee realized after speaking that they had said something they shouldn't have and was feeling a little embarrassed. They didn't expect Tang Mingmei to reply so seriously, so they blurted out again: "Then why did you fall for him back then?"

"I think I was possessed by an evil spirit at that time."

These words almost made the two street office staff members burst into laughter.

They came to see her today specifically to see if Tang Mingmei was secretly pregnant with her second child and hiding at her parents' house. But from what they heard, she seemed quite dissatisfied with her husband.

Couples with this kind of relationship are unlikely to have a second child.

But even though it's highly probable, since they've come, they'll definitely want to confirm it.

Just as the staff from the neighborhood committee were about to speak, the child suddenly started crying.

Tang Mingmei hurriedly said, "My daughter is hungry, I need to feed her first."

Without any attempt to hide it, she simply turned to the side and, in front of the two of them, unbuttoned her clothes and began breastfeeding.

They're all women, and they're all mothers; there's nothing to hide.

Seeing this, the two street office staff looked at each other, and they both saw in each other's eyes—what else is there to confirm?

If Tang Mingmei is indeed pregnant with a second child, will she still have breast milk?

The two secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Since the implementation of the one-child policy, many people have tried every means to conceive a second, third, or even fourth child.

The family planning office is incredibly busy, and sometimes the staff have to cooperate with them.

Like now, we need to go and check on the situation.

After confirming that Tang Mingmei was not pregnant, the two did not leave immediately.

Now that we're here, how can we just leave?

They're not pregnant now, but who knows if they will be in the future? So after Tang Mingmei finished breastfeeding, the two took the opportunity to promote the idea that having only one child is good.

After the discussion, they cited many examples of the fates of people who secretly conceived a second child out of wishful thinking, violating national policies.

"...National policies are no joke. Even if you secretly get pregnant again, the child still can't be kept once it's discovered."

"Yes, recently, in the staff quarters near the yarn factory, two women secretly got pregnant with their second child. In the end, they chose to abort the child to keep their jobs, but why bother? All that trouble only harms their bodies."

Listening to their back-and-forth conversation, Tang Mingmei guessed what their purpose was in coming today.

Perhaps she had been away at her parents' home for too long, and they were worried she might be secretly pregnant and hiding away.

Having understood this, she made her stance clear to the two colleagues from the neighborhood committee: "Don't worry, given the Li family's circumstances, they're struggling to raise even one child. There's no way I'd have a second child for him. Besides..."

Tang Mingmei changed the subject, glanced at her mother, and continued, "I don't even plan to continue living with Li Dazhu. Anyway, he doesn't care about our daughter. I'm fine living with my child at my parents' house."

Li Hong could see that her daughter had such thoughts, but before, she had only said them in a defiant tone and they couldn't be taken seriously. Unlike now, she was calm and composed, as if she were talking about a decision she had thought about for a long time.

The two comrades from the neighborhood committee were trying to persuade Tang Mingmei not to violate the policy and have a second child, not to break up her family.

Upon hearing Tang Mingmei's words, the two immediately became anxious.

"You young people shouldn't be impulsive. As the saying goes, it takes a hundred years of cultivation to share a boat ride and a thousand years to share a pillow. Since you are destined to become husband and wife, you should cherish each other and grow old together."

"Yes, yes, couples shouldn't say things like they can't live together all the time. Saying things like that too often will hurt their relationship."

"Besides, you already have a daughter, so think more about your child and don't let her grow up in an unhealthy environment."

"Although Li Dazhu is a bit ugly, there are advantages to being ugly. At least he won't mess around outside. After all, not everyone is good enough for him, right?"

These words were both funny and hurtful to Tang Mingmei.

Yes, not everyone is good enough for her. She was so arrogant and blind to have taken a liking to someone.

What's even more ridiculous is that at the time she thought she was in a worse situation than Tang Mingli in the Fu family, and that marrying a man like Fu Ci would be the real disaster.

At that time, seeing that she had found a man like Li Dazhu, Tang Mingli must have thought to herself that she was blind and heartless.

She'd be better off being blind and mindless.

-

The two comrades from the neighborhood committee had mixed feelings after leaving Tangjia.

The comrade who had visited Li Dazhu's house before thought about it and decided that he couldn't just go back to work like that.

As a public servant who is supposed to serve the people, she must serve them to the very end.

She needs to go to the Li family and persuade Li Dazhu to bring his wife and children back home as soon as possible so they can live a good life.