Chapter 63: Will they send Xiao Ba back? What will happen to Xiao Ba...?

Wen Min and Lou Lan went to a meeting in the morning. When they came back, they found someone tied up in their house. The person looked like he had been badly beaten. When they asked, they found out that An Fusheng and Xu Sannian were the ones who did it. Wen Min almost fainted from fright.

After Wen Min understood the situation, he immediately called the police.

After finishing the call, Wen Min said to Lou Lan, "Sister Lan, please check on the child."

Then he glared at An Fusheng and Xu Sannian, and said coldly, "You two come to my office." He turned and walked towards his office.

An Fusheng and Xu Sannian exchanged a glance, and Xu Sannian stuck out her tongue. The two silently followed Wen Min into her office.

Wen Min's office is very large. Bai Mangmang and Wen Xinglin often do their homework in her office, so there are several chairs in the office.

Seeing that there was only one chair in front of Wen Min's desk, not enough for the two of them, Xu San Nian prepared to drag a chair over. But before he could make a move, he heard Wen Min say coldly, "You two just stand there!"

Xu Sannian paused, then immediately stood at attention.

An Fusheng also straightened up.

Wen Min herself wasn't in the mood to sit. She stood opposite the two of them, hands on her hips, and after catching her breath for a while, she scolded, "You two are incredibly audacious! Knowing you were being followed, instead of calling the police immediately, you actually dared to conspire to arrest her on your own? Luckily, it's just a woman who can't even kill a chicken. What if it were a vicious criminal? What would you have done then?"

An Fusheng tried to argue, "She had been following me three times. I had to figure out what her purpose was. We only decided to arrest her after we were sure she was a woman."

Xu Sannian nodded vigorously, "Yes, yes, and I'm super strong. I knocked her down in one go. She had no power to struggle at all. Master didn't even have a chance to make a move."

"So you're getting arrogant now, aren't you?" Wen Min sat down, rubbing her forehead. She was so angry she felt dizzy. "Can you be sure she doesn't have accomplices? Besides, what makes you think you can subdue a woman? You have two children with you. Aren't you worried about their safety?"

An Fusheng remained silent. He hadn't thought much about it at the time; he only felt that one of them was strong and the other skilled in martial arts, and that subduing a middle-aged woman would be more than enough. Moreover, seizing the opportunity to catch this stalker and find out her purpose was a golden chance, so he went ahead without hesitation.

“But she’s the one who abandoned Xiao Ba.” Xu San Nian was somewhat unconvinced. “Luckily we caught her, otherwise she would have continued to evade justice after committing a crime.”

Wen Min opened her mouth, about to say something, when there was a knock on the door.

"The police are here," Lou Lan said from outside the door.

Wen Min opened the door. "I understand. I'll be right down."

...

Wen Min led An Fusheng and Xu Sannian downstairs.

Two police officers were standing in the courtyard. When the three came down, one of them politely said to Wen Min, "Hello, I am a police officer from the police station. Are you Dean Wen?"

Wen Min nodded and said, "Yes, that's me."

The police officer continued, "Where is the suspect?"

Wen Min: "I'll take you there."

Wen Min led the police to the vacant room next to the restaurant, opened the door, and said, "It's inside."

Hearing the noise, the woman in the room looked up in a panic. Upon seeing the two policemen, her face turned ashen.

A short while later, the police brought the woman out in handcuffs and said to Wen Min and the other two, "Dean Wen, you and the other two may need to go to the police station to give statements."

Wen Min nodded: "Okay."

...

Wen Min went to the police station to explain why she reported the incident and how she found Wen Xinglan. She had already filed a report when she found Wen Xinglan, so her statement was taken quickly.

An Fusheng and Xu Sannian were still involved in whether they had intentionally harmed the suspect, so the recording was relatively slow. Fortunately, the suspect said that the two of them did not harm him, and the police were able to retrieve the relevant surveillance video. In the end, the two of them came out safely.

"Damn it! They wouldn't have been able to catch the bad guys without us. We delivered the person right to their doorstep, and they still suspect us of hitting her. So what if we hit her? Can't we hit this kind of scum?" Xu Sannian said indignantly.

"Say less," Wen Min said. "Bad people will be punished by law; it's not your place to do that."

"Hmph! How long are we going to wait for the law? Didn't you call the police when you found Xiao Ba? They haven't caught her yet. Luckily, this woman hasn't left. If she had, they might never have found her." Xu San Nian retorted.

"Because there are no surveillance cameras, it is indeed quite difficult to investigate." A man's voice came from behind.

Xu Sannian turned his head reflexively and saw a tall man in his thirties wearing a police uniform walking towards them.

"Thank you, young friends." The man smiled and then walked up to Wen Min. "Dean Wen, please wait a moment. I have something to say to you."

Wen Min told An Fusheng and Xu Sannian to wait while he went to the policeman's office to talk.

"What do you think he wanted to say to the dean?" Xu Sannian asked, watching Wen Min and the policeman leave. "We're not going to cause trouble for the dean, are we?"

"I don't know either." An Fusheng was also a little worried.

"But he just praised us!" Xu Sannian asked, puzzled.

An Fusheng thought of something else: that woman knew Xiao Ba's father. If the police found Xiao Ba's father, would they send him back?

After An Fusheng brought the woman back to the orphanage at noon, he forced her to confess almost everything.

The woman's name was Chen Fang. Her son also had congenital heart disease. Because her husband was unwilling to spend money to treat their son, Chen Fang divorced him. Hearing that hospitals in big cities were very good, she brought her son to the big city for medical treatment.

However, Chen Fang was a rural woman who had never even been to the county town many times, and her Mandarin was also very broken. She went through great lengths to find a hospital in the big city, but she didn't know how to seek medical treatment. Afraid of worrying and scaring her son in front of her, she could only hide in a corner and secretly wipe away her tears.

Xiao Ba's father took Xiao Ba to the hospital for a checkup. They happened to meet Chen Fang, who was secretly crying in a corner of the hospital lobby. Seeing her pitiful state, he asked if she needed help. He discovered that her son had the same illness as Xiao Ba, so he took them to register, see a doctor, and go through the hospital admission process. Later, Xiao Ba and Chen Fang's son ended up in the same ward, and the two families became acquainted.

Neither family was well-off, so the child was often only hospitalized for a period of time when the illness became serious, and then discharged when the child's condition improved.

Later, the two families rented a house together. Xiao Ba's father usually worked as a food delivery driver, while Chen Fang stayed at home to take care of the two children and occasionally brought back some handicrafts from the factory to make. The two families supported each other and made a living together.

Two months ago, Chen Fang's son and Xiao Ba were taking a nap in the house. Chen Fang gave the only fan to the two children, and because she was too hot, she took her handicrafts outside to do something. When she heard crying, she ran back and saw Xiao Ba sitting on the bed crying and desperately trying to pry open her son's eyes, while her son lay on the bed with his eyes closed and no longer breathing.

Chen Fang was heartbroken. She forced herself to make a phone call to Xiao Ba's father and then hugged her son and cried uncontrollably. She had no mind to pay attention to Xiao Ba anymore. When Xiao Ba's father rushed back, he found that Xiao Ba had cried so much that he had developed a high fever.

Xiao Ba's father took Xiao Ba to the hospital. Xiao Ba's heart was severely affected due to excessive fright, and the hospital spent a lot of effort to save him. The doctor suggested that Xiao Ba should have surgery as soon as possible, otherwise his condition would only continue to deteriorate. However, Xiao Ba had been hospitalized repeatedly since birth, and Xiao Ba's father had spent all the money he had saved from working. He simply did not have the money for the surgery.

Chen Fang couldn't bear to see Xiao Ba's father watch his child die like she did. She also heard from some fellow patients that heart disease could often be cured with money, so she wanted to find a way for Xiao Ba to survive. So she persuaded Xiao Ba's father to send Xiao Ba away. But where did she and Xiao Ba's father know any rich people?

So she inquired everywhere and found out that orphanages could take in children, and that medical treatment would be free once a child was taken in.

She started asking around about welfare homes. After much effort, she found several welfare homes. Outside the welfare homes were wide roads with pedestrians and vehicles coming and going. She also heard that there were surveillance cameras everywhere on the main roads. She knew that abandoning children was illegal, so she dared not abandon her child in a place with surveillance cameras.

Fortunately, her efforts paid off. One day, while riding a bus, she accidentally discovered the Starry Sky Welfare Home. Although there was a bus stop not far from the Starry Sky Welfare Home, it was on a small road, and apart from the bus that came every half hour, very few people passed by.

Because she was worried that Xiao Ba's father would be reluctant to take the child away himself, Chen Fang took on the task of taking the child to school.

Before sending Xiao Ba away, Chen Fang observed the Xingchen Welfare Home. She knew that Lou Lan would go out very early every day to send the children to school. She thought that if Lou Lan found a child at the gate when she sent the children to school, she would pick the child up and take him back. She was afraid that people would see him during the day, so she sent Xiao Ba to the gate of the welfare home in the early morning. She was also afraid that it would be too obvious to leave him in the middle of the road and that he would be discovered before she had gone far, so she put Xiao Ba in the grass by the roadside a little further away.

Little Eight was never properly cared for as a child and often played alone. So even when he was left in the grass, he didn't cry. He would just grab the grass and play by himself, and when he got tired, he would take a nap.

Lou Lan is always in a hurry to send the children to school and doesn't pay attention to her surroundings. That day, she had other things to do, so she dropped off the children and went to run errands instead of returning as usual. There weren't many people passing by the orphanage. It wasn't until almost noon, when Xiao Ba cried for a long time because she was hungry, that an old man who collects recyclables found her.

After clarifying the details, An Fusheng did some research and found that the sentence for abandoning a child is not very severe, and many cases only result in probation. If Xiao Ba's father only receives a probation sentence and he is willing to continue raising Xiao Ba, the court is very likely to send Xiao Ba back.

An Fusheng didn't want Xiao Ba to be sent back. According to Chen Fang, Xiao Ba's father also had congenital heart disease and was an orphan. He grew up with his uncle when he was young, but his uncle abandoned him when he was fifteen. He came to work outside and later met Xiao Ba's mother. Xiao Ba's maternal grandparents disapproved of their relationship and locked Xiao Ba's mother in the house for fear that they would elope. As a result, Xiao Ba's mother did not go to the hospital when she gave birth and died in childbirth.

If Xiao Ba stays with his father, what will happen to Xiao Ba if his father gets sick one day? Xiao Ba is only a little over a year old and has already suffered so much. He doesn't want Xiao Ba to suffer anymore.

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Author's Note: This chapter has a bit less plot, but I still wanted to explain the background clearly, in case I had to add more details later and it would get confusing.