Chapter 38 Exclusive Stories from Jinjiang
Su Ruyi asked in surprise, "Why do you say that?"
"Anyway, she's just lying." Tong Yunyun sneered. "What she says isn't sincere at all. She has a smile on her lips, but she's actually cold-blooded."
Tong Yunyun is not very old. She usually jumps around like a monkey. She seems carefree, but she is actually very thoughtful.
She grew up under the scrutiny of various eyes. After pretending to be a boy, she received even more strange looks, making it easy for her to sense the malice hidden behind the adults' smiles.
Some children are born with an instinctive sensitivity to emotions, and Tong Yunyun is one of them.
So even though her parents treated her well, she could still sense that everyone wanted her to be a boy, so she dressed up as one.
Although they had only known each other for a short time, Su Ruyi felt that it was unlikely that Tong Yunyun had congenital gender dysphoria, and that it was more likely due to acquired factors.
Su Ruyi subconsciously looked at Old Li. Although they were speaking in low voices, the place was only so big, and the other party could definitely still hear them.
Old Li's expression was somber, and he was completely absorbed in grief and pain, unable to hear anything from the outside world.
Seeing him like this, even though Su Ruyi didn't know much about his situation, she inexplicably felt heartbroken.
It's like watching a movie cut; even though you don't know what the story is about, you can still feel the emotions the actors are trying to express from their expressions and the overall atmosphere of the movie.
Actors are still performing, but Old Li's sadness is real and more likely to move people.
"Grandpa," Su Ruyi called softly.
Old Li turned his head slowly and blankly to look at Su Ruyi, his eyes empty and lost.
"Grandpa, we should go sell our peaches now."
Su Ruyi didn't know how to comfort him, so she could only tell Old Li to get out of his current state and find something else to do.
"Peach, we need to go sell peaches. If we sell peaches, we can buy candy for Niannian and to cure Xiaobao's illness. Once we sell the peaches, Niannian will come back, and Xiaobao will be cured."
Old Li's eyes gradually reddened. He walked to the peach basket, his body hunched over, his steps unsteady, and he moved slowly, as if he had aged more than ten years in an instant.
Tong Yunyun's face fell at this moment, her lips pursed, and her eyes began to redden.
Su Ruyi felt an unbearable soreness in her throat and forced herself to hold back her tears.
Seeing that the old man looked like he could faint at any moment, Su Ruyi realized that he wouldn't be able to sell peaches today.
"Grandpa, let me go help you sell peaches. You wait at home first. That way, if anyone comes, someone will be there to watch the house."
Old Li initially wanted to refuse, but after hearing the last sentence, he couldn't move his feet.
"This is really too much trouble for you."
“We’re not working for free. We want your peaches, consider it as hiring us to do the work.”
Old Li didn't force himself in the end; he felt very uncomfortable in his heart and couldn't push himself.
He's the only one holding the family together. If he collapses, his wife and grandson won't be able to survive either.
Although Old Li felt very sorry for the two young girls, he shamelessly accepted their kindness.
Peaches will spoil if they aren't sold quickly after being picked; we can't let them go to waste.
“Keep two baskets for yourselves.”
After spending two days together, Su Ruyi understood Old Li's personality and didn't refuse.
Su Ruyi and Tong Yunyun carried peaches to the entrance of the steamed bun shop. The shop owner and his wife recognized her and asked curiously:
"Why are there only you guys today? Where is your Grandpa Li?"
"Uncle Li had something to do at home, so I came to sell peaches for him."
The proprietress sighed, "It seems Uncle Li still wants to sell the house."
The shop owner said, "What else can we do but sell? Xiaobao needs medical bills. He's our only grandson. If something else happens to him, how can we, the old couple, possibly survive?"
There aren't many people here, so you can chat and sell things at the same time.
Su Ruyi didn't know how to use the current scales, so Tong Yunyun helped her watch them. Su Ruyi only needed to collect the money, which allowed her to have time to chat.
"Doesn't Grandpa Li have a grandson named Niannian?"
The proprietress quickly said, "You mustn't mention Niannian in front of Grandpa Li."
"What's wrong?"
After finishing her work, there weren't many customers at the shop entrance for the time being, so the proprietress walked over to Su Ruyi and chatted with her.
"Aren't you a distant relative of Uncle Li? You didn't know about this?"
Su Ruyi didn't hide anything and told the story of how she met Old Li.
The proprietress sighed, "You're a good girl, and it's all thanks to you. If Uncle Li had another accident, it would have been really... sigh, I suspect there might be something wrong with their ancestral graves. Every time things are going well, something unlucky happens."
This made Su Ruyi even more curious. The landlady happened to be a talkative person, so she told her everything about Old Li's family.
“Niannian is actually your Uncle Li’s biological grandson, and Xiaobao is his grandson by marriage. However, Xiaobao’s biological father became successful and disliked Xiaobao’s poor health, thinking that he would not live long. Xiaobao’s mother was unwilling to have another child, so the two divorced. After the divorce, Xiaobao’s biological father remarried a few days later, and he brought a child with him who was about the same age as Xiaobao.”
The proprietress was so angry when she mentioned this that she snorted and glared at the boss.
The boss felt utterly innocent. "Why are you glaring at me? I've been behaving myself, I haven't done anything!"
"That's because I was watching you but didn't have a chance! What's that saying again? A man only behaves when he's hanging on the wall."
"You're really blaming me. You can't just pin the blame on me for other men's mistakes. That would be so unfair to me."
The proprietress rolled her eyes and said to Su Ruyi:
"Men's words are deceitful, don't believe them. Ever since our family opened this shop and made a little money, haha, I'm afraid to tell you two young ladies this story. These days, men aren't honest, and some women are just as shameless, swarming around like flies at the sight of a little benefit."
Su Ruyi glanced at the boss, who was below average in appearance, and then at the boss's wife, who was plump but full of vitality.
She said sincerely, "Sister, you don't actually need to keep an eye on Uncle."
The boss was delighted to hear this: "See, the people have discerning eyes."
Wait, why is he calling his wife "sister" and himself "uncle"?
Just as I was wondering, I heard Su Ruyi say, "Sister, if you get divorced and want to find someone else, the line would stretch all the way to Paris. Uncle can only see you through binoculars, so it should be Uncle who's worried about you."
Upon hearing this, the proprietress burst into laughter.
"Oh my, your little mouth is so sweet, it's like you've touched honey."
The proprietress looked at the proprietress and said, "Did you hear that? I'm still as charming as ever."
The boss gave Su Ruyi a thumbs up: "I, who pull noodles every day, don't pull noodles as well as you."
After a brief interruption, the proprietress continued speaking.
The atmosphere became heavy again when the topic of Grandpa Li's family came up.
The story of Xiao Bao's parents is not uncommon in this era.
The man gradually rose to prominence by relying on his wife's family. As a result, once he became successful, he looked down on his original wife and got back together with his former lover. Or perhaps the two had never been separated. He found an excuse to divorce her and even abandoned his frail son.
Xiao Bao's mother took her child back to her parents' home, changed Xiao Bao's surname, and started calling her parents "grandpa and grandma".
Su Ruyi listened patiently, not in a hurry to urge the proprietress to talk about Niannian's affairs.
The proprietress was clearly the kind of person who said whatever came to mind, and when she talked about something, she would start from the beginning and go on for a long time without getting to the point.
Su Ruyi wasn't in a hurry; she just listened quietly.
"Xiao Bao's mother is a capable woman. Although she went back to her parents' home, she still works hard to earn money to raise her child. It's just that Xiao Bao's health is too poor. He has to go to the hospital every few days since he was little, so no matter how capable she is, the money is never enough." The proprietress sighed.
"Later, there was really no other way, so Xiaobao's mother had to go to work in the south. But she never came back."
Su Ruyi probed, "What do you mean by never coming back?"
"She just disappeared without a trace. She got on a train and then disappeared."
"What?! How could such a big person just disappear?"
"Who knows? Anyway, we haven't heard from her since she left, and we don't know where she went. Some people say that she felt too much pressure, so she abandoned her children and parents and went to find a place to live on her own."
Su Ruyi frowned: "That can't be right. From what you've told me about her, she's not that kind of woman."
"That's right. If she were really that kind of person, she would have insisted on not getting a divorce back then, and life wouldn't have been so hard. Actually, Xiao Bao's biological father didn't necessarily want a divorce at the time. He just wanted to be allowed to keep another woman outside and bring her child home. Xiao Bao's mother couldn't stand the humiliation, so she got a divorce right away."
The proprietress actually disapproved of Xiaobao's mother's actions. She thought it was too foolish; she was occupying the position of wife, so why should she give it to those other women?
"But the person just disappeared. We searched everywhere after reporting it to the police, but there was no news."
Did she go to the South alone?
The proprietress said, "Yes, she said that a friend in the south had arranged a factory for her, but the friend waited for several days and didn't see her come, so he called back to inquire about the situation, and that's when he found out that she had disappeared."
In those days, there were no cameras, and train station management wasn't as strict as it is in later years. There were even platform tickets for people to enter the station.
In some smaller train stations, it's even possible to skip the ticket check and go straight to the platform.
Train tickets are not registered under real names, making it extremely difficult to find out when someone gets off the train.
Xiao Bao's mother's train journey to the south takes more than forty hours, passing through dozens of stations of varying sizes. Moreover, modern trains cannot run side-by-side.
If two cars are parked side by side, one of them has to stop and wait for the other to pass before it can continue driving.
This way, there are more places to get off the bus.
A bad feeling welled up in Su Ruyi's heart. Could it be that Xiao Bao's mother had been kidnapped?
How old was Xiaobao's mother when she went missing?
"She must be around 28 or 29. She got married early, catching the last wave of people who got married at 18."
At this age, they are young and in the prime of their reproductive years, making them easy targets for human traffickers.
The proprietress guessed what Su Ruyi was thinking and sighed, "We also think there's a high possibility that she was abducted. Her family has never given up looking for her all these years, but we haven't heard a word from her."
Nowadays, it is extremely difficult to find women and children who have been trafficked; many are not found until decades later.
Once you go into those mountain gullies, you never come out again.
These villages often protect each other, making it very difficult for the police to enter the villages and rescue trafficked women.
The disappearance of Xiao Bao's mother cast a huge shadow over this family.
But life had to go on as usual. To avoid upsetting Xiao Bao, they had been lying to him all these years, saying that his mother had gone to work in another city and hadn't told him about his disappearance.
“There was this one guy who used to tease the kids and mentioned it to Xiaobao. It made the kid faint and end up in the hospital, costing a lot of money in medical bills. Since then, no one has dared to be sarcastic in front of the kids.”
Su Ruyi was speechless: "This kind of person is simply insane!"
“That’s right.” The proprietress also said indignantly, “I have two children, and many people have said to my eldest daughter that we’ve had a younger brother and we don’t need her anymore.”
"Tell me, are these people teasing a child? They're clearly trying to make our family miserable!"
Su Ruyi was also disgusted by what she heard; she had seen this kind of thing happen quite often around her.
As older children, girls are easily overlooked, especially those with younger brothers. They are more likely to feel unfairly treated, and if someone says something like that, it can leave a deep scar on the girl.
After discussing Xiaobao's matter, the proprietress finally brought up the topic of Niannian.
"Nian Nian's father fell seriously ill shortly after Nian Nian was born and passed away quickly. Nian Nian's mother abandoned her child and remarried not long after, and hasn't been seen since. Nian Nian was raised by the elderly couple. Not long after Nian Nian's father passed away, Xiao Bao's mother divorced. She told me that her younger brother died so young, and no one knows what will suddenly happen. Life can be very short, and she felt that she didn't need to waste her time on a man."
Su Ruyi sighed even more after hearing this. Such a woman, with her vibrant vitality, would surely be able to turn her life around if given a chance. She never expected to encounter such an accident as soon as she stepped out.
Every year, Old Li, Grandma Sun, Xiao Bao, and Xiao Bao's mother raised him together.
Xiao Bao is six years older than Niannian. Because he has been in poor health since childhood, he cannot run or jump, so the children do not like to play with him. His parents are also worried about what would happen if something happened while they were playing together, so they keep their children away from him.
Therefore, Xiao Bao was very happy when he had a younger brother, and he took care of Niannian from a young age and played with him.
Niannian is a smart child; even at such a young age, she knows how to take care of her sick older brother.
The two brothers grew up together and had a very good relationship.
"After Xiaobao's mother disappeared, the family's income decreased even more. Before, Xiaobao's mother supported the family for most of the year. Uncle Li and Aunt Sun had to get up early and work late to sweep the streets and find all kinds of jobs. They dared not have any free time. Xiaobao usually looked after Niannian."
"Don't let Xiaobao's young age and poor health fool you; he can already cook for himself and his younger brother, easing the burden on his grandparents."
The proprietress sighed, "Such a good child, it's just that his life is too hard."
"One day, Xiaobao was cooking in the kitchen while Niannian was playing in the yard. But when Xiaobao finished cooking and came out, he found that Niannian was gone. At first, he thought that Niannian had run out to play, so he searched house to house, but when he found that she was nowhere to be found, he realized that something was wrong and quickly went to find her grandparents."
What happened next is quite clear.
Niannian disappeared, and Xiaobao was so shocked that he went straight to the hospital. The elderly couple had to search for Niannian on one hand, and take care of their sick child on the other. They were completely exhausted.
When did Niannian go missing?
"It's been around the time of the Qingming Festival, for a while now. During this period, Xiao Bao's health has been fluctuating, and he's spent more time in the hospital than at home."
The child felt extremely guilty, believing that he hadn't taken good care of his younger brother, which led to his brother being kidnapped.
He was already in poor health, and with these kinds of things happening one after another, even a healthy adult would not be able to withstand it, let alone a child with pre-existing health problems.
"Look at this child, so young, how can he be so thoughtful? How can you blame him? These days, whose child doesn't run around outside? Their yard gate was closed, but it wasn't locked from the inside. In broad daylight, there are several yards with their gates locked."
Su Ruyi also felt a lump in her throat. No wonder the old couple seemed so contradictory; they were clearly exhausted and in pain, but they held on and didn't let anyone see it.
They were afraid of showing any abnormality and dared not let themselves collapse. If they collapsed, then no one would care about the missing Niannian, and no one would take care of the sick Xiaobao.
Su Ruyi immediately understood what Liu Xiuzhi had said. They wanted to sell the house to pay for Xiaobao's medical treatment, but they were also worried about the missing Niannian and wanted to leave the house so that Niannian could find her way home.
If they move away, they won't be able to find them when we look for them again every year.
This is the thought of many parents and relatives of abducted children. Many people stay in the place where their children were abducted, waiting year after year, hoping that one day their children will return.
In reality, some children do have excellent memories and can find their way home based on their childhood memories when they grow up.
Furthermore, the price of the house was heavily discounted, which made the elderly couple even more unwilling to sell.
No wonder Old Li was so angry. This kind of thing has already caused enough pain for his family, and yet someone is trying to take advantage of their misfortune and buy the house at a low price.
That's absolutely despicable!
Housing prices now seem much cheaper than they will be decades from now, but compared to current wages, they are still a terrifying figure.
There are no privately developed real estate projects in the county; all housing is provided by work units or self-built, and very few of these are sold or traded.
Housing is in short supply in the county right now, so theoretically there should be no market for the houses, and they should sell very well.
Although Old Li's house is quite spacious and the price isn't low, there's no shortage of wealthy people these days, and there's no shortage of buyers.
The result was that the price offered was ridiculously low, which was unbelievable.
Although Su Ruyi didn't know the specific details, based on what she had just heard, the price those people were offering was less than half the market price, which was just too much of a rip-off.
Su Ruyi also mentioned this to the proprietress, but before she could speak, the proprietress said:
"I know about this. It was all caused by that bastard Peng Zhiyong."
Su Ruyi asked curiously, "What happened?"
"Peng Zhiyong used to live in Uncle Li's house. At that time, the situation was special. Uncle Li's house was divided among several families, and Uncle Li himself lived in the smallest west wing. Later, the state returned the house to Uncle Li. However, some of the previous residents refused to leave and refused to pay rent, which caused quite a stir."
Back then, Uncle Li's son was still alive, and with his extensive connections, he managed to get a lot of people to help, and they finally managed to get rid of all the tenants. So, in recent years, their situation hasn't been good, and they haven't considered renting out any extra rooms, precisely because they're afraid of a repeat of what happened before.
During those turbulent times, Old Li's family lived in constant fear of being purged or reported, thus living the life of a low-income resident in their own courtyard.
Everyone looked down on their family, but unexpectedly, fortunes changed, and Old Li's family turned their lives around, with the whole house returning to his hands.
Those previously arrogant families have all become tenants of Old Li's family, their status completely reversed.
People are most prone to jealousy of those who were originally inferior to them but later surpassed them, as if the other party had stolen their opportunity.
Peng Zhiyong is that kind of person. Coupled with the humiliation of being evicted, it left him with a thorn in his side, a desire to take back "his" house.
"This Peng Zhiyong is a daring guy. He's made a lot of money over the years and knows a lot of people in the county. A few years ago, during the crackdown, a lot of people were arrested and killed. He took advantage of that time to rise to power and took over a group of petty thugs to make a living. In the past few years, he's really made something of himself. He's directly declared that the house is his and no one can buy it."
Ordinary people don't want to get involved with petty thugs, so they give up when they hear rumors.
Although I really wanted that house, I was ultimately afraid of getting into trouble.
They spent so much money to buy a house, but now they can't have peace and quiet every day. Nobody's happy about that.
Those who were capable and unafraid of Peng Zhiyong looked down on Old Li's house.
Some people who have their eyes on a property aren't afraid of Peng Zhiyong and want to take advantage of the situation. For example, those who came to see the property this morning were all trying to drive the price down as far as possible.
Su Ruyi frowned even more: "Does Grandpa Li have such a deep grudge against Peng Zhiyong? Isn't this pushing him to his death?"
The proprietress said, "Actually, it's not that serious. These kinds of things happened quite often a few years ago, but it's not enough to cause a blood feud."
Boss: "Ultimately, they just want to take advantage of the situation and make a profit. Previous grudges are just secondary."
The proprietress said, "Uncle Li's house is really nice. It's such a big place. Although it's a bit old, it can be fixed with some repairs. All the materials used are of good quality."
Upon hearing this, Su Ruyi asked, "Sister, do you know a female neighbor of Uncle's surnamed Liu?"
"Liu? Are you talking about Liu Xiuzhi? The one with dimples when she smiles?"
Su Ruyi nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, that's her."
"Her family used to live in that courtyard too. The two families had a good relationship back then. When Peng Zhiyong caused trouble, Zhao Zhigang, Liu Xiuzhi's husband, also stepped in to mediate."
The situation escalated to the point of almost ending up in the police station, but after he stepped in, things calmed down considerably, and he even took the initiative to be the first to move.
"Listen, this couple seems like a pretty good pair."
The proprietress paused, looked at the customers who came to buy steamed buns and peaches, and said:
"He does look quite friendly."
"To be honest, Peng Zhiyong and Zhao Zhigang are related by some connections. So when Zhao Zhigang came out, Peng Zhiyong gave him some face."
Su Ruyi suddenly realized why Liu Xiuzhi wasn't afraid at all when she scolded Peng Zhiyong.
"Sister Liu's family must also want to buy a house, right?" Su Ruyi asked tentatively.
"These days, who doesn't want to own their own house? People like us who don't have a work unit can't rely on housing allocation, so we want to buy a house if we have the means."
The proprietress was alert; at this point, her eyes widened suddenly:
"You don't suspect...they and them, do you?"
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