Chapter 038 The Truth about the Child Swap

"Dad, are we really going to the town?"

Li Zhenzhu sat on the front bar of the rickshaw, twisting her head with excitement on her face.

Li Wenfeng smiled, "Yeah, we'll be there in half an hour."

The little girl shook her feet, her face flushed with excitement.

She was usually timid, but now she dared to hold on to Li Wenfeng's arm and leaned over to call Li Liuli who was sitting in the back seat.

"Sister, we are going to the town."

Li Liuli nodded repeatedly, her face looked very calm, but her eyes were frighteningly bright.

Go to the town to buy train tickets to the provincial capital, and they... can live with their dad forever in the future.

She turned her head and looked at the small mountain village that was getting farther and farther away. That was clearly the place where she grew up, but she was leaving without any reluctance.

"Dad, what is Beijing like? There are many small villages here. Do we have to walk a long way to the town to buy things?"

"If we go to Beijing, can we still study? When my cousin Qinan was at home during the New Year holiday, he said that there are foreigners teaching foreign languages ​​in their school. Will we have foreigners as teachers too?"

Li Zhenzhu tilted her head back, with endless questions to ask.

Li Wenfeng smiled and answered her one by one, "Beijing is the capital of our country. There is Tiananmen Square where great men climbed for the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China, the Great Wall that resisted foreign enemies, and the historical culture left by our ancestors..."

"Beijing also has many small villages, and there are many places where you need to walk a long way to the town to buy things, but our country is striving to develop ahead of time, and one day we will be able to go shopping just by leaving the house..."

"Of course you can study. You are so young, it is the time to study hard and absorb culture to grow strong. Only when you master the knowledge to change your destiny can you help our motherland prosper! You are all the pillars of the country's future."

Li Zhenzhu listened with hope in her eyes and nodded repeatedly, "Dad and the uncles in the army will protect our motherland for peace and prosperity!"

"Dad and uncles are heroes of the country and the people!" Li Liuli stuck her head out and added in a sonorous voice!

"Yes."

Li Wenfeng laughed heartily, feeling more relaxed and happy than ever before.

She was looking forward to the upcoming life with the army.

The two sisters looked at each other, covered their mouths and smiled.

The father and his two daughters talked and laughed until they reached the town. Li Wenfeng pushed the car to the station to buy tickets for an adult and two children.

Worried that his wife would hurt her waist from sitting, he asked someone to buy berths for Fan Qingyi and Xiao Shanhu.

After buying the tickets, there were several snack shops outside the small square of the railway station, one of which sold meatball soup.

"Delicious and inexpensive meatball soup, thick white soup made from pork bones boiled overnight, crispy meatballs fried at four or five o'clock, and chili oil fried from the red peppers grown in our own fields, so fragrant..."

Li Zhenzhu licked her tongue.

"Want to drink meatball soup?" Li Wenfeng stopped and looked down at his daughter.

Li Zhenzhu shook her head subconsciously, and her body swayed slightly. She squeezed towards Li Liuli with some fear.

"Zhuzhu, it's our dad!" Li Liuli grabbed her thin arm and squeezed it

gently, "Don't be afraid." Li Zhenzhu paused, then raised her head suddenly, and saw that Li Wenfeng's mouth was flat and his eyes were red.

She choked and said, "When dad doesn't smile, his voice is like uncle."

Li Wenfeng's eyes suddenly darkened, but he didn't show it on his face. He smiled and touched the girl's head.

"Did your uncle bring you guys to the town to play?"

Li Zhenzhu looked at Li Liuli for help.

Li Liuli pursed her lips and nodded slowly, "Someone in cousin Sangchen's factory wanted to adopt a girl, and said that if he liked me and Zhuzhu, he would be promoted to a regular employee. Zhuzhu and I deliberately... yelled and acted crazy in front of that person, so they didn't like us."

Li Wenfeng's eyes darkened a little more.

"How do you know?"

"My aunt said so. My uncle had a quarrel with my aunt and said that she shouldn't have kept it a secret from him, otherwise..."

Li Liuli looked up at Li Wenfeng, and comforted him with some reluctance and sympathy, "Dad, my uncle...may be different from when you were a child...when he was your brother...our teacher said that when people grow up and experience things, they will always be different from before..."

"Yeah, your teacher is right."

Li Wenfeng smiled and rubbed his daughter's head with one hand, "Come on, Dad will take you to drink meatball soup. In the future, we can eat whatever we want. Dad's allowance is more than enough to support you."

"My elder sister and I will make meatballs, we will grow vegetables ourselves, and we will buy bones that have been shaved clean. This way, it won't cost much." Li Zhenzhu smiled again under Li Wenfeng's smile, and talked about her future aspirations.

Li Wenfeng agreed, "Okay! Dad will open a vegetable garden, and we will grow vegetables ourselves."

Li Liuli also smiled and nodded.

The father and daughter went to the meatball soup stall together. The young daughter-in-law who was shouting smiled and asked them to sit down, "Two bowls or one..."

She looked at the two sisters and asked Li Wenfeng.

"Three bowls, one with more chili oil, one with more coriander, do you have flour?"

"Yes."

"One with more flour."

The young wife smiled and said yes. When she finished cooking and brought it over, she saw Li Wenfeng considerately holding spoons for the two daughters, and the smile in her eyes became deeper.

"Big brother is really good to his daughters. He rarely buys a bowl for each of them when he takes them out."

Many people think it's a waste of money.

Li Wenfeng thanked him, and brought the bowl with more chili oil to Li Zhenzhu, the bowl with more flour to Li Liuli, and took the bowl with more coriander himself.

The three of them were halfway through their meal when two women and a man came over.

The woman, holding a child, sat down on the bench next to them. "I'm so tired, but we're finally here. Master, when will they come?"

"They said 10 o'clock, it should be soon." A man of the same age as the woman also sat down.

There was also an older woman with droopy eyes who sat down and slapped the table. The young wife selling meatball soup smiled and called her aunt.

The three of them ordered two bowls of meatball soup. The woman holding the child licked her dry mouth and smiled ingratiatingly, "Mom, give me a bowl too. I'm so thirsty..."

"Go drink some water if you're thirsty. All the children you give birth to will be bad. How dare you eat!"

The woman didn't dare to say anything else. She looked at the man opposite her eagerly. The man was used to it and waved his hand impatiently, "I'll give you a couple of bites later."

"The boss is so good to me." The woman smiled contentedly.

The old woman cursed a few times and muttered, "That old thing Shen Dashu is so incompetent. If we had known that his daughter's in-laws were unreliable, we would have agreed to this family a long time ago and saved ourselves the trouble of making this trip."

"Aren't you thinking of finding a child bride for the eldest son? The eldest son is already fifteen and a fool. How is he going to find a wife in two years? Our family has no money. Who would be willing to marry their daughter to a fool?!"

The woman also looked regretful. "If we hadn't exchanged the child, the second daughter-in-law of the Li family would have suddenly become possessed and wanted to kill her mother-in-law! We should have exchanged the child back and raised him for ten years or so. He would have been the perfect wife for the eldest son..."

"Okay, when someone comes, give the child to them. We'll take the money back and look for another one for the eldest son. It would be best if the child is about the same age so that we can have offspring. The doctor at the county hospital said that the eldest son might not live past 18..."

"How can it be that easy to buy one? You'll go to jail if you get caught!"

The old woman cursed, "Shen Dahua is useless. The child should have been given to us when it was born... If the eldest son lives to see her grow up, we can marry him. If not, we can arrange a ghost marriage. Now it's killing me..."

From the moment Shen Dashu's name came out, Li Wenfeng sensed something was wrong.

After hearing what the couple said, his hand holding the chopsticks suddenly clenched, and his eyes became colder than ever before.

"Sister-in-law, it's hot this day, why do you wrap the child so tightly?"

The young daughter-in-law who sells meatball soup brought the meatball soup over and talked to the woman with a smile. She lowered her head to look at the child who didn't cry or make a fuss, but she was frightened by a short scream.

"Ah! This child..."