Xia Minmin and her companions dragged their suitcases into the residential area and happened to run into Aunt Jiang, who was getting off work at the hospital. She was wearing a light purple long-sleeved dress, which made her look gentle and elegant.
"Happy New Year, Aunt Jiang!"
She patted Xia Minmin's head and said, "Xiaomin, Happy New Year! You're even more beautiful this year than last year."
"Sister Chunmei, you're back! Let's all go shopping together tomorrow! I passed by the mall yesterday and they already had their discount information posted."
"Okay, when are you going?"
Li Chunmei readily agreed, as there were many things that needed to be bought for the family, including new shoes and bedding. Although Shenzhen doesn't have a winter, there are plenty of spring and autumn clothes available, and she also wanted to send some back to her parents in their hometown.
"I'm not working tomorrow, how about we go over at nine in the morning? You should be free, right? Based on past experience, there will be a lot of people rushing to buy things, so if we go early, we'll have all the sizes. I've already tried on several dresses, just waiting for the discounts to buy them."
Aunt Jiang, our neighbor, is a beautiful lady whose greatest hobby is buying all kinds of dresses. Every time Xia Minmin sees her, she is wearing a different dress, and if she had to describe her in one word, she would be graceful and elegant.
"I'm free tomorrow morning, let's meet at the entrance of the community at nine o'clock!"
"Okay, then I won't bother your family." Aunt Jiang hummed a little tune as she walked towards her apartment building.
"Happy New Year!"
"Happy New Year!"
The greenery in the community is still thriving and unchanged. On sunny days, elderly people can always be seen sitting in the pavilion picking vegetables and chatting.
Opening the door, I smelled the familiar scents and saw the familiar layout. The entryway still had that oil painting of the sunset after the typhoon, painted by Xia Minmin. Everything felt so welcoming.
Xia Minmin exclaimed, "Home is the best! I miss my little bed so much!"
As Xia Jianguo walked to the last door to close it, he heard his daughter say, "The fifth floor of the discount supermarket is also our home. Although we don't live there often, the house there is big and comfortable. This place is too cramped. If it weren't for your schooling, your mother and I would have moved long ago."
"Hmph, I only want a small house! I don't want to spend my days cleaning, and I'm so busy over there that I haven't had a proper reading session in ages."
Li Chunmei, who came out of the bathroom, also agreed with her daughter's words: "It takes at most half an hour to clean in Dudu Garden, but it takes more than an hour or even two hours over there. The three of us can hear each other when we talk at home."
Xia Jianguo carried his luggage into the living room. "A big house with few people is quiet, but a big house is better when we have guests. This place is too narrow. It's suitable for a family of three, but not for entertaining guests."
The family of three worked together and finished cleaning the house in ten minutes.
The three of them leaned back on the sofa, enjoying a moment of peace and quiet.
Li Chunmei, with her eyes closed, asked the father and daughter, "What are we having for dinner?"
What time is it?
Xia Minmin glanced at her watch. "It's almost 5:30. I want to eat pizza."
"It's too dry, let's get something else. You and Mengmeng can have pizza tomorrow." Xia Jianguo dislikes Western fast food the most.
Xia Minmin looked at Xia Jianguo, "Will you reimburse me?"
"Hey, we've never shortchanged you, why are you so stingy?"
Li Chunmei laughed and said, "Look at what you're saying, who doesn't want more money?"
Xia Minmin nodded, "That's right, who doesn't want more money?"
Would you like some coconut chicken?
"Great! It's been so long since I've had this!"
Shops of all sizes on the streets gradually reopened, and Shenzhen regained its former vitality.
"Sister, give me a dollar! I haven't eaten in a long time." A little girl dressed in tattered clothes, dirty all over, with messy hair and an unpleasant smell, stopped Xia Minmin.
Xia Minmin subconsciously took a step back, and Li Chunmei and Xia Jianguo stepped forward upon seeing this.
Xia Jianguo stood in front of his daughter, asking, "What happened?"
The child wasn't afraid of Xia Jianguo at all. His dirty little hands grabbed Xia Jianguo's clothes and said, "Uncle, please have pity on me! I haven't eaten for a long time. May you live a long and peaceful life."
Xia Jianguo frowned as he looked at the soiled clothes. "Kid, where are your parents?"
The little girl avoided eye contact and didn't speak, but her eyes kept looking to the right. Xia Jianguo looked in that direction and saw a young woman in a fashionable and well-dressed manner peeking out of the alley. She looked about 80% like the little girl and was probably her child.
Seeing that the child had parents, Xia Jianguo and Li Chunmei led Xia Minmin around the dirty child and walked quickly forward.
Xia Minmin turned to look at the child, who spat at them before turning to other targets.
Li Chunmei noticed her daughter looking back and asked, "Xiaomin, what are you looking at?"
"I was thinking about that little girl. Doesn't she have a mother? Why is she all dirty and smelly?"
Chunmei pointed to the alley where the little girl's mother had been standing and asked, "Do you know what that alley is for?"
"Inhabited?"
cough!
Xia Jianguo winked at Li Chunmei, but Li Chunmei didn't react. Instead, the mother and daughter were amused.
Xia Jianguo rubbed his face and said righteously, "Chunmei, I don't think Xiaomin is at an age where she should know those things. It's not good for her healthy growth in the future."
Li Chunmei raised an objection, "But Jianguo, the world we live in now is not a vacuum. Xiaomin will eventually grow up, and it's not a bad thing to know more. Besides, she is already in the first year of junior high school and has her own judgment on many things."
Xia Jianguo remained silent. Chunmei was right. There was so much darkness in this society, and innocent children might develop other bad ideas because they couldn't accept it.
Seeing that Xia Jianguo no longer objected, Li Chunmei continued, "That alley is a well-known red-light district in Shenzhen. Girls rarely go that way. Do you know about red-light districts?"
"Of course I know. I remember a classmate in fourth grade whose father was arrested by the police during a raid on the red-light district. After that, it became a big news story, and the whole class knew about it."
Xia Jianguo was also very surprised. Usually, his daughter would come home and tell him and his wife about anything interesting she heard at school, but they had never heard her mention this before.
Li Chunmei said, "I haven't heard you mention this before?"
“I don’t think it’s good to spread this kind of thing. He was clearly not wrong, but he took on a lot of blame. Many classmates used this incident to mock and bully him. Some people even made up rhymes about it. Later, he became more and more silent and didn’t like to talk. He became timid and withdrawn.”
"Sigh, this kind of person doesn't deserve to be a father. He's ruined a perfectly good child. I wonder if he'll regret it later."
"Just like that little girl, if no one lends her a hand, her life will probably just be like that."
Xia Minmin and the others quickened their pace toward the restaurant; they really shouldn't have chosen to walk there.
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