Chapter 44 Chapter 44 What kind of person abandons his children? ...
Yao Heng couldn't stay at home anymore.
Although Chen Xiulan wanted to pretend nothing happened and continue to live her boring life, Yao Heng couldn't do it.
The final exams were over, which meant he had to stay at home with Chen Xiulan every day. In the past, he would habitually run to Hou Wentao's store during holidays, help him move goods, and go out to play with him.
Now, whenever he saw Chen Xiulan's face, he would think of what happened between them, as well as himself and Hou Wentao...
He really couldn't stand it anymore and felt like he was suffocating, so he ran away from home.
Yao Heng didn't know where Shen Miao's home was, so he just walked and asked around until he found it. He thought he was far enough away from hearing those upsetting things, but he didn't expect it to be such a coincidence that he heard about them again on the TV news.
Shen Miao did not let Yao Heng leave, but took him to an empty room in the house and carefully made the bed for him.
"You, don't think about anything now, don't go anywhere, just have a good sleep at my house."
Shen Miao didn’t know how to comfort him, nor did she dare to tell him that she had known about Chen Xiulan and Hou Wentao for a long time. She could only continue to stand as a bystander and rely on helping him divert his attention to ease the depression in her heart.
In this messy relationship, Yao Heng was the most innocent, so Shen Miao didn't want him to get hurt again.
Yao Heng stood aside, watching Shen Miao making the bed in a trance. After a long while, he asked her, "Miao Miao, do you think Brother Hou has ever liked me? Or did he just treat me as a... toy?"
I like it, of course I like it!
Shen Miao almost blurted out these words.
Before knowing the complicated relationship between Hou Wentao and his parents, Shen Miao could be sure that Hou Wentao liked Yao Heng.
Because when Yao Heng was drowning, Shen Miao had personally seen Hou Wentao's anxious expression. Although she had never been in a relationship, that nervous look was clearly the expression of someone who loves someone very much.
But after knowing these heavy-hitting melons… Shen Miao couldn’t tell for sure.
“Don’t think too much, get some good sleep,” Shen Miao changed the subject, “Your mind is still unclear, you will be fine after you calm down in a couple of days.”
Holding Shen Miao's hand, Yao Heng's eyes were slightly moist: "Miao Miao, I'm in pain, my heart really hurts..."
Men don't shed tears easily, but they do when they are sad.
Shen Miao didn’t know how to comfort him, so she could only pat his back to help him vent the emotions he had been holding back for the past few days.
Seeing him crying so sadly, Shen Miao became even more afraid of love.
I used to think love was a beautiful thing, but now it seems that it is also full of variables and surprises. Not only do you have to be on guard against your partner cheating, but you also have to be on guard against your partner cheating with your family members...
After settling Yao Heng, Shen Miao called Chen Xiulan.
She pretended not to know what had happened and only said that she had promised Yao Heng that she would bring him to the village to play for some time during the winter vacation, and hoped that he could stay at her home for a few more days this time.
Of course Chen Xiulan knew that this was Shen Miao’s “courtesy talk”, but she did not expose it, but agreed to it according to her words.
Chen Xiulan has always hoped that Yao Heng and Shen Miao could blossom and bear fruit, so this can be considered an opportunity.
In the following days, Shen Miao would bring Yao Heng to the clinic every day and let him help her like an apprentice. It was a bit tiring, but it was a good way to divert attention.
In the first two days he was unhappy and refused to speak. He often looked at the fallen leaves on the ground, feeling sad about the passing of spring and autumn, and lamenting his tragic love. Later, after he became familiar with the aunts and uncles in the village, his mood improved.
"Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, when do you plan to let him leave?" Shen Wanshan asked Shen Miao in a low voice during lunch.
It’s not that he wanted to chase Yao Heng away, but because the New Year was approaching. If it were a normal day, it would be fine for him to stay at home for ten days or half a month. It would just be a matter of adding one more bowl or a pair of chopsticks.
But the Chinese New Year is a time for families to reunite, and his father has been arrested. If he doesn’t go back to celebrate the New Year with his mother... I’m afraid he’ll be criticized if the news gets out.
Shen Miao understood what he meant, and nodded while poking the rice in the bowl: “In the afternoon, I’ll ask him in the afternoon and see what he says.”
Looking up at the time, it was almost half past twelve, and Wang Dongmei and Shen Wanshan had not returned yet, so Shen Miao said, “My parents probably won’t be back for dinner, I’ll go take them food later and go to the restaurant later in the afternoon.”
"middle."
In the days leading up to the Chinese New Year, there are fewer and fewer things to do at the clinic, but at the village committee, there are more and more things to do as the Chinese New Year gets closer.
People who went to the city to work have returned one after another. Many of them came to get stamps to apply for temporary residence permits to stay in the city next year, and some came to get certificates. Each has its own purpose.
There were many people coming to the village to do business, but most of them asked Chen Shansheng to help write Spring Festival couplets or write a letter of introduction for finding a job.
These two days, Wang Dongmei and Shen Shansheng were too busy to go home for lunch.
There is no other way. They have to do their job. Since they are the village chief and the director of the Women's Federation, they naturally have to do good things for the villagers so that everyone can spend a peaceful New Year.
When Shen Miao came to the village committee to deliver food, several young village cadres were carrying rice, flour and oil from the car into the house, while the other two were counting the amount to be distributed according to the village list.
Inside the house, three or four villagers were queuing up to get things done. One of them was holding a half-finished bowl of noodles in his hand. The whole house was filled with the aroma of the garlicky stew.
"You can't do that. You need an ID card."
"My ID card has been sent to the city. Can I get it back for you after the New Year?"
"No, there are rules for each step. We can't break the rules. Let me write you a note for a few days. You can go back and get your ID card when you have time."
"Middle, thank you."
Every year before the Chinese New Year, the village committee has endless things to do. Basically, a pen has to be used up in two or three days. Chen Shansheng's fingers are almost smoking from writing, but in order for everyone to have a good New Year, he still finds ways to solve the problems for everyone.
After waiting for more than half an hour, the people who came to do business finally left, and Shen Miao finally had the opportunity to put the food in front of him.
"Where's my mother?"
"I went to the city with someone to do some work. I'll be back in the afternoon." Shen Shansheng took a big mouthful of rice and said, "Where are your master and Yao Heng?"
Flipping through the books on the table, Shen Miao replied calmly, “Take a nap at home.”
Seeing a few red-headed documents with the village seal, Shen Miao asked in a low voice: "Someone else went in?"
Shen Shansheng frowned and said "hmm" in a low voice.
This year is 1997, which is also an extremely important year for our motherland.
The process of rectification and regulation was said to have started after the Chinese New Year, but in fact it had already begun gradually at the end of 1996. It involved not only cracking down on pornography and illegal publications, but also cracking down on gangs and evil, but also any behavior related to breaking the law and disorder.
Some people who get into trouble in the city think they can escape by hiding in the village. However, they don't know that the net of law is vast and they cannot escape the punishment of the law no matter where they hide.
In the past few days alone, several people have been arrested, either for intentional injury or theft. These stamped red-headed documents are the evidence of the village's cooperation.
"Yellow River District Branch?"
Seeing the seal exposed in the middle, Shen Miao couldn’t help but be surprised.
"What's wrong?"
Shen Miao shook her head, “It’s okay.”
I just think it's a bit coincidental.
When Shen Shansheng was about to finish the rice in his bowl, Aunt Sun from the village came running in from outside in a hurry, "Old Shen? Is Old Shen here?"
Shen Shansheng didn't have time to eat the last two bites of food. He wiped his mouth, stood up, walked to the door, and said, "What's wrong, sister-in-law? What happened?"
Aunt Sun pulled the child who was following behind her out with an embarrassed look on her face.
"Oh, another grandson? Wow, he's grown so big." Shen Shansheng said in surprise.
Aunt Sun poked him and said, "It's not mine. I saw it in the village. I don't know whose it is."
It was a little boy, about three or four years old. He was not dressed richly but cleanly. He had a pair of big and pretty eyes.
Shen Shansheng bent down, looked at the little boy carefully, and then said, "He looks a little unfamiliar."
Chen Shansheng has been the village chief for so many years. He may not know all of the more than 2,000 people in the village, but he has some impression of them. Especially little kids like this, who are at the age when they often play around in the village. Logically, they should be more common.
But the child in front of me...
"What's your father's name?"
The child was a little shy and pulled Aunt Sun's trouser leg to hide behind her.
"Then do you know your mother's name? What about your grandparents and your great-grandparents?"
The child still didn't speak, his little mouth tightly closed.
Squatting in front of the little boy, Shen Miao said to him with a smile: "Good boy, your pants are dirty, come and let your sister pat them for you, okay?"
After sensing Shen Miao’s kindness, the little boy let down his guard a little and moved his feet towards her.
While cleaning his trouser legs, Shen Miao felt his pockets and found no note or anything else. At the same time, she simply took his pulse, looked at his tongue and complexion, and confirmed that he had no obvious illness. Finally, she raised her head and winked at Shen Shansheng.
This child might have been born in the city and brought back for the New Year, but he might have been deliberately abandoned in the village, and... the latter is more likely.
Shen Shansheng sighed: "Then leave him here for now. When I'm done with my work this afternoon, I'll ask someone to take him to each household to ask if he can find his parents."
Aunt Sun: “Medium.”
Seeing that the little boy was well-behaved and quiet, and didn’t cry or make a fuss even when he was scared, but just stood there obediently with his hands clenched, Shen Miao couldn’t help but feel a little pity for him.
“Dad, how could someone abandon their own child?” Shen Miao asked in a low voice as she pulled the little boy to sit aside and stood up to pour water for him.
"In this case, either the child is sick or has some physical problem that cannot be treated, or the family is too poor and has too many children to support."
After a pause, Shen Shansheng also took a sip of water, "Or... this child is not his own, was he stolen? Bought? Anyway, he can't be seen in public, and now the investigation is strict, so he dare not keep him anymore, so he threw him away quietly."
After hearing Shen Shansheng's reminder, Shen Miao immediately thought of Zhou Qiang and Wang Qin's family.
The Chinese New Year is coming tomorrow, and I don’t know what their plans are.
Before going home, Shen Miao went to Xiao Min's store and called Zhou Qiang and his friends in the tube building in Nanguan Village. The person who answered the phone was Wang Qin.
She said that they were not planning to go home for the New Year, and only asked Zhou Qiang to ask someone to send 100 yuan to their home as a small gift from them as a son and daughter-in-law.
The construction site cannot be separated from the people during the Chinese New Year, so Zhou Qiang received extra subsidies for staying behind to look after the site. The Pearl Hotel where Wang Qin worked was also very busy during the Chinese New Year. In addition to triple wages, she also received an extra ten yuan in overtime pay every day.
They are all working very hard to make money, firstly to ask someone to solve their children's household registration problem, and secondly to save money for their children's tuition.
The eldest, Zhaodi, is not young anymore. She spent several years living in the village with her grandparents. It is a bit late for her to go to school now. She is also planning to find a part-time job after the Chinese New Year to help contribute a little to the family income.
However, Pan Di and Lai Di were of the right age, so Zhou Qiang and Wang Qin discussed and decided to let them go to school first. When they had saved enough money, they would register You Di, Ying Di and Jia Bao under the names of their relatives.
They may not be able to provide the best life for their children, but they try their best to support their family...
After returning home, Shen Miao and Yao Heng also cleaned the clinic.
After all, it is the New Year. We can’t just focus on keeping our home clean. We also have to clean the “rice bowl” that we have been running for decades inside and out.
Fortunately, there was a big man like Yao Heng to help, and many of the tasks were done by him. If it was really just Shen Miao doing it by herself, I'm afraid she wouldn't be able to finish the work until the second day of the New Year.
After the 39th day of the coldest days of winter, the colder the temperature, the earlier it gets dark, and you can see the stars and the moon in the sky around six o'clock.
When Shen Miao and Yao Heng returned home exhausted from the clinic, Shen Shansheng was sitting in front of the coal stove with the little boy from noon to keep warm.
"Come, roast the oranges so your mouth won't be cold when you eat them hot." Chen Shansheng said as he took out the oranges from his pocket and placed them in the groove on the side of the coal stove.
Shen Wanshan on the side broke open the roasted sweet potato in his hand. The orange-red flesh was roasted with molasses and smelled very fragrant.
Blowing away the steam, he gave half to the boy and said, "Here, eat it."
The boy didn't reach out to take it, but just stared at the sweet potato in his hand. After Shen Shansheng brought it to him, he shyly pursed his lips and held it in his hand.
"Thanks……"
The boy's voice was tender and very cute. After thanking Shen Shansheng, he did not rush to eat the sweet potato, but raised his hands to his mouth, indicating that he should eat first.
"Eat it, I'm not hungry."
The boy said nothing, but raised his hand two points higher.
It was not until Shen Shansheng lowered his head and symbolically took a small bite that he began to eat happily.
It's only been one afternoon, and the boy is already so close to his father?
Shen Miao remembered that when she had just left at noon, the little boy was still very scared and didn't dare to respond when she spoke to him, as if a little chick had met a big eagle. Not to mention speaking, he even breathed cautiously.
And now? The little boy clung to Shen Shansheng as if he had found a backer. Whenever Shen Shansheng spoke to him, a smile would appear on his pink little face.
"Dad, how was your search this afternoon?"
Shen Shansheng shook his head.
"Didn't you find it?"
When Shen Shansheng stood up and went to get the candy for the boy, he pulled Shen Miao aside and whispered, "It's not from our village, and no one brought it back. I guess it was deliberately thrown here by his parents."
Chen Shansheng took him around the village in the afternoon and asked every household, but no one had seen him.
I didn't meet a few people until I found Third Street. They said they saw a strange woman with him at noon. I didn't think much about it at the time, but now it seems that she must be the one who abandoned him.
“Is there something wrong with this boy?” Shen Miao asked doubtfully.
Generally speaking, in rural areas, most of the abandoned children are girls. After all, the family depends on boys to carry on the family line. Even if they are extra children, they are still the treasures of the family. How could they be abandoned just like that?
Furthermore, the boy looked cleanly dressed, and even though he was thrown into the village, he did not cry or make a fuss. His personality was very stable, and he did not seem to have been abducted, so the only possibility Shen Miao could think of was that he was ill.
"I just asked your grandfather to check him out. He's healthy and there's nothing wrong with his body," Shen Shansheng said with a long sigh. "Well, let him stay at our house for one night. We'll send him to the city police station tomorrow and let the police help him find his parents."
Professional matters should be left to professionals. Since he was abandoned, only the police can handle this matter.
When Yao Heng came to the outer hall with melon seeds and candies, he was playing with the boy.
"Can you tell me your name, brother?"
“Eggs…”
"Dandan, your name is so nice."
“…”
"Dandan, do you know where your home is?"
“…”
"Then do you know what your parents' names are?"
"Jun'er...Feng'er..."
The boy was still young and couldn't ask for much useful information. He didn't know that he was abandoned by his parents. He just thought they were playing with him. But he was not afraid that they would not be able to find him, because before his parents found him, Uncle Shen would protect him.
When it was almost time for dinner, Wang Dongmei came back.
Today's trip to the city gave her a lot of trouble. They said that a piece of information was lost and needed to be re-counted. She and several other directors ran back and forth to organize the information, and finally put a perfect end to the work before the New Year.
There was a little child at home, and Wang Dongmei couldn't help but pay extra attention to him during meals. She was worried that he couldn't use the spoon at home well, so she wanted to feed him herself, but Chen Shansheng took the initiative to take all the tableware for Dandan.
"Just focus on eating, I'll feed you."
Logically speaking, women would be more careful in taking care of children, but Shen Miao looked at her biological father, who seemed to know how to take care of children better than her biological mother.
“Ah~”
"ah……"
"The balls are awesome, shall we have some more meat?"
"Okay~"
"Don't worry, let's eat the meat after we chop it into pieces."
"Hmm..." He scooped a little rice mixed with broth with a small spoon, and when it was fed to his mouth, he would use a bowl to catch it. When Dandan had eaten it, he would use a spoon to scrape the soup from the corner of his mouth, and then wipe it with the towel around his neck...
After completing the set of movements, she is even more skilled than the confinement nannies who often take care of children.
“I didn’t expect my dad is so good at taking care of children.” Shen Miao said teasingly with a smile.
"Of course," Wang Dongmei put a piece of meat into Chen Shansheng's bowl, which had not touched for a long time, "Your father brought you up when you were a child, and I could only hold you for a while when I was feeding you."
Shen Miao’s memories of his childhood were a bit vague, he only remembered that he had been studying medicine with his grandfather since he could remember.
But Wang Dongmei said that before she could remember, it was Shen Shansheng, the father, who took care of her for a longer time.
Back then, Wang Dongmei and Shen Shansheng had been looking forward to having a child, so when Shen Miao first came into Wang Dongmei's belly, Shen Shansheng began to prepare to welcome her.
He followed the aunt in the east to learn how to hold a baby, and followed the aunt in the south to learn how to burp a baby. During those few months, he practiced holding almost all the half-grown children in the village, so that he was not at all flustered after Shen Miao was born.
Although more than 20 years have passed, his skills in taking care of children are not rusty at all.
Seeing Dandan looking up at Shen Shansheng, with a pair of big watery eyes filled with stars, Yao Heng couldn't help but feel a little envious...
"I'll be home tomorrow morning." After dinner, Yao Heng and Shen Miao said calmly while washing dishes.
Tomorrow is New Year's Eve. He has been staying at Shen Miao's house for the past few days and has calmed down a lot. He has also figured out some things.
Even if there were some unbearable things between Chen Xiulan and Hou Wentao, she was still his mother, the person closest to him. This year, his father was not at home during the Chinese New Year, and if he did not go back, then this family would really be broken up.
“Very good.” Shen Miao did not bring up the past, just pretending to know nothing. “Don’t you like to eat the lotus root fried by my mother? I will prepare more for you later, and go back to eat with your mother.”
"good."
After a pause, Yao Heng said, "Can you accompany me to the police station tomorrow? I want to see Brother Hou and ask him something."
Shen Miao knew what he was thinking, so there was no need to ask, "Okay, then when we send Dandan to the police station tomorrow, let my dad take us there."
Thump thump…
Someone knocked on the door again.
In the past few days, there were people coming to the house every night, all of them were rushing to do things before the New Year, and Shen Miao was used to it. So after calling Shen Shansheng who was watching TV in the house, she wiped her hands and prepared to open the door.
But today, the people who came knocking on the door were not villagers, but several policemen in dark blue uniforms.
“Comrade police, is there anything I can help you with at this late hour?” Looking at the police badges on their shoulders, Shen Miao felt inexplicably nervous.
“Is this Shen Shansheng’s home?”
"Um."
"Is Shen Shansheng at home?"
While he was talking, Shen Shansheng had already walked over. "I am the police officer. What do you want to talk to me about?"
The leading policeman winked at the people around him, and then two of them walked forward, took out handcuffs, and handcuffed them on Shen Shansheng's wrists.
"??? What does this mean?"
Police: "Someone reported that you abandoned your own daughter and refused to raise her. You are suspected of abandonment. Please come with us and cooperate with the investigation."
Shen Miao: ???
When was I abandoned?!
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