Chapter 27 The Child Under the Willow Tree: A Stolen Fate (Revised)...
The next day, Gu Yiliu took her machete and went into the mountains. Before she even reached the valley, she heard Liu Shu make another alarm.
Willow Tree: "Officer Gu, Officer Gu, someone left a child under my tree! Come quick! I think she's about to die."
Gu Yiliu's expression changed, and he immediately changed lanes.
"Gu Yiliu, you're going the wrong way, go this way."
“Follow them, it doesn’t matter which way they go,” Ma Quan said.
The two followed Gu Yiliu, and as they walked, they found themselves in a valley.
"Officer Gu, I'm over here! On your right!"
As soon as Gu Yiliu entered the valley, she heard the willow tree calling to her.
She looked to her right.
A willow tree was spotted hidden among the bushes. It wasn't very big, looking like it had just reached maturity, with fluffy green pom-poms hanging from its branches.
"Uncle Ma, can you hear the child crying?"
Gu Yiliu listened carefully and actually heard some sounds. She quickly told Ma Quan to listen as well.
Ma Quan listened attentively to her words, but didn't sense anything unusual.
On the contrary, Min Songyue, as he listened, unconsciously began to walk towards a certain place.
"It sounds like a real child is crying, just like a cat meowing."
Gu Yiliu and he walked in the same direction. As they got closer, Gu Yiliu indeed saw a child wrapped in a bright red blanket under the willow tree.
Before she could utter a sound, Min Songyue screamed in terror, "Ah! Uncle Ma! Help!"
"..."
Gu Yiliu slapped him, "What are you yelling about? You're such a coward!"
He bent down to pick up the child from the ground, then looked at Ma Quan behind him, "Uncle Ma..."
Ma Quan approached quickly with a serious expression. "Is he still alive?"
“She’s still alive.” Gu Yiliu had already checked the child’s breath when he picked her up. Although her face was pale, she was indeed still alive. “It’s a girl.”
Ma Quan frowned as he looked at the child's bluish-purple face. "Let's go down the mountain and call the police."
Gu Yiliu nodded, then turned to look at the willow tree in front of her. "Uncle Ma, do you think this willow tree has contracted mad willow disease?"
Her thoughts were too jumpy, but Ma Quan didn't find it strange. He turned his head and said, "This is willow clump disease, also called mad willow disease. If you cut it down, the willow tree can live. If you don't cut it down, the willow tree will slowly die. This child was found under the roots of the willow tree, so let's help the willow tree."
Gu Yiliu stretched out a hand and touched the willow tree. "Alright, you take the children and go down the mountain first."
She handed the child to Min Songyue. Min Songyue looked resistant, "I don't know how to hold a baby..."
Gu Yiliu was too lazy to waste words with him, so he simply shoved the child into his hands and picked up a wood-chopping knife.
The willow tree shook the leaves on its branches, responding cheerfully to Gu Yiliu, "Come on, Officer Gu."
In the end, Gu Yiliu only left one main branch for the willow tree, cutting off all the rest of the branches.
"Have you seen the person who left the child with you?" Gu Yiliu asked Liu Shu.
"I saw him, but I didn't know him. He was an old man."
What clothes should I wear?
Willow Tree: "Wearing a black short jacket and straw sandals, he didn't look wealthy."
As Gu Yiliu listened, he began to guess that the child had been deliberately abandoned. People in the countryside generally wanted boys and didn't want girls, so if a girl was born, they would take her up the mountain and abandon her. However, the bright red swaddle blanket looked very new, as if it had been specially prepared for a newborn.
She sighed, bid farewell to the willow tree, and said, "Let me know if anything happens."
"Okay, thank you, Officer Gu."
Gu Yiliu quickly received a 1% positive review from Liu Shu. However, she was not in a good mood as she caught up with Ma Quan and Min Songyue.
Upon seeing her, Min Songyue quickly handed the child back to her, saying, "Gu Yiliu, I'm a little scared. I feel like she's exhaling more than exhaling. You should hold her."
Gu Yiliu, holding her, was also a little scared. "Uncle Ma, let's take her back to the outpost first and feed her something, otherwise I'm afraid she'll..."
"Okay, let's go back to the outpost first."
The group returned to the outpost, fed the child some warm milk, and watched as the child's complexion gradually turned from blue to red before they felt relieved.
Then they went to the town's police station together.
Gu Yiliu met Lin Shuhui, whom he had met a few times before.
He said, "A girl? Found on the mountain? To put it bluntly, I reckon this child was abandoned by her family."
"But look at this blanket, isn't it quite new? And the clothes she's wearing also look newly prepared."
Lin Shuhui looked at it carefully and sighed, "Xiao Gu, you may not know this, but some elderly people will secretly abandon their children without telling them. This new swaddle and new clothes only prove that this child is the first child in the family, but we will help keep an eye out for him."
The first child was a girl. In an attempt to have a boy, she would definitely be aborted because only one child is allowed at the time.
Gu Yiliu also understood this principle: "If no one reports a child missing, what usually happens to the child?"
Lin Shuhui: "If no one comes to report the child missing tomorrow, we'll have to send her to the children's welfare home in the county town."
Gu Yiliu nodded; what she learned from Liu Shu wasn't enough to find the child's parents. She sighed, and soon after, she and Ma Quan left the police station.
"Chirp! Chirp!"
Officer Gu, Officer Gu, we can help you find out whose child it is.
Gu Yiliu looked up at the sky and at the two green sparrows hovering above.
"Chirp chirp!" Officer Gu, do you still remember me?
"Are you green-feathered sparrows from Lion Peak Forest Farm?"
The two green-feathered sparrows nodded happily, "It's us!"
"Chirp! Chirp!" Officer Gu, we also saw people carrying children up the mountain.
"Are you from Qing Shi Village?"
"Chirp chirp!" Yes!
"Chirp! Chirp!" Don't worry, we'll keep an eye on him for you.
"Then you can go." Gu Yiliu watched the two green sparrows fly away.
"What did they say?" Min Songyue asked.
Gu Yiliu: "They told me that they saw who carried the child up the mountain, and they said they would keep an eye on him for me."
"Can this really work?" Even Ma Quan was skeptical.
Gu Yiliu wasn't sure either. "The green-feathered sparrow has already gone to keep watch. Let's wait and see; it might actually work."
“It’s okay if we can’t find her. The fact that we found this child proves that she wasn’t meant to die. Even if we can’t find her parents, it’s fate.” Ma Quan comforted her and told her not to worry about it.
Gu Yiliu understood the meaning but didn't hold out much hope.
However, five days later, just as Gu Yiliu was about to forget about it, she saw two green sparrows again at the outpost.
They flew excitedly into the outpost's courtyard, calling out loudly to Gu Yiliu.
"Chirp! Chirp!" Officer Gu, we've made a new discovery!
"What discovery?"
Gu Yiliu scattered a handful of rice into the yard for them to eat.
"Chirp chirp!" The man went to the county town, met a woman, and they even talked.
"What did you say?"
"Chirp! Chirp!"
"Xiao Gu, what did they say?"
Gu Yiliu turned to look at Ma Quan and saw him holding a rice bowl and listening intently to the commotion. Even Min Songyue had stopped washing clothes.
Thinking of what the green-feathered sparrows had said, Gu Yiliu's expression turned grim. "They said that the girl was switched by the step-grandmother, and the child next to the girl's parents was the step-grandmother's nephew's child."
This is a big problem! Ma Quan quickly pressed Green Sparrow for an answer, "Didn't anyone notice the children were switched?"
Two green-feathered sparrows, like chicks, ate the rice in the yard, saying a word after every two bites.
"Chirp chirp!" The child's mother knew that she had seen the child once and knew that she had given birth to a daughter, so she was making a fuss now, but she couldn't get the stepmother to tell her where she had taken her daughter.
Gu Yiliu translated Green Sparrow's words to Ma Quan and the other man.
After Gu Yiliu finished speaking, she fell silent.
Ma Quan asked her, "Xiao Gu, do you want to get involved in this?"
Gu Yiliu looked at the green-feathered sparrow, "Did the child's parents report it to the police?"
"Chirp!" Yes!
Gu Yiliu looked at Ma Quan and said, "Uncle Ma, you can't really trust other people's children, and the girl's parents know that their child has been switched. So, we should help them if we can."
Min Songyue immediately said, "Gu Yiliu, join me! Switching children is outrageous! They must be severely punished!"
“Let’s go now,” Gu Yiliu said. “Let’s go to town first and tell Officer Lin, and then we can go to the county to pick up the child together.”
Without further ado, Gu Yiliu took Green Sparrow and went to town with Min Songyue to find Lin Shuhui and explained the situation to him.
Lin Shuhui had also heard about Gu Yiliu's deeds. After hesitating for a long time, he finally nodded and said, "Alright, I'll trust you for now. I'll take you to the children's welfare home to find the children."
The three reached an agreement and immediately headed to the county town. They arrived at the children's welfare home and saw the child after nightfall.
"Luckily you arrived early. Someone will come to see the child tomorrow, and if they like him, they'll go through the adoption procedures and take him away," the director said.
Lin Shuhui: "Thank you for your help, Dean. However, this child was switched and abandoned. Now that we have found her parents, we need to take her back."
The three of them stayed overnight at a hotel near the welfare home, and the next day they took the child to the police station to inquire about the situation.
According to information provided by Green Sparrow, the child's parents reported the case to the Chengnan Police Station.
When the group went to the Chengnan Police Station to inquire, they found that someone had indeed reported the case a few days earlier.
"Please show me your identification first."
Gu Yiliu and his two companions presented their identification.
"Wait a moment, we'll go and notify the family."
Half an hour later, police officers from Chengnan Police Station arrived in front of Gu Yiliu with a group of four people.
A woman wearing a hat and completely covered from head to toe rushed over, crying, "Baby, my baby, it's Mommy!"
Gu Yiliu stopped her from rushing onto the child, dodging to the side, and asked the green sparrow on his shoulder, "Is she the child's mother?"
"Chirp chirp!"
Yes! The step-grandmother who switched the children was also there.
Gu Yiliu looked at the old man on the woman's body and asked, "You know your child was switched, right?"
The woman, He Yingjun, raised her head, revealing a pair of swollen eyes from crying. "I'm not sure, but I know that the child I gave birth to was a daughter, but after my mother-in-law took her out and brought her back, she turned into a son."
"Nonsense, Yingyan, you gave birth to a son! Not a daughter." An old woman behind He Yingjun spoke up. She was tall and strong, and she pulled the thin He Yingjun like an eagle carrying a chick, pulling her up with a gentle force.
"What are you doing? Let go of my daughter!" A man slapped the old woman's hand away, and He Yingjun regained her freedom.
He Yingjun shook her head. "It can't be a son. After the baby was born, I held my daughter. It was a daughter. The nurse even showed me the red birthmark on her chest."
Upon hearing this, the policewoman from Chengnan Police Station looked at Gu Yiliu and said, "Let me see the child."
Gu Yiliu carried the child and walked to the side with the policewoman. Together they opened the blanket and examined the child's chest, where they found a red birthmark.
"Comrade, where did you find my daughter?" He Yingjun asked, her eyes brimming with tears as she looked at the child being held in Gu Yiliu's arms.
“She was on the verge of death on the mountain. My colleagues and I carried her back and fed her milk, and she finally recovered.”
He Yingjun wiped away her tears forcefully, "Thank you, comrade."
She looked at Gu Yiliu pleadingly, "I asked my mother to bring the nurse who delivered my daughter. Can you let me see the baby? I don't want to hold her yet."
Gu Yiliu and the policewoman exchanged a glance. The policewoman sighed and said, "Come here."
He Yingjun stood to the side, unable to get enough of watching the child. Gu Yiliu looked at He Yingjun and the other three; apart from He Yingjun, the other three were all of the parents' generation.
I couldn't help but ask, "Where is the child's father?"
To everyone's surprise, He Yingjun burst into tears again when asked, but quickly stopped, saying, "The child's father hasn't come back yet."
Her mother-in-law immediately chimed in, pursing her lips, "My eldest son is a soldier, a company commander. It's not that he didn't come back, it's that he can't come back! The compensation was sent back before the child was born!"
Gu Yiliu frowned, glanced at He Yingjun, and the latter nodded.
My father-in-law only has one son, my husband.
That……
Gu Yiliu and the others who were unaware of the situation looked at an old man in He Yingjun's group of four.
“My father-in-law only listens to my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law brought a daughter and a son with her when she married into the family.”
Ha!
This gossip made everyone present stare wide-eyed.
Upon hearing this, Gu Yiliu immediately understood. His stepmother-in-law was after the compensation money and wanted to achieve her goal by switching the children. If the children were successfully switched, they would all be her own family.
Once the pension is used up, they might kick He Yingjun, this "outsider" daughter-in-law, out of the family, or make her work like a slave to support their nephew and grandson.
As for her stepson and stepsister's children, whether they live or die, she probably doesn't care at all.
"Officers, don't worry, I've called some more people. They won't succeed. They won't take my child away!"
Gu Yiliu could hear the determination in He Yingjun's words.
Just then, a shout came from outside, "Jun'er, your backer has arrived! Look who I've brought!"
Immediately following was a resounding shout: "Who dares to bully the families of martyrs and switch the orphans of martyrs?!"
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Author's Note: Please add my pre-order novel, "The Live-in Son-in-Law from Ancient Times [1970s]," to your favorites! [Pleading emoji]
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