Chapter 63 Big Brother, I know where Wen Xiaoxiao is.
"The child..." Li Yugu's voice was hoarse, like a broken bellows being pulled, "Let me see..."
She struggled, trying to move forward, but she couldn't muster any strength.
Wen Xiaoxiao held Yizhen and Yibao in one arm and held the swaddled Xiao Gai in the other.
Wen Xiaogai in her arms seemed to sense the tense atmosphere and began to squirm uncomfortably.
"Mom, please don't..." Zhao Qingda muttered impatiently, but he didn't loosen his grip on his mother's hand.
Looking at her mother-in-law's appearance, Wen Xiaoxiao felt as if something had twisted her heart.
She remembered that when Li Yugu first married into the Zhao family, he wasn't so thin. He stood up straight and spoke with a strong voice.
Every year during the Lunar New Year, my mother-in-law would prepare fried meatballs and steamed buns, making the small courtyard house warm and lively.
She was vomiting badly during her pregnancy, so Li Yugu specially cooked millet porridge for her, with two poached eggs in it, and brought it to her bedside.
But what happened next?
Later, when the affair between Zhao Qingda and Wang Juan came to light, Li Yugu could only sigh. Even lecturing Zhao Qingda had no effect.
Later, she became pregnant with Xiao Gai. Zhao Qingda pointed at her belly and called her a "bastard," which led to a divorce.
Li Yugu was taking care of his beloved grandson in the suburbs and never showed his face.
Do I hate it? Of course I hate it.
But looking at this old woman, who was on her last legs, something else was mixed in with her hatred—a kind of understanding as a mother herself.
A sense of desolation as one watches life come to an end.
Put yourself in her shoes. Li Yugu was widowed early in her life, and her son was good-for-nothing and caused trouble in the family. What could she do?
Is there any absolute right or wrong in this world?
It's just a matter of which mountain you're on and which song you're singing.
"Xiaoxiao..." Li Yugu called again, his voice so hoarse it was almost inaudible, "Are you... doing well?"
Wen Xiaoxiao felt as if a wad of cotton was stuck in her throat, both sour and astringent.
She opened her mouth, the word "Mom" was already on the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed it back down.
Should I still call her "Mom"? We're divorced. Should I call her "Auntie"?
Just as I was hesitating, the little girl in my arms burst into tears.
The child was probably hungry; his little face was red from crying, and he was kicking his arms and legs wildly.
"Oh, oh, Xiao Gai, don't cry, don't cry..." Wen Xiaoxiao quickly and gently rocked the swaddled baby, turning to the side to comfort the child.
This action allowed her to temporarily avoid Li Yugu's gaze.
Li Yugu broke free from Zhao Qingda's hand, took two shaky steps forward, and almost pressed himself against Wen Xiaoxiao's back.
"This child..." she said in a low voice, "Let me see..."
Wen Xiaoxiao froze, neither turning around nor moving.
Little Gai was crying loudly, her little eyebrows furrowed, her mouth wide open, revealing her bare gums.
With just one glance, Li Yugu froze on the spot.
They look so alike.
"What's the child's name..." Li Yugu's voice trembled violently.
Wen Xiaoxiao: "Wen Xiaogai."
"You changed the child's surname?"
“…”
How old are you?
"It's almost been 100 days."
Li Yugu moved closer, almost touching Wen Xiaoxiao.
"Xiaoxiao." She suddenly used all her strength, lowering her voice so that only the two of them could hear, "Tell me the truth. This child... is it Qingda's?"
Li Yugu looked at her, his eyes pleading, yet also filled with the desperate resolve of a dying man: "I've been diagnosed... lung cancer... I don't have much time left. I just want to know, before I go, can I at least have a clear answer? This child... is he/she a member of the Zhao family?"
"Mom!" Zhao Qingda, who was standing nearby, heard this and immediately flew into a rage.
"Why are you wasting your breath talking to her?! You can't believe a slut who cheats on men and raises bastards."
He pointed at Wen Xiaoxiao and cursed, his spittle almost splashing onto her face: "Wen Xiaoxiao, you're shameless! You seduced my older brother, and shamelessly gave birth to his bastard child, and then you disappeared! What are you pretending to be so virtuous for? You're acting like a prostitute while pretending to be a chaste saint!"
Wen Xiaoxiao glared at Zhao Qingda, about to retort, when Wen Xiaogai in her arms cried even harder. Yizhen and Yibao were also frightened and began to sob softly as well.
"Qingda! Shut up!" Li Yugu suddenly shouted.
After finishing the drink, she swayed slightly, but her eyes remained fixed on Wen Xiaoxiao, waiting for an answer.
Wen Xiaoxiao looked at Li Yugu, her heart churning with turmoil.
to be honest?
Is it really Zhao Qingda's child?
But she wasn't sure either.
Besides, what's the point of saying it?
Will Zhao Qingda admit it?
What makes Wen Xiaoxiao think she can prove anything to them?!
She is no longer a daughter-in-law of the Zhao family. Her child's surname is Wen, and she has no relation to the Zhao family.
"Auntie," she finally changed her address, her voice as cold as ice in the dead of winter, "the child is mine, it has nothing to do with anyone else. You... take care of yourself."
That one word, "Auntie," was like a dull knife, slowly cutting into Li Yugu's heart.
Her eyes were completely red. She opened her mouth, as if to say something, but was interrupted by a violent cough.
"Alright, Mom, they've already called you auntie, why are you still rushing to acknowledge our kinship?" Zhao Qingda complained as he patted her. "Come on, let's go home! I can't stand this awful place for another minute!"
He half-dragged, half-carried Li Yugu out.
Li Yugu kept turning back to look at the child in Wen Xiaoxiao's arms until he was dragged out of the restaurant and shoved into the ambulance at the entrance.
The guests in the restaurant started eating again, and the sounds of clinking bowls and chopsticks and talking gradually rose, as if the fight had never happened.
The ambulance bumped along the potholed road.
Li Yugu lay there helplessly, covered with the cotton-padded coat that Zhao Qingda had taken off, his eyes staring blankly at the roof of the car, without saying a word.
"Mom, have some water." Zhao Qingda unscrewed the lid of the cup and handed it to her.
Li Yugu didn't answer. After a long while, he murmured, "Qingda, that child is yours."
Zhao Qingda was lighting a cigarette when he heard this and burst out laughing: "Mom, are you out of your mind? How could it be mine? If you get pregnant after just two touches, why didn't you have any luck in the first two years after we got married?"
“It’s just like…” Li Yugu stubbornly shook his head.
“I’ve raised you for over thirty years. How could I possibly forget what you looked like when you were little? When that child cried, it was exactly the same as when you were little. Eyebrows, nose, mouth... it was all the same.”
"All children cry the same way!" Zhao Qingda exhaled a smoke ring impatiently.
By the time I got home, it was already dark.
Wang Juan was feeding Tie Tou in the yard. She fed him a spoonful of rice cereal, but half of it dribbled out from the corner of his mouth.
When she saw Zhao Qingda helping Li Yugu in, she quickly put down her bowl and went to greet them.
"How is it? What did the doctor say?"
"What else can I say? That's it, come back and rest." Zhao Qingda helped Li Yugu onto the kang (a heated brick bed) with a sigh, then plopped down on a stool, panting.
Wang Juan's face turned pale, and she didn't ask any more questions.
She turned to tuck the blanket around Li Yugu, and when her hand touched her mother-in-law's thin body, which was just skin and bones, her heart ached.
But it quickly became erect. What's the use of thinking about these things when you're about to die? You should think about how the living should live.
In the following days, Li Yugu's condition deteriorated rapidly.
On the morning of the tenth day of the first lunar month, she coughed up half a basin of blood and then fainted.
After being rushed to the hospital and brought back to life, the doctor called Zhao Qingda aside and said in a low voice, "Prepare for the worst; it'll be over in the next few days."
Zhao Qingda and Wang Juan then panicked.
The two went to a funeral clothing shop to buy funeral clothes and mourning cloth, and then went to a coffin shop to order a thin coffin.
It was already afternoon when I came out of the funeral clothing shop.
The sky was overcast, and light snowflakes began to fall.
Zhao Qingda pushed the bicycle, with Wang Juan following beside him.
“You know, Mom is really something,” Zhao Qingda complained. “Even at the very end, she’s still thinking about that bastard Wen Xiaoxiao.”
Wang Juan paused, then suddenly asked, "You saw clearly that day? Was it really Wen Xiaoxiao?"
"How could it be fake? We saw each other face to face and even talked."
"She's raising three children all by herself?"
"Yeah, two big twins, and the little one was being held in his arms." Zhao Qingda recalled the scene and pursed his lips, "They didn't seem to be doing very well, the children's clothes weren't new."
Wang Juan's eyes darted around a few times, then she suddenly slapped her thigh: "Oh my! This is just like a pillow being handed to someone who's about to fall asleep!"
"What do you mean?"
"Are you stupid?" Wang Juan lowered her voice and leaned closer.
"Zhao Fei is searching for Wen Xiaoxiao like a madman, don't you know? If you tell him where Wen Xiaoxiao is..."
Zhao Qingda's eyes lit up: "You mean..."
"Exchange the house!" Wang Juan said decisively. "Make him transfer the house to you, and then you tell him where Wen Xiaoxiao is. We'll exchange this for his existing house; it's a win-win situation!"
The more Zhao Qingda thought about it, the more sense it made.
The feng shui master said that the main house is auspicious for the male head of the household.
"But...would he agree?" Zhao Qingda hesitated. "Zhao Fei is a shrewd man."
"How will you know if you don't try?" Wang Juan gave him a push. "Go to his building right now and wait there. Remember, stick with him until you see results!"
Zhao Qingda waited downstairs for more than half an hour, stamping his feet in the cold until his toes were almost numb, before he saw Zhao Fei drive back in his Santana.
The car came to a stop, and Zhao Fei got out carrying a black briefcase. His face was expressionless, but his brows were habitually furrowed.
"Big Brother!" Zhao Qingda hurriedly greeted him in a fawning manner, exhaling a puff of white breath.
Zhao Fei glanced at him, but didn't stop walking: "What's up?"
He truly admired Zhao Qingda. Even after beating him so badly before, and with rumors spreading, Zhao Qingda could still wipe his face and act like nothing had happened.
"Something...something big has happened!" Zhao Qingda's ingratiating smile never stopped. "I know where Wen Xiaoxiao is."
Zhao Fei suddenly stopped and turned around.
"What did you say?" Zhao Fei's voice was calm, but the knuckles of his fingers gripping the briefcase had turned white, and the veins on the back of his hand were bulging.
Zhao Qingda sneered inwardly, "You, Zhao Fei, you really are having an affair with Wen Xiaoxiao."
He straightened his back a bit: "I said, I know where Wen Xiaoxiao is. And her two daughters, Zhen and Bao, are both there. Oh right," he paused deliberately, observing Zhao Fei's expression, "the one in her belly has also been born, it's a son, almost a hundred days old, named Wen Xiaogai."
Zhao Fei stared at him and asked, word by word, "Where?"
Zhao Qingda swallowed hard, mustered his courage, and stated his prepared conditions: "I'll tell you, but on one condition: we have to switch rooms."
Zhao Fei remained silent.
His gaze passed over Zhao Qingda and looked towards the gray sky in the distance.
It's been almost two years, and he has searched almost every county and city in the surrounding area.
Wen Xiaoxiao vanished without a trace, taking her two children with her, as if she had evaporated into thin air.
He had considered the possibility that they might have gone to another city, but she had two children with her.
Where can we go?
What to eat?
Where will we stay?
Were they wronged?
What should I do if my child gets sick?
These problems are like dull knives, cutting into his heart every day.
Now, the news is right in front of him, but he's being asked to exchange his house for it.
"How do I know you're telling the truth?" Zhao Fei finally spoke, his voice as cold as the weather.
“You’re my older brother, would I lie to you? I’m in a hurry to move, I wouldn’t lie to you,” Zhao Qingda said, patting his chest.
Zhao Fei remained silent for a long time.
Zhao Qingda was so anxious that he thought Zhao Fei was going to refuse, and his heart was in his throat, when he finally heard Zhao Fei say: Where?
Zhao Qingda was overjoyed and quickly recounted in detail where he had met Wen Xiaoxiao that day, what she had done, said, and what she had accomplished.
After hearing this, Zhao Fei turned and left.
"Hey, big brother, when are you going to complete the property transfer..." Zhao Qingda called out from behind.
Zhao Fei opened the car door and glanced back at him before getting in.
His gaze was as cold as ice, as deep as a still pool, unfathomable.
"Let me confirm it first."
The Santana started up and drove away, crunching through the snow.
Zhao Qingda stood in the snow, watching the car's taillights disappear around the street corner, feeling extremely smug.
Go away, go away, you adulterous couple. As long as Zhao Qingda recovers, he will never forgive those two scoundrels.
He rubbed his frozen hands and hummed a tuneless little tune as he returned to his room.
Wang Juan was feeding Tie Tou rice cereal when she looked up and asked with her eyes.
“He did,” Zhao Qingda said in a low voice, “He agreed, saying he would replace him once he found the person.”
Wang Juan's eyes lit up, and she even forgot to hand over the spoon in her hand: "Really?"
"Hmm." Zhao Qingda took the spoon and clumsily fed his son a spoonful. "Just wait, this house will be ours sooner or later."
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