Upon hearing this, Li Quanmin stopped crying and retorted with a sob: "It's not that I don't want to take care of my parents in their old age, it's just that my leg is broken now, and I can't even work in the fields. I don't know what to do?" After saying this, Li Quanmin patted his injured leg.
"You are still so young and have a long life ahead of you. Just heal your leg first," Xuemei comforted.
"Sister Xuemei, I can't recover. My leg injury is different from the village chief's. The village chief is just not suitable for staying in the army, but it doesn't affect his farming work. Besides, the village chief is stronger than ordinary people.
I first had the surgery in a big hospital in Beijing. It was performed by the old military doctor himself. If it weren't for him, I might not have been able to save my leg. My shin bones were broken in several places.
"After spending over two months in the hospital, I had only fifty yuan left before someone took me to a car. On the way home, my legs started to feel uncomfortable in the car, so I went to the county hospital and stayed there for over half a month. I owed the hospital medical bills, and with no other options, I called back to my village. The hospital in Beijing said my legs couldn't be cured, and being able to walk was the best outcome." Li Quanmin's eyes dimmed even further after he finished speaking.
"Brother Quanmin, how did you get your leg injured? If it was someone else who hurt you, you can ask Accountant Li and the others to ask him for compensation." Mingwu thought about it and thought this was a good idea, so he said it out loud.
Li Quanmin said in horror: "Don't let my parents go to find them, they will kill them."
"Brother Quanmin, if they are so scary, why did you provoke them?" Mingwu asked in confusion.
"That year, after I arrived in the county seat, I joined several high school students there to join the revolution. At first, we just followed the others, reading newspapers, giving lectures at universities, and promoting policies from above.
Later, I followed them to the capital and joined a revolutionary group. They took us to raid the homes of bad people. When we first joined them, they raided the homes of corrupt officials and bad elements that everyone knew about. Later, things gradually changed.
They'd deliberately set up traps to ensnare wealthy families, or pretend to be someone else and report them. Sometimes, I feigned stomachaches or went to other events to avoid them. But a few times, I couldn't escape, so I joined in. Although I pretended to hit those poor people, I eventually got my share of the money and became an accomplice. During that time, I couldn't sleep every night, constantly thinking about those people. I felt like I had done something wrong and would be punished.
Li Quanmin laughed at himself, then pointed at his legs and said, "Look, this is retribution."
"Brother Quanmin, who broke your legs?" Mingwu asked.
Li Quanmin recalled sadly, "Yes, they were going to search my house again that day. I had planned to sneak back home while they were out. But they searched a military family. There was only one old man in the family. I heard he had studied in the United States before. He was a retired military doctor. His son and daughter-in-law were both soldiers and died on the battlefield.
You'd never guess who reported them: his granddaughter's husband. He colluded with those in our group to get promoted. I couldn't bear it, and hoping to atone for my sin, I secretly went to the old military doctor's house ahead of time to warn them. But as soon as I went in, they came and searched the house.
As soon as they came in, they smashed things, stole money, and beat people. That day, the old military doctor's granddaughter was there, and she was eight or nine months pregnant. I couldn't bear to see it, so I told them to let her go.
But I didn't expect her husband to be there. He accused me of having an affair with his wife and even brought some people to beat me up. The pregnant woman tried to stop them, but even though she knew some martial arts, she couldn't stop them because she was pregnant. If that old military doctor's friend hadn't come with a few soldiers, I might not be in this situation anymore.
Everyone didn't know what to say after hearing this. Xuemei was also at a loss as to what to say. Li Quanmin had done something wrong, but he still had a conscience. Many things could not be simply viewed in black and white. The atmosphere was very strange for a while.
"Han Zhiqing, what time is it now?" Xuemei asked, breaking the silence.
"It's four o'clock, Comrade Liu Xuemei." Han Chen looked at his watch and replied.
"Ruirui, Feifei, go down the mountain first and tell Aunt He that Li Quanmin is here." Xuemei said.
Ruirui and Feifei nodded, and each of them left with a backpack on their backs.
Xuemei thought for a moment, sighed, and walked up to Li Quanmin. "Li Quanmin, things have already become like this. Nothing can be changed. We can't let a living person be detained. Let me ask you, do you still want to live?"
Li Quanmin hesitated for a long time and then nodded. Only then did the others present feel relieved.
Zhou Bing patted Li Quanmin on the shoulder and said, "Brother, this is what a man should be. You have such wonderful parents, you should be secretly happy. Don't you know how many people envy you?"
"Sister Xuemei, actually, I have regretted running away many times in the past few years. If I had listened to you and my father and not run away, I wouldn't be dragging my parents down like this now." Li Quanmin said regretfully.
Xuemei looked at the crutches on the ground and asked, "Did you walk up the mountain with your crutches today?"
Li Quanmin was very confused, but still nodded.
Xuemei smiled and then said seriously, "The situation isn't too bad. It's not like you only earn work points by farming in the village. You're from the countryside yourself, so why are you so frightened?"
You can still walk with the help of a crutch. When your legs get better, you can go up the mountain to collect pig grass. You can carry two or three baskets a day, right? That's two or three work points, right? If you collect pig grass two hundred days a year, that's six hundred work points. You can also tend to the rice and rub corn during the summer and autumn harvests, right? Even if you rub corn during the autumn harvest, you can earn five or six work points a day, and seventy or eighty work points in half a month.
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