Chapter 10 The Crescent Moon is Gone
The courtyard was bustling with activity. Through the half-open door, one could see a large crowd of men and women gathered inside, presumably all there to watch the spectacle. However, the obstructed view prevented anyone from seeing the main characters arguing and crying.
Shen Huining listened carefully and recognized Zhang Hongjuan's voice, which was pleading with a sob in its voice: "Mother, where is Yueya'er? Please let me take her with me, she is my own flesh and blood!"
"So what if you're flesh of my flesh? You're a member of the Sun family!" a woman with a strong voice shouted. "We don't care if you leave, but you can't take anyone from our family with you!"
“Mother, Yueya’er is still too young and can’t be separated from her mother,” Zhang Hongjuan pleaded tearfully. “When she grows up, I will definitely bring her back and I will make her take care of you.”
Jiang Suining and Lu Ye listened outside the door for a while, then discussed in hushed tones and decided not to go in for the time being. After all, they had only met Zhang Hongjuan yesterday, and going in at this time would not only fail to break the deadlock, but would also likely cause them a lot of trouble.
Yesterday, she saw that Zhang Hongjuan and Yueya'er were both injured. She originally thought that since Zhang Hongjuan and her daughter were going to leave anyway, it was better to avoid trouble. Since they were going to cause trouble, she shouldn't blame herself for catching the demon!
She told Lu Ye to call the police, saying that these domestic abusers should be in the police station!
In the courtyard, Zhang Hongjuan knelt on the ground, clutching her mother's trouser leg and weeping bitterly.
"I don't need you. She's my granddaughter, she should be filial to me!" Grandma Sun lifted her leg to break free from Zhang Hongjuan's hand, put her hands on her hips and cursed, "You jinx, you barren hen, you still have the nerve to snatch the child after the divorce? Even if you kneel here to your death today, you won't be able to take Yueya'er away!"
Zhang Hongjuan felt as if all her strength had been drained away. She staggered to her feet, her gaze shifting from Sun's mother's face to Sun Jianjun's. Suddenly, she rushed forward and frantically scratched and beat the man, shouting, "Give me back my Crescent Moon! Give me back my Crescent Moon!"
"You wretched woman!" Sun Jianjun's face was scratched with several bloody marks, and he was in pain, wincing in pain. He never expected Zhang Hongjuan to dare to hit him, and he was instantly enraged. He shoved her to the ground: "Are you crazy! You want to take the child away? Can you even afford to raise her? That brat has been with her mother since she was a baby. What have you ever done for her? You still have the nerve to want the child? Why don't you just die!"
“Sun Jianguo, how can you say such a thing without a conscience?” Zhang Hongjuan was heartbroken. She stood up unsteadily and wiped away her tears. “Last month, Yueya had a fever of 39 degrees Celsius. Did any of you care? If I hadn’t come home from get off work and taken her to the hospital, the child would be gone!”
"The month before last, my mother took Yueya'er to buy groceries. When they came back, the baby was gone. If I hadn't called the police, she probably would have been kidnapped by human traffickers!"
“When Yueya’er was born, you wouldn’t let me breastfeed her. After my confinement period, you forced me to go to work and earn work points. You said nice things, that I didn’t have to take care of the child, but what happened?” Zhang Hongjuan became more and more upset as she spoke. “A five-year-old child looks no bigger than a three-year-old. Is this what you call taking care of her?”
The onlookers were all neighbors who knew Yueya'er, were familiar with the Sun family, and knew more or less about Zhang Hongjuan's ordeal. They began to whisper among themselves upon hearing this.
"Yes, Crescent Moon is too short. If Hongjuan hadn't mentioned it, I would have forgotten that she's five years old."
"Five years old? That's about the same age as my daughter, but much shorter."
"Then they must not be getting enough to eat. That shouldn't be the case. Even the children get food."
Sun's mother's face darkened, and she pointed at Zhang Hongjuan, scolding, "Stop making things up about me! It's clearly Yueya'er who's picky about food. She doesn't eat herself, what does that have to do with me!"
"Picky eater?" Zhang Hongjuan sneered, pulling a hard cornbread bun with wild vegetables from her pocket. "The child eats this with relish, and you say she's a picky eater!"
When Sun's mother and Sun Jianjun saw the cornbread, their eyes darted away, and they lowered their gazes guiltily.
Sun's mother forced herself to remain calm, raised her head and said, "This little girl has a worthless life, and she just loves to eat these things. How can I not let her eat them?"
“I won’t hold the past against you, but I’m taking Yueya’er with me today no matter what,” Zhang Hongjuan said, utterly disillusioned with the Sun family. “Hand over Yueya’er right now, or I’ll call the police!”
“What a joke! This is a family matter. Calling the police won’t get you anywhere,” Sun Jianjun laughed.
"You won't hand it over, huh? Fine!" Zhang Hongjuan snapped, rushing into the house and grabbing the television. "If you don't hand over Crescent Moon, I'll smash this television!"
"Zhang Hongjuan, are you trying to cause trouble?!" Sun Jianjun shouted, "Put the TV down!"
“Crescent Moon ran out to play early this morning, you go out and find her yourself!” Sun’s mother said quickly, afraid that Zhang Hongjuan would break the TV.
"Impossible!" Zhang Hongjuan was always obedient. She and Yueya'er had agreed last night that she would leave today. When she went out to get the letter of introduction this morning, she specifically told the child to stay home and wait for her. How could she possibly run out to play at this critical moment? Her mother-in-law and ex-husband must have hidden her.
Zhang Hongjuan felt increasingly uneasy, and a thought popped into her mind. Just then, the courtyard gate was pushed open, and two policemen pushed through the crowd and walked in: "We received a report that someone is beating women and children here!"
“Nonsense,” Sun’s mother vehemently denied, then shouted at the onlookers, “Who called the police? Step forward and explain to the officers.”
"I called the police!" Lu Ye stepped forward.
“It’s you again,” Sun Jianjun recognized Lu Ye and pointed at him, saying, “I’m asking you, who exactly are you? You and Zhang Hongjuan aren’t having an affair, are you?”
“Slandering soldiers can land you in jail!” Lu Ye warned him.
Sun Jianjun flinched, his lips parted, but he didn't dare say anything more.
“Police officers, it was these two who beat and abused women and children!” Jiang Suining pointed at the Sun family mother and son. “They beat and verbally abused Comrade Zhang Hongjuan and her five-year-old daughter Yueya’er, and now they are preventing the child from seeing her mother. I suspect that the child has been sold by them.”
“Officer,” Zhang Hongjuan thought so too, “when my daughter was little, my mother-in-law wanted to sell her. Today I’m trying to take the child away, but she’s gone.”
Sun's mother panicked: "My child is playful and ran out to play early this morning."
"Sister." Zhang Hongjuan saw Jiang Suining and seemed to have found her pillar of support. She stepped forward, grabbed her arm, and tears welled up in her eyes.
"Sister Hongjuan, don't worry, the police are here. Don't worry, we'll definitely find Yueya'er." Jiang Suining held Zhang Hongjuan's hand tightly.
“Officer, this is our family matter,” Sun Jianguo glared at Jiang Suining, a fawning smile on his face, and said to the police, “It’s all my fault for troubling you to come all this way. It’s all because this woman is so unreasonable.”
"How is this a family matter?" Jiang Suining didn't give him a chance to confuse the issue and grabbed Zhang Hongjuan's shirt sleeve.
The onlookers gasped in shock. Zhang Hongjuan's arm was covered with crisscrossing bruises, some in patches, some in strips, and some even swollen up.
“Sister Hongjuan, the police are here, don’t be afraid,” Jiang Suining said in a low voice when she saw Zhang Hongjuan about to pull down her sleeve. “Tell the police who hit you with these injuries. The police officers will definitely stand up for you and for Yueya’er.”
“Yes, it was Sun Jianjun and my mother-in-law.” Zhang Hongjuan was reluctant to talk about family scandals unless absolutely necessary, but when she saw Jiang Suining’s encouraging look, she pulled up her other sleeve, revealing the scars on her arm. “I have them all over my body, and I’ve been to the hospital several times.”
"That's too cruel. Hongjuan is such a good wife, how could she be treated like this?"
"It's because she can't give birth to a son. Women have such a hard life."
“I said I heard them crying and making noise every few days, and I thought it was because the child was disobedient, but it turns out they were beating the wife.”
"You're talking nonsense! She wasn't hit! She fell down on her own!" Sun's mother cried out in panic.
But the wounds were clearly from a beating, and nobody believed it.
“Officer, they not only beat people,” Jiang Suining pressed, “they also sell children.”
"You, you're talking nonsense! I, I didn't!" Sun's mother trembled with fear.
Jiang Suining didn't rush to refute Sun's mother, but instead asked Zhang Hongjuan, "Sister Hongjuan, when did you realize that Crescent Moon was missing?"
“I couldn’t find Yueya’er after I came back from the commune with the letter of introduction,” Zhang Hongjuan explained. “Before I went to the commune, I told Yueya’er to wait for me at home. She is very well-behaved and obedient, and she would never run around.”
"You tell her not to run around and she won't?" Sun's mother said firmly and calmly. "Children are playful. When you're not home, she runs around everywhere."
"So, to prove you haven't abducted children, the only way is to wait for Yueya'er to come back?" Jiang Suining said, then looked at the police officer. "Is that right, officer?"
"This is the only way for now." The police officer looked at Sun's mother and Sun Jianjianjun. "You two, come with us."
"I'm not going!" Sun Jianjun hid behind his mother. "Mom, where's Yueya'er? Hurry up and give that brat to her. I don't want to go to the police station. It's too embarrassing. How can I get married if people see me like this?"
Sun's mother hesitated. Her son had finally gotten a divorce, and she was planning to find him another wife so he could have a healthy baby boy next year. If word got out that he had been to jail, what good girl would still want to marry him?
“Crescent Moon didn’t go out,” Sun’s mother had no choice but to tell the truth. “She’s asleep. I’ll wake her up now.”
Zhang Hongjuan finally felt a little relieved and followed Sun's mother into the inner room. There was a double wooden bed with a bed sheet embroidered with phoenixes and peonies. The quilt was neatly folded and covered with a bed sheet that hung down to the side of the bed.
"Where is the child?" Jiang Suining asked.
"It's...it's under the bed," Sun's mother stammered.
Everyone was stunned. How could a perfectly healthy child be under the bed?
Jiang Suining was the first to react. She rushed over, lifted the bed sheet, and squatted down to look under the bed. Sure enough, she saw Yueya lying there, her head turned to the side, her eyes closed.
She crawled inside and brought the child out. Zhang Hongjuan hugged the child tightly and felt that the child was ice cold all over. Although it was summer, it was no wonder that the child was cold when lying under the damp and dark bed in a drowsy state: "Crescent Moon, Crescent Moon, wake up, wake up quickly, don't scare your mother."
Logically, if someone is sleeping soundly, they should wake up by that call. Jiang Suining looked at Sun's mother and saw her anxiously tugging at her clothes. She questioned, "What did you feed the child?"
"No, I didn't eat anything." Sun's mother was startled and stammered in denial.
Clearly lacking confidence, she must be hiding something. "Officer," Jiang Suining could only turn to the police for help when she saw that Sun's mother wouldn't tell the truth. "I suspect that the Sun family mother and son poisoned Yueya'er. We need to take the child to the hospital immediately!"
"I didn't, I didn't poison her, I just gave her some sleeping pills." Sun's mother was terrified and dared not hide anything anymore. "It wasn't poison. She's my own granddaughter, how could I poison her?"
"Where's the medicine?" Jiang Suining asked.
Sun's mother quickly took out a white paper packet from the drawer of the dresser: "This is what I got from the commune hospital. If you can't sleep at night, take one and you'll fall asleep in a little while."
"You gave the child one?" Jiang Suining was surprised.
"Yes." Sun's mother nodded.
"Quick, take the child to the hospital!" An adult might eat one piece, but can a child eat one? Especially such a small child. Jiang Suining was frantic.
"The police car is outside. I'll take you there." The policeman looked at Sun's mother and Sun Jianjun. "You two can come along too."
A note from the author:
----------------------
Please add this to your favorites, give it a thumbs up, and leave a comment! My darlings, please give me some support!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com