Hongxia took out a fashionable rose-red wallet from the drawer, counted out several one-dollar, five-dollar and ten-dollar bills, then grabbed a handful of dimes and threw them on the ground in anger.
The silver coin rolled in front of Lin Minzhi.
"Here, I don't have a thousand yuan, but this is all I have. Use it to buy your son some food."
Ji Weiguo couldn't bear it, but when Hongxia glared at him, he immediately resisted the urge to support Lin Minzhi.
Lin Minzhi looked at the money on the ground. Humiliation, pain, sadness, and all kinds of emotions alternated in her heart, making her body tremble slightly and hot tears well up in her eyes.
After a while, Lin Minzhi burst into tears, the tone of the last few words breaking into pieces: "Ji Weiguo, I am blind in this life, that's why I fell in love with a bastard like you!"
Ji Weiguo was so embarrassed by the scolding: "Enough, Minzhi!"
Ji Mian let go of Lin Minzhi's hand and slowly squatted down.
This sudden change startled Lin Minzhi. She watched Ji Mian's little hands picking up the money on the ground bit by bit.
In an instant, tears welled up in her eyes and she hugged Ji Mian: "Mian Mian, we don't want this money!... Be obedient! We have dignity..."
Ji Mian ignored him and stubbornly picked up all the money on the ground, holding the banknotes and silver coins in his small fist.
Then the next moment, he suddenly exerted force and threw all the money on the ground onto Ji Weiguo and Hongxia.
Hongxia screamed and a red mark was left at the corner of her eye by the coin.
Ji Weiguo was furious and suddenly met Ji Mian's gaze. He was shocked by the hatred and ferocity in the child's eyes that were inconsistent with his age.
Ji Mian is like a growing but not yet strong little animal, protecting his mother with his life in a desperate situation.
Ji Weiguo was shocked: Has Ji Mian been cured?
When Ji Mian was diagnosed with intellectual disability, the doctor did say that he could recover.
But the medical expenses of hundreds of thousands of yuan stopped the couple from going to the hospital.
Ji Weiguo was also completely disappointed with Lin Minzhi because of Ji Mian's intelligence.
He is younger than Lin Minzhi and has a bright future ahead of him. He cannot rely on two weird sons for his entire life.
Hongxia... Although Hongxia is infertile, she is a native of Tongcheng, has a car and a house, and can provide him with a stable job. She is undoubtedly the best springboard for him to move towards a bright future.
But at that moment just now, he was still a little moved.
If Ji Mian's intelligence really returns to normal, he will definitely do his best to help Ji Mian grow.
After all, this is his son, Hongxia is just a hen that can't lay eggs, and the Ji family cannot be extinct!
Lin Minzhi didn't know how she walked back home.
She lay on the bed and cried bitterly, looking at her son with tearful eyes.
Ji Mian wiped away Lin Minzhi's tears with his hands. His heart was filled with bitterness. He had a thousand words to say, but he couldn't say them: "Mom..."
Lin Minzhi's body suddenly stopped, and she hugged Ji Mian tightly, choking with sobs: "Mianmian, it's Mommy who is useless! Mommy is useless, Mommy has no money, Mommy is blind, and Mommy married a beast..."
She cried, looked at her haggard self in the mirror, and slowly stroked her face.
I am only 32 years old, but I look like I am 42.
How long has it been since I looked in the mirror?
Sallow face, dull hair, bloated figure, is this still her?
When she was young, Lin Minzhi was a beauty in the surrounding area.
Now that this flower has been picked by a man, its roots have been cut off and it has died early.
Ji Mian hugged Lin Minzhi's neck with his short hands: "Mom, I'm here."
Lin Minzhi stroked his hair and looked at her son, and a sense of courage arose spontaneously.
She still has a son and herself. She needs to eat, watch her son grow up, and life must go on.
In the past, I always heard people say that men are women’s heaven.
Now that her man has run away, she treats him as if he is dead. She wants to be her son's sky and her own sky.
Lin Minzhi made up her mind and knocked on the door of an apartment with Ji Mian.
There were two "dong dong" sounds. Lin Minzhi hugged Ji Mian tightly and asked nervously, "Brother Zhang, are you home?"
The sound of a stool dragging the floor was heard from inside the house, a man's footsteps gradually approached, and the door opened.
Lin Minzhi said, "Brother Zhang, I'm sorry to bother you. I have something I want to ask you for help."
Brother Zhang is a cement worker whom Lin Minzhi met while setting up a night stall. His full name is Zhang Xianzhen. He is a taciturn brother who often buys pancakes from Lin Minzhi.
Once, Lin Minzhi was harassed by a group of hooligans on the construction site, and it was Zhang Xianzhen who helped her fight them off.
Lin Minzhi heard from people in the old street that Zhang Xianzhen used to be a policeman, defending the country on the border.
Later, he got into a fight with bandits and had his leg broken. He still limps now.
After retiring from the army, Zhang Xianzhen returned to Tongcheng and found that his wife had remarried with their son. The state's financial support did not keep up, so he asked a friend to find him a job on a construction site.
Zhang Xianzhen used to be a policeman and a patriot, and he was a righteous man.
Lin Minzhi was in trouble and had no other choice but to come to him.
"Brother Zhang, I want to borrow some money from you." Lin Minzhi stood at the door, unable to raise her head. "Lend me a hundred yuan. I'll pay it back next month."
There was still more than 300 yuan left at home. Ji Mian's kindergarten cost 400 yuan, and she borrowed 100 yuan, leaving more than ten yuan for household expenses.
But... one hundred yuan was not a small amount in 1997.
In the 1990s, most people's salary was only two or three hundred yuan. If Zhang Xianzhen was unwilling to lend... Lin Minzhi didn't hold out much hope.
"good."
Unexpectedly, Zhang Xianzhen agreed immediately.
He didn't ask Lin Minzhi what he was going to do with the hundred yuan. He turned around dejectedly and took out a tin box from under his pillow and counted the bills one by one.
One, five, ten yuan, he counted out a total of one hundred and gave them to Lin Minzhi.
Lin Minzhi was overjoyed and said quickly, "Brother Zhang, I'll write you an IOU and I'll pay you back next month!"
She has decided to set up a stall at the Liming construction site and visit more construction sites. Although it is a bit tiring, she can earn more money.
Zhang Xianzhen lived alone, so in order to avoid suspicion, Lin Minzhi did not go into the house and wrote the IOU while standing at the door.
Before leaving, she bowed to Zhang Xianzhen several times with tears in her eyes. Lin Minzhi remembered the kindness of Zhang Xianzhen who came to her in her time of need.
Ji Mian also remembered it.
After returning home, Lin Minzhi put Ji Mian in the house and hurriedly began to prepare food for the stall in the evening.
Her breakfast stall sells pancakes. An omelet with some vegetable leaves and ham stuffed inside is considered a pancake.
Lin Minzhi has good skills and sells a lot of pancakes.
Ji Mian sat on a small stool and watched, with many thoughts in his mind.
The novel "Tenderness on a Stranger's Road" is based on reality, and many of the city names in the novel correspond to reality.
For example, Tongcheng corresponds to a small town in the south in 1997.
In the 1990s, Jianbingguozi was not yet popular in the streets and alleys. The Jianbing eaten by southerners could only be considered as egg pancakes, which were soft and had an average taste.
If Lin Minzhi adds crispy cookies to the pancakes, they will probably taste better and sell better than they do now.
While Lin Minzhi was rolling out the dough, Ji Mian was watching the dough from the side.
Lin Minzhi looked at her son with a loving heart. She tore off a small piece of dough for Ji Mian and made it into the shape of a little rabbit. She coaxed him, "Mian Mian, play by yourself."
Ji Mian pinched the little rabbit, and something in his heart moved. He lowered his head and slowly rubbed the little rabbit and flattened it.
Lin Minzhi sighed inwardly: If Mianmian's intelligence wasn't flawed...
"Your child has intellectual disabilities. He has difficulties with behavior, language perception, memory, and thinking. He has poor learning ability and is reluctant to communicate. Treatment would cost around 200,000 yuan."
The doctor's words are still vivid in Lin Minzhi's mind. Whenever she thinks about them, her heart aches as if it were being cut by a knife.
Ji Mian is delicate and beautiful, as cute as ice and snow. No one who has seen him would say that he is not good-looking.
God gave him a perfect appearance, but deprived him of the right to be a normal person.
Thinking of this, Lin Minzhi's tears fell.
In a moment of carelessness, Ji Mian was brought to the edge of the boiling oil pan. With a "zila" sound, Lin Minzhi shuddered in fear: "Mianmian!"
She put down the dough and hugged the child. She was relieved to see that Ji Mian just threw the dough into the frying pan without splashing oil.
The dough that was pressed flat by Ji Mian quickly expanded in the oil pan, fried until it was golden and crispy, and emitted bursts of fragrance.
Lin Minzhi was a little surprised and quickly picked up the noodles.
Ji Mian raised her hand: "Mom, eat."
Lin Minzhi took a bite and found it crispy with a lingering fragrance.
She exclaimed, her mind started to work quickly, and she immediately came up with an idea.
Lin Minzhi imitated the dough made by Ji Mian, made a few pieces, threw them into the pan and fried them until they were fragrant and crispy.
Then, she made a pancake as usual, put the crispy biscuit in it, and took a bite. It was soft and fluffy, and the aroma of fried food exploded in her mouth, filling her mouth with fragrance and endless aftertaste.
This pancake is so much better than the ones I've had before!
Lin Minzhi happily kissed Ji Mian hard: "Mian Mian, you really helped your mother a lot!"
Ji Mian lowered his head in embarrassment. The body of a five-year-old child restricted some of his thinking. The rules in the book suppressed him, making him involuntarily shy like a child who was praised.
In the evening, Lin Minzhi locked the doors and windows as usual, put away the sharp kitchen utensils at home, left Ji Mian at home, and went out to set up a stall.
Before leaving, he gave Ji Mian a preschool pinyin book.
Although Ji Mian has an intellectual disability, Lin Minzhi never gives up on saving him.
Ji Mian touched the pinyin book and felt confused.
Since traveling through time, he has not been able to calm down and think about his future.
He took out the note hidden in the cabinet. It was only the size of a palm and was covered with dense writing.
That was the general plot of the novel "Stranger Tenderness" written on it because Ji Mian was afraid that he would forget his origins.
He is five years old now, which means that in twelve years, he will meet Li Jue.
The man whom the original owner loved terribly...
sigh.
Ji Mian closed his eyes.
I don't know when it started to rain outside the window.
Faintly, I heard a conversation in the stairwell.
The female workers who had just finished get off work were discussing:
"You mean the kid in the stairwell?"
"Yes, he's pitiful. His parents couldn't take care of him, so they left him to the care of the nanny. Now the nanny and her son have taken over the room. Okay, kick him out."
"What a sin...it's raining outside, it's still so dark, and there's a typhoon tonight."
"Don't tell me, it looked scary. He didn't even cry, he just stood there coldly..."
Ji Mian listened, climbed onto the bed, and saw a boy sitting at the entrance of the opposite corridor through the fence and window.
I was wearing thin clothes and my lips turned purple from the cold during the typhoon.
He folded his arms and curled himself into a small ball to keep warm.
How pitiful... Ji Mian thought.
The stairs have sensor lights, and the lights come on when someone walks by.
No one has walked through it, and the boy's world is dark.
He had hatred in his heart and resentment in his eyes.
The wind was blowing on his body, and the slaps from Aunt Chen on his ears were burning painful, and half of his face was swollen.
"Little bastard, your parents are fed up with you. No one is willing to take care of you except me!"
"Why don't you just die together? You're not letting your parents enjoy their peaceful lives! You don't know, but your mom has already found you a new dad."
"Little burden, little bastard..."
“…”
I can still vividly remember Aunt Chen’s insults.
He didn't dare to go find Ning Qian, for fear of causing more trouble for her and making his mother even more annoyed with him.
So no matter whether he was beaten or scolded, he always endured it, holding on to the only bit of hope, and humbly thought: If only he was a little better, would his mother come back to see him?
Fu Chenyu bit his lip tightly and told himself that he couldn't cry. If he cried, he would be laughed at by others and would get what he wanted.
But the tears still fell, hitting the black night.
Maybe the nanny was right, he was abandoned, no one loved him, and no one wanted him.
He is the world's superfluous weed.
Just when I was completely desperate, the light in the stairwell suddenly came on.
A childish and crisp voice came from a window on the second floor that was dimly lit with yellow light.
Reciting loudly and word by word:
"The little fish touched 'Ji, Qi, Xi' and wiped away her tears without crying..."
"Little Fish met 'Ji Qi Xi' and wiped away her tears, smiling..."
The childish voice echoed in the night, lighting up the sensor light above Fu Chenyu's head.
The bright light poured down, dispelling the darkness and falling on him.
Fu Chenyu wiped away his tears and listened to the Chinese Pinyin song in a daze.
The voice-activated sensor light above his head never went off again.
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