Chapter 54 New Brother
A gentle breeze blew outside, carrying a salty, fishy smell in the air. Huo Zheng, who was returning home from get off work, glanced at the sea not far away and felt that a typhoon was coming.
He quickened his pace home, and the first thing he did upon arriving was to reinforce the chicks' nest again.
After tidying everything up, I washed my hands and went inside.
Lu Mingyue was having a competition with her two children to press dough balls, and next to her was a tray of already wrapped dumplings.
Hearing the voice, she looked up and smiled, "You're back just in time to help us make dumplings."
Huo Zheng rolled up his sleeves, sat down, and skillfully began rolling out the dough.
Lu Mingyue looked surprised, not expecting that he could actually roll out dough.
The two children looked on with envy when they saw that their father had rolled out large, round dough wrappers.
Yao Yao stared at the dough in her father's hand with bright eyes and couldn't help but ask, "Daddy, why is yours so round?"
Huo Zheng smiled and demonstrated with the rolling pin in his hand, "When rolling out dough, you should do it like Dad, rolling and turning at the same time."
Leilei and Yaoyao tried to imitate him, but they rolled out the dough into an enlarged version, which didn't look as good as their father's at all.
Leilei was not discouraged. He tried again and again with several dough balls, sacrificing several in a crooked manner, before finally rolling out a dough sheet of uniform size.
Lu Mingyue helped him wrap the dumplings and marked them, saying, "I'll save them for you when they're cooked."
Leilei happily said that everyone was eating together, and this was his first time making dumplings. He was very happy, and the corners of his mouth were always turned up. He hoped that there would be more of this in the future.
The water in the pot boiled, so Huo Zheng went to cook the dumplings. Lu Mingyue and the two children cleaned up the flour table and put away the remaining flour to prevent insects from crawling in.
The whole family was busy with their own tasks, working enthusiastically.
Just as he was busy, there was a knock on the door. Qin Lie stood at the door with his wife and a timid little boy, their faces showing a bit of restraint.
Qin Lie said, "Sister-in-law, we've come to bring you some things... This is my Mingming, she just arrived not long ago."
Lu Mingyue had heard Huo Zheng mention that Qin Lie had accidentally discovered that the child was not their biological child, and it took them a long search to find the child.
The little boy was rather thin, with slightly yellow hair and pale lips, clearly malnourished. However, his large eyes were exceptionally bright, and standing next to Qin Lie's wife, they were obviously mother and son.
Lu Mingyue quickly invited them in, "Come in, come in and sit down."
When Leilei and Yaoyao saw Uncle Qin and Aunt Qin bringing some unfamiliar children, they asked curiously, "Uncle Qin, didn't Xiaolong come with you?"
Qin Lie was stunned for a moment, and the smile on his face became somewhat stiff.
Leilei and Yaoyao blinked their big eyes, waiting for the answer.
Mingming, standing next to her, held her mother's hand tightly, her eyes darting away.
Lu Mingyue sensed the subtle tension in the atmosphere and smiled as she continued, "Xiaolong couldn't come today because he had something to do. This is your new little brother. You should get to know him quickly."
Yao Yao stared intently at Mingming with her bright eyes, making Mingming feel a little embarrassed.
"Little brother, what's your name?"
Mingming answered timidly, "I... my name is Mingming."
Yao Yao took his hand and said, "Let's go play hopscotch together!"
Leilei chimed in, "We can also feed Dahua and Erhua."
Mingming glanced hesitantly at her parents, but with their encouraging looks, she finally nodded and joined the two children playing in the yard.
Looking at the child's thin body, Lu Mingyue guessed that he hadn't had a good life in the past two years.
Human traffickers deserve to die!
Qin Lie's eyes showed even deeper guilt.
Zhu Jingwen, who was standing next to him, trembled slightly and her eyes widened suddenly. If she wasn't mistaken, Lu Mingyue hadn't spoken, so how could she have heard her voice?
Zhu Jingwen felt her hand being gently squeezed. She saw her husband wink at her. Could it be that he had heard it too?
Huo Zheng came out of the kitchen after hearing the voice and saw three people standing like wooden stakes in the doorway. "Why don't you come in and talk?"
Lu Mingyue snapped out of her reverie, patted her head, realizing she'd been so engrossed in complaining. She smiled sheepishly and said, "Look how forgetful I am! Come on in, we just made dumplings, we're having lunch here today."
The kitchen was filled with steam, and plump white dumplings were tumbling in the pot.
While gently stirring with his claws, Huo Zheng inquired about Qin Lie's child's condition.
Qin Lie sighed, "When I saw the child, my heart felt like it was being squeezed and I couldn't breathe."
He discovered, based on clues, that the child had been switched by his old acquaintance, Cao Yue.
Cao Yue, his wife Zhu Jingwen, and their children grew up in the same compound and were all around the same age.
When Cao Yue was just beginning to experience romantic feelings, he liked Zhu Jingwen. After being rejected, he was unwilling to give up and followed her around like an unkillable cockroach. Qin Lie fought with him quite a few times because of this.
Back then, we were young and impulsive. If we couldn't stand something, we would fight back. We caused a huge scene in the compound, and it was only after both sets of parents intervened that things calmed down.
Cao Yue remained quiet after this incident, but Qin Lie felt that he couldn't possibly be so honest and was definitely brewing something bad in silence.
He liked Zhu Jingwen and knew that she didn't like Cao Yue, so he took the initiative to express his feelings to her and said that he was willing to protect her and that she didn't need to worry about Cao Yue's revenge.
Zhu Jingwen also liked Qin Lie, but the young girl was shy and had never dared to confess her feelings. Hearing Qin Lie say that, she felt as sweet as honey.
Not long after their marriage, Cao Yue also got married. Later, Qin Lie was transferred to an island and lost contact with him.
If Lu Mingyue hadn't reminded him, Qin Lie wouldn't have realized that he was the one behind this.
From the very beginning, Cao Yue was plotting, waiting for him and Jingwen to marry and have children, and then bribing a nurse to abandon the child in the countryside.
If the child hadn't been incredibly lucky, they might never have seen him again.
“An old bachelor found Mingming. He had died half a year ago from an infection caused by a broken leg. Mingming has been raised on the charity of many families.”
When he saw the child wearing tattered clothes, Qin Lie, who was usually strong, couldn't help but burst into tears.
Huo Zheng patted his good friend on the shoulder to comfort him.
In the living room, Zhu Jingwen was also sobbing uncontrollably.
The child is a piece of her own flesh and blood. Over the past two years, she has watched the child grow up slowly, but the child does not resemble her and her husband at all. She has been afraid, but she can only comfort herself that the child may resemble the elders in the family.
They rely on this brainwashing effort to ignore what's wrong in their lives.
Although it was Zhu Jingwen's first time meeting Lu Mingyue, she knew some things about her from her husband.
Thanks to her for providing the clues, the child was able to return safely.
"Thank you, Comrade Lu."
Lu Mingyue thought she was referring to how she had helped out of the awkward situation earlier, and said with a smile, "It's what I should do."
Now that the child has been found, there's no longer any worry about him dying young. The child, raised by them, can also look back on his real family.
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