Seeing the old woman walk up to her, Li Xunli quickly greeted her, "Aunt Huifen!"
Then he patted Shen Qingqing, who was clinging to him, and said, "Call me Auntie!"
Shen Qingqing greeted her respectfully, "Hello, Auntie!"
Li Huifen said "Eh" twice, her laughter somewhat restrained, and looked at Li Xunli's expression as if she wanted to say something but hesitated.
Not only Shen Qingqing noticed it, but Li Xunli noticed it too.
"Aunt Huifen, please tell me what's wrong!" Li Xunli said.
Li Huifen kept licking her lips, twisting her hands together, looking at her grandson, who was already much taller than her, with a mixture of heartache and distress.
Seeing her like this, Li Xunli could probably guess that it was related to Chen Manyu.
After hesitating for a long time, Li Huifen finally spoke, "Xunli, I heard you're doing porcelain work on your own now, is that right?"
Li Xunli nodded: "Yes, they are all small orders."
Upon hearing Li Xunli say it was a small order, Li Huifen became even more embarrassed, her face flushed before she finally managed to say, "Could you... could you take Manyu on as an apprentice?"
After saying that, he hurriedly added, "No, you don't need to give him money! Just provide him with two meals a day! A few steamed buns will do!"
Li Xunli sensed something was wrong and asked, "Aunt Huifen, what happened?"
Li Huifen swallowed hard, her eyes reddened, and she looked at Chen Manyu again, unable to speak.
Although Chen Manyu was ten years old when his brain was damaged, it only meant that his intellectual growth was slow; it didn't mean he couldn't understand human speech.
"Qingqing, take Brother Manyu inside to wash his hands and wipe his dirty parts." Li Xunli found an excuse to have Shen Qingqing send Chen Manyu away.
Chen Manyu looked warily at Shen Qingqing, who came out from behind Li Xunli. Li Huifen reassured him, and he followed Shen Qingqing into their family's porcelain kiln, turning back to look at her every step of the way.
After watching Chen Manyu go inside and making sure he couldn't hear her, Li Huifen sniffed and said, "Xunli, I'm not afraid to tell you this. When my husband and I took Manyu for a checkup this year, they found out we have a chronic illness. We have to take medicine, otherwise it will get worse."
“We, the old couple, don’t have the money to buy medicine. We listened to what the nurse said and applied for a minimum living allowance, which is enough to barely afford the medicine. We also want to watch over Manyu for a few more years; we can’t rest easy!”
"But we also know that he probably doesn't have many years left to live, so we wanted to find Manyu some manual labor that doesn't require his brain, but nobody wanted him. They all thought he was stupid and were afraid something would happen to him."
“But Manyu can understand what we say. He’s just a little slow to react, but he’s very efficient. People have complained about him too many times, so he’s stopped coming with us to find work.”
“He’s loved working with porcelain with his grandfather since he was little. Although he’s not very bright these days, he still has some skills. And since you’re also doing this, could you…”
Li Xunli showed a somewhat troubled expression.
Seeing Li Xunli's expression, Li Huifen's expression darkened, but she still looked at Li Xunli pleadingly.
Li Xunli remembered Chen Manyu's words about helping her and realized that the boy knew his grandparents had been worrying about this matter for him. He happened to see Li Xunli pounding materials, and since he knew how to do it, he offered to help.
In his view, the people who had approached him before rejected him because he was stupid and had never done those kinds of work before, and they were afraid he wouldn't understand, so they didn't want him.
He's known how to do Li Xunli's job since he was a child, having learned a lot from his grandfather. Needless to say, he understands it, so Li Xunli will definitely want him!
“Aunt Huifen, I might be unable to do this favor…” Li Xunli found it difficult to say no.
But she also understood that this was the old man entrusting his son to her, and if she accepted the responsibility, it would mean taking on the burden of Chen Manyu's later life.
This is not something that can be easily accepted.
"Or, you could have him work for you for a few days, and once we find something else to do and earn more money, we'll definitely bring him back, okay?" Li Huifen said, her voice choked with emotion. "We...we can even buy him steamed buns to eat..."
"Just let him do whatever he wants here, just let him know that someone needs him to do things, okay?"
Looking at the old man's pleading expression, Li Xunli couldn't bring herself to refuse.
"Grandma! Aunt Li! I'm all clean!" Chen Manyu's excited voice came from behind.
Li Huifen quickly wiped away her tears, pretending nothing had happened, and greeted Chen Manyu with a smile, "Hey right, we have to be clean, that's how we look!"
"Come on, thank you Aunt Li and little sister Qingqing. Let's go home. Your grandpa should go buy groceries and head back now."
Chen Manyu nodded and waved goodbye to Li Xunli and Shen Qingqing.
After the grandmother and granddaughter walked away, Li Xunli turned around and went inside, feeling depressed.
Shen Qingqing was very puzzled and followed her mother around, asking, "Mom, what's wrong? Why are you like this?"
Looking at Shen Qingqing's lively and cheerful appearance, Li Xunli couldn't help but hug her and then briefly told her about Chen Manyu.
After listening to what her mother said, Shen Qingqing remained silent for a long time before finally saying, "Mom, we can't take him in."
Shen Qingqing knew that what she said was a bit cold-blooded, but if she wasn't, who knew how much trouble Chen Manyu would cause her in the future?
"Mom knows, but you didn't see how your Aunt Huifen looked..." Li Xunli felt a tightness in her chest.
Because of this incident, the atmosphere at work was rather somber for the entire afternoon. They didn't say a word and kept their heads down, working until Shen Rongzhou called to ask them to come home for dinner. By then, Li Xunli had almost finished grinding the necessary materials.
With only a few final touches left, Li Xunli finished the job before driving Shen Qingqing back together.
After returning home, Li Xunli brought up Chen Manyu's matter again at the dinner table.
Although Shen Rongzhou hadn't met Chen Manyu much, he was aware of this rather unusual situation.
Seeing that his wife was so upset about this that she could barely eat, he could only comfort her by saying, "Honey, we can only help with this temporarily, not forever."
"Given his situation, we clearly have to help him for life. If the two elderly people pass away, he will be without a guardian. If something happens to him, they might come looking for us."
"There are three children in the family. You need to think this through carefully."
Li Xunli sighed deeply, "I know, I just know, but I can't help feeling sorry for them..."
"When I was little, if Aunt Huifen had a sweet potato or something, she would share a piece with me..."
It was precisely because Li Huifen remembered this good thing about her that Li Xunli was unable to definitively say anything definitive today.
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