At the park entrance, Li Qiumei and her mother met her aunt playing with her grandson Qian Song.
Qian Lei refused to go back and insisted on playing in the park with Qian Song.
Li Qiumei had no choice but to go back alone.
She wondered if she could find a place where she could sell the meat and noodles in the basket at a lower price.
Otherwise, if the family had not yet been divided and the food was handed over to the public for everyone to eat, the mother-in-law would not be willing to subsidize her a penny.
She decided to go to the vegetable market and took a shortcut.
On a back street, Li Qiumei saw a boy lying on the ground.
She was startled and took a few steps back, only to find that the boy was having an epileptic seizure and his limbs were twitching.
She quickly went forward, picked up the boy and laid him on his side. She cleaned the vomit from his mouth, rolled up a handkerchief and stuffed it into his mouth, waiting for him to wake up.
The boy looked about seven or eight years old, dark and thin, with his big toe showing through his Liberation shoes. It seemed that he was from a poor family.
After a while, the boy woke up and his body was no longer stiff.
Li Qiumei helped him sit up and said, "Child, where are your parents?"
"Third brother is not at home. I can't find him."
Li Qiumei heard his stomach rumbling: "Are you hungry?"
The boy nodded weakly.
Li Qiumei carried him to a big rock and sat him down, then took out the bag of egg cake from her backpack and handed it to him to eat.
"You eat first. I'll go get you a bowl of water from the store in front."
The boy mumbled through his stuffed mouth, "Okay."
Li Qiumei had just walked to the door of the convenience store when she heard, "Catch the thief!"
When she looked back, she saw a young boy running away with her backpack.
Li Qiumei shouted loudly, "Catch the thief!" and ran after him.
When we chased him into an alley, the thief disappeared.
Li Qiumei put her hands on her hips and said, "Boy, I saw you, come out quickly! Otherwise I will call the police to arrest you!"
It was quiet in the dim alley, but Li Qiumei could feel several pairs of eyes staring at her.
She didn't dare to move forward rashly. If she called the police now, the person would probably take the opportunity to escape.
But she felt a little reluctant if she didn't take the backpack back.
"Brother, this is it."
Li Qiumei turned around and saw the boy who had fallen ill standing at the entrance of the alley with a man in military uniform.
The tall figure of a man walked over and said, "The whole country is cracking down on thefts right now. If you turn yourself in, you might get a lighter sentence.
I'll count to tens, and if you don't come out, you'll go to jail."
"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six..."
A thin figure jumped out of a window carrying Li Qiumei's backpack.
The man grabbed the backpack and handed it to Li Qiumei, then handcuffed the thief's hands behind his back.
When she got to the street, Li Qiumei could see clearly that the thief was indeed a young boy.
"Auntie, this is my eldest brother."
The boy who fell ill proudly introduced himself to Li Qiumei.
"Hello! I'm Cheng Zhiqian, thank you for saving my brother.
"Can you check if anything is missing?" the man nodded to Li Qiumei.
Li Qiumei rummaged through it and said, "They're all here."
"Okay, then you come with us to the Public Security Bureau to help us deal with this matter." Cheng Zhiqian said as he pushed the boy who stole things away.
Li Qiumei reached out her hand to stop Cheng Zhiqian: "Wait a moment."
She looked at the boy who stole something and asked, "How old are you? Why did you steal something?"
The boy sucked back the snot that was about to hang to his mouth with a "slurp".
"I was fifteen years old. My grandmother was sick and there was nothing to eat at home. I saw a piece of meat in the basket and... I just... "
Li Qiumei looked at the boy's clothes and pants full of patches and the only shoe on his foot, and she couldn't bear to pursue him any further.
"Forget it, let him go. Go find your shoes and put them on."
Cheng Zhiqian flatly refused: "No, he is a criminal, you have no right to let him go."
The two people started arguing.
Li Qiumei wanted to release the boy, but Cheng Zhiqian insisted on handling the matter impartially.
One of them grabbed one of the boy's hands.
Li Qiumei looked at the tall and handsome man and shook her head with an indifferent look.
This man is not only rigid, but also has a heart of stone.
"Cheng Zhiqian is still a child. His parents are dead, and his grandmother at home still needs him to take care of her.
You also know that we are still cracking down on it. If he goes to the Public Security Bureau, he will definitely be locked up.
He is locked up. Will you take care of his grandmother?
Aren't you killing an entire family in one fell swoop?"
Cheng Zhiqian felt that although this woman saved his brother, she was a person who could not distinguish right from wrong and was unreasonable.
"You are shielding a criminal. Just because he is a child, he must be taught a lesson for making mistakes.
Otherwise, he will only go further and further down the road of crime.
By then, you won’t be imprisoned, you will be shot!
Also, the place he was hiding just now shows that this wasn't his first time stealing..."
Cheng Zhiqian suddenly let go of the boy's hand, dodged and kicked something that flew out of the alley, then ran back into the alley.
"It's a shoe!" Cheng Zhiming pointed at the shoe that was kicked not far away by his elder brother.
Li Qiumei pulled the boy over and found that the shoes he was wearing were indeed the same pair.
After putting on my shoes, I saw Cheng Zhiqian had already climbed in through a window.
Li Qiumei quickly put the backpack on the boy's back and took out ten yuan and stuffed it into his pocket.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
