This Tu Hong is a pretty shady character.
He did a lot of dirty work with the local thugs.
However, he has one good point: he is filial.
He was only eleven years old when his father bravely risked his life to save Chen Zaohua and her daughter.
The family was barely making ends meet, but their life became difficult after his father, the pillar of the family, suddenly passed away.
Tu Hong's mother was a woman with no formal job. To support Tu Hong, she did everything she could to earn a living, from collecting scraps and working as a cook to doing odd jobs.
Tuhong was just a teenager back then, the kind of boy who could eat his father alive. His only memory of those years was hunger.
Back then, whenever I saw something, my first thought was whether it was edible.
Actually, according to people's current thinking, the Northeast is a vast and resource-rich land. Even if some wild vegetables grow on the ground and some mushrooms grow on the mountains in spring, it would be enough to sustain people.
However, given the circumstances at the time, life was not as easy for Tu Hong and her son as it was for people living in the countryside.
Tu Hong's mother sometimes couldn't earn enough for just a few cornbread buns a day. Even so, she would hide the cornbread buns in her bosom and save them for her son to eat.
When he was wolfing down his cornbread, how could he not have noticed that his mother was constantly swallowing and clutching her stomach with her hand!
His mother said he had eaten his fill outside, and he actually believed her!
Sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night and see his mother drinking jar after jar of water. His mother would say that he had eaten too much during the day and was thirsty at night.
Tu Hong later recalled the scene countless times and would slap himself hard several times.
When Tuhong was sixteen, his mother died quietly.
She died on a winter night. There was no heating in the house, and they burned coal scraps they had picked up from the train station. Only the kang (a heated brick bed) was warm. Her entire face, which was exposed to the cold air, was icy cold, and her nose was even colder from constantly breathing in the cold air.
When Tu Hong got up in the morning and called for his mother, her body was already stiff.
At that moment, the hatred that Tu Hong felt for his father, as well as Chen Zaohua and her daughter, erupted all at once.
Moreover, over the years, neighbors have been gossiping behind his back, saying that Tu Lao Er and Chen Zao Hua's mother were having an affair, and that Chen Zao Hua was Tu Hong's father's child.
Those people were making very convincing claims; otherwise, why would Tu Lao Er risk his life to save that mother and daughter?
Tu Hongyue thought about it more and more and felt that what these people said was the truth. From then on, he became obsessed with it and would provoke Chen Zaohua and her daughter whenever he had nothing to do.
Chen Zaohua and her daughter felt deeply guilty towards Tu Hong and his mother.
Even though they didn't have much money themselves, they would always think of sending half of their food to Tuhong and his mother.
At first, Chen Zaohua and her daughter didn't take Tu Hong's antics seriously.
But later, Tu Hong's troubles escalated, and he even attracted the attention of several thugs.
These thugs were different from Tu Hong. They had no grudge against the Chen family mother and daughter, but they were willing to follow Tu Hong to cause trouble at the Chen family's house.
As time went on, their gazes toward Chen Zaohua, who had blossomed into a beautiful young woman, became somewhat strange.
Chen Zaohua's mother knew that if things continued like this, it would ruin her daughter, so she gritted her teeth and left Changchun with the man who had taken a liking to her.
Tu Hong was stunned by Chen Zaohua's outburst.
However, he immediately flew into a rage, "Fine! Fine! You finally admit it, huh!"
Chen Zaohua was also furious, "I admit it my ass! You believe a few idle words from people? Where's your brain? How could Uncle Tu have given birth to such a stupid son like you!"
She said angrily, then grabbed a nurse who was watching the scene unfold, "Comrade, could you please draw our blood?"
The nurse, who was enjoying the gossip, wondered: Why do I have to deal with this too?
"Why are you drawing blood? Malnutrition can be treated with IV fluids!"
"A blood test! We absolutely have to have a blood test! Let's see if we really have the same father!"
Chen Zaohua shouted angrily.
Li Xiangdong, who had been silent the whole time, hesitated before speaking. "Well, blood type alone can't determine whether two people are related!"
The most accurate method is DNA paternity testing.
But at that moment, the atmosphere in the room didn't allow him to speak.
Chen Zaohua said she needed a blood test, and Tu Hong's eyes lit up. He also asked for a blood test immediately.
The nurse who was supposed to come in to change the IV drips had to draw blood from the two people first.
The blood type test was quick, and the results came out in no time.
Chen Zaohua has the rare Rh-negative blood type, while Tu Hong has the very common type B blood.
"See? See? When my mom and I got to Qianjiang, we had our blood types tested! My mom is also Rh negative!"
Chen Zaohua, having learned this knowledge from some expert, firmly believed that this result proved that she and Tu Hong were not related by blood.
She quickly explained the complex blood type chart, though of course, no one in the room really understood it.
However, her confident attitude immediately put Tuhong in awe.
He first stared wide-eyed, carefully comparing the two people's blood type reports, then his lips trembled a few times, and his Adam's apple bobbed up and down, "Really, really not?"
Chen Zaohua was exasperated. "Of course not! You're such a fool! You actually believed what Old Li's wife said!"
Tu Hong suddenly yelled, covered his head with his hands, and fell to the ground with a thud.
Li Xiangdong silently walked over and, taking advantage of Tu Hong's excitement, plucked two strands of Tu Hong's hair.
Tu Hong broke down for a long time, then suddenly stood up, grabbed two blood type reports, and ran outside without even putting on his shoes.
In critical moments, it was the nurses who reacted the fastest.
"Hey! Stop him!"
Has this person gone insane from all the stress?
The crowd quickly stopped the gesticulating Tu Hong and pinned him firmly to the hospital bed.
Tu Hong struggled, "No, don't push so hard! I'm going to my parents' graves!"
By the way, burn these two reports for his mother, so that she can understand the truth and stop arguing with his father in the afterlife.
If you need anything, just go find Old Li, the woman who loves crickets!
Sigh, all these years, his father's heroic title of "righteous and courageous" has been tarnished by him!
————
In front of the two lonely graves, there were roast chickens and fish, snacks and apples, liquor and cigarettes, as well as a pile of paper offerings.
Tu Hong and Chen Zaohua knelt before the graves, lighting cigarettes and sprinkling wine on each of the two graves.
Tu Hong personally burned the two blood type reports for his mother, along with a lot of paper money. He kept nagging her, telling her that they had misunderstood his father, and that the culprit behind all this was the gossipy old woman, Granny Li. He told her that if she saw Granny Li in the afterlife, she should slap her a few times to vent her anger…
By the time he finished rambling on, Chen Zaohua had also finished burning paper money for Tu Lao Er.
"Big brother, why didn't Second Uncle and Second Aunt have their bones interred together?"
Logically speaking, the couple should be buried in the same grave.
Tu Hong scratched the back of his head, "At the time, I thought my dad had wronged my mom, so I got angry and separated them!"
Chen Zaohua: ...
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