Discharge

“The sun sets over the mountains; the Yellow River flows into the sea. If you want to see a thousand miles, you must climb to a higher floor.”[1]

When Meng Cheng returned to the ward, he heard Meng Zheng reciting a poem.

Although Meng Zheng is only three years old, he has already attended a one-year seedling training class. He has learned to count from one to one hundred, can recognize dozens of simple characters, and can recite several ancient poems.

Meng Zheng always behaves very maturely in front of outsiders, but likes to show off in front of his parents. After reciting "Climbing the Stork Tower", he shouted, "I can also recite "Quiet Night Thoughts"!"

"Well, then recite another poem, 'Quiet Night Thoughts'."

Meng Zheng nodded vigorously, straightened his chest and raised his head to recite aloud: "Quiet Night Thoughts, Li Bai..."

After reciting "Quiet Night Thoughts" and "Spring Dawn", Meng Zheng recited seven or eight poems in a row, exhausting all his memory. After listening to his parents praising him to great lengths, the young man finished the activity with satisfaction and went to see his sister.

Ye Min finally found time to ask Meng Cheng, "Why did you take so long?"

"The couple agreed on their statements and both insisted that Xu Haiyang was deceived by Li Wenxiu and was not an accomplice." Meng Cheng replied, "Captain Zhao, who is in charge of this case, couldn't get any more information, so he asked me to help with the trial."

Ye Min was no less concerned about this matter than Meng Cheng. She also hoped that Li and Xu would suffer the consequences of their actions. When she learned that Captain Zhao could not pry them open, she asked anxiously, "What's the result? Did you find out?"

“I found out.”

Ye Min breathed a sigh of relief: "Will they go to jail?"

"Can."

Ye Min was relieved and asked again: "Captain Zhao couldn't even pry them open their mouths, how did you get them to confess?"

"I have read the case files. They did not have the opportunity to speak alone after being arrested, so I guess they must have colluded before the operation. But if this is the case, it means they have doubts about whether the plan can succeed. But Li Wenxiu dared to do such a thing, she certainly did not think she would be arrested."

Ye Min thought about it and nodded: "You are right."

"Based on Xu Haiyang's personal confession, I think he is a cowardly and timid person. Li Wenxiu thought her plan was foolproof, but he was pessimistic about it. His personality was not good enough to persuade Li Wenxiu to change her mind. If Li Wenxiu wanted her plan to go smoothly, she also needed his help, so she needed to appease him, which led to the collusion."

Ye Min continued to nod: "That sounds reasonable."

"So I went to see Xu Haiyang first." In order not to worry Ye Min, Meng Cheng omitted the fact that he beat Xu Haiyang and repeated the interrogation process.

The more Ye Min listened, the brighter her eyes became. Finally, she couldn't help but give him a thumbs up: "Smart!"

Faced with his wife's admiration, Meng Cheng tried twice but failed to suppress the arc of his lips. He had to cough to cover up his feelings before continuing, "After getting Xu Haiyang's confession, I went to see Li Wenxiu again. Captain Zhao said that she has a strong character and her mouth is harder to pry open than Xu Haiyang's, but I don't think so."

"What do you mean?"

"Xu Haiyang is a coward, but he is also selfish. He cares most about himself, and collusion is beneficial to him. Li Wenxiu looks decisive, but in fact she has a big weakness: her children. She decided to keep Xu Haiyang because she wanted someone to take care of her children. After reading Xu Haiyang's confession, her already weak trust in this man would be further eroded, and then I provided her with another option..."

After listening to Li Wenxiu's interrogation, Ye Min was more concerned about the two children rather than Li Wenxiu herself: "Will they really be adopted?"

“The probability is not high.”

"Um?"

"Childless couples who go to orphanages to adopt children tend to prefer young boys who don't remember anything. Li Wenxiu's eldest son is eight years old this year and can already remember things. Although a younger age is suitable, a girl... there are too many baby girls in the orphanage."

Moreover, the Xu siblings are different from other abandoned children. They were sent to the orphanage after their parents went to jail. If the families who adopt children from the orphanage pay attention to this, their hopes of being adopted will be even slimmer.

After hearing this, Ye Min felt unhappy, but she did not sympathize with the two children.

Although there is a saying that "the sin should not be committed by the children", it is hard to believe that Li Wenxiu switched the children in order to give her daughter a good life.

Moreover, in the original novel, after the switch was successful, the child did live well in her home and even had the opportunity to go to college, but her biological daughter was treated cruelly, so she could not have any kindness towards Li Wenxiu's children.

The best she could do was not to add insult to injury.

Anyway, Li Wenxiu and Xu Haiyang had already confessed, and all that awaited them was life in prison, so he simply gave up questioning them and changed the subject.

…

Meng Cheng has little experience in raising children.

After the outbreak of the Vietnam War, the country has been sending troops to provide aid. The soldiers who participated in the aid did not stay there and stay there until the end of the war. Instead, they were divided into several batches, and each batch went there and returned at a different time.

Mengcheng went there twice. The first time was from 1966 to 1967. Soon after he came back, he was promoted to deputy company commander. Soon after that, he received a letter from his uncle and aunt. He went back to Jiangcheng during the Chinese New Year to meet Ye Min, and they got married quickly. The second time was in early 1968. He went there shortly after the wedding and returned in February of the following year.

By the time he returned to Jiangcheng after work and asked for leave, Meng Zheng had already been gone for three months. And he didn't stay at home for long that time. He had just learned how to hold a child when his vacation ended.

When I returned to Jiangcheng, Meng Zheng was already one year old and no longer a baby. He was heavier and easier to hold.

After three years, even if Meng Cheng had not forgotten all about how to hold a child, he had almost forgotten it. Especially since An An was only a few days old, not much bigger than his palm, and much more fragile than when he first met Meng Zheng.

Therefore, although he quickly remembered how to hold a child, he always felt restrained after picking up An An, for fear of accidentally hurting his daughter.

In addition, after Liang Juan went back, he had to do all the work such as making milk powder, changing diapers, and serving meals and fetching water for Ye Min by himself, so his life in the first two days was really chaotic.

Fortunately, he had a strong learning ability and by the time he was discharged from the hospital, he was finally able to walk freely while holding his daughter. He also became more and more adept at making milk powder and changing diapers.

With his care, Ye Min was finally able to sleep well.

This is not to say that Liang Juan is not as good as Meng Cheng in doing things, but she is here to help after all. She can do many things by herself, and Ye Min will not bother her. She is also the one who feeds the child at night.

Meng Cheng is different. He is her husband and An An's father. It is natural for him to take care of them, mother and daughter. In front of him, Ye Min can rest assured and sleep more soundly at night.

On the day of discharge, Ye Min looked full of energy. Except that her clothes were a little thicker, she did not look like a woman who had just given birth. Even the nurse said that she was well-maintained.

Ye Min was very humble: "It's mainly because Comrade Meng took good care of me."

Meng Cheng, who was packing his luggage, heard this and coughed to cover up, saying, "This is what I should do."

What Meng Cheng said made sense, but I have worked as a nurse in the obstetrics department for several years, but I have never seen anyone like Meng Cheng who is willing to take care of his daughter-in-law during the confinement period.

The better ones, perhaps because there is really no one to take care of the child at home, may stay by the bedside, but at most they can help prepare three meals a day. They may not even help their wives change diapers for the children, and they just do nothing.

The worse ones only show up on the day their wives give birth, but the rest of the time it is all taken care of by the mother, who calls it being busy with work, but in fact she just doesn't care.

There are also those who immediately change their faces when they see that the child is not a son, and those who are in a bad mood and get angry at their wife lying on the hospital bed. After a few years, it seems that she is almost afraid of marriage.

Although Meng Cheng was not around for the first few days after Ye Min gave birth, she still grumbled in her heart at the time, thinking that he was also the kind of person who didn't care about his wife and children.

But he performed well after he showed up. Not only did he not act like a hands-off manager, he also took good care of his wife. In addition, the nurses changed their opinion of him after knowing that he was not absent on purpose in the past few days but was on a mission and did not come back in time.

After hearing what he said, she couldn't hide her envy, but she didn't forget her business. She handed over the things in her hand and said, "This is the discharge certificate. How are you going to get home later? Do you need me to arrange for someone to take you to the bus stop?"

Normally, the hospital doesn't care how the patients get home. After all, a county hospital of this size receives dozens if not hundreds of patients every day. If they had to worry about every patient like this, doctors and nurses wouldn't have to go to work.

The reason why he was so attentive to Ye Min was because the hospital was at fault in the baby-switch incident.

Although Li Wenxiu failed to successfully exchange the baby and was arrested successfully, everyone with a discerning eye knows that the credit does not go to the hospital, and in fact the hospital's performance in this matter was not good.

First of all, the ward door bolt had been broken for over a month and had not been replaced for a long time; secondly, on the night Li Wenxiu was arrested, there was only one nurse present in the hospital, and the others were very slow to arrive, showing a very poor response.

So even though the switch failed, the reputation of the county hospital was still affected after the news spread. The county governor heard about it and severely criticized the hospital director. The leader of the department involved was directly dismissed.

As victims, Ye Min and her daughter felt the hospital's enthusiasm. If there was anything missing in the ward, they would just ask and someone would deliver it immediately.

Also, when they were discharged from the hospital today, Meng Cheng didn't have to go through the formalities herself, a nurse would take them there. In addition, she dared to say that she had arranged for someone to take them to the bus station, so it must have been instructed by the leader.

But Ye Min didn't feel flattered at all, because she knew that this was because An An was almost swapped. Of course, she didn't think that these were what the hospital should do. When help was needed, they would ask for it, and when it was not needed, they would not cause trouble for them.

Although the army has many rules and regulations, it is also full of warmth. For example, when Ye Min was discharged from the hospital after giving birth, Meng Cheng just made an application and a car came to pick them up.

So Ye Min waved her hand and said, "No need, we have a car to pick you up, you can carry your luggage yourself."

"Okay, if you have any other questions, just come to me."

The nurse left after she finished speaking. Meng Cheng packed the last piece of luggage and said, "I'll put the things in the car first and pick you up later."

"good."

They didn't have much luggage, so Meng Cheng moved it in two trips. After entering the ward for the third time, he walked to the bedside, bent down, picked up his daughter and said, "You can leave now."

Meng Zheng stretched happily: "Finally I can go back!"

Ye Min also stood up from the hospital bed and followed them out.

A few days had passed since the switch, and many patients in the inpatient department had changed, but this incident was so shocking that almost all the new admissions had heard about it and had all come to Ward 214 to see Ye Min.

So when they walked out, many people they met recognized Ye Min and greeted her enthusiastically: "Are you discharged from the hospital?"

Ye Min also smiled and replied: "Yes!"

"As the old saying goes, good things take time. I'm sure everything will go smoothly for you and your daughter in the future."

"Thank you for your good words."