Chapter 12 Biological Mother
"You also know that your niece is not your biological daughter, so what was the basis for you to force your niece to marry?" Li Hongbin said this and directly said to Police Officer Zhang and Director Zhang: "Their family forced a minor to marry and was preparing to drug their niece. I think there is a suspicion of crime. Should we investigate it?"
In fact, these things were all attempted, and there was no way to convict him. This is also the reason why Li Hongbin did not touch Xia Tian at first.
But today, he felt that he could not let Xia Tian go so easily. Even if he could not be convicted, he could be taken to the police station for interrogation if he was suspected of a crime, to educate him, to intimidate him, so that this person would not do anything immoral in the future.
Director Zhang and Li Hongbin are old comrades-in-arms, and they still have a tacit understanding. Knowing what he meant, he immediately nodded to Police Officer Zhang.
Then the weak-legged Xia Tian was taken away by Police Officer Zhang.
The villagers were happy to see this, as they had long disliked Xia Tian, who was usually silent and actually mean.
They all said that Xia Tian had suffered retribution.
When she left Xia Village, some aunties in the village came to see her off and stuffed eggs into her hands. Chunxiang also squeezed into the crowd and gave her a handkerchief.
Xia Xiaoxi said goodbye to them with tears and smiles in her eyes.
Afterwards, Li Hongbin bought a lot of fruits and took Xiaoxi to see Teacher Cao and Zhang Lan who had helped her. They were all happy for her.
******
The train clanged forward, and the fields, villages, and rivers outside the window kept receding.
Li Hongbin looked at Xiaoxi who was staring out the window in a daze, took out a bag from the package and handed it to her, "Try it."
Xia Xiaoxi took the bag, which had the words "Chocolate with Liquor Filling" written on it. She had heard from her classmates that this was very expensive.
She carefully opened the bag, which contained dozens of individually wrapped colorful chocolates. She took a piece from it and handed it to Li Hongbin.
Li Hongbin smiled and said, "I'm not used to eating these. This is what your uncle Qiangzi bought for you to eat on the road." Uncle Qiangzi is Director Zhang who helped Li Hongbin find someone this time.
Xia Xiaoxi opened one and ate it herself, but it was bitter. But she didn't have the habit of wasting things, so she endured it and chewed it slowly. As she chewed, it turned out to be sweet, and it tasted even better than sugar.
The changes on Xiaoxi's face did not escape Li Hongbin's eyes. He felt extremely bitter, and guessed that this child had hardly eaten sweets since childhood.
He took the initiative to talk about family matters, "You have a younger brother named Li Wenhua, who is in the fifth grade this year and will be in the first grade of junior high school after the summer vacation. He loves to be naughty. There is also Wenting, who is the same age as you." At this point, Li Hongbin glanced at Xiaoxi carefully, "She is the same age as you, and is in the second grade of junior high school this year."
Xiaoxi quickly understood that this Wenting refers to her brother's biological sister.
Listening to the tone, Xiaoxi grew up by looking at people's faces. As soon as she heard what Li Hongbin said, she knew that the girl who was mistakenly hugged by her would continue to stay in the Li family in the future.
Li Hongbin was confused and didn't know how to explain Li Wenting to her. After confirming Xiaoxi's identity, he called Qin Lan.
Qin Lan cried on the phone. He originally thought that Qin Lan cried because she felt sorry for her biological daughter, but who knew that she cried and said that she couldn't bear to let Tingting suffer and didn't want to send Tingting away.
Although he hated Zhang Qiuxiang for swapping his biological daughters and causing Xiaoxi to suffer so much, he also knew that Wenting was innocent. Moreover, the Xia family was in such an environment, and there were such uncles and aunts watching covetously. He was also reluctant to let his daughter, who had been raised for more than ten years, go back to suffer like that.
After knowing Qin Lan's attitude, he discussed it with Xia Zhiyuan, and Xia Zhiyuan naturally had no objection. It would be best for his biological sister and Xiaoxi to stay in the Li family and not have to suffer with him. In
the end, Li Hongbin did not tell Xiaoxi about their plans for Li Wenting, and decided to wait until he went back to discuss it with Qin Lan.
After a day of train, car, and ferry rides, we finally arrived at the location of Li Hongbin's unit. This is an island, where the unit is stationed and where the unit's families are located.
The new things along the way made Xia Xiaoxi gradually forget her inner uneasiness.
The farthest place she had been before was the county.
This time she saw the ever-changing cities, villages, farmlands, and lakes outside the train window. She saw the endless sea and flocks of seagulls.
"We will be home soon, and our home is on that island." Li Hongbin pointed to the island not far away and said to Xia Xiaoxi. After traveling together all this time, Xia Xiaoxi was no longer so reserved about Li Hongbin.
"Dad, is your unit also there?" Xiaoxi asked curiously. From being embarrassed at the beginning, Xiaoxi can now call Li Hongbin dad naturally.
"Yes. Dad has been here for more than ten years. You will also live on this island and study here in the future. You will like it here." Li Hongbin said with a smile.
As the ship approached the shore, the scenery on the island became clearer and clearer.
Rows of houses built against the mountain, children playing by the sea, and people looking at the ship at the ferry.
When the ship docked, the pedestrians on the ship walked down one after another. Li Hongbin took Xia Xiaoxi ashore.
"Hello, commander." A soldier in military uniform ran over and saluted his father. This scared Xia Xiaoxi.
Li Hongbin returned a military salute.
"Commander, you are back, I will drive you back." The soldier said.
"No need, we can just walk back. You go and do your work." Li Hongbin replied.
After the soldier left, Li Hongbin asked Xia Xiaoxi with a smile, "Did I scare you just now?"
Xia Xiaoxi smiled and said, "I didn't react for a while."
"You will get used to it in the future." Li Hongbin took all the packages from Xiaoxi's hands while speaking.
The two walked along the main road to the center of the island. Not far away, Xia Xiaoxi saw a supply and marketing cooperative with a dazzling array of things inside, much larger than the supply and marketing cooperative in Shixi Town. There were rows of relatively neat buildings on the roadside. After walking
for about half an hour, we arrived at the seaside and entered the family courtyard. There was a row of identical two-story independent courtyards. There were also several rows of tall buildings.
"This is our home." When they arrived at the third courtyard in the second to last row, Li Hongbin pushed open the courtyard door and walked in with Xia Xiaoxi.
In the middle of the yard, there is a stone path leading to the small building. On the right side of the path, there is a well, surrounded by many unknown flower pots.
After crossing the path, I entered the main house. It was a living room, and inside the house was furniture that Xia Xiaoxi had never seen before. The sofa was covered with white knitted ornaments, and there was a TV against the wall, which was also covered with a piece of white knitted ornaments.
Xiaoxi felt a sense of embarrassment when she saw such a living room.
The room was quiet and silent.
"Qin Lan." Li Hongbin shouted.
Soon there was a sound coming from upstairs, someone was coming downstairs.
Xia Xiaoxi's heart was pounding.
She looked towards the stairs and saw a fashionable woman wearing a plaid shirt, a blue pleated skirt and curly hair coming down from upstairs.
If she ignored her eyebrows and eyes which were very similar to hers, it would remind her of Li Haoran's mother. She felt embarrassed just by looking at her and didn't even have the courage to speak.
After she saw herself, her steps slowed down.
"Hongbin, she..." Qin Lan was a little excited and a little at a loss, because she was too much like herself. She looked at Li Hongbin, as if she wanted to find comfort from him.
"This is Xiaoxi." Li Hongbin nodded.
She walked up to Xia Xiaoxi and was about to touch her thin, pale face. But her hand retracted halfway.
Xiaoxi had been on the train for another day and night, and her whole body was dirty. Not to mention Xiaoxi, Li Hongbin was the same. Qin Lan always liked cleanliness, so she stopped halfway.
She looked at Xiaoxi's eyes that seemed to see through everything, and she felt a little guilty.
"Xiaoxi, this is your mother. Call her mom." Li Hongbin knew that Qin Lan's cleanliness problem had come back again, so she hurriedly changed the subject, fearing that she would hurt the child.
"Mom." Xiaoxi's tone was stiff.
"Well, it's good that you're back. This will be your home from now on." Qin Lan said hurriedly.
"Go wash up first. You must be sweaty after sitting on the train for such a long time."
Li Hongbin pulled Xiaoxi to sit on the sofa. "You sit down first. Qin Lan, find a set of Wenting's clothes for Xiaoxi."
"Okay." Qin Lan was about to turn around and go upstairs. Seeing Xiaoxi sitting on the sofa, she wanted to say something but stopped abruptly.
Xiaoxi saw all this and felt empty in her heart, as if all her previous expectations had been dashed. She stood up numbly without sitting on the sofa.
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