Who are you looking for?
The middle-aged woman got up from the rocking chair and looked Ling Huanwu up and down at the gate of the courtyard, seemingly lost in thought.
Commander Zhao turned his head and recognized Ling Huanwu at a glance.
He was taken aback and asked the aunt next to him to invite Ling Huanwu in.
After passing through the courtyard filled with daffodils, Ling Huanwu sat opposite Commander Zhao and his wife in the bright and clean living room.
Zhao Tingguo introduced her to his wife with a smile, "This is Er Gou's childhood betrothal girlfriend. Now that Er Gou is gone, I'm having Da Gou fulfill the marriage agreement his grandfather made back then. This girl is a good comrade!"
Chu Mei's face immediately darkened. She glared at him and shouted angrily, "You surnamed Zhao, are you crazy? That's Er Gou's fiancée! How could you snatch her and give her to Da Gou? Don't you know how many things Er Gou has given up to his brother? And now you want to give him the one thing he loves most?"
"I've told you hundreds of times, Er Gou was definitely killed by Da Gou..."
Chu Mei became increasingly agitated as she cursed, resembling a crazed mother who had lost her child.
Throughout the entire process, Zhao Tingguo, who was usually aloof and stern man outside, simply listened to his wife's scolding with his head down, completely acting like a henpecked husband.
Ling Huanwu, however, did not listen to the content of their conversation from beginning to end.
His gaze remained fixed on the enlarged black-and-white family photo hanging on the living room wall, his eyes filled with confusion.
The photo shows a couple with two children sitting between them.
The smaller one is clearly Zhao Ergou.
At about eight years old, Er Gou looked like a teenager next to the two adults in the photo.
His eyebrows and eyes already showed some handsome features, and when he grinned, he revealed two small tiger teeth. His face was round and chubby, making him a little fat boy.
His adorable and energetic appearance makes you want to pat his head when you see him.
Yet, Ling Huanwu felt a strange sense of familiarity with this little boy.
It was as if the two had known each other for a long time.
She racked her brains trying to remember, but she couldn't recall when she had met the little boy.
"Commander Zhao..."
Ling Huanwu interrupted Chu Mei's lecture, took a deep breath, and explained the purpose of her visit.
"I'm here today to inquire about Commander Zhou Jiuzhen. Was his arrest at your behest?"
Chu Mei, who had been lecturing someone, paused, opened her mouth as if to say something, but then asked a question that even she herself hadn't expected, "Commander Zhou Jiuzhen? Who is he? How old is he? Old Zhao, why did you arrest him?"
Zhao Tingguo comforted Chu Mei for a few moments, then gestured for Ling Huanwu to step aside.
Ling Huanwu watched as the important figure in front of her was all tenderness and affection towards his wife one second, and then turned his head and sternly towards her the next. She was increasingly amazed at how this important figure's personality was becoming more and more like Zhou Jiuzhen's.
"Comrade Ling, Comrade Zhou himself promised in the auditorium last time that he would take off his military uniform if no concrete evidence was found. I did not retaliate against him; I was just handling the matter officially and had him undergo investigation!"
Commander Zhao was a little annoyed, and his attitude was no longer as gentle as before.
His bottom line is his wife.
But this young girl in front of him seemed to be accusing him of abusing his personal feelings in front of his wife.
"We've already had someone check, and the shoes found in Jingxiang's dormitory didn't belong to him at all. Therefore, they can't be used as evidence to convict Jingxiang. Commander Zhou's actions constitute framing..."
“He didn’t frame Comrade Zhao Jingxiang,” Ling Huanwu interrupted Commander Zhao, her eyes filled with determination. “I saw it with my own eyes! He was the one who broke into the cooperative, trying to do something to me!”
Zhao Tingyuan's eyes widened, his face filled with disbelief.
"No, no, no, what nonsense are you talking about? My dog has never had any dealings with girls since he was a puppy. He even refuses to eat pork from sows. You're telling me he bullied you?"
Seeing that he didn't believe her, Ling Huanwu wanted to say something more.
Just then, Chu Mei nervously peered between the two, holding a yellowed black-and-white photograph and handing it to Ling Huanwu. In a soft, Wu dialect, she uttered the most heartbreaking and defensive words, "Young lady, have you seen my Er Gou? His name is Zhao Jingzhen. He's handsome, chubby, and incredibly cute. But he went missing when he was eight. If you've seen him, you can call my house..."
Looking at the chubby little boy in the photo in the woman's hand, Ling Huanwu felt an increasing sense of familiarity.
Commander Zhao hurriedly pulled Chu Mei away, his original anger replaced by worry. "Wife, how could this young girl know Er Gou? Come inside with me."
He pulled his wife, who was frantic with searching for their child, inside, then turned back to Ling Huanwu and ordered, "Comrade Ling, you should go back now. My wife has had a relapse, so please excuse me for not being able to entertain you."
As Chu Mei was being led away, she mechanically repeated the same things she had said to countless people over the years, "Oh, by the way, my Er Gou has a small heart-shaped birthmark on his butt, and he's incredibly strong..."
Even after Chu Mei was half-carried into the house by Zhao Tingguo, Ling Huanwu remained frozen in place for a long time, her face wide with shock.
Finally, a chubby little boy's face appeared in my mind, just like the one in the photo.
She remembers that she was only five years old at the time.
Many memories have long been forgotten.
Only one or two things left a deep impression on me.
Back then, she was still the apple of Ling's father Ling Huan's eye, and Ling's mother dressed her up beautifully every day and took her out for a stroll.
That day, she wore a pretty little dress and sat by the river in the park, admiring herself in the water and blinking her big, bright eyes as she marveled at her beauty.
Unexpectedly, her little leather shoes slipped, and she fell into the river in a sorry state.
Just as she was struggling and thought she was about to die, a chubby young man suddenly plunged into the water from the small bridge.
The impact knocked her disoriented as she struggled in the water, causing her to sink directly to the bottom.
Later, she didn't know how, but the chubby young man pinched her belly and pulled her ashore.
Back on shore, in her dazed state, the chubby guy kissed her on the lips.
After the chubby boy kissed her, he squatted on the shore and burst into tears.
Although Ling Huanwu was young at the time, she at least knew that the chubby boy had saved her.
She was half asleep when she tried to hold the chubby boy's hand, but somehow she pulled down his pants, exposing his buttocks.
She remembered it clearly; it was a brown heart-shaped birthmark.
When she woke up, she kept trying to find her savior, but she never found him.
Looking back now, that chubby little boy was Commander Zhao's lost youngest son, her real childhood betrothed.
Seeing Commander Zhao and his wife enter the house, Ling Huanwu was asked to leave by her aunt. She was unsure whether to tell them about it or not.
People came and went in the stone alley outside the courtyard. Ling Huan wandered aimlessly, trying to find the key evidence to prove that Zhao Jingxiang had broken into the house with malicious intent.
Suddenly, Ling Huanwu stopped in her tracks, staring wide-eyed at the little boy squatting in the corner playing a game of picking up stones with half his buttocks sticking out. Her mind suddenly became clear as if enlightened.
It seems she... has found the real Zhao Ergou!
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