Sweetie helped Liu Lai'er wash her hands and they sat side by side at the dining table.
The large steamed buns in the cafeteria are made of cornmeal. Each bun is about the size of an adult's palm. An adult would be full after eating one, but Tian Tian always gets full after eating less than half a bun.
Fang Qiao cut a large steamed bun in half, and Tian Tian and Liu Lai'er each got half.
"Eat."
Liu Lai'er took her half of the bun and whispered to Fang Qiao, "Thank you."
She was probably starving, because she wolfed down her food.
Sweetly chewing slowly, Liu Lai'er had already finished eating all of her food, including the half bowl of millet porridge Fang Qiao had given her, after only eating a small portion.
After finishing her meal, she didn't make a fuss and just sat obediently on the stool watching others eat.
Fang Qiao asked softly, "Are you full?"
Liu Lai'er nodded: "I'm full."
"It's good that you've eaten. Sit down and wait a while. Auntie will take you to find your mother after she finishes eating."
After Fang Qiao finished eating, she washed the dishes and chopsticks.
Just then, An'an woke up. Fang Qiao told Liu Lai'er to wait a little longer and change An'an's diaper and feed her.
During this time, Liu Lai'er remained quiet and obediently followed behind Fang Qiao.
Fang Qiao's belly was already showing, so she didn't take An'an with her when she went out, but instead asked Xiao Jing to stay home and look after her.
"Sweetie, play at home for a while. Auntie will take your little sister Lai'er to see her mother. She'll be back soon."
"good."
Fang Qiao and Liu Lai'er had just stepped out of the house when they ran into Chen Guizhi.
"Xiao Qiao, I was just about to come to your house to find you." Chen Guizhi held half a watermelon in her hand and saw Fang Qiao's bright smile. "I just picked this from Heshan this morning. It's from the same vine you found last time. It's so sweet. You can have some too."
Fang Qiao exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, the melons are quite big! This half must weigh more than two pounds, right?"
“It must weigh about three jin.” Chen Guizhi said with a smile, “Luckily, I’ve made several trips up the mountain this month, hiding and covering it with leaves, otherwise someone else would have picked it.”
Fang Qiao also said, "Thanks to you, I had completely forgotten about it."
“You may have forgotten, but I haven’t. I’ve been thinking about it.” Chen Guizhi said with a smile, “It’s still a bit chilly now. You can cut it up and eat it when it gets warmer at noon. I’ll put it inside for you first.”
Fang Qiao nodded: "Okay."
Chen Guizhi placed the watermelon on the cutting board in Fang Qiao's kitchen and carefully covered it with a bamboo steamed bun basket to prevent it from attracting flies.
As they came out of the courtyard, Chen Guizhi asked Fang Qiao, "Is this Liu Lai'er? Why are you leading her? Where's her mother?"
"Don't even mention it. Li Dan went to work early this morning, not only forgetting to leave breakfast for the child, but also locking the outer door. The child was so hungry that he climbed over the wall, which was so dangerous."
Fang Qiao had no intention of covering for Li Dan: "So, I plan to take the child to the factory's women's director to report the situation, and then have the women's director take the child to Li Dan to educate her, so that she won't be so unreliable in the future."
"This Li Dan is really something. Can the lives of those with children be the same as those without? If you raise a child, you should raise it properly. What kind of mother is she? She eats her fill, goes to work, and doesn't care about her child. She's so irresponsible! She should be criticized and educated by the women's director."
Chen Guizhi was speechless: "How could you lock such a young child alone at home? What if something happens to her? Come on, I'll go with you."
The women's director's office is in an office building not far behind the family compound.
The women's director's surname is Zhang. She is over fifty years old and has been working in logistics for more than thirty years.
She always had a smile on her lips, looking kind and gentle, but there was a heroic air between her brows, and her gaze was authoritative even when she put on a stern face.
After Fang Qiao explained her purpose, she nodded seriously: "Okay, I understand. Thank you for coming to report the situation. I'll take the child to the affiliated preschool to find her right away. Locking such a young child in the house is really outrageous."
Fang Qiao squatted down and said to Liu Lai'er, "Lai'er, Auntie is going home first. You'll stay with Grandma Zhang for a while, and she'll take you to find your mother."
Liu Lai'er looked back at Director Zhang, then back at Fang Qiao, and asked with some disappointment, "Auntie, aren't you going?"
Fang Qiao shook her head and explained to her, "Your mother's maternity ward is a bit far. It's from our pharmaceutical factory's residential compound, and you have to cross two roads to get to the ironworks' residential compound. Your Grandma Zhang will take you there by bicycle; it'll only take a few minutes. If your aunt goes too, she'll have to walk, which will take more than ten minutes. Your aunt is pregnant and can't walk that far, can you understand, Lai'er?"
Liu Lai'er understood and nodded obediently: "Okay, I'll go with Grandma Zhang."
"Good girl." Fang Qiao patted Liu Lai'er's head.
After leaving the office building, Fang Qiao and Chen Guizhi chatted and laughed on their way home. On the way, they ran into Sanxi's mother, who was returning from grocery shopping, and they inevitably brought up Li Dan's matter again for a few minutes.
News spreads incredibly fast in the residential compound. Everyone loves to visit each other, so in less than a morning, almost everyone knew about it.
When Xiaojing got home, she said to Fang Qiao, "Sister-in-law, a man came to the house with some things looking for you. I told him you weren't home, and he said he would come back this afternoon."
"What man?"
Since moving to Beijing, Fang Qiao has only interacted with people from the family compound; she doesn't remember knowing any men from the pharmaceutical factory.
Fang Qiao asked, "What does it look like?"
Xiao Jing thought for a moment and described him as follows: "He looks quite refined, wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and round glasses."
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