"May I ask what brings you here, sir?" Zhang Hui looked at the person in front of him with surprise.
"Huiniang! It's you!"
Liu Yingying was so excited that she was about to step forward, but she forgot that she was dressed as a man.
Startled, Zhang Hui staggered back, looking at her with a terrified expression. "What...what are you going to do?"
"Huiniang, don't you recognize me?"
“You are…” Zhang Hui stared at her, racking her brains, and finally remembered who she was;
"Sister Liu...is that you?"
"Why are you dressed like that? Come in quickly."
Seeing old friends thousands of miles from their hometown brought tears to their eyes.
Zhang Hui invited her to sit down in the courtyard, while the other women pulled A Dong into the house, leaving the two of them alone.
"Huiniang, didn't you go back to your husband's family? Why are you in the capital?"
"And what about your son...? Where is he?" Upon meeting her again, Liu Yingying had many questions she wanted to ask her.
But Zhang Hui suddenly burst into tears, "Gou'er... he was kidnapped by human traffickers..."
"What..." Liu Yingying's heart skipped a beat.
"What exactly happened? What happened to you after we parted ways at Nishijiu Mountain?"
With tears in her eyes, Zhang Hui recounted everything she had experienced during this period.
It turns out that a few months ago she took her dog back to her husband's home in Tianjiazhuang. Her husband had owned several acres of land in his hometown before his death.
Zhang Hui thought that her son was still young and that her parents-in-law would help take care of him. She would leave the land to her brother-in-law's family to help cultivate, while she could earn money to supplement the family income through her skills.
She was confident she could raise her son to adulthood, but things didn't go as planned...
My husband's family isn't exactly a kind and honest family. My parents-in-law are still alive, and my brother-in-law got married a few years ago.
The sister-in-law's family is well-off, but she is domineering and difficult to get along with.
There was also an older sister-in-law who was already married, and she often made things difficult for Zhang Hui at her parents' home.
She endured all of this because she was a widow, her family was unreliable, and her son was still so young!
A woman with a newborn baby alone in a strange place simply cannot survive.
But Zhang Hui thought that she would only endure it for two or three years, and then she would leave with the dog when it got a little older.
I'll find a job as a kitchen helper at a restaurant in the county town to save money for my son's education...
Unexpectedly, the hemp rope broke at its thinnest point. After months of drought, the village lacked water and food, and eventually, they were on the verge of starvation.
The whole family relied on the one or two taels of gold that Zhang Hui got from Liu Yingying to barely make ends meet.
She originally intended to save that money for her son's future education, but now she has no choice but to take it out!
But her in-laws were insatiable. Seeing that she could produce an ounce of gold, they assumed she had mountains of gold and silver and pressured her to produce more money.
But where can Zhang Hui find the money?
Later, when his sister-in-law was diagnosed with pregnancy, his parents-in-law felt that the Tian family line would not end.
Then, at her brother-in-law's instigation, she secretly sold the dog to human traffickers from another region while she was working in the fields...
When Zhang Hui returned from the fields after dark, she discovered that her son had been sold.
She went berserk on the spot, went to the kitchen, pulled out two kitchen knives, held them to her brother-in-law's neck, and demanded to know the whereabouts of her son.
The younger brother-in-law had no choice but to tell the truth.
The trafficker was from the capital and wanted to select a group of good-looking, young children to continue the family line for wealthy families who were having difficulty conceiving.
After that, Zhang Hui left her husband's family and traveled north to search for her son.
Liu Yingying was deeply saddened after hearing Zhang Hui's story.
He glanced back at the women inside the house, "And who are they...?"
Zhang Hui sighed with a wry smile; "Before I got married, I had the skill of making flowers. Along the way, I made a living by making flowers, washing clothes, and doing odd jobs..."
“They are all sisters I met along the way, and their experiences are roughly the same as mine. They all came from Beijing to find their children.”
Zhang Hui sighed deeply and then started talking about A Dong again.
"Among these people, the most pitiful one is Adong. Her son was abducted by human traffickers when he was two years old, which was ten years ago."
"Her husband was so angry that he fell ill and died soon after. Since she had no parents-in-law, she vowed to go find her son."
"But in this world, it's difficult for a woman to live alone, let alone find her son. She's suffered countless hardships over the past ten years, and her mind has been damaged. She's sometimes lucid and sometimes insane. What you see today is her during an episode..."
After hearing about the tragic experiences of these poor women, Liu Yingying felt very heavy-hearted.
"So how do you make a living in the capital right now?"
Zhang Hui: "I work at Yuxianglou in the capital. I earn thirty copper coins a month, which includes meals. I can also bring back leftovers from the customers for these sisters to eat, which saves a lot of money."
"They usually do sewing and laundry for their neighbors to earn some money..."
Liu Yingying noticed that Zhang Hui's hands were rougher and darker than when they were on Xijiu Mountain, which showed that she had suffered a lot.
She thought for a moment and said, "Actually, I know a little about medicine. If you trust me, call Ah Dong out, and I'll take a look at her. Maybe I can find a way to get her back to normal!"
Zhang Hui, of course, agreed. She and another woman who looked to be around thirty years old immediately helped A Dong up to Liu Yingying.
Adong was listless and dazed, mumbling something sticky in his mouth.
Afraid of startling her, Liu Yingying gave her a very gentle smile; "Adong, don't be afraid, I'm not a bad person, I'm here to help you!"
As he spoke, he reached out and took her pulse.
The pulse shows severe signs of congestion, confirming that A-Dong's head must have suffered trauma to become like this...
"Please let Adong sit down first. Next, I'm going to give her acupuncture to clear the blood clot in her brain!"
Zhang Hui and the others quickly did as Liu Yingying instructed.
During Liu Yingying's acupuncture treatment, A Dong was surprisingly cooperative.
After doing all this, Adong finally yawned from exhaustion and fell asleep.
Liu Yingying gestured to Zhang Hui not to wake him and to let her sleep.
Zhang Hui asked in a low voice, "Sister Liu, will this method really work?"
Liu Yingying: "I can't guarantee you 100%, but I can say that trying to treat her is better than just letting her go. You should wait until she wakes up and see!"
It was getting late, and Liu Yingying thought that Xue Ye and Xiao Xue must be very worried about her since she had been out for so long.
Before leaving, she took one last look at the dilapidated courtyard and couldn't help but feel heartbroken.
So he took out ten taels of silver and secretly slipped it into Zhang Hui's hand.
"Take this. If you encounter any difficulties, you can come to Yingfu Inn in the north of the city to find me."
Zhang Hui wanted to decline, but she was too embarrassed to take advantage of Liu Yingying any longer.
But Liu Yingying's attitude was firm: "Take it if I tell you to. There are so many of you, and you all need to eat, drink, and relieve yourselves. This little bit of money won't help you much, but at least it can slightly improve everyone's current living conditions!"
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