Chapter 2 The Best Mother
The woman in front of her was about 40 or 50 years old, dark and thin, with gray hair and wrinkles all over her face. The woman's face was kind and gentle, and her actual age might be even younger. Su Taotao didn't dare to look directly into those eyes that were full of sorrow and pleading. How much hardship did she go through to have such a pair of eyes?
Su Taotao moved her gaze downward. The baby in the woman's arms was so thin that he was almost unrecognizable. His facial features were finely carved, but his expression was dull. He had a pair of big, lifeless eyes, as if he was looking at her, but also as if he was looking through her at other places. His eyes were unfocused.
In her previous life, Su Taotao met left-behind children with autism when she went to remote mountainous areas to teach during the winter and summer vacations. They had such eyes, but in the 21st century, they can eat well and wear warm clothes, so they are not so thin and weak.
The little kid in front of me is so skinny that he is almost skin and bones.
Su Taotao had watched documentaries about war-torn countries, and had only seen such skinny children and such pitiful eyes in refugee camps where people had lost their homes due to the war and had nowhere to return to.
After all, this is the biological child of this body. Perhaps because of the blood connection, Su Taotao's eyes suddenly became red.
She had just looked at her own hands. They were green, white, and soft as if they had no bones. There was not a single trace of being a laborer. There was some flesh on them, which showed that she had never suffered any hardship, let alone been hungry.
How much of a bad mother must be to let her own child suffer like this? How much of a heartless mother must be to let her mother-in-law suffer like this while she herself is well fed and warmly clothed? Su Taotao even wanted to slap the original owners a few times on behalf of the old and the young.
She remembered that Fu Zhengtu had left a large sum of money for the family before he left on his mission. The cost of living in rural areas was low, so even if they did not work, they could at least have enough food and clothing. However, the original owner was very extravagant and would often take the money to the town to eat and drink. It was estimated that the money had been spent long ago.
Su Taotao gnashed her teeth in anger.
Zhou Linglan had no idea that her daughter-in-law had changed her mind, let alone her psychological activities. Seeing Su Taotao's red eyes and itchy look of hatred, she thought she was going to make trouble again, so she quickly changed the topic and said, "Taotao, if you don't want to, forget it. If you must leave, Mom..."
Thinking that calling her "Mom" might not be appropriate anymore, Zhou Linglan changed her words and said, "I'll ask the old branch secretary to write you a letter of introduction so that you can return to the city. You must not do anything stupid again. Nothing is more important than your life."
Zhou Linglan started to cry again as she spoke.
Zhou Linglan is not a crybaby.
When her husband died in battle, she did not cry, but gritted her teeth and raised her two sons alone. The youngest son was a posthumous child and had never seen his father since he was born.
The eldest son had been gone for more than two years, and there was no news from him. She did not cry, because she firmly believed that her son would not abandon them. He promised to come back in three years, and he would definitely come back. It was just that she could not contact them for the time being.
After Su Taotao married into the family, the family had no peace, especially after the eldest son left. She was swearing and making trouble all day long, and she had all kinds of ways to play tricks on people. She never cried or felt resentful once, as she understood the pain of being a widow better than anyone else. Just because she was a beautiful girl who gave birth to such a good grandson like Chenchen for the Fu family, Zhou Linglan could tolerate her no matter what she did.
But today, when Su Taotao jumped into the river and was rescued dying, she burst into tears. When her eldest son left, he didn't know that Su Taotao was pregnant. The poor grandson has never seen his father from birth to now. If even his mother is gone, how pitiful the grandson will be.
After listening to Zhou Linglan's words, Su Taotao wanted to slap "her" again. Su Taotao took a deep breath and secretly cursed the original owner as a black turtle bastard.
"Taotao?"
Zhou Linglan saw that Su Taotao's expression was changing unpredictably but she didn't say anything, so she was worried that she might have been ruined.
It's still chilly in spring, and it's just the beginning of spring. Falling into a river in this weather could be a big or small injury.
Su Taotao came back to her senses, looked at the kind and friendly woman, shook her head, and said without any psychological burden: "I'm fine, it's just that when I fell into the river, I figured out a lot of things that I couldn't figure out before. I was too ignorant before and did a lot of wrong things. Now I think about it and feel ashamed."
Whether she likes it or not, Su Taotao has to bear the consequences of this big black pot hitting her head.
Zhou Linglan was so shocked that she almost dropped the dust. She looked at Su Taotao in disbelief: "You, you, are you really okay? I, I, I will call Huang Liu back and check your pulse, check your pulse, you, you lie down first..."
Zhou Linglan had a look of astonishment on her face and didn't give Su Taotao a chance to speak. She turned and walked out the door. Su Taotao couldn't stop her even if she wanted to.
Alas, Su Taotao also realized that she had scared her. How could the master say such a thing unless he was possessed by a ghost?
Su Taotao lay back down, her mind in a mess. Although she should make the best of it, the most important thing right now was to think carefully about how to survive in this era.
She had read the plot and remembered the general idea. She knew that Fu Zhengtu would be back soon. According to the development of the plot, the original owner abandoned the child and returned to the city. Fu Zhengtu left in a hurry and missed the date originally agreed to get the marriage certificate. In this era, people paid more attention to wedding ceremonies and de facto marriages, so they were actually a couple who had not yet obtained a marriage certificate.
After returning to the city, the original owner hid the fact that her childhood sweetheart had been married and had children in the countryside, and soon married him.
However, Zhuma is not a good person either, or he is the same type of person as the original owner. In order to live comfortably in the countryside, he also went to the countryside and soon married the daughter of the local production team leader. They had a child, but they also did not get the marriage certificate. Later, when he got the chance to go back to the city, he abandoned his wife and child and ran back to the city alone.
As for the so-called Mang Nuan Si, regardless of her personality, the original owner had top-notch looks, with fair skin, beautiful features, and long legs. Without the pressure of life, other women would naturally not be in his eyes. So he did everything he could to find the original owner, and the two of them hit it off immediately.
Naturally, it would not be a good thing for two people like this to get married.
In short, after Fu Zhengtu came back and learned about this, he went to the brigade to get a certificate and asked the brigade cadres to prove that his marriage with the original owner had broken down, and that they were free to marry and had nothing to do with each other in the future. Then they took the whole family away. Later, the original owner and his childhood sweetheart couldn't live anymore, and even if he wanted to get back together, he couldn't find anyone.
Su Taotao turned around and thought about her current situation. It was only 1973, and there were still more than four years before the resumption of the college entrance examination. Not to mention that she had no other way to return to the city except to marry her childhood sweetheart. Even if she were to return to the city with Chen Chen now, she would have no job and no place to live.
The original owner's family of seven or eight people were squeezed into a house of more than 20 square meters in a large courtyard. Her eldest brother waited until she went to the countryside to vacate a place before he dared to go on a blind date and get married. The book did not mention her much, not to mention her family. In the original owner's memory, she was not close to her family. In short, the road back to the city was blocked.
The best way is to stay here and wait for my cheap husband to come back.
An unknown amount of time had passed before Su Taotao fell into another drowsy sleep. While half asleep and half awake, Zhou Linglan seemed to have brought a barefoot doctor back to check her pulse. Her forehead was also touched by a warm big hand. She couldn't remember what they said clearly. When she woke up again, it was already dark.
Su Taotao opened her eyes and stared at the little boy sitting beside her bed. She was shocked before she realized that this little boy with delicate features was her adopted son.
Su Taotao's heart softened, and she reached out and gently touched his face: "Chenchen, what are you doing?"
The pretty little boy pursed his lips and said nothing. He lowered his eyes and glanced at her. His long, thick eyelashes moved up and down like a small fan, then moved away and continued to play with the toy in his hand.
Su Taotao stared at him intently, not even daring to breathe hard. She had never looked in the mirror before, so she didn't know what "herself" looked like now, and she didn't even remember what Fu Zhengtu looked like. She was very curious about what kind of parents could give birth to such a beautiful little angel.
Su Taotao wanted to pull his little hand, but when she saw the "toy" in his hand clearly, she was stunned again...