Three days later, an ambulance from the city’s mental hospital drove to Xing Ye village and took Li Zhanggui away. When the villagers heard the news, one by one, they gathered to watch, laughing and pointing. They said that they should have forced the madman Li Zhanggui to hit the road sooner.

w.a.n.g Dahu stuck to Li Qingran’s side, looking at the other boy, who was standing at the door by himself with a desperate expression on his face. He helplessly watched as strangers forced his father into the vehicle.

“Uncle is going to get treatment!” w.a.n.g Dahu took the cold hand without a hint of warmth, his voice gentle as he said, “He’ll come back after he’s been cured.”

“Mom is gone, dad is gone too, this house only has me now!”

“It’ll be fine!” w.a.n.g Dahu clung to the other boy, “Everything will be fine!”

His mother eloped with another man, his father entered into the mental hospital. Li Qingran, who was only seven years old, suddenly turned into someone no one would raise. Regarding this issue, as the village chief, w.a.n.g Shoumin first contacted Kong Xiumei’s mother’s household. However, their household was already as poor as can be, how could they feed another mouth?

But while w.a.n.g Shoumin was racking his brains, Li Qingran went before him, his voice firm, “I will raise myself!” This was a child who was the same age as his own grandchild, but had such a cruel fate. w.a.n.g Shoumin’s heart was very sympathetic. He bent over and rubbed Li Qingran’s head, kindly saying, “Silly child, you’re just a baby, how could you possibly feed yourself?”

Li Qingran was silent for a while before saying, “I’ll weed, plow and fertilize the fields. I can also gather bamboo strips to weave into gra.s.shopper cages. I make them very beautifully and I can sell them on the street.” He was just a small child but he already had to endure such harsh experiences! w.a.n.g Shoumin sighed and shook his head, wanting to say something, but suddenly Li Qingran said, “Village chief grandpa, I don’t want to go anywhere, this is my home. I want to wait for the day my parents come back.” Looking at the eyes filled with both sadness and resolution, the words that made their way to w.a.n.g Shoumin’s lips could not be spoken.

Just like that, Li Qingran’s issue was resolved.

Li Qingran’s household in Xing Ye village had a total of twenty acres of land. Under the contract on his family’s land, the village committee had to pay him ten bags of rice, ten bags of flour, and two thousand five hundred dollars each year. w.a.n.g Shoumin also became his temporary “guardian”, so Li Qingran could temporarily avoided being sent to the orphanage in the end.

“Are you satisfied yet?” When there was no one around, w.a.n.g Shoumin sucked on his cigarette and angrily said, “You should know that this isn’t a long term solution.”

w.a.n.g Dahu rubbed his hands, smiling at his grandpa. w.a.n.g Shoumin glared at him, not understanding why his grandchild, who was obviously very young, had such quick thinking. Even such a twisted idea could be thought out.

“That child will have to suffer from now on!”

“…”

w.a.n.g Dahu lowered his head. Actually, inside his heart, he was also very upset.

Although Li Zhanggui wasn’t good, he was still Ran Ran’s father. He personally came up with a plot to push him into the mental hospital, which was synonymous with pus.h.i.+ng him away from Li Qingran. Although it was for the other boy’s safety, but in reality it was still ruthlessly stabbing another wound onto the already broken heart. Hurting the person he loved the most, how could he feel comfortable?

Just like that, amid the compa.s.sion and depression, time flowed quickly. In the blink of an eye, three days pa.s.sed. That day, w.a.n.g Dahu just returned from Li Qingran’s house when he saw a red truck parked in front of the gate.

He paled and unconsciously swallowed his saliva. w.a.n.g Dahu hesitated at the door for more than twenty minutes before he carefully entered.

Outside of his expectations, Zhang Fang wasn’t personally here to come get him?

Furthermoreー

w.a.n.g Dahu surveyed his surroundings, eyeing the faces of everyone in the house.

Why was the atmosphere so sunny?

In a moment, it seemed as though he thought of something. His eyes suddenly lit up.

“Dad!” w.a.n.g Dahu smiled sweetly and jumped on his father, “Why didn’t mom come?”

Using a strong and solid arm to lift his son and swing him around several times, w.a.n.g Guangzong laughed, “Little Tiger, you’ll have a little sister soon!”

It’s impossible to be a little sister, more like a little brother.

After w.a.n.g Dahu determined Zhang Fang was pregnant, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. He was really scared that his rebirth might cause the brat w.a.n.g Xiaohu to stop existing.

“Right now it’s only at two months, how could you know if it’s male or female? The way I see it, this is definitely a baby boy!” The old woman’s laughing face almost blossomed into a chrysanthemum, showing just how happy she was!

“That’s right! Mother!” w.a.n.g Guangzong rubbed his son’s head. He spoke with embarra.s.sment, “That is, the county hospital’s doctor said that Fang Er’s fetus isn’t in a good position. She needs to rest well. For this time period, can we leave Dahu to you? When she gives birth, we’ll take him back.”

“Of course! Of course!” Hearing that made the old woman even happier, “You just take good care of Fang at home. We’ll take good care of Little Tiger, there won’t be any trouble.”

w.a.n.g Guangzong heard her confirmation and nodded his head repeatedly as he gave his thanks. Then he lowered his head and looked at w.a.n.g Dahu who was in his arms.

Aside from his parents, the person he felt the guiltiest towards was this son. It was mentioned earlier, this era wasn’t like a few decades ago when you could give birth when you wanted to. He and Zhang Fang wanting to successfully have another child wasn’t an easy task. Temporarily leaving Dahu at his grandparent’s house was a method of avoiding trouble.

w.a.n.g Dahu saw his father’s expression and immediately knew what he was thinking. However, regarding his stay in the countryside, he didn’t have any opinion. Actually, this matter was completely in his calculations! w.a.n.g Guangzong missed Zhang Fang who was at home. At noon, he came back with a lot of clothes for Dahu and his usual favorite snacks. He mercilessly held his son, pecked him on each cheek, and sneaked him fifty yuan before driving off. Resolving the most pressing issue on his mind, w.a.n.g Dahu’s recent melancholy mood finally saw the slightest hint of suns.h.i.+ne.

But as soon as his mood eased up, there were a few issues to be resolved.

…

Sun Dazhuang cried loudly, he never had suffer such unprecedented grievances.

“Sob, sob sob… I was wrong, I was really wrong, Uncle Hu, please spare me!”

“Now you know your wrongs!” w.a.n.g Dahu sneered, watching at Sun Dazhuang’s group struggled in the s.h.i.+t hole, “Last time you bullied someone else, how come I didn’t see you guys give mercy? Face down, that’s right! Rub your faces well in the manure, let’s see if the p.o.o.p stinks or your mouths stink more.” Today, w.a.n.g Dahu purposefully woke up early and went to intercept Sun Dazhuang. Don’t mention blocking the road, before they exchanged two sentences, w.a.n.g Dahu lifted his sleeves and started beating up the four other kids until their faces swelled like pigs before stopping!

“Brother Dahu, Uncle Hu, Boss Hu…” It was impossible to discern which term came from Sun Dazhuang’s crying face, the tears making rivers of feces stream down his face. “We were wrong, very wrong, we won’t dare to bully Li Qingran anymore! You’re a great man, forgive us this time!”

“Sob, dad, mom…”

Suddenly, the brats burst into demonic screams and howled like wolves.

w.a.n.g Dahu saw that they were scared badly and finally nodded his head in satisfaction.

“I’m telling you guys, if you dare to bully Ran Ran next time, it won’t end with just a beating and eating s.h.i.+t! You hear me?”

“Yes, yes, yes, we no longer don’t dare to, we don’t dare!”

w.a.n.g Dahu looked at the wretched children crawling up with difficulty, squinted, and huffed as he said, “What happens if anyone asks how you were wounded? How do you reply?”

It was still Sun Dazhuang who responded relatively quickly. He choked out a reply, “We weren’t careful when walking on the road and fell into the pit!”

OK! w.a.n.g Dahu gave him a look that said “obedient child, quick learner”, then turned around to threaten, “If I hear that someone reported this matter to grandpa tomorrow, this young master will beat you ever time he sees you, understand?”

“Sob, sob… yes!”

As if w.a.n.g Dahu’s “threat” was effective, sure enough there really wasn’t anyone who dared to tell their parents that they had just been severely beaten. With that, w.a.n.g Dahu turned into the youngster that no one dared to challenge among the children in Xing Ye village.

…

“Brother Dahu, you aren’t going home yet?” Li Qingran lay in the blankets and asked in a whisper.

“Hm?” At this time, w.a.n.g Dahu was half asleep. He mumbled, “My mom is pregnant, they let me stay here for a while!”

“…Really?”

“Yea!”

“Brother Dahu.”

“What’s up?”

“…I’m a little cold!”

There was no other way. w.a.n.g Dahu didn’t bother to open his eyes as he lifted the quilt and stifled a yawn, “Come here quickly!”

Two people leaned against each other, it was indeed really warm!

Li Qingran closed his eyes with peace of mind and quietly went to sleep.

…

Time flowed like water, in the blink of an eye, five or six months had pa.s.sed. The seasons changed, right now it was no longer cold winter, summer quietly stepped forward.

That day, w.a.n.g Dahu was in the courtyard, feeding Li Qingran rice. He said, “Tomorrow let’s take a trip into town!”

Li Qingran paused for a bit, blinking in puzzlement.

“Stupid, did you forget? In two months, we’ll be going to first grade. There’s backpacks, pens, paper. We haven’t prepared anything!”

Thinking about how old he was and having to go through primary school again, w.a.n.g Dahu’s head started to hurt.

Contrary to his troubles, Li Qingran’s expression was full of excitement and expectation. It seemed that for him, being able to read was a great thing.

Translator’s Notes:

They’re sleeping together already.╰(*´︶`*)╯