Chapter 97 p1
◎Evil Has Its Consequences + Acknowledging Kin◎
Tangtang returned to her dormitory. Her roommates were all busy washing up. The dormitory was a mess. Everyone’s desk was piled with unorganized toiletries, and the clothes on the beds were scattered messily.
“What’s wrong, Tangtang? You look so lost.” Liang Cuixia was putting away the dried clothes. Seeing that she was in low spirits, she asked with concern, “Didn’t you go to the bookstore with your brother? Why are you back so late?”
“Sister Cuixia, I’m fine. I’m just a little tired from walking.” Tangtang felt a heavy weight in her chest. She was in no mood for pleasantries and just gave a perfunctory reply.
“Then you should rest early.”
“Mhm, I know.”
Tangtang took the washbasin from under her bed and went to the water room to wash up.
After washing up, she changed into a cream-colored cotton pajama set and lay down on her bed, staring at the mosquito net above. She couldn’t fall asleep for a long time.
The words of the Lu Junshan couple had a huge impact on her. She had never thought that she was not Su Yandi’s biological child at all, and that her biological parents were someone else.
Scenes flashed through her mind: Su Yandi hitting her with a thorny cane; every time she called Su Yandi “mother,” the expression on Su Yandi’s face was always one of disgust and loathing; Su Yandi wanting to sell her to that fool from the Huang family as a child bride; Su Yandi blocking her at the primary school, wanting her to go to the Wang family to serve Old Madam Wang, and spreading rumors that she was a jinx…
No wonder, no wonder… it turns out that there were signs all along.
No wonder Su Yandi hated her so much. It turned out that it was because she was not Su Yandi’s daughter at all.
Today, Sheng Ruiru had asked her if she was unwilling to acknowledge them. To be honest, Tangtang herself didn’t know whether to acknowledge them or not.
She knew that Lu Junshan and Sheng Ruiru were both good people. This couple had always given her a lot of care. But the thought of having to call them “Dad” and “Mom” made her heart feel like a tangled mess.
…
The results of the blood type test came out, showing that Tangtang indeed had the same blood type as the Lu Junshan couple. Tangtang could only write a letter to her parents in Yuhuai Village, truthfully recounting the story of her birth that the Lu Junshan couple had found out.
In addition, she also mentioned at the end of the letter that she and Zhou Shunian were in a relationship.
After receiving Tangtang’s thick stack of letters, Su Huimin and Yu Juanfang realized that this matter was no small matter. They immediately ran to the town to send a telegram, telling Tangtang and Su Juesheng not to come home for the summer vacation. After they had taken care of the matters at home, they would buy the fastest train ticket to the capital.
During this period, Su Huimin also went to Waguan Village. Although Su Yandi’s face turned pale with panic, not expecting that the matter would be exposed one day, she still stubbornly insisted that she didn’t know anything about any swapping.
“What swapping, what not swapping? I don’t understand what you’re talking about!”
Seeing that she wouldn’t give up until she was at her wit’s end, Su Huimin couldn’t help but laugh at her viciousness and stupidity. “You don’t know? How could you not know?! If Tangtang were your biological daughter, would you have abused her like that? You put your own daughter in a rich family to be a young lady, and treated someone else’s daughter like a pig or a dog. I didn’t expect you to do such a vicious thing! Do you think you can get away with it by stubbornly denying it? This is a crime, the crime of child abduction! You can spend the rest of your life repenting in prison!”
Su Yandi’s face turned ashen, and her lips trembled, unable to speak. She had just wanted to give her biological daughter a rich family life. She hadn’t expected the matter to be so serious as to lead to imprisonment. The panic in her eyes was visible.
But she quickly put on a shrewish look and sat on the ground and began to wail.
“I didn’t! You’re framing me! Su Laosan, you damn bastard, are you trying to help outsiders frame me because you see that the city people are rich? I’ll fight you!”
“I’m too lazy to waste any more words with you. That family has already reported the case. This matter involves the cross-regional swapping of newborns, and it also involves serious abuse. The people from the county health bureau will be here soon to question you, and the people from the public security bureau will also be here soon. Who knows if you’ll be sentenced to ten or twenty years. You’ll have to bear the consequences of your own evil deeds!”
Su Huimin looked at her ugly display of throwing a tantrum and was disgusted to even look at her. He left with a “you’re on your own” and returned to Yuhuai Village.
After Su Huimin left, Su Yandi’s upper and lower lips trembled like a sieve. She returned to the house with a pale face and picked up a water bowl to drink. But her hand trembled, and the water bowl fell to the ground and shattered with a crash.
“Ten years, twenty years…” Su Yandi felt as if someone were strangling her, and a sense of suffocation swept over her.
She was both afraid of going to prison—if anyone in the Hongqi Commune had a family member who went to prison, they would be pointed at for the rest of their lives—and the life in prison was also hard. She would be locked in a place as big as a pigeon cage, with no sunlight. The bedding would be full of lice, and rats and cockroaches would run around in the room. She had heard that the food was wild vegetables mixed with sand. They wouldn’t even let you sleep, and you had to work twenty hours a day. Your two hands would be worn out, and being beaten and scolded was a common occurrence. A couple of years ago, a criminal was sentenced to one year. When he came out, his hair was all white, and his back was as bent as a bow. He would lower his head whenever he saw anyone.
She was also afraid that it would implicate her daughter. She had taken the risk to swap the children back then because she didn’t want her daughter to live a hard life like her, facing the loess with her back to the sky, and marrying a farmer in the future, tied to the land for the rest of her life.
And that old hag, Old Madam Wang, had always favored boys over girls. If her daughter had stayed with her in this poor family, she didn’t know how many disdainful looks she would have had to endure from the old hag. She probably wouldn’t even have had the chance to go to school and would have been used to exchange for a betrothal gift at a young age.
The more Su Yandi thought about it, the more her heart panicked. Her chest felt as if it were being squeezed by a large hand, and she couldn’t breathe.
She suddenly squatted down, held her head in her hands, and dug her nails deep into her rough scalp.
She remembered that in the delivery room of the commune hospital back then, she had seen that the new mother’s clothes and accessories were clearly those of a rich person. The fine cotton diapers, the small satin quilt, and her eyes had turned red—her daughter should also have such a good life.
So, during the nurses’ shift change, she had secretly swapped the two swaddling clothes. After swapping the children, she had secretly watched through the crack in the door as her daughter was gently held in the new mother’s arms, breastfed, had her diapers changed, and was sung a lullaby. She was so gently and carefully cared for. And that new mother had even given her daughter a name: Youxin.
Youxin! This name was so beautiful. Even the most talented name-giver in their commune couldn’t come up with such a beautiful name!
“Youxin, Youxin,” Su Yandi murmured this name outside the door, a reluctant emotion spreading in her heart, and she couldn’t help but shed tears.
She thought that when Youxin grew up and had a firm footing in a rich family, one day, they, mother and daughter, would definitely acknowledge each other. At that time, Youxin could also help her parents’ family, and she could also enjoy a few days of happiness.
“What was that Su Laosan saying outside the door just now? Swapping?!” Wang Shijin only came out of the house after Su Laosan had left.
He looked at the shattered water bowl on the floor, his cloudy eyes narrowed, and he immediately smelled something unusual. “What do you mean? Whose child did you swap?”
“What swapping? I don’t understand what you’re talking about!” Su Yandi’s voice suddenly rose, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, her face flushed red.
“Did you swap our child with a rich person’s child? Sanya is not our biological child?” Wang Shijin was not so easy to fool. He stared at Su Yandi for a long time and suddenly grinned, a strange smile on his face. “Alright, Su Yandi. I underestimated you. I didn’t expect you to have this ability!”
Wang Shijin rubbed his hands, his eyes shining with greed and pride. “You’re so smart. You sent our child to a rich family to enjoy a life of ease. In the future, she can inherit the rich person’s property. Will our family still have to worry about not having money to spend? I, Wang Shijin, will be the father of a rich person in the future!”
As he spoke, he took a string of keys and hung it on his red belt. He was about to walk out with a jingle.
Su Yandi quickly chased after him and asked, “Where are you going?”
“That Su Laosan must know where our daughter is. I’m going to find her. There’s no reason for the old man to suffer in this poor gully while the daughter enjoys a life of ease in a rich family!”
“You’re not allowed to go!” Su Yandi blocked the door, her face ashen, her fingers digging into the door frame. “Are you crazy? Why are you looking for her now? The matter is not settled yet. If it gets out of hand, not only will you not see any money, but even Youxin won’t be able to stay in that rich family!”
Wang Shijin couldn’t care less about this. “So what if she can’t stay? She’s our biological daughter. She should support us!”
Just think, when Sanya, that damn girl, got into Capital University, what happened? They didn’t benefit from it at all. As soon as Wang Shijin thought of this, his teeth itched. He should have strangled this ungrateful little wretch in her swaddling clothes back then, so that he wouldn’t have to be so annoyed now!
Now he was being told that Sanya, that wretch, was not their family’s seed at all. His, Wang Shijin’s, biological daughter was someone else, and she had grown up in a wealthy family!
That was like a pillow for a sleepy head. His biological daughter had grown up in a golden nest. How could he, her biological father, not benefit from it? In Wang Shijin’s eyes, Lu Youxin was now no different from a money tree.
“Support us? Why don’t you take a piss and look at yourself! Dressed like a beggar, you’re going to the city to acknowledge your relationship? It would be strange if they didn’t beat you out as a madman! If you make a scene, aren’t you just pushing our daughter to a dead end?” Su Yandi had been married into the old Wang family for decades and naturally knew Wang Shijin’s character, so she would not agree to let Wang Shijin go and find Lu Youxin no matter what.
“Pah, I don’t care so much. I’m going to the capital to live a good life now! I’m going to benefit from my biological daughter! I’ll eat delicacies from the mountains and seas, and wear silk and satin!”
Su Yandi blocked the door and wouldn’t let Wang Shijin out. Wang Shijin was so angry that he grabbed her arm with his large, fan-like hand and threw her to the side. “Get out of the way, you old hag! If you delay me from enjoying a life of ease, I’ll skin you alive!”
Although Wang Shijin was as thin as a rail, he was still strong. Su Yandi staggered and hit the corner of the wall. Her lower back hit the edge of the kang, and she grimaced in pain.
How could she give up? She climbed up and pounced on Wang Shijin to scratch his face, her saliva spraying all over him. “I’ll let you go! I’ll let you go and harm my daughter! You brainless oaf!”
A maternal love rose in Su Yandi’s heart. That was her own flesh and blood that she had carried for ten months. When she had her fourth child, she had had a major hemorrhage and had almost stepped into the gates of hell to have that daughter. Even if she was muddle-headed, she knew that if Wang Shijin, with his poor and rascally appearance, burst into someone else’s home, it would only make Youxin unable to hold her head up in front of others for the rest of her life.
So today, even if she had to risk her life, she had to stop Wang Shijin. She couldn’t let Wang Shijin ruin the bright future she had paved for her daughter!
Wang Shijin’s neck was scratched with a bloody mark. His eyes instantly turned scarlet. He grabbed Su Yandi’s hair and slapped her face several times with a thud thud. Su Yandi felt a buzzing in her ears, and she saw stars. Her cheeks were burning and swollen, and there was a bloody taste in her mouth.
Wang Shijin still didn’t feel that it was enough. He raised his foot and kicked her in the stomach. “You’ve rebelled! You dare to hit me? I’ll beat you, this slut, to death!”
Su Yandi was kicked several times. She felt as if her internal organs had been displaced. She curled up on the ground in pain and spat out a mouthful of blood. “Wang Shijin, you damn bastard!”
Wang Shijin was still kicking. The sole of his cloth shoe landed on her back with a dull thud. “You slut, you’re stopping me from enjoying a life of ease. You’re hiding things! That’s my daughter. Why can’t I go and find her?!”
Su Yandi was curled up on the ground, breathing in more than she was breathing out. Just when Wang Shijin thought that Su Yandi was about to give in, she suddenly used all her strength, hugged his ankle, and bit down hard.
Wang Shijin howled in pain and struggled to shake his leg, but Su Yandi clung to him like a leech.
Although Su Yandi had been beaten up, Wang Shijin was not much better off. The couple lay on the kang and recuperated for a week before they had the strength to get out of bed.
This fight had drained both of them. For several days, Su Yandi felt weak. The place where her lower back had been hit by the edge of the kang was like a block of ice, and it hurt like a needle every time she moved.
When she coughed, her chest was stuffy, and the phlegm she coughed up was tinged with blood. It was clear that she had been injured internally.
Wang Shijin was not much better off. The bloody hole on his calf that had been bitten by Su Yandi had formed a black scab, and it hurt every time he moved. Although the scratches on his face had scabbed over, they had left a few purplish-red marks, as if he had been scratched by a ghost’s claw.
Just as Su Yandi got down from the kang, she heard the paper-covered main door being kicked open. Her third son, Wang Guixi, rushed in in a hurry. “The people from the county public security bureau are here. They’re going to take Mom to prison!”
Su Yandi’s legs went weak. She had lived for decades and had never seen such a scene. She almost collapsed on the ground and could only barely stand by holding onto the edge of the kang.
As soon as Wang Guixi’s voice fell, two staff members in police uniforms stepped over the threshold. “Su Yandi, we received a report that you deliberately swapped your newborn daughter with another new mother’s daughter at the Hongqi Commune Hospital in 1958. You are suspected of the crime of child abduction. Come with us.”
Her face was pale, and her lips trembled, but she still forced herself to remain calm and said in a shrill voice, “What swapping, what not swapping? I don’t understand what you’re talking about!”
The police officer’s expression was serious. “You are suspected of the crime of child abduction. In the face of the law, playing dead is useless!”
When the cold handcuffs were locked on her wrists with a click, Su Yandi suddenly screamed, “I’m not going, Wang Shijin! You damn bastard, come and save me!”
Wang Shijin, who was squatting in the corner, had long since shrunk into a ball in fear. How could he dare to respond?
The police officers dragged Su Yandi out. The cloth shoes left two crooked marks on the ground. She was still crying and shouting randomly. The neighbors on the left and right all crowded in front of the old Wang family’s house, watching the excitement and couldn’t help but spit on her face.
“Pah! A heartless good-for-nothing! No wonder she was so cruel to Sanya. It turns out she was a stolen child!”
“Isn’t that right!” Auntie Li pulled her grandson out of the crowd, afraid of being tainted by the bad luck. “She put her biological daughter in a rich family and treated someone else’s child like a livestock. Her heart is really black! She deserves it! She should be taken to prison!”
“I heard that the girl who was swapped is a young lady in the city. Now, her biological mother is a trafficker. Let’s see how she’ll face people in the future! Pah!”
…