Chapter Sixty-Five: Poverty, What Can I Use to Save You

PS: Five chapters were censored. The gist is as follows:

Lu Kun and his companions encountered a father about to throw his child into the vast river, but managed to intervene in time and save the child.

A sudden flash, like lightning striking the soul.

“Bring the child to me,” Lu Kun’s body trembled as he spoke with difficulty.

Sun Chengze, unsure of what was happening, handed the child over.

Lu Kun cradled the child carefully, his eyes reddened, large tears streaming down his face.

“Haohao,” Lu Kun murmured, lips pressed tight, nearly collapsing.

“Kun, calm down. This isn’t Haohao, this child is a girl,” Shitou held back the man, tilting his shoulder to support Lu Kun’s back.

“I know. I just saw this little girl and thought of Haohao,” Lu Kun wiped his tears, signaling Shitou not to worry.

He looked at the child in his arms.

She couldn’t be a month old yet, her forehead wrinkled like a tiny old man, her face flushed as if drunk, the baby hair still clinging, strangely ugly.

Her eyes shone brightly, not crying or fussing, resting quietly in Lu Kun’s embrace, oblivious to the brush with death.

Lu Kun felt her small belly—flat, likely because her mother had no milk to feed her.

In these times of scarcity, both adults and children suffered from malnutrition.

After childbirth, mothers rarely had enough nutrition to provide milk for their babies.

Lu Kun had witnessed this in the village in recent years: many mothers unable to nurse after giving birth, fathers forced to swallow their pride, carrying large bowls from house to house, begging suitable women for breast milk to keep their children alive.

Lu Kun watched the man wailing and believed his words.

After all,

No one would be foolish enough to steal a girl.

If someone really wanted a daughter, with sincerity, they could easily adopt one from any rural area.

Life in the countryside was hard; parents readily allowed their children to escape such hardship, even if it meant severing all familial ties.

Of course, adopting a boy was much harder.

There were many practical reasons behind the preference for sons.

Every boy who grew up became another laborer; the more sons a family had, the greater their voice in the village, the stronger their standing.

In disputes or fights, or when competing for water in the fields, men were the main force.

Those families who fared better always had more sons.

But what use was a girl? Raise her for a few years, and she’d run off with someone else; after that, you’d hardly see her again, leaving you cold-hearted.

Both practical interests and emotional factors shaped the mindset of most people in these times: boys were valued more highly than girls, and the preference for sons was seen as natural.

“Don’t hit him—ask where he’s from first,” Lu Kun said, looking at the man crying in agony, as if seeing himself a year ago.

The same helplessness, the same pain, the same resignation.

Even a tiger won’t eat its cubs.

If not pushed to the brink, what parent would willingly let their child go, especially in such a final way?

“I’m from Xiahe Village. My name is Li Qingquan. My house is the third from the entrance—you can ask around. Please, save my daughter!” the man begged, bowing to Lu Kun and his friends.

Sun Chengze and Liu Shixun were at a loss.

They themselves were still children, and upon hearing such things, felt bewildered.

“I’ve asked around all the nearby villages; no one is willing to adopt my child. I have no other choice. Please, save her!” Li Qingquan said, preparing to bow again.

“Get up,” Shitou said, not fearing he was a liar, letting him go and helping him stand.

“Take us to Xiahe Village. If things are as you say, we’ll find a way to help you.”

Lu Kun wasn’t worried about traps; Xiahe Village wasn’t far. And if there was trouble, Shitou alone could handle a crowd.

Lu Kun didn’t return the child to the man, instead letting Shitou and the others take turns changing their trousers before giving the child to them so they could hide in the grass to change underwear and get dressed.

Liu Shixun, as expected, hadn’t brought clean underwear, so he simply pulled on his trousers without it.

“I’ll carry these two; you give the child to Sun Chengze,” Shitou suggested, offering to take Li Qingquan and Liu Shixun.

“All right,” Lu Kun accepted Shitou’s kindness.

Sun Chengze, holding the child, was rather flustered.

Lu Kun smiled. “I was the same back then. When my eldest daughter was born, I was even younger than you. Try holding her like this.”

He tapped Sun Chengze’s arm, telling him to relax and not press too hard against the child.

“Shitou, drive slowly. I’ve got a child here; I don’t want her to catch cold,” Lu Kun, experienced as a father, knew babies couldn’t be exposed to the wind.

“Okay,” Shitou agreed, slowing the motorcycle.

Lu Kun rode at a bicycle’s pace, afraid the child might get sick from the wind.

When Shitou and Lu Kun rode into Xiahe Village, night had completely fallen.

Lights twinkled across the village.

“Which house is yours?” Shitou turned to ask Li Qingquan.

“That one—the one with the mango tree in front.”

...

They got off, and before entering the courtyard, heard heart-wrenching cries from inside.

It was a woman’s voice, hoarse and desperate.

Li Qingquan’s expression changed. He hurried forward and pushed open the gate.

He saw a woman with hair disheveled, crawling across the ground.

Li Qingquan, tears streaming, went to help her up; she beat his chest over and over, both of them covered in mud. In the corner, two girls stared blankly at the sky.

...

“Five years ago, I married my wife.

When she was little, she suffered a serious illness. The village doctor used medicine and needles improperly, leaving her with polio, and since then, she’s struggled to walk.

Usually, she needs to lean on a chair to move about.

I already have two daughters. They may have inherited something—both are slow in thought.

I can’t say exactly what illness it is.

I alone support the whole family.

The harvest hasn’t been good these years, but the grain quota keeps rising...

…I’ve thought about stealing or robbing, but I’m afraid—not of death, but that if something happened to me, the mother and daughters wouldn’t survive...

…”

“I don’t blame him!

People like me, born despised by all, spent years as someone’s daughter, years being rejected.

Since marrying him, he’s never mistreated me; if there was food, he gave it to me first.

A grown man, starving at night, drinking water from the jar to fill his stomach.

Marrying him, I have no regrets, even if it means dying with him—it’s worth it…”

Listening to this couple, Sun Chengze and Liu Shixun, two grown men, cried like fools.

Shitou turned away, looking up at the sky, unable to face them.

Lu Kun held back his tears in silence.