Lin Shuyang's words attracted everyone's attention, especially Lin Shuxing.
She was seven years older than Lin Shuyang. When Lin Shuyang was lost, she was only ten years old. When she heard that Lin Shuyang still remembered her, Lin Shuxing's hands were shaking: "Do you still remember your elder sister?"
"What about second sister? Do you still remember me?" Lin Shuyue also stepped forward to join in the fun.
Lin Shuyang nodded and shook his head at Lin Shuyue, then smiled and said, "I can't really remember. I just remember that I had an older sister and a little girl who was older than me. We often played together. My older sister had a mole on her ear."
Lin Shuyang's words made Lin Shuxing touch her left ear subconsciously. She had a mole on her earlobe, the size of a grain of rice. Luo Zhengjun always said that her mole was beautiful and looked like an earring from a distance.
Lin Shuxing said: "In the past, when mom was busy, I took you with me. Your second sister couldn't carry you, so you let me carry you. Your favorite thing to do was to pinch my ears. The little girl you said who is older than you must be your second sister. When you were little, you loved to follow me. Wherever I went, you went. Sometimes I found you annoying."
Lin Shuxing still remembers that what she hated most was Ah Yang playing with her ears. She would warn him every time she carried him on her back. But the three-year-old child was ignorant and the more she talked, the more he played. When she was most angry, she would slap him a few times.
He cried because he was scolded. It was just something that made her angry at the time, but when she recalled these things after Ah Yang was lost, she felt that they were very precious.
Lin Shuyue didn't find it strange. It is said that children under the age of three have no memories, but they actually do have them. It's just that compared to older children's, children's memories are too vague.
Lin Shuyue thought that Lin Shuyang always remembered the mole on Lin Shuxing's ear, it must be because he saw it so often and it was too deeply engraved in his mind.
"Do you remember anything?" Lin Shuyue asked softly.
Lin Shuyang said: "I remember there was a girl who was always crying. I had to comfort her."
Lin Shuxing burst into laughter and said, "That's your second sister. Among the three of us, your second sister is the only one who loves to cry the most. She cries when she's unhappy. She annoyed me when I was a kid."
The three siblings started chatting again, talking about Ah Yang's life over the years.
Lou Fengqin on the other side burst into tears again after hearing what Lin Shuyang said.
Aunt Zhou was also very sad to see her like this. She also had three children, so she understood Lou Fengqin's feelings very well. When her eldest son just started junior high school and lived in the school dormitory, she also missed her child very much.
Ah Yang left Lou Fengqin, but it has been fourteen years since then. Aunt Zhou still remembers how Ah Yang looked when he was brought back, and feels very emotional.
"When my brother brought Ah Yang home, he was white and chubby, and you could tell at a glance that he had plenty of food. He was also well-behaved and sensible, but he loved to cry and look for his mother, his eldest sister, and his second sister."
"I told my brother at the time that Ah Yang was definitely sent away without his mother's knowledge. If they really wanted to send a child away, they wouldn't have raised him to that age, nor would they have raised him so well." Shancheng has always valued boys over girls. Aunt Zhou has seen many children who were sent away to be raised by others since she was a child.
Most of the children were girls, and they were either given away at birth or the oldest were only raised until they were one year old, because it was difficult to give away sensible children.
After hearing this, Lou Fengqin, whose tears have been flowing like a faucet since she entered the Zhou family, said, "Each of my children is my sweetheart, my flesh and blood. Even if they get hurt, my heart aches as a mother. How can I bear to give them away! It's all the fault of his inhuman father."
Lou Fengqin told everyone what Lin Jianxin had done to gain power and wealth, and everyone present was filled with indignation. Especially Aunt Zhou, who cursed Lin Jianxin over and over again in different ways.
After scolding her, she patted Lou Fengqin's hand and said to her, "My brother went to Pengcheng to look for you several times before he left. But the construction site he worked on with Ah Yang's father had been disbanded a long time ago. Pengcheng is so big, and there are so many construction sites. He worked on them one by one. He did meet a lot of people he knew back then, but no one had Ah Yang's father's contact information."
"He also wanted to look for you, but Ah Yang's father never told me where their home was, and my brother had never seen you. He could only ask around while working, but after so many years, there is still no trace. No one thought of going to the police. It would have been better if they had gone to the police earlier." Since ancient times, people have been afraid of seeing officials. At that time, it was not like it is now, when the police station and the public security bureau often went to the countryside to publicize policies.
Shantai Village was isolated and everyone was in a state of mind where they would not call the police if they could. After all, in their view at that time, the police were there to catch bad guys, and they had no idea that the police could also help find a home for their children.
Aunt Zhou could say this, but Lou Fengqin could not. She just cursed Lin Jianxin for being a good-for-nothing, and thanked Zhou Longxiang for raising her son Ah Yang. Finally, she said, "We have been looking for Ah Yang all over the country for so many years. We have also been to Shancheng, but we have never been to Gongliang Town. Tell me, how nice it would have been if we had come to Gongliang Town back then."
"It's never too late for family to reunite." A villager from Santai Village advised.
Lou Fengqin wiped her tears, affectionately called Aunt Zhou "sister", and proposed that the two families should be treated as relatives in the future. She had thought about this matter carefully, and had been thinking about it for more than ten years. She had thought before that if Ah Yang's adoptive family treated him well and was willing to let her take Ah Yang away, then she was not an ignorant person, and she was willing to let Ah Yang have two families to live with.
She did this not because she had a good heart. It was because she knew that her Ah Yang had been away from her for too long. More than ten years was enough to turn a close mother and son into strangers.
It was just that she had thought so before in order to win the child's heart away from the foster family. She was somewhat reluctant to do that, but Lou Fengqin was sincere to the Zhou family.
Old Man Zhou's eyes lit up instantly, and Aunt Zhou was also very happy: "Thank you, sister. I thank you on behalf of my brother and my father."
Zhou Longxiang is disabled and has had his legs interlaced since childhood. He married a wife, but she ran away because she despised him for being incompetent. He went out to work on a construction site, hoping to earn money to marry another woman, but ended up bringing Lin Shuyang back home. He was afraid that marrying another woman would be bad for Lin Shuyang, so he never married.
Aunt Zhou tried to persuade him for a long time, and even suggested that he take Lin Shuyang home to raise her after he got married, but he still did not agree.
Zhou Longxiang was working outside, and Lin Shuyang had grown up in front of old man Zhou since he brought her home. Old man Zhou was a man, and it was good enough that he could take care of himself. How could he take care of a child over three years old? Aunt Zhou married in this village, and she gave birth to two sons as soon as she got married and established herself.
Her parents-in-law were not bad people, and no one said anything when she came back to take care of the grandparents all year round. Because Lin Shuyang was good-looking, well-behaved and sensible, and good at studying when he grew up, not only Aunt Zhou, but also her husband's family liked Lin Shuyang very much.
Now that the biological mother has come, it is reasonable for them to take the child away. They are not the kind of people who would occupy someone else's child and not let the child go, because they had never thought of buying a child in the first place.
Zhou Longxiang raised Lin Shuyang because he was kind-hearted and was afraid that Lin Jianxin would give the child to those other people, who were not good people.
Aunt Zhou and Old Man Zhou had already prepared themselves mentally for Ah Yang's departure. Even on his deathbed, Zhou Longxiang told Lin Shuyang to go find his biological parents.
The Zhou family was certain that Lin Shuyang was not an ungrateful person, and even if he found his biological parents, they would not forget the Zhou family's kindness in raising him. But that was still nothing compared to Lou Fengqin personally asking the two families to recognize each other as relatives.
First, it is aboveboard, and second, Lin Shuyang does not have to act as a sandwich between the two families.
Although Pengcheng and Shancheng are far apart, they are not very far away. Young people in the village all go out to work. The two sons of Aunt Zhou work in the electronics factory in Pengcheng. When Lin Shuyang returned to Pengcheng, it was easier for them to meet than at home.
If Aunt Zhou and Old Man Zhou miss Ah Yang, there are buses from the county town to Pengcheng.
"I should be the one thanking you. If I hadn't met your family, our Ah Yang would have suffered so much." Lou Fengqin has been looking for her child for so many years, and her requirements for Lin Shuyang have become less and less. At the beginning, she hoped that he would live a good life and have someone to love him, but now she only hopes that he is alive.
Now Lin Shuyang is much better than she had hoped.
Lou Fengqin was satisfied.
Seeing that both parties had almost finished their conversation, Lin Shuyue suggested going to town to treat them to a meal.
Aunt Zhou didn't want to do that. Given how much it would cost to have a meal in town, she decided to just go home and kill two chickens and buy some meat to cook a meal.
Lou Fengqin disagreed: "Big sister, this is the first meal we have after we found Ah Yang. It is also a family reunion banquet for our two families, and also a thank you banquet for your family. You must agree!"
Uncle Zhou also came back and agreed, so everyone went to the town.
As soon as they went out, Lou Fengqin and Lin Shuxing held Lin Shuyang's hands tightly on the left and right, not daring and unwilling to let go.
The village party secretary drove out the village's tractor and pulled all the Zhou family's relatives on board. Bai Wenhua, Lou Fengqin's future husband, got on the tractor with them.
The police were allowed to drive his car.
Lin Shuyue took Zhou Dagu, Lin Shuxing, Zeng Xiaoyi, Lin Shuyang and Lou Fengqin and walked at the front of the convoy.
The police drove behind them.
The group went to the restaurant where they had dinner last night. When the restaurant owner saw so many people coming, he was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling. He tried his best to cook the dishes, determined to make his restaurant famous for its delicious food.
Lin Shuyue and Lin Shuxing, under Lou Fengqin's instructions, went to the clothing store in the town and bought two sets of clothes for Old Man Zhou. They bought the most expensive and best ones as long as the sizes were suitable.
They also didn't forget to buy some for Aunt Zhou and Uncle Zhou.
The same goes for shoes.
When they got back to the restaurant, the dishes had already been served. There were four tables of people in total, occupying all the large tables in the restaurant.
Everyone was chatting animatedly.
When Lin Shuyue and the others came, everyone looked at her. Aunt Zhou even held her hand and praised her non-stop.
Everyone praised her for being excellent, for being able to get into university, and for being a journalist, a profession that sounded very impressive.
Aunt Zhou likes people who are good at studying, but unfortunately, she gave birth to three children, and none of them was good at studying. The second son, who had the highest education, only studied to the first year of high school and refused to go to school.
Only Lin Shuyang has a talent for studying. His high school teachers all said that he is a good candidate for college. Now it seems that he inherited this talent from his parents.
Halfway through the meal, Lou Fengqin led her daughter and son to kowtow three times to Old Man Zhou, who accepted the gesture and trembled as he handed the red envelope that Aunt Zhou had secretly prepared for them. Aunt Zhou's family was not wealthy, so there was not much money in the red envelope, just a token of her appreciation.
After bowing, she gave the clothes to Aunt Zhou and Uncle Zhou, and the two families acknowledged the relationship.
The group stayed in Gongliang Town for another night, and the next day, they took Lin Shuyang back to Pengcheng. Old Man Zhou and Aunt Zhou, wearing the clothes that Lin Shuyue and her friends bought for them yesterday, also went to get acquainted with the place.
The moment Lin Shuyang stepped into the Lin family, the good and evil system issued a notification.
[ Ding~Limited-time mission: Finding the kidnapped brother has been completed. ]
[ Ding~Task settlement in progress... ]
[ Settlement completed, reward system RMB 2000, points 500. Lifetime x 6 months. ]
When the task was issued, the time given for finding Ah Yang was 12 months, or one year. Now, in just three days, she found Ah Yang.
Lin Shuyue still felt a little unreal. Now that her life span had increased so much, plus the settlement time of several previous tasks, Lin Shuyue's life balance was already one year.
She breathed a sigh of relief. The shadow of sudden death at any time and anywhere was finally far away from her.
Apart from this, what surprised Lin Shuyue the most was the monetary reward given by the system.
When she captured Duan Taoyong, she was rewarded with 1,000 RMB, but the rewards for completing the next two tasks were less than 1,000 RMB. Now the reward for this task is 2,000 RMB again.
There is no pattern at all. Ask the good and evil discrimination system. It is just an AI that issues tasks. It is not intelligent at all. Don't expect to chat with it. At most, it will execute some of the instructions given by it according to its existing functions.
But since she didn't know what happened, Lin Shuyue didn't pursue it too much. She was still happy that she could find Ah Yang back.
After Lou Fengqin took the three members of the Zhou family to play in Pengcheng for a few days, they returned. The two families exchanged phone numbers, and Lin Shuyue and others also met Aunt Zhou's two sons.
The two sons, like Aunt Zhou and the others, have low values of good and evil. They are also a bit shy, just like Lin Shuyang.
Bai Wenhua has not been back yet. These days, whether taking the Zhou family out to play or meeting Aunt Zhou's son, he has been running around.
Lin Shuyue and her sister just watched coldly. He was a good man and was also good to Lin Shuyang. He secretly took Lin Shuyang out for a trip, and when he came back, Lin Shuyang had a bunch of electronic products in his hands, including electronic game consoles and walkmans. He also didn't leave out Lin Shuyue and Lin Shuxing.
Lou Fengqin glared at Bai Wenhua fiercely.
Bai Wenhua smiled and said, "Ah Feng, look at how old Ah Xing and Ah Yue's phones are. They are almost broken. It won't be a waste if I buy them one."
Bai Wenhua has two supermarkets in Yangcheng, both of which are managed by people. He does the accounting every six months, and he has a lot of money. He had noticed the mobile phones used by the two sisters before. They were old models from many years ago. Although they can still be used, they are not suitable for two young girls.
In the past, he wanted to change it but he had no position. Now his relationship with Lou Fengqin has taken a big step forward. Bai Wenhua felt that although Lin Shuyue and Lin Shuxing did not call him dad, they were still his daughters. What was wrong with a father buying a mobile phone for his daughter? It was natural.
Lou Fengqin also knew this. Now that Ah Yang was back, she had saved some money. She had originally planned to take the three children to buy mobile phones in a few days, but now Bai Wenhua had gotten there first, so she wanted to give the money to Bai Wenhua. She didn't like owing others things.
But after seeing Bai Wenhua's eyes, she sighed: "You can't buy something that expensive. How much would Ah Xing and Ah Yue's two flip phones cost? Why not just buy a Nokia? It's cheap and durable."
The uneasiness in Bai Wenhua's eyes disappeared and he smiled. "How can it be compare? Girls should have prettier."
The two had a meaningless argument about this matter, and then Bai Wenhua returned to where he lived.
Lou Fengqin held a meeting at home. Everyone including Luo Zhengjun was present, and Zeng Xiaoyi also came to join in the fun.
Lou Fengqin hesitated for a long time in the meeting. Under the urging of Lin Shuyue and Lin Shuxing, she mustered up the courage to ask her three children:
"You all know about what happened between me and your Uncle Bai. What do you think?" Lou Fengqin asked, mainly looking at Lin Shuyang.
She knew her two daughters and they had no objection to her remarriage, as long as the man was decent and treated her well.
What Lou Fengqin was afraid of was that Lin Shuyang would have objections.
Because of Lin Shuyang's personal experience, Lou Fengqin could not completely ignore his wishes and be with Bai Wenhua. She had made up her mind that if Lin Shuyang did not agree with them, she would make things clear to Bai Wenhua.
Lin Shuyang smiled and said under Lou Fengqin's gaze: "Uncle Bai is a very nice person. He is also generous."
Lin Shuyang didn't mind his mother's remarriage. He was already seventeen years old. He was already satisfied that his mother found him and that he knew that he was not abandoned by her.
During the days since he was found, he also realized how much suffering and pain Lou Fengqin had endured in the search for him over the years, and he was deeply moved.
He has the fatherly love of Zhou Longxiang, and now he feels the motherly love of Lou Fengqin, and he feels very satisfied in his heart.
Today, Bai Wenhua took him out and talked to him for a long time. He also initially recognized Bai Wenhua as a person: "As long as you are willing, I have no objection."
Lou Fengqin had tears in her eyes, but she smiled. She had lived a miserable life, but God had been kind to her after all. Her three children were smart, well-behaved, filial and sensible. They were all treasures given to her by God.
Lou Fengqin told her children about Bai Wenhua.
He has only one daughter, Bai Pingping. When she was two years old, she was kidnapped by human traffickers on the street. His wife died of illness a few years after the child was lost. In order to find the child, he formed a search team. Now, fifteen years have passed, and there is still no news of his daughter.
Lou Fengqin and he had been looking for children together for ten years, and the two were already very familiar with each other. Five years ago, Bai Wenhua mentioned to Lou Fengqin that he wished for them to be together, but at that time Lin Shuyue was in high school and was about to take the college entrance examination, which was the most important time in her life, so Lou Fengqin did not agree.
Later, Bai Wenhua asked once a year, but Lou Fengqin refused on the grounds that she was afraid of affecting Lin Shuyue's schooling. Now the two have agreed to live together at the end of the year, and Bai Wenhua is already preparing to move his business from Yangcheng to Pengcheng.
Now that their relationship was clear, Bai Wenhua had no more scruples about going in and out of the Lin family's house, but like Luo Zhengjun, he did not stay overnight at the Lin family's house.
After finding Lin Shuyang, things at home got back on track. Lin Shuxing and Luo Zhengjun continued to sell their boxed lunches. After not setting up their stall for a few days, their business was booming when they went out again.
Lou Fengqin and Bai Wenhua worked together to find a school for Lin Shuyang. They were looking for a school with one of the best teaching quality in Pinghu District. Bai Wenhua used the connections of his comrades-in-arms.
By the way, Zeng Xiaoyi's schooling issue was also resolved.
When Zeng Xiaoyi knew that she could go to high school with Lin Shuyang, she burst into tears.
She didn't say she wouldn't go to school, because going to school was one of her dreams. She just promised the Lin family that she would write an IOU to Lin Shuyue and the others, and she would pay off the debt after she graduated from college.
Lin Shuyue and Lin Shuxing never thought of asking Zeng Xiaoyi to pay it back, especially Lin Shuxing. She is making money now and has money in her hands. It is not a problem for her to sponsor Zeng Xiaoyi to go to college.
But she did not stop Zeng Xiaoyi from writing an IOU. Instead, she kept the IOU carefully and whispered to Lin Shuyue, "I used to watch those rich people doing charity on TV every day. Today they sponsored a few children in the mountainous areas, and tomorrow they built a few schools in the mountainous areas."
"I was very envious at that time. Now I can sponsor others to go to school. Rounding it off, I am also a rich man." Lin Shuxing narrowed her eyes when she said this.
Lin Shuyue smiled and congratulated her, then asked: "Sister, now that Ah Yang is back and you are not too old, are you interested in going to night school?"
When Lin Shuxing heard about going to night school, she was dazed for a moment, then shook her head. "When I was seventeen or eighteen, I wanted to study, but I felt it was a pity that I didn't finish it. Now I'm in my twenties, I've grown up, and I've been struggling in society for too long. I can read novels, but I can't read serious books anymore."
Luo Zhengjun mentioned the matter of going to night school to Lin Shuxing. Lin Shuxing also tried to go to the library to read books. She had some impressions of math and Chinese, but she was completely clueless about English and chemistry.
She also secretly signed up for a training school class, and after an afternoon of classes, she could understand one or two questions at the beginning, but later she was just sleepy.
She can't concentrate anymore. She don't have the same spirit as when she was a kid. She won't make it hard for herself. Let the next generation work hard to get into a good university.
"Your brother Zhengjun said that he would let our children study hard in the future." Lin Shuxing's eyes were full of longing when talking about the future.
"What are you two sisters talking about? You've been talking for so long. Come out quickly. We're waiting for you." Lou Fengqin called them from outside.
"Coming." Lin Shuyue responded, and the two sisters walked out together.
The weather is very good today, the sun is not too strong and the breeze is not dry. Their family of four, including Bai Wenhua, Luo Zhengjun, Zeng Xiaoyi, and Ahao and Zhou Bingrong who came to join in the fun, want to go to the beach to play for a day before Ah Yang and Zeng Xiaoyi start school.
Halfway through their outing, Lin Shuyue received a call from Wang Guiquan.