Rebirth 90: The Long Road to Finding a Son

In Zhanjiazhuang today, the villagers who were oppressed in the past are now like emancipated serfs singing their praises.

Everyone benefited and was grateful to Shen Yuzhu, the new village chief. Shen Yuzhu's prestige in the village was established immediately.

No one can tell what kind of life the villagers will live in the future, but it probably won’t be worse than when Zhan Dayou was in power.

It was winter now, and the temperature was very low at night. Mrs. Zhan and her son huddled in the cold house all night.

In order to avoid the villagers causing trouble for them during the day, the mother and son got up and left the village at daybreak.

But now they are penniless, and the only person they can go to is their third daughter Zhan Tiehua who lives in Jiangyuan City.

They had no phone to contact Zhan Tiehua, and they didn't know how to get to her home. They could only take things one step at a time.

The mother and son supported each other. They were cold and hungry, and there was almost no healthy place on their bodies after being beaten by the villagers.

Zhan Baoku felt sorry for his mother because she was old and couldn't stand such hardship, so he said to her, "Mom, why don't you wait here for a while, I'll go to the village to get you some food!"

The mother and daughter have now walked to a place more than ten miles away from Zhanjiazhuang. Thinking that no one would recognize them, they dared to stop and rest.

Zhan Baoku had never suffered such hardship in his life. But now, in order to survive, he had to beg for food from other people's homes like a beggar.

As long as they get to the home of the third sister Zhan Tiehua, there will be hope. Such a big thing happened at home, and several children are missing. He thought that they must have been taken away by his sister who lives in the city.

His daughter is less than one year old. Such a young child, without her parents around, I don’t know how much suffering she must have endured during this period.

Of course, if the child was really taken away by Zhan Tiehua, he wouldn't have to worry because Zhan Tiehua had always been good to the children of the Zhan family, and the family was not implicated in this incident, so raising a few more children would not be a problem.

After some mental preparation, he adjusted the hat on his head and tied a torn scarf around his face to prevent anyone from seeing his whole face and recognizing him.

Then he asked Old Lady Zhan to sit on the side of the road and rest for a while, and he would go into the village to get some food and would be back soon.

How could the old lady Zhan bear to see the treasure house suffer such humiliation? She cried bitterly and said to her son, "Mom, don't go. Mom is old and doesn't care about face. Besides, people will feel embarrassed to chase me away because I am an old lady..."

The mother and daughter agreed to wait by the roadside for the old lady to come to the village to ask for food. The people in this era were still simple and honest, and they did not have the concept of professional beggars, so they were easily moved with sympathy for beggars.

Mrs. Zhan knocked on several doors and finally got some pancakes and steamed buns, then quickly returned to find her son. The mother and son shared the food and felt a little stronger.

But it was not an option to keep going this way. In the past, it took an hour to drive from Zhanbaoku to the city. How long would it take for two injured people to walk this far?

The mother and daughter discussed and decided to ask for some money from others. Once they had money, they would go to the county town and take a bus directly to Jiangyuan City.

Their current location was not far from the county town, and a bus ticket to the city cost twelve yuan, so they would have to pay more than twenty yuan.

Now, old lady Zhan has changed from her previous appearance of wearing gold and silver, and she looks as miserable and pitiful as she can be.

After begging for food twice, she was no longer embarrassed, so she just walked around asking for money. Whenever she passed by a village, she would go into it and walk around. She didn't ask for much, just one dollar.

There were actually some villagers who were kind enough to give money. After the mother and daughter arrived in the county town, they had collected enough money for each person's train ticket.

The old lady wanted money and experience now. When she arrived at the county town, she knelt on the ground in a crowded place and said to everyone she met: "Kind people, please have mercy on me. I haven't eaten for two days..."

This way, he doesn't look like someone who just "entered the business", but more like a professional beggar.

Come to think of it, for a human trafficker to have any dignity left, he would do anything as long as he could make money. Moreover, this kind of job which involves begging on one's knees without stealing or robbing, does not put any psychological pressure on old lady Zhan.

Zhan Baoku couldn't help but admire his mother's resilience when he saw her like this. He had always been pampered at home, and he couldn't do what his mother and sister could do without dignity.

Soon, the old lady came back clutching a handful of dollars: "Old Three, let's go to the station!"

Just like that, under the admiring eyes of her son, Old Lady Zhan walked towards the county bus station with high spirits and successfully got on the bus to Jiangyuan City.

In addition to the ticket money, the mother and daughter had more than ten yuan left, so they bought two bottles of water, and the remaining money was enough for them to take the bus when they arrived in the city.

After noon, the two arrived in the city, took a bus and went directly to the vicinity of Zhan Tiehua's home.

Zhan Tiehua is now like an angry lioness. The noisy children at home make her very annoyed.

In order to make the children quiet down, I had to yell and scream at the top of my lungs, and I felt like my throat was going to get damaged.

Thinking about having to face all those kids after work gave her a headache, but at the same time she was extremely glad that she didn't go looking for the three kids at her elder sister Zhan Jinhua's house. If those kids had followed her, it would have been fatal.

In the past, Qin Xingzhou treated Zhan Tiehua well because she had the support of her family. Many of Zhan Tiehua's female colleagues envied her for having a considerate and handsome husband, and she also had cooking skills, and her delicatessen made a lot of money.

Ever since the fall of the Zhan family, Qin Xingzhou has lost his patience with Zhan Tiehua. He has never been good to the two granddaughters of the Zhan family, and he also ignores his daughter Zhang Ling, who was fostered in Zhanjiazhuang, because he has no feelings for her.

When he gets home, he can only play with his two sons for a while. He also has to take care of his grandfather who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, which is really a headache for him.

In the past, he always coaxed Zhan Tiehua, but now quarrels between the two have become commonplace. The money earned from the delicatessen is no longer handed over to Zhan Tiehua. Zhan Tiehua has to support the Zhan family's children, so she can only use her own salary.

Her eldest brother Zhan Baoliang's daughter Zhan Tingting had just entered junior high school. Her father had died, and her mother Wu Chunfang was also involved in the Zhan family's affairs, but she was not deeply involved in the case and was sentenced to eight years.

Because of what happened at home, she hasn't been to school for a while and probably won't have the chance to go to school in the future.

Now she acts as a nanny in Zhan Tiehua's home. When Zhan Tiehua and Qin Xingzhou go out to work, she is responsible for taking care of the children and the elderly.

Zhang Ling is a few years younger than her and is just in the second grade. Zhan Tiehua is unwilling to spend money to help her get a household registration or transfer schools, so she is now on leave from school and helps Zhan Tingting with housework and childcare.

Zhan Tingting had been living in the Zhan family. After her father died, her mother remarried and rarely took care of her, so she was very dependent on the Zhan family. Zhan Tingting was grateful to her third aunt Zhan Tiehua for taking her in, and she was very obedient after coming here.

Zhang Ling was different. She had always hated Zhan Tiehua and Qin Xingzhou. In her opinion, this biological parent had abandoned her. Not only had they never raised her for a single day, they had also beaten and scolded her.

Therefore, after she returned home, she did not work attentively, and often took out her anger on her two younger brothers when the adults were not at home. Her younger brothers Qin Junyi and Qin Junchen, who were five and three years old respectively, had already learned to complain.

Zhang Ling treated her brother badly, so he complained to his parents. What awaited her was being beaten and scolded, not allowed to eat, and locked out. All kinds of punishments made her hate every member of the family even more.