Living in the village doesn’t cost anything; you grow your own food, and even water is supplied by a personal well.
Daily expenses are undoubtedly a significant savings.
But it’s different outside.
Renting a house in the city costs money, food and vegetables cost money, utilities are expenses, and each month undoubtedly requires a sum of money to maintain the bare minimum standard of living.
But Wang Baozhu is not soone who can do physical work.
Even when she moved to the city, she did not work, just stayed at ho to take care of the children.
Li Zhifang, apart from farming, was not good at anything else. Once he ca out, he could only work manual labor, such as moving bricks at construction sites, or doing other odd jobs.
The burden of supporting a family of three rested on his shoulders. Before long, Li Zhifang beca anxious and stressed, his hair turned white, and his back bent.
Even so, every day when Li Zhifang returned ho, Li Jindong, following Wang Baozhu’s lead, would berate him for being incompetent.
Every ti Li Zhifang saw how unfilial Li Jindong was, he would think of Li Jinghan.
Back when Li Jinghan was still ho, he actually knew how to be considerate towards him.
Sotis, seeing him tired from working in the fields, Li Jinghan would bring him water, and wouldn’t eat until he ca ho, never eating alone.
But Li Jindong?
Then he thought of Anning.
The children educated by Anning were all well-mannered and knowledgeable.
When he and Anning were working outside, the several children at ho would compete to do chores. If they hadn’t returned, the children wouldn’t eat, just waiting.
Until they returned, the children would prepare water for washing faces, hand them towels, and let them wash up before eating. If there was anything delicious, the children wouldn’t scramble for it, they would pass it around.
Moreover, those six children were always clean and tidy and spoke and behaved with great decorum.
Thinking of those six children, Li Zhifang felt like crying.
Even Liu Qi and Liu Ming, who were not his biological children, treated him with great respect when they were still at ho. Even if he sotis made mistakes, Liu Qi and Liu Ming would talk to him gently behind closed doors, never blaming him, and at that ti, they would also show concern for his fatigue from work, trying their best to help him with family and field chores.
Thinking this way, even if not biological, if brought up well, they could be even closer than biological ones.
Li Zhifang was truly filled with imnse regret.
But now those six children were grown up, and it was already impossible to reverse anything.
That day, dragging his exhausted body ho, as soon as Li Zhifang arrived, Li Jindong asked him for things again: "Dad, give money, I want to play gas..."
"No money."
Li Zhifang said quietly.
He was really tired and didn’t want to say much to Li Jindong.
But Li Jindong got angry, rushed over, and pushed Li Zhifang: "You useless thing, why can’t you earn money, it’s so embarrassing, truly disgraceful."
Li Zhifang was truly exhausted, and because Li Jindong was tall and heavy, with the force of an adolescent, his strong push directly knocked Li Zhifang to the ground.
Li Zhifang fell on the ground, looking at Li Jindong with shock in his eyes.
How could this child, this child be so unfilial?
And just at this mont, Li Jindong didn’t even help Li Zhifang up, his face twisted in ferocity as he stared nacingly at Li Zhifang: "Let tell you, I will need money for many things in the future, you’d better hurry and make money, you know, otherwise in the future I won’t support you in your old age."
Tears fell slowly from Li Zhifang’s eyes.
He was truly heartbroken.
He wanted to talk to Li Jindong, but seeing that fierce look on Li Jindong’s face, he began to harbor doubts.
Ordinarily, he couldn’t see it, but now Li Jindong’s face was so contorted, he looked like... like Sun San from the village.
The more Li Zhifang looked, the more he thought Li Jindong resembled Sun San.
He then thought about what Li Jinghan looked like, and found not a single resemblance to Li Jindong.
The Li family mbers all had thick eyebrows and big eyes, but Li Jindong had light eyebrows and not so big eyes; he was also chubby, his eyes nearly squinted to a slit, and he even had a hooked nose?
The Li family mbers had high bridges on their noses, but fleshier nose tips, unlike Li Jindong’s, which looked rather an.
The more Li Zhifang thought, the more shocked he was.
Without minding how much pain he was in, he got up and walked outside.
"What are you doing?"
Li Jindong kept asking questions.
Zhifang ignored him and hurried out.
He cried while calling Li Zhicheng.
Li Zhicheng was at work and couldn’t help but frown when he received Zhifang’s call.
He thought Zhifang was out of money and wanted to borrow so.
"Laosi, what’s the matter?"
Zhifang was crying, and while crying he said, "Bro, third brother, I... I think Li Jindong is not our family’s child."
"What?"
Li Zhicheng was also stunned.
"Say that again."
Zhifang cried even louder: "I, I think Li Jindong is not my son, he, he looks a bit like Sun San."
"You can’t just talk recklessly about this."
Although Li Zhicheng was shocked by the news, he still couldn’t help but believe Zhifang; despite his flaws, Zhifang wasn’t soone to lie, especially about such matters.
Li Zhicheng thought for a mont: "Do this, take so hair from you and Li Jindong, rember to get the hair with follicles and co to the Provincial City to find , I’ll help you find soone to test it."
"Is that testable?"
Zhifang really didn’t know about this.
"Yes."
Li Zhicheng said, "If you can’t get over this in your mind, co over sooner."
"Okay."
Zhifang hung up the phone, and when he got ho, Li Jindong was eating a sandwich.
Zhifang pulled out US$ 10 from his pocket and gave it to him: "Here, take it."
Li Jindong seed quite happy to see the money.
"Thanks, Dad."
Zhifang patted his shoulder and while he was distracted, plucked two hairs from his head.
Li Jindong felt a pain in his scalp: "Dad, what are you doing?"
Zhifang forced a smile: "Nothing, I accidentally scraped your hair."
Having obtained Li Jindong’s hair, Zhifang told him: "Dad’s got a job that requires going out for a few days, tell your mom."
Li Jindong agreed.
Zhifang quickly went inside to grab so money and imdiately took a ride to the Provincial City.
Li Zhicheng was waiting for him at ho.
When he got there, he packed both Zhifang and Li Jindong’s hair into separate bags, and had Liu Ru prepare so food for Zhifang, while Li Zhicheng took their hair to the hospital for assistance.
It would still take a few days for the test results to co out, and Zhifang felt embarrassed to stay at Li Zhicheng’s place.
He also didn’t want to go ho, and after leaving Li Zhicheng’s house, he wandered the streets.
Tired from wandering, Li Zhicheng casually found a place to sit and also casually bought a newspaper.
The first thing he saw when he picked up the newspaper was Anning’s photo.
There was an article about Anning on the paper, describing how she went from a rural woman to now owning a big company, her struggles, and so experiences on educating her children.
The more Zhifang read, the more he felt disgraced.
At the end, the article talked about how excellent the six children Anning raised were.
Over the years, Zhifang intentionally didn’t inquire about his children’s affairs and had no idea what they were up to.
But now he saw it: several children had very high levels of education, Liu Qi, Liu Ming, and Li Jingyan had all graduated with PhDs and made contributions in their respective fields, while Li Jingyu was a high school teacher but also had a second job; she loved painting, she was very good at painting, especially traditional Chinese painting, receiving praise from many masters in the field, and now her paintings were also highly sought after.
The two younger ones were also university students, and both at Jing University.
Seeing all this, Zhifang covered his face and began to sob.
Then, a passerby squatted down in front of him and threw so change, later, a few more passersby threw money at him.
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