“Health,” Jiang Nan answered without hesitation. As long as her body was well, children didn’t matter.
The old doctor lowered his reading glasses to look at her, then pushed them back up and said, “You’re quite open-minded.”
Jiang Nan smiled but said nothing. Her current son wasn’t close to her—how could she expect another child to be better? If she stayed healthy, she could earn money and spend it on herself. Why long for children?
“What about your husband? Does he think the same?” the nurse beside them couldn’t resist asking curiously.
“Xiao Gao!” the old doctor scolded her, as if afraid Jiang Nan might change her mind.
But Jiang Nan was unconcerned. She smiled and said, “I’m divorced. What others think has nothing to do with me.”
The nurse’s mouth fell open in surprise, and Mother Zhao outside the door was equally shocked.
The old doctor was surprised too—not at the divorce itself, but at Jiang Nan’s attitude. She spoke of it openly and calmly, without shame.
He handed her the prescription, praising her first: “This is very good.” Then he added, “Take it for half a month, then come back for a follow-up.”
Jiang Nan accepted it, thanked him, and left the consultation room. She greeted Zhao Rui and his mother before going to pay and collect her medicine.
Watching her back, Mother Zhao tightened her grip on Zhao Rui’s arm. This girl was divorced too?
Zhao Rui seemed not to notice. “Mom, it’s our turn. Let’s go in.”
Since his rebirth, Zhao Rui had been worried about his mother’s heart condition. He had already taken her to the People’s Hospital once for an X-ray under the pretext of a check-up, but nothing was found. He didn’t know if it was because the technology wasn’t advanced enough, the doctors weren’t skilled, or simply because the illness hadn’t yet begun. So he brought her again to this famous old physician, hoping for luck.
Unexpectedly, something was discovered. The old doctor said it was fortunate they had come early—another year or two and it would have been difficult to manage. Today was the follow-up after finishing the first course of medicine.
Zhao Rui quietly watched Doctor Yu take his mother’s pulse, ask questions, and then adjust the prescription.
Thus, mother and son from the Zhao family met Jiang Nan again at the pharmacy. Mother Zhao chatted with her for a while, while Zhao Rui remained silent.
After Jiang Nan collected her medicine and left, Mother Zhao whispered to Zhao Rui, “She’s divorced too?”
Since Zhao Rui was staying at Li Xu’s house, he must know something.
Zhao Rui didn’t want to discuss another person’s privacy. He nodded but said no more.
Mother Zhao sighed—how had she divorced too?
Jiang Nan hung the medicine on her bicycle handlebars and pedaled back to school, panting. Just as she reached the school gate, the guard called out, “Teacher Jiang, come see if this is your child!”
Jiang Nan was puzzled. Her child?
She got off the bike and went into the guard’s room—and it really was!
“How did you get here?” Jiang Nan asked in surprise. Seeing no one else with him except the guard, she asked, “Who brought you?”
But Cheng Hao puffed out his chest proudly. “I came by myself!” Then he announced with pride, “I ran away from home!”
Before Jiang Nan could react, the old gatekeeper laughed first, then said seriously, “Teacher Jiang, you should take him back and talk to him properly. He transferred buses twice all on his own to get here. Luckily he didn’t run into any bad people on the way; otherwise it could have been dangerous!”
Only then did Jiang Nan gasp, frightened, and asked him nervously, “Did you tell your father?”
Cheng Hao looked displeased, emphasizing, “I ran away from home! How could I tell my dad?”
Jiang Nan ignored his protest, immediately taking him to the principal’s office, returning the borrowed bicycle, and using the phone. She discovered that the Cheng family hadn’t even noticed Cheng Hao was missing. Furious, she scolded Cheng Denglin harshly: “He’s been gone three or four hours and you didn’t even notice! Aren’t you afraid he’d be kidnapped by traffickers?!”
Cheng Denglin felt wronged. Wasn’t it normal for Cheng Hao to run off and play with friends for most of the day on weekends?
But under Jiang Nan’s anger, he could only ask, “So should I come pick him up now?”
“No, I’m not going back!” Cheng Hao overheard his father’s words and shrieked in refusal.
Jiang Nan, holding the phone, looked at him and realized something deeper was going on. She told Cheng Denglin, “No need. I’ll bring him.”
She hung up, took Cheng Hao back to her dormitory, made him a cup of brown sugar water, and asked, “Tell me, why did you run away from home? Did your dad bully you?”
Cheng Hao sat on a tall stool, swinging his legs, reluctant to speak.
“If you don’t tell me, I’ll send you back,” Jiang Nan threatened.
But Cheng Hao countered, “If I tell you, can I stay?”
Jiang Nan shook her head. “If you tell me and you really were wronged, I’ll help you get justice!”
Cheng Hao’s mood deflated instantly. Jiang Nan pointed around her dormitory: “Look, this bed isn’t even a meter wide—it can’t fit both of us. If you stayed, I’d be teaching all day and couldn’t take care of you. I eat at the cafeteria, so I couldn’t cook for you. And there’s nothing fun here, no playmates.”
Convinced, Cheng Hao slowly explained his reason for running away.
It turned out he had taken the comic book Jiang Nan gave him and bragged about watching a movie and drinking soda. Because of this, Lu Xiaoxiao and Lu Mingsheng accused him daily of being a traitor and refused to play with him.
Jiang Nan laughed. “They’re in kindergarten, you’re in primary school. If they don’t play with you, you can find classmates or other friends. There are plenty of kids in the residential compound. Why stick with them?”
Cheng Hao felt his mother hadn’t grasped his point, so he explained earnestly: “If I don’t play with them, they tell Grandma I bullied them. Then Grandma scolds me. So I have to play with them. But they still call me a traitor and ignore me. It’s been like this for days!”
Now Jiang Nan understood. They weren’t letting Cheng Hao find other friends—they kept him tied to them, then belittled and isolated him. Well then, these little tricks were quite slick!
Jiang Nan grew angry. She knew those two children were clever. In the TV drama, Lu Mingsheng had an IQ over 140, while Lu Xiaoxiao, though not as high, was mischievous, popular, and full of cunning ideas. She often came up with unexpected solutions—even several of the heroine’s business ventures were resolved thanks to her. And the siblings had even teamed up against the “sister-in-law.”
After learning that the “sister-in-law” had asked their mother for child support, those two children often ran to watch neighbors cooking. Since they were young, the neighbors would invite them to eat. Then the siblings would say: their aunt at home claimed they were freeloading, not allowed to eat their fill.
They even sneaked out of kindergarten to pick up trash everywhere, making themselves filthy, saying they wanted to help their mother share the living expenses.
This caused chaos at the kindergarten. Back home, their mother would hug them and cry loudly in the courtyard. The “sister-in-law’s” reputation for being mean and malicious became widely known. Soon, people kept coming to persuade her: “They’re just two kids—how much can they eat? Don’t be so petty…”
In reality, what the “sister-in-law” had asked the heroine to pay was the kindergarten enrollment fee and monthly nutrition lunch fee. For the two children, it averaged six yuan more per month.
Originally, the heroine was a factory worker, so kindergarten was free. But since she went to university, she was no longer a factory employee, so she had to pay. Naturally, it was her responsibility!
Yet, after the children stirred up such a scene, the matter was dropped.
In the TV drama, this episode was played for laughs, showcasing Lu Xiaoxiao and Lu Mingsheng’s cleverness, while the “sister-in-law” was made the villain.
Jiang Nan hadn’t expected that, with the “sister-in-law” absent, this “cleverness” would be turned against Cheng Hao!
“Where’s your dad? Did you tell him about their behavior?” Jiang Nan asked angrily.
She didn’t expect much from Mother Cheng, who was biased from the start. But Cheng Denglin?
Cheng Hao sighed gloomily. “I told him. But Dad just said not to play with them.”
Jiang Nan took a deep breath, controlling her temper. “Come on. If your dad won’t protect you, your mom will demand justice.”
She packed two bags of milk candies for Cheng Hao and marched with him straight to the farm machinery factory’s residential compound.
“Bang, bang, bang!” She knocked on the Cheng family’s door but didn’t enter, standing at the threshold and shouting: “Cheng Denglin! Your sister treated *me* like a servant, and now her children treat *my son* like a dog to be trained. What, do you think our mother and son are easy targets to bully?”
Neighbors, who had recently enjoyed watching the Cheng family drama, thought it was over. But now there was more! They quickly gathered with sunflower seeds to watch.
Someone asked Jiang Nan, “Xiao Jiang, what’s going on now?”
Jiang Nan didn’t hold back—she recounted Cheng Hao’s ordeal.
Mother Cheng stomped angrily at the doorway. “Xiao Nan, this is just children fooling around. Is it worth making such a fuss? Do you just hate to see our family doing well?” She tried to pin the blame on Jiang Nan.
“If you don’t want me to make a fuss, then don’t bully my son!” Jiang Nan glared coldly. “Cheng Hao is only one year older than Lu Mingsheng and Lu Xiaoxiao. You and Cheng Yixin keep teaching him to protect his younger cousins. He takes beatings for Lu Xiaoxiao, twice in a row, while his parents bow and apologize outside. And the ‘good little sister’ he protected never even said sorry!”
Then Jiang Nan turned to Cheng Denglin. “Your son is being bullied by your niece and nephew, treated like a dog, and you don’t react at all! I’ve long wanted to tell you—Cheng Denglin, you’re blind! That new down jacket was torn by a nail on the rattan chair. Did you never think there was something suspicious about that?”
Cheng Denglin was stunned. Suspicious? Suspicious of what?
Jiang Nan didn’t bother explaining further. She looked at Father Cheng and Mother Cheng. “My son has the right to choose his own friends. He can play with whoever he wants, or not play, as long as he doesn’t bully anyone. No one has the right to interfere—including you!”
Finally, she looked down at Lu Xiaoxiao and Lu Mingsheng hiding behind the adults. “Cheng Hao may not be as clever as you, but he has a mother—and I won’t let you bully him! If this happens again, I won’t just come to talk to your parents. I’ll deal with you myself!”
“Xiao Jiang!” Father Cheng raised his voice, displeased. “How can you, an adult, scare children like that!”
Jiang Nan gave a mocking laugh. “If you were truly so reasonable, Cheng Hao wouldn’t have been bullied to the point of running away from home to find me!”
After venting, Jiang Nan felt the matter was mostly settled. She turned to Cheng Hao and said, “Remember my phone number. Next time something happens, call me. Don’t sneak off on your own again. If you run into traffickers and get sold off to the mountains, you’ll have nowhere to cry.”
Hearing this, Father Cheng and Mother Cheng finally felt a chill of fear.
Cheng Hao nodded, popping a candy into his mouth. His mother wasn’t around, and it had been a long time since he’d had milk candy.
After warning him, Jiang Nan glanced around at the Cheng family, then turned to leave. But she caught sight of a flash of green fabric inside the house—looked like the hem of a skirt. She didn’t pay it any mind. Whether guest or relative, it had nothing to do with her.
On the bus back to Hongshan Commune, she unexpectedly ran into that educated youth, Cen Jingqiu. Jiang Nan smiled politely at her, a simple greeting.
But Cen Jingqiu looked rather cold. When she sat down, her skirt spread across the seat—it was green.