“…We are Yunshu’s parents,” He Qiuxia said.
Her gaze kept hovering over Wang Wanru’s face, as if trying to recognize something. After looking for quite a while, she suddenly took two steps forward, her voice sounding somewhat uncertain: “Are you… is your surname Wang? Sister Wang?”
Wang Wanru froze for a moment, raised her hand to wipe away her tears, and looked closely at He Qiuxia twice, also freezing in place.
“Are you… the big sister from the nursery back then?” Wang Wanru’s voice trembled. “The head of the regiment’s wife… who stayed in the bed next to mine?”
He Qiuxia’s eyes instantly turned red: “Yes, it’s me.”
She walked over and took Wang Wanru’s hands. “It was too chaotic that day. Later, the fleeing crowd separated us, and I searched for you for a long time without finding you. I never expected we would meet again. You look much better than when you first came to the nursery…”
Wang Wanru’s tears fell again. She held He Qiuxia’s hands in return, clutching them tightly: “I’m doing okay, doing okay… Back then, if it weren’t for you, I would have lost my life.”
The two women stood at the courtyard entrance, crying face-to-face.
Ji Haiguo and Meng Guangze exchanged a glance and neither spoke, though the expression on Ji Haiguo’s face changed from vigilant to complex.
Ji Yunshu stood behind He Qiuxia, looking at Wang Wanru’s face—which was almost identical to her own—her mind tossing and turning, unable to describe the feeling inside.
Wang Wanru’s gaze shifted from He Qiuxia to Ji Yunshu. She looked at her over and over, her lips trembling several times before she finally opened her mouth to ask: “This child… is she…”
He Qiuxia looked back at Ji Yunshu and reached out to pull her to her side.
“This is Yunshu.” He Qiuxia’s voice was a bit hoarse. “The daughter I raised for nineteen years. The child I carried away back then… was her.”
Wang Wanru reached out her hand, wanting to touch Ji Yunshu’s face, but pulled it back halfway, as if afraid of scaring her. Looking at Ji Yunshu, her tears fell uncontrollably, and her voice came intermittantly: “She looks… she looks so much like I did when I was young…”
Seeing this woman crying like this made Ji Yunshu feel uncomfortable in her heart too. She opened her mouth, not knowing what she should call her, and finally only muttered a low call: “…Mom.”
Hearing this call of “Mom,” Wang Wanru’s tears fell even more fiercely, but she said nothing, only nodding hard.
Meng Guangze walked over, wrapped his arm around Wang Wanru’s shoulder, and said softly: “Don’t cry, the child is well, this is a good thing.” He raised his head to look at Ji Haiguo, “Comrade Ji, let’s find a place to sit down and talk. Both children are so old now; there are many things to discuss properly.”
Ji Haiguo nodded: “Let’s go sit inside the house.”
So the group walked back.
Meng Li walked between Meng Guangze and Wang Wanru, her head lowered, without saying a word. The girl named Meng Yunzhen walked at the very back, looking at Ji Yunshu from time to time, the expression on her face still carrying shock.
The female police officer who had come to help search saw that the person had been found, so she had Meng Guangze fill out a receipt and left directly.
Ji Yunshu looked at the departing back of the police officer, her heart in utter turmoil. She knew that she might really be leaving this place.
What was Suzhou like? Ji Yunshu didn’t know. She had read “small bridges, flowing water, and cottages” and knew that Suzhou’s scenery was very beautiful. But if she really followed the Meng family back to Suzhou and became the young lady of a capitalist family, her future seemed predictable at a single glance.
Ji Yunshu didn’t want to die of depression like the self in her dream.
Arriving home, He Qiuxia greeted the Meng family to sit down in the main room, then went to pour water. Ji Yunting hadn’t expected his parents and younger sister to go out for a trip and bring back three people. But seeing the exceedingly similar faces of Meng Yunzhen and Ji Yunshu, Ji Yunting’s heart still sank a bit.
After arranging the chairs, Ji Haiguo sat in the main seat, Meng Guangze and Wang Wanru sat opposite him, Meng Yunzhen sat next to Wang Wanru, and Meng Li sat on the very edge.
Ji Yunshu didn’t know where to sit and stood behind He Qiuxia without moving.
He Qiuxia gave her a pull: “Sit next to Mom.”
Ji Yunshu then sat down beside her.
Meng Guangze spoke first, recounting the whole matter.
It turned out that Meng Li had kept saying in Suzhou that she felt unwell, but the hospital in Suzhou couldn’t find what the issue was. Meng Li then told her family that she insisted on coming to Beijing to seek medical treatment. Meng Guangze and Wang Wanru, thinking that their eldest daughter was attending university in Beijing and that they could also take the opportunity to see her, got a letter of introduction and accompanied her here together.
They found a guesthouse near the hospital to stay at and accompanied Meng Li to the hospital for an examination. As a result, after Meng Li went in for the check-up, she left. The doctor called for a follow-up visit but couldn’t find her, and only then did they realize Meng Li was missing. They searched all over the hospital without finding her; thinking that the hospital was too large and that Meng Li had gotten lost, they anxiously reported it to the police, and also went to the school to get Meng Yunzhen, who was studying at the medical college, to come and help search. Fortunately, there were many people around the hospital, and after the police helped inquire and search for an afternoon, a bus driver finally said he had carried a girl with a similar appearance and clothing. They then got on the bus and searched all the way along this direction, finally managing to find her.
“This child,” Meng Guangze sighed and looked at Meng Li, “has been headstrong since she was small, never consulting us and running over by herself.”
Meng Li lowered her head and said softly: “I was afraid you wouldn’t agree.”
Wang Wanru wiped her tears and said: “What matter do you have that you can’t discuss with the family? If you want to come look for your birth parents, it’s not that we wouldn’t let you, but you have to tell us. You’re a young girl, unfamiliar with the people and places in Beijing; what if something happened to you?”
Meng Li stopped talking.
Ji Haiguo cleared his throat and took over the conversation: “Since everyone is present, let’s make things clear. The two children were taken by mistake at the nursery back then, but this isn’t the children’s fault. The question now is, what to do about the two children.”
Meng Guangze nodded: “We think the same way. Li’er is our adopted daughter; having raised her for nineteen years, the affection is real. But her birth parents are here, and if she wants to come back and acknowledge them, we won’t stop her. As for Yunshu…”
He glanced at Ji Yunshu and also spoke tentatively, “She is our own flesh and blood, so of course we want to acknowledge her back. But after all, she has lived in your family for so many years; we can’t just say we’re taking her away. We also have to see what the child wants.”
Ji Yunshu kept her head down, her fingers twisting the corner of her shirt, saying nothing.
He Qiuxia spoke up, her tone very resolute: “Yunshu has lived in my family for nineteen years; she is my own birth daughter. Her household registration cannot be transferred; she must stay by my side.”
Once these words came out, the room went quiet for a few seconds.
Meng Guangze and Wang Wanru looked at each other, difficult expressions appearing on both of their faces.
Meng Li’s face darkened even more, but she quickly reverted to her original smiling, gentle appearance.
Wang Wanru said softly: “Big sister, I know you are good to Yunshu, and I am grateful to you in my heart. But she is, after all, flesh that fell from my body. I had a difficult labor back then and went through the gates of hell to give birth to her. When she was born, she was only a bit over four jin. Before I even had the chance to take a look at her, the nursery was bombarded, and then she was taken by mistake… All these years I never knew she was still alive, thinking she…”
She couldn’t go on, covering her mouth as she began to cry.
Watching her cry, He Qiuxia’s eye sockets turned red too, but she didn’t relent.
Ji Yunshu understood clearly in her heart why He Qiuxia was unwilling to let her transfer her household registration. The Meng family’s background was bad—they were capitalists, and this background was no good thing in these current times. He Qiuxia refusing to let her transfer her household registration was out of a desire to protect her.
Seeing the two sides deadlocked, Ji Haiguo stepped in to smooth things over: “How about this: let the two children speak on whether they are willing to swap their household registrations back.”
Household registration in this era was tied to identity; the treatment of a Suzhou household registration and a Beijing household registration were certainly different, not to mention that one side was a capitalist family while the other was a genuine military family.
Meng Li didn’t hesitate in the slightest: “I want to transfer my household registration back. This was my household registration to begin with.”
“It’s only right, it’s only right,” Wang Wanru muttered to herself, her head lowered, looking dejected.
“I should transfer mine back as well,” Ji Yunshu nodded. She saw that He Qiuxia wanted to stop her, “Mom, rest assured, even if the household registration is swapped back, I am still your daughter.”
“In that case, let’s go according to the children’s wishes then,” Ji Haiguo said.
He Qiuxia still wanted to say something, but Ji Haiguo glanced at her, and she swallowed her words back down.
Meng Yunzhen hadn’t spoken much all this time, but suddenly opened her mouth at this moment: “Is Yunshu in good health? Did she ever fall seriously ill when she was young?”
Ji Yunshu froze for a moment, not expecting her to ask this.
He Qiuxia answered for her: “Her health was never very good as a child, catching colds every few days. At fourteen, she suddenly fell seriously ill, had two surgeries, and even had a blood transfusion… She was slowly nursed back, and has gotten much better by now, which can be considered leaving behind no sequelae.”
Meng Yunzhen nodded, pulled out a small notebook from her pocket, and recorded it seriously. Then, she took the initiative to introduce herself: “I am a student at the medical university, named Meng Yunzhen. Mom and Dad are getting on in years; if Sister Yunshu has any hobbies or dietary restrictions, you can tell me, and I will write them all down.”
Looking at Meng Yunzhen’s serious demeanor, Ji Yunshu thought to herself that she was indeed worthy of being a university student who could pass the exams, so earnest.
Hearing He Qiuxia’s words, Wang Wanru felt both distressed and guilty. Looking at Ji Yunshu, she wanted to say something, her lips moving, but in the end she pulled out a hand-wrapped item from her pocket and held it in her palm.
Meng Li noticed it; it was the small cloth bag for holding money that Wang Wanru had sewn with her own hands.
Meng Li looked at Wang Wanru with a heavy gaze, but Wang Wanru didn’t notice her look at all, still looking at Ji Yunshu with a face full of heartache.
Meng Li felt a surge of anger.
The family members spoke to each other a bit more about the children’s younger days. Listening, Ji Yunshu felt that the Meng family was actually quite good to Meng Li.
Just looking at Meng Li’s attire, she was the most bright and beautiful among this crowd.
The Meng family’s background was bad, but the family was honest; upon the founding of the nation, they surrendered everything that should be surrendered, and after the joint state-private ownership, they lived on the state’s fixed interest every month, leading a very prosperous life.
The Meng family had three children. The eldest son, Meng Xiangpeng, was already married; he and his wife worked at a pharmacy, and although the wages weren’t high, it was an income after all. The eldest daughter, Meng Yunzhen, had gotten into the Beijing medical university, was absorbed in her studies, and had very good grades. The youngest daughter, Meng Li, had also been supported through high school, but hadn’t passed the university entrance exams. Meng Guangze wanted her to become a local teacher in Suzhou, but Meng Li didn’t want to go, so she simply stayed home to be supported for the time being—anyway, the Meng family could afford it.
Then one day, Meng Li suddenly felt unwell, and visiting several hospitals in Suzhou couldn’t reveal the problem. Meng Li then took the initiative to propose going to Beijing to see a doctor. Meng Guangze thought that since his eldest daughter was in Beijing, the letter of introduction would also be relatively easy to obtain, and if there really was something wrong with the child, he would regret it for the rest of his life, so he and Wang Wanru accompanied Meng Li to Beijing.
Even though he already knew at that time that Meng Li was not his biological flesh and blood, having lived together for nineteen years, a non-biological daughter was already more than a biological daughter.
Meng Guangze even said that he actually no longer held out hope of seeing his biological daughter, and had even long decided to divide the family property equally among the three children after his death. The Meng family had many properties; the fixed interest alone was over a thousand yuan a month, and his family also had many antiques and cultural relics, with several boxes of Song Dynasty porcelain alone—all passed down from their ancestors. It was just a pity that by their generation, no one liked to play with these things, so they were all stored away in the warehouse. On the contrary, Meng Li had suddenly become very interested in these antiques one day, so he intended to leave all of these to Meng Li.
Listening to this, Ji Yunshu suddenly realized that the Meng family’s fixed interest for one month was almost three or four times Ji Haiguo’s salary! But the Meng family in her dream seemed to be destitute; she didn’t know what had happened to all these properties…
Meng Li had no reaction listening to these words from Meng Guangze, but Ji Yunshu felt that according to Meng Guangze’s account, Meng Li should have been living quite well in the Meng family. Loving parents, an older brother and older sister who were good to her, no financial difficulties—perhaps only her status as a capitalist’s daughter truly troubled her greatly.
A capitalist’s daughter was indeed prone to receiving cold looks from others; her wanting to come back was also entirely natural and right.
As they talked, the sky grew dark; if it got any later, they might not catch the last bus.
Things couldn’t be finished so quickly, and the two families would certainly need to visit each other more in the future, so Meng Guangze proposed to take Meng Li back first, as they still needed to take her to the hospital tomorrow to see a doctor.
Ji Haiguo spoke up at this moment: “Li’er said she is staying at the Naval General Hospital. Tomorrow, let Yunshu go check her health as well. It’s good for both families to go together; both families care about the children’s physical health.”
Meng Guangze nodded and agreed.
When leaving, Wang Wanru quietly leaned in and stuffed the cloth bundle she had been clutching into Ji Yunshu’s hand.
“Child, take this.” Her voice was low, her eye sockets turning red again, “I… I didn’t bring much on me, take this to spend for now.”
Ji Yunshu wanted to push it back, but Wang Wanru pressed her hand and wouldn’t let her move. He Qiuxia saw this from the side and didn’t say anything, so Ji Yunshu had no choice but to accept it first.