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Chapter 431: Chapter 431: Reporting to the Police
Lin Fengying brought her village habits to Kyoto, making a lot of dumplings two nights before the New Year’s eve to be eaten on New Year’s eve and the first day of the year. It was cold, so the dumplings wouldn’t go bad.
Before, making dumplings during Chinese New Year was the happiest time for the family. The three children would help her, the family would chat and laugh together, but now it felt particularly cold and lonely.
After all, she was a mother and the thought of Si Chen spending the New Year alone in the staff quarters made her heart ache. She was thinking of sending him some dumplings tomorrow, taking the opportunity to ease the mother-son relationship.
No matter how harsh her arguments were with her eldest son, deep in her heart, she never wanted to break ties with him.
"He doesn’t even consider you his mother, why do you care about him!" Si Xiaohui rolled her eyes, thinking to herself that her mother always favored her elder brother more. Even though he wanted to break the mother-son bond completely, her mother still worried about him.
"After all, he is your elder brother, the child I bore for ten months." Lin Fengying said. n𝚘vp𝚞𝚋.com
Since Lin Fengying had said so, Si Xiaohui didn’t say anything more.
*
Last year, Si Chen had to work during the New Year and had no rest, so this year he had two days off for the holiday. He was not at work from the New Year’s Eve to the second day of the New Year and had to resume work on the third day. After having breakfast on the New Year’s eve, everyone discussed and decided to go and put up the Spring Festival couplets in the shop and staff quarters.
Tong Yao and Si Chen would paste the Spring Festival couplets in the shop, while Tong Yaohui and Wen Yun would paste them in the staff quarters.
Tong Yao and Si Chen went to paste the couplets in the branch shop first, and finally went to the milk tea shop near the school. Before they reached the shop, they saw two people huddled together under the eaves from far away.
Upon getting closer, it turned out to be the couple, Niu Airong and her husband. The two were covered with a thick coat, and a thick layer of snow had fallen on them. Judging from the situation, they had probably been there since the previous night.
It was so cold, with temperatures below zero at night. Tong Yao couldn’t imagine how the two of them survived the night. She quickly went over and tapped on Niu Airong’s shoulder, "Sister Niu, Brother Song."
"Sister Tong Yao, you’re here!" Upon raising her head and seeing Tong Yao, Niu Airong immediately broke into a hearty laugh, pushing Song Wenhua, "Wenhua, stop sleeping, Sister Tong Yao is here."
Song Wenhua, who had been woken up, stared blankly for a while, and upon seeing Tong Yao and Si Chen standing in front of him, he quickly stood up. However, due to numbness in his legs from squatting for too long, he almost fell. Si Chen gestured to assist him, but Song Wenhua quickly waved him off.
"No need to help, no need to help, I’m fine, I’ll be okay after standing for a while."
Niu Airong quickly swept the accumulated snow off their clothes. Seeing the Spring Festival couplets in Si Chen’s hand, she asked, "You’re here to paste the Spring Festival couplets, aren’t you?"
Tong Yao nodded, "Sister Niu, how come you were sleeping here, couldn’t you find the Guest House?"
"No." Niu Airong gave an awkward laugh. She didn’t have the heart to say that they felt it was not worth spending money, "We’re used to sleeping at home and feel uncomfortable sleeping Guest House."
Song Wenhua kept quiet on the side, his face turning beet red. After a while, he asked Si Chen, "This is Si Chen, right?"
Embarrassed, he fumbled in his pocket, "Look at me, I don’t smoke, so I don’t even have a pack of cigarettes on me."
"It doesn’t matter, I don’t smoke either." Seeing both their faces flushed red from the cold and shivering continuously, he opened the door of the milk tea shop, "It’s cold outside, let’s talk inside."
Once inside, Tong Yao saw them still shivering, so she went behind the counter and brewed two cups of dried fruit tea, "Sister Niu, Brother Song, drink this to warm up."
Since the shop was closed yesterday, there was no fresh milk, so she could only brew fruit tea with dried fruits. If she wasn’t wrong, they probably hadn’t eaten since yesterday. As for not staying in the Guest House, it was likely because they found it too expensive.
They had gotten used to spending money liberally while living in Kyoto recently and had forgotten that most families in the countryside were still very poor.
"Thank you, sister Tong Yao." Niu Airong’s voice choked as she took the cup, the warmth seeping into her palms. It felt as if her heart was warming up too, and she could feel tears welling up uncontrollably.
Life in the countryside wasn’t great, but it was never as hard as this.
Last night was cold and hungry, and they couldn’t sleep because of the cold. Only when the day was about to break and they couldn’t hold on any longer did they manage to sleep for a while.
Upon arriving in the unfamiliar big city, they were completely strangers and their mother-in-law was afraid they would squander money, so she didn’t give them much. They didn’t dare to stay in the Guest House either. After being driven away by Si Weimin yesterday, the couple walked in the snow for half the night before finding their way here.
In this foreign land, only Tong Yao was kind to them, and they felt safe here.
Song Wenhua wasn’t feeling great either, but being a man, he naturally wouldn’t cry like a woman. Fearing the atmosphere would become awkward, he sought to change the subject.
"We came here actually to ask if my brother said anything else the last time you saw him. Yesterday we went to Xiaohui and they said they hadn’t seen Song Yu, and then drove us away. We really have nowhere else to find Song Yu, so we had to come here and ask you."
"He just said that he planned to reconcile with Xiaohui and didn’t say anything else." Tong Yao looked at the pitiful couple and bluntly said: "Sister Niu, Brother Song, you can’t find someone like this, you should just report to the police!"
"Report to the police?"
Niu Airong and Song Wenhua were both taken aback.
They asked uncertainly, "Would the police handle this?"
Song Yu was not a child, he was an adult who had been married and had a family. The police probably wouldn’t bother, would they?
In Niu Airong’s and Song Wenhua’s understanding, the police were responsible for solving cases and catching criminals, and they wouldn’t handle this kind of person-searching.
"The police will handle it, you just report that Song Yu is missing." Si Chen said.
Upon hearing what Si Chen said, Song Wenhua was relieved. If the police would help find him, that would be great.
Thinking that the couple might not know where the police station was, Tong Yao and Si Chen discussed it and decided to take them there after putting up the Spring Festival couplets.
Song Wenhua enthusiastically helped them put up the Spring Festival couplets. Although they were doing it for others, they still were able to feel the joy of Chinese New Year in this foreign place.
When they left, Niu Airong insisted on washing the cups for Tong Yao, but Tong Yao refused. She also prepared two cups of hot tea for them to take on their way.
"These cups are disposable, just throw them away after use."
"These good cups are just thrown away after use?" Niu Airong was surprised, city people were too extravagant. Such valuable things were being discarded. If she collected garbage in Kyoto, she could make a fortune.
Tong Yao said softly, "If you are reluctant to throw them away, you can take them home to use for drinking tea. But it’s best not to pour boiling water directly into it often. The quality of the cup isn’t that good, and if you use it to hold boiling water often, it might be harmful to your health in the long run."
Niu Airong laughed, "We’ll use it for cold water in summer."
Upon hearing this, Tong Yao didn’t say anything more.
