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Chapter 710: Chapter 700, whatever you say, we’ll do.
The day after Niuniu was sent back, Li Hongjun went out to fetch water in the morning and heard some noise at the courtyard gate. He listened carefully and it seemed like something was scratching at the door repeatedly, but it didn’t sound like a cat or a dog or anything like that.
Out of curiosity, Li Hongjun still opened the courtyard door to take a look, and there he saw Niuniu crouched at the door, her lips turned a bruised shade of purple from the cold. 𝖓𝔬𝖛𝔭𝔲𝖇.𝔠𝔬𝖒
The courtyard door opened, but Niuniu hadn’t realized it yet, one small hand still maintaining the motion of scratching at the door, grasping a few times.
"Niuniu, why are you here, who brought you?" Li Hongjun, seeing the child there, quickly looked around but didn’t spot Li Xianghe.
Niuniu, as if she hadn’t heard her uncle’s words, continued to scratch at the air.
Li Hongjun saw that the child was wearing only a thin cotton-padded jacket and didn’t know how long she had been outside freezing. Her face was dark as he quickly picked her up.
Niuniu didn’t struggle, glanced at Li Hongjun, and then lowered her head to look at her fingers.
Li Hongjun felt like he was holding an ice pop, and he couldn’t contain his rising anger. Li Xianghe was simply insane, leaving such a small child outside in the ice and snow. He was lucky that he had gone out to dump water and heard the child scratching at the door. If it had been anyone else, the small commotion the child made would have gone unnoticed.
Such a small child, in another hour or two, she could have frozen to something terrible.
"Niuniu, who brought you here? Where’s your mom?" Li Hongjun tried to soften his tone when talking to the child, fearful of scaring her.
As one would expect, Niuniu didn’t respond to him at all.
Li Hongjun had no choice but to close the courtyard door and carry Niuniu straight to his wife’s bed.
"Hmm?" Shen Yunfang was sleeping soundly when she felt someone take a spot next to her. She thought Li Hongjun had come back to lie down, but when she turned her head, she saw a fluffy little head and immediately woke up.
"You’re awake?" asked Li Hongjun.
"Yes, what’s going on?" Shen Yunfang slightly propped herself up and pointed at Niuniu lying beside her.
"I don’t know. I was out in the yard fetching water just now and heard something at the gate. When I opened it, the child was squatting outside. Seeing that the child was freezing, I hurriedly brought her in to warm her up."
Shen Yunfang’s mouth dropped open in shock, "Could it be that Li Xianghe left the child at the door? What is she trying to do?"
The veins on Li Hongjun’s chin stood out. What Li Xianghe wanted to do, what she was going to do, didn’t need to be said; she had already brought the child to the doorstep.
"Oh, well, let me do this. You go quickly make some ginger soup for the child," Shen Yunfang said as she stopped him. She didn’t want the child stuffed into the covers like that. She sat up and began undressing Niuniu, as wearing the cold outside clothes wasn’t good for the body.
"Alright." Li Hongjun handed the child to his wife and prepared to go make ginger soup.
"Don’t forget to add some brown sugar, otherwise the child won’t like to drink it," Shen Yunfang called out to him as he was leaving.
"Got it."
Shen Yunfang focused on undressing the child. "Niuniu, let auntie take off your clothes, okay? This way you can sleep in the warm bed with your brother and sister soon. Look, they’re sleeping like little pigs – you coming didn’t even wake them."
Niuniu gave Shen Yunfang a glance and then seemed lost in thought, though she cooperated pretty well, raising her arms when prompted.
After Shen Yunfang took off her overcoat and cotton-padded jacket, she furrowed her brows, unable to fathom what Li Xianghe was thinking. Not only was the child’s cotton-padded jacket thin, but she hadn’t even put two sets of thermal underwear on the child before going out. Wouldn’t the child feel even colder?
Unable to complain in front of the child, she had no choice but to take out a set of thermal clothes that Manman had outgrown from her space and hastily dressed Niuniu in them. Then she gave up her spot to let the three children lie side by side.
Watching Niuniu cling to the quilt without closing her eyes or looking at her, Shen Yunfang truly didn’t know what to do. She had never interacted with a child with autism before and was clueless about the correct way to treat such children.
After waiting a while, Li Hongjun came in carrying two bowls of ginger soup.
"Why are you carrying two bowls?" Shen Yunfang sat up, ready to help the children drink.
"I made extra and didn’t want to waste it. Drink this bowl," Li Hongjun said, handing the bowl in his left hand to his wife, urging her to drink it.
Shen Yunfang couldn’t help but laugh and cry, "I’m not even cold, why should I drink this?"
"No matter, this stuff is good for women even if they aren’t cold, hurry up and drink it before it cools down." Seeing the opportunity, Li Hongjun certainly thought of his wife’s well-being. "I’ll feed Niuniu."
Shen Yunfang looked at the bowl in her hands and then at Li Hongjun slowly feeding Niuniu. She resigned herself to drinking from the bowl.
Li Hongjun had no problem feeding the kids or giving them drinks; when Pangpang and Manman were little, he had taken care of them a lot.
Once the child finished drinking, Li Hongjun took the bowls away. "You stay here and watch Niuniu. As long as she doesn’t have a fever, it’s fine. I’ll go cook."
Fortunately, Niuniu’s health seemed quite good. After she finished the ginger soup, she showed no signs of fever.
At breakfast time, Li Hongjun, with a dark expression, discussed Niuniu’s situation with Old Man Li and eventually asked him what to do about it. Old Man Li hemmed and hawed but couldn’t come up with anything.
Finally, when asked to the point of irritation, he simply said, "You two figure it out together; there’s no need to ask me."
Shen Yunfang and her husband nearly laughed in anger. As far as family closeness was concerned, Niuniu was closest to Old Man Li, her grandfather, and then to Li Hongjun, her uncle. Now Old Man Li was washing his hands of the matter and leaving them to deal with it.
"Alright, if that’s what you say, Dad, then I’ll make the decision. After breakfast, Hongjun, you go talk to Li Xianghe about Niuniu’s situation. If they continue to leave the child out in the cold like this, we’ll go to the police and accuse them of plotting to kill the child. Let’s see if they can explain their rationale to the police then," she said decisively.
Old Man Li was taken aback and somewhat displeased, he said, "Yunfang, aren’t you being too harsh? After all, that’s Hongjun’s sister over there."
"Dad, you said you wouldn’t interfere. If you want to take charge, then decide for us. But if you won’t, that’s how I’ll handle it. Today we were lucky to find the child squatting at the door. What if next time we don’t hear her? Should the child just keep squatting there? It’s the dead of winter now, and if something happened to the child from the cold, who would be responsible? If Li Xianghe wants to torment her daughter like this, she should think about the consequences," Shen Yunfang rebutted Old Man Li without any reservation.
To be honest, she felt that compared to Li Xianghe, her own heart wasn’t hard enough.
Old Man Li turned to Li Hongjun, hoping his son would agree with him.
But from yesterday to this morning, Li Hongjun had already been made furious by Li Xianghe’s shameless actions and didn’t find anything wrong with his wife’s approach. If Li Xianghe weren’t a woman, he would’ve already stormed into her house.
"No, we can’t do that. Wasn’t it enough that your mother and your brother already made us the laughingstock? If this gets to the police, our Li Family will be disgraced even further. I’ve lived an upright life all these years; I can’t let people disgrace me in my old age," Old Man Li said angrily.
"Fine, Dad, since you’ve already decided how to handle it, we won’t get involved. You do what you think is best. I’ll bring Niuniu to your room later," Shen Yunfang stated sharply.
