☆ 28. The Landlord

“Ah Qiao’s colleague told me that Qingyu’s uncles used to mix in the black market in the town. After the economy opened up, the black market gradually turned into a small market. They disdain doing small business, so they got into underground gambling.”

“There aren’t many in this town who haven’t heard of the names of those brothers, they are not to be trifled with.”

“Originally, your eldest brother’s colleague didn’t even dare to tell me about Qingyu’s mother remarrying.”

“But a few days ago, he saw Qingyu at the hospital. That girl was injured. I heard she was pushed down a slope by her uncle’s child and hit her head. He said he could tell that the girl was having a very hard time…”

In March, Tieli was even colder than early February in the south.

The thick, dark clouds overhead loomed like spilled ink, layered upon each other, and the wind howled, carrying snowflakes that stung people’s faces.

Ji Qinghe had been prepared for this trip, wearing sufficiently thick clothing and a hat, yet his old face was still reddened from the cold wind, and at this moment, not only was his body cold, but his heart felt even colder.

Thinking of his granddaughter suffering made his heart feel like it was submerged in freezing cold water, stiffening and aching.

He had sent a lot of money and supplies over these days, hoping that they would treat Qingyu a bit better with the things they received, at least until his daughter-in-law remarried, so he could bring the child back.

Who would have thought that even after receiving the items and money, they would still treat the child like this?

“Don’t worry, we can bring her back. I have a way,” Su Cheng said, offering comfort.

He wasn’t surprised to hear such a result, he had already guessed it before coming. In fact, apart from calling Ji Meng to report safety, he had also contacted his comrades here to roughly understand the current situation in this small town. It was complicated, but it wasn’t entirely hopeless, there were just some things that were inconvenient to tell Ji Qinghe.

“What method?”

Hearing the words “I have a way,” Ji Qinghe immediately raised his head to look at Su Cheng, then his gaze fell dejectedly again. He felt like his son-in-law was trying to reassure him, but since he had just arrived, what could he possibly do?

Should he forcibly take her back or negotiate with that family?

His son-in-law was capable, but one person’s strength couldn’t fight against multiple foes. What would happen if things went wrong in the end?

He couldn’t put his son-in-law at risk.

Ji Qinghe raised his hand to press the corners of his eyes and said to Su Cheng, “Bringing Qingyu back is important, but we also need to pay attention to our safety.”

“Uncle Fu said that if we encounter difficulties, we can call the county’s armed department. They will arrange for people on their side. He suggested that we negotiate with the other party first, as long as the conditions aren’t excessive, we should accept. These people will eventually be held accountable, we don’t need to confront them directly.”

Su Cheng could tell that Commander Fu was genuinely worried about their safety, but the further away they were, the more difficult it would be for him to leverage his connections. Given various considerations, he couldn’t act too high-profile, otherwise, it would be even more disadvantageous for them.

“Okay, I understand.”

Su Cheng responded, glancing up at the sky, it was getting late, and it seemed like it might snow again. He paused for a moment, then turned his gaze toward the state-owned hotel across from the post office.

“It’s getting late, let’s go eat first. After dinner, we’ll head to the guesthouse. We can rest tonight, and tomorrow morning, I’ll accompany you into the village to see Qingyu.”

As Su Cheng spoke, he took the cloth bag that Ji Qinghe was holding. Earlier, when he went to visit Ji Qiao’s colleague at the hospital, he had brought a gift. Now, as he took things out, the remaining items were just toiletries—not heavy, but they freed up Ji Qinghe’s hands so he would suffer less from the cold.

Ji Qinghe was currently preoccupied with thoughts of his granddaughter and couldn’t eat much, but since his son-in-law had suggested it and it was indeed getting late, he agreed and followed his son-in-law into the restaurant.

The specialty of this restaurant was that the portions were large.

Su Cheng ordered three dishes and an extra serving of rice, the two of them couldn’t finish it all. In the end, Ji Qinghe packed the leftover dishes, planning to eat them with warm steamed buns in the morning.

After having dinner, Su Cheng and Ji Qinghe went to the guest house on the next street and checked into a standard room with two beds.

Though it was called a standard room, it was actually a small single room, about ten square meters, furnished with two beds, a stool, and a small table, leaving no room for anything else.

Once inside the room, Su Cheng put down their luggage and said to Ji Qinghe, “You stay here, I’ve contacted some comrades and need to see them. I may not be back tonight.”

Ji Qinghe wanted to ask a couple of questions about why he wouldn’t be back, but looking at his son-in-law’s serious and composed face, and given what he had learned about this son-in-law in recent days, he knew that he wouldn’t leave his father-in-law alone in the room unless it was something important.

So, he didn’t ask and just nodded, “Then take your military coat with you, it will be cold tonight.”

The room had a heated kang, so it didn’t feel too cold inside, but it was indeed colder outside. Su Cheng didn’t push himself and put on his coat. After checking the doors and windows, he reminded Ji Qinghe to lock up at night before leaving.

Su Cheng said he wouldn’t be back that night, and indeed, he did not return.

The next morning, as dawn was breaking, Ji Qinghe got up, preparing to take a towel and wash cup to the public bathroom to freshen up, when Su Cheng came back.

He brought breakfast, including steamed buns and mantou.

Seeing Su Cheng return, the worry that had lingered in Ji Qinghe’s heart throughout the night finally eased.

After washing up and finishing breakfast, Ji Qinghe and Su Cheng left the guesthouse.

It had snowed the previous night, the snowfall wasn’t heavy, but the ground was still covered with a layer of snow, with footprints left by those who had walked by.

“I’ve only been to Qingyu’s grandmother’s house once, I’m not sure if I can remember the entire route. We might need to ask around when we get to the village. Should we get an Ox cart first?”

After exiting the guesthouse, Ji Qinghe said to Su Cheng, but then he showed a look of concern.

“I don’t even know if there are any Ox carts heading into the village this early.”

“I’ve borrowed one.”

Su Cheng replied casually, as if it were a trivial matter, but Ji Qinghe was taken aback. “Where did you borrow the cart?”

Just as he finished speaking, an old man appeared, driving a nearly new Ox cart, with two people seated on it.

One was a middle-aged woman in a dark blue cotton jacket, and the other was a young man in his twenties.

The middle-aged woman was slender, with neatly combed gray-white short hair, looking competent and tidy, while the young man appeared delicate, carrying a black bag.

Seeing Su Cheng, the middle-aged woman waved and greeted him, “Chengzi, hurry up and get in!”

“Auntie,” Su Cheng called out, then turned to Ji Qinghe, saying, “Dad, the cart is here. Let’s get in.”

Ji Qinghe was a bit surprised, and it wasn’t until they got into the cart that Su Cheng explained that he had stayed in this area for a while and was relatively familiar with it. The middle-aged woman was the mother of one of his comrades, who worked in the Women’s Federation, and the young man beside her was his comrade’s younger brother, now working at a newspaper.

Since they were going to pick up Qingyu, they called them for help.

Once Ji Qinghe understood, he realized what Su Cheng meant. Asking the Women’s Federation for help to mediate was indeed a good idea.

However, Ji Qinghe felt a sense of uneasiness in his heart, sensing that things might not be so easy.

But there was no better way now, they could only assess the situation upon arrival and respond accordingly.

Qingyu’s uncle’s family was surnamed Liu and lived in Liujia Village, on the outskirts of the town.

The surname Liu made up the majority in Liujia Village, and although Qingyu’s grandmother had many children, making the family prosperous, they were all quite lazy, yet this didn’t prevent them from being bullies in the village.

Ji Qinghe and Su Cheng took the Ox cart all the way to the village. Following Ji Qinghe’s recollection of the location, they found that it was another family living there, not Qingyu’s grandmother’s.

“That’s strange, I didn’t make a mistake. The last time I came, it was right here.”

Ji Qinghe looked at the few grayish earthen houses in front of him and the people coming out, puzzled.

“I’ll go ask,” Su Cheng said, approaching to inquire. However, upon hearing Qingyu’s grandmother’s name, the person’s face immediately showed fear and disgust, and they turned to go back inside.

In the end, Su Cheng had to pull out a pack of cigarettes before he learned that the Liu family was also quite domineering in the village.

Their family originally didn’t live in this area, but the Liu family coveted their land and forced them to swap houses and foundations, moving over here to live.

Meanwhile, Qingyu’s grandmother, Zhu Caihua, and her several sons moved back to their original place, where they built several new houses made of blue bricks on the foundation of their previous home.

When Su Cheng asked for directions, he and Ji Qinghe walked further into the village and soon found a row of prominent tiled houses, where they also spotted Qingyu.

She was small, not even six yet, with her head wrapped in blood-stained bandages, sweeping snow in the yard.

Seeing her from a distance, Ji Qinghe couldn’t hold back his tears.

At the funeral a month ago, although the child had been thin, there was still some flesh on her face.

But now, Qingyu was completely unrecognizable, her originally fair face was now bruised with patches of blue and purple, with no intact skin left. There was a cut on her nose, oozing black blood clots, and she wore only a tattered, patched-up garment, clutching a broom taller than she was to sweep the snow.

Nearby, five or six slightly older children, dressed in semi-new cotton jackets, were happily having a snowball fight.

Children can be mischievous or accustomed to bullying, occasionally, they would throw snowballs toward Qingyu, dirtying the ground she had just cleaned, prompting her to sweep again, while those little rascals continued to throw snow.

One of the smaller kids, a stout little boy with uncut braids and wearing a leather jacket, seemed to find it amusing to watch Qingyu sweeping. He kept tossing snow at her while sticking out his tongue and laughing:

“You’re a burden, unlucky girl! You’ll be sweeping snow for the rest of your life!”

The older kids around him didn’t see anything wrong with this and laughed at Qingyu who’s being bullied.

Hearing his friends laugh, the little boy became even more pleased with himself and raised his small hand, saying, “Come on! Let’s all throw at her, it won’t cost anything if we break something!”

The other kids didn’t refuse and each gathered snow to throw at Qingyu.

In an instant, Qingyu was surrounded, with snowballs hitting her from all sides, sliding down her thin clothes into her body, making her shiver from the cold. The bruises on her face deepened, and the cuts with black blood clots glistened in the glaring sunlight, making it extremely painful to look at.

Tears welled up in Qingyu’s eyes. She opened her mouth to cry but suddenly remembered something, her expression changed to fear, and she held back her tears.

With tears pooling in her big eyes, she clumsily patted the snow off her body.

Ji Qinghe could no longer bear to watch, he rushed over, helping the child brush off the snow and feeling her icy bones, tears streaming down his face.

“Qingyu! Grandpa is here! Grandpa is here! My Qingyu has suffered!”

That morning, shortly after dawn, Qingyu had been called by her grandmother to help cook breakfast. While eating, she couldn’t resist taking an extra piece of steamed corn bread and was punished by her grandmother to sweep snow. Her clothes had been taken by her grandmother to be worn by a few of her younger cousins, leaving her in her older cousin’s clothes, which were very cold.

She was frozen to the bone, her head spinning a bit, she looked dazed, and her face and eyelashes were covered with snowflakes, making her vision somewhat blurry.

Through the white particles, she looked at Ji Qinghe and, after a moment, remembered that he was her grandfather, whom she had rarely seen but felt very close to, as her father often mentioned him.

“Grandpa, did you come to see Qingyu?”

Her simple question pierced Ji Qinghe’s heart like a cold ice blade, leaving him speechless. He replied hoarsely,

“Yes, Grandpa came to see Qingyu. I’m here to take you home…”

“I’m sorry, child, Grandpa came late.”

Ji Qinghe took off his coat and wrapped it around the child, preparing to carry her away.

The nearby children, out of fear of adults, they stopped laughing and merely watched.

However, the first little boy’s expression changed, and he spread his arms to block the way.

“Where are you taking her? She’s our money-making treasure! If you take her away, who will buy my white rabbit?”

The little boy said this and turned to shout into the house, “Grandma, come out quickly! Someone wants to steal the unlucky girl away!”

“Liu Xiaoshi, what nonsense are you shouting about again?”

Hearing her grandson’s call, Zhu Caihua scolded as she lifted the thick cotton curtain to come out. When she saw Ji Qinghe holding Qingyu, she was momentarily stunned, but quickly put on a fake smile.

“Oh, in-law, what brings you here?”

“Came to see Qingyu? She’s doing well, this child is sensible and even took the broom to help me sweep the snow today.”

Zhu Caihua spoke lightly, as if completely unaware that Qingyu was dressed in tattered, thin clothes and had a face full of injuries.

Ji Qinghe’s face turned ashen with anger, he pointed at the child and saw her grandmother’s fearful expression.

“Is this what you call ‘doing well’? I already paid your family the compensation for my son, less than a month later, I sent over a bunch of things and money, and now you’re treating my granddaughter like this?”

“My son hasn’t even reached the seventh day of mourning yet and you’re not afraid he’ll come back at night to find you!”

“You bunch of ^[1]“Blood-sucking leeches” is a metaphorical expression used to describe people or entities that exploit others for their own gain, often in a parasitic manner. It implies taking advantage … Continue readingblood-sucking leeches! You think Qingyu is your family’s money tree? I’m going to sue you for abuse!”

The usually gentleman could no longer hold back his anger and began to curse.

“What are you talking about? What’s wrong with the child getting hurt or bumped? How are we abusing her?”

“In-law, ^[2]“you can eat your fill, but don’t speak nonsense” typically means that someone is welcome to enjoy and indulge in food but should refrain from making foolish or unreasonable comments … Continue readingyou can eat your fill, but don’t speak nonsense!”

Those who are domineering can ^[3]“Turn black into white” means to distort or manipulate the truth, making something bad or wrong appear good or right. It’s often used to describe situations where someone tries to … Continue readingturn black into white. Even if someone directly confronts them, they can shamelessly act as if nothing happened. Hearing Ji Qinghe’s words, Zhu Caihua instead became angry, lowering her eyelids and darkening her expression.

“I won’t argue with someone who distorts right and wrong!”

“I’ll take the child to the hospital for an examination, we’ll see which injuries are from falls and which are from you hitting her.”