How I Tamed My Wolfish Husband Back in 80s-Chapter 168 - 170: Thoughts_1

Peng Chunhua’s parents visited their daughter and upon hearing that the Qin family had found a baby girl on the night her child was born, the villagers speculated it was discarded by Yu Feng. The couple hurried to privately ask Peng Chunhua for the details.

Peng Chunhua thought it was absurd, "Dad, Mom, how could you believe such rumors? Don’t I know perfectly well how many children I’ve had?"

"Were you awake the whole time during the birth?"

Peng Chunhua: "I was so tired after giving birth that I passed out."

"If you passed out from exhaustion, there might have been another." Mrs. Peng’s expression was serious. Otherwise, how would the Qin family just find one? Where in the world would such a coincidence occur?

Peng Chunhua was certain it was impossible. It took all her effort to give birth to one, how could a second come out without her pushing? She affirmed, "It’s definitely not my child."

The couple was not reassured and went to visit the Qin family’s home.

Old Mrs. Qin did not allow Mr. and Mrs. Peng to see the child. Standing at the doorway, they caught a glimpse of the baby, who seemed smaller than Chunhua’s, lying on a square blanket, wearing a little bellyband, with a diaper on, uncovered and sprawling asleep, "The child isn’t even covered with a blanket, aren’t you afraid of her getting cold?"

"You don’t need to worry about it." Old Mrs. Qin chased them off and closed the front door. After a day of hard work, she too was tired. She instructed Li Qiao, "Qiaoqiao, I’m going to take a nap, call me if anything comes up."

"Okay." Li Qiao looked at the child, and the child was looking back at her.

She extended her hand in front of the child’s eyes; the doctor said newborns are nearsighted and need to be up close to see clearly.

The child indeed reacted, her eyes following Li Qiao’s hand.

Li Qiao found it amusing and played this way a couple more times.

The child might have sensed the adult teasing her and closed her eyes.

Li Qiao chuckled lightly, "Do you understand what I mean?" Of course, the little one couldn’t respond, so she continued talking to herself, "Remember to let me know when you need to pee, alright? And hum when you poop, got it..."

....

After Mr. and Mrs. Peng went back to the Feng family, they told Peng Chunhua:

"That old woman next door is really difficult. Luckily, we were strongly against you marrying that loser. Earlier, when we wanted to take a look at the child, she wasn’t happy at all. She’s not taking good care of the child either. The baby during its first month, lying only on a thin square blanket, wearing a bellyband, with bare arms and thighs, she isn’t afraid of the child freezing."

Peng Chunhua and her baby were covered with a thick quilt, sweating profusely, and breaking out in prickly heat. A shock of heat rash makes one’s entire body uncomfortable. She pursed her lips and said, "Of course, they won’t cherish a child that’s not their own."

Mrs. Peng sighed, "Poor child, to be picked up by such a family. With their way of care, the child will have problems sooner or later."

Yu Feng came into the room and said, "Even so, the village chief has waived a lot of their grain tax. During a good harvest, a mu of land can produce 500-600 jin of grain. By raising the child, the Qin family is essentially getting several hundred jin of grain a year for free. How much can a child eat? The Qin family has made a huge profit from this, and the old woman still acts like she’s been wronged."

"How can it be like this! Even the village chief is blind." Mr. Peng said angrily.

"Exactly, I said to give the child to our family, we have breastmilk to feed her, but they wouldn’t agree. They insist the child was thrown away by me. Bringing her back to my house comes with nothing, it’s too bully. Co-in-laws, tell me, how rare are twins? If Chunhua really had two, would I be able to throw them away?"

Mr. and Mrs. Peng echoed, "That’s right." Twins mean double happiness, just the sound of it is joyful.

The family discussed how the village chief’s actions were unethical and lacking in benevolence and righteousness.

Old Mrs. Qin got a bargain and still acted coy, and she wasn’t taking proper care of the child either. Sooner or later, she would face retribution.

....

On this side, after Old Mrs. Qin woke up, she asked Li Qiao if they should give the child a bath.

Li Qiao: "If the doctor says she can have one, then she surely can. But I don’t know about washing her belly button. How about washing her head and just wiping her body?"

"Okay." Old Mrs. Qin poured hot water, waiting for the temperature to cool before washing the child’s hair and wiping her body.

After cleaning up, they made dinner, and once eaten, the family rested for the night.

The next day, Li Qiao got up early for work and wrote a leave request.

Xun Dong was not around, so her leave request had to be given to Director Tong of the police department.

Director Dong, upon seeing it was a one-day leave for "personal matters," gossiped, "What personal matter is so urgent that you didn’t even have time to explain yourself? Yesterday, a whole stack of documents, I looked for two people to help but still didn’t finish, and it drove everyone crazy."

Li Qiao was speechless. Without her, the documents were not processed? She organized her language to explain the reason.

Director Tong exclaimed in amazement, "After carrying for ten months, to actually abandon the baby after giving birth, what were they thinking?"

Li Qiao didn’t understand either. After excusing herself, she returned to her own department to deal with yesterday’s work.

Ma Ling and Xu Feng had already arrived and were concerned about why she hadn’t come to work the day before.

Li Qiao recounted the story once more.

Ma Ling indignantly said, "Isn’t that dumping your problems on someone else? Wherever you found it, put it back there. I can’t believe its biological parents would have the heart to do that."

Li Qiao: "If they had a heart, they wouldn’t have abandoned it. Sigh! When my partner comes back, I still don’t know how to explain it." Qin Jin definitely wouldn’t agree. He had said before that he’d rather be childless than adopt someone else’s child, that you can’t raise someone else’s child to be your own.

Xu Feng got to thinking, "There’s a distant aunt of mine who’s been married for ten years without a child. Her husband used to be a soldier, and after retiring, he worked at the Food Bureau and is quite a leader there. My aunt works at the Cultural Center, and they’re well-off. If your partner doesn’t want the child, I could mention it to them, ask if they’re interested."

Li Qiao’s eyes lit up, "Even without considering my partner’s opinion, I don’t want it either. How about this weekend you bring them to my place to have a look?"

"Sure, I’ll talk to them after work tonight. What does the child look like?"

"A bit dark, a bit small, four pounds, with pretty big eyes. Not very pretty, but not ugly either," Li Qiao reported honestly.

Xu Feng: "I’ll let you know tomorrow."

"Great!" Li Qiao’s face beamed with joy, for she truly didn’t know how to raise that child.

She was one hundred percent certain it was abandoned by Yu Feng, but in those days, without DNA testing, even being in the forensic department couldn’t prove the child’s relationship with Yu Feng’s family.

Raising it herself, not to mention whether she had the energy, just looking at the child would remind her of the usual conflicts between the two families, making her feel very uncomfortable.

Moreover, the two families were neighbors, and if she became attached to the child after raising it for a while, what if Yu Feng regretted it and wanted to take the child back later? How troublesome would that be?

....

After getting off work and returning home,

Li Qiao discussed the matter with Old Mrs. Qin, who also thought it was a good idea, "Their conditions are much better than ours."

Li Qiao agreed. Her parents were civil servants and they had no child, all their attention could be devoted to raising her. How good would that be?

The next day, Xu Feng brought news: his relatives were willing to have a look.

Li Qiao couldn’t contain her joy, and she specially took the opportunity to browse a department store during her break. Items in the department store didn’t require vouchers, and she picked out two sets of baby clothes, spending one yuan and twenty cents.

Fingering her increasingly thin wallet, she sighed silently.

The cost of raising a child was truly high.

The child had only been home for a few days, and had already cost her quite a bit of money.

...

After work, Li Qiao brought the baby clothes home, washed them, and hung them out to dry in the yard.

Yu Feng passed by, glanced at them, and felt smug. "You say you don’t want to raise it, but aren’t you doing exactly that?" Whenever she met someone, she said that the Qin family had prepared fine and pretty little clothes for the child and were probably planning to raise it as their own.

"Really? Today the old lady even spoke of finding a good family for the child, maybe these are just to dress up the child to give away."