"Li Zhuiyuan, you've become even more disgusting now."
At that moment, Li Weihan, Cui Guiying, the Li family cousins, Aunt Zhang, and several villagers who had dropped by the convenience store in the evening to buy things all looked at Li Zhuiyuan with smiles and curious eyes.
Everyone was quiet, and everyone was eager.
A simple yearning for beautiful things is human nature.
Nothing could move and gratify onlookers more than a mother and son, separated by vast distance, sharing their heartfelt thoughts across the line.
Li Zhuiyuan's hands still gripped the receiver tightly. The bashful look on his face had not faded; if anything, it had grown deeper. He turned his body slightly, as if trying to avoid everyone's gaze, but in the eyes of the crowd, it looked more like a child's shy coyness.
Everyone found the scene adorable. Their smiles broadened, lips slightly parted as they waited for the conversation to continue.
Though they could not hear the voice on the other end, they could fill in the blanks of what the mother was saying and asking through the boy's responses.
"Mama, I'm doing really well at home. I've been very good."
"Shouldn't you be angry? Shouldn't you slam down the receiver in rage? Shouldn't you cry or throw a tantrum? Shouldn't you interrogate me, your mother?
Oh, right, you wouldn't.
Heh.
They're gathered around you in a circle, watching you, aren't they?"
"Mama, I don't miss home much. I'm very happy here."
"Li Zhuiyuan, this is the very first time you've met them, and the first time they've seen you since you were born. Is it really necessary to keep putting on a performance in front of them?"
"Grandpa and Grandma treat me so well. Pan Zi, Lei Zi, Ying Zi, Shitou, Huzi—all my cousins are really nice to me too. They always take me out to play."
"Li Zhuiyuan, you truly are a hypocrite. To your very bones you look down on them, thinking they're ignorant and foolish, yet you still insist on cultivating your image before them."
"It's so much fun in the village. There are fields and canals, we can catch fish and frogs, and Grandma's bean paste is delicious. Grandma says you loved eating it when you were little too, Mama."
"Don't you ever get tired, my son? Why do you take such endless delight in playing this game?"
"I also went to Auntie Xiang Hou's house. Auntie Xiang Hou told me so many things about you from the old days. Lots of people still remember you, Mama."
"I'm truly remarkable, giving birth to a son who disgusts me so much."
"Are you busy with work over there, Mama? Grandpa and Grandma want you to take good care of your health, eat your meals on time, and not overwork yourself."
As Li Zhuiyuan spoke, he glanced at Li Weihan and Cui Guiying. The elderly couple nodded vigorously, signaling for him to keep going.
"I originally thought I could keep it under control. But your birth was like a mirror, reflecting the self I hate most. Li Zhuiyuan, do you have any idea? Every time I saw you these past few years, I had to suppress the urge to strangle you to death.
Every time you called me 'Mama,' in my ears, it sounded like the whisper of a demon."
Li Zhuiyuan nodded as he listened. In the eyes of the crowd, he looked as though he were heeding a mother's loving instructions; everyone could guess that on the other end, his mother was surely telling him all the things to watch out for—to be good, to be obedient, not to be naughty.
"I understand, Mama. I know. I understand."
"I try so hard to patch and stitch this skin of mine. Every morning when I wake up, I stand before the mirror, repeatedly suggesting and confirming it to myself.
Yet you—you always try to tear this skin of mine open, time and time again.
You are me, and I am you.
Li Zhuiyuan,
the two of us, mother and son,
are monsters draped in human skin."
"I understand, Mama, don't worry. I'll be obedient."
Li Zhuiyuan held the receiver against his ear, swaying gently, like a child feeling a little impatient at being nagged by a parent and a bit embarrassed in public, yet feeling sweet inside all the same.
"Your father once helped me keep the illness under control. Marriage helped me to an extent too. I should have walked back onto the normal path—until I gave birth to you.
Your birth destroyed every effort I had made over all these years.
In my eyes,
Li Zhuiyuan,
you are a mistake that should never have happened."
"Mama, could you send some more snacks over? Those butter cookies—we really like eating them. And some stationery too. Everyone loves my pencil case, and I promised I'd give some to them."
Hearing this, Shitou and Huzi hugged each other in excitement.
"After discovering your true nature, I shouldn't have delusionally tried to find a cure for you. Every failed treatment on you felt like witnessing my own repeated defeats.
My life was already bleak and dim. It was you who completely blocked off my very last glimmer of light.
Xiaoyuan,
why don't you just die?"
"Mama, you too."
"If you had the decency to die early on, it might have actually awakened some maternal instinct in me, wouldn't it?"
"Mm, I won't."
"I'm going to participate in a classified project. The danger level is extremely high. I don't know if I'll make it back alive."
"Take care of your health, Mama. I'll be worried about you."
"I'm telling you this because if I die, I don't want these honest thoughts buried in my heart without having said them to you. I feel we need this kind of confession between us.
Actually, you've understood all along. Just as I can see through you, you can see through me too, can't you?"
"Mm, I'm listening. I'll remember it, Mama."
"This path is the one you chose yourself.
When your father and I divorced, no matter how bitterly he pleaded with you, you resolutely chose to follow me.
Your father always thought it was me who was sick, that I was finding ways to torment the two of you and bring misery upon father and son.
What he didn't know was that his son is a demon far more terrifying than me. Every display of his fatherly love was nothing more than a clown's performance in the eyes of the son he adored.
His heart was broken. He has already applied to go on a polar research expedition.
When I wanted to change your surname back, your grandfather refused, but you adamantly insisted on changing it.
Your grandmother said that if you left with me, you would never be allowed to set foot in their home again, yet you still clutched my cuff and left with me.
Li Zhuiyuan, did you think doing all that would move me and change my mind?
In my heart, there was only repeated, frantic screaming:
Why?
Why do you still insist on clinging to me, continuing to torment me?!"
"All right, all right, I know it all, Mama. You don't need to say any more. I know."
"Tomorrow I enter the project team. I don't know if I will return safely. I only hope that if I do come back alive, you will no longer be in my life.
I've thought it through, and I've made up my mind.
Li Zhuiyuan, I am going to rip off this plaster that is you.
I was going to transfer your guardianship to your father's side. Even though your father isn't around, your grandparents would surely be delighted to take you in. After all, you're a child capable of entering the Special Class for the Gifted Young, someone who could be the pride of their family."
"I don't want anything else, Mama. Just send snacks and stationery, the newest kinds."
"I knew you wouldn't want it. You would still cling with all your might to anything connected to me. That's why I sent you back to my hometown—a place I will never return to in this lifetime.
I will transfer guardianship to my father. Your household registration and your student status will all be transferred over.
I'm very grateful for this project; it gave us ample convenience to rearrange our familial relations."
"Mama, right now I'm staying at Great-Grandpa Li Sanjiang's house. Great-Grandpa likes me and asked me over to keep him company for a while. Great-Grandpa is a very good man."
"I know."
"Mm, that should be all, Mama. I'm going to hand the receiver to Grandpa now. Grandpa still wants to talk to you."
Li Zhuiyuan held the receiver and waited for a moment. Only when the sound of footsteps walking away followed by other footsteps approaching came from the other end did he reluctantly hand the receiver to Li Weihan.
Li Weihan took the receiver. "Hello? Lan Hou, don't you worry. Xiaoyuan Hou is doing great here. We'll take good care of him."
Li Zhuiyuan had no desire to stay and watch his grandfather chat with Auntie Xu.
"Grandpa, Grandma, I'm heading back to Great-Grandpa's for dinner."
Cui Guiying hurriedly said, "Hurry along, then! Don't keep your great-grandpa waiting. In a little while, your grandpa and I will go ask him when you can return to secular life and come home."
"All right, Grandma. Goodbye Grandma, goodbye Grandpa, goodbye everyone."
Li Zhuiyuan waved goodbye to everyone, then turned and walked away.
Runsheng followed behind Li Zhuiyuan. He was starving, yet he didn't dare nudge or urge the boy to walk faster.
He had always felt that the boy had two faces. Though the boy always called him "Brother Runsheng," that "brother" sounded different when people were around compared to when it was just the two of them.
In front of others, it was a warm and respectful address; in private, it sounded as though his actual given name were simply "Brother Runsheng."
Yet Runsheng had no curiosity to figure it out. His grandfather had told him that since he was dull-witted, he shouldn't waste energy trying to understand what went on inside the heads of clever people.
Sensing that the boy was in low spirits, all Runsheng could do was quietly keep him company, walking at a leisurely pace.
In Li Zhuiyuan's mind, his mother's words echoed over and over again.
The gratifying thing was that his mother hadn't spoken so many words to him in a single breath for a very long time.
Yet he knew those words hadn't truly been meant for him, her son. They seemed more like words addressed to the self buried deep within her own heart.
And she saw him, her son, as the cold incarnation of that inner self.
If it were him—if the expressionless version of himself in the cabinet mirror were to one day become his own child—he too would go mad, would fall into hysterics.
That icy chill he went to such great lengths and strained every nerve to cover up and suppress had, in the end, turned into a living child clinging to her all day long, calling her "Mama."
At this, Li Zhuiyuan smiled.
He found it amusing, like a farcical, satirical black-and-white silent film.
He stopped in his tracks, turned toward the roadside canal, and crouched down.
Night had already fallen, and the water in the canal could reflect only a dark, indistinct face.
Li Zhuiyuan gazed at that face, unsure of who it even was.
Runsheng crouched down beside him as well, quietly lighting an incense stick.
Li Zhuiyuan picked up a pebble from the ground and tossed it down at his reflection in the water.
*Plop...*
After a ring of ripples spread, the surface quickly restored itself.
He knew his mother was terminally ill.
Tonight's call was her surrender to despair. She was tired, hopeless; she was going to abandon all struggle, cease resisting, and merge entirely into it.
Thinking charitably, this phone call was her final pouring out of her heart.
Even though it was filled with harshness, curses, and vitriol.
At the same time, it truly carried a form of hatred, even jealousy.
Her human skin had torn completely, and she wanted to tear off her son's skin as well.
*So, Mama, having sunk into the abyss completely, are you trying to find a fellow creature of your kind?*
Was he angry?
Yes.
But whether it was intense, Li Zhuiyuan did not know, because he could understand.
Because this was absolute rationality.
She had proven through her own experience that no matter how much one struggled, it was pointless and meaningless. Thus, she wanted to spare him the ordeal through this method.
Yet Li Zhuiyuan was perplexed, because she shouldn't have sent him back; she shouldn't have sent him back to Nantong.
Sometimes, one must not judge by what a person says, but look at what they do.
If he had stayed in Beijing, continued in the Special Class for the Gifted Young, kept studying step by step, graduated step by step, been assigned a work unit step by step...
As long as he followed that routine, he would become just like her all the sooner.
She wouldn't have had to do anything at all to turn him into her, because his condition had set in earlier than hers, and was far more severe.
Yet she had still sent him back to her old home, a place she claimed she would never return to in this lifetime.
*Was it because this place was the last fantasy you kept preserved in your heart?*
*Was this your final protection and hope for me?*
*Did you believe that life here was the reason your illness manifested later than your son's, allowing you to marry, have a child, and live a normal life for a time?*
Li Zhuiyuan clutched his head with both hands, his expression pained. *Or is all of this merely my own wishful thinking?*
Runsheng saw the boy's body sway back and forth; he seemed on the verge of toppling into the canal.
Li Zhuiyuan truly wanted to fall in, to plunge into the water, thrash against the surface, and wail. He felt he ought to vent right now.
Yet in the end, his body steadied. He found the idea childish.
Li Zhuiyuan turned his face to look at Runsheng, who was crouching beside him.
Runsheng shuddered and immediately shifted his gaze away, not daring to meet those eyes.
Li Zhuiyuan stared at the incense stick in Runsheng's hand. Reaching out, he gently clasped the burning tip.
A searing pain soon registered, yet not a single ripple of emotion appeared on the boy's face.
Until it reached a breaking point.
"*Hiss...*"
The boy finally released his grip, pain flashing across his features.
"It hurts so much..."
His voice shifted back into a wronged, childlike tone.
Runsheng turned his head. He had felt the incense stick jolt just now, and upon seeing the burn on Li Zhuiyuan's palm, he stammered in anxious self-blame, "I'm sorry, Xiaoyuan! I didn't mean to, I really didn't mean to!"
Runsheng assumed that when he turned his head, he had accidentally burned the boy with the lit incense stick.
"It's okay, Brother Runsheng. I just grabbed it out of curiosity."
Tears nearly welled in Runsheng's eyes. Even now, just to spare him the guilt, Xiaoyuan was making up such a clumsy excuse.
Guilt overwhelmed him all the more—how could he have let his mind wander and thought Xiaoyuan's gaze had looked frightening a moment ago?
Li Zhuiyuan, however, looked down at the wound on his palm.
*Has my condition worsened to the point where I'm seeking self-harm?*
Li Zhuiyuan stood up. "Brother Runsheng, let's head back."
"Your burn..."
"It's fine. I'll ask Auntie Liu for some salve."
Walking back home, everyone in the courtyard was still having dinner, likely having slowed their pace on purpose to wait for his return.
"Xiaoyuan, was that a call from your mother?"
"Mm, yes, Great-Grandpa."
Li Zhuiyuan sat down, picking up his chopsticks to eat while recounting the conversation with his mother.
He acted cheerful and delighted.
Like all normal children, there was always a phase when parents were their idols, their sentences constantly beginning with "my dad" or "my mom."
Li Sanjiang listened happily, interjecting comments now and then, and Li Zhuiyuan answered each time. This made Li Sanjiang even merrier, tapping his bowl repeatedly with his chopsticks as he laughed, "I knew it, I knew it! Hahaha!"
Auntie Liu was pleased as well. Naturally cheerful, she was glad to see the atmosphere at home lighten up.
Even Liu Yumei asked Li Zhuiyuan a few questions.
She mused inwardly that no matter how clever this child was, in the end, he could not escape the nature of a child.
Runsheng munched on his incense stick while eating his meal. Seeing Li Zhuiyuan behave this way, he assumed the boy's silence on the walk home had simply been a child missing his mother.
Runsheng had no father or mother, only his grandfather, so watching Li Zhuiyuan talk endlessly to everyone, an expression of yearning gradually appeared on his face:
*So having a mother is such a wonderful, happy thing.*
Only Ah Li quietly set down her chopsticks.
She loved watching the boy's expressions, but in the eyes of the excited, happy boy before her, there was no light.
After dinner, Li Zhuiyuan insisted on taking Li Sanjiang to Zheng Datong to get some medicine.
An injection would have been more effective, but Li Sanjiang adamantly refused.
After returning, everything went on as usual.
Runsheng sat in front of the television, watching TV while smoking a cigarette.
Having finished cleaning the kitchen stove, Auntie Liu was busy applying color to the paper effigies.
Ah Li was coaxed by Li Zhuiyuan into returning to the room with Grandma Liu to sleep.
Behind the house, Li Zhuiyuan diligently finished his horse stance training.
When he went back up to the second floor, he saw Li Sanjiang pouring washing powder into his hand.
On the stone slab beside the water vat sat a basin of hot water, with a washcloth hanging nearby.
"Great-Grandpa..."
"Your great-grandpa got the good news delivered again."
"Congratulations."
"Shoo, shoo! You little rascal!"
"Heheh."
With the distraction of his mother's call, Li Zhuiyuan only now realized that the issue of the fortune on him remained unresolved.
Unfortunately, he had no way to ask Great-Grandpa directly, because Great-Grandpa didn't understand it himself.
So, in this transaction that had cost so much fortune, what exactly was being bought and sold?
Li Zhuiyuan walked back to his bedroom, switched on the desk lamp, and took out the *Liu Clan Qi-Gazing Formula*.
He opened it and frowned.
He missed Wei Zhengdao's handwriting.
Of all the sets of books he had retrieved from the basement, only those written by Wei Zhengdao were pleasant to read.
Enduring the discomfort, he read through it page by page with focus.
Whether it was because he was gradually getting used to the chicken-scratch calligraphy or because the contents of the *Liu Clan Qi-Gazing Formula* were genuinely profound and mysterious, Li Zhuiyuan found it increasingly fascinating, slowly unable to tear himself away.
The book discussed the fengshui of rivers, lakes, and seas.
It was a very peculiar branch. Fengshui in the conventional sense encompassed a broader scope, with water being merely one component, while mountains and terrestrial landforms remained primary.
After all, whether for the dwelling of the living or the eternal rest of the dead, existence took place mostly on land.
This book, however, focused entirely on aquatic systems, touching upon water burials, water prisons, water calamities, and the like, with mountains and dry land relegated to supplementary roles.
From a practical standpoint, one could draw an analogy:
If you truly mastered other fengshui texts, you could travel famous mountains and great rivers and intuit: *There might be an ancient tomb here.*
Once you finished reading this book, you could stand at the bow of a boat and point across the water: *There might be a dead-flipper here.*
Li Zhuiyuan was in no rush to read through the Liu clan's book in one go. Instead, he picked up the *Qin Clan Flood Dragon Contemplation Method* to browse through it.
He found that the overarching theme was identical. It seemed the Liu and Qin families had once been prominent clans of equal standing on the river.
While their themes aligned, their methods and approaches differed.
For a student, this was an immense advantage, allowing for cross-referencing and deeper comprehension.
As long as he understood both texts, his grasp of aquatic fengshui would become exceptionally profound.
He checked the time; it was his usual bedtime.
Li Zhuiyuan put the books away, turned off the desk lamp, took his washbasin to take a bath, and returned to his bedroom. He got into bed, folded the quilt properly, lay down, and tried to sleep.
A quarter of an hour later, Li Zhuiyuan sat up. He could not fall asleep.
No matter how powerful his ingrained routine and behavioral inertia were, they could not suppress the impact of his mother's call on his inner mind.
He pushed open the door, walked out onto the terrace, and sat down in a rattan chair. Staring blankly up at the pitch-black night sky, he drifted into a daze.
After an unknown stretch of time, the door of the east room was pushed open by Liu Yumei. Seeing her granddaughter about to walk out, she only had time to drape a cloak over the girl's shoulders.
Looking up and seeing the boy sitting on the second-floor balcony, Liu Yumei felt a surge of mixed emotions.
Was spending the day together not enough—did they have to play together at night as well?
Yet seeing the boy's detached expression, she felt a trace of bewilderment. Hadn't the child been perfectly fine at dinner? How had he turned into this?
Was he missing his mother at bedtime?
Nature was nature, but Liu Yumei felt this little boy shouldn't be so fragile.
The way he looked right now was the spitting image of her Ah Li sitting behind the threshold in the past.
Before long, she saw her granddaughter appear on the second floor. The girl sat down in the rattan chair next to the boy.
After a while, the girl actually took the initiative to share half of her cloak, draping it over the boy.
Liu Yumei's eyes widened. Her granddaughter was actually initiating a gesture of care for someone else?
They had stayed at Li Sanjiang's home for quite a while now, but Ah Li's condition had merely been kept in check, deteriorating no further; as for improvement, there hadn't been an ounce of it.
Only after that boy moved in with his great-grandpa did Ah Li's condition begin showing signs of turning around, like droplets of water finally forming on a block of ice.
Yet no matter how much improvement there had been, none of it compared to this past day and night!
First, she had learned to nod and shake her head to express herself, and now she was capable of initiating an act of tender care.
Liu Yumei tilted her head back to keep the tears from spilling over. She was truly seeing hope for her granddaughter's recovery, and it felt as though it wouldn't be long now.
She walked into the room, sat before the offering table, and pointed at the tablets:
"Ah Li fell ill because of your irresponsibility. If you had left even a shred of numinous presence to protect her according to tradition, Ah Li would never have ended up like this."
Picking up a washcloth to wipe her tears, Liu Yumei choked back a sob:
"If I'd known smashing your tablets would help Ah Li's condition, I should have chopped all of you up for firewood long ago."
...
Li Zhuiyuan did not know when the girl had arrived. She seemed to have been there for a long time, and something warm had been draped over his back.
"You're here?"
The girl looked at the boy. This time, she took the initiative to hold his hand, but then she seemed to notice something. Lowering her head, she pried open his palm.
There was a wound in the center of it.
The girl's fingertips stroked across it.
It was a rare moment of tenderness, and a smile unconsciously touched the corners of Li Zhuiyuan's mouth. But that smile quickly froze.
All five of the girl's fingers pressed firmly into his palm, and her five fingernails dug straight into his flesh.
"*Hiss...*"
Li Zhuiyuan stood up from the sharp pain, his body twisting in agony.
"Ah Li, it hurts... It hurts..."
They say the fingers are linked to the heart, but the palm is just as soft and sensitive. The girl's fingernails sank deep into his flesh, and she continued to exert force.
The sensation was like having an iron rake dragged through his palm.
Earlier, when he had crouched by the canal and deliberately grabbed the lit incense in Runsheng's hand, he had genuinely felt no pain, because at that moment he was abnormal.
Now, however, he was normal.
Pleading seemed useless. The girl, who had always listened to him most obediently, now completely ignored him.
Her eyelashes fluttered, her body trembled, and the luster in her eyes vanished, replaced by numbness.
A dangerous aura radiated from her.
In the past, whenever she was on the verge of erupting into violence, all the boy needed to do was hold her hand to soothe her. Now, however, the boy's hand was only fueling her fury.
Li Zhuiyuan pulled his hand free from her grip.
The girl's body gradually settled back into stillness, her eyelashes ceased fluttering, and her eyelids drooped.
She turned around and walked toward the stairs.
The cloak that had draped over both of them slipped off. Li Zhuiyuan picked it up, intending to drape it over her shoulders.
Yet as he drew near, the girl stopped, her back beginning to tremble.
Li Zhuiyuan was forced to halt, even stepping back several paces.
The girl returned to normal and continued forward, her figure disappearing down the stairs.
Before long, she appeared in the courtyard. The east room door had been left unlatched, and she walked right inside.
Li Zhuiyuan stood on the second floor, still holding the red cloak.
In the past, the girl had always loved collecting anything connected to him. Now, she not only recoiled from physical contact with him, but even rejected anything tainted by his presence.
Li Zhuiyuan looked down at his palm. Five bloody gashes were still bleeding freely.
He was in pain, yet he felt no anger—only a profound guilt.
With the fingers of his left hand, he wiped away the smears of blood, exposing the burn mark at the center.
He knew why the girl had suddenly turned on him.
Because she realized that the very person she had placed her hopes in to help pull her out of the abyss was actively walking toward that abyss himself.
The cruelest torture in this world is to offer someone hope in the depths of despair, only to snuff that hope out with your own hands.
She had already grown accustomed to the darkness.
Li Zhuiyuan went to rinse the wound, found a clean strip of cloth for a simple bandage, and returned to his bedroom.
He lay down on the bed. Whether genuine sleepiness finally overtook him or his subconscious yearned for everything to be restored once dawn broke, he fell asleep.
His sleep was very light. Multiple times he jolted awake from brief bouts of slumber due to inexplicable palpitations, but he kept his eyes closed and forced himself back to sleep.
Finally, after who knew how many times, he felt the distinct presence of light through his eyelids.
Day had broken.
He turned his head and opened his eyes. There was no one on the chair by the door.
Carrying his washbasin, Li Zhuiyuan stepped out of the bedroom. As he passed Great-Grandpa's room, he looked through the screen door and saw that Great-Grandpa was not in bed.
After washing up, he headed downstairs, but Runsheng was nowhere to be seen at the first-floor table either.
He hadn't slept late today, so why was everyone up so early?
Li Zhuiyuan walked out into the courtyard. Auntie Liu came out of the kitchen. "Morning, Xiaoyuan! Breakfast will be ready in a bit."
"Auntie Liu, where's Great-Grandpa?"
"Before dawn, the village head came over and asked your great-grandpa to head to the township government office, saying there was an urgent matter. Runsheng drove him over on the cart."
Li Zhuiyuan nodded, then cast his gaze toward the east room.
Behind the threshold of the east room sat the girl in her black dress. Her feet rested on the sill, her eyes staring straight ahead, vacant of all emotion.
"Xiaoyuan, Xiaoyuan, come over here quick!"
That morning, when her granddaughter hadn't gotten up early like usual, Liu Yumei had sensed something was wrong.
Once Ah Li was up and groomed, she had dragged a stool over and sat behind the threshold.
In an instant, Liu Yumei felt as though the sky had collapsed!
Now, her only hope was the boy.
Li Zhuiyuan walked toward the east room. The moment he drew slightly closer, the girl's body began to tremble. Her hands unconsciously clenched into fists, and a reddish glint welled up in the depths of her eyes.
Liu Yumei immediately put out a hand to stop Li Zhuiyuan from coming any closer, then hurried to crouch beside her granddaughter, murmuring soothing words without pause.
Her granddaughter's reaction was even more violent than when strangers approached in the past.
Li Zhuiyuan backed away. Seeing the girl calm down under Grandma Liu's comforting words, he bit his lip and took a deep breath.
Yes, exactly as he had thought before falling asleep.
After a night's sleep,
everything had been restored.
...
"What? Say that to me again, I didn't catch that clearly!"
Sitting in an office at the Civil Affairs Bureau, Li Sanjiang slammed the desk. In truth, he had heard perfectly well, but he simply could not believe it.
The bureau director and several staff members could only patiently repeat it to him once more, even though this was already the fourth time.
They had received instructions from higher-ups that a matter needed special handling and urgent approval, which was why they had arrived at the office so early to wait.
In fact, after seeing the faxed documents, they were just as thoroughly baffled.
In this day and age, someone was actually pulling a move like this?
"Old Master, your name is Li Sanjiang, right?"
"I brought my ID card and household register, so what do you think?"
"Yes, yes, of course. Actually, the matter is already very clear. Right now, it all depends on whether you're willing to sign. If you aren't, we'll send these documents right back."
Li Sanjiang picked up the pen with a bewildered look.
He asked:
"If I sign my name here, does that mean Xiaoyuan Hou goes onto my household register?"
Chapter 34