C45 (1/2)

The old man lit up a cigarette. His turbid eyes focused on the rising smoke as he slowly sunk into deep memories …

Lee Futian's life was very bitter. He should have had a daughter and two sons. The majority of the rural people had the same thought. They wanted to raise children to prevent old age. The second year of giving birth to their daughter, Li Shuisheng was born along with them.

Li Shuisheng was born in 1982, and immediately after that, Lee Futian's third son, Li Shuiyang, also landed on the ground.

It was July 1983, I remember, and the country had just adopted a family planning policy. Lee Futian was one of those who had gone beyond the norm, and he faced huge fines. However, Lee Futian's financial situation back then could not accept the fine, so...

When the old man said this, he found it difficult to speak. I hastily asked, ”What's wrong?” Don't be afraid, so many years have passed, and we will not pursue this matter anymore! ”

”Sigh, I'm ashamed!” The old man continued to reminisce, and said: ”Back then Lee Futian and his wife carried the newly-born Li Shuiyang to find me, they … They gave me fifty dollars and told me to get someone to put the child's account in it! ”

”But who would dare?” The old man continued, ”At that time, investigations were strict, and people were stubborn. Thus, in the end, I had no choice but to pass on this child Li Shuiyang to someone else!”

”Ah, to whom?” I was surprised to hear that.

The old man continued, ”At that time, Yang Lishan and his wife at the western end of the village had no children, so they passed on to his family!”

”What a sin!” The old man started crying when he said this, he said: ”It just so happened to rain down on the day the children passed on, Lee Futian and his wife cried and passed the child on to Yang Lishan, who would have thought, that their eldest daughter actually fell and drowned in the well at home, sigh, it's all my fault, if not for coveting the fifty yuan, how could I have ended up like this …”

I sighed, looks like this matter was already cleared up. Lee Futian's son Li Shuiyang should be Yang Tianwa, no wonder Lee Futian had risked his life to fake the scene, if I thought about it now, letting Zhang Tianyang catch him could be considered to be doing it on purpose.

In order to verify the authenticity of my guess, I asked the old man. He nodded and said, ”That kid Tian Wa is so good, his grades are so good, much better than his elder brother Li Shuisheng. Who would have thought that he wouldn't attend half of high school!”

Learning well? There's something wrong here. Yang Tianwa told us at the time that he entered the construction site because he couldn't get into university. Could it be that there's something more to this?

I said to the old man, ”Please take the trouble to bring me to Lee Futian and Yang Tianwa's house.”

Done!

After saying that, the old man slowly stood up. I walked over to his side and held his arm. Wang Da Hammer helped to open the room's door, and then took the old man's arm from me. He gave me a silly smile.

When I saw someone like Wang Da Hammer, I was annoyed. I said to him, ”You can go back, there's no need for you!”

”Ah?” ”Then my matter …” Big Hammer Wang thought for a moment and said, ”How about this, you guys go first. I'll go back and prepare some food and wine. Yesterday, I caught a pheasant. I'll let the two captains have a taste!”

”Heh …” I said, ”Do you dare to eat wild pheasants? Do what you have to do! This has nothing to do with you! ”

Big Hammer Wang acted as if he was amnesty and hurriedly nodded at me before running out of the village committee. I helped the old man walk to the exit, just in time to see Liao Mengfann hang up the phone. She looked at Wang Da Chou who was running far away and asked me, ”Why did you let him go?”

I chuckled and said, ”So what if we capture him? Let's go, he can still come out. There's no other way, we are not a god! ”

Looking at Wang Da Hammer's back, Liao Mengfann coldly snorted. She walked to the old man's left side and the two of us held his hand as they slowly walked along the muddy road.

After walking for around 10 minutes, the old man stopped in front of a brick house that he had yet to finish building. He pointed and said, ”This is Lee Futian's home.

I looked at the old man's arm and found that this house was only half-built, and from the looks of the red brick, it should have been built several years ago. It seems that Lee Futian had built this house while saving money!

Next to the brick building was a dilapidated adobe house. I went in and pulled the lock off the door. Inside, I found myself in two rooms. There were some old furniture, all covered with dust.

There was an old-fashioned cabinet in the east wing of the house. On the cabinet, there were two oversized glass mirrors and on the mirrors, there were many old photos in black and white. Most of them were pictures of Lee Futian when he was young.

One of them was a photo of Lee Futian and his wife with their children. In the photo, Lee Futian's wife was carrying Li Shuiyang, who was still in her infancy. His eldest daughter and son were standing on both sides of Lee Futian.

Looking at these photos, I had a bad feeling. There weren't any valuable clues in the house, so I walked out of the house and locked the door. I said to the old man, ”Let's go and take a look at Yang Tianwa's house!”

Yang Tianwa's home was located at the western end of the village, and they had to pass through a small wooden bridge to reach there. From afar, an old lady and a six or seven year old boy were standing on the bridge.

”Grandma, I want to eat three pieces of ice cream. Buy them for me!” The little boy tugged on his grandmother's sleeve and said coquettishly.

”Alright, alright, alright. My eldest grandson can eat, and my granny is very happy!” The old lady patted her grandson's head, then squatted down and said, ”The ground is covered in mud, your grandmother will carry you!”