A leisurely life starting in a bar after being reborn

Two days later, Liang Xiaotian appeared in Fu Yan's office on time.

"Mr. Fu, we've found out."

He placed a brown paper bag on Fu Yan's desk, then sat opposite him, waiting for Fu Yan to look through it.

Fu Yan opened the bag, inside which was a stack of photos and several pages of handwritten materials. He picked up the photos and looked at them one by one, his expression gradually becoming subtle.

The first photo shows an old tenement building with gray exterior walls, rusty railings, and clothes hanging on the air conditioner unit, looking like an old apartment building from the 1960s or 70s.

The second picture shows the interior of the tenement building. The corridors are filled with clutter, the paint is peeling off the walls, and there is sewage on the ground.

The third picture shows the doorway of a house, with faded Spring Festival couplets pasted on the door frame and a string of plastic garlic hanging from the doorknob.

The fourth one—

Fu Yan frowned.

The fourth picture shows the interior of this family's home. It's a small apartment of about 50 square meters. In the living room, there's a folding table with several cases of beer piled up next to it. On the floor are slippers, newspapers, and packaging bags for something I don't recognize. A few clothes are draped over the sofa, and on the coffee table are half a bag of sunflower seeds and a bowl of instant noodles. Newspapers are pasted on the windows, and the curtains are the kind of floral pattern popular in the 1980s.

In a word—chaos.

Strangely, the family of three were all fair-skinned and chubby, which didn't match the dilapidated house at all.

Especially the son—the photo says "Mu Honglin, 18 years old"—a tall man over 1.8 meters, weighing over 250 pounds, with a round face and eyes squeezed into slits by the flesh on his face. Standing in that dilapidated house, he looked like a potato embedded in the soil.

"This family, three people," Fu Yan pointed to the photo, "lives here?"

"Yes!" Liang Xiaotian nodded. "Xia New District, Bincheng City, a tenement building, third floor, east-facing unit. The building is over thirty years old, there is no heating or natural gas, and they still use gas cylinders for cooking."

"These conditions..."

"It's really not good," Liang Xiaotian said, "but look at this one."

He turned to the next page and handed it to Fu Yan.

It's a photo of Mu Honglin's mother. She's a middle-aged woman in her forties, wearing a maroon silk dress, with her hair styled in big waves, gold earrings, a gold bracelet on her wrist, and red nail polish on her fingers.

She stood with that dilapidated house, like people from two different worlds.

"This woman is Song Chunhua, who is..." Liang Xiaotian said, "Chen Shiwen—or you could say Mu Shiwen's biological mother."

Fu Yan frowned again.

"Doesn't Chen Shiwen take her aunt's husband's surname?"

"Yes, her aunt's husband's surname is Chen, so after adoption she took her aunt's surname, Chen." Liang Xiaotian flipped through the documents. "Her aunt, Song Shufen, and aunt's husband, Chen Guoqing, are her adoptive parents. Her biological father's surname is Mu—her father is Mu Bin, and her mother is Song Chunhua."

"Then why did you send the child to your sister's house in the first place?"

"Because the Mu family was poor, and they were also affected by the one-child policy," Liang Xiaotian said. "In addition, Mu Bin and Song Chunhua were both locals of Bincheng. They came to the city to work years ago and changed their household registration to non-agricultural. In those days, non-agricultural households could only have one child. Their first child was a daughter—oh, right, not Chen Shiwen. Their first child was also a girl, who was Chen Shiwen's older sister."

Fu Yan was stunned for a moment.

"You have an older sister?"

"Yes." Liang Xiaotian turned to the next page of the document. "Their first child was a girl, I don't know her name, Mu something, because it was changed later. Not long after that child was born, Song Chunhua became pregnant with her second child—Chen Shiwen. Mu Bin wanted a son, but the family planning policy stipulated a four-year interval between births, otherwise he would be fined and dismissed from his public office. Song Chunhua couldn't bear to give up her public office, so she discussed with Mu Bin sending their first daughter away to free up their quota for a second child."

"Where was it sent?"

"We gave it to our neighbors," Liang Xiaotian said. "It was a couple in the next building, surnamed Fang. The man's name was Fang Jianhua, and the woman's name was Sun Guilan. At that time, their son had died in a car accident, and the couple was heartbroken and wanted to raise another child. The Mu family happened to be looking to give away their child, so the two families hit it off immediately."

What does Fang Jianhua do?

"At the time, Sun Guilan was working at the winery, and she was an accountant at the textile factory. Both of them were decent people with a good income. After the child was taken in, his surname was changed to Fang Shuo, and he lived with the Fang family for five or six years."

"And then?"

"Later, the factory went bankrupt," Liang Xiaotian sighed. "Fang Jianhua bought out his years of service, took a sum of money, and went south with his wife and children—saying he was going to stay with relatives. From then on, he completely cut off contact with the Mu family."

"Has the Mu family contacted them?"

"I did look for them," Liang Xiaotian said. "Mu Bin lost money gambling and wanted to ask the Fang family for money back—he thought the Fang family had made a fortune doing business in the south and wanted to extort some money. But after the Fang family moved away, they changed their phone number and disappeared completely. Mu Bin searched for several years without success, so he gave up."

Fu Yan fell silent.

"And what about Chen Shiwen?" he asked. "How did she end up at her aunt's house?"

"Song Chunhua later became pregnant with her third child—meaning she had an older sister than Mu Honglin," Liang Xiaotian said. "But when she was pregnant with this child, she couldn't bear to abort it, thinking she'd take a gamble and bet it would be a son. It turned out to be another daughter, and it wasn't until Mu Honglin's fourth child was born that she finally had a son. Song Chunhua had already violated the one-child policy and was fined so badly she was bankrupt. Chen Shiwen was sent to her aunt's house—Song Chunhua's older sister Song Shufen's house—right after her younger sister was born."

"So Chen Shiwen's aunt is her adoptive mother, and the older sister of her biological mother, Song Chunhua?"

"Yes." Liang Xiaotian nodded. "Chen Shiwen was nominally adopted by her aunt, but in reality, she was just thrown to a relative."

Fu Yan put down the photos and materials, leaned back in his chair, and rubbed his temples.

This family has truly lowered his standards to a whole new level.

In order to have a son, she gave away her first child, then her second, and then her third, before finally giving birth to a son. It is estimated that Chen Shiwen has an older sister and a younger sister, and both children have never known who their biological parents are. Of course, Chen Shiwen's situation is even worse; she was abandoned by her aunt's family when she was only three years old, and her biological parents never cared for her for a single day.

Of the children, Fang Shuo, the eldest who was given to a neighbor, was probably the happiest of the three girls, in Fu Yan's opinion. Although she was given away as a burden by her biological parents right after birth, her adoptive parents treated her well! An accident led her adoptive parents to treat her as their only child, and she moved far away with them, completely severing ties with her biological parents.

She didn't even know what her biological parents were like.

But isn't this a kind of happiness?

-

"Is there any other information?" Fu Yan asked.

"Yes." Liang Xiaotian handed over the last few pages of materials. "Mu Bin owes a mountain of gambling debts. These are his IOUs."

Fu Yan took it and looked at it.

It was a handwritten "IOU" with crooked handwriting that read: "I owe Brother Liu from Northeast China a total of 80,000 yuan. I must pay it back within three months, or I will bear the consequences."

The signature is Mu Bin.

"Eighty thousand yuan?"

"It's more than that now," Liang Xiaotian said. "With interest compounded, it's probably close to 200,000."

Fu Yan put down the IOU and remained silent for a long time.

"Have you thoroughly investigated this family's situation?"

"I understand everything," Liang Xiaotian said. "Mu Bin is unemployed and a gambler. Song Chunhua works as a cleaner in a shopping mall, earning about a thousand yuan a month. Mu Honglin just finished his college entrance exams, and his grades were terrible. He just lies at home playing video games. This family—how should I put it—is entirely dependent on Song Chunhua, but the money she earns isn't even enough for Mu Honglin to eat."

"With those conditions, you dare to threaten them for money?"

"That's right," Liang Xiaotian said. "I've heard that Song Chunhua wants Chen Shiwen to contribute some money to support Mu Honglin's repeat year of high school or to buy him a job. Her reason is, 'She's my flesh and blood. I carried her for ten months and gave birth to her, so she has to acknowledge me and take care of me.'"

Fu Yan gave a cold laugh.

"They carried her for ten months and gave birth to her, then treated her like a football, never caring about her for the rest of their lives. Now that she's working and successful, they suddenly want to acknowledge her?"

"That's how it is." Liang Xiaotian shrugged.