“Lili!”
Seeing how violently she was struggling, I couldn’t help but shout at her, hoping to snap her back to her senses.
But she didn’t seem to hear anything at all.
Instead, after my shout, the tears she had been holding back suddenly poured down.
She struggled desperately to break free from my grip.
Just as I was about to lose control of her, the others from inside finally rushed out and grabbed hold of her as well.
Uncle Gazi looked at Lili with disappointment, as if he wanted to scold her, but perhaps he couldn’t bear to.
In the end, he only sighed helplessly and said, “Fate is shallow, girl… this child just doesn’t have much fate with us. When it ends, it ends. If you can let it go, then let it go. If you can’t… hold on to the thought for a couple of days, then learn to release it.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Lili’s legs gave out, and she nearly collapsed.
Xu Shu and Han Xue quickly caught her.
Watching Lili cry uncontrollably, my heart twisted painfully.
Before, no matter how strong maternal instincts seemed, I had never been a mother, so I didn’t understand that strange bond between a child and a mother.
Now that I had begun to understand it a little, I could finally feel what Lili was going through.
Everyone tried to comfort her for a long time, but not a single word seemed to reach her.
She cried to the point of near collapse.
With all of us gathered around her outside the house, it didn’t take long before neighbors began to come out.
Gradually, people gathered at a distance, forming a circle of onlookers.
Uncle Gazi signaled for us to take Lili back inside first.
It wasn’t right to let others watch the scene.
Back inside, we helped her all the way up to her room on the second floor.
She had cried for so long that her body could barely take it.
Not long after lying down, she fell into a deep sleep—even with all of us still standing nearby.
Uncle Gazi might have been harsh with his words earlier, but now he was clearly worried.
He went over to cover her with a blanket, then told us to leave the room.
After that, he personally went to the kitchen and made steamed egg custard—Lili hadn’t eaten for two days and needed something nourishing.
We all sat in the living room downstairs, frowning, not knowing what to do.
No one even tried to suggest a solution.
In truth, there was no real way to handle this.
There was only one outcome from the beginning.
All we and Lili could do was face it and accept it.
If we chose to keep someone else’s child and refuse to return her, maybe that couple wouldn’t be able to do anything to us.
But if we did that… how would we be any different from those child traffickers everyone despised?
Time passed without us noticing, and it was already afternoon when Bruno hurried in from outside and immediately asked about the situation.
But before we could answer, he had already read it from our faces.
After a brief hesitation, he pointed upstairs and asked with a frown, “She’s upstairs?”
“Yeah.” Uncle Gazi came out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on his apron.
He sighed. “Go see if you can talk to her, at least get her to eat something. She can’t just keep starving herself like this.”
Bruno frowned even more. “She didn’t eat again today?”
“Not a bite. It’s been three days now. With that thin body of hers, who knows how she’s still holding up,” Uncle Gazi said, then turned back and brought out the egg custard from the kitchen.
Bruno took it, greeted us briefly, and went upstairs.
Only after he went up did we all quietly let out a breath of relief.
Taozi leaned against Zhou Wen and said, “Honestly, I think Bruno is a really good person. He has a proper job, he’s gentle, and he handles things well. He’s a thousand times better than Wang Jun. If Lili really got together with him, would she even have to worry about not having children in the future? She wouldn’t be this devastated.”
Jundi glanced at Taozi and replied, “You can’t really say it like that. No matter what, Xuanxuan lived with us for so long. Lili raised her with her own hands. Even without blood ties, feelings have already formed.”
“The child is already gone. There’s no point talking about this now,” Uncle Gazi said as he set the food on the table and called us to eat.
“From now on, just try not to bring it up in front of her.”
Shen Feng got up and added, “In a few days, when her mood settles a bit, let’s take her on a trip to the southern outskirts. There’s a big park there with a stream and grassland. Our whole group can go relax together.”
“A stream? Grassland?” As soon as Han Xue heard about an outing, her previously gloomy expression instantly vanished.
She beamed with excitement and said, “That’s great! We can barbecue there! Roast flatbread too!”
During the meal, the atmosphere—previously heavy—quickly shifted as everyone began discussing Shen Feng’s idea.
Xiao Hu and Tingyun were overjoyed as well, chewing their food while repeatedly chanting, “Go out and play, go out and play.”
After dinner, once the dishes were washed, everyone gradually returned to their rooms to shower and sleep.
Just as I finished tidying up the living room and was about to head upstairs, I saw Bruno coming down from the second floor looking a bit dejected.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, stepping back down from the stairs.
Bruno looked at me, ran a hand through his hair in frustration, then quickly walked over and sat on the sofa.
After glancing around to make sure no one else was in the living room, he said, “Please…”
Then, realizing my English wasn’t great, he switched to Chinese, “Can you get me a beer?”
I waved my hand and instead poured him a cup of tea, placing it on the table in front of him.
“We don’t have that here. No one drinks alcohol.”
Then I looked at him again. “What happened? Did Lili say something to you?”
At the mention of that, Bruno grew even more irritated. “It’d be better if she had said something. The problem is she won’t talk to me at all.”
“How is that possible?” I was surprised.
“Weren’t you two chatting all night the past couple of days? And now she’s ignoring you? Our whole family is counting on you.”
After thinking for a while, Bruno simply stood up. “Forget it. I’ll come back tomorrow. Let her have some space today.”
After seeing Bruno off, I felt a bit suffocated staying inside, so I went out and sat on the small patch of grass for a while.
Occasionally, people passed by on evening walks.
From a distance, I saw Song Meijing and Sister Liu heading our way.
Sighing, I turned back inside, shut the door, and went upstairs.
At night, if I ran into Song Meijing and ended up exchanging a few sharp words, I might as well forget about sleeping—her tongue is as sharp as a blade.
If my skin weren’t thick enough, I wouldn’t be able to handle it.
…
The next day, Bruno came again as promised and, just like before, went straight into Lili’s room.
This time he stayed even longer.
By the time he came out, the power had already gone out.
The good news, though, was that Lili had eaten quite a bit of the steamed egg custard he brought in.
All of us breathed a sigh of relief—so long as she was willing to eat, we could take things slowly and help her recover emotionally.
Over the next few days, Bruno came regularly.
One time, he even brought a whole box of baijiu and a box of beer.
He said that with so many adult men living here, it was strange not to have any alcohol.
Before anyone could respond, he grabbed two bottles of beer and went upstairs.
Again, he stayed for a long time.
When he came back down, he reported that Lili had eaten a fair amount of food, and even drank half a bottle of beer.
Though we worried her stomach might not handle it well, as long as she was eating and drinking, it meant her mood was stabilizing—overall, a good sign.
The next day, without anyone noticing, Xiao Hu and Tingyun managed to get hold of the beer.
Somehow they opened the cans, and by the time we found them, the two kids were already on the grass outside the house, faces flushed, clearly drunk, shouting nonsense at the top of their lungs.
We could only laugh helplessly while scrambling to take care of the two little “drunks.”
Whether it was because of the alcohol or something else, by dinnertime both Xiao Hu and Tingyun developed fevers—over 38°C.
We panicked.
Shen Feng and Zhou Wen each picked up one child, preparing to head out to Dad’s place, when Bruno arrived right on time.
After checking the children, he went back to get some medicine, then used physical cooling methods to help reduce their fevers.
He instructed us to keep a close eye on them overnight before heading upstairs again.
With a doctor’s diagnosis, we followed his instructions, planning to take them to the hospital the next day if the fever didn’t subside.
The next morning, before heading to work, Bruno made a point of stopping by to check on them.
Both kids’ fevers had already gone down, and they were lying on the same bed with Uncle Gazi, playing quietly and behaving very well.
By the afternoon, Lili—who hadn’t stepped out of her room for a whole week—finally came out.
Her complexion still wasn’t as good as before, but she looked a bit more spirited.
In the living room, everyone tacitly avoided asking too many questions and just joked around as usual, as if nothing had changed.
When Lili occasionally picked up Tingyun or Xiao Hu, a brief dazed look would flash across her face, but she quickly masked it.
It was clear that Bruno’s efforts over the past few days hadn’t been in vain.
At dinner, we brought up the idea of going on an outing with Lili.
She thought about it for a moment and agreed.
After being cooped up in the house for so long, it seemed like no one would refuse the chance to go out, enjoy nature, and hopefully adjust their mood.
I remembered something I had read before:
“When you’re troubled by what’s in front of you, go travel—once you’ve seen more of the world, your heart will become broader.”
Honestly, in our current situation, it might be better understood as: change your environment, change your mood—everything will pass.
Looking at Lili, who could now at least manage to smile and chat, I figured that tonight I might finally be able to have a proper talk with her.
— The end of the Chapter–
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