Chapter 304: To Raise or Not to Raise? (1/4)
"Then what do you suggest we do!" Wang Ming angrily threw away the cigarette butt and said.
Chen Cuicui started crying again, "You're asking me, but I don't know either. We have two kids at home, and this child is also my own. What do you want me to do? It's all your fault, Wang Ming. You're incompetent and useless! You can't even support your own kids!"
Wang Ming smoked silently, unable to refute.
After a while, Chen Cuicui said, "Let's buy some things to visit her. Let's get her some infant formula. Although we can't raise her, she is still our child!"
Wang Ming nodded, "Let's go! Bring all the formula we bought before to her!"
The two of them acted on their decision, grabbing their things and heading downstairs.
It was already one in the morning.
Except for a couple of drunken hooligans wandering the streets, everything was silent.
The two walked cautiously because Baihua Kindergarten was at the edge of the urban village, so they had to walk a fair distance.
After a while, they finally reached the street where the kindergarten was located.
After ensuring that no one was around, they cautiously peeked inside the kindergarten.
At this moment, a ghostly figure suddenly appeared behind them.
"Aren't you brave enough to even visit your own child?" The person said calmly.
The two of them jumped in fright as if they had seen a ghost, turning around to see Yang Chen, their faces turning ashen with terror.
Wang Ming said, "We... we just got off work... passing by!"
"Yeah! We're just passing by!" Chen Cuicui also lied through her teeth with wide eyes.
"Heh!" Yang Chen sneered even more disdainfully.
He had noticed them the moment they walked into the street. Standing behind them early on, he also realized that they were indeed reluctant.
But now that he saw them, Yang Chen despised them even more.
"Parents who can't even face their own child, what kind of parents are you!" Yang Chen reprimanded them fiercely.
Yang Chen stood at a height of 1.88 meters. Although his body wasn't as burly as a gym-goer's, he had a commanding presence. Especially when he was angry, the muscles on his arms bulge from clenching his fist, exuding a particularly intimidating force.
The most important thing was the aura honed from the battlefield that Yang Chen possessed, which could make ordinary people wet their pants with just a glare, let alone Wang Ming standing before him.
Wang Ming was so frightened by the reprimand that his whole body shivered, nearly collapsing onto the ground.
Chen Cuicui was utterly terrified and burst into tears.
Seeing that they still weren't speaking, Yang Chen directly said, "Since you got caught by me, don't leave. I'll call the police right now!"
"No, no, no! Brother! Please don't call the police! I'm begging you, brother, please don't call the police!" Wang Ming grabbed Yang Chen to plead.
Although he was almost ten years older than Yang Chen, he didn't feel embarrassed to call him brother.
"Don't say useless things!" Yang Chen reprimanded, "First of all, you two abandoned a baby, which is already breaking the law. You'll get at least a five-year sentence. But the important thing now is, you're not just abandoning a baby, it's murder! The child was taken away this morning, and after being suffocated in the cardboard box for so long, it was too late when we found it and took it out!"
Upon hearing this, the two collapsed onto the ground.
Did the child die?
They couldn't accept this reality.
"My baby! Wuwu! Wang Ming! You bastard! Give me back my child! Give me back my child!" Chen Cuicui cried her heart out, grabbing Wang Ming and hitting him relentlessly.
Wang Ming squatted on the ground, covering his face, also crying.
"You still have the face to cry?" Yang Chen coldly said, "When you abandoned, you should have thought about it. The child can't survive independently; wherever you leave it, there's a risk to its life! Why outside, of all places!"
"It's still my child no matter what!" Wang Ming cried with his face in his hands.
"Heh!" Yang Chen sneered, "Why didn't you say that when you abandoned it?"
"Who would abandon if they could afford to raise, they're our own flesh and blood!"
"If you couldn't afford it, why have it? Once born, I don't believe you can't raise it! Since you can live in the urban village, it means you both have earning capacity. If it were in the countryside, you just needed to send money home every month while grandparents took care of it. You really couldn't raise, or you just didn't want to?"
"You don't understand!"
"I don't understand? As if I haven't seen hard times? Let me ask you: No matter how tough or tiring for the parents, can't they at least provide a meal for the child? Can you do that? With today's economic ability, not saying you have to make their life grand, at least they should have enough food and clothes? Nowadays there's even compulsory education, is it really impossible to afford?"
Wang Ming remained silent, no longer arguing.
Yang Chen only intended to scare them a bit. Seeing Chen Cuicui cry like that, he couldn't bear it anymore.
Seeing that the two were almost there, Yang Chen said, "The child is inside. I'm just asking if you can raise it?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Cuicui immediately lifted her head, looking at Yang Chen in disbelief, "The child isn't dead?"
"Not dead!" Yang Chen said blandly, "Was resuscitated."
"Not dead! The child isn't dead!" Chen Cuicui excitedly grabbed Wang Ming.
Wang Ming fell silent again.
"What? You don't want to raise it?" Yang Chen sneered, glancing at Wang Ming, and asked, "Are you a migrant worker?"
Wang Ming nodded.
Yang Chen had guessed as much. Wang Ming's skin was dark, apparently often exposed to the sun, and his hands were rough and calloused from frequent heavy labor.
"How much do you earn a day now?" Yang Chen asked.
"Five or six hundred..."
"Ha!" Yang Chen sneered, "Ten to twenty thousand a month, and you're telling me you can't afford a kid?"
"Wang Ming!" Chen Cuicui stood up and pointed at Wang Ming, "You're just a bastard. Even with three kids, struggling a bit we can still raise them. You just want a son, right? Well, I'm telling you, I'm not having more! I'm getting sterilized tomorrow! Let your sons go to hell!"
Wang Ming panicked upon hearing this and quickly grabbed Chen Cuicui, "I'll raise them! I'll raise them, okay?"
Yang Chen watched the two shaking his head repeatedly.
The two finally told Yang Chen they decided to continue raising the child.
Yang Chen nodded and called the director to wake up.
The director, hearing this, came out quickly wearing a jacket, trembling with anger when he saw the two, "People like you! Wouldn't you realize your error if not caught?"
The two were ashamed, lowering their heads.
The director asked them to photocopy their ID cards, along with documenting their family address, phone number, and emergency contact.
Then the director told them, "I'm telling you! Don't think of abandoning the child again. We have records here, if the child gets into trouble, I'll immediately call the police!"
"We won't! We'll never do something like this again. We understand now, if the child is born, we'll raise it!" They said earnestly.
The director waved them off, telling them to leave; he didn't want to see such people, avoiding them for peace of mind.
After they left, the director smiled at Yang Chen, "Well done, you've saved a child."
Yang Chen said, "In fact, it's all the same. They didn't want to either, but were forced by circumstances. Earlier, talking to them, I realized it's their third child, no wonder they said they couldn't afford it."
"Ah, all daughters, right?" The director asked.
"Yeah!" Yang Chen nodded.