After a few days, Fu Xianze went on a business trip, and my business became even more prosperous.

I was busy every day and had no time to think about his drunken words that night.

We were like two straight lines, intersecting by chance and then moving further apart in two different directions.

Half a month later, on a rainy day, I sat bored in front of the restaurant, watching the rain fall, and locked eyes with a little beggar hiding in an alley.

He was about four or five years old, thin as a skeleton, wearing a dirty ragged robe that had lost its color, and his tiny feet were covered in scabs.

"Auntie, can you give me something to eat?"

He raised his little head and asked cautiously, his eyes humble and pitiful.

"Of course, come in quickly."

I stood up with a heart full of empathy, took his little hand, and led him into a warm private room.

"Go to the street and buy two sets of clothes for children, prepare a bowl of hot chicken soup and some delicious dishes, and call Doctor Wu over."

I hurriedly gave instructions and then sat down gently next to the little beggar, asking.

"What's your name? Are there any other people at home?"

"My name is Xiao Jiu. My father doesn't want me anymore. He wanted to throw me into the lake, and my mother jumped in to save me but drowned."

"Why doesn't your father want you?"

"They say my father wants to marry a new wife, and that wicked woman doesn't want us."

Xiao Jiu became sadder and sadder as he spoke, and tears streamed down his face.

How could there be such cruel people in this world?

I held Xiao Jiu in my arms with a heart full of empathy, and thought of the day I fell into the water myself.

The lake water was bone-chilling cold, and I had forever lost the qualification to be a mother.

If I had my own child, I would do everything in my power to make him the happiest child in the world, but there are people who would harm their own flesh and blood for their own selfish desires.

When that mother jumped into the water to save her child, she must have been as tormented and desperate as I am now.

I touched Xiao Jiu's hair and whispered,

"Good child, would you like to stay with me in the future? Let me be your family, okay?"

Xiao Jiu was incredulous for a few seconds, then reached out and hugged my waist.

"I want to."

I was still immersed in the joy of having a well-behaved baby when I saw Xiao Jiu coughing uncomfortably and spitting out a mouthful of blood.

"Someone! Get help quickly!!!"