Chapter 1377

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

"See for yourselves, these are the poor households that need support!"

Lin Aijun left Zhao Futian's house with Wang Xiaohua, still fuming.

"It's bad enough that he's a lost cause, but he goes and harms another family. The most fatal thing is, the things he did aren't big or small, and you can't do anything to him. A man in his sixties — even the prison dislikes him and doesn't want to take him in!"

Lin Aijun kept complaining.

She also said:

"My god, how was I so stupid back then, actually thinking of coming to the grassroots to do poverty alleviation? My brain must have been flooded with water — no, flooded with shit."

Wang Xiaohua didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and could only comfort her:

"Not all of them are like Zhao Futian, right? Knowing it cannot be done and doing it anyway — that is what makes it rare and precious, that is what makes it great."

But Lin Aijun said:

"I don't want to be great. I just want to live an ordinary life peacefully. You don't know, this job has made me so angry I've developed breast nodules. If they turn into breast cancer in a few years, I'm done for. Sigh, when can I finally transfer out of this damn post?"

Wang Xiaohua continued comforting her:

"Treat it with a calm mind, do your best, and have a clear conscience."

But Lin Aijun said:

"You just got here, so of course you can stand there and talk without your back hurting! Wait a year or two, and if you can still be this breezy, then I'll really admire you! Sigh, enough talk, hurry up and let's go to the next household!"

Lin Aijun took Wang Xiaohua to the third poor household in Wanshanwei Village.

This third poor household was an elderly person who had lost their labor capacity.

His name was Li Liangang, a 66-year-old man.

His left leg was broken, his right hand severely deformed.

Normally even moving was difficult, let alone going to the fields to work.

He had a son, born when he was 50, named Li Yaozu, only 16 this year, in his second year of high school.

As for Li Liangang's wife, the system records showed he was unmarried.

How could an unmarried man have a son like that?

Because when he was 50, he spent his life savings to buy a woman from outside.

After that woman was bought back, he kept her locked up.

Until that woman gave birth to Yaozu, he felt the child was an invisible rope that could tie that woman down, so he didn't control her so strictly anymore.

Result: that woman said she was going to the street to buy vegetables, and then ran off.

Not a shred of reluctance to leave — she didn't even want the child.

Li Liangang waited until dusk, but didn't see that woman return, only then realizing something was wrong.

Then he rode his beat-up motorcycle to the town market to search.

He searched until night, but found no trace of that woman.

He returned from outside, lost and dejected.

Result: because the road was dark, plus he wasn't paying attention riding the motorcycle, he crashed straight into a tractor.

He passed out on the spot.

When he woke up, he found himself already in the hospital.

His left leg had already been sawed off.

His right hand was wrapped in thick bandages.

Although they barely reattached it, the doctor told him the right hand was basically ruined. If he actively treated it afterward, there was still a sliver of a chance he could pick up chopsticks.

Then came the medical expenses — he had to pay them himself.

Because the tractor driver who caused the accident fled.

And on that mountain road, there was no surveillance installed.

He himself hadn't seen the tractor's license plate clearly.

Even that tractor might have been unlicensed.

In those days, not many people in the mountains would register their tractors.

Li Liangang didn't have much money, couldn't even pay the medical debts.

So not long after he woke up, he was asked to leave by the hospital.

And his right hand — even the chance to pick up chopsticks — was gone just like that.

After Li Liangang became disabled, he survived on the aid of neighbors and the government.

Life was that bitter.

If not for Yaozu's existence, he probably would have drunk pesticide and died long ago.

It was precisely because of Yaozu's existence that he kept living strongly until now.

Yaozu was also promising — he successfully tested into high school.

Next year there's a chance to test into university.

Wang Xiaohua originally felt quite sympathetic toward Li Liangang's family.

He felt that with his limbs crippled, fate had been truly too unfair to him.

But upon hearing that Li Liangang at 50 actually went outside and bought a woman, and that his disability was caused by chasing that woman.

So at once she could not muster any sympathy for Li Liangang.

These are all causes he sowed himself, the fruit they have borne.

Most pitiable is that woman who was abducted and sold here.

Even if she escaped, she has suffered enormous, irreversible harm to body and mind.

"Li Liangang, we came to see you, how have you been lately?"

Lin Aijun entered Li Liangang's dilapidated house, greeting him with a smile.

Li Liangang showed an honest, simple, foolish grin:

"Fine, fine."

Lin Aijun then asked:

"That poverty alleviation pig issued to you last month, are you still raising it?"

Li Liangang hurriedly said:

"I'm raising it, come with you all, I'll take you to see it!"

Then Li Liangang, "one step one footprint," hopped along, leading Lin Aijun and Xiao Hua to the pigsty beside the dilapidated house, to show them the poverty alleviation pig he was raising.

That poverty alleviation pig, eating until fat and plump, was indeed being taken care of very well by Li Liangang.

"Li Liangang, not bad, you actually took care of the poverty alleviation pig this well!"

Li Liangang showed a foolish grin:

"What the government tells me to do, I'll certainly do well. Next year my family's Yaozu takes the college entrance exam; if he tests into university, on tuition, we'll still need the government to help subsidize."

Lin Aijun hurriedly said:

"Rest assured, as long as he tests into university, there are poor student subsidies; tuition basically won't need to be paid much!"

Xiao Hua looked at Li Liangang's simple, honest expression, finding it truly hard to imagine he was once a perpetrator who abducted women.

But thinking carefully, it felt absurd yet also reasonable.

Rural people's idea of continuing the family line is deeply rooted.

Especially the older generation.

For the sake of continuing the family line, they would do anything.

Although Li Liangang is an honest man, for the sake of marrying a wife and having a son, spending money to buy a woman — that was nothing out of the ordinary!

"Since you put it that way, I'm reassured. My family's Yaozu's grades are so good, I heard him say, last exam, Chinese 100, Math 99, English a bit worse but still 80! Comprehensive science, also nearly 100! Almost full marks in every subject!"

Li Liangang boasted proudly about his family's Yaozu's grades.

Lin Aijun gave a dry laugh:

"That is indeed pretty good."

Xiao Hua also couldn't bear to expose him.

Didn't go and tell him that high school Chinese, Math, English aren't on a 100-point scale but a 150-point scale, and comprehensive science is three subjects combined, total 300 points, not 100!

With his family's Yaozu's grades like that, total score not even 400, wanting to get into a decent public university is practically impossible.

Most likely after finishing high school he'll go outside to work — that's the best outcome.

After all, going to a private university, tuition tens of thousands a year — how could a poor household like his afford that?