You're supposed to be a security officer, what case are you solving?

Chapter 375 The Cleft Lip Girl. (Seeking monthly votes)
December 7, 1998.

Qincheng District, Xingye District, Sihai Street.

A Phoenix brand bicycle was parked next to the flower bed. After the green light came on, the girl got on the bicycle and went to the alley across the street.

This alley is called Wutong Alley. It is lined with low red brick buildings on both sides and rows of straight sycamore trees.

It was winter, and the sycamore trees had lost all their leaves, leaving only bare branches that looked like human arms, outstretched with five fingers, reaching towards the sky.

Upon seeing the red sign for the social shelter, the girl rode her bicycle to the entrance and lowered the tripod.

Rows of icicles hung from the eaves of the shelter, a testament to how low the temperature had been yesterday—it was frighteningly cold.

At this moment, a middle-aged man wearing a blue thermal shirt and a military overcoat came out of the house with a white porcelain cup and a toothbrush. After glancing at the girl, he squatted down under the eaves and began to brush his teeth.

The girl was wearing a blue down jacket, a brown scarf around her neck, and a pair of black woolen gloves with a red butterfly pattern on the back.

She walked over to the middle-aged man and greeted him with a smile, "Second Uncle."

The middle-aged man didn't even look at her, muttering, "Why are you here again?"

The girl squatted at the bottom of the steps, looked up at him with bright eyes, and exhaled a puff of white mist as she spoke.

"Second Uncle, where are we going today?"

"I'm not going anywhere." The middle-aged man rinsed his mouth and threw his toothbrush into the white porcelain cup with a "thud."

"Second Uncle, it's so cold. If you don't go to save people, they'll die."

"Du Nansong, can you please stop interfering in my work?"

A girl named Du Nansong took out two meat buns from her bosom and handed them to the middle-aged man with a smile.

“I figured you hadn’t had breakfast yet, so I just bought this at the intersection. It’s a big meat filling, and I’m keeping it warm in my arms because I’m afraid it will get cold too quickly.”

"Du Nansong, don't mess with me. If it weren't for the fact that your dad is my old comrade-in-arms, I would have kicked you out long ago."

The girl pouted: "Second Uncle, you're my dad too, so why don't you take me with you?"

The middle-aged man stood up, turned around and walked back into the house, muttering, "What are you doing out here in such cold weather? Don't cause trouble, hurry back and help your dad."

"Second Uncle, you're almost fifty this year, and you have no children. If you don't agree to my request, who will take care of you in your old age?"

Du Nansong followed behind him with a small step, and said with a grin, "My dad told me that in the future, in addition to taking care of him, I also need to take care of you. You are both my dads."

"I'm not your father."

“You are the one. In the winter of '79, if you hadn’t taken me to the shelter, I would have frozen to death long ago.”

Upon hearing this, the middle-aged man paused in his steps.

Du Nansong walked around to him, raised his face and said, "Second Uncle, take me with you. I just want to do my part for society."

The middle-aged man, named Li Song, sighed, pursed his lips, and looked at Du Nansong.

"We can't save them all. This month alone, we've rescued eleven people. They need food, clothing, and hospital care. The shelter is out of money."

The girl frowned: "How could we not have money? I read the newspaper; the province allocated over 100,000 yuan in relief funds this winter."

Li Song snorted: "I didn't see a single penny of it when it reached our shelter."

"What should I do?"

"How would I know."

Li Song looked at her pale face from the cold and handed her a meat bun: "You haven't had breakfast either, have you? Don't keep looking for me. Have one too. There's hot water in the thermos. Drink some boiled water while I change my clothes."

Du Nansong nodded and found a chair to sit down.

Because the chair was too cold, her bottom only touched it a little bit.

Xingye District has only one social shelter, located at No. 13 Wutong Lane.

In the 1960s, this place was originally a granary in Xingye District. Later, a fire broke out for no apparent reason and burned it all down, leaving only the frame.

So after the renovation, the district converted it into a social shelter.

After the social shelters were built, corresponding shops sprang up, such as barbershops, clinics, pharmacies, and bathhouses.

why?

Because shelters receive a large number of homeless people, abandoned infants, disabled people and other special groups every year.

These shops are all opened for people like this, and the fees are naturally paid by the shelter.

Are shelters really that rich?

Getting a haircut is simply a matter of using a pair of scissors.

Just boil a pot of water to take a bath; it's even simpler in the summer.

A clinic is necessary; nothing else is needed.

The reason is, of course, that it doesn't matter whether you spend money or not, as they can issue you an invoice.

The shelter had six people, and the director changed one after another. Invoices were issued in stacks and stacks. Until Li Song became the deputy director, apart from the clinic still standing, the surrounding shops were almost going out of business.

During those years, the Xingye District Shelter rescued many people, and Du Nansong was one of those rescued.

She was picked up from a garbage dump by Li Song when she was one year old.

As for who her biological parents are? She doesn't know, and she doesn't care.

November 3, 1979, was Du Nansong's birthday, and also the day Li Song picked her up.

Li Song is a veteran who was assigned to work in a detention center after his demobilization.

When Li Song took Du Nansong in, he was already 28 years old. His parents had died early, and he was an only child with no siblings, making him practically all alone. From the age of one to four, Li Song took care of Du Nansong, searching for families with slightly better conditions to adopt her.

However, Du Nansong has a physical disability, and all the people who saw him refused to see him.

Moreover, this defect is immediately noticeable.

That is, Du Nansong has a cleft lip; her upper lip is split.

Li Song searched all the hospitals in Qincheng and spent a lot of money, but the doctors all shrugged and said they were powerless to help.

With no other option, four-year-old Du Nansong had to continue following Li Song.

Because Li Song had to go to work, he took Du Nansong with him for several years, keeping her in the shelter.

Because of this, Li Song has been unable to find a wife.

When people hear that he has a little girl with him, and she's not even his own, they wonder what he's after.

With your meager income, why would you support an unrelated person? Are you out of your mind?

When Du Nansong was six years old, she was adopted by Li Song's comrade-in-arms.

His comrade-in-arms was named Du Feng. He and his wife had no children. Although Du Nansong had a disability, he still accepted her.

Du Nansong's adoptive father worked as a car mechanic in the army. After retiring from the army, he opened his own car repair shop, and the family was relatively well-off.

When Du Nansong was ten years old, her adoptive mother passed away from illness, and her adoptive father never remarried, so she now lives with her adoptive father.

As for her surname, she naturally took her adoptive father's surname because she needed to be registered in the household and go to school in the future. The last character of her name was "Song".

Her adoptive father meant that she should always remember Li Song, who gave her a second life.

If it weren't for Li Song, Du Nansong would have frozen to death or been bitten to death by stray dogs as early as November 1979.

Du Nansong's growth was not smooth sailing. In elementary, middle and high school, she was discriminated against by her classmates and was ridiculed, mocked, and verbally abused almost constantly.

As for physical bullying, that also happened when she was in elementary school, but she didn't dare tell her adoptive father.

Li Song found out about this, so he took a hunting rifle to the principal's office, put the gun on the desk, and asked the principal to call the parents of the children who had bullied Du Nansong.

When the parents arrived and saw this scene, they were so frightened they almost wet themselves.

From that time on, whenever Du Nansong had something to do at school, her two fathers would ride their motorcycles, grab their gear, and rush to the school.

So those classmates who mocked Du Nansong all said behind her back that she had two unrelated fathers.

But from that time on, Du Nansong gradually became more cheerful and her personality changed because she knew that she had two fathers, two fathers who were not related by blood, and both of them were the closest people in her life.

Du Nansong's grades were not good. After graduating from high school, her adoptive father wanted her to continue her studies, but she refused.

Finally, under Li Song's furious outburst, Du Nansong had no choice but to go back to a vocational school. Now she is 19 years old and has just graduated from vocational school.

Her adoptive father went around trying to find her a job as a teacher.

At this moment, the shelter staff began to arrive at work one after another.

One of the young men, wearing a black cotton-padded coat, took off his gloves and patted the dust off his body as he entered the house.

"Nan Song, you've come to see your second uncle again?"

Du Nansong stood up and laughed, "Brother Ping, you fell?"

"The road was frosty, and I crashed into a police car while riding my bicycle."

"That's too dangerous."

"Yes, right in front of the Criminal Investigation Detachment, I almost rolled out of the car. The driver was very cautious, and luckily he stepped on the brakes in time."

I dented the front of someone's car, but the driver was very easygoing and didn't hold it against me.

That guy is really handsome, Nan Song. I wish you could find a boyfriend like that someday.

Du Nansong smiled and said, "You're always joking with me. How handsome can I be?"

“Really.” Fan Chuanping said very seriously, “He’s tall and handsome, like a movie star, and very refined. He even offered to take me to the hospital.”

Just then, the director of the shelter stepped into the room, bringing in a gust of cold wind.

"Director," Fan Chuanping quickly stepped aside and greeted him.

The director was a woman in her fifties, wearing earmuffs. She smiled at Du Nansong and asked, "Xiaosong, where's your second uncle?"

Before Du Nansong could answer, Li Song came out from the inner room, still wearing his military overcoat, but now with a pair of cotton trousers.

"director."

"Li Song, let's go out today. It's so cold. We should still treat those who need treatment, otherwise they won't make it through."

"Okay, Director." Li Song nodded, then asked worriedly, "Do we still have any funds?"

“I asked the district for some subsidies, but the money hasn’t come through yet. Anyway, let’s get them back to the shelter first, and give them food and clothing. We can still provide that. As for the follow-up work, I’ll go to welfare organizations. We must bring the children and women back, in particular.”

“I know.” Li Song nodded, wearing woolen gloves.

The pattern on the gloves was exactly the same as the one on Dunantson's hand.

At this moment, Du Nansong, who was standing to the side, said, "Second Uncle, can I go too?"

"You just know how to meddle." Li Song rolled his eyes at her.

The director reached out and patted her head: "Let her go. She's a kind-hearted girl. It's cold outside, so dress warmly and don't get cold."

Du Nansong smiled happily, the gap in his upper lip resembling a shocking scar.

(End of this chapter)