Disabled Childhood Sweetheart: A Humble Puppy Begs for the Young Lady's Pity

The courtyard was filled with a fresh and clean atmosphere in the early morning. The big elm tree next to the west wall of the courtyard had lush branches and leaves, and just looking at it made one feel clear-headed and relaxed.

The courtyard is located in Kangshi Lane, and most of the residents in this area are employees of the Hongxing Machinery Factory.

The compound originally housed five or six families, but after the factory allocated new housing, several families moved away one after another, leaving only two families living here now.

Wen Zhiting and his family of three live in the row of bungalows on the south side, while the row opposite is where Master Zhou and his grandson Zhou Jingchen live.

This place is very close to the Hongxing Machinery Factory. Wen Zhiting is the factory director, Xiang Qin is the factory's accountant, and Zhou Jingchen's grandfather, Master Zhou, is a veteran employee who works as a boiler operator. It is very convenient for them to go to work, just a ten-minute ride by bicycle.

Furthermore, this place is not far from the middle school where the two children attend. If they were to move to the new house in the south of the city that was assigned to them, it would be very inconvenient for Zhou Jingchen, who has difficulty walking, to attend school.

Master Zhou advised Wen Zhiting to move to the new neighborhood, but Wen Zhiting said he was used to living here and it was fine.

Master Zhou knew that a large part of the reason they weren't moving was to help take care of Zhou Jingchen.

Zhou Jingchen...

Mentioning this name evokes a sigh from everyone: what a poor child.

We need to go back in time—

It was the winter of 1983 when a heavy snowfall descended upon Pingjiang City.

Snowflakes fell thick and fast, the weather was freezing cold, and only children loved to run outside.

At that time, Wenxi was only three years old, a chubby little boy who looked like a penguin.

She was wearing a big floral-patterned jacket and a small tiger hat, squatting alone outside the yard playing in the snow.

Wenxi's chubby little hands were pink from the cold. She pushed hard against the locust tree, which was now just a bare trunk, and the snow on the tree fluttered down from the sky.

She looked up at the snowflakes, giggled, clapped her hands and twirled around, revealing a pair of cute little tiger teeth.

As she wandered around the locust tree, she inadvertently discovered a little boy lying in the snow under the tree. He seemed to be asleep, his body covered with a layer of white snow.

Curious but too afraid to approach, it hobbled into the yard on its short legs.

Her parents weren't home, so they asked their neighbor, Mr. Zhou, to look after her.

She couldn't speak clearly, so she desperately grabbed Master Zhou's hand and pulled him to the locust tree.

"Oh my! Whose child is this?" Master Zhou exclaimed in surprise.

At that time, Zhou Jingchen had a high fever, his small face was fragile and pale, and he lay in the snow like an abandoned porcelain doll.

Master Zhou picked him up and took him to the factory hospital immediately.

After treatment, Zhou Jingchen's fever subsided the following day.

The first thing he saw when he woke up was a chubby little girl lying by his bedside, her chin resting on her hand, her big eyes blinking as she curiously looked at him.

Seeing him open his eyes, the girl first smiled, then hurriedly ran to the door, stammering, "Grandpa Zhou, Grandpa Zhou..."

She was wearing open-crotch pants, and when she ran, she wobbled, and the flesh on her buttocks jiggled.

Only after the doctor's examination and Zhou Jingchen's condition after waking up did Master Zhou realize that he was a pitiful child who had been abandoned by his family.

Zhou Jingchen had a comminuted fracture of the middle and lower segment of the tibia and fibula in his left lower leg.

After analysis, the doctor said that due to poor alignment of the fracture ends and severe damage to local blood supply, the fracture healing process was interrupted, eventually resulting in traumatic nonunion.

My left lower leg is disabled, and I may never be able to walk normally for the rest of my life.

There were many abandoned babies in that era, and most of them were girls or disabled children like him.

Fortunately, his leg muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and soft tissues were all intact, which made him look no different from an ordinary child.

When Master Zhou asked him where he lived, he didn't know. When asked what his name was, he couldn't speak clearly, and even the adults couldn't understand him.

He wore a small silver lock around his neck, with his birth date engraved on the inside: October 21, 1980, a few months younger than Wenxi.

Mr. Zhou reported the incident to the police, but the police station has not received any information about the child's family.

Later, Mr. Zhou planned to send him to an orphanage, but when he looked into the child's dark, moist eyes, he softened.

He was unmarried and childless, living a solitary life for most of his life. But as he grew old, this child appeared, and he wondered if God had sent this child to keep him company.

So he adopted the child, who took his surname. The name Jingchen was given to him by Wen Zhiting, a fellow resident of the same compound, who was highly educated.

The name "Jingchen" implies that this child not only has an extraordinary demeanor and a bright future, but also possesses precious inner talent and fine character. He will surely grow up to be a well-rounded individual with both inner and outer beauty, and excellent in both talent and virtue.

All the neighbors in the compound came to Master Zhou's house to see Zhou Jingchen. Everyone praised the boy for being so handsome, saying that he would definitely grow up to be a heartthrob.

Some people brought Grandpa Zhou a lot of their own unused clothes, while others brought chicken cakes and malted milk powder for the children to eat, making the courtyard lively for a while.

Wenxi received praise from her mother and neighbors, who said she had helped Grandpa Zhou find a little grandson. Wenxi was overjoyed.

The adults sat inside chatting and eating sunflower seeds. Wenxi quietly climbed onto the bed and sat down next to Zhou Jingchen.

The boy looked at her blankly. As if by magic, she pulled a candy from her pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth, smiling and asking, "Is it sweet?"

The boy nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.

The girl leaned close to his ear and whispered, "My mom won't let me have a puppy, so... I found you. Will you be my puppy?"

The boy was confused, so she pinched his cheek and taught him, "Say 'okay'."

She taught him several times, and Zhou Jingchen finally whispered "good" in response.

Wenxi pouted and gave him a satisfied kiss on the cheek, her saliva mixed with sticky sweetness, which smeared onto Zhou Jingchen's face.

The adults burst into laughter upon seeing this.

Mr. Zhou has no experience in taking care of children, and he occasionally needs to work the night shift.

Wen Zhiting and Xiang Qin were worried that something might happen to Zhou Jingchen, who was such a young child, if he stayed at home alone, so they often brought him to their home.

When Master Zhou was working the night shift, he simply let Zhou Jingchen stay at his home.

Xiang Qin personally bathed him. In the freezing cold season, the stove in the house was burning brightly, and the two children sat in a large red plastic basin, their bodies covered in soapy bubbles.

After washing one, I wrapped it in a towel, carried it to the bed, dried it, dressed it, and then took the other one out of the basin.

Zhou Jingchen liked Xiang Qin's scent; it was a gentle, maternal fragrance. He would reach out his little arms to wrap around Xiang Qin's neck and timidly call out, "Auntie."

Over time, the couple's affection for the child deepened, and they treated Zhou Jingchen like their own son.

Clothes, food, whatever he buys, he buys two of everything. If Wenxi has it, Zhou Jingchen will have it too.

Even when her grandmother in the countryside of Wenxi made cotton-padded shoes and coats for her, she would make a special set for Zhou Jingchen as well.

Mr. Zhou was very grateful to the couple and often bought chickens, ducks, fish, eggs and other things to deliver to the Wen family.

For the first two years, Zhou Jingchen could only crawl, not walk.

Master Zhou made him a small cane and taught him how to use it under his armpits, gradually teaching him to stand up and walk on his own. Zhou Jingchen was not even five years old, but he could already use the cane skillfully.

When Wenxi saw him stand up and walk for the first time, she clapped her hands excitedly: "My puppy can walk! My puppy can walk!"

Zhou Jingchen looked at her, a shy smile playing on his lips.

Wen Zhiting told Xiang Qin, "You are the older sister, so you should take care of your younger brother and help him out."

While Wenxi verbally agreed, "Don't worry, Mom, I'll take good care of my little brother," she secretly treated Zhou Jingchen like a little servant, bullying him in various ways.

When she couldn't sleep at night, she would jump on his bed and bounce around, preventing him from sleeping.

She would secretly put vegetables into Zhou Jingchen's bowl when he was picky about eating and refused to eat them;

She would accidentally knock over her father's glass of water and make Zhou Jingchen take the blame for her.

When they take a bath together, she will take advantage of her mother's inattention and suddenly reach out to grab Zhou Jingchen's penis.

Seeing his shocked expression, she laughed triumphantly, revealing her two small, white tiger teeth.

Wenxi was not at all like a girl; she caught caterpillars, cicadas, and grasshoppers and stuffed them into Zhou Jingchen's clothes.

After teasing him, she ran away laughing, waiting for him to chase after her. Zhou Jingchen, leaning on his small cane, was sweating profusely and couldn't catch up with her.

"Little dog, bring me my shoes."

"Little dog, pour me a glass of water."

"Little dog, my back is so itchy, scratch it for me. Up, left, right..."

Wenxi was chubby since she was a child. The adults said she was twice the size of Zhou Jingchen. She had white arms like lotus roots, a round face, a chubby face, and was both simple-minded and mischievous.

Once, Zhou Jingchen couldn't resist reaching out and pinching her chubby cheeks, only to be met with a fierce glare from her.

Wenxi has a bad temper and is unpredictable. No matter who offends her, she will definitely take it out on Zhou Jingchen.

When she's angry, she'll either pinch or twist him, or sit on his face, making it hard for him to breathe.

Seeing his flushed face, she would laugh gleefully.

Wenxi acted so recklessly because she knew that Zhou Jingchen never complained to the adults.

He would only look at her with those pitiful, clear eyes like a puppy, and say in a childlike voice:

"Sister, please don't press down on me while you're wearing open-crotch pants."