Chapter 16

An ID card is only mandatory at the age of sixteen, but it can be applied for earlier. The Shen sisters must have had their reasons for getting them done early.

But the key point was that it shut Bak's mouth right away. Ba Dacheng gritted his teeth, "Two more daughters, no problem!"

Bak was dejected, "I don't even have a household registration!"

Liu Shufen held the two little girls in her arms, as gentle and soft as if they were her own daughters, "No other relatives?"

Shen Zhaonan, who could barely move her neck, shook her head vigorously with her sister, "No!"

Liu Shufen decided, "Alright! I'll be your mother!"

Bak had no say in the matter. Seeing the pleading look in Shen Yinan's eyes, he wasn't being soft-hearted, but he nodded casually, "Bring over some cool boiled water and keep giving it to your sister to drink, to speed up the clearance of the anesthetic. Help her to the bathroom if she needs to go... I'll go cool off outside." The house was so small, there was no way to sleep properly.

The younger sister struggled to bow on the bed with her sister, but Liu Shufen held her, "Don't worry about it, take care of yourself... don't think about those things."

But her motherly love clearly made the two little girls sob again.

Even Ba Dacheng, holding a fan, followed his son out, lifting the curtain.

Bak still played with the cigarette in his hand. In his mind, not only did the image of the two children flash, but also his own departure from Europe... wasn't it also because of a pair of children?

He never pitied anyone; pity always had a hateful side. If you thought too much with a weapon in hand, you couldn't kill. So, except for his parents, Bak considered himself as hard-hearted as iron!

But when it came to children, who had no resistance or threat to the world, Bak always had a soft spot in his heart.

Ba Dacheng, leaning on his cane, came over and took the cigarette from his son. Bak lit it for his father, who enjoyed a deep inhale before saying, "They... were homeless?" The clothes and dirt on the little beggar when she returned told the whole story.

Bak nodded, "The sister has been helping at the meat shop for the past two days. I thought she was a boy because of the dirt on her face..." He recounted the scene where he mistakenly thought she had been kidnapped, but glossed over the part where he had knocked out the three men.

Ba Dacheng sat on a stone bench, looking at his dark, muscular son under the night sky, "Although we are poor..."

Bak smiled, echoing his father, "We have integrity, and we must be people who can look ourselves in the eye."

Ba Dacheng also smiled, a satisfied smile, "You've been away for so many years, and your mother has been worried about all sorts of things. I told her that as long as you can look yourself in the eye and have integrity, you are our son, the son of the Ba family..."

Bak, who had heard this so many times, said, "The ancestors of the Ba family are watching from above... I won't do anything that goes against heaven and reason. Dad, you should get some sleep. I'm going to clean up the seasonings."

Ba Dacheng grinned, "Your mother... has really missed you all these years. Now that you're back, she wants to hold a grandchild and have a daughter-in-law. If you go to the door now, you'll hear her nagging non-stop. I'll help you outside."

In the end, Bak deliberately ran around to check. The road was dark and quiet, indicating that the three men would definitely not confess to the crime. After a quick shower, he laid down on a mat under a big tree in the yard, just as he did when he was a child, with no air conditioning, nothing unusual.

But he was woken up early by the noisy laughter of a group of girls!

When he opened his eyes, a crowd of girls was laughing and joking around him!

Well, it wasn't the kind of scene where a man dreams of being surrounded by women, but rather teasing, "Brother Bak... you don't have a sister-in-law yet, why are you sleeping outside?"

"Hey, your body is pretty good... let's see a bit more by pulling the towel a bit?"

"You can't fit in your house, Brother Zhiming?"

"Brother Xiaoming, can you take us for some barbecue tonight? We'll help you with business..."

"Right, a bunch of beautiful girls helping you with business is a real blessing. We're hard to come by..."

Bak's head was pounding from the noise!

These children of the working class, especially the railway workers, often took over their parents' jobs. The girls, who were about Bak's age, were almost all train attendants, probably on a concentrated day off. A dozen of them in uniforms surrounded him, their bold and frank mannerisms made Bak feel like he was back in the red-light district of Europe!

Train attendants, who traveled all over the country, had the most agile tongues, which was why Liu Shufen wanted her son to find a wife outside the railway, someone more refined and respectful.

Bak felt that one woman was as noisy as five hundred ducks, and he couldn't handle thousands of them. Just as he was about to get up, he saw the door of his house open, and a small figure came out, holding a porcelain basin, and walked into the crowd of "ducks": "Brother... time to wash your face."

She was wearing a new T-shirt that Ba Dacheng had bought for his son, a deep blue men's T-shirt that was loose and baggy on her, the hem covering her thighs like a mini-skirt. Her legs, though not very white, were taut and detailed, exuding vitality, but the large, old men's slippers on her feet looked very cumbersome.

Bak could only judge that this was the sister by her hair length, as he was not familiar with her honey-colored face.

Her eyebrows were slightly thick, which was one of the reasons he thought she was a boy. But after washing, her light eyebrows and the standard feminine aura at the ends, her large, bright eyes on her still-developing face, her small, delicate nose, and her pink, tender lips all made her look very delicate and lively.

Her hair was still short like a boy's, but now she looked like a beautiful little girl, a real beauty in the making!

Heaven knows how Bak could have mistaken her for a boy before.

She looked around at the tall girls with a wary expression, trying to stand up straight despite her flat chest, but she couldn't hide her young, pre-teen age.

The group of train attendants suddenly shifted their attention, "Oh? Is this the child bride of the Ba family?"

"What a sweet little girl, would you like to go on the train with your sister and trick money from uncles every day?"

"Come eat my candy! It's not drugged, you have to be careful, don't eat anything from men... men are all bad..."

"Oh! I have a hair clip, just bought, do you want to wear it?"

"Are you silly? Her hair is so short, I'll give you this bracelet, it's the easiest way to trick men..."

Bak's temples throbbed!

His mother's insistence on not finding a train attendant as a wife made a lot of sense!

Just as he was about to use the distraction to sneak away, covering himself with the towel and bending over, because it was normal for a young man to have certain conditions in the morning, right?

These female hooligans must have been deliberately trying to embarrass him, right?

At that moment, the curtain of Bak's house was lifted again, and another small figure came out, her voice much softer than her sister's, "Brother... time to brush your teeth," holding a toothbrush with toothpaste and a cup of water.

The noisy courtyard suddenly fell silent!

The group of female hooligans, stunned, looked at the doll in their hands and then at the small girl standing at the door.

She was wearing an almost identical dark red T-shirt, just covering her thighs, with the same honey-colored legs and old slippers. Her face, which didn't need much description, was almost the same, except for slightly longer hair that didn't quite cover her ears. Her expression was a bit less strong, standing at the door.

The girls suddenly burst into a loud scream, "Sisters!"

They let go of the sister and pounced on the younger one!

It wasn't that they didn't want the sister, but they all seemed to subconsciously want to catch the younger one. As a result, they let go, and Bak caught the little beggar who almost collided with the stone bench, looking helplessly at the girls' increased enthusiasm, "A pair of child brides for Brother Xiaoming?!"

"Oh my God! Bak Zhiming! You're worse than a beast..."

"Bak Zhiming! I want to marry into your family and watch you every day to make sure you don't touch these treasures!"

"Oh, Ye Qingqing, you finally said what you really wanted, no wonder you urged us to come back early after work..."

Bak had already held Shen Yinan, and the little girl leaned against him. Hearing this, Bak instinctively let go, but Shen Yinan's face showed a smile that Bak had never seen before...

It was a smile that started from the corners of her eyes, with curved eyes that seemed to come from the depths of her heart. Her lips only slightly turned up, and her still-slim face didn't change much, but her mood was clearly more relaxed than the night before.

A child's sorrow wasn't so heavy, and she could feel the genuine kindness of these boisterous big sisters.

Bak didn't want to disturb her joy, as he was also happy to find that he had no issues after shifting his attention. He stood up confidently and was about to go home.

But Shen Zhaonan, holding the toothbrush and cup of water, eager to escape the harassment, struggled and rushed out, losing her balance and splashing the water and toothbrush onto Bak's crotch!

She quickly hugged Bak's thigh, the 1.4-meter-tall girl looking back fearfully at the group of girls.

Bak was at a loss, looking at his wet shorts and the white, sticky substance on them. The group of female train attendants were already laughing hysterically, some of them even squatting on the ground, holding their stomachs in pain.

Shen Yinan slowly came over, reaching out to hug Bak's other leg, her face showing cautious observation. She hugged tighter, resting her head on Bak's waist, looking at the joyful big sisters.

A sense of unprecedented security and joy filled her heart.