Chapter 242: Chapter 242: Adopt Your Son to Me Chapter 242: Chapter 242: Adopt Your Son to Me Jin Lilai kept winking and grimacing at Li Wanru.
Li Wanru knew what Jin Lilai meant. After contemplating for a long time, she said to Lin Qi, “Lin Qi, let me ask you, do you really plan to adopt Lili?”
Lin Qi nodded earnestly and said, “Can you rest assured entrusting Lili to me? I promise you, I will treat Lili well, provide for her education, and ensure she has a good life.”
Li Wanru said, “It’s not about whether I can trust you or not. The main thing is, I see you already have two sons, right? Are you planning to have more children?”
Lin Qi said with a wry smile, “Even if I have more, I can afford to raise them. If I couldn’t afford it, I wouldn’t have more children. Wanru, I won’t hide from you, as you’ve seen, Lili is very pitiable, having been unsupported since she was young, and now she’s like a half-orphan. I want to give her a good life.”
Jin Lilai reluctantly said, “How can she be considered an orphan? I’m her father, and her mother is fine too. You can’t call her an orphan! Let me tell you the truth, we want to take Lili back. I don’t think she’s cut out for schooling, we might as well take her back.”
Lin Qi said, “You’re the one who sent her away, and now you want to take her back? For what, to have her marry and bear children early?”
Jin Lilai, catching Lin Qi’s blunt tone, was also a bit annoyed, “What do you mean by that? Our place isn’t like the city, girls get married very early, and they have children early, too. Moreover, what’s wrong with having children early? Women will eventually have babies anyway, better to have them early and recover sooner.”
Lin Qi hadn’t expected Jin Lilai to speak in such an obvious tone.
What does it mean that women will eventually have to have babies?
Lin Qi said, “A woman’s life is not just about living to have children. You say Lili is not suited for school, but I don’t think so! On the contrary, I think she’s very smart. If she studies well, she will definitely achieve a high level of education. In this era, education is the most important, regardless of gender. With education, one can have a good life.”
Jin Lilai laughed, “No matter how educated, you still have to have children, right? She’s a woman, she’s supposed to have children. In our place, if a woman can’t have children, people will look down on her!”
Lin Qi became increasingly irritated as she listened.
But Momo pressed her hand, “Mommy.”
Lin Qi looked at Momo.
Momo whispered to her, “Don’t stoop to his level, you can tell he’s uneducated and his thinking is stuck in the past. Why waste your breath on him?”
Lin Qi, upon hearing this, suddenly nodded her head, “Alright, Mommy will listen to you.”
She wasn’t as clear-sighted as Momo, who knew not to argue with such a man!
Li Wanru said, “Lin Qi, I saw Lili yesterday, and I felt troubled. After thinking it over and discussing it with my husband for a long time, he also said that Lili is our daughter and we can’t just abandon her, we want to take her back home. I know you’ll treat Lili well, but as you know, a child is most reliable by her birth mother’s side.”
Lin Qi heard this but couldn’t agree.
Although there was a blood relationship between her and Li Wanru, she was her sister, it didn’t mean she would unconditionally agree with everything Li Wanru said.
Compared to her, Li Wanru did indeed have an unhappy life, living in a mindset of backward ideas entrenched in a small county town. It was for this reason that Lin Qi wanted to keep Lili by her side and didn’t want her to grow up in such a backward-thinking place.
She wanted to tell Li Wanru that a woman is not incomplete just because she doesn’t have children, and she doesn’t necessarily need to bear sons; girls don’t have to be tethered to men for life. More education will lead to better opportunities.
But Jin Lilai was present, and she didn’t want to clash with him ideologically. If they started arguing, she didn’t want to waste her breath.
Thus, Lin Qi said, “Don’t worry, if Lili misses you, I will frequently bring her to visit you.”
Li Wanru laughed and said, “Ah… actually, I wanted to try hard to bear the Jin Family a son, but I’m scared it’ll be another girl, so I dare not have more children. I’m thinking if I take Lili back, and when she grows up, she can stay by my side. When my husband and I get old, we’ll have someone to take care of us.”
Lin Qi asked, “How many pregnancies have you had?”
Li Wanru said, “I’ve been pregnant four times. The eldest daughter is already 12 years old, the third girl is 5, and the twins, fourth and fifth, are both girls.”
Lin Qi frowned as she heard this, inwardly taking a sharp breath.
Li Wanru had five children!
She was the same age as Li Wanru, and when she was having Momo and Han, it was so difficult she nearly died. That’s why she now had a fear of pregnancy.
After all, she personally knew how hard it is to be pregnant for ten months. Why would Li Wanru willingly have one child after another?
Wasn’t she a woman who didn’t discriminate based on gender? Or was it that she had to keep bearing children so her in-laws could cradle a son?
Lin Qi said, “Why have so many?”
Li Wanru said with a bitter smile, “What can I do when I’m not fated to have sons? You don’t understand, it’s not like the cities here. If we don’t have sons, who will when we’re old?”
Lin Qi was at a loss for words.
That was the case, indeed.
In county towns, rural insurance really didn’t amount to much. Many older people who had spent their lives farming could not rely much on rural insurance when they got old; they depended on their descendants for support.
Without sons, not only were they considered inferior, but they were also disrespected, and without a man in the house, life really wasn’t that great when one got old.
One should not preach to others without knowing their pains.
She understood this principle.
Li Wanru said, “How about this then? If you really insist on adopting our Lili, why don’t you adopt out one of your sons to me?”
Lin Qi didn’t catch on at first, but upon realization, she was shocked when Li Wanru asked her to adopt out a son to her, “Why…?”
Li Wanru said, “One daughter for one son, fair exchange! Lili is my flesh and blood, if you want to take her and raise her, then… who will in the future? You gave birth to two sons, which means you’re fated to have sons. If you have more children, they’ll surely be boys. If you adopt out one son to me, this way, Lili will be yours, and you’ll have both a son and a daughter. I won’t have to worry about having no one to support me when I’m old.”
Lin Qi shook her head, “No way!”
She declined without a second thought.
Jin Lilai asked, “Why not?”
Lin Qi said, “I’ve never heard of such a request.”
Jin Lilai said, “You’re trying to take our daughter, you have two sons, and giving us one wouldn’t be a loss, right?”
Lin Qi said, “But that’s not how you should talk about it.”
She knew that such arrangements, like adoption, were commonplace in their area, but Jin Lilai’s intentions seemed less than pure!