Siheyuan: Born a Baby, Yi Zhonghai Can't Get Rid of Me

In the bitter winter of 1952, at Courtyard No. 95 on Nanluoguxiang, a baby abandoned outside the police station opened his eyes and immediately recognized the courtyard full of vermin. But before he could catch his breath, his starving body began to cry.

At the whole-courtyard meeting, Yi Zhonghai preached about benevolence and morality, then passed the buck to Liu Huizhen, the poorest widow. No one expected this woman, who had twin daughters and could barely feed herself, to actually step forward. That very night, she braved the snowstorm to sell her blood at the hospital, just to get a bowl of brown sugar water to feed the baby in her arms.

His two sisters, thin as bean sprouts, stood by the kang and pushed their Mickey Mouse milk candies back into their mother's hands, saying they should be saved for their little brother. But Deaf Granny and Yi Zhonghai had already spread the word. They were just waiting for the neighborhood office to show up so they could send the baby of unknown origins away, fair and square.

Shen Yuan Chao gazed out from his little bamboo cart at the shabby but cozy home, with just one thought in his heart: no one was going to tear this family apart. As for how to protect it, he'd have to start by learning to roll over.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any similarities are purely coincidental. Do not imitate.