From Broken Family to Life Winner: A Reborn Mother's Journey

The alleyway where the Wu Family lived was especially lively that day.

Wu Sheng had gone out first thing in the morning and bought up every last copy of the Imperial Capital Daily he could find at the surrounding newsstands.

When Wu Qihua woke up, the first thing she saw were stacks upon stacks of newspapers in the middle of the living room.

”Why so many newspapers?”

Wu Sheng, who was sitting to one side frowning at a paper, heard Wu Qihua’s question and replied, ”I bought them.”

Seeing Wu Qihua’s confused expression, Wu Sheng smiled. ”Mom, Su Li’s article was published in the paper.”

Wu Qihua was overjoyed. ”Really? Where? Let me see! Oh, Su Li is so capable. She’s not even graduated yet, and she’s already getting published as an intern.”

She rambled on, eagerly flipping through the paper. ”This is such wonderful news! We should definitely buy a bunch to save as keepsakes. We’ll give a copy to everyone in the alleyway later.”

A hint of a smile appeared in Wu Sheng’s eyes. ”Everyone in the alleyway already subscribes to the daily.”

”What they subscribe to is their business. What we give is our gift. It’s different.”

As she spoke, Wu Qihua finally found Su Li’s name. ”Ah, here it is! ’Intern Reporter, Su Li.’ Oh, this is just wonderful.”

She gently touched Su Li’s name on the page. ”I think I heard the phone ring early this morning. Was that Su Li?”

Wu Sheng nodded. ”Yeah. I went out to buy the papers right after she called.”

”Good job, good job. If you’d been any later, you wouldn’t have been able to get so many.” As Wu Qihua spoke, she started reading the article. ”Huh? About domestic violence? This topic...”

Wu Qihua, who had been purely joyful just moments before, looked toward Wu Sheng, her expression shifting slightly.

”I’ve read it,” Wu Sheng nodded, his brow heavy with a hint of gravity.

Wu Qihua paused, then sat down on the sofa to focus on reading the article.

Wu Sheng said nothing and went to wash up.

When he came back out, he saw Wu Qihua sitting on the sofa, her expression now also somber.

”Su Li... Su Li really is a good kid.”

Wu Qihua hadn’t expected Su Li to write such an article. Recalling all the busy work and investigations Su Li had been conducting, a complex mix of emotions filled her eyes.

While doing her research earlier, Su Li had given questionnaires to their neighbors in the alleyway, even asking them to pass them along to people they knew.

At the time, Wu Qihua had no idea this was the kind of work Su Li was doing...

She should have been proud of such an article and its content, but she couldn’t help but feel a heavy weight in her heart. The stories and statistics within were just too shocking.

”I’m going to call Su Li back.”

”Go ahead,” Wu Qihua nodded. She stood up, washed her face, and only then did she seem to regain her spirits.

When Wu Qihua went out to buy soy milk and fried dough sticks, the whole alleyway was already awake. Doors were open in every household, with people sweeping their courtyards and the street outside.

Some were sitting primly on chairs in their yards, wearing glasses and reading the newspaper.

Wu Qihua greeted everyone she passed. ”Come over to my place today if you’re free! I have some good news to share, and there’ll be gifts.”

Everyone was incredibly curious and eagerly asked what was going on, but Wu Qihua played mysterious and didn’t say, stoking their curiosity even more.

Wu Qihua returned with the soy milk and fried dough sticks. The neighbors continued to chat and speculate amongst themselves. After a while, they went about their morning routines: eating breakfast, cleaning up, and heading off to work. Those who remained made their way to the Wu Family’s house.

They wanted to see what Wu Qihua’s ”good news” was all about.

”Don’t tell me your Wu Sheng is finally holding the wedding banquet?”

This was everyone’s first guess.

”All you people do is guess that! I wish we could, but Su Li hasn’t graduated yet. We have to wait for her to graduate, no matter what.”

Wu Qihua welcomed everyone inside to sit. When they saw the newspapers in the living room, they were puzzled.

”Why are there so many newspapers?”

”Take a guess!” Just as Wu Qihua was about to keep them in suspense, an older man in his forties or fifties, wearing reading glasses, came in.

”Teacher Wu, I saw an article in the paper written by an intern reporter named Su Li. Is that your future daughter-in-law?”

The man came in and asked excitedly, shaking the newspaper in his hand.

Wu Qihua was pleasantly surprised. ”You saw it?”

The man was delighted as well. ”So it really was written by your future daughter-in-law! I saw it said ’intern reporter’ and the name was Su Li, so I had to come and ask.”

He slapped his thigh. ”Wow, that’s really impressive.”

Wu Qihua’s face beamed with pride, but she answered humbly, ”It’s not that big of a deal. It’s mainly because she worked so hard, preparing for over a month.”

Though her words were modest, her actions were quick. She picked up one of the papers and handed it to the man with both hands.

”Since you like it, you can take a copy home to keep. The content Su Li wrote is also very good. I think it’s worth a careful read.”

”Yes, the content is very good.”

When the neighbors left, each of them held a copy of the newspaper.

Following the news of her radio broadcast, the word that Su Li’s article had been published in the newspaper also spread quickly through the alleyway.

Everyone inevitably stopped by to offer their congratulations and praise.

Afterward, those who could read quickly dove into the content, while those who couldn’t had their children or grandchildren read it aloud to them to see what Su Li had written.

This, in turn, sparked a heated discussion.

This wasn’t just happening in the Wu Family’s alleyway. If the discussions there were because they knew the author, the discussions elsewhere were entirely due to the article’s content.

A newspaper contains a lot of content, yet it is also limited. When people read the paper, they usually just scan it for headlines that interest them.

If they find something they’re really into or that requires attention, they might spend ten minutes or so reading it. Otherwise, they can flip through the whole thing in a few minutes.

The percentage of people who read everything from cover to cover is very small.

Normally, people would glance through, catch up on current events or read something interesting, and then move on.

Unless there was some major event that everyone was paying attention to.

But such situations were rare. After all, it was a daily paper. Even though it was called the news, there wasn’t really that much *new* happening every single day.

However, this particular day’s paper sparked a great deal of attention and discussion.

The cause of all this attention was none other than Su Li’s report on domestic violence.

Many people knew of domestic violence incidents happening around them—men beating their wives and children, or even people beating their own parents. These things existed in daily life to some extent, but they rarely made the news. People would just talk about it privately, and then it would be forgotten.

But now, just such a story had been reported. And its contents, the data within it, made for heavy reading.

Su Li was in the paper. Wu Sheng had been overjoyed at first, but he grew somber later precisely because of the article’s content.

Su Li had been focusing on domestic violence, conducting numerous interviews and investigations. Just after she finished compiling her data, as luck would have it, she stumbled upon an incident that gave her more than enough reason to publish her report.

The story came from a hospital. A thirty-two-year-old woman, Sister Yu, six months pregnant, had suffered a miscarriage and was hemorrhaging severely. If the hospital hadn’t managed to save her in time, she would have died.

Why the miscarriage? Domestic violence.

She had been beaten so brutally that it induced the miscarriage. At the same time, Sister Yu’s lower leg had also been broken.

And this was not the first, nor the only, tragedy she had endured.

She had been suffering from domestic violence for ten long years, ever since she married into her husband’s family. This wasn’t even the first time she had been beaten into having a miscarriage.

A few years ago, she had been beaten and had a miscarriage then, too. She had been three months pregnant at the time.