If flowers bloom, youth will naturally follow.

In Ma Dongmei's time, having a second child was illegal. When they had their son, Xiaopang, they were content and responded to the national call to have him sterilized.

"Let's talk about it later," Xia Donghai said weakly, covering his face.

He knew in his heart that, let alone whether the fallopian tubes could be repaired; even if they could be repaired and they could have more children, he and Ma Dongmei were already almost forty years old. By the time the child was twenty, he would be sixty years old. At sixty, he would have difficulty supporting himself, let alone helping his son get married and build a house.

Besides, who can guarantee that having another child will result in a son?

He rubbed his face hard, looked up at the chubby little boy who was at a loss, and felt very sorry for him. This was his own child whom he had doted on for fourteen years.

He forced a smile and comforted the chubby boy, saying, "Don't be afraid, little one, Daddy's here. Daddy will prepare the money for your surgery as soon as we get home."

For Xia Donghai, Xiao Pang's illness was a double blow.

The first blow came from the heart. As someone who favored sons over daughters, he found it extremely difficult to accept that his only son had become a daughter.

The second blow was very real: Xiao Pang's surgery would cost at least 100,000 yuan. But Xia Donghai didn't have the money, or rather, he used to have money, but now he didn't.

……

Xia Donghai and Xiaopang are a perfect example of a tiger father and a dog son, like a weasel giving birth to a mouse. Xiaopang is a good-for-nothing who can't do anything right and can't get enough to eat, while Xia Donghai is indeed a talented person.

He rose from being penniless to becoming one of the few "respectable people" in the village.

Xia Donghai's family was very poor. He was the middle of three brothers and hadn't even finished elementary school. He spent his days doing nothing, associating with a group of bad friends. He spent his days fighting, stealing chickens and dogs, and just wasting his life. He was clearly a good-for-nothing.

His parents were angry that he was useless, and since they had many children, they simply stopped caring about him and let him fend for himself.

The summer he turned eighteen, this kid went to steal melons. He stole some from the neighboring village's chubby grandma's house and was bitten by the big black dog that chubby's mother, Ma Dongmei, who was guarding the melon patch.

"Oh dear, why isn't your dog on a leash? It bites me every time I walk. Luckily it's me. You'd better keep an eye on it." The scoundrel glanced at the innocent-looking girl on the ground, who seemed genuinely concerned. A thought struck him, and he abandoned his plan to cheat her out of her. He got up and pretended to leave magnanimously.

Ma Dongmei, this innocent girl, never imagined that anyone other than ghosts would be walking near the melon field at night. When she saw the two large holes, more than a centimeter deep, on the legs of this young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes, she panicked. After being bitten like that, it would be too much not to retaliate.

So Ma Dongmei warmly called Xia Donghai to the melon shed, gave him some simple treatment for his wound, and offered him some melon.

As a result, a huge surprise was discovered in the village.

Xia Donghai is very handsome, tall, fair-skinned, with a dignified appearance, thick eyebrows and big eyes. When he smiles, he looks like Edison Chen. Even when he's a thug, he looks like an underground worker who has infiltrated the enemy.

This rascal is so clever, he's at the age where he's in heat and misses his wife so much that he can't sleep at night. He worries every day that his reputation is too bad to find a wife, and now a beautiful girl like Ma has fallen from the sky.

Ma Dongmei is of average appearance, as can be seen from her chubby siblings' looks, but she has a girlish purity and vitality, and is also a rare sight to see someone who would show any leniency to a hooligan.

"Damn it, why bother stealing melons?" Xia Donghai immediately had a wicked idea and decided not to steal melons, but to peek at the melon girl instead.

Which girl doesn't love to be pretty? Putting aside Xia Donghai's character, his appearance was one of the best in the whole village. Plus, he was naturally smooth-talking, and the melon thief quickly stole the heart of the melon-watching girl.

……

After the affair was exposed, Xiao Pang's maternal grandparents were furious. Xia Donghai's reputation was so bad that it couldn't stand any more gossip. What family would want to marry their daughter to such a scoundrel?

But Ma Dongmei was determined to marry Xia Donghai, and she cried, made a scene, and even threatened to hang herself: "I'm willing to live a life of hardship with him."

Human hearts are made of flesh and blood. Xia Donghai wasn't completely bad. He was so moved by Ma Dongmei that he ran to his mother-in-law's door, knelt down, and swore: "The whole village is my witness. If I, Xia Donghai, can't make Dongmei live a life of luxury, I'll hang myself from a crooked tree."