China’s adoption procedures were actually very troublesome. However, the conditions for adopting orphans, disabled children, or abandoned infants and children raised by social welfare institutions whose biological parents could not be found, also happened to be very liberal. The adopter was only required to be at least 30 years old. Liu Yao was thirty-nine years old this year, and Meng Qi was three years younger than him, so both of them met the age requirements for adopters. Moreover, the two of them were a married same sex couple and would not have children in the future.
The most important thing was that the adoptee Tao Mu had already reached the age of eighteen. According to the law, he was already a person with full capacity for civil conduct, and independently enjoyed civil rights and the undertaking of civil obligations. This meant that even if Liu Yao adopted Tao Mu, the two parties would not have any moral and legal risks due to the adopter’s sexual orientation.
So in order to go through the adoption procedures, only the agreement of both parties was needed in order to submit an adoption application to the orphanage, and then go to the adoption registration office to go through the relevant registration procedures, and finally make a stop at the local police station to register for a permanent household registration.
It was much simpler than adopting a child under 14 years old.
But even so it still took a full week for the three of them to go through all the procedures.
On the day the new household registration book was issued, Tao Mu was in a silly and happy state for a long time as he held the freshly minted household registration book. Slender fingers flipped back and forth between the front page and the page marked with all family members, and from time to time they would turn to a separate page with his own information listed on it. It stated the name Tao Mu, gender male, and his relationship with the head of the household…..
A thin book of about 143 mm long and 105 mm wide, was fumbled repeatedly by Tao Mu, almost even tearing it apart.
Tao Mu did not have his own household registration book. The children who grew up in the orphanage had only their own ID cards, but no household registration books. The household register of all orphans was registered on the collective household register of the orphanage. It was like a university student could put his household register under the university they attended.
Tao Mu did not move his household register when he returned to the Shen family in his last life. Don’t know if the original book’s plot halo was overly Mary Sue and made everyone ignore this, or for some other reason. Anyway, the Shen family didn’t mention ever transferring his household register. Tao Mu himself mentioned it once only to be ridiculed by Shen Yan who said that he “just returned to the Shen family and couldn’t wait to determine the separation of the family property without even recognizing the faces of everyone in the family yet” and that he “looked forward to the early death of his parents”. After that, this matter ceased to be brought up, and even until Tao Mu was later driven out of the Shen family, Tao Mu’s name was still never listed on the Shen family’s household registration book.
Until his death in his last life, he still had the extravagant hope that he could return to the Shen family again and be accepted by the Shen family. Therefore, even if he was kicked out by the Shen family, he never thought about setting up a separate household registration book. Even if he later bought his own property and villa in Shanghai, his household register was still linked to the collective household register of Shanghai University. Even if he had graduated, the school did not urge him to move his register out of the university’s collective one. Don’t know if that was the effect of the plot halo, making everyone forget about this, or because of other reasons.
It was worth mentioning that when Tao Mu drove Shen Yu out of the Shen family in his previous life, he did not propose to move Shen Yu’s household register from the Shen family. So until his death, Shen Yu’s household register remained with the Shen family. It was funny to think about it now. As the biological son of the Shen family, he wasn’t even worth a household register. But the cuckoo who occupied the nest overtly and without making any secret of it stayed on the Shen family’s household register and even the Shen family genealogical record.
It was no wonder that when Tao Mu made things difficult for Shen Yu, the old friends of the Shen family all stood forward to stop him. He had believed that it was because Shen Yu’s charm was indeed great, but now that he thought about it, it was clear that the attitude of the Shen family was too obvious, and everyone was happy to do such a simple favor for the Shen family.
After reliving his life, Tao Mu spent 30 to 40 years and finally got his own household registration book. When he went onto the household register, Liu Yao carefully asked him if he wanted to change his surname or something——Liu Yao didn’t mean anything else. He just wanted to tell Tao Mu that no matter what the surname of their little pup was, he still regarded Tao Mu as his son and in the future, Tao Mu was responsible for his retirement support. He would also hand over all the family property to Meng Qi and Tao Mu to inherit——it was to be a formal, legally recognized family relationship.
But after thinking about it for several days, Tao Mu decided not to change his surname. He was Tao Mu, neither Shen Mu nor Liu Mu. He was just himself. From now on, he would never hurt himself because of those people who didn’t even care about him.
Since he didn’t manage to live with a clear head in his previous life, he would relive it again in this life. An upright man changed neither his name nor surname. He wanted to use the name Tao Mu and relive his life with a clear head.
Liu Yao and Meng Qi recognized Tao Mu the person as their son, and did not pay much attention to Tao Mu’s name. Whether Tao Mu was Liu Mu or not, so long as it was his person then it was alright. So they did not waste any more time, and simply and directly put his name on the household registration book. From the police station, Liu Yao drove his Grand Cherokee, the co-pilot sitting Meng Qi as usual, and their freshly baked precious son in the backseat. The family of three drove straight to Song Ji.
Old man Song personally cooked, and almost didn’t make a full banquet table. There were nearly thirty dishes in a dazzling array, all of which Tao Mu liked to eat. Dean Tao, Feng Yuan, and the two workers in the restaurant helped out in the kitchen. Qin Miaoru and her brothers also helped.
——When Qin Miaoru came to Beijing, Tao Mu specially took them to Song Ji for a welcome reception. At that time, Qin Miaoru had taken a fancy to Houhai and felt that this place was full of the bustle of human life and friendly atmosphere. Even the cries of hawkers out on the streets and alleys heard every morning were particularly interesting. So she slapped her thigh and began to look around in Houhai, finally renting a three-story shop on the street two alleys away from Song Ji to open an Internet cafe. The business was also quite booming.
Moreover, Qin Miaoru and the others were quite a crowd, and they were also passionate and lively. Knowing the relationship between Tao Mu and dean Tao and old man Song, they liked to run over here when they had nothing else to do. Especially as it was October, when every household began to pickle cabbages, potatoes, radishes, and sauerkraut. Qin Miaoru had her burly brothers come to the orphanage and Song Ji to help out. Occasionally, they would also stay the night in the courtyard houses of Song Ji when it got too late. There were many rooms in the old man’s house anyway.
Later, the group of people simply connected the network cable to the old man’s courtyard residence, and even forced him to learn how to play games online. They also found him a few online chess games saying that “When you can’t find a chess friend, just play two games with netizens, lest you become bored.” If the old man didn’t like it, they would persist like sticky candy until the old man accepted these new things.
Old man Song was so annoyed that he wanted to raise the broomstick and beat this group of people out.
When Tao Mu was smeared by a dozen media outlets bought by Yao Wenxiao, the old man just learned how to type in Pinyin. Seeing someone scolding their little pup on the Internet, he registered a FlyNews account in anger overnight, and used his one-finger typing speed to launch a verbal battle against the other. After the other party already typed out a hundred sentences, he could barely finish a single sentence. This vexed the old man so much he began to curse in Beijing dialect. It truly let Qin Miaoru and gang experience the essence of Beijing style cursing.
Qin Miaoru immediately directed her group of brothers and the netizens who came to the Internet cafe, according to the favorable discount of helping to scold for an hour earning them another hour for free playing. Using the old man’s style of scolding, they fought the antis online for three days and three nights. Soon their Internet cafe even became famous after the scolding battle!
With such a comrade-in-arms-like friendship, the old man’s attitude towards Qin Miaoru and gang also eased a lot. The lonely old man finally got used to these noisy damn kids. He even shut down Song Ji for a few days and found a construction team to redecorate several wing rooms in the courtyard residence. Not only was the network cables connected, air conditioning and heating was also installed. The doors and windows, tables and chairs that the old man refused to repair despite them lacking arms and legs were now all repaired. The windows were replaced with new glass, and dim old light bulbs were replaced with new ones and covered with lampshades. Finally, with a cold face, he rented out a few wing rooms to Qin Miaoru and the gang——lest this bunch of young men and one girl could only squeeze into the private rooms of the Internet cafe to sleep. It really was not a proper way to live.
So when Tao Mu came back to the courtyard residence, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the courtyard was more livelier than before. In the formerly empty front yard, which made people feel empty when seeing it, there were all kinds of messy things lying about, all of which Qin Miaoru and the others had brought from the Internet cafe, and had not had time to arrange. The autumn sun poured down from the cracks between the branches of the lush old locust tree, and the whole yard was golden and warm, the whole place feeling more lived in than before.
He hooked up the corners of his mouth and gave Qin Miaoru a particularly pleased look——it was really worth it for him to pull Qin Miaoru from H Town to Song Ji. Sure enough, their old man liked this bunch of rough-and-ready, coarse types who were more likely to follow the code of righteousness than those clever “proper” folks.
While everyone was not paying attention, Qin Miaoru approached Tao Mu and lowered her voice: “My internet cafe opened for a month and earned more than 100,000 yuan. The money you lent me to open the internet cafe, should I pay back some of it first?”
“No.” Tao Mu waved his hand quietly. He originally brought Qin Miaoru and gang out of H Town, on the one hand, because he valued Zhang Fei’s talent, and on the other hand, he valued Qin Miaoru’s character and integrity. Of course Tao Mu also knew that it was difficult to make a living in the capital. So as soon as Qin Miaoru arrived in Beijing, Tao Mu lent one million yuan to Qin Miaoru. No matter what business Qin Miaoru wanted to do in the future, there would always be a million yuan to rely on: “I am not in a hurry to spend money. Your Internet cafe has just opened and needs working capital, lest something happens and you don’t have the funds to solve it.”
“By the way, you opened the Internet cafe in Houhai, right. Have you taken care of all official procedures and everything?” Tao Mu asked again. The business of operating an Internet cafe was not the same as other businesses, and one must understand what needed to be taken care of.
“Don’t worry.” Qin Miaoru smiled and patted Tao Mu on the shoulder: “Brother Yao helped us very much. With him, things are much easier. It’s easier than when I first went to H Town.”
Tao Mu knew Liu Yao’s abilities and connections so he nodded immediately, and suddenly realized: “You can’t call him brother Yao now.”
“Huh?” Qin Miaoru was confused, and then she reacted instantly, and said with a mischievous smile: “Then I will change it to uncle Yao in the future?”
Tao Mu smiled and gave Qin Miaoru a “you got it” look, and then entered the room.
“What are you whispering outside? The food is getting cold.” The old man glared at Tao Mu with an annoyed look: “Not even active when eating, hurry up and wash your hands.”
“Ai~” Tao Mu answered in a happy tone, and ran off to wash his hands. When he came back, he personally poured wine for the old man, dean Tao, Liu Yao and Meng Qi. When he attempted to pour it for Feng Yuan, Feng Yuan took the wine bottle. The child first poured a glass for Tao Mu, and then one by one he poured down the table until everyone’s wine glasses were full.
Liu Yao raised his glass with a flushed and happy face: “Today is a day of great joy for our family of three. Thank you, old man, for taking care of this meal for us. You have worked so hard. I also thank everyone for helping us. I represent our family of three to make a toast to everyone.”
Everyone toasted and drank together with smiles. It was just that when drinking, the old man sighed a little: “I wanted to adopt this stinky boy early on. At that time, he was still small, and because of the previous incident, he refused to be adopted. Saying that he didn’t want to be abandoned by adoptive parents again. So I never mentioned it again. It seems that we have no father and son fate.”
The old man’s remarks were full of bitterness. Immediately the table full of festive people quieted down. Everyone looked at each other, and dean Tao couldn’t help but console: “Don’t think like this. We all know this child, Tao Mu, is kind and righteous. Even if you are not recognized as a father by him, he will not forget your kindness to him.”
Old man Song sighed silently. Of course he knew Tao Mu’s disposition. But without this level of relationship, it was still lacking something after all. Maybe like a fortune teller said earlier in his life, he was fated to be lonely and bring misfortune to everyone close to him, killing his wife and son and destined to die alone.
Tao Mu couldn’t bear it anymore. He picked up the bottle and poured a glass of wine. He walked to the old man and then bent his knees and knelt down suddenly: “Old man, I know you are very good to me. I, Tao Mu, was an ungrateful wretch before. But not anymore. If you believe me, I will treat you as my grandfather, my dear grandfather from now on. I will definitely support you in the future and provide for you in old age.”
After finishing talking, before Song Daozhen could react, he kowtowed three times, knocking his forehead to the floor.
Song Daozhen was stunned. After being frozen for a long time, trembling hands took the wine glass in Tao Mu’s hand, and before it was even brought to his mouth, practically half of the wine in the shaking glass was spilled out. The old man’s eyes reddened, and tears fell into the wine glass. The old man drank the wine mixed with tears in one gulp.
“Good! Good!” Song Daozhen clenched the wine glass with one hand and patted his thigh fiercely, unable to say another word.
This time it was Liu Yao sitting on the sidelines who felt conflicted. The nearly forty-year-old big man looked at his freshly baked precious son with melancholy. His precious son hadn’t even called him dad yet, but he first recognized a grandfather for himself.
However, they all knew the relationship between Song Daozhen and Tao Mu. So even if he was jealous, he was unable to voice it. Coupled with the fact that both Liu Yao and his wife also knew about Song Daozhen’s past, it was inevitable to feel slightly sad when seeing the old man holding back tears at this moment.
It was not easy to be alone for so many years.
Liu Yao and Meng Qi sighed, and saw Tao Mu pouring two more glasses of wine and kneeling before them. Before he even spoke, Tao Mu himself could not help but flush red. Even after a few days of mental preparation, this kind of change was still embarrassing.
Tao Mu took a deep breath and shouted, “Dad, have a drink.”
Liu Yao froze immediately and then let out a shiver. It was Meng Qi who reacted first, took the glass of wine that Tao Mu poured Liu Yao, drank it contentedly, and responded loudly, “Ai, my good son.”
As he spoke, he took out the red envelope that he had prepared for a long time from his pocket——Meng Qi thought at the time that if Tao Mu called him dad, it would be a name-changing fee. If he was too embarrassed to change the way he called them, it would be just a normal red envelope. In any case, there must be such a ceremony anyway. After all, for such a festive event as recognizing a son, there must be a red envelope.
Liu Yao didn’t react until Meng Qi finished up all the wine. He glanced aggrievedly at Meng Qi——only for Meng Qi to look back with a smile. He instantly rubbed his nose and remained silent.
Alright then. I am the head of the household on the household registration book, while you are the head of our family. It makes sense to toast you first.
Liu Yao comforted himself, stretched out his hand to take the wine glass that Tao Mu handed him and drank it. He then gave Tao Mu a red envelope as well.
When everyone saw this, they clapped their hands with a sense of ceremony. Dean Tao looked at the happy family of three, and joked with Song Daozhen, who was holding his tears and emotions back: “You see how suitable you are. Earlier, if you adopted Xiao Mu, you could only adopt one son. Now how good it is, you even have two sons along with a grandson. There are three generations of family members you have here. I hope that the fourth generation will come along soon.”
Liu Yao, who had just taken a gulp of the wine, had not even had time to be thankful that he had become a father: “…..”
Meng Qi, who also became a new father: “…..”
Only Tao Mu rubbed his nose with a guilty conscience and lowered his head.
There should be no problem with three generations of family members. But it was difficult to speak of a fourth generation——
After all, he was not going to be having any children in this life.
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