Chapter 74: The Memories From Before The Age Of Five
TN: bonus chapter💕
Gao Yonghuai made this phone call to Tao Mu because in addition to whistleblowing, he naturally had a little bit of gossipy interest.
The development momentum of FlyNews had been too strong recently, and Tao Mu was not pleasing to everyone in the industry. Some were just waiting for Tao Mu to trip up and faceplant.
However, it was going a bit overboard to make a fuss about one's background. Not to mention that Tao Mu was only five years old. Even if there was something wrong, one remark "children do not understand" could turn the situation around. So even if Gao Yonghuai heard the news, he just felt that the methods of the perpetrator behind the scenes were too dark and ruthless, and Tao Mu was a bit unlucky with little villains recently. He didn't have any thoughts of throwing stones at Tao Mu however.
Of course, it was a good show to see the young and successful CEO Tao in a headache when he was feeling idle.
"It seems that CEO Tao has come across an unlucky spot and offended a villain." On the other end of the phone, Gao Yonghuai suggested in a leisurely manner: "I heard that the incense in the Great Buddha Temple is very good. CEO Tao might want to burn incense and pray to Buddha to get rid of the bad luck?"
"Many thanks to CEO Gao for the suggestion, I will consider it." After putting down the phone, Tao Mu rubbed his face weakly.
"What's wrong?" Meng Qi walked to Tao Mu and patted Tao Mu on the shoulder: "Whose call was it?"
"CEO Gao from Weibo." Tao Mu glanced at the FlyNews employees around him, and smiled bitterly: "Let's go back and talk about it later."
Meng Qi saw that Tao Mu's mood was not good, and immediately took Tao Mu home.
On the way back, Tao Mu closed his eyes and leaned against the window of the co-pilot seat. The flickering neon lights outside the window shone on his face, and the radiant light and shadow casted his outline deeper.
Tao Mu recalled his situation before the age of five.
He told Li Xiaoheng that he had a high fever when he was five years old, and he couldn't remember the past.
Actually it was not true.
Tao Mu still had a little impression of things before the age of five. He vaguely remembered that his adoptive parents had treated him well.
Tao Mu's adoptive parents were an infertile couple. Dean Tao said that at that time Tao Mu had just been sent to the orphanage. Because he was good-looking, he didn't like to cry, and he was still a young child, many couples wanted to adopt him. Dean Tao thought carefully and finally handed Tao Mu to his adoptive parents. She felt that this couple could give Tao Mu a normal family environment and let Tao Mu grow up healthy.
The development was also as Dean Tao expected. After the couple adopted Tao Mu, they were very kind to Tao Mu. At least Tao Mu didn't know that he was not the biological child of his parents before he was five years old. Only occasionally, when Tao Mu was playing with the neighbors' children in the neighborhood, he could always hear the neighboring aunts talking with his parents that the child they picked up was quite smart. Tao Mu went back and asked his parents what was a picked up child? His adoptive parents put their arms around Tao Mu and said that he was a child picked up from the garbage dump.
Later, Tao Mu asked other friends in the neighborhood and found that everyone had been picked up from the garbage dump.
Four years of good days passed. The couple who adopted Tao Mu also happened to have the surname Tao, so they didn't change Tao Mu's name. They only gave him a nickname called Xiao Bao. It meant mom and dad’s little treasure.
It was a pity that an adopted child won't ever compare to a biological child. Probably in the summer of the fourth year of adopting him, Tao Mu's adoptive mother accidentally discovered that she was pregnant. This surprise made his adoptive father and mother especially happy, and Tao Mu was also happy. He actually liked children very much and hoped that his parents would give him a younger brother.
But soon, the attitude of his adoptive father and mother towards Tao Mu changed. The couple who once regarded Tao Mu as their own son and held him preciously in the palm of their hands began to feel dislike towards Tao Mu. They began to complain that he was too noisy and annoying. They would push him around and hit him once or twice at every turn, and never hugged him anymore.
Tao Mu didn't know what was going on at that time, only knew that his parents hated his naughtiness and didn't like him, so he didn't dare to make a noise or make a fuss. However, now his adoptive parents felt that it was not a good thing that Tao Mu had such a gloomy temperament at such a young age.
After his younger brother was born, his adoptive mother guarded against him more and more. Tao Mu vaguely remembered that his adoptive mother refused to let him into the bedroom for fear that he would hurt his younger brother. So Tao Mu would lean on the window outside the bedroom, his face pressed against the glass, watching his adoptive mother hold his younger brother in her arms, pat him tenderly, and nurse him.
His younger brother was just a few months old, so small, dark and not good-looking at all. But his crying was particularly loud. Tao Mu felt that his younger brother was very cute, like the little black wolf dog in the neighbor's house. The hair was soft, and the body was warm when he hugged it.
Tao Mu used to feed it ham. But since his younger brother was born, he had no milk to drink, no cakes to eat, and his parents didn't buy him ham sausages anymore as well. But the big wolf dog from the neighbor's house still clung to him.
It would be nice if his younger brother could also cling to him like that.
Tao Mu felt that he could be without new clothes and toys and just play with his younger brother, which was good as well.
Unfortunately, his adoptive father and adoptive mother never let him approach his younger brother. One day, his adoptive father was working outside and his adoptive mother was washing clothes in the yard. His younger brother in the bedroom suddenly began to cry. Tao Mu, who was squatting in the corner of the yard, hurriedly dropped the branch in his hand and ran into the room to look at his younger brother.
His younger brother, such a small little thing, with small arms and legs, was wrapped in a small quilt. The black face was flushed from crying, and his nose was also bubbling with snot.
Tao Mu leaned forward and carefully touched his younger brother's cheek with his finger.
Soft and smooth, like the cake his adoptive mother used to make for him. Very tender.
His adoptive mother who was sitting in the yard washing clothes heard the crying and hurried in. She saw Tao Mu standing next to his crying younger brother. She came in and threw a slap without asking anything. Insisting that he had hurt his younger brother.
The small Tao Mu was slapped dumbfounded by his adoptive mother. His tender fair little face was covered with a red palm print as he cried and explained that he did not hit his younger brother. He didn't make his younger brother cry.
His adoptive mother didn't listen. She picked up his younger brother and scolded him viciously. While scolding, she picked up the feather duster and beat him with it. She scolded him for being an ungrateful wretch, scolded him for having a cruel heart, scolded him for being vicious at such a young age, and predicted that he would commit crimes in the future. The neighbors who lived in the same neighborhood couldn't bear it and came over to persuade her. Someone helped Tao Mu explain that Tao Mu really just ran in when he heard crying from the house. Immediately afterwards, his adoptive mother also followed, so Tao Mu had no time to do anything to his younger brother. His adoptive mother was stopped by so many people and had no choice but to bitterly put down the feather duster in her hand, but she still stood in the bedroom yelling viciously.
An old grandmother next door took Tao Mu to her house and gave him white rabbit toffee candy. Holding her arms around him and sighing that a child without a father or mother had a difficult life.
Tao Mu didn't know his birth background at that time, so he naively argued that he had a father and mother. The old lady cried with her arms around him.
When his adoptive father came back from work in the evening his adoptive mother dragged him into the bedroom, and the two of them remained locked up in the bedroom for a long time to discuss. When they came out, they said they would take Tao Mu out to play.
Tao Mu was too young at the time, and he was very happy to hear that his parents were going to take him out to play. But the result was that his adoptive parents only sent him back to the orphanage.
Tao Mu remembered that it was raining heavily that day, and he was just thrown directly at the door of the orphanage by his adoptive parents. He watched his adoptive father rush off into the rain in the family van. The rain that day was so heavy, like a curtain of beads, pouring down so hard he could not open his eyes. Tao Mu stood crying at the door of the orphanage, crying for a long time but no one noticed. His throat was cried hoarse.
It seemed that it was only until the next morning, did the worker who came out to buy vegetables saw Tao Mu lying on the ground. Shocked, she quickly called Dean Tao out.
Dean Tao took him in and asked who he was and why he stayed at the door of the orphanage all night?
Tao Mu said that his name was Tao Mu, and he was thrown at the door of the orphanage by his parents. He also reported the names of his parents to Dean Tao.
Dean Tao remembered Tao Mu and his adoptive parents, and she knew immediately what happened. Because Tao Mu's adoptive parents registered various procedures when adopting Tao Mu, dean Tao led Tao Mu across half of the city of Beijing to find his adoptive parents.
But they were blocked by his adoptive mother at the gate of the neighborhood and prevented from entering. Dean Tao asked Tao Mu's adoptive mother why she threw him at the door of the orphanage and threatened Tao Mu's adoptive parents to sue them for abandonment. Tao Mu's adoptive mother yelled that Tao Mu had abused her child at such a young age. They dared not keep Tao Mu, lest Tao Mu would harm their biological son.
She also said something like the "Minor Protection Law" protected child murderers. Tao Mu had a vicious personality at a young age so they dared not take their son's life seriously.
The neighbors in the same neighborhood couldn't bear to hear this, and some helped speak out for Tao Mu. But every word of help was thrown back by Tao Mu's adoptive mother.
"Your words sound very nice, why don't you raise him then?"
"This is raising a child, not only must you provide him with food and clothing and education, but also support him in marrying a wife and having children in the future. Do you think it is to raise a cat or a dog? Do you think it doesn't cost money?"
"I have a biological son, why should I raise someone else's son instead? His parents don't want him, so why ask me, an irrelevant outsider, to raise him instead? I have already raised him for five years for no good cause, which is already very good of me."
The adoptive parents who once loved you like a pearl, but after having their own son, they abandon you like a worn out shoe and loathe you like an obstacle.
Tao Mu also learned from that day that he was really not the biological son of his parents. So his parents were not obligated to support him for life.
In this world, only biological parents would treat their children unconditionally and unreservedly. However, not long after Tao Mu was born, he was abandoned in a rental house by his biological mother.
He was a child not wanted even by his biological parents.
Later Tao Mu followed dean Tao back to the orphanage. Before leaving, his adoptive mother packed Tao Mu's things, including some clothes and toys, as well as the birthday photos from the photo studio they took Tao Mu every year on his birthday.
"Even though I am not your biological mother, I still raised you for a while. I gave you all that could be given to you. Don't blame me. You can only blame yourself for your bad luck. Even your biological mother did not want you. Not to mention us outsiders."
The parents who used to coax him to eat and sleep with their arms around him became outsiders. Holding his toy wooden gun and photos, Tao Mu cried all the way back to the orphanage with dean Tao. That night he had a high fever.
After waking up, he no longer remembered the past.
Later, he went to H Town to be an extra, and accidentally learned that he actually had biological parents. His parents did not deliberately abandon him in a rental house. Everything was a misunderstanding.
Tao Mu remembered what his adoptive mother had said: Only biological parents would treat their children unconditionally well. They would stand on their side without any reason, something outsiders could not do.
However, Tao Mu's biological parents were not good to him. They treated him as nothing, treated him as an enemy.
Tao Mu therefore felt that perhaps in this life, he was fated to be without biological parents and other blood related family.
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