Chapter 222 Original Sin 31
Liu Ying and Lu Jian had just finished grilling the meat when they heard someone knocking on their door. The two were a bit puzzled, wondering who would visit at mealtime?
Lu Jian went to open the door and saw an elderly woman with white hair but dressed neatly with a scholarly air, along with a little boy who looked about seven or eight years old, as thin as a skeleton, with a tiny neck and a big head.
Lu Jian recognized this elderly woman as a neighbor living upstairs, a university professor who is now retired and at home caring for her grandson. He didn’t know her name, only her surname Zhang. Because she looked young, the younger people in the building called her Aunt Zhang, while those of the same age called her Professor Zhang or Old Zhang.
This Professor Zhang had quite a bitter fate. Her husband died when she was young, and she raised her daughter alone. Unfortunately, her daughter met an unworthy man. She stood by him when they had nothing, and when they became wealthy, he turned his attention to a young and beautiful mistress.
The scumbag divorced Professor Zhang’s daughter, citing her lack of financial means, and took custody of the child. Worse, he even forbade Professor Zhang’s daughter from visiting her child.
Professor Zhang’s daughter is strong-willed and agreed to the divorce. She then went out to build her career. By the time she established her own company and had the financial means to fight for her child’s custody, she discovered that her beloved son had developed autism and an eating disorder in just a few short years!
The twelve-year-old boy looked only seven or eight, skin and bone, with thin limbs that seemed like they would snap at a touch. To Professor Zhang’s daughter, only children in starving African slums resembled this!
Professor Zhang’s daughter furiously sued her ex-husband and the mistress, even hiring a team of lawyers. She also took action against her ex-husband’s company. His success was largely due to her substantial help, yet he was dissatisfied because her abilities surpassed his, leading him to seek a gentle mistress who idolized him.
The final result was naturally a victory for Professor Zhang’s daughter. The mistress got sentenced for child abuse, her ex-husband’s company went bankrupt, and he returned to having nothing, as he did before marrying Professor Zhang’s daughter. However, even after getting revenge on her ex-husband and the mistress, Professor Zhang’s daughter wasn’t pleased, because the harm suffered by her son was irreversible.
A woman managing a company must exert several times more effort than a man. Professor Zhang’s daughter couldn’t spare enough time to accompany her son and had to leave him with her mother while trying to spend as much time with him as possible.
Professor Zhang deeply sympathized with her grandson, treating him as well as she could. Whenever he wanted something, she gave it to him. Yet her grandson remained eerily quiet, not speaking for over two weeks, barely eating besides drinking water.
While others ate to feel full, Professor Zhang’s only concern each day was whether her grandson consumed enough calories and protein to sustain life. She’d taken her grandson to see psychologists and tried all kinds of snacks to entice him, but none had any allure for her grandson.
Originally, like every other day, Professor Zhang was preoccupied with figuring out what to prepare for her grandson when a captivating aroma wafted through the window.