He Tiantian treated everyone around her with a grateful heart. However, reaching middle age, she discovered she had been living inside a full-bodied lie.
Returning to the year 1970, He Tianti...
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Seeing the people coming and going around him, He Jingyu felt rather embarrassed.
Qi Ling, observing the situation, quickly said, "Uncle He, let's talk in my office. There are too many people here, it's not convenient to talk."
"Thank you very much," He Jingyu said gratefully, but it wasn't appropriate to disclose the information before determining what kind of poison it was.
Qi Ling and He Jingyu arrived at Qi Ling's office one after the other.
Qi Ling first gestured for He Jingyu to come over, then personally closed the door and said, "Uncle He, you can speak now? What happened?"
He Jingyu took out two hardened sugar cakes from the package and said, "Qiling, look, these were sent to us by Liu Lingli, an educated youth from Hujia Village. She and we are both from Nanshi, but our relationship is only so-so. A while ago, she got married and asked my daughter to attend the wedding banquet. My daughter gave a gift and a monetary gift, but didn't eat there. A few days after the wedding, she sent us some cakes. Who knew that our rooster was naughty and ate a few bites of the cakes, and by evening it was listless. I didn't dare let them eat the cakes anymore, worried that there might be something wrong with them. So I fed the rooster cakes for two or three days, and that's how this strong rooster became like this."
He Jingyu opened a cardboard box next to him, inside which was a sickly-looking rooster, listless and dispirited.
Qi Ling felt greatly invigorated upon hearing the words "Hu Family Village"!
Although Hu Erlai and Hu Gou Dan's murder case has been solved and the accountant Hu has confessed and admitted to the crime, Qi Ling still feels something is amiss, but without evidence, he can only give up.
Now the Hu family is in trouble again, and it's poisoning?
If he can confirm the poisoning, he can go to Hujia Village to investigate the case again.
"Uncle He, please leave the things here. I'll take them to the lab later and have my colleagues test them. If there are any problems, then we can report it to the police," Qi Ling suggested. He reasoned that if the rooster was just sick and there was nothing in the pancake, making a false report would negatively impact He Jingyu's reputation.
He Jingyu nodded and said, "Okay, but how long will this take? If it's short, I'll wait here; if it's long, I'll go back to Qijia Village first."
"Uncle He, why don't you go home and rest first? I'll ask my colleagues, and I'll personally come to your house after get off work to tell you the exact time," Qi Ling suggested. His home was in the same neighborhood as He Jingyu's, not far away.
"Okay, I'll wait for you at home," He Jingyu said, exchanged a few pleasantries, and then left.
Qi Ling took the samples to the laboratory and asked his colleagues, who said it would take a week to get the results.
Qi Ling left the items there and asked his colleagues in the laboratory to get the results as soon as possible.
That evening, Qi Ling went to tell He Jingyu the specific date.
"Since it's a week, let's come back in a week," He Jingyu said. "I still have things to do in Qijia Village!"
“Uncle He, if there are any problems with the results, I will take people over to investigate,” Qi Ling said. “You don’t need to go through the trouble of making the trip.”
Qi Ling was in such a hurry because he wanted to go to Hujia Village to investigate the case again.
Upon hearing this, He Jingyu was overjoyed and said, "That would be even better. It takes two days to travel back and forth, which is very tiring."
He Jingyu rested for a night, and the next morning he took a car back to Taoyuan County, and then went to Niu Lili's place to ride his bicycle back to Qijia Village.
These past few days, Wang Shuping has been feeling anxious and fearful, constantly sensing that someone wants to harm them and lacking a sense of security.
He Tiantian told her mother to stay at home and not go to Taoyuan.
Anyway, there are people arranged by Secretary Qi to guard Taoyuan, so nothing will happen.
After sending out the sweet cakes, Liu Lingli became restless.
In fact, she was also very conflicted. She knew that the person in the shadows had been using her all along.
But she couldn't refuse each time.
She has already killed two people. Sometimes at night, she dreams of Hu Erlai and Hu Gou Dan coming after her.
"Da Mao, is this dog sick? It looks listless all day long," Old Hu asked his son. "If it's not sick, then slaughter it; at least we can have some meat."
Hu Damao hadn't eaten meat in a long time and was already craving it. He said, "It shouldn't be sick. Never mind, let's kill it and eat meat!"
Liu Lingli sat inside the house and looked out the window at the interaction between Old Man Hu and Hu Damao.
In truth, Liu Lingli was disgusted by them and their poverty, and wished they were dead so she could be out of sight and out of mind.
However, if this father and son get sick, she will have to take care of them!
If they die, she will be relieved, but what will happen to her in Hujia Village afterwards?
She was already looked down upon, but becoming a widow made her even more despised.
At least now, Hu Damao and Hu Laohan work hard and can always eat their fill, they won't starve, and they can still provide a home for their children.
"Don't eat it!" Liu Lingli exclaimed, trying to stop them. "That dog must be sick. We need to kill it and bury it right away. Otherwise, if it infects us, our whole family will be in trouble."
This dog was used by Liu Lingli for experiments. It must be poisonous. Eating its meat would also cause poisoning.
"No way?" Hu Damao was reluctant; he hadn't seen any dogs get sick lately!
"Don't disbelieve me, rabies is terrifying," Liu Lingli said. "You won't die if you don't eat meat. But if you eat a sick dog, you're not far from death."
When Old Hu heard that his daughter-in-law, who was an educated youth, said this, he thought it made sense and urged his son, "Da Mao, hurry up and bury that dog! If you're craving something, I'll go to the river and catch some fish for you and your wife."
Hu Damao was unwilling.
"Don't you believe me? Before liberation, we suffered a disaster. We ate a sick dog and went crazy." Old Hu was worried that his son would not listen, so he said to scare him. "Besides, we are not starving to death yet, why take the risk! Forget it, I will bury him."
Old Hu put the dog in a basket, jumped out, and buried it.
Seeing that her father-in-law had taken the dog away, Liu Lingli finally breathed a sigh of relief.
When Hu Damao had nothing to do at home, he would go out for a stroll.
Liu Lingli was home alone, and her thoughts drifted back to He Tiantian.
Did they eat those flatbreads?
Could it be like the dog at home?
It won't kill you, but it will poison you and make you weak.
Liu Lingli became increasingly uneasy. She got up and walked to the door, but then, feeling guilty, she came back.
What should we do?
In the end, I decided against it!
Do your best and leave the rest to fate!
Liu Lingli has also been searching recently to find out who put the letter in her suitcase.
Who exactly is the mastermind?
Why do they repeatedly harm He Tiantian's family?
Liu Lingli recalled the events that happened to He Tiantian one by one!
The first incident involved Qi Jianguo's attempted rape of He Tiantian.
The second thing is that Qi Shuli made things difficult for He Tiantian.
The third thing is that Lin Xiaoru reported He Tiantian.
The most likely candidate is Qi Jianguo's family, but Qi Jianguo has been sent to a labor camp, and the Qi family is in a bad situation and simply cannot afford to pay that much money!
*****
I recommend my friend Tianqingdibai's books: *The Good Prince Consort of the Tang Dynasty*, *Rebirth in a Mountain and Water Family*, *Family Heirloom*, and *Double Happiness*, all of which are completed works. (To be continued.)