Xia Jianguo spoke slowly and calmly, his voice not loud but clear enough to reach Wu Sangui's ears, instantly interrupting the latter's turbulent thoughts like a thunderclap.

Xia Jianguo stared intently at Wu Sangui and asked in a deep voice, "Do I remember your father-in-law once came to our brigade? Since A-Yue has no parents, then who were those people?"

The memory involuntarily surfaced in Xia Jianguo's mind: shortly after Wu Sangui and his wife got married, someone claiming to be his father-in-law had come to Huaihua Brigade.

Moreover, those people made a big fuss that time, with a large number of people and quite a grand entrance.

Upon hearing this, Wu Sangui frowned slightly and fell into deep thought.

He tried hard to search for relevant fragments in the depths of his memory, and after a long while, he suddenly remembered what Xia Jianguo had mentioned.

So he shook his head and said, "To be honest, I really know nothing about those people's identities or backgrounds. Yue only told me that they were all the most important relatives in her life. Since then, these people have never appeared again."

Moreover, it was only much later that he learned that A-Yue had come here under an assumed name and seemed reluctant to talk about the past, so he never asked A-Yue's so-called relatives.

However, Ah Yue never mentioned that his father-in-law was among those people; he only said they were relatives.

Looking back now, it's full of loopholes; he just chose to be kept in the dark and didn't want to think about it carefully.

At this moment, Xia Jianguo's eyes became increasingly deep and dark, as if hiding endless secrets and mysteries, making it difficult for people to see his true thoughts.

He didn't stop there, but pressed further: "Then why did she go to such extremes as faking her death to escape to the mountains back then? And who was secretly helping you behind the scenes?"

Xia Jianguo had a vague, absurd yet persistent thought: Could it be that this woman named A Yue has been hiding in Huaihua Brigade for so many years in order to exert some kind of control over him, or even try to put him to death?

However, he did not seem to have been restricted in his freedom before he injured his leg, especially since he worked for a transportation company and traveled all over the country without anyone making things difficult for him.

So it seems that everything started after he broke his leg, or rather, after Xia Jianlin went to Jingshi.

“Ah Yue was being chased and killed for a long time, and her body was covered with wounds and her injuries were extremely serious. However, those vicious people showed no sign of giving up and continued to pursue her relentlessly. I was just an ordinary farmer, and I was completely helpless in the face of such a situation and could not help Ah Yue at all.”

"Just when we were at our wits' end, I suddenly thought of a way to fake my death. I thought I would let A-Yue hide in the deep mountains for a while and make plans after things calmed down. But who could have imagined that this hiding would last for so many years?"

At this moment, Wu Sangui clenched his fists tightly, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

To be honest, even he himself found it difficult to accurately describe the complex state of mind he was in at that moment.

On the one hand, looking back on all the efforts and sacrifices he had made over the years, he couldn't help but feel that it was all for nothing; but on the other hand, looking at the woman he loved, he simply couldn't bring himself to abandon her.

Just then, Xia Wan took out a painting from some corner and handed it to Wu Sangui.

At the same time, she turned on her flashlight to illuminate the paper so that Wu Sangui could see it more clearly.

It turned out that the drawing on this paper was the portrait of Mr. Guo that she had prepared beforehand.

Compared to the previous portrait painted for those thugs and hooligans, this one is clearly much clearer, more vivid, and more expressive.

Wu Sangui's gaze slowly fell on the portrait, and then he began to examine it intently.

He examined the painting carefully, over and over again, as if trying to find even the slightest trace of familiarity in every detail. However, in the end, he gently shook his head, indicating that he had never seen the person in the painting before.

He said with a blank look on his face, "I've never seen this person before."

Hearing this, Xia Wan and the others were not too surprised, because they knew that A Yue had kept many things from Wu Sangui.

Moreover, this mysterious Mr. Guo is very likely to have only appeared in the last two years.

Seeing that she could no longer get any useful information from Wu Sangui, and that it was already late at night, Xia Wan turned to her brother and said softly, "Brother, go and fetch another bucket of water and splash it on Yue to wake her up."

Xia Tao nodded, strode to the well, and soon returned with a full bucket of water. He stood beside A Yue and, without hesitation, poured the water from the bucket over A Yue's head.

Perhaps because she had been unconscious for too long, this time, just one bucket of cold water was enough to wake her up instantly.

She suddenly opened her eyes, her gaze filled with vigilance, and quickly scanned her surroundings.

In stark contrast to Wu Sangui's dazed and half-awake state, A Yue clearly entered a state of high alert immediately after waking up.

Sure enough, this woman possessed extraordinary skills! The moment she clearly saw Xia Jianguo's face, her body reacted with lightning speed, lunging straight at Xia Tao.

It's important to know that, apart from Xia Tao, the situations of the other two people in this room are quite different.

One of them was a cripple in a wheelchair, unable to move easily; the other was Xia Wan, who seemed delicate and frail, and did not appear to have any strong offensive capabilities.

However, to A Yue's surprise, the moment she launched her attack, Xia Wan responded with the speed of an agile cheetah, stepping forward without hesitation to block Xia Tao and engaging in a fierce battle with the aggressive A Yue.

Because she was worried that the loud noise from the fight would alert the others in the next room, Xia Wan moved with lightning speed, subduing A Yue firmly to the ground in the blink of an eye.

Xia Wan looked at A Yue, who was pinned down by her, with disdain and said with a sneer, "Hmph, you're quite the actor. He probably doesn't know you know kung fu!"

Although she said this to A Yue, her mocking gaze swept undisguisedly toward Wu Sangui, who was standing to the side.