"But I hope the child won't suffer." Ye Xiaoxiao's biggest worry was her son, Hao Hao. The child was still so young.

[Don't worry, host. You've taken the Body Strengthening Pills. Your son inherited your genes; he's not so easy to appease.]

Just as the system predicted, Ma Yanling lied to Chen Shengli, saying she had gone back to her parents' home.

He left the child with his mother and the others, and at that moment he was holding Hao Hao, hiding in the courtyard behind the old temple.

The little one was only nine months old, but he felt like a lump of rock when I held him.

She's quite strong, and the children don't cry when they see Ma Yanling, since they often see her face when they're at home.

She cries loudly only when she is hungry.

The sound was so loud that Ma Yanling tried to cover his mouth, but the boy, who only had four teeth, bit Ma Yanling's hand.

Although she didn't bleed from the bite, it still hurt so much that Ma Yanling kept shaking her hand.

Having no other choice, she could only crumble a steamed bun and feed it to Hao Hao.

Hao Hao didn't want to eat this at first, but it was too much rice, so he had no choice but to eat some. After eating for a while, he fell asleep.

When Zhou Kuan came over, he saw that the kid was actually sleeping soundly.

"Do you think we can succeed this time?" Ma Yanling asked with some worry.

"How could it not succeed? Unless they don't want this little brat anymore."

"But what if I get caught?" Ma Yanling was still a little scared.

"What are you afraid of? At most, they'll just lock us up for a couple of days and fine us a little money. What's there to be afraid of?" The two men, who knew nothing about the law, thought that at most it would be like the last time they were caught gambling—they would be locked up for three days and fined a few dozen yuan.

Having learned his lesson from last time, Zhou Kuan felt that the police station was nothing special.

I've already spoken to Sun Xiuju, and I specifically asked her to bring out the letter tomorrow morning. They've been worried all night, so they'll definitely give her whatever she wants.

Just keep a close eye on this little brat. Don't let him cry and scream and attract attention.

"Once you receive the money tomorrow, take this child home and say you saw him crawling on the ground on the way and brought him back. Who would have thought it was you?"

Zhou Kuan felt that his arrangement was flawless.

Thinking that he could get a thousand yuan from Li Chenyang's house, he was in a particularly good mood and then he pulled Ma Yanling aside for a while to be affectionate.

Knowing where her son was, Ye Xiaoxiao was no longer worried. However, unbeknownst to others, she and Li Chenyang continued searching the neighborhood. They didn't return home until midnight.

Ye Xiaoxiao watched as Li Chenyang continued searching. She immediately pulled him to a stop.

"Why are you pulling me? The child is lost. What are you doing buying these goods? Can't you wait a couple of days? We don't even know what happened to Hao Hao."

Li Chenyang choked up as he spoke, clearly very worried.

"Don't cry, I know where the child is!"

Ye Xiaoxiao looked around. They had already found a place quite far away, almost to the town.

There was no one else around, she said.

"What? You know where it is? Tell me quickly, where is the child?" Li Chenyang was extremely anxious.

"Don't worry, the child is safe. But before that, I need to tell you something else."

Ye Xiaoxiao was thinking that she would have Li Chenyang call the police tomorrow.

Then she wanted to tell him about what Sun Xiuju and Ma Yanling had done.

When Li Chenyang heard that his third brother's wife had actually done such things, he couldn't believe it. After all, she was his third brother's wife, and they had only been married for less than a year. "How do you know?"

"Just you wait and see. Tomorrow morning, Sun Xiuju will bring us that letter. Then you just..."

Ye Xiaoxiao didn't explain much to him. Although Li Chenyang didn't want to believe it was true, no matter who was behind the kidnapping of his son, he couldn't let them get away with it. It was already past 3 a.m. when he got home.

I dozed off on the kang (heated brick bed) for a while, and then it was dawn. Suddenly, there was a loud banging on the door.

The two of them came back last night without even taking off their clothes, and immediately got up and went outside.

Li Chenhui and Sun Xiuju ran to their doorstep with a letter in their hands.

“Sister-in-law, look, when I went out this morning, I saw this letter at the door. It says you need to bring a thousand yuan to redeem the child.”

Sun Xiuju's eyes held a hint of excitement. If they could get through this hurdle, they would receive a thousand yuan, and the three of them could each receive three hundred yuan.

Upon hearing this, Ye Xiaoxiao and Li Chenyang exchanged a glance. Sure enough, there was something wrong with Sun Xiuju.

"Really? Let me see it quickly."

The letter stated that the person wanted a child and instructed Ye Xiaoxiao to take a thousand yuan and walk east alone to the deserted ditch.

"One thousand yuan." Li Chenyang looked at Sun Xiuju thoughtfully when he saw the amount.

"Okay, I'll go right now." Ye Xiaoxiao turned around and was about to go back into the house when Sun Xiuju grabbed her arm.

"Sister-in-law, do you have a thousand yuan?"

When Sun Xiuju heard that Ye Xiaoxiao was going to go immediately, she blurted out in a hurry. Her schadenfreude was almost overflowing.

"Whether it's there or not, I have to take some. Even if it means emptying my pockets, I have to go. Thank you, you don't need to worry about this."

Ye Xiaoxiao went back into her room after saying that. Li Chenhui immediately called out to her:

"Sister-in-law, this is all the family has right now, seventy yuan. Mother asked us to bring it over. Please take it for now."

Sun Xiuju never expected that the two old folks in her family would actually give all their savings to her eldest son and his wife.

She glared at Li Chenhui. But she knew this wasn't the time to say anything more.

Li Chenyang looked at his third brother, then at Sun Xiuju, and felt a pang of heartache for his brother's decision to marry such a vicious woman. She was even willing to harm her own nephew.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!