Chapter 158

After Lu Fangying left, the onlookers followed her into the alley, and some returned to the restaurant to continue eating, and the yard became quiet.

After Lu Fangying ran out of the alley with her head down, the people in the alley did not disperse quickly. They still gathered together and chatted about this matter for a long time.

After seeing Lu Fangying leave, Chuxia didn't stay at the second door for long and went straight back to the north room.

Yi Yi was not interested in adult matters. When Lin Xiaohan carried her away, she asked Lin Xiaohan a few questions and then stopped paying attention. She got off Lin Xiaohan under the corridor, ran to Tang Haikuan and Wu Xuemei, and happily told them about going to the zoo to see Dandan.

After dancing and talking, he turned around and asked Lin Xiaohan: "Dad, can I go watch TV?"

Lin Xiaohan touched his head and said, "Go."

Yi Yi ran to watch TV, and Chu Xia followed her in.

Tang Haikuan knew that it was Lu Fangying outside, so he asked, "Is she gone?"

Chu Xia nodded and said, "Let's go."

Wu Xuemei asked again: "She suddenly came to our house to acknowledge her as a relative and show her courtesy. Is it because of her son?"

She vaguely heard those two sentences just now.

When Lin Bingwei came here before, Tang Haikuan and Wu Xuemei didn't care. Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan didn't want their families to be affected by this matter and didn't mention it, so they didn't know about the Lin family's affairs, nor did they know the purpose of Lu Fangying's visit.

Now everyone knew about Lu Fangying's incident, and Chuxia told them what Lin Haobo had done.

Tang Haikuan's eyes widened after hearing this. "So she came to us for help because her son committed a crime and is going to jail?"

Chu Xia hummed and said, "Lin Bingwei came here before, wanting Xiao Han to help reduce Lin Haobo's sentence, but we rejected her. I didn't expect her to come again. This time she came here to directly establish a relationship with us as relatives. I guess she wants to borrow money from our family."

Tang Haikuan asked curiously, "How much does she want to borrow?"

Chu Xia said: "I didn't let her say it. Anyway, it's not a small amount. She wouldn't be so embarrassed to come to our house for a small amount. It must be at least one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand."

Tang Haikuan's eyes widened instantly, "One hundred thousand or two hundred thousand?"

Wu Xuemei couldn't help but said emotionally, "I think she's so anxious that her mind has gone crazy. How dare she ask for help for something like this? With so much money, she's looking for her stepson, who she's harmed since he was a child, and us, her in-laws who they once looked down upon. What a psycho."

Isn't that just a mental illness?

There are so many grievances between them that if they were to be put together, there would be no end to the accounts to be settled. Does she still expect his family to pay a huge sum of money to buy out a little bit of punishment for her corrupt son?

She can really think of it and do it.

Tang Haikuan said, "If she dares to come here again next time, I will get someone to beat her out of the alley."

After saying that, he was thankful: "Fortunately, they looked down on our family at the beginning and would rather not have a son like you, Xiaolin, than accept our family as in-laws. If they had reluctantly acknowledged us as in-laws at that time and maintained a continuous relationship and contacts, we would have to bear the brunt of this matter now."

Lin Xiaohan smiled and said, "God's law is reincarnation, karma will come true."

You get what you deserve. This is probably the most applaudable retribution.

As they talked, lunch was almost ready.

Suddenly, they heard the second door being pushed open, and the four of them looked out together.

Seeing Han Lei, Li Lan and Han Feipeng carrying packages into the yard, they withdrew their gazes.

Attention was diverted by what he saw.

Chu Xia asked, "Are they moving?"

Chuxia and Lin Xiaohan are usually very busy with work, and apart from their own family, they don’t have the time to care about other people’s affairs, so they don’t know many of the gossips in the alley.

Chuxia saw this and asked about it.

Wu Xuemei said, "It was said that Feipeng was getting married soon, and they wanted to vacate the house outside to make it their wedding room, so Han Lei and Li Lan moved back in. It just so happened that Han Qingtian and Wang Cuiying were old and needed someone to take care of them."

Chuxia muttered: "Aren't you all happy living in a building? Why did you move back..."

In recent years, many people have tried every means to move out of the hutongs, especially the young people, and no one wants to come back to live there.

Tang Haikuan sighed and said, "Do you really think that such a small place can accommodate so many people? When the Jiang couple proudly moved out to live with their son and daughter-in-law, I told them that it was such a small place, you could touch each other when you turned around, and there was no yard. It would be strange if there were no conflicts if you lived so cramped. But in the end, they didn't even last two years, and Jiang Jianping and Xu Lihua moved out to rent a house."

Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan didn't know this either.

Chu Xia was surprised and asked, "Is it true?"

Wu Xuemei replied, "It's true. Han Lei and Li Lan are moving back. We heard the gossip recently. Even if they move out of this alley, the gossip will still come in."

Chu Xia asked casually: "Why didn't they come back?"

Renting a private house outside is much more expensive than renting a standard private house.

Tang Haikuan said, "They wanted to save face. They left the alley so proudly and told everyone that they were going to live in a building. There was no way they would come back. They didn't want to be inferior to us in the first place, and now they are even inferior to us. That's why they don't want to live in our house anymore, let alone this alley."

Chu Xia smiled and said, "I didn't expect Jiang Guanjie would also disobey his mother sometimes."

Wu Xuemei said, "It's not that Guanjie doesn't listen to his mother, it's that he is too obedient. If he continues to listen, his wife will be determined to divorce him. Xu Lihua can't afford to lose this man, so she moved out with Jiang Jianping."

As the Tang family was talking, they served their food and sat down to eat.

Li Lan went home and helped Wang Cuiying for a while, and then the family of five sat down to eat.

While eating, Han Lei was the first to speak: "Why is the second door closed in broad daylight?"

Wang Cuiying gestured to the north room with the hand holding the chopsticks and said, "Someone from the Lin family is here. They said there's an embezzler in the family, and they were locked out by Chu Xia and his wife."

Han Lei and Li Lan looked at each other.

Li Lan said, "No wonder those people in the alley gathered together and talked about embezzlers when I came back just now."

Han Qingtian answered, "What deep hatred can there be between a family? In this lifetime, there are only a few blood relatives. After all, he is your own brother. If you have the ability to lend a hand, lend a hand. Having a living relative by your side is better than anything else."

Hearing the tone and voice of his words, Wang Cuiying, Han Lei, Li Lan and Han Feipeng all thought of Han Ting at once.

Five years have passed, and there is still no news from Han Ting.

I don’t know where the person is, let alone whether he is still alive.

Didn't continue the topic of the Tang family.

Han Lei said, "Our San'er is not an ordinary person. He has been through so many ups and downs and has survived everything. He will come back one day."

Although five years had passed, and although everyone else in the alley thought Han Ting had died outside, the Han family did not believe he was dead. Han Qingtian and Wang Cuiying looked forward to his return every day.

They waited until their hair turned completely white, and they fantasized every day that Han Ting would suddenly come back one day, whistle in the alley, and jump up and down to call them "Mom and Dad".

***

After Lu Fangying came to Tianxian Temple once, the news that Lin Haobo was arrested for corruption spread throughout the alley. Because of this incident, people with nothing to do also became very interested in the Tang family and the Lin family.

In fact, they have long been interested in the affairs of the Lin and Tang families. After all, they have only heard that Lin Xiaohan's father is the director of a large factory, but no one has ever seen him.

Especially in the years since Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan got married, the couple have spent almost all of their time at the Tang family's place, especially the Chinese New Year every year, and no one has ever heard his family mention the Lin family.

Before the Lin Haobo incident, no one knew anything and couldn't discuss much, but people could only guess that the Lin family might not agree with Chu Xia and Lin Xiaohan's marriage.

Now that Lin Haobo's incident has happened, everyone can no longer suppress their curiosity.

However, in just a few days, the older people in the alley who had nothing to do, through various inquiries and gossip, reconstructed the general situation of the Tang and Lin families.

The black-hearted stepmother harmed her stepson...

If you have a stepmother, you will have a stepfather...

To spoil a child is to kill him…

A good hand of cards played badly...

…

Such topics have become the hottest topics of conversation in the alleys after dinner.

After being exaggerated by different people, the story that is passed on is many times more exciting than the real thing.

Of course, in addition to discussing these things that have already happened, everyone is curious about how serious a crime Lin Haobo has committed and what kind of punishment he will receive.

So when the court officially opened for public trial of the case, some old men from the alley went to listen in groups.

Every time they came back from attending a class, they would sit down outside the No. 8 Courtyard Restaurant and chat with everyone who was curious about the matter.

Tang Haikuan and Wu Xuemei were equally curious about this matter, so they naturally listened quietly beside them.

Every time the two or three old men talked about this, it was like they were telling a story.

"You will never imagine how much money he has embezzled. Even if I asked you to guess, you wouldn't dare to guess that much!"

"He took advantage of his father being the factory director and was spoiled by his family since he was a child. No matter what mistakes he made, he was not punished. After he started working in the factory, he became extremely bold and thought that all the money in the factory belonged to his family. He embezzled nearly 350,000 yuan!"

"Of course, such a big case involves not only him, but also many other people. However, the crimes committed by others are not as serious as his. At most, they accepted bribes of several thousand yuan from him. Because he is the son of the factory director, they protected him."

…

***

The last day of the public trial.

Under the setting sun, Lu Fangying and Lin Bingwei walked out of the court gate and slowly walked down the steps.

Just after she stepped down the last step, Lu Fangying's legs went limp, her eyes closed, and she fell to the ground with a thud.

Seeing this, the people nearby hurried over to help and helped Lin Bingwei get the person to the car.

The car drove to the hospital and the others went their separate ways.

The three old men who insisted on coming over to listen in on the discussion continued all the way back to Tianxian Temple.

The three of them had just walked a few steps into the alley when someone came over and asked them, "Isn't today the last day of the trial? Has the verdict been announced?"

The old man standing in the middle sighed and shook his head, saying, "It's a pity that he is only in his twenties."

Someone nearby asked, "From the tone of your voice, is it really a death sentence?"

The old man nodded, "Suspended for two years."