"So the entire county has been corrupted." Shi Jinzhe tightened the golden ring, pulled the bound Boss Sun, and walked into the county town.

Shekh returned to his side and dictated to him the scene that Ding Xun had seen.

Shi Jinzhe nodded, then looked down and asked, "Did you hear me?"

The ground beneath his feet trembled twice, and the Life Control Command, through its roots that spread throughout the earth, quickly transmitted the coordinates back to the mangrove forest.

Mr. Sun was trying to escape the county town when he saw this scene. Recalling Shehe's sudden appearance without warning, he asked tremblingly, "Are you... are you the Black and White Impermanence, here to take my life?"

"If you're not honest, we can be..." Shi Jinzhe gave her a bit of life force and then quickly withdrew it, making Boss Sun look more than ten years older all of a sudden.

Mr. Sun's well-maintained hands inexplicably became wrinkled, and he kept pulling his arm back, his eyes filled with fear of aging.

She feigned retreat and asked honestly, "What do you want to know?"

Shekh: "Look up."

Mr. Sun cautiously raised his head and saw that Shekh was staring into his eyes.

A faint light flickered around the outer ring of her purple iris. A few seconds later, she said, "I want to know about Pu Kui and Sun Ao. Tell me the whole truth, without missing a single word."

Mr. Sun: "...Okay, I'll talk."

"We must tell the truth." Shi Jinzhe emphasized, then looked at Shehe and gave her a look that said it should work.

Boss Sun is dishonest; his fear of returning to the county town must be related to Pu Kui's death.

Now that they know the cause of Ding Xun's sudden death, they can try to capture him.

On a starless and moonless night, Mr. Sun's story drifted through the dimly lit streets.

She squinted to look at Shi Jinzhe and Shehe's retreating figures, talking as she thought about how to escape.

"That's how it is. They haven't slept together for a year since they got married. Pu Kui doesn't want to file for divorce, but we gave her a lot of dowry money. My parents said that if they divorced, Pu Kui's family would have to return all the money. At that time, Pu Kui didn't know that my younger brother liked men. I thought, let's just get a divorce. As long as she doesn't talk nonsense, everything will be fine. It's just that Pu Kui's parents can't afford the money themselves. Let her spend some more time with Sun Ao."

Shi Jinzhe: "So your whole family knew perfectly well that Sun Ao liked men, yet you still let him find a woman to marry?"

Mr. Sun: "What can we do? Everyone says that raising children is for old age security. My brother is very stubborn, and he probably won't have any offspring. So he needs someone to take care of him when he gets old."

"What you're calling a maid," Shekh commented emotionlessly. "A wife's time isn't independent of her husband's, and a child's time isn't independent of their parents'. Did you have children so you'd be too old to be cared for, and got married so you could be someone's nanny?"

Mr. Sun instinctively retorted, "How could that be..."

"So if you're not willing, why should Pu Kui be?"

“Our family gives more money…” Boss Sun didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. “The dowry we give is twice what other families give to Pu Kui. If she doesn’t want to, she shouldn’t marry into this family for money.”

“They’re not a normal couple. If Sun Ao liked women, that would be one thing, but he likes men. You deceived Pu Kui first, spending money to find a nanny who can have children. You only earn this much in a lifetime. Do you think you’re giving a lot?”

Shekh despises deception. If Pu Kui knew that Sun Ao liked men but was still willing to marry him for double the dowry, then she had only herself to blame.

Pu Kui was completely unaware of this, and as a result, she filed for divorce and was even asked to have a child before she could get a divorce. It's absurd.

“We’ll give her double the bride price. I think she should know what’s going on.”

"I remember Ding Xun saying that Pu Kui is very beautiful." Shi Jinzhe found a loophole in Boss Sun's words and said, "There are quite a few people pursuing her. You didn't just pick her randomly, you deliberately chose the pretty ones, right? You want her to seduce Sun Ao with her beauty?"

Boss Sun remained silent, then, noticing the platinum chains binding her tighten, she wisely replied, "Yes..."

Shekh asked again, "So what did she do after that?"

"I've tried everything to get pregnant."

Mr. Sun spoke with suppressed anger, as if he were mentally preparing himself to get over some insurmountable hurdle.

"Later, I even used a folk remedy that I found somewhere to add to my younger brother's dishes, and he ended up adding too much of it."

Upon hearing this, Shi Jinzhe raised an eyebrow. "Sun Ao is crippled?"

“…Hmm.” She answered reluctantly, “I got it from a country bumpkin. I don’t know what’s in it. Anyway, I couldn’t take it for more than a few days. Sun Ao didn’t tell us at first. He went to the hospital by himself, but the county hospital couldn’t do it. They even spread the word.”

Shekh: "Where are the fan palms?"

“She said Sun Ao is no longer capable, that he can’t have the child, and that she wants a divorce.” Boss Sun’s eyelids twitched, and a ruthless look appeared on his face. “She’s definitely doing this on purpose. She doesn’t look like a docile woman.”

“Sun Aoxing can’t live without her, so you’re even less likely to let her go. This is retribution for your lies.” Sheh managed to let out the breath that had been stuck in his throat.

“She has to have the baby even if she doesn’t want to…” Mr. Sun muttered in rebuttal.

Shi Jinzhe caught the hint of straightforwardness in her voice, "What did you do to Pu Kui?"

Realizing something was wrong, Boss Sun quickly said a few words, trying to change the subject, "What else could have happened? A man who's impotent, how could he not feel resentment? They ended up fighting..."

“No, tell the truth,” Shekh corrected her. “I’m only giving you one chance.”

"It's really nothing!" Mr. Sun argued, and was about to continue when a splash of red appeared before his eyes—it was the mangrove forest.

"What are you doing here! You can't go here, you can't go here!"

She squatted on the ground, throwing a tantrum, "No, no, I won't go, I won't go!"

The rustling whispers started a second time. Shi Jinzhe and Shehe were on high alert and made all the necessary preparations, but Pu Kui did not appear for a long time. All that could be heard was Boss Sun crying and shouting that he was not going.

"Let's go." Shi Jinzhe handed the end of the chain to two thick tree roots that sprouted from the ground. The roots coiled around the roots, and the roots pulled Boss Sun towards the mangrove forest.

"I won't go! Please, please, don't let me in here. I'll tell you everything you want to know, just don't come in!"

Boss Sun kicked his legs, getting dirt all over his back, and said, "I'll tell you whatever you want to know!"

Shekh pressed on, "So what exactly did you do to the Pu Kui?"

“My dad said she made our family lose a son, so he would compensate the Sun family with another one. He told us to get Pu Kui drunk and send her to his bed. But Pu Kui pretended to be drunk and in the middle of the night, she hit my dad on the head with a hammer and sent him to his death!”

Boss Sun shouted her last words in desperation. Seeing that she was still being dragged by tree roots and about to enter the mangrove forest, she yelled, "Our family went to her parents to ask for compensation, but her parents said that the fan kudzu was given to us and we could do whatever we wanted with it. It just so happened that a family in the village below had a son who died, and when they heard that the fan kudzu was still a virgin, they gave us money to make the fan kudzu their son's wife! She was buried in this mangrove forest!"