Du Jiabin only fainted from the pain and woke up shortly after being taken to the clinic. There was no visible injury on his body.

However, Sun Yunpeng's knife wound was quite deep, and the blood kept flowing. The forest farm clinic couldn't handle it and could only do a simple bandage and give him a hemostatic injection.

It's over 80 li from Qianchuan Forest Farm to Songjiang River. By the time the railway motorcycles delivered people to the forest railway, it was already two hours later.

The bureau arranged for a car to wait at the forest railway station, picked up the person, and drove them to the Forestry Bureau Staff Hospital.

At the staff hospital, the operating room is ready, and all doctors and nurses are on standby.

A dozen strong young men were waiting early, ready to donate blood.

However, all of this was in vain. Sun Yunpeng suffered internal injuries and lost too much blood, and could not be saved.

The Sun family only had one son, and Director Sun and his wife were devastated to lose their son in middle age.

The Sun couple went mad and were determined to make Sheng Xiping pay with his life.

According to later legal standards, Sheng Xiping's actions would probably be considered excessive self-defense, since the incident was caused by Sun Yunpeng and others.

In that situation, Sheng Xiping was surrounded. If he hadn't resisted, he probably would have been the one to die.

When life and death are at stake, it's normal to act ruthlessly.

If Sun Yunpeng hadn't been ruthless and wanted to harm people, this would not have happened.

However, at that time, there wasn't much logic to it.

The Sun family went mad, determined to avenge their son. Naturally, the Sheng family refused to back down and tried to use their connections to protect Sheng Xiping.

Ultimately, Sheng Xiping was arrested for manslaughter and sentenced to sixteen years in prison.

Sheng Xiping performed well inside and made several meritorious contributions.

With the downfall of the Sun family's powerful backer and the efforts of the Sheng family, Sheng Xiping was eventually released in the spring of 1986 after eleven years in prison.

Sheng Xiping wasted eleven years of his youth inside, and by the time he came out, he was already in his early thirties.

With no job opportunities available, his mother, Zhang Shuzhen, was so anxious and worried about his accident that she fell seriously ill and passed away a few years earlier.

The father, Sheng Liancheng, suffered a series of blows and aged terribly.

With no other job, he had no choice but to work with the villagers of Dajianchang Village, digging in the soil, planting ginseng, tending to the ginseng, harvesting pine nuts, and carrying timber—anything to earn money.

Fortunately, his younger brother and several childhood friends treated Sheng Xiping very well, and they helped him take on outsourced projects from the forest farm, so they were able to make ends meet.

Later, when Sheng Xiping had some capital, he started trading timber, working as a contractor, and doing whatever made money.

From the 1980s to the early 1990s, there were still many opportunities to make money. As long as you were willing to work hard, you wouldn't be poor.

By 1995, Sheng Xiping had nearly a million yuan in his pocket. He bought apartments in Songjianghe and the county, and owned several cars. He was very wealthy.

At that time, forestry workers did not receive wages except for winter logging.

For employees in the bureau, 75% of their salary is paid.

Back then, everyone was desperate to recruit workers, but now they've discovered that even a secure job can't compare to what Sheng Xiping, an unemployed person, earns.

Suddenly, Sheng Xiping became a hot commodity, with matchmakers practically lining up to knock down the threshold of the Sheng family home.

In the end, Sheng Xiping chose a girl in her early twenties.

Anyway, at this age, don't even mention love. People are after his money, and he's after the girl who's young, beautiful, healthy, and can have children.

Both sides have their own agendas; they're just living together out of necessity.

The new bride gave birth to a healthy baby boy a little over a year after marrying into the family. From then on, Sheng Xiping had a wife and son, and his life was quite happy.

Before he knew it, Sheng Xiping turned sixty, and his relatives and friends held a birthday banquet for him.

During the banquet, an old friend jokingly asked, "Have you ever regretted anything in your life?"

Sheng Xiping had only said it casually at the time, and later regretted it.

If he could do it all over again, at the very least, he would avoid the night he fought with Sun Yunpeng.

He didn't care whether Sun Yunpeng lived or died, but he couldn't die at Sun Yunpeng's hands.

That way, my mother wouldn't have died young because of him.

The younger brother wouldn't be unable to go to university because of him, and the younger sister wouldn't have difficulty finding a husband and would be forced to marry someone random at the age of twenty-seven or twenty-eight.

Most importantly, his beloved girl wouldn't die because of this.

Of course, all of this is just wishful thinking.

Sheng Xiping was just saying it casually and didn't take it to heart at all. He went home and went straight to sleep.

But who would have thought that when he opened his eyes again, the whole world had changed, and he had returned to Qianchuan Forest Farm, back to the summer of that year when he was twenty years old.

"See? I told you he was a coward, didn't I?"

Looking at his timid and hesitant manner, he wouldn't dare to shout even if he had eight times the courage.

While Sheng Xiping was still lost in his memories, Sun Yunpeng across from him spoke up again with a mocking expression.

His expression was one of utter smugness.

“I told you long ago, you educated youth from Qianchuan Forest Farm are all worthless, cowards and spineless cowards.”

"That's right, that's right, Brother Peng is right."

Du Jiabin, standing to the side, responded with a fawning expression, glancing sideways at Sheng Xiping and the others with disdain.

They were all young men in their late teens or early twenties, all hot-blooded and full of resentment.

Upon hearing this, the young men from Qianchuan Forest Farm were furious. They rolled up their sleeves and were ready to fight the people on the other side.

"Damn it, who the hell are you calling a coward or a spineless coward?"

"If I don't knock your balls out today, I'll change my surname to yours!" Several young men shouted and were about to step forward.

Sheng Xiping snapped out of his daze and grabbed his friend who was about to start a fight.

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