Chapter 165 Confession

Qin Haifeng covered his head and scurried away, quickly hiding behind Lin Baozhu. He peeked out from behind her shoulder and hurriedly explained, "There's a reason why I went to a hotel with Baozhu! It's really not what you think!"

His warm breath brushed against Lin Baozhu's sensitive neck as he spoke, causing her body to tremble involuntarily. She reached back to pinch the soft flesh of his waist as a warning, but before she could reach behind him, a large, warm hand caught her precisely. Lin Baozhu tried to pull her hand away, but the old man held it firmly and even gave her palm a light squeeze!

Lin Baozhu: "..." This guy!

"Let go! Let go of my daughter!" Mr. Lin shouted, holding up the other shoe, his beard bristling with anger.

Qin Haifeng then released her hand, his fingertips still lingering on her palm as he quickly hooked his fingers around it before stepping back two paces and raising his hands in surrender.

"Uncle! Please let me explain! This is what happened..." Qin Haifeng picked out the parts he could talk about and explained the whole story of what happened before and after they booked the room.

Lin's father's gloomy face softened slightly. He snorted heavily and bent down to pick up the shoes he had thrown on the ground.

But the moment he lifted his foot to put on his shoes, his movement suddenly froze! His brows furrowed tightly, a fine layer of cold sweat instantly appeared on his forehead, and his face paled.

"father?!"

Lin Baozhu's heart sank at the sight. She rushed forward and quickly took his arm, asking, "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

Lin's father waved his hand, took a few deep breaths, and suppressed his discomfort, his voice slightly weak:

"It's nothing... just rest... and you'll be fine!"

Upon hearing this, alarm bells rang in Lin Baozhu's mind! Without a word, she suddenly squatted down and yanked open her father's trouser leg—

hiss--!

Thick bandages were wrapped around his calf, and bright red blood had already seeped through, soaking a large area!

"Father! You're injured?!" Lin Baozhu's voice trembled as she urgently exclaimed, "Quick, come inside! I have medicine here! Qin Haifeng—"

Before he finished speaking, Qin Haifeng, who had been standing guard by the side, darted forward, swiftly picked up Lin's father, and rushed towards Lin's parents' room!

Inside the room, Lin Baozhu carefully cut open the gauze with scissors. When the bloody, mangled wound was fully exposed—

"Ah!" Lin's mother gasped, covering her mouth tightly, tears instantly streaming down her face and falling to the ground.

"Dad! Didn't you say... that you were just going to work temporarily at the machine factory? How... how did you get this leg?!" Her voice was choked with sobs.

Lin Baozhu's doubts deepened, but saving lives was the priority at the moment.

"Mother, please look after Father for now, I'll go get the medicine!"

After saying that, she turned around and rushed back to her room, seemingly rummaging through drawers and cabinets, but in reality, her consciousness had already sunk into the space.

A bottle of anti-inflammatory and analgesic pills, a bottle of potent hemostatic and tissue-regenerating powder, and another bottle—iodine solution with the label deliberately torn off.

Lin Baozhu hurriedly returned carrying a pile of things.

First, give Lin's father painkillers and "super blood-nourishing pills," then force him to drink half a cup of warm spiritual spring water.

Then, he carefully used an iodine-soaked cotton ball to wipe the wound and the surrounding skin, and then evenly sprinkled the pale yellow hemostatic and tissue-regenerating powder on the hideous wound.

Finally, re-bandage it with clean gauze.

The spiritual spring water and the blood-replenishing pills were extremely potent, producing almost immediate results. Lin's father, whose face had been slightly pale from blood loss, visibly regained his rosy complexion, and his tightly furrowed brows relaxed somewhat.

Seeing that the crisis had temporarily passed, Lin Baozhu could no longer contain herself. She sat down on the edge of the bed and asked:

"Father, now that we're all alone, tell me honestly, how did you get this injury?"

Lin's father leaned against the headboard, sighed, and looking at the worried looks in his daughter's and wife's eyes, said:

"At first... I was indeed working at the county machinery factory. Later... I was temporarily transferred to work at a factory in the city."

“A couple of days ago… there was an accident in the workshop. A new technician made a mistake while repairing a machine, and a worker next to him… almost got half his body caught in it! I was nearby, so I rushed over and pulled him out… but my own leg…”

He gave a wry smile. "A large chunk of flesh was sliced ​​off by the out-of-control cutting blade next to me. But the doctor said that since I was brought in in time, as long as I take good care of myself, I won't be lame!"

“Dad…” Lin’s mother gripped Lin’s father’s hand tightly, tears welling up again: “We don’t need your wages! Listen to me, from now on… don’t go out and suffer like this! Just stay home and farm our little plot of land, okay? As long as we have food to eat, we will never let you go hungry!”

She swallowed the crucial second half of her sentence: With Sanlang and Baozhu's "running around" on the black market, the family's monthly income was equivalent to his annual salary! There was no need for him to risk his life.

Looking at her father's bandaged leg and her mother's uncontrollable crying, Lin Baozhu was filled with doubt: "Dad, your injury... did the machine factory just send you to the hospital and that's it?"

"Hey, they paid the medical bills and even gave me a full fifty yuan in compensation!"

Lin's father's tone still carried a sense of relief, as if he had turned misfortune into blessing: "We didn't lose out, we actually made a profit!"

As he spoke, he laboriously moved his body, reached inside his waistband and groped around. After a moment, he carefully pinched out a few brand-new ten-yuan bills.

"Fifty dollars?!"

Lin's mother's eyes widened instantly as she stared in disbelief at the few thin bills.

Mr. Lin solemnly placed the money into Mrs. Lin's hand, a tired but triumphant look on his face:

"My wages plus this compensation total over eighty yuan! It's all here!"

Lin Baozhu stared at the few bills, her gaze turning somberly to her father:

"Dad, didn't you say before that your monthly salary was only a dozen yuan? How long has it been? And you've already earned over thirty yuan? Tell me honestly, what exactly have you been doing?!"

Lin's father felt a pang of panic as his daughter stared into his dark, penetrating eyes. He instinctively shrank back and stammered, "Isn't it normal for...the salary in the city to be higher than in the county..."

Seeing that he still wouldn't tell the truth, Lin Baozhu suppressed her turbulent emotions and chuckled, "Dad, you don't know yet, do you? I'm a researcher at the county machinery factory now! I can talk to the leaders at the city machinery factory! Qin Haifeng knows about this, and my second brother and Mom know about it too!"

She paused, her gaze fixed on her father's instantly pale face, her voice low and menacing: "If you still don't tell the truth, I'll personally call the city's machinery factory first thing tomorrow morning and ask them! Why are they bullying people like this?! It takes a hundred days for a worker to recover from a broken bone, and you won't be able to walk for at least three months with this leg? And they only offer a paltry fifty yuan in compensation?"

Seeing the undisguised seriousness on Lin Baozhu's face, Lin's father panicked instantly. His wife, Lin's mother, standing beside him, nodded almost imperceptibly with tears in her eyes—"Baozhu does work at the machine factory, and she is indeed familiar with the leaders of the city's machine factory."

Lin's father slumped his shoulders, let out a long sigh, and his voice was dry and hoarse:

"Sigh... I... I actually... didn't go to the machine factory."