Chapter 159 Still harboring treacherous intentions even before parting

Zhao Tingguo was taken aback by the fearless demeanor of the girl in front of him, and readily agreed, "As long as the conditions you propose are legal and compliant, I agree!"

He was already worried about how to persuade his fellow villagers to move away from the island.

Now that someone is willing to help, he naturally agrees.

Moreover, he genuinely liked this daughter-in-law, so he agreed without much thought.

On the dock.

Zhao Tingguo stared at Zhao Jingxiang with complicated emotions, noticing how much weight he had lost in the past year. He then turned to look at the shimmering sea, his heart filled with mixed feelings. "If your brother were still here, he would definitely get along very well with that Comrade Ling!"

Zhao Jingxiang lowered his eyes, his face still expressionless, but a strange anger ignited in his heart.

"So what are your plans? The department store has called home several times, urging you to go back to work," Zhao Tingguo snapped out of his grief and turned to stare at Zhao Jingxiang. "I won't force you to join the army. You can continue doing what you like in business management. But my only wish is that you can marry a good comrade like Ling Huanwu!"

"knew."

Seeing his father's unusual kindness, Zhao Jingxiang was quite surprised and readily agreed, "Don't worry, I won't go back yet. I plan to stay here and take her back after I marry her."

Zhao Tingguo nodded repeatedly, feeling gratified by his eldest son's sudden change. "Fortunately, you didn't have such poor judgment as to marry that adopted daughter of the Ling family. I thought you had your eye on her... You'd better think this through!"

Finally, after being saluted by everyone, he turned and boarded the escort boat, facing the sea breeze.

Hidden not far away, Song Yaoyao was unwilling to let her good marriage be snatched away and wanted to come over and try again.

Unexpectedly, she clenched her fists in anger after hearing Commander Zhao's blatant disdain for her.

Zhou Shuyao refused to take her with him when he went to Gangcheng, Zhao Jingxiang refused to marry her, and even Commander Zhao and the whole village preferred Ling Huanwu!

On what grounds?

Song Yaoyao's resentment towards Ling Huanwu reached its peak at this moment!

＊

That night.

Ling Huanwu then buried herself in the table, planning her next move.

In order to avoid marrying Zhao Jingxiang and to ensure that the villagers could stay on the land they loved, she rallied herself and was determined to prove to them that they could overcome all difficulties.

Over the past year, the island has suffered from severe soil salinization due to the storm surge, making it impossible to grow crops. Even sweet potato production has plummeted.

The tidal flat aquaculture industry has been severely impacted.

Although Qin Jinshen was arrested last time and the ownership of the mudflats was left unresolved, the mudflat bottom structure was destroyed after the storm surge, and their aquaculture business ended in failure over the past year.

Now that they can't make a living by relying on the sky or the sea, they have to find another way.

The primary task now is to help the villagers earn money and gain their trust and support on the island.

Even if they couldn't open the space and use the supplies she had stockpiled, they would still have enough money to agree to temporarily evacuate with her before the storm surge arrived.

The storm surge is less than 100 days away, every minute and second is precious, and production is imminent.

The pen scribbled across the paper. In her previous life, Ling Huanwu had written countless such proposals in order to lead the company to become bigger and stronger.

In this life, her proposal carries even greater weight, brimming with the hopes of herself and the entire island!

It was around midnight.

Ling Huanwu used a wooden board to turn Zhou Jiuzhen over, and then she heard a soft knock on the door.

"Huanhuan, open the door quickly, I have something to tell you."

It's Zhou Shuyao!

Ling Huanwu ignored her and sat down to continue writing the proposal.

Every two minutes, the small window that Zhou Jiuzhen had once dug out was violently opened, and Zhou Shuyao slipped in from the outside like an eel.

Ling Huanwu quickly grabbed a bamboo broom to shoo them away, shouting, "Who let you in? Get out now!"

Zhou Shuyao stood there, his face covered in injuries and looking dejected, with dirt still clinging to his face from climbing through the window. "Huanhuan, even if you hate me, you can't joke around with your life. You know that an even bigger storm surge is coming soon, and there will be countless deaths and injuries. We can't guarantee our own safety at all. You should think it over and come to Hong Kong with me!"

Ling Huanwu put down the broom, not expecting him to come in and say this to her, "If you want to escape to Hong Kong, you take your mother and your three children with you. I am your sister-in-law, and I will stay with your brother!"

"sister in law?"

Zhou Shuyao rolled those two words around in his mouth, full of self-mockery, "Don't you find those two words funny? You're a capitalist's daughter, and you couldn't even marry my brother. Now you're being forced to marry someone else, and you still expect me to call you sister-in-law?"

He practically spat out the last few words through gritted teeth, his eyes filled with resentment and grievance.

Ling Huanwu threw a flatbread at him, and he covered his mouth and immediately shut up in pain.

"I'd rather marry anyone than you, and besides, I'll marry your brother sooner or later anyway! Get out of here!"

She pointed to the window, telling him to go out the same way he came in.

Zhou Shuyao, however, noticed something written on a piece of paper on the table.

He rushed forward and picked it up to look at it. Ling Huanwu wanted to stop him, but it was too late.

Zhou Shuyao stared wide-eyed at Ling Huanwu, his eyes full of incomprehension. "You still want to go to the trouble of leading the whole village in this? Don't you know that the purge movement is about to begin in a few days, and you will be tied up and have placards hung around your neck by these villagers for public criticism? Have you forgotten what happened in your previous life?"

Ling Huanwu snatched the proposal from his hand.

Of course she remembered why she and Zhou Shuyao had secretly taken the child by waterway to the port city back then.

Back then, she was at home feeding her child when the villagers of Shitou Village tied her up, took her to an open space in the center of the village, and pushed her onto a high platform.

Facing the dark mass of villagers below, she wore a large wooden sign around her neck with her name written on it, marked with a big red cross.

A group of people listed her crimes, trampling her dignity into the ground.

Just because she was born into a capitalist family, she suffered unprecedented humiliation, being paraded through the village with a wooden sign hanging over her head, receiving vegetable leaves and stones thrown by the villagers.

Three toddlers, who had just learned to walk, chased after her, crying their hearts out.

That night, if Zhou Shuyao hadn't risked his life to take her away, she doesn't know what she would have suffered in the days that followed.

Memories flooded back, and Ling Huanwu wiped away her tears without looking at him. "No matter what happens in the future, I just want to have a clear conscience now. I can't watch so many people die. You need to leave now!"

She didn't care whether others would see her, opened the door, grabbed a broom, and was about to sweep Zhou Shuyao out of the house.

After a few sweeps, Zhou Shuyao felt pain all over his body, but he showed no intention of leaving. Instead, he snatched the broom from her hand, threw it away, picked her up by the waist, and tossed her onto the bed.

Ling Huanwu felt dizzy and afraid that she might have accidentally pressed down on Zhou Jiuzhen. She hurriedly got up to check on Zhou Jiuzhen, but Zhou Shuyao pounced on her and pinned her down.

"Huanwu, we haven't seen each other for a lifetime. Don't you miss me after being without a man for so long?"

Zhou Shuyao's breath, reeking of alcohol, sprayed onto her neck.

Ling Huanwu was filled with shame and indignation. As she struggled, she tried to find something to smash this disgusting, brain-damaged worm into death. When her eyes inadvertently glanced at Zhou Jiuzhen's large, bony hand, her pupils trembled.

Because she noticed that his fingers were twitching slightly, again and again!