Zhou Shuhua was trembling all over, as if she was about to pounce and bite at him at any moment:
“You kidnapped my child! You seized the hard-earned money they had saved up through frugality! You built your splendid new house! And you treated my niece like an animal for over a decade! You made her suffer terribly! Li Guixiang! Xu Laonian! I will make you pay back this blood debt tenfold! A hundredfold!”
She was breathing heavily, her eyes filled with a resolute determination that seemed to burn everything away.
"Old Lei! Yuhua! Let's go! We're going to town right now! To the police station! We'll sue them! I'll accept being bankrupted! We'll sue them for abuse! We'll sue them for robbery! We'll sue them for kidnapping! I, Zhou Shuhua, will not rest in peace until these two vipers are thrown in jail and we get back every single penny of Jianbang's property!"
Seeing Zhou Shuhua's ruthless determination, then looking at the gleaming evidence in Zhou Qiqi's hand, and the fiery eyes of the surrounding villagers, Li Guixiang's legs went weak, and she knelt down with a "thud," ignoring the pain as her knees slammed onto the hard blue brick ground.
"Sister Zhou! Chief Zhou! I was wrong! I'm not human! I was blinded by greed! Please, have mercy on us this time!"
Her face was covered in snot and tears, and she kowtowed repeatedly, all traces of her previous arrogance gone, replaced by trembling like a leaf.
"We'll return all those things! We'll return everything to you! We'll even give you back the house! Please, please have mercy! Don't sue us! If we go to jail, these old bones of ours will be finished!"
Lei Yuhua crossed her arms, her lips curling to her ears, and gave a cold laugh:
"Oh? Now you're scared? Weren't you so arrogant just now? Two thousand yuan? You said you wouldn't take a penny less? Bah! What goes around comes around, your time has come!"
She raised her chin.
“My college classmate is a top lawyer in the provincial capital! I’ll call him in a bit and ask him to handle the case. You guys can wait to go to jail!”
Commissar Lei, who had been silent all along, coldly swept his gaze over the couple lying on the ground like a pile of mud, and said in a low voice:
"If it weren't for your interference, Qiqi would have found us with the jade pendant long ago, and many things wouldn't be like this now..."
These words struck Li Guixiang like a boulder.
Judging from the attitude of the Lei family of three, there is no possibility of them backing down.
Li Guixiang's eyes darted around, and she scrambled to Zhou Qiqi's feet, trying to grab her leg. But Shen Huaichuan's cold gaze froze her in place, leaving her only able to wail.
"Qiqi! Qiqi! Say something! Your aunt... your aunt raised you for over ten years! Even if she didn't do anything great, she still put in a lot of hard work! Look at you now, how well you've married! A military officer! And such a respectable family! Isn't this all because of Shu'er, because of the fate of our Xu family? You've already sent Shu'er in, are you going to send your adoptive parents, whom you've called 'father' and 'mother' for over ten years, in too? You can't be so heartless, Qiqi!"
Old Xu also collapsed to the ground, tears streaming down his face, and chimed in:
"Yes, Qiqi, before you went to the city, didn't you always call us 'father' and 'mother'? We...we've had it tough too! Talk to your aunt and ask her to forgive us...and forgive Shuer too..."
Looking down at the two people wailing and lamenting at her feet, Zhou Qiqi slowly curled her lips into a smile that was devoid of warmth, filled only with chilling mockery and icy indifference.
"Father? Mother?"
She repeated those two words softly, the sarcasm in her voice like needles, making Li Guixiang and Xu Laonian shudder.
"When you whipped me with rattan, did you ever think that I also called you 'father' and 'mother'? When you made me crawl through ice holes and didn't give me food, did you ever think about those two words?"
She paused, her gaze sweeping blankly across the mottled walls of the old house, as if looking at the little girl who had long since died in countless cold and hungry nights.
"Zhou Qiqi, who called you father and mother, is long dead."
Her voice was as calm as a frozen lake, each word clear and distinct.
"The word 'forgiveness' does not exist in the dictionary of Zhou Qiqi who is standing here now."
As soon as he finished speaking, a faint "whooshing" sound came from afar, growing clearer and clearer as it approached.
It's a police siren!
The villagers stirred, craning their necks to look at the dirt road at the village entrance.
Shen Huaichuan took half a step forward, his broad shoulders firmly blocking Zhou Qiqi's path. His gaze swept over Li Guixiang and Xu Laonian, who had instantly collapsed to the ground like mud:
"Before dawn, Qiqi told me to report the case."
His jawline tightened, and his tone was resolute: "Neither of you can escape. Go inside and reunite with your son!"
The piercing siren stopped abruptly at the gate of the compound.
The car door clicked open, and several uniformed police officers strode in, their sharp eyes scanning the courtyard.
Li Guixiang rolled her eyes, made a hoarse sound in her throat, and couldn't utter a single word.
Xu Laonian was completely paralyzed, trembling like a fallen leaf in the autumn wind, and a damp, hot, and pungent smell emanated from his crotch.
"Li Guixiang? Xu Laonian?"
The lead police officer said sternly, "Come with us!"
Two police officers stepped forward and lifted the two men, who were covered in mud, off the ground like they were chicks.
Li Guixiang tried to struggle and scream, but was silenced by a stern rebuke.
Zhou Qiqi glanced at Zhou Shuhua, waved the letter in her hand, and turned her face away as she spoke.
“We’ll go with them too. All this evidence, including the jade pendant and the earthenware pot, needs to be examined by the police.”
Zhou Shuhua paused for a moment, then quickly nodded.
"Yes, yes, yes! Of course, of course!"
Shen Huaichuan took out his car keys from his pocket, quickly got in the car, and the group followed him to the county public security bureau.
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