“We saw that Shen Duzhou hadn’t left after school and was drawing. There was no one around, so we lied to her and said that Jiang Xiangyang was waiting for her over there and had something to say to her. Then we led her to the small warehouse next to the grove and locked the door when she wasn’t paying attention!”
The two then left the school gate to go home, but unexpectedly, they were pushed into a mud pit by Shen Duzhou.
Before they could even react, Jiang Xiangyang beat them both up again, leaving them both stunned.
Liao Aimin looked at the two children's bruised faces, but instead of feeling sorry for them, he was filled with anger.
"Useless trash! You've disgraced me!"
He smashed the cup on the ground and stormed off, leaving Li Hongjuan and her two children at home crying together.
This matter has caused quite a stir.
The next day, when Zhou Qiqi went to Deng Cuixiang's house to make dumplings together, Deng Cuixiang described it so vividly, as if she were right there.
Zhou Qiqi listened in a daze and sighed.
"I still feel sorry for Li Hongjuan."
Deng Cuixiang pursed her lips.
"What's so pitiful about her? Back then, Li Hongjuan saw that Section Chief Liao had a high position and a lot of allowances, so she rushed to marry him. I heard she got married after knowing him for only one day, as if she was holding a grudge against someone! She didn't take her marriage seriously, and now she's living like this, which is her own fault!"
She sighed.
"If you ask me, the truly pitiful ones are the two children! Yesterday afternoon, before she pretended to be dead at school, the way she pinched Xiao Lei was incredibly hard! The child's arm turned purple on the spot! He was screaming in pain! It was painful for me to watch!"
Zhou Qiqi saw it too; she really did hit him hard, not treating the child like her own at all.
At the time, she could have found a way to expose Li Hongjuan's pretense of death, but seeing the way the two children protected Li Hongjuan, she felt a little reluctant.
So we let it go.
This was also a way of saving face for Li Hongjuan in front of the two children.
Now that the topic of the two children came up, she became a little curious again.
"Sister Cuixiang, do you know anything about the biological mother of these two children?"
Deng Cuixiang nodded.
"I know. Section Chief Liao's mother came by last year, and the old lady mentioned that the children's mother committed suicide by jumping into a well three years ago, when the children were three years old. Both children were still very young at the time..."
Zhou Qiqi couldn't help but feel a little emotional.
"It's quite pitiful. Children don't have much memory before the age of three, which means they've been without a mother since they can remember things. They were so afraid of losing Li Hongjuan after all, which is why they're so protective of her."
Deng Cuixiang sighed.
"Absolutely! So when I saw Li Hongjuan pinching Xiao Lei like that, I really felt sorry for the child..."
After exchanging a few more words, the two changed the subject to another blended family in the residential compound.
They were also remarried, but they were much happier.
Zhu Yingying wasn't very talkative, and listened the whole time. Her little head felt overloaded, and she admired Deng Cuixiang a bit.
"Sister Cuixiang, how do you know everything?"
"He's been squatting in the outhouse too much, hasn't he?"
Deng Cuixiang covered her mouth and laughed. She was kneading dough, and the dough in the basin was being slapped loudly.
As she spoke, she casually asked another question.
"By the way, how many dumplings are we making today? Your husband Shen Huaichuan should be back for lunch today, right? I saw that everyone who participated in the competition with him has returned."
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