Chapter 57 Taking Responsibility to the End
Shen Yi rubbed his fist and reminded her in an icy voice, "You just said in front of the whole brigade that you would take full responsibility for her."
"You brat, you're messing with me!" Lu Huaiyuan glared at Shen Yi with bloodshot eyes. "You knew all along that the person inside wasn't Liu Zhixia!"
"Lu Huaiyuan!" Gu Mansheng exploded as well. "What do you mean? You don't want to take responsibility just because it wasn't Liu Zhixia? Yesterday, you were the one who barged into the woodshed and... you bullied me!"
Looking at her ferocious face, Lu Huaiyuan suddenly laughed, a laugh filled with utter desolation.
"Gu Mansheng, what are you pretending for? Didn't you give me this medicine? Didn't you ask me to drug Liu Zhixia so we could have sex? How did it become you now?"
"You're talking nonsense!" Gu Mansheng was so frightened by being exposed in public that she backed away repeatedly. "It was clearly you who lost your bestial nature and insulted me!"
"I forced you, why didn't you scream for help?" Lu Huaiyuan looked at her amusedly. "Xu Zhiqing is right next door! Oh! So, you were waiting for me here?"
Seeing Lu Huaiyuan's murderous glare, Gu Mansheng shrank back in fear and decided to play dumb, looking at Lu Jianping: "Captain Lu! You all promised to hold a wedding for us!"
The way Lu Jianping looked at Gu Mansheng at that moment was as if he wanted to skin her alive.
Zhang Xiuying laughed smugly, slowly adding fuel to the fire: "Captain Lu, even if Gu, the educated youth, has a bad class background, she's still an innocent girl. Now your son has ruined her, and you just promised to take responsibility in front of the whole brigade."
"That's right! We all heard it!" The surrounding villagers chimed in.
Lu Jianping was put on the hot seat, and could only grit his teeth and squeeze out a few words: "Fine! We'll get it done! We'll get it done the day after tomorrow!"
"That's great!" Gu Mansheng was overjoyed and immediately pressed her advantage, "Captain Lu, does that mean I can move out of the cowshed? You can't expect me to marry someone from the cowshed, can you?"
"move!"
Lu Jianping practically roared out the word, then, unable to stay any longer, stormed off.
Gu Mansheng was so happy she almost jumped for joy, and immediately turned around and ran towards the cowshed.
Regardless of the process, she no longer had to live in the cowshed and successfully married Lu Huaiyuan. She no longer had to worry about being sent to some godforsaken mountain village!
Liu Zhixia sneezed and shivered. "Mom, let's go back quickly. My clothes are soaked."
"Oh, right, right! Hurry back!" Zhang Xiuying hugged her daughter with heartache.
She then turned to Shen Yi, her face full of gratitude: "Comrade Shen, you should go back and change into dry clothes. Thank you so much for today, I'll definitely treat you to a meal another day!"
Shen Yi smiled and agreed, then left with Lu Kai and the others.
The crowd gradually dispersed, but everyone's face still showed excitement at having stumbled upon such a shocking scoop, without a trace of fatigue from a busy night.
As soon as she got home, Liu Zhixia told him everything that had happened the night before.
Upon hearing the words "drug administration," Zhang Xiuying was so enraged that she grabbed a kitchen knife and was about to rush out, shouting, "That beast Lu Huaiyuan! I'll fight him to the death!"
"Calm down!" Liu Shouren held her tightly. "This drugging is no laughing matter. For our daughter's reputation, we have no choice but to swallow this."
"Swallow my ass!" Zhang Xiuying roared. "We've been honest our whole lives, so we deserve to be bullied like this? I won't swallow this insult!"
"Mom, don't worry," Liu Xuejun laughed. "Think about it, if Lu Huaiyuan marries that rich girl, his accountant job is completely ruined, isn't it?"
Liu Zhixia narrowed her eyes, like a cunning little fox, and continued, "Yes, Mother, if we go to his house and make a scene now, at most we'll have to pay some compensation, but that won't be enough to vent our anger. Isn't Lu Jianping most concerned about his position as team leader? Now that he has a daughter-in-law with a bad class background, we should help him 'spread the word' about her."
Zhang Xiuying's anger instantly turned into excitement: "That makes sense! Everyone already disliked him, and now that his family has gotten into this mess, I'm going to make him busy writing self-criticisms every day!"
She was about to leave when she said, "Let's go, I'm going to the commune to report him right now!"
"Mother!" Shen Hongmei, who had just finished bandaging her wound, grabbed her arm. "Don't make things worse! This matter isn't settled yet! What if you ruin the marriage and that man surnamed Lu comes back to bother Xiaomei? We have to wait until they finish their banquet the day after tomorrow and make sure it's all settled before you go!"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Xiuying calmed down, but still plopped down on the bench, angrily saying, "I'm just so angry! When I saw Lu Huaiyuan's smug look, I really wanted to tear him apart!"
Looking at Shen Hongmei's pale face, Liu Zhixia handed her a cup of water from her spatial spring: "Sister-in-law, have some water. Are you alright?"
"That Wang Laizi, he really went all out!" Shen Hongmei said with lingering fear. "Luckily, Comrade Shen arrived in time, otherwise we would both be finished!"
She looked at Liu Xiangyang, and for the first time was she so generous: "Xiangyang, go and buy some meat! We must invite Comrade Shen to our house for dinner tonight to thank him properly!"
Seeing the surprised looks on her family's faces, Shen Hongmei said irritably, "What are you looking at! Even if I'm stingy, I can still tell what's important! What use is money when we're about to lose our lives? You didn't see it, Comrade Shen was like a god descending to earth, she beat Wang Laizi to the ground in no time!"
Listening to her sister-in-law's vivid description, Liu Zhixia's cheeks quietly flushed.
Because what followed... was the scene of her lunging at him...
I hope my sister-in-law didn't see it at the time...
Just then, he met Shen Hongmei's ambiguous gaze, and heard her whisper, "Don't worry, sister-in-law is tight-lipped, she won't say anything!"
Oh no, I saw everything...
Liu Zhixia's face turned even redder, and she stood up abruptly: "Then...then I'll go invite Comrade Shen to dinner."
"Sister, I'll go with you!" Liu Xuejun also wanted to join in the fun.
"Where are you going!" Shen Hongmei grabbed him. "Your sister can go by herself! I'm staying home to recover from my injuries, and Mom and Dad have been exhausted all night. You stay home and look after the kids!"
She pulled Liu Zhixia to the door and whispered, "Little sister, this is all I can do for you! He's a battalion commander! You'd better seize this opportunity!"
Liu Zhixia forced a smile that looked more like a grimace: "Sister-in-law, you're overthinking it. Their family is well-off; they wouldn't even look at us."
"If you don't like it, why would you come to save me in the middle of the night?" Shen Hongmei muttered under her breath.
Liu Zhixia pretended not to hear and fled in panic.
She had only walked a few steps when she saw a group of aunties gathered together, whispering among themselves.
"Hey, I just overheard something at the Lu family's place! Lu Huaiyuan was beaten half to death by his father, and he confessed it himself! He drugged the Liu family's daughter, and then drank the drug himself, intending to force the issue, but then Gu Zhiqing showed up out of nowhere!"
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