Chapter 2
Old Man Qin licked his face and said, "We don't want much. Each of your two sons will get one share, and then give one to your eldest grandson, and keep one for both of you. Then, the money earned from the factory will be divided into four parts every month. It's fair and just. What do you think?"
Tao Zhi still smiled: "I see~ you are so ugly, but your thoughts are very beautiful."
Qin Liming's body shook, her face full of resentment and unwillingness. She suspected that her mother-in-law was naming her.
Qin Dabao glared at him: "You old fool..."
Tao Zhi was too lazy to talk to him. She was just a child who had been born without any guidance. She picked up the bowl of water in front of her, and the water in the bowl rushed towards him like a slap in the face.
Qin Dabao cried out "Ah!" Old Lady Qin saw her beloved being bullied and rushed over to hit Tao Zhi: "I'm going to fight you."
Without waiting for her to reach him, Tao Zhi threw the bowl in his hand. With a dull "crack", the bowl hit Old Lady Qin's face and then rolled to the ground and broke into pieces.
A hot current flowed down her forehead. Old Mrs. Qin touched it and screamed, "Blood! Blood!" Her head tilted and she fainted.
Tao Zhi curled her lips. This was too frightening. It was a pity that Qin Liming caught her, otherwise she would really like to see the rolling gourd.
Old Man Qin was still able to sit still. He stared at Tao Zhi coldly and said, "My mother-in-law, do you mean to say that you don't agree to the division of the family?"
Tao Zhi scratched his ears and said, "Where is that dog barking? I can't hear anyone talking."
Old Man Qin suddenly laughed: "You don't want to drink my toast, it seems you will have to drink the penalty wine. Nephew, let's smash it!"
He brought along all the members of the Qin family, and smashed everything he saw.
Tao Zhi snatched the phone away and called Yao Yao Ling directly. "Hello, police officer, I need to call the police. Someone came to my house to extort money. When they failed to get what they wanted, they started smashing things. My life and property are seriously threatened."
In that era, especially in rural areas, people generally had a weak sense of law. Even when they heard Tao Zhi calling the police, no one thought of stopping her. Of course, if they had legal awareness, they would not raise their fists for no reason. Because in the village, it is very common to support fellow villagers. They have always done this, and nothing has happened before, so they didn't know they had broken the law. Old man Qin was very alert, and he shouted loudly: "What are you still doing? Unplug the phone line quickly."
Tao Zhi had been prepared for this move. She rolled up the telephone cord and hid in the corner with the phone.
She said to the police, "Did you hear that? My home is... You'd better come quickly." Tao Zhi quickly gave the address and hung up the phone.
Tao Zhi pushed the old man out and closed the door. She had no good feelings towards this group of robbers. She smiled her brightest smile of the day and said, "Come on, let me see what you can do."
Tao Zhi wielded the stick with great vigor, hitting each of them in the joints, causing them to scream in pain, some even falling to the ground in a heap. Qin Dabao suspected they were acting, just to avoid hitting a woman, as it would be unpleasant to say. Qin Dabao was furious and threatened that if they didn't help, he wouldn't pay them a penny when he got home. He clenched his fists as he spoke and rushed forward. Tao Zhi quickly dodged, turned to the side, and kicked him in the popliteal fossa. With a click, Qin Dabao fell to his knees.
Old Man Qin looked at the fallen Qin family members and had never imagined that things would develop like this. Usually, he would pin down others and fight with two or three people at most. But when there were too many people, it became a gang fight, and this matter was not so easy to fool.
Qin Limin held her mother, unable to move. He was the only one left standing. For the first time, Old Man Qin considered backing out. But he couldn't bear to part with the benefits he had secured. His daughter had promised him that she would give half of the money to the family, first to build a new house and then to buy two Hondas.
Cheng Man came up with the police. Tao Zhi saw Cheng An was there too, and she nodded to him.
Old Man Qin gritted his teeth and said, "Mother-in-law, our children are grown up and will have to separate sooner or later. I am doing this for your own good."
Tao Zhi thanked him: "No, I can't bear it. If you have any problems, talk to the police."
The police officer stood at the door and saw the mess on the ground: smashed tables and chairs, an overturned water dispenser, blueprints and drawing tools, and various account books flying around. The police officer said coldly: "Everyone, come out!"
Cheng Man was the first to rush over and gave Tao Zhi a thumbs up: "Mom, you are this."
Tao Zhi said, "Go away, don't block the road." She also saw her eldest son standing next to the old man, looking like he had lost six of his seven souls.
The police routinely took stock of the situation, roughly calculated the losses, and then packed up the group and took them away. The people Old Man Qin had brought with him grew increasingly pale as they listened to the compensation amounts listed one by one, ultimately arriving at a substantial sum. Some of them hated Old Man Qin and wondered how they would recover their losses when they returned.
If Tao Zhi knew what these people were thinking, she would just laugh and add, "This is what they call trying to steal a chicken but losing the rice."
Even more pitiful was the fact that these uninformed people had to ride their bicycles to get themselves to the police station, with police officers escorting them from front to back.
Only Qin Limin and Old Lady Qin were left. Tao Zhi was too lazy to look at them and told Cheng Hui to send them back.
Qin Limin had a sad face: "Mom, this is my home, I'm not going anywhere."
Tao Zhi didn't look at her, but only at Cheng Hui. Cheng Hui drove out his motorcycle and asked Qin Limin to help his mother-in-law get on.
Qin Limin didn't move, just wiped away her tears.
Cheng Hui looked at her seriously, and Qin Limin realized that her husband, who had always obeyed her, actually had a temper. She didn't dare to offend him at this moment, so she had to get on the car and was taken back to her parents' home in the countryside.
Tao Zhi called the old man: "Come with me to the police station."
Cheng Xiangqian asked, "Anything else?"
"Go find Anzi and report the situation. There were too many people around just now, so some things are inconvenient to talk about." Tao Zhi said as he took out a tape recorder from under the table and put the tape inside into his bag.
Cheng Xiangqian was dumbfounded. "When did this thing go there?"
Tao Zhi rolled her eyes at him and said, "I came in holding the clothes, have you forgotten?"
"I didn't notice that."
"It doesn't matter, let's go."
Cheng Xiangqian stepped onto the CG125 and watched Tao Zhi sit down before he began to pedal the accelerator. The car crawled like a turtle.
Tao Zhi didn't care about anything else. She went straight to find Cheng An. Anzi was already waiting in the office.
She handed the tape over, staring into Cheng An's eyes and said, "This is today's recording. What I want to say is, Anzi, you should track down Old Man Qin. As far as I know, in addition to the pornography you saw today, he also coerced and bribed the women in the village, bullied the elderly widows and widowers, and took people's money for himself, etc..." Tao Zhi said viciously, "If it is true, the worst case scenario, we should remove him from the position of elementary school principal. Letting such a person be a role model for others will only harm the flowers of the motherland. I am afraid that the female teachers will not have peace for one day if he remains in office."
Cheng An felt a heavy responsibility. He instinctively felt that this was no small case and that he needed to find a trusted colleague to work with him. However, he was puzzled: "Auntie, how do you know all this?"
Tao Zhi couldn't tell him that she had seen and heard it with her own eyes and ears, so she had already thought of an excuse.
"Qin Yufen, do you know her?"
"Remember, my second cousin's wife."
"She was the one who introduced our daughter-in-law. I noticed she was very different from what I'd first thought, so I went to Yufen to find out. At first, she wouldn't tell me, so I always brought two pieces of pork. Later, she quietly told me she didn't want to be a matchmaker at all, because as the old saying goes: 'Don't be a middleman, don't be a guarantor, don't be a matchmaker for three generations.' But it was Old Man Qin who locked her parents in the woodshed, depriving them of food and water, and forced Yufen to introduce Qin Limin to us. He also said: 'Only success is allowed, not failure.' I only heard about the rest of the events later."
"Of course, that was just her side of the story. I had to hear what others had to say. Later, I hired someone to go to Qinjia Village and paid to pry open the villagers' mouths. Turns out, a lot of people in the village knew about his dirty laundry. After comparing the two, I found out Yufen wasn't lying."
Cheng An was so angry that he slammed the table: "This is too much, absolutely too much!" He promised Tao Zhi: "Aunt, don't worry, those who do evil will eventually suffer the consequences. I will do my best to bring him to justice and make him get what he deserves."
Tao Zhi put down the heavy stone in her heart and said, "Good boy, auntie believes in you."
There's a term in the book for her behavior: "removing the firewood from under the cauldron." Tao Zhi was amused by this.
When I got home, all my children were there, and the office, which seemed to have been bombed, was in a mess.
Cheng Man took credit: "Dad, we didn't dare touch your documents and drawings, as well as your notebooks and tools. We sorted them out and put them aside for you."
Cheng Xiangqian took out five dollars without saying a word, and Cheng Man took it with a grin. Judging from how skilled they were, this kind of transaction had happened countless times before.
Tao Zhi walked to the kitchen, where her eldest daughter was cooking. Some of the food was already on the table. She shouted, "It's time to eat."
The family came in one after another and sat down in their seats.
We had a cook at home, but today was a public holiday, and everyone at the factory was off, so she went home to celebrate. That's why my eldest daughter, who works in the city, was able to come back and visit.
Having not seen her eldest daughter for several days, Tao Zhi smiled as she picked up some food for her. Two voices rang out simultaneously beside her: "Mom, I want some too."
Tao Zhi looked at the children who were showing off and picked up a piece of food with chopsticks for both of them.
The eldest son ate quietly, remaining silent from beginning to end.
Tao Zhi's four children each have their own personality traits.
The eldest son, Cheng Hui, is 26 years old and works for his father. His wife, Qin Limin, is unemployed. Their son, Cheng Mingcheng, is three years old and in the kindergarten class.
The eldest daughter, Cheng Xing, is 23 years old and works at a food factory in the city. Her husband, Zhao Jun, works as a handyman at a pharmaceutical factory in the city. Their daughter, Zhao Jinhe, is now one year old and is being raised by Zhao Jun's mother.
The youngest son, Cheng Jun, is 20 years old. He stopped studying after graduating from junior high school and now runs his small business with his friends.
The youngest daughter, Cheng Man, is seventeen years old and a sophomore in high school.
Tao Zhi asked Cheng Xing, "Where's Xiao Zhao?"
Cheng Xing replied: "He is on duty today."
"Why don't you bring Jin He back?"
"My mother-in-law said the baby is still young and she's worried he might get a stomachache from the cold."
Tao Zhi curled her lips. This old lady was afraid that her granddaughter would get close to her in-laws.
There was another person who wasn't there, and no one mentioned her at all. Her seat had been removed, as if she had never existed. Tao Zhi guessed it was the work of two clever little people, and in any case, Tao Zhi felt relieved.
The one who had returned to her parents' home, looking at the things she had done, had completely eroded the old couple's goodwill. Her fate with this family was over, and it all depended on Cheng Hui's decision.
Tao Zhi caught sight of the children's high chair out of the corner of her eye and suddenly remembered her eldest grandson. She asked Cheng Hui, "Where's Mingcheng?"
No matter what his mother is like, the child is innocent, and Tao Zhi still has some magnanimity.
Only then did Cheng Hui say, "His mother took him away."
Tao Zhi was silent for a moment, "Alright."
Cheng Hui opened his mouth and then closed it again.
Tao Zhi noticed that Cheng Hui was hesitant to speak, but she was too tired today and didn't want to make herself more upset.
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