The two families, Zhao Hairen and Zhao Sufeng, fought like dogs, getting into a mess, and neither side gained any advantage.
Zhao Hairen and his family of three were beaten bloody by Li Zhaowang's group of people. Their heads and faces were covered in blood, making it difficult to recognize them.
Of course, Zhao Sufeng and Li Zhaowang didn't fare well either. Qin Lingdi was specifically in charge of taking care of Zhao Sufeng, and his thick, sharp fingernails scratched Zhao Sufeng's face all over.
Zhao Dezhu only cared about eating and drinking all day long. He was very strong and powerful. He kicked Li Zhaowang and broke three of his ribs.
If it weren't for the large and powerful Li Zhaowang family, they might not have been able to defeat Zhao Dezhu.
Li Jin was too lazy to get involved in the affairs of these two families, and it was only after Li Kang stepped in that someone was prevented from dying.
Zhao Sufang was still angry, but Liu Jiangsu advised her, "They didn't get away with it either! Let's just let it go!"
Zhao Sufeng felt heartbroken and indignant, "My second sister, no! How could Zhao Sufeng be so wicked!"
If Zhao Sufeng and Zhao Hairen hadn't deliberately framed Liu Jiangsu, how could her mother have faked her death and fled to the deep mountains and forests of western Sichuan?
And how could she herself live under someone else's roof, having to be subservient to others and separated from her mother for decades!
Zhao Sufang was seething with resentment, unable to let it go, and it was truly unbearable. She was so frustrated that she fell ill after only a few days.
Zhao Sufang was sickly every day, lying in bed with no appetite or thirst, and had no interest in anything.
Doctor Gu took Zhao Sufang's pulse and told Li Jin, "This is a heart ailment. She's been holding in bad feelings for years, which has stirred up her inner turmoil."
A mental illness requires a mental cure.
Everyone knows why Zhao Sufang is sick, but getting rid of this mental illness is not easy.
Liu Jiangsu couldn't persuade her, and Li Jin, Li Lan, Li Ying, Huang Guimei, and Grandma Jiang took turns trying to persuade her, but to no avail.
Seeing Zhao Sufang's face grow paler day by day, Li Xiangdong picked up the hunting rifle at home, sat on the edge of his mother's bed, and began loading bullets.
Li Xiangdong loaded the brass bullets, then tested the aim. He said to Zhao Sufang, "Let's go, Mother!"
Zhao Sufang was completely confused. "Where are we going?"
"I'll take you to find the antidote."
"What antidote?"
"Never mind that, come with me!"
Urged on by Li Xiangdong, Zhao Sufang groggily got out of bed, put on her shoes, and followed Li Xiangdong outside.
The two walked all the way to Li Zhaowang's door.
The black lacquered gate was wide open, the red brick ground was flat and even, and the apricot tree in the yard was lush with leaves, with countless yellow apricots hidden among the leaves.
Zhao Sufeng sat under the apricot tree, with a basket of dried peanuts in front of her, and she was shelling the peanuts.
Li Xiangdong gestured for Zhao Sufang to look inside, but Zhao Sufang turned her head away in disgust, saying, "I don't want to see her!"
"You hate her, don't you? You hate her but you can't punish her. Today, I'm going to give you some revenge."
Li Xiangdong said calmly, and then, just as he had done countless times in the mountains and fields, raising his hunting rifle and aiming at Zhao Sufeng in the yard.
As if sensing something, Zhao Sufeng slowly turned her head.
She saw Zhao Sufang and Li Xiangdong, and she also saw the gun barrel aimed at her. But she didn't panic; instead, she looked over calmly.
On the contrary, Zhao Sufang panicked.
She hurriedly knocked the gun out of Li Xiangdong's hand, then cried and punched him.
"Are you crazy?! You're going to shoot someone in broad daylight?! Are you out of your mind?! Huh—are you insane?! Don't you know what 'a life for a life' means?!"
Seeing Zhao Sufang cry, Li Xiangdong finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He couldn't help but recall what Doctor Gu had said: "Your mother is stuck. She has to let out this breath, or she'll get seriously ill."
Everyone was frowning and couldn't think of a solution. Finally, Li Xiangdong came up with this idea.
Zhao Sufang burst into tears, first cursing Li Xiangdong, then cursing Zhao Sufeng and Zhao Hairen, and finally crying about her bad luck.
She hadn't cried so freely since she was five years old.
Sometime later, Zhao Sufeng arrived at her front door. She braced herself against the doorframe with one hand, while gripping her pants tightly with the other.
"Why did you do this? Ah! Why! Aren't I your own sister?"
Zhao Sufang rushed to Zhao Sufen, her eyes blurry with tears, and loudly questioned her.
"Hasn't your mother treated you well? When you broke your leg, wasn't it your mother who took care of you? What do you want that your mother won't give you? It's just a few dilapidated houses, isn't it? Ah—it's just a few dilapidated houses, isn't it?"
Zhao Sufang grabbed Zhao Sufen's shoulders with both hands and shook her violently.
"Speak up! Say something! Explain yourself! Why did you do this!"
Tears streamed down Zhao Sufeng's face as she trembled and said, "I...I...I don't know what's wrong with me..."
It might be because Qin Lingdi stirred things up and said to me, "Your father is gone, so isn't your stepmother in charge of your family's assets? Your family's assets will probably all belong to your sister in the future!"
It's also possible that Qian Shiren would intentionally or unintentionally complain to her about wanting to save more money for the child in her womb.
Perhaps, it was simply because of her own selfish desires that she wanted to monopolize those properties and land.
Regardless, the mistake has been made, and she is now truly reaping the bitter fruits of her past actions.
"Yes, yes, I'm sorry... Sister, I'm sorry..."
Tears streamed down Zhao Sufeng's face as she slowly knelt before Zhao Sufang, saying, "I'm so sorry..."
Zhao Sufang cried even harder, repeatedly patting Zhao Sufen's back, "What's the use of saying sorry..."
————
On the way home.
Zhao Sufang wiped away her tears. Although she was exhausted from crying, she looked much more normal.
Li Xiangdong secretly asked Zhao Sufang, "Mother, are we just going to leave it at that?"
Zhao Sufang breathed a sigh of relief, "That's the only way to let it go. We can't really kill her!"
After a moment of silence, she continued, "Back then, after your maternal grandmother passed away, I lived with Zhao Hairen and Qin Lingdi. In the dead of winter, Qin Lingdi made me wash clothes with cold water. Zhao Sufeng, well, she saw it and kicked the washbasin over, and had a fight with Qin Lingdi."
She clearly remembered that Zhao Sufeng, heavily pregnant, was arguing with Qin Lingdi.
After winning the argument, he supported her back, swayed as he pulled her into the room, tucked her under the covers, and warmed her hands with a thermos used for IV drips.
She also said to her with a stern face, "Be more careful in the future, and do whatever other people ask you to do!"
She even secretly gave her pocket money and food when she was hungry...
She was once a faint light in his miserable life.
Yet this same person was also the one who started his own miserable life.
I can't kill her.
I can't forgive her.
Zhao Sufang sighed as she looked at the floating clouds on the horizon. She could only think, "Never mind."
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