Chapter 218 Heart to Heart
Jiang Zheng's heart tightened at Zhong Yinghong's reaction, and he quickly said to the phone: "We are husband and wife, we prosper together and suffer together. You have to trust me, don't talk nonsense over there, I'll be there soon!"
After hanging up the phone, Zhong Yinghong was stunned when she heard the beeping sound from the other end of the phone.
After being married for such a long time, Zhong Yinghong knows Jiang Zheng very well and can understand the hidden meaning behind his words. He was pointing this out to himself. They were in the same boat, so he should never act on impulse and say something he shouldn't to the police.
Yes, having done so many illegal things, Zhong Yinghong has long been tied to Jiang Zheng. If she tells the truth, Jiang Zheng will certainly suffer, but can Zhong Yinghong escape legal sanctions?
There was a hint of threat in Jiang Zheng's words, which made Zhong Yinghong feel extremely aggrieved.
It was obviously Jiang Zheng who cheated and did something wrong, but at this moment Zhong Yinghong had no choice but to choose to protect him, cover up for him, and stand on the same front with him.
Thinking of this, Zhong Yuanhong raised his head, his face pale, and smiled miserably: "I, I don't know anything."
Just when the interrogation had made a breakthrough, Jiang Zheng's phone call disrupted the rhythm, but Xia Mufan remained calm and composed. This psychological game has just begun, it’s still early.
Xia Mufan said calmly, "Is it Jiang Zheng who called?"
Her attitude was relaxed and her tone was gentle, as if she was not standing in an interrogation room, but sitting in a cafe with friends, talking about interesting things that happened recently.
Seeing that Xia Mufan was no longer as sharp as before, Zhong Yinghong also relaxed a little and nodded: "Yeah."
Xia Mufan: "Did he say he would come to the Public Security Bureau right away?"
Zhong Yinghong nodded again: "Yes."
Xia Mushige: "Did he tell you not to talk nonsense?"
Zhong Yinghong raised her eyelids and glanced at Xia Mufan, without saying anything, and agreed.
Xia Mufan smiled and said, "He's quite nervous."
Zhong Yinghong's heart was lifted again.
Xia Mufan did not continue the topic, but instead started chatting about family matters.
"Are you the eldest in the family?"
"yes."
"Are there many brothers and sisters down there?"
"Three brothers and two sisters."
"Is the younger brother favored more, or is the younger sister favored more?
Zhong Yinghong didn't know what Xia Mufan meant by asking these questions, but she didn't object to the topic. She looked up at Xia Mufan and said with a wry smile, "There's no such thing as favored or unfavored girls in the countryside. Aren't they all the main workers?"
Xia Mushige said: "I am also the eldest in the family."
After a pause, Xia Mufan continued, "I started collecting grass for pigs at the age of three, started washing clothes at the age of five, and had to stand at the stove to cook at the age of seven. I raised all my brothers and sisters by myself. If my younger brothers fell, were hungry, or cried, I was always the one who got beaten."
Zhong Yinghong inexplicably found a sense of identity: "Oh, yes, in a rural family, the eldest sister is definitely the one who does the most work but also suffers the most."
Xia Mufan: "Yes, so when I was very young, I made up my mind to leave the countryside and make some achievements to show my parents that daughters are no worse than boys."
Zhong Yinghong was a little curious: "How did you do it?"
Xia Mushige: "Study. I got good grades and was admitted to the police academy and became a police officer."
Zhong Yinghong couldn't figure out why she was chatting with her mortal enemy Xia Mufan, but everything Xia Mufan said really interested Zhong Yinghong, and she couldn't help asking, "Then is your family willing to spend money to support your education? In our village, only boys can go to high school, and many girls go out to work before they finish junior high school. For them, supporting a girl to go to school is the most uneconomical thing, because only boys can carry on the family line and bring honor to the family."
Xia Mushige shrugged: "Same. My dad is not willing to spend money to support my studies."
Thinking of the past, Zhong Yinghong's eyes dimmed a little: "I used to have good grades. After graduating from junior high school, I was admitted to the county middle school. I begged my parents to let me go to school, but they said that my family was poor and had no money. I was 14 or 15 years old when I graduated from junior high school. Logically, I was still a child, but the villagers thought that we were grown up and could go out to work. Studying costs money, but working can earn money for parents. Can you think about which parents would let a girl go to school?"
Xia Mufan's eyes were a little cold. "If they didn't want to, I would find a way myself. I found the teacher and the village committee director and asked them to talk to my dad. You know, the village committee director's words can still be useful. They told my dad that when I get into college, I will definitely make more money than working."
Zhong Yinghong was completely attracted by Xia Mufan's story: "Your father agreed to it just like that? Three years of high school, four years of college, seven years in total. Who knows what will happen to you after seven years. Be it the teacher or the village committee director, they can't help you pay. There was a girl in our village whose father refused to pay for her tuition in her first year of high school. She cried and made a fuss, and even knelt on the ground to beg, but it was useless. In the end, she dropped out of school and went to work in the south."
Xia Mufan snorted coldly: "There is nothing I can do if he doesn't agree. I told him that if he doesn't let me study, I will go out to work and never come home, and I won't send back a penny of my earnings."
Zhong Yinghong stared at Xia Mufan with a hint of envy in her eyes: "You are so awesome! But I don't dare to resist my parents. Am I too weak?"
Xia Mufan sighed softly, "I can't blame you. As the eldest child, I was taught to give in to my younger brothers and sisters, to share the worries of my parents, and to think about the family. But, are these words we have heard from the eldest child right?"
This was the first time Zhong Yinghong heard such words. She was in a trance and murmured to herself, "Isn't that... right?"
Xia Mufan stood straight with a firm look in his eyes: "Everyone has only one life, why can't we live our own life? Why do we have to do what others say? Why do we have to follow the path designed by others?"
Zhong Yinghong looked confused: "But they are our parents, they always want the best for us."
Xia Mufan smiled: "Are they really doing this for our own good? They only have sons in their eyes, not daughters at all. It is the sons who can carry on their family line, it is the sons who can bring honor to the family, it is the sons who can provide for their old age, so the resources of the family and the love of the parents are all biased towards the sons. The daughters are just an add-on, a tool to earn money for the family."
Zhong Yinghong's heart started beating fast when someone said so clearly what she was thinking. She felt the blood in her body was boiling. She couldn't help but raise her voice: "This is not fair!"
Xia Mushi looked at her and said, "Yes, it's unfair. It's a new era now. Both men and women can work and earn money to support their families. Why should we favor boys over girls?"
Zhong Yinghong's eyes were red, and her voice was full of grievance: "My parents always said that only sons can provide for them in their old age, and daughters will become outsiders after marriage, so everything in the house belongs to my younger brothers. I started working at the age of fourteen, and I sent all the money I earned back home honestly, and they also took the wedding gifts. I built the house in my hometown, and I used the money for my three younger brothers to get married. But even so, they never said a good word about me, and just thought that what I did was what I should do."
Xia Mushige narrowed his eyes: "You think it's unfair? Then try to break it!"
Zhong Yinghong held back the tears in her eyes and looked up at Xia Mufan: "How do you think we should break it?"
Xia Mushi's eyes sparkled with sparkling light: "Make yourself stronger and let them look up to you."
Zhong Yinghong looked at Xia Mufan, who seemed to have his own light. For some reason, the hostility she once had towards him gradually dissipated, and she actually felt admiration and worship for him in her heart: "Did you do it?"
Xia Mufan raised his eyes slightly: "Of course! Since I started, more and more girls in our village have gone to college. They have left the countryside and seen a wider world, and their parents are proud of it."
Zhong Yinghong felt longing: "Ah, this is great."
Xia Mufan glanced at her and said, "The first thing a woman should do is not to look down on herself, and not to be an accomplice of those who favor boys over girls."
Zhong Yinghong felt condemned in Xia Mufan's eyes. She turned her head away guiltily, not daring to look at Xia Mufan.
Xia Mufan's voice sounded a little cold and hard as it rang in Zhong Yinghong's ears.
"In the past few years, I have solved more than a dozen human trafficking cases. Traffickers like boys the most. They sell boys to remote mountain villages because there is a strong preference for boys over girls. If there is no boy in the family, they will buy one at a high price."
"When traffickers kidnap girls, most of them are sold as child brides, where they are abused and many never make it to adulthood. Some have their limbs broken or their throats poisoned and their eyes gouged out, and they become street beggars who help others collect money."
"You see, even human traffickers favor boys over girls."
“But there are women among the human traffickers.”
Zhong Yinghong lowered her head and stared at the back of her feet in a daze.
The words Xia Mufan said were like a long whip, lashing her almost numb soul. Having been in this industry for so long, she still feels anxious when she sees girls who have been beaten to disability, or children who have become hoarse from crying. She was just blinded by selfishness and obedience to her husband, so she went further and further down this road of no return.
But today, she felt a deep sense of guilt.
Yes, she is also a girl, and she has also suffered from the preference for boys over girls, and she also feels that it is unfair. But what she did treated women and children as commodities, and she became an accomplice of those who favor boys over girls.
Ring, ring, ring…buzz, buzz…
The phone in her hand rang again, vibrating in Zhong Yinghong's hand.
Zhong Yinghong looked at the caller ID on the phone and did not press the answer button.
Xia Mufan asked: "Why don't you answer the phone?"
Zhong Yinghong shook her head. She was so exhausted from the inside out that her voice was a little weak: "I don't want to answer it."
Zhong Yinghong knew very well that Jiang Zheng was calling her in a hurry just because he was worried that she had said something she shouldn't have, not because he really cared about her.
The cell phone rings persistently, echoing in the interrogation room.
Amid the ringing of the bell, Xia Mufan spoke leisurely, "Did you know that the ten-year-old boy named Daniu, the cousin of Jiang Zheng's hometown, is Jia Xihua's son? That child is about the same age as Liangliang, and Jia Xihua almost treated Liangliang as her own son. Your husband must have discovered the business opportunity at that time, and then started the business of buying and selling children with you, right?"
Zhong Yinghong suddenly looked up and looked at Xia Mufan with some doubt. How do the police know all this? What else do they know? Can I really escape today's interrogation if I keep silent?
Xia Mufan took out a DNA test report and placed it in front of Zhong Yinghong: "This is the paternity test report of Daniu and Jia Xihua. It is produced by the police and is written in black and white. It is very clear."
He took out a copy of the transcript and placed it on the table: "Did you see it? Jiang Zheng's cousin has confessed everything."
Xia Mufan slowly sat back in his chair: "We have already investigated everything you did. Husband and wife are birds of the same forest, but they fly away when disaster strikes. Jiang Zheng is coming to find you now, which is a trap for himself."
Xia Mufan's eyes were as sharp as lightning: "Next, it depends on what you do."
Zhong Yinghong stared at the report and transcript in front of her, countless thoughts flashing through her mind.
——The evidence is conclusive, Jiang Zheng can’t escape.
——Jiang Zheng has always been the person connecting the buyer and the seller, but he has been hiding behind the scenes. Can "Sister Hua" who was pushed to the front by Jiang Zheng escape?
——Jiang Zheng had cheated on his wife a long time ago and his heart is no longer in this family. Will he put all the blame on himself in order to get away with it?
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