"Knock knock knock—" The urgent knocking on the door shattered the tranquility of the simple wooden shed.
Just as Zhou Jiuzhen had untied Ling Huanwu's long braid with one hand and was about to wash her hair, he heard Qiao Hui's panicked voice call out, "Comrade Ling, are you inside?"
She pulled back the wooden planks of the makeshift shed and was taken aback to see that Qiao Hui's forehead was covered in sweat: "What's wrong? Why are you in such a panic?"
"What?" Qiao Hui's eyes widened, his tone full of surprise. "An auntie just told me that you invited Xiaoqin to chat on the west side of the dock. The more I thought about it, the more something seemed off. I didn't think you would invite Xiaoqin to such a secluded place so late at night, so I came to find you..."
"I didn't ask Xiaoqin to go to the beach!"
Ling Huanwu's expression changed drastically; she immediately sensed something was wrong. "Oh no! Someone must have tricked Xiaoqin into going there; something must have happened!"
She rushed outside with her hair down, and Zhou Jiuzhen quickly grabbed a military green jacket from the shed and draped it over her shoulders, saying, "It's windy outside, and you're all pregnant..."
Ling Huanwu didn't care about the cold. She grabbed a carrying pole used for carrying luggage from the shed and shoved one into Qiao Hui's hand: "Let's go to the dock now, or it'll be too late!"
Poor Zhou Jiuzhen had finally managed to take off his clothes with one hand, and was just about to spend some tender time with his wife before this happened.
Seeing Ling Huanwu rush out in a hurry, he didn't even have time to put on his clothes. He chased after her with his shirt off and a wooden board still tucked under his arm.
The three of them ran towards the sea along the dirt road, the wind whipping up sand that stung their faces.
Ling Huanwu felt like she was burning with anger. Her sixth sense told her that if anything happened to Xiaoqin, she would be held responsible!
Seeing the gray-blue sea in the distance, Ling Huanwu suddenly grabbed Zhou Jiuzhen's arm and asked him in a low voice, "Jiuzhen, you have good eyesight, take a look, isn't that Xiaoqin?"
Following the direction she pointed, they saw five figures covered with black cloth pushing and shoving a pink figure next to an abandoned fishing shed by the dock.
Lin Xiaoqin's voice was choked with sobs, but it was muffled by the sound of the waves, "Don't come any closer..."
"stop!"
Ling Huanwu suddenly raised the carrying pole and shouted to stop him, her voice particularly loud in the sea breeze.
The five dark figures were startled. When they turned around and saw two men and a woman, they felt guilty and exchanged glances. They then darted away through the cracks in the rocks and disappeared in no time.
"Xiaoqin!" Ling Huanwu rushed over and pulled the trembling Lin Xiaoqin into her arms.
Lin Xiaoqin felt as if she had finally found someone to rely on, and tears welled up in her eyes. She clutched the hem of her clothes tightly, her body still trembling.
Qiao Hui also rushed over. Seeing that Lin Xiaoqin was alright, his heart finally settled down. But then he thought of the five dark figures and gritted his teeth, saying, "Those bastards! If we had arrived any later..."
Ling Huanwu patted Lin Xiaoqin's back, her voice softening, "Xiaoqin, don't be afraid, it's alright. Did you see who those people were? What did they want?"
Lin Xiaoqin buried her face in her arms and shook her head, her voice choked with sobs: "I...I didn't see clearly. They were masked and tried to drag me into the fishing shed...I tried to run, but there were too many of them..."
Ling Huanwu's heart sank. She touched Lin Xiaoqin's disheveled braids and glanced at the empty rocky area.
The storm surge had just passed, and even Zhao Tingguo and his group hadn't been able to get to the island yet, so how could a few masked men suddenly appear?
She clenched her fists, her eyes turning cold, and turned to ask Qiao Hui, "Engineer Qiao, tell me quickly, who exactly sent you the message that I invited Xiaoqin here?"
Without hesitation, Qiao Hui quickly revealed who the aunt who had sent him the message was.
Ling Huanwu and the others hurriedly turned back to the wooden shed area of the drying ground to look for someone.
At that moment, the aunt who delivered the message was putting ten yuan into her small purse and was about to go to sleep when she heard Zhou Jiuzhen and his group knocking on the door so urgently that the wooden shed door fell off.
What are you doing?
The aunt screamed in terror, unaware of the seriousness of the situation.
When Zhou Jiuzhen pressed her to reveal whether she had hired five men to bully Lin Xiaoqin, the aunt was terrified and quickly confessed that Su Haiting had bribed her.
Zhou Jiuzhen's face darkened; he could hardly believe his ears.
The kind and innocent younger sister in Su Haidi's eyes could actually do such a thing.
He used to think that the most she would do was spread rumors.
I never imagined she would do something so heinous.
Just then, Chu Mei, who was huddled in the next wooden shed with other women, heard the noise and poked her head out to ask the guard Wang what had happened.
When she learned that Su Haiting had deliberately gone to bully Lin Xiaoqin, she thought she had misheard.
In her eyes, Su Haiting was selfish, but not to such an insane degree.
"That can't be right. Doesn't she want to stay at the seafood company? To do something like this? Besides, she and Comrade Xiaoqin don't have any grudges at all..."
Chu Mei still wanted to defend Su Haiting.
After all, it was she who publicly declared Su Haiting as her chosen daughter-in-law.
If this daughter-in-law is so morally corrupt, it only proves that she was blind back then.
Qiao Hui snorted coldly, "Whether that Comrade Su is that kind of person or not, we'll find out by going over to her and asking her. Doesn't she happen to have five lackeys with her? I think it was those five who did it!"
"Yes, let's go find her and ask her!"
Zhou Jiuzhen nodded, grasped Ling Huanwu's cold hand, and the group inquired their way towards the wooden shed that Su Haiting and the others had built...
In the far corner of the drying ground, there was a wooden shed that was larger than the surrounding wooden sheds.
As the five men were setting up the shed in the evening, the villagers around them joked that the wooden shed they were building for their leader was both large and sturdy.
The five of them simply exchanged knowing smiles.
If the wooden shed isn't sturdy, it won't be enough for them to struggle with.
Originally, they wanted to bring Lin Xiaoqin into the wooden shed in the evening as well, so they built the shed a bit bigger than the ones for the other villagers.
But now that Lin Xiaoqin has run away, the five of them are filled with anger but have nowhere to vent it.
Therefore, Su Haiting was the one who had to suffer.
Su Haiting was in unbearable pain and fainted several times.
But the leader of the henchmen splashed water on her to wake her up.
Su Haiting kept pleading with them, promising that she would definitely find a way to lure Lin Xiaoqin here.
But the words of her henchman were like a bucket of cold water poured over her, extinguishing her last glimmer of hope.
"Sister Su, don't think we don't know what you're up to. Do you think we'll let you off the hook just because we have another woman?"
"You're overthinking it. You'll never get married in your life. You'll be our dog forever, or we'll ruin your reputation!"
"This is all the advice you gave us on how to deal with Ling Huanwu. Now you're using it on yourself, which is just fulfilling your idea!"
Hearing these words filled with despair, Su Haiting felt her vision blur and was about to faint again.
The leader of the henchmen quickly took out a medicine bottle from the bag she usually carried, poured out a pill, and put it into Su Haiting's mouth.
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