The old village chief watched as his youngest daughter-in-law tightly embraced Zhou Shi, her face streaked with tears.
Shaking his head, he sighed inwardly. What an unreasonable person! That second son of a bitch married her just because he saw her face, and now the family is in turmoil!
He turned around, intending to deal with the second son.
Then Han Shunde said, "Han Shunkui, what do you think we should do about your wife? Either you continue to follow her and go with Zhoujia Village, or you go with me and Dad and go with Hunter Xue and the others."
Han Shunkui looked at his wife kneeling beside his mother-in-law with disappointment.
Last night, she secretly sent the only two bowls of black noodles in the house back to her parents' home. He lay on the straw mat, his hands clenched into fists, but he didn't make a sound. He thought that if he made a fuss, his father would definitely make him divorce his wife.
The couple has two children: a 15-year-old son, Han Zhaocheng, and a 10-year-old daughter, Han Shuying.
He wouldn't want to separate if they could continue living together, but what happened today chilled him to the bone and terrified him.
If it weren't for his son holding on tightly, his eldest brother's granddaughter, Ruyi, would have been taken by his wife and given to her mother to be sold to human traffickers.
He didn't say any of this, but he knew in his heart that he couldn't keep this wife.
So he stepped forward firmly and said, "Father, elder brother, I want to divorce my wife!"
When the second son's wife heard this while holding her mother, she realized that Han Shunkui wanted to divorce her!
She immediately burst into tears, "You heartless bastard! Since I married you, I've done everything I could: bear children, care for my parents, and work in the fields. And now you won't even save my mother, and you want to divorce me!!"
At this moment, Old Man Zhou stepped forward, arms crossed and trembling, and said in a low voice, "In-laws, you can't be so heartless. People from our Zhoujia Village are dead or injured. You can't abandon us and even divorce my daughter."
Unexpectedly, at this moment, his youngest son stepped forward, still tightly gripping a wooden stick in his hand, glaring angrily at the old village chief and Han Shunde.
He raised the stick to hit Han Shuangkui, but Han Zhaoxiong raised his foot and kicked him away.
"If you dare to move again, believe me, I'll chop you up with one stroke!"
The old village chief looked at them with icy eyes and said, "Are you even human? We're already being kind by not killing you after abandoning you. You fled and met us. We had no food or water, and we gave it all to you and took you with us to escape here. But what did you do?"
They actually colluded with those cannibalistic human traffickers to kidnap girls from our village. Children, are you even human?
"I must have been blind to become in-laws with you, Zhou Laonian. From this day forward, we are severing all ties. If we meet again, it will be either you or me."
The remaining people in Zhoujia Village originally thought that Zhou Laonian and the old village chief's in-law relationship would continue to stick with them as they fled the famine, but they did not expect the old village chief's attitude to be so firm.
They all lay motionless on the ground, utterly disheartened.
Zhou Laonian's son said, "Divorce is not an option! My sister has not committed any of the seven grounds for divorce, so why should she be divorced? Give us your donkey and ten catties of grain, or we'll fight you to the death."
Han Shunkui stepped forward and said, "Have you no shame? Your sister stole our last grain last night and now she wants more grain."
As for donkeys, donkeys are more loyal than you. At least we feed and water them, and they help us pull things. Unlike you, we feed you, and you turn around and bite us.
Han Shunkui looked at his brother and said, "Brother, can you help me write a letter of divorce?"
Where could they find paper and pen right now? Han Shunkui tore off a piece of his shirt and handed it to Han Shunde. Then he tore off a strip of cloth from the burly man lying on the ground, stained it with his blood, and said, “Brother, use this to write.”
Han Shunde took it and quickly wrote the letter of divorce.
Han Shunkui pressed his fingerprint on the ground with blood on his fingers.
He walked over, grabbed his wife's hand, smeared blood on his mother-in-law's arm, pressed his fingerprint on it, and threw it to her.
At this moment, his wife still tried to speak up for him by pulling the two children along, shouting loudly, "Zhaocheng and Shuying, please beg your father not to divorce your mother! Without your mother, you are children without a mother. Your father will find you a stepmother, and the stepmother will beat you, bully you, and not let you eat your fill. Waaah!"
Although the two children were reluctant to part, they turned their heads away and refused to look at their mother again.
From childhood, they knew that their mother would always take the good food that their grandparents gave them back to her own family to give to their uncles' children. However, every time their mother took them to their maternal grandparents' house, they were never full, and their maternal grandparents would always scold and beat them.
The old village chief watched as his son resolutely resolved his own affairs, and thought to himself, "This son can still be saved; otherwise, I'll just pretend I never had him!"
Turning around, he saw the villagers of Hanjiacun and said, "Everyone, quickly pack your things, let's go find Lanzhen."
When everyone had quickly packed up their belongings and arrived outside Li Lanzhen's thatched hut,
Li Lanzhen then shouted for them to dismantle the thatched shed, leaving only a few bare sticks standing there.
All the straw mats were either loaded onto the vehicle or smuggled into the space by Li Lanzhen.
After Li Lanzhen returned, she could not find an antidote for the sleeping potion.
We had no choice but to give these girls and young girls extra water.
By this time, they had all woken up, but each one of them was listless and sobbing.
When Han Yuemei opened her eyes, she met Xue Bao's worried gaze.
Tears streamed down her face. Han Yinan saw that his aunt had woken up and shouted loudly.
"Grandma, Grandma, Auntie is awake."
Li Lanzhen rushed over and scooped Han Yuemei up in her arms, repeatedly comforting her, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, Mother's here. Don't be afraid."
Han Yuemei burst into tears, and her crying caused all the young women in the room, both young and old, to start crying as well.
Li Lanzhen did not stop them from crying; crying is also a way to release phobias.
After a while, Li Lanzhen prepared brown sugar water and gave some to the children to calm their nerves.
Su Chen hugged his younger sister Linglong tightly, his eyes brimming with tears. Linglong, in turn, hugged Su Chen back tightly, comforting him.
"Brother, don't be afraid, I'm all better now."
It was my aunt who protected us; we weren't beaten, but she was hit twice on the back.
Su Chen looked at Han Yuemei with gratitude.
There wasn't time to ask them detailed questions or comfort them.
When their parents arrived, they hugged them and comforted them for a long time.
Li Lanzhen saw that all her families had packed their luggage and glanced at Han Mingjiang and Han Minghai.
He then looked at his parents and brothers.
When everyone from Hanjiacun arrived, she specifically looked for Zhou's daughter at the old village chief's house, but surprisingly, the old village chief's youngest daughter-in-law was nowhere to be found.
He thought she must have divorced him or they would have settled their marriage.
"As long as she's not with me," she said, turning to the old village chief.
"Old village chief, let's keep going."
The old village chief nodded.
"Hunter Xue, I'll trouble you to lead the charge."
And so they ventured once again into the deep mountains, searching for a home.
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