Xu Huiqing had already sent off these old vultures in her past life, so why would she be afraid of them? The reason she’d been holding back and hadn’t exploded was simply that she’d just given birth, suffered a major hemorrhage, and her body was too weak to allow it. Now, although the doctors said it would take forty-two days postpartum for her body to fully recover, thirty days had already passed. If not now, while her maternal family was all here, then when?
Her smashing a dish down didn’t matter, but it terrified Mother Xu.
When had Mother Xu ever seen her always good-tempered, obedient daughter fly into such a rage? In Mother Xu’s eyes, there was no daughter under heaven more good-tempered, obedient, sensible, and virtuous than hers!
If her daughter lost her temper, then it was a hundred percent someone else’s fault. Her good-tempered daughter wouldn’t get angry unless she was pushed to the brink!
She knew now that the selling of her granddaughter was likely true. For her well-behaved and sensible daughter to be driven to physical violence—could this be fake?
But smashing a bowl and plate onto her father-in-law’s head would draw the condemnation of a thousand pointing fingers! She was throwing her marriage away!
Terrified, she rushed over and grabbed Xu Huiqing’s arm to try to mediate!
The Zhao family members were all stunned.
Over thirty years ago, Old Zhao had latched onto the Director of the commune Revolutionary Committee, joined the Little Red Guards, and in those years had gone with the Revolutionary Committee to raid homes and harm people. In the Zhao family, his word was absolute law. It was only in recent years, as he grew older, the Revolutionary Committee disbanded, and policies changed, that he started keeping his tail between his legs. But in the Zhao family, he was heaven!
Now that ‘heaven’ had been hit on the head by the daughter-in-law, Old Lady Zhao felt as if the sky had collapsed. With a howl, she bent over and charged at Xu Huiqing, aiming to ram her head into Xu Huiqing’s stomach!
This formula of wailing, making a scene, and threatening suicide was all too familiar to Xu Huiqing.
In the first few years after she married into the Zhao family, not knowing the family’s ways and being thin-skinned, she had been sweet-talked by Zhao Zongbao and endured the good-cop-bad-cop torments of Old Zhao and Old Lady Zhao. Later, once she gradually understood what the old couple and Zhao Zongbao were really like, she stopped enduring and simply exploded. The old couple, counting on her to care for them in their old age, couldn’t do much to her. Zhao Zongbao, who spent over half the year away, relied on her to take care of the old couple at home and would coax her, so they gradually started treating her and Xiaoxi better. But in words and meaning, all the Zhao family’s wealth belonged to the Zhao family; not a penny would be given to Xiaoxi. Old Zhao’s exact words were: “Girls are all money-losing goods; they’re raised for nothing. Not a cent will be taken out for her; even a single cent belongs to the Old Zhao family!”
He said this right in front of her, the biological mother.
At that time, although she had lost her state employment position, she was still working and earning money!
Before that, Xu Huiqing had never thought of scheming for anything. From then on, she became mindful of everything, got her accountant’s license, and went to take over the finances at Zhao Zongbao’s company!
She knew the Zhao family would inevitably have a son someday, so she became meticulous in saving up for her daughter.
Now, seeing Old Lady Zhao resort to the same old tricks, she stretched out her hand and pulled the high-backed chair in front of her.
The wooden high-backed chair was too large and heavy for her to lift, but Old Lady Zhao happened to ram her head right into the chair back, knocking herself onto her backside. Slapping her thighs, she wailed: “Oh my mother! A daughter-in-law who dares to strike her in-laws! There’s no justice under heaven!”
Xu Huiqing sternly said to Second Brother Xu: “Second Brother, the Zhao family is a kidnapper’s den! Go report them to the police!”
The crowd, still reeling from the shock that Xu Huiqing had actually dared to hit her in-laws, immediately had their attention drawn back by her words. No one dared to speak or intervene.
Xu Huiqing was the Zhao family’s own daughter-in-law, who had borne two children. Her words couldn’t possibly be false, right?
Could Old Zhao and Old Lady Zhao really be kidnappers by birth?
A woman who had come to grab wedding candy and watch the excitement suddenly slapped her thigh: “No wonder! The Zhao family might really be a kidnapper’s den! Do you all remember? The Zhao family’s old house is right below the dam bank. They used to barely afford meals, and the house was so dilapidated it looked like something. Now the old house has been replaced with a brick-and-tile house, and look how prosperous their household is now—three large storefronts, a house full of TV, electric fans, and a sewing machine! How much money did all that cost? If they weren’t kidnappers, where would a family of eight-generations-poor peasants get so much money?”
Swayed by her words, others also began to suspect: “Just last month, Jiaojia Village lost a child. Could it have been the Old Zhao family who abducted them?”
“Their own daughter-in-law is saying so. It must be true that they’re kidnappers!”
“The Zhao family is actually a kidnapper’s den!”
Second Brother Xu, who had paused in his tracks when his sister was nearly struck, immediately picked up his feet again and ran off to find the police station.
Old Zhao hurriedly shouted to Eldest Brother-in-law Zhao: “Stop him! Don’t let him go!”
Eldest Brother-in-law Zhao, though thoroughly depraved with drinking, whoring, gambling, and smoking, was still young at this time. The worst he had done was play a little poker, smoke a couple packs of Daqianmen, and occasionally go with his disreputable friends to city dance halls to dance disco. That was the height of prodigality for him. He had never seen a ‘kidnapper’ before.
He stood there completely dumbfounded. Second Brother Xu had already run far away, and he still stood there, not reacting.
The other Zhao sisters were in the kitchen cooking, and the other Zhao sons-in-law were also frozen, looking at each other and not daring to move.
Second Sister Zhao was also stupefied at this moment. She burst into loud wailing and cried: “Misunderstanding! It’s a misunderstanding! If you want to see Xiaoxi, I’ll bring her to you. Why did you hit my parents? Xiaoxi is perfectly fine, staying at my house right now!”
Xu Huiqing, however, sneered and said: “Do you think I don’t know how my postpartum hemorrhage and postpartum eclampsia came about? I personally overheard them talking in the hospital, afraid that if this baby wasn’t a boy, it would take up a Zhao family registration spot, discussing that if it’s a girl, they’d sell her and keep trying for a boy! Otherwise, how could I, perfectly healthy, with the baby delivered safely, have had a major hemorrhage?”
Old Zhao and Old Lady Zhao were also stupefied. At this moment, their minds were a mess, and they themselves couldn’t remember if they’d privately discussed selling the granddaughter in the hospital, or whether Xu Huiqing had truly overheard.
Old Zhao, having been a Little Red Guard in his youth, had an extremely arrogant personality at home. Sometimes he was very shrewd, sometimes he spoke completely without thinking.
Otherwise, in her past life, over a decade later, he wouldn’t have been talking with Second Elder Sister in his own room with the door not even shut properly, brazenly revealing the truth about Xiaoxi being sold, allowing Xu Huiqing to hear.
Her mother-in-law at least knew to keep her voice down, but her father-in-law and Second Elder Sister were two complete bubble-brains, with voices louder than anyone else’s!
Now, when Xu Huiqing said this, Second Sister Zhao really believed that Father Zhao and Mother Zhao had spoken in the hospital and been overheard by Xu Huiqing. She stopped defending herself and wailed loudly: “It’s none of my business! It was Mom and Dad who told me to do it! They told me to sell Xiaoxi. Zongbao also knew about this. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have dared sell Xiaoxi even if you gave me ten lives!”
This statement nailed down the Zhao family’s human trafficking. If they sold their own granddaughter, how many others had they trafficked over the years?
Father Zhao was so angry at his second daughter’s stupidity that his eyes looked bloodshot.
His forehead had already been cut open by Xu Huiqing’s dish, and his eyes were surrounded by blood. Hearing his second daughter, he stepped forward and delivered a heart-wrenching kick to her chest: “Shut up! When did I tell you to sell Xiaoxi? I told you to hide her in the countryside for a few days and bring her back after your nephew is born!”
Second Sister Zhao was kicked so hard she fell backward in agony onto the ground, crying to heaven and earth: “Heavens! Mom! Without your consent, how could I sell Xiaoxi?”
Old Lady Zhao also finally reacted at this point. She scrambled over, grabbed Second Sister Zhao by the collar, and slapped her twice across the face: “I’ll beat you to death, you life-shortening wretch! You dared to sell even your own niece, and you still dare spout nonsense. I’ll beat you to death!”
Xu Huiqing, however, swayed slightly on her feet at that moment. She walked over in disbelief, pushed Old Lady Zhao aside, and asked Second Sister Zhao: “You said Zhao Zongbao knew about you selling Xiaoxi?”
In her youth, Old Lady Zhao gave birth to one child after another and was tormented by her mother-in-law. She weighed only eighty pounds. When Xu Huiqing pushed her, she fell flat on her back, limbs splayed.
Second Sister Zhao, now in the midst of being wronged, wailed: “If Zongbao hadn’t agreed, I wouldn’t dare sell his daughter even if you lent me ten lives!”
Upon hearing this, Xu Huiqing immediately ran into the house.
Father Zhao and Mother Zhao shouted from behind, “Quick, stop her!”
The others didn’t know what she was going to do and hurried after her, but how could they be as fast as Xu Huiqing?
Zhao Zongbao had long been inside the house, listening to the commotion outside. But his arms and legs were injured, one arm bandaged and his ankle still wrapped in gauze. And as was his habit, he hid behind others, waiting for them to charge into battle for him. Ears perked, he was listening to the outside noises when Xu Huiqing suddenly rushed in, bent down, picked up the wooden stool from the floor, and without a word, brought it crashing down on his bandaged lower leg!
An agonizingly miserable scream burst from the back room into the courtyard. By the time everyone in the courtyard rushed into the back room, they saw Zhao Zongbao, drenched in sweat from pain, his face ashen as paper, bent over and clutching his leg, which the wooden stool had smashed into a hundred-and-twenty-degree angle. He was in so much pain he could barely cry out.
And Xu Huiqing, who had already crippled one of Zhao Zongbao’s legs with a stool strike, raised the stool high again and brought it down with even greater force onto Zhao Zongbao’s head, which was bowed in pain!