Based on the judicial procedures Xu Huiqing understood, a major case usually required three months to half a year before a verdict was reached. Yet within just over a month, the Zhao family’s trial concluded. Father Zhao was directly sentenced to death, and Second Sister Zhao received an eight-year prison term.
Mother Zhao and Zhao Zongbao, having been less deeply involved, each received lighter sentences—Mother Zhao got two years, and Zhao Zongbao only one year.
Throughout the proceedings, Zhao Zongbao and Mother Zhao had only ever appeared in the testimony of Xu Huiqing and Second Sister Zhao. In Xu Huiqing’s testimony, she had merely overheard Father and Mother Zhao talking about selling Zhao Xi; her knowledge of their trafficking activities was fragmented and incomplete, only bits and pieces.
In Second Sister Zhao’s testimony, she stated that Father and Mother Zhao told her to send Zhao Xi away. Seized by sudden greed, she sold Xiaoxi herself. Beyond that, no other evidence surfaced to prove Mother Zhao’s involvement.
Once Father Zhao knew his youthful killings had been exposed, he shouldered all the blame single-handedly. He even managed to completely absolve Zhao Zongbao, as did Mother Zhao. If not for Second Sister Zhao’s initial claim that Zhao Zongbao knew she was selling Zhao Xi, he might have gotten less than a year. As Xu Huiqing well knew, he would have been released swiftly otherwise.
Zhao Zongbao himself vehemently denied any knowledge of or participation in human trafficking.
Justice, in the end, is based on evidence. The fact that Mother Zhao and Zhao Zongbao received prison time at all already exceeded Xu Huiqing’s expectations. The question now was whether, in the coming Year of Crackdown, they might receive extended sentences—or perhaps never leave prison at all.
Xu Huiqing carried only one regret. In her previous life, before her rebirth, Second Sister Zhao had already been diagnosed with late-stage cancer, yet Xu Huiqing never learned Zhao Zongbao’s ultimate fate.
As soon as the Zhao family case verdict dropped, their status as human traffickers was permanently cemented. The remaining Zhao sisters finally fell silent.
Third Sister Zhao and Fifth Sister Zhao, terrified Xu Huiqing would use this as grounds to divorce Zhao Zongbao, came to seek her out. “Huiqing, Zongbao will be out in just a year. And that idiot has got what’s coming to her—eight years of prison food. You and Zongbao have a son and a daughter, and you’re sitting on these three shopfronts. Life couldn’t be sweeter. Don’t go doing anything stupid!”
In these parts, a woman divorcing wasn’t called divorce. It was called “a wife running off,” or “a wife running off with another man!”
Right now, they were terrified Xu Huiqing would run off.
Xu Huiqing did not hide her intentions. “There’s no way Zongbao and I can stay together,” she said. “A man who sells his own flesh and blood has no conscience. The day he gets out, if he sells me, there’ll be nowhere for me to cry my grievances.”
Fifth Sister Zhao retorted, “Impossible! Zongbao isn’t that kind of person!”
But even she didn’t believe the words coming out of her own mouth.
Her own parents were traffickers who dealt in women and children. Her parents had been sentenced to death thanks to her sister-in-law’s report. She honestly wasn’t sure if her mother, upon release, would spare Xu Huiqing. Deep down, even she suspected that if Xu Huiqing didn’t leave, her mother would likely strangle Xu Huiqing and the baby girl in their sleep one night.
Yet she was a Zhao, naturally taking the Zhao family’s side.
Her expression grew complicated. “Zongbao is my own brother. I know him. You have no idea how much he likes you. Just look at how he treats us, then look at how he treats you. That’ll tell you everything.”
Xu Huiqing merely smiled, saying nothing.
Seeing she was utterly resolved to leave, Third Sister Zhao and Fifth Sister Zhao made their stand. Third Sister Zhao declared, “You can go, but Keke stays!”
Zhao Bei, since birth, had never received a formal given name. Only Zhao Zongbao, at his one-month celebration, had bestowed upon him the nickname “Disco.” The Zhao sisters still called him “Keke” or “Kaokao” to this day.
Third Sister Zhao was still hoping to use the child to keep Xu Huiqing, but to her shock, Xu Huiqing only paused a moment before shaking her head. “No. I’m taking Keke with me. There’s no one left in the Zhao household now. Who would take care of him?”
Fifth Sister Zhao, unable to conceive for seven long years of marriage, blurted out, “I’ll raise him!”
She had always desperately wanted a son.
Though she herself was a victim of a patriarchal family that favored sons, the desire for a son seemed etched into her soul from birth. She craved a son with every fiber of her being, yet had never conceived again.
Xu Huiqing’s words were like a sudden shaft of light piercing her parched world, illuminating her entirely!
Of course. She could raise her younger brother’s son.
Once Xu Huiqing left, her brother would inevitably remarry and have more children. Surely he wouldn’t care about Keke then. Keke was just a month old, and she had cared for him from birth. As long as Xu Huiqing left and didn’t fight her for the child, what difference would Keke have from her own flesh and blood? Keke even shared her own bloodline, right in her veins!
If Keke had belonged to her husband’s side of the family, she certainly wouldn’t be willing to raise him. But as a blood relative of her maiden family, the thought made her heart burn hotter the more she considered it. It was as if Keke were her own child. Her feelings for her maternal nephew had always been special, and now they surged to a fever pitch.
She felt, with utter conviction, that Keke was destined to be her child!
Yet she quickly suppressed her excitement, forcing herself to calm down. She looked at Xu Huiqing and said, “Huiqing, you married into the Zhao family over four years ago. We all know you’re a good person. You know in your heart how we’ve treated you these years. Keke is still Zhao family in the end. You want to leave, fine, go ahead. But Keke stays. With Mom and Dad gone, I’ll raise him for you!”
She adopted an air of great magnanimity. “It’s only two years of raising him, right? Mom will be back in two years. Don’t you worry, I won’t mistreat your son!”
Xu Huiqing was still hesitating.
Her hesitation was genuine.
She knew that in her past life, her relationship with Zhao Bei hadn’t only been his fault. She had her own share of the blame too.
After his birth, she had completely handed him over to Father and Mother Zhao. For nearly three hundred out of three hundred and sixty-five days a year, she had been out searching for Xiaoxi. The moment she caught the slightest whisper of information that might be Xiaoxi, she would drop everything instantly to chase it down, no matter how slim the hope of finding her.
During those years, her own spirit was shattered, let alone being capable of caring for an infant.
And perhaps because Father and Mother Zhao were the ones who had decided to give the child away, they were deeply dissatisfied that her entire being was consumed by finding Xiaoxi. They frequently made cutting remarks, yet they never actually stopped her from searching.
After she finally brought Xiaoxi home, the Zhao family’s son preference, coupled with Zhao Bei’s rejection of Xiaoxi, and compounded by all the suffering Xiaoxi had endured… Xu Huiqing naturally lavished more affection on Xiaoxi. She poured more time, energy, and love into Xiaoxi, and inevitably, neglected Zhao Bei.
Even when she later recognized the problem and tried desperately to make amends, some of the time lost and her absence during his infancy could never be recovered.
She now wondered: in this life, if she took him away, before all the tragedies and estrangements even began, if she kept him by her side and raised him personally, could she avert the previous life’s tragedy? Could she prevent him from harboring such deep resentment and cold indifference toward her?
Fifth Sister Zhao saw her hesitating and, terrified that Xu Huiqing would fight for the child, instantly dropped her conciliatory tone for something vicious: “If you want to leave, leave alone! Keke is a child of our Zhao family. I won’t let you take him away!”
At this point, Xu Huiqing didn’t yet grasp Fifth Sister Zhao’s true motives. She simply assumed her sister-in-law genuinely wanted to look after her nephew for Zhao Zongbao’s sake, for her maiden family’s sake. “Let me think about it some more,” she said.
It had only been a little over two months since her rebirth. The words Zhao Bei said in her previous life, the frost in his eyes—still fresh as yesterday, flashing vividly before her, tormenting her and bringing her agony.
His words, his attitude, his eyes… they were like a bloody knife, stabbing repeatedly into her heart, which was already writhing in excruciating pain. She couldn’t bear the pain when she recalled it. She couldn’t recall it.
She forced herself not to dwell on past-life matters. Only when she clutched Xiaoxi tightly in her arms, physically feeling the child’s warm skin and vibrant life, could she affirm that everything before her was real. Not a dream. Not a figment of her imagination.
Driven by her desire for this child, Fifth Sister Zhao’s possessiveness over Zhao Bei far exceeded anything Xu Huiqing had imagined. She didn’t know if she herself could ever bear a son in this lifetime. The Family Planning Policy was strict now, but the local policy allowed a second child after three years if the first was a daughter. After her daughter’s birth, she hadn’t been sterilized or fitted with an IUD. Yet seven years had passed without another pregnancy. Her husband’s family all mocked him, saying he had no son, that his line would end. They had moved from a backwater village to a house they built near the town, and except for New Year’s, they never returned to the old home.
Even if her husband claimed not to mind, she minded deeply.
She felt this child was destined to be her own son!
Originally not wanting her sister-in-law to “run off,” she now only wished Xu Huiqing would leave immediately—the farther the better, ideally never to return, never to fight her for the son.
She took Zhao Bei to sleep with her at night, to care for the newborn. Xu Huiqing didn’t stop her.
Lying in bed, Xu Huiqing couldn’t sleep the whole night. Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw nothing but blood red. Her son’s words from the past life swirled around her ears like a demonic curse from every angle, robbing her of sleep.
Setting aside the past, she opened her eyes and considered the present, from a practical standpoint. If she left, raising two children alone—one just starting kindergarten, traumatized and likely needing intense company, the other only two months old, requiring constant care—while also working… she would be physically unable to split herself.
She hadn’t yet looked at how much money had been seized from Father Zhao’s room. Knowing Father Zhao, he wouldn’t have told any of his daughters about his hiding places for money and valuables. He would only have told Zhao Zongbao. But Zhao Zongbao wouldn’t be out for over a year.