Tian Jing sat on a chair in the corridor, lost in thought, her mood not good.
Zhang Fangcao had always been a foolish victim, including the three children later. It was Brother Zheng who ordered Lin Guangde to administer the drug.
Li Zhengguo sat beside his wife. "Tiantian, do you blame me?"
"I don't blame you. She was truly hateful back then. It's just that she was too naive, too deeply deceived by Li Weiguo. She was a bit like I was before."
Li Zhengguo understood. In her past life, Tiantian valued family affection, while Zhang Fangcao valued love. Both were easily ensnared by emotions due to a lack thereof.
"When she gets out, I'll send her to be near her children. Seeing how accomplished all her children are, she'll be content."
Tian Jing nodded, hoping her words would ignite Zhang Fangcao's will to live.
"Yes, we must find a way to keep Li Weiguo from being released early."
"Alright. I'll make arrangements once he's transferred to prison."
There were no prisons in the county town, nor in the city. He would have to be sent to the neighboring city, where he also had comrades.
Composing themselves, the couple went to see Li Erzuo and Wu Huidi.
Li Erzuo looked like a man on his deathbed, dragged out by the detention center police.
Wu Huidi, still spirited, rushed towards Tian Jing. "Tian Jing, please, ask your sister-in-law to relent. I'm innocent! Li Erzuo is the mastermind. I should at most get a suspended death sentence, not the death penalty! Tian Jing, please, help me."
"Heh."
Tian Jing sneered. "How innocent are you? At the time, you were also a new mother, weren't you? How could you bring yourself to do it? Did you also resent your sister-in-law and sister-in-law for giving birth to male heirs?"
"Where does your innocence come from? If the two male heirs hadn't been lost simultaneously, and your aunt-in-law wouldn't have let you off the hook, wouldn't you have suffocated both of them then? The most venomous heart belongs to a woman!"
"Wu Huidi, I'm not here to see you. I'm here to see Li Erzuo. You are not worth my time."
"No! No! I am innocent, I was bewitched back then."
Wu Huidi shook the bars frantically before being pulled away by the police.
Tian Jing looked at Li Erzuo, who was hanging his head like a dead man. "Li Erzuo, you were the one who wanted to see us. Who are you pretending to be dead for? If you don't speak, we're leaving. Your youngest son still wants to see us."
"Oh, and by the way, your four grandsons are being raised two by each of Li Baoguo and Yan Xiaoni. However, Yan Xiaoni ran off, leaving eleven-year-old Li Weikang and nine-year-old Li Weiwei to care for your two grandsons, one and a half and half a year old."
"I think Li Baoguo's wife is unhappy too. If those two older ones stay at Li Baoguo's house any longer, Li Baoguo's wife might run off too."
"Li Baoguo won't choose to care for his brother's two sons at the cost of losing his wife. I wonder if Li Weikang and Li Weiwei can take good care of their four younger brothers."
Only then did Li Erzuo lift his head, a fierce hatred flashing in his eyes. "Tian Jing, if I had known this would happen, I should have had Wu Hui kill you back then."
Tian Jing was unfazed by Li Erzuo's gnashing teeth. "Hindsight is 20/20, and regret medicine is priceless."
Li Erzuo sneered. "Heh, don't get too proud. You can't go back. Without Li Sanzuo and that person to prove your identity, you can't go back."
"Why should I go back?"
Tian Jing shook her head. "Do you think everyone is like you, doing anything for money and disowning their kin? I can earn my own way, and I spend it with a clear conscience. Is this the nonsense you wanted to say? Then I won't keep you company; my time is precious."
"You are not Chen Yaoming's child."
Li Erzuo thought he had dropped a bombshell, but Tian Jing shrugged indifferently. "Thank you for reminding me. When Chen Yaoming comes to acknowledge me, I'll have a paternity test done with him."
"Don't you want to know who your biological father is?"
"No. I don't care who my parents are because I am who I am, and I'm past the age of needing parents. Farewell, and remember to go find your father and your third brother to repent."
With that, Tian Jing walked out without looking back.
"Tian Jing, Tian Jing, come back, I have more to say."
Li Erzuo called out anxiously, but it couldn't bring back the resolute couple.
Leaving the room, the couple went directly to see Li Weiguo. Too much time had been wasted.
Seeing Tian Jing, Li Weiguo's eyes lit up. "Tian Jing, you're here."
Tian Jing nodded. "Yes, I'm here. I came to ask if an appeal can be filed. Your sentence is unreasonable! It should have been an immediate execution, a death sentence! Why only a suspended death sentence?"
Li Weiguo choked.
Li Zhengguo looked at him coldly, hoping this man would never get out.
"The person you wanted to see wasn't me?"
After another glance at Tian Jing, Li Weiguo shifted his gaze. "Zhengguo, I need your help with something."
"No time."
Uh oh, Li Weiguo was choked again, his chest feeling tight. "I know Lin Guangde drugged Fangcao, which is why she got pregnant so easily."
"Evidence?"
"I have some knowledge of pharmacology."
"Oh, no wonder Zhang Fangcao used drugs against her sisters-in-law."
"Including Minmin's incident."
"Oh."
"Minmin's incident probably couldn't be cured. I believe Zhao Xiaofang."
"Oh."
Li Zhengguo's calm and refusal to engage made it difficult for Li Weiguo to negotiate.
He glanced at Tian Jing and lowered his voice. "Your cousin-in-law truly has something good. Otherwise, you couldn't have risen so quickly."
Li Zhengguo raised an eyebrow. "Want to know?"
Li Weiguo nodded. "Yes, I want to know."
What does it mean to speak carelessly? Just look at how Li Zhengguo replies.
Zheng: "A wolf from Laoyingzui Mountain."
Laoyingzui? Li Weiguo's eyes widened in surprise. Laoyingzui, which allegedly takes three days and three nights to climb?
Wei: "But aren't you on good terms with the wolf king?"
Zheng: "That was after it was beaten and scared."
Wei: "What saved Zhao Xiaofang?"
Zheng: "Wolf meat soup."
Wei: "Impossible. She said it smelled of fresh herbs."
Zheng: "If we wanted to steal and eat, we had to stew it in the mountains. How else could we mask the meat smell without adding more wild vegetables?"
Li Weiguo was even more skeptical. How many wild vegetables would it take to mask the meat smell and make it smell entirely of herbs?
Wei: "Doctor Yang's diagnosis was inconsistent."
Zheng: "I told him to scare Li Dabaoniang. I wanted to get my elder cousin out because I always remembered his life-saving grace during the famine, unlike some people who are worse than animals."
Li Weiguo did not feel ashamed. "Zhao Xiaofang recovered so quickly in just over ten days?"
Zheng: "Of course. Medicine and food complement each other. She ate even better than my mother."
Although Li Zhengguo's answers were not without flaws, they lacked substantive evidence.
Li Weiguo stopped asking. Li Zhengguo folded his arms and looked at him coldly. "I'm very busy."
Li Weiguo glanced at Tian Jing.
Tian Jing pretended not to understand. She wanted to see this man beg her husband.
No, she even moved closer to her husband. Heh, he would be begging both of them.
After two minutes of silent confrontation, Li Weiguo still hadn't spoken. Li Zhengguo, with his wife, turned to leave. He was indeed very busy.
"Wait." Li Weiguo anxiously called out to the two, "Tian Jing, can you step aside?"
"No."
"No."
The couple said in unison, without turning around.
Li Weiguo's tone was urgent. "Cousin, I beg you, help me arrange for the four children."
"Why should I help you?"
Li Zhengguo turned around. "You are an ungrateful wretch. I helped you, and you bit me. Why should I help? I'm really busy."
Saying this, he made a move to leave.
Li Weiguo gritted his teeth. "What are your conditions? You came today knowing I have a request."
Li Zhengguo, holding Tian Jing, turned back. "I have two conditions, neither of which can be omitted. I just don't know if you can do it."
"You tell me."
"Kneel down and beg me, and at the same time, write a letter renouncing your right to raise the four children. From then on, they will have nothing to do with you, you will not raise them, and they will not support you in your old age."
Li Weiguo's eyes narrowed. "No, impossible. They are my sons."
"Then raise them yourself."
Li Zhengguo was about to leave again, but Li Weiguo was truly anxious. "You're doing this on purpose. You're forcing me."
Li Zhengguo had lost patience. "So what? Even if you were outside, could you raise six sons alone? You're quite calculating. You get four sons for free when you get out, possibly already established, without spending a penny. Why?"
"There's no one more shameless in this world than you."
"I'm giving you only one chance: kneel and beg me. Renounce your right to raise them, and also renounce your right to be supported by them in the future."
Li Zhengguo's impatient and stern tone made Li Weiguo realize he had no room for negotiation.
He closed his eyes and dropped to his knees with a thud. "I beg you."
Li Zhengguo, holding Tian Jing, walked to the bars. "Hate it?"
Li Weiguo lowered his head. "No hate."
"Impossible. From childhood, you were vindictive. Back then, I was powerless and could only watch as my father presented his severed arm to repay your twenty wild chickens."
"Li Weiguo, I hated you back then too, but I didn't seek revenge. I just waited for you to walk into a trap because I knew you and your father wouldn't stop. You, a prey, want to turn into a hunter? Heh heh."
"I'm telling you, I will raise all four of your children well. They will be soldiers or police officers, and they will definitely have a strong sense of justice and hate evil."
"I'll just see if your two eldest sons, including you, will fall into their hands."
Li Weiguo's heart sank to the bottom. Li Zhengguo was better at planning and using pawns than he was.
"I..."
Li Zhengguo calmly interrupted him. "You can go back on your word. I don't necessarily have to make this move."
Forward was a cliff, and backward was an abyss. Li Weiguo was forced into a corner with no way out.