Chapter 425: Chapter 423: Public Outrage
The police waited for thirty minutes before speaking. During those thirty minutes, Li Xinghua and her son Li Hongqi cried and caused a scene.
Kneeling and begging not to call the police. They offered to pay compensation.
Li Fugui bullied their family for so many years, and Grandpa’s account also needed to be settled thoroughly.
Compensation, their family was currently in no shortage of money. He wasn’t interested in Li Fugui’s family money.
He hated Li Fugui so much right now that he wished he could kill him with a knife.
The police drove a tricycle and took everyone involved back to the station. It took five or six hours to record their statements.
The police asked Liang Hongmei if she wanted to settle privately, but Liang Hongmei refused. The police then officially detained Li Fugui on charges of hooliganism.
This conviction was set, and he would be in custody for at least five years.
According to Lin Yinghui’s thoughts, it would be best if he never got out for the rest of his life.
By the time they left the police station, the sky was so dark you couldn’t see your own hand.
Lin Yinghui was concerned about his mom, knowing she was injured, but fortunately, his uncle borrowed a village ox cart when he arrived. Lin Yinghui had his uncle and Liang Zhi take them to the town health clinic. After checking Liang Hongmei’s injuries, apart from some bruises, she was thankfully not seriously hurt. They got some medicine and hurried back home through the night carrying a kerosene lamp.
Originally, they were supposed to return to S City the next day, but Lin Yinghui was worried about his mom’s injuries and decided to leave in a couple of days.
Li Xinghua knew that Li Fugui had been sent to prison by Liang Hongmei and cried and cursed in front of their door early in the morning.
She was sent back after being scolded and beaten by Little Grandmother and Cha Zhenfang.
Even though their own family knew Li Fugui had done disgraceful things, after all, he was one of their own; they couldn’t just watch him go to prison without trying to help.
The Li Family invited their elders to the Liang Hongmei’s place to persuade her, hoping they could resolve it privately.
They came two or three times a day, each time returning without success.
Some of their family felt Liang Hongmei wasn’t appreciative, thinking she’d grown arrogant after making some money outside.
In a low-class industry, she acted like petty traders, earning money without conscience.
Some families thought Liang Hongmei was tough, and everyone in the village knew how much Li Fugui had bullied Liang Hongmei. Now, her son had grown up and could handle things, and his misdeeds got him caught in the act.
Li Fugui deserved it. No one else to blame.
"Ah Hui, mom’s injuries aren’t a big deal; let’s just leave. Mom doesn’t want to stay here,"
For the past few days, Lin Yinghui hadn’t been sleeping well at night, worried something might happen to mom. As a son, he couldn’t talk to mom about personal things; it would be better if his little sister were around. During the day, he had to deal with people from the Li family. It was stressful.
Hearing his mom say this, he nodded. It was best to leave. He couldn’t be bothered arguing with these people.
So, that night, Liang Hongmei took her son to visit the Liang family graves. She feared her parents would worry about what had happened that day.
She bid farewell before leaving, telling them about Li Fugui going to prison, to set their minds at ease.
Once they were gone, it would be at least a year or two before they returned. Apart from her older brother’s family, there wasn’t much to miss here.
After returning from the graves, Liang Hongmei went to visit Liang Jian Country’s household to say goodbye.
Liang Jian Country also felt it was good for them to leave. "You should go. Tomorrow, Ah Zhi and Ah Song will take you. Those people from the Li family are wasting their efforts, anyway. We will never agree to a private settlement," they said.
"Just go and don’t worry about home. Li Fugui did many bad things over the years, and the villagers aren’t blind. There are plenty ready to kick him when he’s down. That coward Li Fugui, it’s about time he met his comeuppance. This is a new society now; we’re not afraid of her," Little Grandmother agreed.
The following day, at dawn, Liang Zhi and Liang Song came with the village ox cart.
Aside from a few clothes and the things Cha Zhenfang prepared for them, they didn’t have much.
Liang Zhi drove the ox cart leisurely toward the county. Since it was still before the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, they didn’t buy much food passing through the town. Liang Hongmei had prepared food in advance, so the group had some roasted cakes and water from a canteen on the cart, reaching the county around noon. Lin Yinghui went to line up to buy tickets first. The bus tickets for two in the afternoon.
There was still time, so Liang Zhi took them to their rice noodle shop. It wasn’t far from the station.
A journey of about ten minutes.
The rice noodle shop was small but neatly kept inside.
The stove’s fire was out, as taboos prevented borrowing fire before the fifteenth from other places.
Fortunately, there were two open bun shops nearby, and Liang Hongmei bought over a dozen buns, borrowing some water. The group sat down in their own shop and had a satisfying meal.
While eating buns, a couple of people came in, thinking the shop had opened for business, wanting a bowl of rice noodles.
"Ah Zhi, there seems to be a lot of traffic here; business should be good," Liang Hongmei said.
"Yes, normally from five in the morning until the afternoon, there’s a steady flow of customers. Two dimes a bowl, you can earn thirty or forty yuan a month,"
"The business is good. Do you and your mom manage on your own?"
"We’re managing fine. When my dad’s free, he comes to help,"
"My school isn’t far from here. I can come back to help on weekends even if I spend some travel expenses," Liang Song said, who had enrolled in a university in their province. On Fridays, he carried his backpack to the station, catching trains headed here.
Four to five hours’ journey, he would take the train back at three in the afternoon on Sundays, without losing time.
"Studying should be the focus; I don’t want him coming back, but he doesn’t listen," he thought sincerely, hoping his younger brother would study well, get assigned a good job after graduation, and become a formal city worker.
Then their family would have face.
He would stay home to take care of their dad and mom, while his brother simply carried the family honor, not worrying about other things.
"Coming back to gain experience is also good; he shouldn’t just study blindly. He needs to learn how to deal with people outside. These city units aren’t easy to get into, and more exposure to society can make you more nimble," Lin Yinghui knew from experience, having faced challenges running business with Lin Congnan this past year.
He was set to graduate in a few months, and many classmates had already started sending gifts to school leaders before the vacation, hoping for good assignments.
Lin Yinghui looked down on this, but for Mu Qing, he also thickened his skin and sent one.
It was just to get a good assignment, to be seen with higher regard by Mu Qing’s parents in the future.
At two o’clock, Liang Hongmei and her son boarded the train to S City.
Liang Hongmei calculated that they would need to change transport once along the way.
The journey would take several days; she estimated they would spend this year’s Lantern Festival on the train. That’s not a good omen.
....
Since Han Yi got sick some time ago, every day before leaving, Lin Wan prepared a military canteen of mung bean water for him.
She had wanted to find some chrysanthemum, pangdahai, or something similar, but they were really hard to find at this time.
She could only boil some mung bean water every day, a canteen a day, to prevent him from getting a fever.
This day, their family received two guests, Shen Bojun and Shen Jie came. It was Lin Wan’s first time meeting Shen Bojun, whom she had only ever seen twice briefly in her last life. She wasn’t familiar with him.
She vaguely heard from others that Shen Bojun held a significant position in the Z City government later on.
"Saozi, we just came back from Grandma’s house. During the New Year, Grandma mentioned you, my cousin’s wife, quite a bit. My brother was curious since he’d never met you, so here we are," Shen Jie, being naturally social, wasn’t shy and chatted with her a lot.
"Saozi, it’s been about two years since you married my brother, right? I haven’t met you, and I haven’t seen Yi Brother for two or three years either. Since you live nearby, I was curious to come and have a look," Shen Bojun resembled Second Uncle, both in appearance and temperament.
"We thought you might stay home until the fifteenth of the first month, why are you back so early?" It wasn’t even the fifth yet.
"Grandma is staying at Uncle’s house now. Uncle’s house only has two bedrooms; it wasn’t convenient for us to stay, so we came back after two days,"
"How is Grandma’s health?"
"She’s doing well,"
With guests at home, Lin Wan quickly busied herself serving them water and then went to the kitchen to prepare food.
Shen Bojun and Shen Jie, knowing she was pregnant, didn’t let her work too much, saying they would leave soon.
But Lin Wan insisted, "How did you come here?"
"We rode our bikes,"
"Your brother will be back soon. Stay for lunch before you go. I don’t have fancy meals to treat you, so let’s have hotpot for lunch," Lin Wan smiled.
"Alright, we’ll go with Saozi’s suggestion. My brother doesn’t know we’re here yet, I’ll go tell the security office," Shen Bojun was considerate. Lin Wan didn’t hold them up, knowing Han Yi usually didn’t come home for lunch.