NOVPUB
Chapter 516: Chapter 506: Disrespectful in Old Age
"Old lady, what are you doing? If you have something to say, let’s stand up and talk properly. Kneeling like this, aren’t you shortening this young girl’s life? We can’t do such immoral things, right? Old lady, let me help you up, let’s get up quickly," Mu Huazhen frowned as she stepped forward to help the woman up.
But the old woman who was kneeling and kowtowing refused to be lifted up, "No, no, I won’t get up. If she doesn’t agree, I won’t stand. Wuu wuu wuu, my son has been taken away, and I have no reason to live either. I’d rather knock myself to death right here." The old lady stubbornly pushed away Mu Huazhen’s outstretched hand.
Shen Yunfang had shifted her position right after pulling back her feet. In such a situation, it wasn’t appropriate for her to step forward, so she could only stand aside and watch.
The old woman on the ground crawled on her knees trying to approach Shen Yunfang, "Young lady, please, have pity on this old woman. Please release my son, I’m kowtowing to you, I’m really kowtowing to you." As she spoke, she truly hit her head on the ground several times with loud thuds.
"Old lady, don’t do this, kowtowing to me is useless, I’m not the one who arrested your son," Shen Yunfang tried to explain.
"No, my son said, as long as you don’t sue him, he’ll be fine." The old woman was steadfastly sticking to her course of action.
Shen Yunfang and Mu Huazhen both frowned. It seemed the young man lying in the hospital had sent his mother to do this, probably hoping that the old lady’s submissive posture would compel Shen Yunfang to drop her pursuit of his criminal liability.
Ordinarily, seeing such an elderly person kowtow to a young girl, everyone would blame the young girl. If the young girl remained relentless and wouldn’t agree, she would likely face a lot of criticism.
Shen Yunfang looked around and felt relieved. Now that it was already dark and the incident was occurring right in front of the police station with no passersby around, there was no audience to witness the scene.
"Old lady, kowtowing to me is really useless. Right now, your son has violated the law; it’s a criminal case, not a civil one. Even if I don’t sue him, the police will prosecute him, don’t believe me? Go inside and ask the officers," Shen Yunfang didn’t want to be coerced but also couldn’t bear to see such an elderly person kowtow for their children, so she kindly reminded the woman.
"Oh?" The old lady finally looked up, but her face showed not sorrow or tears, but confusion, "Should I ask the police?"
Shen Yunfang suddenly felt a chill in her heart; she sensed that this old lady might not be doing this for the first time. How could her facial expression be so mechanical otherwise? Maybe every time her son committed a wrongdoing, she used this method to force others not to pursue charges, allowing her son to continue his misdeeds.
"Old lady, let me help you inside, if you have any questions, you can ask the staff members there." Mu Huazhen, being an experienced officer, probably encountered such situations before, so she quickly made a judgment and prepared to assist the old woman into the police station, where someone would specifically attend to her.
"I won’t go, I won’t go. Young lady, please, just do me this kindness. Speak on my behalf inside and don’t press charges against my son, please, have mercy on me. Look at my old age, if something happens to my son, how could I, an old woman, live by myself?" The old woman began to wipe her eyes as she spoke.
However, because of her earlier suspicions, Shen Yunfang paid close attention to her and noticed that the old lady was actually crying without tears, making her wonder whether the old lady was performing as they initially thought, or if she had genuinely cried all her tears for her son already.
Mu Huazhen found she couldn’t pull the old woman up; when she tried to help, the old lady would just sit back down on the ground, so Mu Huazhen had to straighten up and began to issue criticism and education right there on the spot.
"Old lady, I have to say that what you’re doing is not right. It’s pitiful that you have no son to take care of you, but why don’t you think about if your son had successfully robbed and injured or disabled this mother? Would not the two young children left without a mother at home be pitiful too? Who would take care of those children? Could you take care of them?"
The elderly woman dared not answer this, simply muttering to herself in a low voice about how pitiful she was, how without her son she’d be left with no one to rely on, and even in death there would be no one to smash her burial pot.
Shen Yunfang also realized that it was useless for her sister-in-law to say so much to the old lady, as the old lady only wanted to hear what she chose to hear, automatically filtering out everything else.
Shen Yunfang saw Mu Huazhen wanting to continue the lecture and quietly waved her hand, signaling her to stop.
"Let’s find an opportunity to leave directly," Shen Yunfang whispered.
"Okay, then wait for me later," said Mu Huazhen, realizing that she could not persuade the old woman in front of her, and turned back to re-enter the police station.
"Old lady, covering for your son like this is wrong. If he has made a mistake, he should be punished accordingly. Otherwise, his audacity will only grow. After all, if he makes a mistake, he has you, his mother, willing to kneel and beg for forgiveness and not pursue the matter. Will your son really improve? In the end, even committing murder and arson wouldn’t be impossible for him," Shen Yunfang felt that this elderly woman’s attitude toward her son was not love, but harm. If she continued to indulge him, the day would come when the crimes he committed would no longer be something she could kneel and beg forgiveness for. Just like the current situation, if she had had no ability to resist, undoubtedly she would have been the one harmed. Such a serious crime cannot simply be dealt with by an old woman kneeling and kowtowing a few times, even if others sympathize with her, the law will not.
"Young lady, please show me some compassion. What can I do? He’s my only son, and his father has long passed away. I’m counting on him for everything. If he ends up in prison, how could I face the ancestors of the Zhao family? I—I—I might as well not live anymore!" The old woman sobbed as she spoke, covering her face and breaking down into tears.
Shen Yunfang frowned and fell silent, knowing that speaking further was pointless and that it was better to wait for the police to handle the situation.
It wasn’t long before Mu Huazhen and a young man in uniform emerged. Seeing the old lady still kneeling there, the young man made a subtle gesture to her.
The young man helped the old lady to her feet and firmly pulled her up, "Old lady, what’s going on here? Is there a problem? Let me help you inside, it’s too cold out here. If there’s an issue, you can tell me about it inside." He escorted her straight to the police station. 𝓃ℴ𝓋𝓹𝓊𝓫.𝒸𝓸𝓂
"I don’t want to go, I don’t want to go," the old lady struggled in a low voice.
"All right, let’s go. People like her have their issues. To put it nicely, she’s ready to do anything for her kid, but to put it bluntly, she’s acting disgracefully for someone her age." Mu Huazhen watched as the lady was taken inside and, with no more obstruction, promptly pulled Shen Yunfang to leave.
Shen Yunfang nodded in agreement, "With parents like that, it’s doubtful they could bring up any good kids."
"Exactly, isn’t the one lying in the hospital the best proof?" Mu Huazhen said unimpressed, having no sympathy for such an old woman, only anger. "Let’s drop it, it ruins the mood. Let’s just go home now; after such a long delay, our old Ma has probably gone back already."
"Yes, let’s head home."
