NOVPUB
Chapter 564: 554
Li Hongqi, drenched in cold sweat, took quite some time before he could finally recover. With Qiu Shuping’s support, he managed to stand up.
"Oh, thank goodness you’re all okay, you had me so worried, excuse me, can you move aside, please?" Sun Fengzhen saw that they finally got up from her doorstep, hurriedly seized the moment to open her door, slip into her house, and then slammed the door shut.
Humph, from now on, she wouldn’t bother with anything that happened across the hall. She couldn’t afford to mess with people who curse and strike without warning—it was better to stay far away.
Zheng Guilin helped her own mother to stand properly, then quickly went to support her husband. "Hongqi, are you alright? Does it still hurt?"
Li Hongqi was in so much pain he could hardly speak, but inside he cursed her out, "You try getting kicked and see if it doesn’t hurt!" His face was covered in cold sweat, wasn’t that proof enough of his pain? Yet she still asks such a stupid question.
"Your second sister-in-law is going too far, this isn’t right—I’m going to knock on the door again. She must come out to explain things clearly and apologize to you," said Zheng Guilin, and she was indeed about to go knock on the door.
"Don’t..." Li Hongqi, enduring the intense pain, could only squeeze out this single word through clenched teeth.
"You stay right there." It took a moment for Qiu Shuping to understand what her daughter-in-law was trying to do, then a shrill scream escaped her throat, piercing straight into the eardrums.
Zheng’s mother was even more direct, not minding her own back pain, and grabbed her daughter firmly, "Xiaolan, with us old folk injured as we are, let’s not provoke her anymore." If they called her out and got kicked again, who could withstand that?
She hadn’t been able to grasp Li Hongqi’s pain before, but now that she was caught up in it without fault, she almost couldn’t get up. If that kick had landed directly on her, they might as well have carried her straight to the morgue.
"Mom, we can’t let her get away with this. People like her must be disciplined. If we don’t teach her a good lesson, what will she do to Hongqi next time?" Zheng Guilin had her own way of thinking.
Zheng’s mother was speechless. Who was this foolish daughter of hers? The other party kicked without saying anything, and she still wanted to go and teach them a lesson? They refrained from kicking her out of respect, and here she was, seemingly asking for it.
"Xiaolan, come help me quickly; I can’t stand anymore." Zheng’s mother could only find an excuse to tether her daughter to her side at this point, silently swearing to herself that once they got home, she must educate this naive girl.
Zheng Guilin, seeing her mother truly could not stand up, reluctantly went to help her again.
Qiu Shuping and Li Hongqi both breathed a sigh of relief. They somewhat understood that Shen Yunfang picked her targets when kicking; regardless of who among them provoked her, she would always aim for someone from the Li Family, always aim for Li Hongqi.
"I’m fine now. Mother, help me get back so I can lie down," Li Hongqi said, enduring the pain and waiting for it to pass, hoping it would be like the previous times. But the pain lingered unusually long this time, and he feared Zheng Guilin might do something foolish again, so he decided to return to the guesthouse right then. In the future, he would make sure never to come within three meters of his second sister-in-law again.
And so, Qiu Shuping, supporting Li Hongqi, and Zheng Guilin, assisting Zheng’s mother, the group of four staggered away from the building where the families lived.
In the nearby buildings, several pairs of eyes watched them leave, then patted their chests and went back to their kitchens to cook.
The next morning, Li Hongqi, having recovered, set out with Qiu Shuping once more to scam money. That’s right, they employed fabricated tragic stories to elicit sympathy from others, thereby fulfilling their goal of amassing wealth.
Li Hongqi chose excellent locations for their scams, targeting various major universities. Most of the students there were young, an idealistic group, who upon hearing Qiu Shuping’s unashamed wailing, felt outraged by her story. Moved by sympathy, many generously donated, enabling Li Hongqi and the others to swindle a considerable sum.
Of course, while they were busy making money, they didn’t forget to take the time to slander Shen Yunfang. Learning from their past lesson, they no longer dared to show off in front of Shen Yunfang, so they moved to the shadows. In the afternoon, precisely when Shen Yunfang was in class, they would weep to others downstairs about her lack of filial piety, with Qiu Shuping as the main force, of course.
There’s never a shortage of those who enjoy a good spectacle, so every day when they put on their sorrowful act, there would always be an audience to support their passionate and sweat-drenched performance.
Of course, there were times when they didn’t manage their schedule well and bumped into Shen Yunfang coming home. Every time they would break away at the first opportunity and flee for their lives. Shen Yunfang simply watched their retreating figures coldly, regarding them as nothing more than fools.
Shen Yunfang was well aware of their actions. After all, she had lived here for two years and had several neighbors she got along well with, who had informed her of the situation early on.
She didn’t care what they said about her now; she had her degree, she had money, and she saw no reason to live stifled and constrained simply for a good reputation. She had come to realize that at any time, those with money and power lived unrestrained, and of course, those with a strong fist generally lived that way too.
She didn’t care, but others did, like Ma Liguo and his wife, for example.
When they found out that Li Hongqi’s mother and younger brother had shamelessly come over to deliberately tarnish Yunfang’s reputation, they were extremely angry, especially Mu Huazhen. She had always been a person who wouldn’t tolerate any injustice, and now, seeing such things unfold right under her nose, it was infuriating.
She immediately wanted to roll up her sleeves and arrest all of them, suggesting they be locked up in a reeducation-through-labor camp for a few days to straighten them out.
Ma Liguo stopped her, not because he disagreed but because as a people’s police officer, she needed a legitimate reason to make an arrest.
Shen Yunfang looked at the two who were even more agitated than herself and raised a question. These people were coming to her for money, and indeed, they planned to sponge off her for food and lodging, so logically, they shouldn’t have brought much money with them. But they had been staying in the Capital for over ten days now, reportedly staying in a guesthouse near the Agricultural University. The cost of lodging, plus their meals for so many days, must amount to a significant sum. Where was all this money coming from?
Ma Liguo and Mu Huazhen lit up upon hearing this. Mu Huazhen immediately took on the task, as it fell within her professional purview as a police officer. She assured them, thumping her chest, that she would investigate them to the core.
The next day, she brought a couple of colleagues and was ready to stake out, but it turned out to be unnecessary. They, in plain clothes, followed Li Hongqi and his group to a university and soon discovered their money-making scheme.
Mu Huazhen listened to Qiu Shuping’s entire sob story and witnessed Li Hongqi’s supporting act. Just as he put a dollar into the donation box, ready to encourage everyone else to donate, she and her colleagues rushed in, restrained the group, handcuffed them, and took them back to the police station.
Of course, the banners on the scene and the donation box were evidence, and they had to be taken as well.
