Chapter 7: How Did You End Up Like This?
Zheng Feiyu hurriedly dodged, but was still slapped on the shoulder by Ye Hong, causing him to grimace in pain and involuntarily push her away with his hand.
Ye Hong staggered underfoot and directly fell on her buttocks.
She simply sat on the ground and refused to get up, slapping her leg while wailing loudly: “Come quickly, everyone! The Zheng family and Liu family teamed up to kill my daughter! Now they’re bullying me, a widowed mother! There’s no justice! No justice at all!”
Zhou Ying, hidden in the shadows, had blood-red eyes filled with hatred as she stared at Zheng Feiyu, wanting to appear and kill him, but she feared Nan Yuanman and Zhang Shimian and didn’t dare to show herself.
Zheng Feiyu was stunned and first apologized awkwardly before he couldn’t help but say: “Aunt, please be reasonable and don’t throw dirty water around! How could our Zheng family possibly kill your daughter?”
“How is it impossible! Old Master Zheng took advantage of my ignorance and helped that dog Liu Hanfei with matchmaking! He got my daughter killed!”
Ye Hong’s eyes were red with tears as she hatefully said: “If it weren’t for Old Master Zheng doing the matchmaking, I never would have married Zhou Ying to that beast!”
Being cursed at repeatedly, and losing face in front of outsiders, Liu Hanfei’s expression darkened uncontrollably: “Aunt Ye, you need evidence when you speak!”
He had a righteous look on his face: “I act openly and upright; I would never do something like harming people!”
He stared at Ye Hong, his voice softening but carrying a hidden warning: “Yinger is already dead; you’re her mother. You don’t want her to leave uneasily, do you?”
“Before she left, she was still thinking about you, and her younger brother and sister.”
Ye Hong wasn’t foolish despite being honest; she heard the warning in Liu Hanfei’s tone. Thinking of her deceased eldest daughter and her three children, the grief on her face deepened.
She didn’t dare to continue confronting them head-on and shakily stood up from the ground, pointing at Liu Hanfei and Zheng Feiyu with a shrill voice: “You, you will get your retribution! You definitely will!”
With that, Ye Hong covered her face and stumbled away.
Liu Hanfei looked at Zheng Feiyu with slight apology: “Sorry about that; my mother-in-law has been stimulated by my wife’s death and her mental state is a bit unstable. She offended you.”
His polite and proper attitude made Zheng Feiyu’s expression improve slightly: “It’s fine.”
Liu Hanfei subtly observed Zheng Feiyu and Jiang Lixuan and the others: “You’re Zheng family members here to pay respects to Old Master Zheng, right? Why don’t we go together?”
Zheng Feiyu originally wanted to refuse, but thinking of what Ye Hong had said earlier about the matchmaking, he agreed instead: “Sure.”
Nan Yuanman finished watching the show and had no intention of going with them, so she turned around to head back to the yard.
She had just taken a step when her collar was grabbed by someone, and her whole body was lifted up: “???”
Nan Yuanman looked at Jiang Lixuan in bewilderment: “What are you doing?”
“I’m your uncle, your guardian. To prevent you from causing trouble at the Zheng family, you’ll stay with me today.” Jiang Lixuan said righteously.
Nan Yuanman unhappily protested: “I’m not a bad child! How could I possibly cause trouble?!”
“You don’t get to decide.” Jiang Lixuan snorted with a laugh: “After all, Aunt Zheng said you’re a kid with a ‘prior record’.”
“Let’s go, come with us.”
With that, he suppressed the struggling Nan Yuanman and took her with him to the Zheng family.
Nan Yuanman had a sullen little face, her arms crossed over her chest, puffing out her cheeks angrily, ignoring Jiang Lixuan the whole way.
Zheng Feiyu subtly probed Liu Hanfei: “By the way, what Aunt Ye said earlier about my grandpa doing matchmaking for you and Zhou Ying, what was that about?”
“It was nothing; earlier when I came home for ancestral worship, I fell in love with Yinger at first sight, so I asked Grandpa Zheng to help with the matchmaking.”
Liu Hanfei: “At the time, I thought since Grandpa Zheng is a respected figure in the village, having him do the matchmaking would show how much I valued Yinger. I didn’t expect…”
He sighed with a sorrowful expression: “Yinger is gone, and Grandpa Zheng is gone too. The ways of the world are too unpredictable.”
Zhang Shimian looked at Liu Hanfei with an indescribably complex expression: “From your bone age, you’re already thirty-five, right? Zhou Ying is only a few years old, not yet twenty. You really are…”
Not just Liu Hanfei; Old Master Zheng was muddled too.
How could a thirty-year-old man be introduced to Zhou Ying, who wasn’t yet twenty? Isn’t that an old cow eating tender grass!
This matter was handled so improperly!
Liu Hanfei gave an embarrassed laugh: “Older men know how to cherish people.”
Jiang Lixuan sneered but said nothing.
Nan Yuanman pursed her lips with a look of disdain.
Jiang Lixuan saw her expression and couldn’t help but pinch her cheek again: “What’s with that look?”
“A disdainful expression.” Nan Yuanman lowered her voice: “This guy is entangled with karmic obstacles, full of lies; Zhou Ying sister’s death is definitely related to him.”
Zhang Shimian’s ears twitched; he subtly slowed his steps and asked her in a low voice: “How did you see that?”
From Liu Hanfei’s facial physiognomy, he didn’t see any great evil, though the spousal palace being sunken was real.
He looked at Nan Yuanman in surprise; he hadn’t realized this five-year-old kid already knew fortune telling and divination?
Nan Yuanman looked at him puzzled: “Just by looking, is it hard?”
Is it hard?
Zhang Shimian: “…”
He hates talent monsters!
During the chat, Nan Yuanman and the others returned to the Zheng family mourning hall.
After one night, the Zheng family mourning hall had returned to normal; the Zheng family members who came to pay respects seemed unaware of what happened last night.
Only Aunt Zheng’s expression looked rather poor.
Nan Yuanman didn’t say anything more and struggled free from Jiang Lixuan’s hand, squatting in a corner and trying to hide herself.
Jiang Lixuan followed her closely without letting go.
Zheng Feiyu took Liu Hanfei to pay respects.
Liu Hanfei kowtowed to Old Master Zheng and took three incense sticks to insert them when two suddenly broke in the middle.
Aunt Zheng and Zheng Feiyu’s expressions changed abruptly.
Liu Hanfei’s expression also turned ugly; he barely maintained his calm facade and said:
“Probably Old Master is blaming me for not coming back in time to pay respects. Sorry, Grandpa Zheng, I came back late.”
He didn’t dare to offer incense to Old Master Zheng anymore and just bowed to him.
After paying respects, Liu Hanfei didn’t linger and turned to leave the Zheng family.
Zheng Feiyu wanted to follow, but for some reason, he always felt that Zhou Ying’s death was absolutely related to this Liu Hanfei!
Aunt Zheng reached out and grabbed him: “Feiyu, come help.”
“Aunt, I have something to do.” Zheng Feiyu grew anxious and struggled to pull his hand free, but Aunt Zheng gripped tighter.
“Nothing is more important than your grandpa! Come quickly and personally make some gold ingots for your grandpa! So he has money to spend down there!”
Zheng Feiyu didn’t know where this countryside woman got such strength; no matter how he struggled, he couldn’t break free and could only helplessly follow Aunt Zheng.
He wasn’t stupid; he could see that Aunt Zheng didn’t want him approaching Liu Hanfei.
Helplessly, he could only cast a pleading look at Jiang Lixuan.
Jiang Lixuan frowned, got up and went out to look; Liu Hanfei’s figure had already disappeared.
He returned and shook his head at Zheng Feiyu.
Zheng Feiyu could only hold back for now and find a chance later to press Aunt Zheng for answers.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Once away from the Zheng family, the uneasy Liu Hanfei couldn’t help but dial the number on his mobile phone. As soon as it connected, he eagerly said: “Master, you’re sure the Zheng family doesn’t know about Zhou Ying’s matter, right?”
Liu Hanfei had come back this time because he heard that Old Master Zheng, who usually kept a low profile, had a son running a company in S City.
That company was very large-scale; compared to it, his own company was insignificant.
He felt uneasy inside and specially came back to check, fearing that Zhou Ying’s matter would be exposed.
A slightly elderly male voice came from the other end: “Don’t worry; we handled this matter extra secretly. The Zheng family won’t discover it.”
“Besides, that old man already took your ‘filial piety gift’; he bears a share of the karma. Even if it’s discovered, he can’t do anything.”
Liu Hanfei relaxed slightly; as if remembering something, he asked rather nervously in a low voice: “Then… Old Man Zheng’s death, could it be related to Zhou Ying…? She only died over ten days ago, and Old Man Zheng died too…”
The person on the phone laughed: “Who knows.”
“Don’t worry too much; you have the protective amulet I gave you. Even if Zhou Ying comes for you, she can’t harm you.”
Liu Hanfei: “That’s good.”
After hanging up, Liu Hanfei inexplicably felt a chill on his back; he didn’t dare look behind and gripped the amulet in his hand tightly, his eyes gloomy: “Don’t blame me, Zhou Ying.”
“Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.”
–
Night fell, and fog rose outside at some point, hazy and looking both dreamlike and weird.
To ensure the Zheng family members’ safety, Zheng Feiyu stayed behind to guard the coffin today.
He shamelessly grabbed Nan Yuanman, asking her to stay: “Yuanman, tonight’s dinner is the fried chicken legs you love; just stay, okay?”
“I’ll go deliver food to Grandpa Nan for you, deal?”
Having witnessed the powerful small straw doll Nan Yuanman threw out last night, Zheng Feiyu now only trusted her to protect his life.
He didn’t trust Zhang Shimian much either.
Jiang Lixuan was speechless and couldn’t help but jab at him: “Is that necessary? Nan Yuanman is just a five-year-old child; what can she do if she stays?”
Nan Yuanman, who had already lifted her little buttocks off the stool, sat back down upon hearing this and bared her teeth at him: “I can watch how you all die. Perfect timing; pay the coffin money now, and when you die later, I’ll collect your bodies.”
“I’ll make sure you’re buried in a feng shui treasure spot!”
Jiang Lixuan’s face darkened: “Nan Yuanman! Are you cursing your uncle to death?!”
Nan Yuanman huffed, extremely resistant: “You’re not my uncle!”
Zhang Shimian looked at Jiang Lixuan speechlessly: Why did you provoke her? Now you’ve been scolded, huh?
Amid the noisy bickering, the surrounding environment had completely quieted down at some point; the chirping of insects, the rustling of leaves in the wind, and the whispers in the yard all disappeared.
In the vast mourning hall, only their four people’s breathing sounds remained.
Nan Yuanman realized something and abruptly looked toward the doorway, her small face slightly serious: “Sister Zhou Ying is here!”
The temperature around them dropped sharply; Jiang Lixuan felt his hairs stand on end from the cold and subconsciously moved closer to Nan Yuanman.
Zhang Shimian held a talisman, his expression serious.
With a “bang”, a shadow was suddenly thrown in from outside and smashed heavily onto the ground.
Zheng Feiyu looked closely and couldn’t help but shout: “Damn! Isn’t this Liu Hanfei who appeared today?! How did he end up like this?!”
