Chapter 21 - Who did it

Shi Qingluo thought further than Mother Xiao.

She asked Xiao Hanzheng, “Did you have any enmity with that doctor or his family?”

Xiao Hanzheng shook his head. “No.”

Shi Qingluo raised her hand and pointed in the direction of the old residence. “If that’s the case, someone must have bribed him so that he would want to harm you. It could be someone from there.”

Mother Xiao was stunned. “The Xiao family value money as much as their lives. Would they be willing to spend money to bribe the physician?

“And why would they want Zheng’er to die? We have already broken off our family ties.”

It wasn’t that she didn’t believe her daughter-in-law’s guess, but she was puzzled.

Xiao Hanzheng realised that his wife was too smart and sharp.

He explained to Mother Xiao, “They might be unwilling, but someone is.

“To that woman, as long as our family is alive, it is an annoyance to her.

“We have tarnished her relationship with that scum.

“She didn’t want me, as her son on paper, to become an imperial scholar in the future.

“In this way, people who dig up the past will know her just as the wife of a general.

“We should let others know that an uncle and his niece are shamelessly committing adultery.”

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He did not expect that the woman would not let them go even though they had taken the initiative to break off their family ties.

Moreover, her plans were very well-hidden.

When he woke up in his previous life, he was the only one left in the family.

He remembered that he did not fall down the mountain by himself.

He also felt that something about his mother’s and others’ deaths were unnatural.

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Therefore, he went to secretly investigate and found out about this.

On the surface, that woman looked like a delicate flower that needed a man to carefully protect, but behind the scenes, she was more ruthless than anyone else.

Xiao Hanzheng looked at his mother’s pale face and felt a little sorry for her, but he still decided to expose it.

“When I was chopping wood on the mountain, I felt a pain in my calf, and then my leg went numb and became soft.

“I’m sure that someone hit my leg with a stone accurately, which was why I fell down the mountain.”

He continued, “Erlang’s drowning shouldn’t be a pure accident too. Someone deliberately said that drinking fish soup could keep me alive, so he went to catch fish.”

Even if Xiao Erlang’s feet didn’t cramp, after he went to fish a few more times, the people in the village would know and the woman would let Xiao Erlang drown in the river.

No one would be suspicious about it.

“The first and third lady of our old residence want our sister to be married to the Wu family just to be buried. They were probably involved too.”

In his previous life, he had found out that it was that woman who had stayed behind to serve old madam.

She had gotten the news that the Wu family had given them a lot of money for the marriage and burial.

That was why she had instigated those two people to do it.

Mother Xiao’s face turned pale again. “She has forced us into such a state, and she still won’t let us go? Why is she so ruthless?”

She actually wanted both mother and son to be dead.

It was too terrifying.

Xiao Hanzheng said, “She could even use the child in her stomach to frame you. What’s the big deal if she wants to harm us?”

“Then your father,” Mother Xiao’s voice trembled as she changed her words, “that scum, does he know?”

Xiao Hanzheng laughed self-mockingly. “Even if he knows, what can he do?

“That woman probably didn’t let him know about these things. After all, it would damage her image in that scum’s heart.

“But even if he knew, as long as she cried bitterly and said that she wanted to take revenge for the lost child, that scum would not pursue the matter. In fact, he would even console her.”

He already had a complete understanding of his scumbag father’s personality.

That woman was the scumbag father’s true love. All of them together couldn’t even be compared to that woman’s finger.

Mother Xiao was so angry that her entire body was trembling. “But you’re his children!”

How could there be such a heartless person?

Xiao Hanzheng could not help but laugh. “A child can still be born after it’s gone. In his eyes, only the child that woman gave birth to is his child.”

His mother’s and siblings’ existence were reasons for his poor health and luck in the past.

It was already good enough that he did not have the guts to personally kill them, let alone think that he would take care of them.

That woman was very smart.

If it weren’t for his father’s cold attitude toward them and had some grudges against them, she would have to worry about being blamed or punished by his father after the incident.

That was why she dared to be so ruthless behind their backs to get rid of them.

His father wasn’t innocent either.

Mother Xiao took a deep breath. “But if that’s the case, why did they suggest bringing you along so that he could groom you in the capital?”

Xiao Hanzheng replied, “They said that they would bring me to the capital, but it was the woman’s suggestion.

“On one hand, she seems very magnanimous in Xiao’s old residence and in the village.

“On the other hand, do you think that she is really kind-hearted?

“As long as I go to the capital, the general’s mansion will be her territory. She will be the one who decides how to deal with it.

“Even if I die, she will be able to find an excuse to cover it up.”

In his previous life, he did not think about this.

After all, how could a village have so many shady and selfish conflicts in the houses’ backyard?

He had never seen it before.

The reason he refused to go to the capital was not because of that woman, but because of his disgusting father.

He did not want to become someone like him, and he couldn’t bear to live without his mother and everyone else.

He only thought of these things only after finding out what that woman had done.

The worst thing was her paternal grandma suppressing and bullying Mother Xiao.

He really did not expect that there would be such a vicious woman and a heartless man.

Back then, it was Second Son Xiao who had taken a fancy and came to the family to ask for her hand in marriage.

Before the marriage, she had always coaxed him to fall in love with her, agreed to marry him, and even went to beg her parents.

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Otherwise, her parents did not really like people from the old residence, and did not want her to marry into the Xiao family.

After they got married, she and that scumbag also had a period of sweet days.

Before he had gone to military service, he was not bad to her, and he was also good to his eldest son.

Xiao Hanzheng knew Mother Xiao’s thoughts with a glance.

“Mother, he is the second son in the family, and is not very valued by the old couple. You are the only daughter of grandpa and grandma, and your family conditions are not bad, so he wanted to marry you.

“Marrying you back home has indeed benefited him. Because he learned martial arts from grandpa, that made him a skilful martial artist now.

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His maternal grandpa was once a good hunter in the village and learnt from another martial artist.

He had also worked in an agency that provides bodyguard services, which further honed his skills.

If his scumbag father had not learned martial arts from his maternal grandpa and went to military service, he would not have been able to rise to a senior general.

He continued, “It was also because of grandpa and grandma’s frequent subsidies that our family had a good life and I could afford to go to school.

“After grandpa and grandma passed away, the Xiao family’s old couple changed their expressions and began to suppress you. They allowed our aunties and uncles to bully you.

“That scumbag had also become much colder to you. You should be able to feel it yourself.

“Furthermore, was he really forced to serve in the military? I feel that he was going with the flow. He already had a plan in mind.”

His scumbag’s father had always been ambitious and unwilling to live the life of an ordinary farmer.

Joining the military was also a way to rise up. In the end, he did succeed.

He did not want his mother to deceive herself anymore, let alone having extravagant hopes and dreams on the scumbag.

Mother Xiao could not hold back her tears. “Beast, he is just a beast. Even a vicious tiger would not eat its own child.”

At this moment, the last trace of hope, thoughts, and affection in her heart had been completely cut off, leaving only hatred.

Her children were her bottom line and her pillar of support to continue living.

Even the scumbag she had once loved could not be relied on.