Second Aunt Zhou’s mind was foggy and confused, letting Liu Ergen take her hand and press her red fingerprint onto the paper without any reaction from start to finish.
"What are you doing?" Zhou Xiaowei chased after them, finding it suspicious that they were pressing fingerprints without a word of explanation.
He strode over and reached out to grab the paper with Second Aunt Zhou’s print on it.
Zhao Qiaoling hurriedly hid it behind her back, but Zhou Xiaowei still caught the corner of the paper.
"Zhou Xiaowei, let go!" Zhao Qiaoling’s voice shot up in panic. "If you tear it, can you afford to pay for it?"
"What kind of paper is so precious? I’ve got to see it!"
Zhou Xiaowei hung on tight, and Zhao Qiaoling refused to release it either, leaving them locked in a standoff.
Aunt Zhou heard the commotion and rushed over.
At a glance, she saw Zhou Xiaowei and Zhao Qiaoling both clutching a piece of paper, neither willing to let go.
Liu Ergen still had a box of red ink pad in his hand.
She furrowed her brows and scowled. "What’s all this fuss about?"
Walking up to them, she said, "You two, let go. Let me have a look!" She reached for the paper.
Zhao Qiaoling still wouldn’t let go. She stared at Aunt Zhou and said stiffly, "Aunt Zhou, you’re a guest here. This is my family’s business. I won’t trouble you with it!"
"I couldn’t care less about your family’s business, but I won’t stand by when it comes to my sister’s affairs!" Aunt Zhou stood her ground.
"Aunt Zhou, it’s really nothing serious…"
Liu Ergen knew Aunt Zhou had a tough personality, and fearing things would get out of hand, he quickly tried to smooth things over.
Then he turned to glare at Zhao Qiaoling. "How dare you talk to Aunt Zhou like that! No respect for your elders!"
"Give it to me!" Just as Zhou Xiaowei was about to loosen his grip, Zhao Qiaoling yanked hard, and the paper tore in two with a sharp "ripping" sound.
Zhou Xiaowei held half the paper in his hand, brought it close to his eyes, and read aloud: "Letter of… forgiveness…"
He spun around and looked at Aunt Zhou. "Grandma, it’s Zhao Tiechui’s forgiveness letter!"
Zhao Tiechui was Zhao Qiaoling’s father, who had been no good back in his younger days.
This time, he had shielded Zhao Jinku, a murderer, locked up Second Aunt Zhou and her son, and even obstructed the police investigation.
With all those charges stacked up, he was sentenced to a year and a half in prison.
With both father and son locked up, only Zhao Qiaoling’s mother was left at home to raise three children.
Without a pillar of strength in the house, life was hard, and the grandmother and grandchildren were crying every day.
Zhao Qiaoling and Liu Ergen had gone to the commune to plead, saying the family couldn’t hold on any longer and asking the police to release Zhao Tiechui on bail.
The police took the family’s hardship into consideration and agreed that if the deceased’s maternal family pressed their fingerprints on a forgiveness letter, they would allow Zhao Tiechui to be released on bail pending trial.
Hearing there was a way, Liu Ergen and Zhao Qiaoling immediately took the forgiveness letter and came to find her.
Seeing Second Aunt Zhou expressionless and dazed, they didn’t even bother to discuss it with her—they just grabbed her hand and forced her to press the fingerprint.
As soon as Aunt Zhou heard it was a forgiveness letter, she understood at once what was going on.
She didn’t look at Zhao Qiaoling but stared straight at Liu Ergen, her voice trembling. "You’re trying to kill your own mother, aren’t you?"
Zhao Qiaoling clutched the torn forgiveness letter, her face pale with anger, her chest heaving.
"The dead can’t come back! Even if you send everyone to prison, she won’t come back to life!"
She straightened her neck and shouted, "The kids lost their mother, and now their father’s in jail. How pitiful they are!
From now on, they’ll have to rely on their grandparents to raise them… The adults’ mess shouldn’t hurt the children!"
"That’s right, Aunt Zhou," Liu Ergen chimed in quickly, his face pleading. "The kids cry for their parents every day. Qiaoling’s mother can barely keep going on her own…"
Aunt Zhou knew full well that the children were indeed pitiful, but what Zhao Tiechui had done was utterly despicable.
She pointed at Liu Ergen, her voice filled with frustration. "Your sister married into the Zhao family as an exchange for your bride, and that Zhao brute beat her to death. Don’t you feel any guilt in your heart?
Your mother has been crying every day, barely eating or sleeping, and now she’s so out of it she can’t even recognize people. You, as her son, hide at home like a coward and don’t even come to visit!
But here you are today, and it’s to force your mother into signing some damn forgiveness letter? You’re pouring salt on her wounds!"
Aunt Zhou walked to the bedside, gently tucked Second Aunt Zhou’s cold hand under the quilt, and smoothed the corner of the bedding.
She turned and glared at Zhao Qiaoling without any warmth. "Qiaoling, I won’t say much else. Your brother beat my niece to death, and he deserves to pay with his life!
Your father is even worse—covering for a murderer, tying up my family, blocking the police investigation, and torturing your mother-in-law into this state. And you still have the nerve to ask for forgiveness?"
"You say the children are pitiful? Isn’t my niece, who’s dead, pitiful too?
A woman in her thirties, beaten to death, leaving her children without a mother!
Your mother-in-law had to bury her own child, and it’s nearly killed her with grief. How come you don’t feel pity for her?"
Aunt Zhou grew angrier with every word and slammed her hand on the bed frame with a loud "thump."
"The Zhao family made this mess, and the Zhao family has to bear the consequences!
Your brother committed murder, your father broke the law—going to prison is only right. Why should your mother-in-law sign a forgiveness letter?"
Liu Ergen was too ashamed to lift his head, and he stammered, "Aunt Zhou, their grandmother is alone with three kids. Life really can’t go on like this…
I thought, since my sister is already gone, at least the kids shouldn’t be left without someone to care for them…"
"The hardship they’re suffering is their own doing!" Aunt Zhou cut him off sharply, jabbing a finger at Liu Ergen’s forehead. "Are the Zhao kids the only ones who matter? Isn’t your sister the apple of your mother’s eye?
Look at your mother now—this is all because of the Zhao family."
Zhao Qiaoling, gripping the torn paper, shouted with red-rimmed eyes, "But what’s done is done! It can’t be changed!
The three kids cry for their parents every single day. My mother is holding the family together alone. She really can’t last much longer…"
"Then she’ll have to tough it out! This is the suffering the Zhao family brought on themselves!" Aunt Zhou refused to budge an inch.
"But it was an exchange marriage…" Zhao Qiaoling tried to argue.
"So what if it was an exchange marriage? That’s no excuse for your brother to kill someone, and no excuse for your father to break the law!" Aunt Zhou’s voice rose sharply, leaving no room for argument.
Liu Ergen looked from the furious Aunt Zhou to his dazed mother on the kang, his face alternating between red and white as he stood there helpless.
Zhao Qiaoling trembled with rage, but she didn’t dare to do anything to Aunt Zhou.
The half sheet of paper in her hand still bore Second Aunt Zhou’s red fingerprint. Thinking it might still be useful, she quickly stuffed it into her pocket.
"The forgiveness letter is already torn. I’ll just leave, okay?"
With that, she tried to slip away, but Zhou Xiaowei blocked the inner doorway.
"Aunt, hand over the paper in your pocket!" Zhou Xiaowei said firmly, holding out his hand.
"Why should I?" Zhao Qiaoling shoved him. "Move! I’m going home!"
"Give me the paper, and I’ll let you go!" Zhou Xiaowei spread his arms across the doorframe, blocking her completely.
Zhao Qiaoling panicked and, lifting her face, bit down on Zhou Xiaowei’s hand.
Zhou Xiaowei hissed in pain and instinctively let go. Zhao Qiaoling seized the chance to squirm out from under his arm.
Zhou Zhijun was standing right in the doorway, having heard every word of the exchange inside.
He had only been away a few days, yet such a huge mess had erupted. Zhou Zhijun felt as though a boulder was crushing his chest—heavy and suffocating.
His teeth ground together, his fists clenched so tight the knuckles turned white, and the expression on his face was so dark it seemed the sky itself might crack at any moment.
Zhao Qiaoling, flustered, squeezed out of the inner room, trying to slip away without looking back—only to find a pair of long legs in Liberation shoes planted firmly before her.
Her gaze traveled up those long legs, and when she recognized the face above them, a chill shot from the soles of her feet straight to the crown of her head. She trembled like a leaf in a storm.
Hadn’t Zhou Zhijun been taken away by the police? How had he come back?
If she had known he was here, neither she nor her husband would ever have dared to come and pressure Second Aunt Zhou into pressing her thumbprint.
Everyone in the family knew Zhou Zhijun’s temper. And everyone had heard the story of how he had killed a wolf with his bare hands.
No matter how unreasonable or obstinate Zhao Qiaoling was, she wouldn’t dare challenge Zhou Zhijun head-on.
Besides, in this matter, the Zhao family was clearly in the wrong. Liu Xianghua was a human life, after all!
“Brother Zhijun… you… you’re back!” Zhao Qiaoling’s voice quivered. Her head was buried so low in her chest that she didn’t dare look at Zhou Zhijun’s face.
