The police officer asked, "Who called the police?"
Before Lin Wanyi could speak, Liu Chunlan cried out first:
"Officer, you have to stand up for me! Look at my face. This out-of-town bitch actually dared to hit an old woman like me.
"Tell me, how should this be handled?"
Wang Hao anxiously tried to pull Liu Chunlan back. "Stop talking, Mom. Just stop talking."
"Why shouldn't I?"
Liu Chunlan wasn't afraid in the slightest:
"I am her mother-in-law. For her to hit me is an absolute outrage, a complete violation of the natural order. She should be arrested and thrown in jail!"
The police officer turned to ask Lin Wanyi:
"Is what she says true? Did you really hit your mother-in-law?"
"Yes, I hit her."
"I can testify to that."
Wang Meijuan immediately chimed in:
"I saw her hit my mother with my own eyes."
The police officer asked Lin Wanyi again:
"Why did you hit your mother-in-law?"
Lin Wanyi took a deep breath. Just as she was about to speak, Wang Hao hurriedly covered her mouth:
"Let it go, honey. We're all family, let's not blow this out of proportion. Whatever it is, we can talk about it when we get home. Let's just go home."
Lin Wanyi struggled violently, and the police officer pulled Wang Hao away. "Let go! Are you trying to stop her from speaking?"
Liu Chunlan was still clamoring, "Speak, let her speak! Let's see what kind of nonsense she can come up with."
Lin Wanyi finally looked at the police officer and spoke up:
"Because she tried to kill my daughter! She..."
"Bullshit!"
Liu Chunlan immediately retorted. "You're talking nonsense! When did I ever try to kill your daughter?"
Lin Wanyi's voice grew louder:
"You knew perfectly well that Keke is allergic to peanuts, yet you deliberately fed her peanuts!
"Just to stop me from visiting my family, just to stop me from seeing my father one last time.
"Liu Chunlan, you are truly ruthless. You wouldn't even spare your own biological granddaughter. How can you be so vicious? Are you even human?"
The police officers were stunned, and their expressions immediately turned serious.
But Liu Chunlan kept denying it:
"I didn't! Officer, she's slandering me. I didn't know Keke was allergic to peanuts.
"I was just worried she'd be hungry on her flight today, so I kindly bought her breakfast. I didn't know there were peanuts in the steamed buns.
"Officer, I really didn't do it on purpose. Keke is my own granddaughter, how could I possibly harm her?"
She spoke with such apparent sincerity, but Lin Wanyi didn't believe a single word.
"Keke was diagnosed with a peanut allergy three years ago. I told you clearly and explicitly. How could you not know?"
After she finished, she looked at Wang Hao:
"Wang Hao, testify for me. Didn't I explicitly tell your mother and father, and even your sister?
"I told them there couldn't be a single trace of anything related to peanuts in the house. Did I say that or not?"
Wang Hao's eyes darted around evasively. He looked at Liu Chunlan and then at Lin Wanyi, stammering and not daring to speak.
Lin Wanyi suddenly raised her voice:
"Wang Hao, your daughter almost died! She almost died! Just a few minutes later and you would never have seen her again, you would have been separated by death.
"Are you still going to cover up for the murderer?"
"I..."
Wang Hao's eyes involuntarily looked toward Liu Chunlan, who gave a slight shake of her head.
The police officer sternly questioned Wang Hao, "Speak. What exactly is going on?"
"No!"
Wang Hao finally spoke up:
"Officer, I testify that my wife did not tell my mother about our child's peanut allergy.
"Only she and I knew about this; my family was unaware.
"So my mother just made an innocent mistake today. She didn't do it on purpose."
"Wang Hao!"
Lin Wanyi was practically roaring:
"What on earth are you saying? Our test results have always been kept in the most conspicuous place in the living room, precisely to prevent Keke from getting hurt.
"You are actually helping a murderer! Are you even Keke's father? Do you even deserve to be her father?"
Wang Hao didn't dare look at Lin Wanyi. He just kept apologizing to the police officers:
"I'm sorry, it's just some trivial family matters. Sorry to bother you, really sorry for the trouble."
After the police officers left, Lin Wanyi lost all her support.
Her younger brother sent a message:
[Dad has already passed away, there's no use being anxious. Take care of Keke first. I'll have the body kept for a couple more days and wait for you to come back before the burial.]
She hugged Keke and cried out loud.
Wang Hao kept apologizing from the side:
"I'm sorry, but my mom really didn't do it on purpose. She didn't know there were peanuts in that steamed bun.
"If she had known, she absolutely wouldn't have given it to Keke.
"Besides, she's my mother. I couldn't possibly send her to prison with my own hands."
Lin Wanyi placed Keke on the bed, turned around, and slapped Wang Hao across the face twice:
"Yes, she is your mother. But from today onward, she is my enemy. My eternal enemy."
Liu Chunlan wanted to say something else, but Wang Meijuan pulled her out of the hospital room.
Out in the hallway, Wang Meijuan lowered her voice and said:
"Mom, wasn't that too risky? What if you had actually killed Keke?"
Liu Chunlan wasn't afraid at all:
"If she dies, she dies. It's because of this money-losing burden being around and Lin Wanyi treating her like the apple of her eye that she won't have a second child.
"If she died, Lin Wanyi would have no choice but to have a second child. When the time comes, I'd find an acquaintance to do an ultrasound for her—if it's not a boy, we won't keep it.
"Thinking about this just makes me angry. I told her to get an ultrasound for her first pregnancy, but she stubbornly refused. Otherwise, I would have aborted that money-losing burden long ago. Would I have let her be born?"
Wang Meijuan was a bit worried:
"Mom, I think Lin Wanyi is truly angry this time. Didn't you say her dad just died?
"What if she uses the excuse of going back for the funeral and never comes back?"
"Exactly!"
Liu Chunlan unconsciously raised her voice, then immediately lowered it carefully:
"That's why I did everything possible to stop her from going back. It's not like you don't know, our family really didn't spend much money to marry her.
"Other than not giving me a grandson, you can't really find any faults with her. Your brother was quite lucky to marry her."
Wang Meijuan nodded. "That's true. Since that's the case, you should treat her a bit better. Look at how things are now, you're like enemies."
Liu Chunlan pulled Wang Meijuan toward the main entrance:
"Wasn't I just worried that she'd never come back after leaving? You know about Wang Bin's wife next door. She was also from out of town, said she was going back to her parents' house, and never returned.
"There are several cases like that in the next village. Tell me, if she doesn't come back either, what will your brother do?
"Bride prices for local girls are already four or five hundred thousand, and second marriages ask for even more. Where would I get that kind of money?
"So no matter what, we can't let her go back. Absolutely not!"
Wang Meijuan said:
"You shouldn't keep forcing her to have a son anyway. After all, Kaikai already has a son, so that's your grandson too. It's not like our Wang family has no descendants."
Thinking of this made Liu Chunlan even sadder:
"Is that a grandson of my Wang family? He doesn't even have the surname Wang."
The two walked further and further away. Watching their silhouettes through the glass window, Lin Wanyi's fingers clenched tightly into fists.
For the sake of her daughter, she would definitely get her revenge.
Just not today. She had to rush back to attend her father's funeral first.
She changed her flight to the next day, and Wang Hao hurriedly bought a ticket for the same flight;
"I'll go back with you, honey. I'm worried about you two."
Lin Wanyi flatly refused. Right now, she absolutely loathed Wang Hao and everyone else in the Wang family.
But Wang Hao argued, "If I don't go back with you, what are we going to say when the relatives start asking questions?
"Your mother will be worried, too. She just lost her husband. Do you really want to give her another reason to fret over her daughter?"
