Chapter 22 Lin Yufan, How Can You Let Me Off?

Chapter 22 Lin Yufan, How Can You Let Me Off?

The bamboo in the grove rustled as the wind blew.

Jian Suzhen’s hands were tied behind her back. She could feel herself being dragged into the bamboo grove, and fear coursed through her limbs. She would be raped, mercilessly killed.

Tears of despair streamed down her face.

It was all that witch Lin Yufan’s fault; otherwise, she wouldn’t have fled in the middle of the night and encountered such a thing.

She hated her with every fiber of her being!

A sudden beam of light hit her face, and Jian Suzhen panicked, avoiding the light.

When her eyes adjusted, she looked up, panicked.

When she saw the familiar face in front of her, she stared, her emotions in turmoil.

It was none other than Lin Yufan’s Fifth Brother!

"Don’t move, or I’ll pluck your eyes out!" Lin Yuwu threatened.

"Mmmph! Mmmph!" She tried to speak.

Lin Yuwu sneered, "Cursing me? Think if your miserable life will last till dawn, then curse me again."

Jian Suzhen just wanted to ask how she could be spared.

She tried to speak, but Lin Yuwu paid her no mind. When she looked up again, she saw someone else standing before her.

Lin Yufan!

Lin Yufan crouched down in front of her, her voice as gentle as ever, "You’re such a handful, making me come all this way."

So, Lin Yufan had bribed the rickshaw driver to take this shortcut.

Her gut feeling had been right.

Jian Suzhen tried to speak through the gag, but Lin Yufan paid no attention.

"Care to guess where your two sons are now?"

The children!

Jian Suzhen’s head spun, blood rushing to her temples. She writhed desperately, wanting to lunge at Lin Yufan!

"If you want them to live, stay still and keep quiet. I’ll take the gag off, but don’t you dare scream, or I can’t guarantee what my Fifth Brother will do to you."

Lin Yufan spoke the most hateful words in the gentlest tone.

Jian Suzhen knew her sons were still alive, and her cloudy eyes suddenly saw a glimmer of hope.

"Nod if you understand."

Jian Suzhen nodded without hesitation. In her current situation, she had no choice but to agree.

Lin Yufan removed the cloth from Jian Suzhen’s mouth.

Jian Suzhen choked on her saliva, coughing violently.

"Where are Ping Geer and Dong Geer? What have you done to them?"

Lin Yufan didn’t respond. She held a flashlight in her hand, while her Fifth Brother and Iron Dragon watched from a distance.

It was also her first time carrying out a major task in this remote bamboo forest at night.

Since the afternoon, Lin Yufan had felt a bit anxious.

For some reason, the moment she saw Jian Suzhen tied up, she suddenly felt an unexpected calm.

"How did Gui Xiang die?" She spoke softly to prevent Fifth Brother and the others from hearing. "Your son is in the hands of the Green Gang. If I don’t return in time, your son will die. So, don’t beat around the bush with me, wasting your son’s life."

Jian Suzhen didn’t expect Lin Yufan to hold such a grudge. The death of a maid could be remembered from one life to another.

She was about to speak when Lin Yufan interrupted her again: "I know some information. If what you say doesn’t match my information, you’ll have to choose between drowning or being buried alive."

Drowning.

Buried alive.

Jian Suzhen, who had initially planned to mix truth and lies, was instantly too terrified to speak.

"If I tell the truth, can you let me go?" Jian Suzhen pleaded softly.

Lin Yufan shook her head: "You don’t get to negotiate with me."

Jian Suzhen, drenched and sprawled on the ground, felt a chill despite the warm night.

Lin Yufan, growing impatient, reminded her again: "If I don’t return within an hour, they will definitely kill your son. So, quit stalling."

"I killed her," Jian Suzhen had to admit.

"How did you kill her?"

"Cough, cough!" Jian Suzhen coughed a few times, almost out of breath.

"Third Brother was helping someone with a job and lost a huge amount of money. We urgently needed money to get through the crisis. When we asked you for a loan, you claimed you were broke. So, Third Brother decided to steal your jewelry to sell. That day, I invited you to the movies, while Third Brother stayed home to steal the jewelry. Unexpectedly, the electricity went out halfway through the movie. You didn’t want to wait and insisted on going home. I couldn’t dissuade you, so I had to follow you back."

"I don’t know if you remember, but when we got back from the movies, we found your door locked from the inside. Gui Xiang thought she had accidentally locked it, so she used the key to open it. Everything inside was normal, and nothing was missing, so you didn’t think much of it."

At that time, they had been in Hong Kong for less than a year, and life wasn’t as tough as it would get in the following years. Lin Yufan and Third Brother’s family shared a two-story Western-style home.

Third Brother’s family lived on the first floor, while Lin Yufan lived on the second floor with Dong Geer and Gui Xiang.

Jian Suzhen continued: "I waited downstairs for a long time, but Third Brother didn’t return. I guessed he must be hiding in the wardrobe or under the bed, unable to get out. I was worried he would be discovered by you, so I sneaked into Gui Xiang’s room, planning to slip sleeping pills into the milk you drank at night."

"Just as I put the sleeping pills in, Gui Xiang caught me in the act. She loudly demanded to know what I had put in the milk. You know how loud she gets when she argues—her voice is so loud. I was afraid you would hear, so I covered her mouth to stop her from speaking. But Gui Xiang was taller and stronger than me. I couldn’t keep her quiet. In a moment of desperation... in a moment of desperation, I stabbed her."

"I really didn’t mean to. But at that time, I had no choice."

Lin Yufan could roughly guess what happened next without Jian Suzhen saying more: "So, later, you had Sang Zi bring me the milk, and Sang Zi lied, saying Gui Xiang had a cold and had gone to bed early. After I drank the milk with sleeping pills and fell into a deep sleep, Zhao Mingjie crawled out from under the bed. To cover up the evidence, you simply set a fire."

Jian Suzhen hurriedly defended herself: "I had no choice. I didn’t have any ill intentions. If I had, I would have poisoned you directly."

Lin Yufan said coldly: "You think you didn’t want to poison me? That’s because you only had sleeping pills at the time, and you didn’t dare to use too much, fearing I would taste it."

"No, no, I really didn’t mean to harm you. It was all a series of unfortunate events."

"Listen to what you’re saying. Stealing wasn’t intentional? Putting sleeping pills in the milk wasn’t intentional? Stabbing Gui Xiang wasn’t intentional? And setting a fire—wasn’t that an attempt to burn me to death and take my property? You don’t think that just because you didn’t kill me at the time, you’re a good person, do you?" Lin Yufan smiled, speaking in a low voice, but every word cut deep.

Jian Suzhen dared not admit: "No, really not, I didn’t have that intention. Didn’t we risk our lives to rescue you in the end?"

"Risked your lives to save me?" Lin Yufan sneered, "Dong Geer was my next-door neighbor, and he was rescued unscathed. But me? My room was farther from the fire, yet I ended up burned and disfigured. If it weren’t for the neighbors rushing in to help, would you have saved me?"

Jian Suzhen still wanted to defend herself: "I got choked by the smoke while trying to save you."

"At that time, I also thought the door was locked, making it hard for you to get in, and you got choked by the smoke while trying to save me. Then you kept throwing this incident in my face to guilt-trip me. Thinking about it now, it’s really disgusting!"

Jian Suzhen could only repeat her previous words: "I really did get choked by the smoke while trying to save you."

"You know how I found out the truth?"

Jian Suzhen looked at her, "I..."

"I had to pawn my pocket watch to cover legal fees. At the pawnshop, I saw the gray squirrel fur coat that was burned in that fire."

If it weren’t for the short and not very cold winters in Hong Kong, and the gray squirrel fur coat remaining unsold in the pawnshop, Lin Yufan might never have known the truth.

Lin Yufan snorted lightly, "You had time to steal furs and take my money, but no time to save me? And then you tell me you got choked by the smoke while trying to save me. Do you even have a conscience? You killed, drugged, set fires, and still play innocent. You’ve been leeching off me for years, don’t you deserve to die?"

Jian Suzhen guessed that Lin Yufan must have sought out Sang Zi in her previous life and learned the truth about the fire, which is why she was so determined to kill them both.

At this point, Jian Suzhen knew she couldn’t argue anymore, "I deserve to die; I admit I was wrong, but that was all in the previous life. You already poisoned us in the previous life. Yufan, I know I was wrong, please forgive me. The two children are innocent. What happened in the past life is over. You already got your revenge by killing me in the past life."

No.

Lin Yufan didn’t think so: "In the previous life, you weren’t poisoned by me. The poison was just kicking in when you died in a train accident and were reborn. Knowing what was about to happen, you liquidated your assets and planned to sneak off to Japan. Heaven not only let you off the hook but even let you strike it rich."

"No. We already died in the previous life. You’ve already avenged yourself. You’ve already taken your revenge."

"If you hadn’t been reborn, I could have considered the matter settled, but you were reborn..."

Jian Suzhen had mud and water dripping down her face, itching so much she could only rub it on her shoulder.

She coughed and struggled to speak, "When will this back-and-forth of revenge stop? Let me go, and let yourself go, okay? We’ve already turned over a new leaf, isn’t Gui Xiang alive and well? And you, we haven’t burdened you anymore, you married into a family everyone’s jealous of. This time, I’m truly happy for you."

Hearing this, Lin Yufan couldn’t help but scoff, "You’ve reformed, and you’re genuinely happy for me?"

"Truly happy for you. I mean it." Jian Suzhen tried hard to sit up, anxious, still worried about her child.

The more anxious she was, the more Lin Yufan dragged it out: "That day, I brought you a bowl of sour plum soup. You were scared it was poisoned and wouldn’t touch it, then you gave it to the new daughter-in-law of the eldest family. How heartless can you be? Anyone with a shred of decency wouldn’t do something like that, right? If you were really afraid it was poisoned and didn’t dare to drink it, you could’ve just dumped it. If you really wanted to know if the soup was poisoned, there were plenty of ways, no need to have someone else test it for you. But what did you do? You gave it to the new daughter-in-law who had just entered your family and had no grudge against you. Wasn’t this just a way to pin it on me if it was poisoned?"

Jian Suzhen, whose inner thoughts were exposed by Lin Yufan, swallowed hard, "I didn’t think it through at the time."

"Didn’t think it through and still harmed others? Then you’re just pure evil! You deserve to be cut into pieces; death’s too good for you!"

Cut into pieces; death’s too good for you!

Jian Suzhen’s head was buzzing, she quickly shifted the blame to Zhao Mingjie: "It was Dong Geer who decided to give it to the new daughter-in-law, I didn’t react at the time."

Lin Yufan couldn’t help but laugh: "You and Zhao Mingjie are two peas in a pod, a pair of living turtles! Clearly it was your decision, how did it become Zhao Mingjie’s idea? Do you really think there are no ears on the walls?"

Jian Suzhen looked at Lin Yufan and suddenly realized that since their rebirth, Lin Yufan had been secretly watching them.

Like a lioness stalking her prey.

Jian Suzhen was terrified and dared not argue anymore.

Lin Yufan continued slowly, "They say actions speak louder than intentions, but not only are your intentions bad, your actions are worse. You tried every way to persuade me to marry Zhao Ding, why? Oh, you said Zhao Ding is honest and kind! A drunk who beats his wife, even when she’s recovering from childbirth, is honest and kind? You just wanted Zhao Ding to torment me to death, didn’t you?"

"I didn't know he beat his wife! I really didn't know," Jian Suzhen feebly protested.

"Zhao Ding's second aunt is your cousin, how could you not have known? Oh, you even had your cousin, Second Madam Li, spread gossip about me, calling me a husband-and-child-killing curse, trying to ruin my marriage. You didn't want to see me marry Zhao Zhiao, you didn't want to see me thrive. Is this what you call being genuinely happy for me? You wish I were dead!" Lin Yufan saw right through her dirty tricks.

Jian Suzhen was left speechless.

Lin Yufan harbored such deep resentment towards her that Jian Suzhen knew she probably wouldn't make it out alive.

But she was unwilling.

After rebirth, how could she still end up dying at her hands?

And her child, her son was innocent. Thinking about it, Jian Suzhen broke down sobbing.

Suddenly, it hit her, recalling Zhao Mingjie's previous suspicions, and the report in the Guangming Daily that had dragged their family down, written by someone named Si Mu.

"Are you Si Mu?"

Jian Suzhen wasn't completely clueless.

Lin Yufan neither admitted nor denied, "What do you think?"

"It's you. Your name has four 'wood' characters, I should have guessed earlier! So... so it was you who got the eldest and the third arrested?" Jian Suzhen became agitated.

Lin Yufan smiled slightly, "They won't just be arrested, they're sure to be executed, and the Second Branch raided. How clever you are, grabbing your gold bars and running off in the night."

Jian Suzhen sniffled, her nose red from crying. At this point, she couldn't care less about what happened to the third one, "Spare me, spare my son. I've lived a good life, prayed for you, wished you a long life. By the way, don't you want to know why Zhao Zhiao died? I can spill everything I know, as long as you let us live."

"Go on."

Jian Suzhen shook her head, "If I tell you, you'll kill me."

She couldn't say it now.

This could be her only way out.

"If you tell me, I can ensure both your sons live well, unharmed. If you don't, then your whole family will be heading to the grave together."

Of course, Jian Suzhen wanted to save her sons' lives, but she didn't want to die either.

"Spare me. Take all my money, spare me, the kids are still so little, they can't be without their mother." Jian Suzhen cried and fought like crazy, but it was no use.

Lin Yufan glanced at her watch, "Time's almost up. If I don't return soon, your son's life will be over."

Hearing that time was almost up, Jian Suzhen freaked out.

Regarding Zhao Zhiao's death, Jian Suzhen actually didn't know much.

It was all just gossip from the third one, not reliable.

"It was their own people who killed Zhao Zhiao and his brother."

"You already said that this morning, but you didn't clarify, who are their own people? What do you mean by their own people killing the two brothers?"

Jian Suzhen shook her head slightly, "It could be business partners, or it could be people from their own Fifth Branch. That's what the third one told me, he said it was their own people. Anyway, in the end, both Zhao Zhiao and Zhao Lixiang died, and Zhao Zhiao's assets were split three ways: a man surnamed Xiong who was his business partner, Zhao Zhiao's Second Uncle, and another official."

Lin Yufan immediately knew that Jian Suzhen's knowledge was limited, "Where did you hear this from?"

"The third one heard it from someone else. It's said that Zhao Zhiao's Second Uncle won money at the casino, got drunk, and spilled the beans."

Lin Yufan shook her head: "That’s it?"

In fact, this was all Jian Suzhen knew. She’s just a housewife—how would she know the truth?

But Jian Suzhen had a sudden thought to save herself.

"For old times’ sake, Yufan, spare me, spare Ping Geer and Dong Geer, please. Let us go, and when I reach a safe place, I’ll write to you and tell you the whole truth."

Lin Yufan stared at her, the smile fading from her face. "Even now, you’re still bargaining, trying to buy time..."

"You don’t want to end up a widow again, right? If you spare us, I’ll definitely tell you the whole truth. Zhao Zhiao doesn’t have to die, and you can live in luxury for the rest of your life. If I dare to lie to you, your husband Zhao Zhiao is so capable, he can find me anywhere in the world. I know I can’t escape—I’m not that naive." Jian Suzhen spoke quickly and urgently to save herself. "I know my limits."

"I don’t think you have a clue."

"Do you not want Zhao Zhiao to live at all? Do you think that if he dies, you can inherit his estate? That’s impossible. You’re a childless woman—you’ll never inherit Zhao Zhiao’s estate. You’ll never outsmart them." Jian Suzhen said through gritted teeth, "You’ll never outsmart them."

Lin Yufan looked at her coldly: "Seems like your sons don’t mean much to you."

"No! No! They’re everything to me. They’re my life. Please, don’t hurt them. They’re just kids—they don’t understand any of this. Actually... actually, I’ve already told you everything I know. The man surnamed Xiong, Zhao Zhiao’s Second Uncle, and another official, these three people, they are not good people. This is all you need to protect yourself. Please, spare the two children."

Lin Yufan glanced at her watch again, a hint of regret in her voice: "It’s too late now—there’s no turning back."

"What’s too late?" Jian Suzhen said frantically, tears and snot streaming down her face. "You’re their aunt—how can you do this to them?"

The flashlight’s dim light shone on Jian Suzhen’s face, her mud-streaked face contorted in terror.

"Please! Please spare them. I only have two sons, please..." Jian Suzhen, bound hand and foot, writhed like a trapped animal, crying as she tried to get closer to Lin Yufan.

Lin Yufan looked down at Jian Suzhen’s pitiful state, a flicker of pity stirred in her.

But recalling everything, this woman didn’t deserve her sympathy.

Lin Yufan finally gritted her teeth and repeated: "It’s too late. My Fifth Brother called in the Green Gang, you know how ruthless they are. I told you, dragging this out would only cost your sons’ lives. Unfortunately, for your own survival, you kept lying, making outrageous demands, stalling for time. Now, there’s nothing I can do. You’ve doomed Ping Geer and Dong Geer. Because of your selfishness."

"No! It can’t be! Ping Geer and Dong Geer won’t die!" Jian Suzhen screamed hysterically.

"I never intended to kill you from the start. I just wanted you to suffer. How can I make you suffer? By taking what matters most to you. Besides money, it’s probably your two sons."

"Lin Yufan! You bitch! You’ll get what’s coming to you!"

Lin Yufan sneered: "Now it’s your turn to suffer."

Afraid that Jian Suzhen’s screams would attract nearby villagers, and tired of hearing her voice, Lin Yufan picked up a cloth from the ground and tried to stuff it into Jian Suzhen’s mouth.

"I’ll kill you!" Jian Suzhen’s eyes were red with rage, and even bound, she somehow lunged at Lin Yufan.

Lin Yufan stepped back, and Lin Yuwu, who was not far away, reacted quickly. He rushed over and kicked Jian Suzhen hard.

Thud!

Jian Suzhen’s head hit a rock.

Suddenly, everything was quiet.

Only the rustling of bamboo leaves and the croaking of frogs from the pond could be heard.

Jian Suzhen lay motionless on the ground, blood flowing from her head.

Was she really dead?

Lin Yuwu was about to step forward to check when he suddenly saw Jian Suzhen shakily raise her head.

Jian Suzhen looked at Lin Yuwu and whimpered, "Dad! My head hurts!"

Lin Yuwu: "!"

"Dad, I'm hungry. I want those osmanthus rice balls. You said... you said you would buy them for me."

Lin Yuwu cursed, "What the hell! Who’s your dad? Don't call me that!"

Jian Suzhen looked at Lin Yufan, pleadingly, "Grandma, I didn't steal the food, don't hit me. Grandma!"

Lin Yufan: "!"

Tie Long, who was keeping watch over the fields, also ran over.

Jian Suzhen squirmed like a worm, "I gotta poop."

Tie Long widened his eyes and shouted, "Third Madam, what's wrong with you?"

"I gotta poop. I gotta poop."

They had planned to drive Jian Suzhen crazy, but they didn't expect that halfway through the plan, she would already be acting strange.

Lin Yuwu tested her with, "Jian Suzhen. Your son isn't dead. If you keep this up, I’ll kill your son the moment I get back."

Jian Suzhen's eyes were completely blank, "Dad, I'm a girl, not a boy. I gotta poop! Poop!"

"Your son isn't dead, they're at your cousin's house."

"I gotta poop!"

Lin Yuwu stared at her and said, "Listen! If you don’t stop, I'll bury you alive later!"

He gave her another kick.

"I’m pooping... Dad..."

Tie Long turned back to look at Lin Yufan, confused, "First Madam..."