Li Gensheng was wearing his usual black jacket.
His face was ashen, and his eyes, slack like pine bark, drooped downward.
He looked like a corpse that had just climbed out of a coffin.
“A ghost!” someone in the crowd shouted.
Immediately, everyone else panicked.
They instinctively threw whatever they were holding.
Outside, Qin Huai saw this and, ignoring everything else, hurriedly went forward to pull Li Qiuyue away from the stones being thrown in front of her, preventing her from being accidentally hit.
His large hands were strong and powerful, his movements swift, leaving Li Qiuyue no time to resist.
“What are you doing here?” Li Qiuyue asked him instead.
Qin Huai was left speechless.
At that moment, a shoe flew past. Without even looking, he lifted his hand and swatted it away.
It had to be said this move did look pretty cool.
Li Qiuyue cleared her throat. “You should go home. If things get chaotic, I won’t be able to protect you.”
“Well, then I really should thank you!” Qin Huai squeezed the words out through his teeth.
Li Qiuyue nodded, accepting his thanks.
As long as she didn’t understand, any sarcastic remarks wouldn’t catch up to her.
Meanwhile, Li Gensheng had already shut the main door of the house from the beginning.
Inside, he shouted, “Stop throwing! I’m human! I’m not dead!”
He shouted for a long while, but with everyone busy looking for their shoes and hats that had been thrown, no one paid attention to what he was.
Finally, Li Gensheng quietly cracked open the door and peeked outside.
He immediately saw Li Qiuyue tossing a stone up and down in her hand.
When Li Qiuyue met his gaze, she raised an eyebrow and made a throwing gesture, scaring Li Gensheng into slamming the door shut.
He let out a hoarse yell, “Li Qiuyue, what are you going crazy for again?!”
In response, another round of unified cries of “Uncle Gensheng, rest in peace!” erupted.
Li Gensheng was furious but still dared not open the door.
He waited until Liu Jinhua had dressed and come out of the house, then let her go open the door.
By now, daylight had broken, and more and more onlookers had gathered.
Everyone finally realized that this “funeral hall” had been set up by Li Qiuyue in the middle of the night yesterday, and that Li Gensheng and Liu Jinhua were still alive.
This time, Li Qiuyue didn’t scare him anymore.
Liu Jinhua placed her hands on her hips, seething. “Li Qiuyue, are you trying to get yourself killed?”
“What? You went to my house the day before yesterday to demand my betrothal money in advance, yesterday to demand my inheritance in advance, but I’m not allowed to come today to demand a funeral in advance?” Li Qiuyue sneered.
Li Gensheng and Liu Jinhua exchanged a glance, words sticking in their throats.
But being the type to argue even when wrong, they could never admit fault.
Liu Jinhua raised her voice, “This isn’t the same! We asked for betrothal money and inheritance from you, but we won’t ask again in the future.”
“We’re not dead yet. Now that you’ve held this funeral, does that mean you won’t give your parents a funeral when they die?” she shouted, exasperated.
The words “parents” were pronounced with heavy emphasis, carrying an implicit threat.
In the countryside, familial ties were especially important.
If someone refused to hold a funeral for their own parents, people would gossip and criticize them for a lifetime.
Unfortunately, Li Qiuyue feared gossip the least.
Moreover, after finishing what she had to do, she would leave with Zhaozhao.
When Li Gensheng and Liu Jinhua died, who knew where she would be!
She naturally didn’t share her private plans with them, merely nodded toward Liu Jinhua, saying matter-of-factly, “I’ve already held a funeral for my parents. What other parents do I need?”
“What do you mean by that?” Li Gensheng couldn’t help asking.
Li Qiuyue’s voice was loud and resolute: “I mean we’re cutting ties.”
In fact, ever since she had been kicked out of the Li family, Li Qiuyue had felt no connection to them.
She just hadn’t expected the Li family to be so shameless that they would do anything for money.
“I want you to sign a document officially cutting ties, with the village chief and family elders as witnesses, and finally publish it in the newspaper so everyone knows we are no longer related.”
She spoke with determination.
Her words stunned everyone, including Qin Huai.
So when Li Qiuyue said she would deal with the Li family, she meant cutting ties?
For Zhaozhao a child not even her own she went this far?
“Li Qiuyue, I raised you all these years, and this is how you repay me?” Li Gensheng shouted in anger.
In the past, it might have been tolerated, but now Li Qiuyue not only had her wonton stall but also a thousand yuan in betrothal money!
Li Qiuyue, however, seemed to have heard a hilarious joke. “You raised me? Did you ever give me a penny? Or even a single bun?”
At least Liu Jinhua had given her clothes that Li Erni didn’t want, but Li Gensheng only ever beat or scolded her.
If Li Gensheng were truly a scoundrel, she might have simply hated him.
But he had genuinely treated Li Erni well.
It left her constantly questioning: did she do something wrong?
She had always wondered, “If you didn’t want to raise me, why even have me in the first place?”
Li Qiuyue looked at Li Gensheng curiously, as if inquiring about someone else’s affairs.
But Qin Huai keenly caught a hint of a choked-up tone in her voice.
It was fleeting, almost like an illusion.
He felt he should step forward and stand by Li Qiuyue.
Acting on impulse, he did just that.
Even before he fully realized it himself, he grasped Li Qiuyue’s trembling hand.
Li Qiuyue glanced at him, seeming puzzled.
Yet she didn’t resist.
Li Gensheng didn’t answer Li Qiuyue’s question but instead turned his gaze to Qin Huai.
“Qin Huai, you soldiers, educated and sensible, you wouldn’t let your wife do something that severs ties with her parents, would you?” he said, half-flattering, half-threatening.
Qin Huai’s expression remained cold. “I speak only for myself: I support Li Qiuyue.”
“So you’ll just watch her become ungrateful?” Liu Jinhua objected.
“Isn’t her current attitude toward you precisely because you forced her into this?” Qin Huai countered.
He looked at Li Qiuyue. “Escaping those who torment you is not wrong.”
“Protecting yourself by the right means is not wrong,” he said to everyone, his voice resonant.
In that moment, Li Qiuyue’s drifting heart seemed to finally settle.
She realized she truly wasn’t at fault.
That her parents didn’t love her was not her fault.
Not just Li Qiuyue others were moved by Qin Huai’s words as well.
Some scoffed, thinking Qin Huai was boasting.
Some agreed, thinking his words were right.
A few women, quietly worn down by their in-laws, wiped away tears.
Seeing the situation turn, Li Gensheng quickly spoke up: “No matter what, we cannot sever ties!”
“A daughter may be heartless, but we, as parents, cannot be unjust. Even if the sky fell today, I still won’t agree!” he riled others up.
Although these people knew about the Li family’s treatment of Li Qiuyue, most were neighbors of Li Gensheng and naturally sided with him.
“No one in the world just abandons their parents.”
“Even if they’re bad to you, they gave you life! How can you just sever ties?”
Everyone was comfortable saying this while standing there.
It pulled Li Qiuyue out of her own thoughts.
She wasn’t fazed by their criticism or opposition; instead, she laughed.
Looking at Li Gensheng, she asked one last time: “Do you really refuse to sever ties?”