When the onlookers heard Shen Shengchang’s words, they grew afraid that one day their own homes might be raided for no reason. One after another, they began to criticize Shen Shujiao and speak up on Shen Shengchang’s behalf.
“Shen Shujiao, heaven is watching everything people do. If you commit heartless, inhumane deeds in this world, it will affect your parents’ reincarnation.”
“Shen Shengchang has been our neighbor for many years. He’s kind and honest—there’s no way he’d collude with foreign forces. We won’t allow you Red Armband people to arrest someone at will.”
“That’s right. Just because of a single letter, you say Shen Shengchang colluded with overseas forces? Then in the future, if you Red Armbands want to come after us, would a single letter be enough? We don’t agree to you ransacking Shen Shengchang’s home.”
“……”
With someone taking the lead, the others quickly echoed in agreement. For a moment, the air was filled with protests.
“Everyone, please calm down and let me say a few words,” Shen Shujiao said to the crowd.
But emotions were running high, and no one listened. Seeing this, Li Changzhu fired a warning shot into the air.
The gunshot rang out, and only then did the crowd quiet down.
“Uncle, search your conscience—did you really treat me as your own daughter? Was bringing me to Shen Garden truly not for my parents’ trading firm and property?” Shen Shujiao asked, her eyes red.
Her gaze carried an oppressive intensity. Faced with this Shen Shujiao who seemed like a completely different person, Shen Shengchang didn’t quite dare meet her eyes.
“Of course. After your parents passed away and your elder sister married far away, I pitied you, a lone orphan, afraid you’d be bullied. That’s why I brought you to live at Shen Garden. In my heart, I’ve always loved you like my own daughter. I never coveted your family’s assets,” Shen Shengchang answered loudly, forcing himself to remain calm and showing no sign of guilt.
After all, no one could dig out his heart to prove that he’d taken Shen Shujiao in because he wanted to swallow her family whole.
Shen Shujiao didn’t question Shen Shengchang any further. Instead, she walked over to Shen Xueman. Their gazes met, a silent clash filled with meanings only the two of them understood.
“Shen Shujiao, how many years were you a wandering ghost?”
In a voice only Shen Shujiao could hear, Shen Xueman mocked her.
Shen Shujiao froze.
If Shen Xueman were merely a transmigrator who had just entered the book, and had never killed her before, she would never think of her as having once been a ghost.
For Shen Xueman to ask this, there was only one possibility—she, too, had been reborn.
After Huo Zhoubai was sent down, Shen Shujiao’s soul had remained by his side. She didn’t know what happened to Shen Xueman afterward.
Could it be that even as a transmigrator from decades later, someone who knew the future plot, Shen Xueman hadn’t lived well in this world either?
“Shen Xueman, you say the child in my belly is a bastard—do you have any evidence?” Shen Shujiao pretended not to hear Shen Xueman’s words and asked coldly.
“I never said you were pregnant with some wild man’s bastard. You were the one who personally told me you were carrying a wild man’s child. If you say the child in your belly isn’t a bastard, then do you have proof of which man the child belongs to?” Shen Xueman curled her lips into a faint, triumphant sneer.
Huo Zhoubai was far away in the capital, under the watch of the investigation team. There was no way he could come back to help Shen Shujiao.
As long as she made good use of public opinion today, without solid evidence, the Red Armbands might not be able to take them away.
As long as she had time to escape, she was confident she wouldn’t be caught.
“Jiaojiao, stop covering up for the bastard in your belly. In today’s society, giving birth to a child without a father—people’s spit alone could drown you. We were thinking of your future, so you could remarry a good man. That’s why we took you to a black clinic to abort the child. How could you bear a grudge over this and write a forged letter to report us?” Shen Shengchang said with an expression of deep pain.
Shen Shujiao looked sorrowful and heartbroken. “You keep saying you treat me like your own daughter, yet in front of everyone you call the father a ‘wild man’ and the child a ‘bastard.’ What kind of biological parents would say their daughter was pregnant with a wild man’s child in front of outsiders? You’ve ruined my reputation—have you ever thought about how I’m supposed to face these people in the future? Parents who truly love their child would try to hide a pregnancy at all costs. How could they possibly announce it in public?”
Shen Shengchang’s face stiffened, but he quickly regained his composure. “You reported us—how could we possibly still cover up the ugly things you did? You were unjust to us first; only then were we heartless afterward.”
“No one is a sage—who can be without fault? I only wanted to leave a bloodline for my beloved who went to the battlefield. What did I do wrong?” Shen Shujiao said, choking back sobs.
“Went to the battlefield? Shen Shujiao, did you marry a soldier? When did you get married?” someone in the crowd asked in shock.
This chapter ends here (please click the next chapter to continue reading).