On the other side, Xia Mingyu had already returned to the brigade with Yuan Yuan and Lu Ning.
The people in the team did not yet know what had happened. When they saw Xia Mingyu returning with a man in military uniform, they assumed he was Qiao Hongye’s comrade, so they simply greeted them politely without paying much attention.
However, when they reached the Qiao family home, Li Zhaodi—who could no longer endure the foul smell and had crawled out to the courtyard—saw Xia Mingyu holding Yuan Yuan and walking in with Lu Ning. The three of them looked like a family of three.
Li Zhaodi immediately erupted in rage, her eyes burning with fury as she started cursing loudly.
“You shameless woman! Where did you go to hook up with men?! Are you trying to cuckold my son?!”
“You even abused your mother-in-law! Believe it or not, I’ll have my son beat you to death!”
“You rotten woman!!!”
Li Zhaodi’s mouth was like a telegraph machine, firing out endless beeping curses, each sentence more vulgar than the last.
Xia Mingyu had already anticipated this. She quickly covered Yuan Yuan’s ears so he wouldn’t hear the filthy insults.
Lu Ning, however, was completely unprepared. Faced with such vicious and filthy words, his mind went blank.
Good heavens—what kind of miserable life had Xia Mingyu been living all these years?
This wasn’t a mother-in-law; calling her a vengeful ghost would already be flattering her.
Twisted face, vicious words—more terrifying than a ghost.
“Shut up!”
“Speaking so viciously—aren’t you afraid of retribution?!”
Lu Ning couldn’t help but shout at Li Zhaodi, standing up for Xia Mingyu.
Seeing this, Li Zhaodi became even more certain that the two of them were having an affair.
Her eyebrows shot up as she cursed even harder.
“You bastard! Who do you think you are to speak here?!”
“You dare show up here as a lover? Believe it or not, I’ll have my son shoot you dead! You filthy—”
While cursing, she grabbed a water scoop beside her and threw it at them, as if she wanted to smash both Xia Mingyu and Lu Ning to death.
If her lower body hadn’t been paralyzed, she would have already rushed over to fight.
Her frantic shouting attracted nearby neighbors.
Xia Mingyu stepped forward and raised her hand, signaling Lu Ning and the neighbors to remain silent.
“Are you done talking?”
“If you’re done, then it’s my turn.”
“I want everyone here to hear exactly what your son has done! Li Zhaodi, I’ve endured you for five years. From today onward, I will never endure you again!”
“Your son is the real beast—completely heartless! Without me, let’s see who will take care of you. You can just rot to death in that house!”
Xia Mingyu let out a cold laugh, staring directly at Li Zhaodi with sharp eyes, finally releasing all the pent-up emotions from years of suppression.
“Hey! Mingyu… you can speak now!”
The neighbors and Li Zhaodi were both stunned by her words.
They were shocked that she could speak, and even more shocked that she dared to curse Li Zhaodi back.
It seemed like the situation was about to change.
Sensing the storm brewing, the neighbors watched quietly, curious about what she would say next.
Only Li Zhaodi panicked. She and her son knew very well what they had done.
Even though she didn’t know why Xia Mingyu could suddenly speak, if she exposed everything, the Qiao family’s reputation would be ruined.
“Shut up! You wretched woman!”
“Don’t you dare slander us—”
But Xia Mingyu no longer intended to endure her.
Ignoring her completely, she turned to the villagers.
“Everyone knows I married into the Qiao family five years ago. My father was seriously ill at that time. The day after I married in, my father passed away. Qiao Hongye didn’t even attend his funeral and immediately went to join the army.”
“He didn’t return once in five years, didn’t send a single penny. I raised the children and took care of Li Zhaodi all alone. Everyone here knows what kind of heartless man he is.”
“I thought he was only heartless—but I didn’t expect he was a beast!”
“Back then, he wasn’t qualified to join the army. In order to make my father pull strings for him, he pushed me into a river, then rescued me himself, and had people spread rumors so I had no choice but to marry him.”
Xia Mingyu paused, then decided to reveal everything.
“I believed he would at least treat me properly after marriage—but from the very beginning, he never treated me like a human being!”
“On our wedding night, the person who entered the bridal room wasn’t him! I don’t even know who he sold me to!”
“I was drugged and had no idea what happened! I thought the children were his, so I devoted myself to raising them and taking care of Li Zhaodi for five years. No matter how she abused me, I endured it!”
“But Qiao Hongye knew from the beginning that the children were not his! He used me to take care of his mother, and now, for his own future, he even sent my child away to please his superiors!”
“If he hadn’t sent my child away, I would never have known the truth until my death!”
“What kind of beast are you calling us? Who among you ever treated me like a human being?!”
Her voice rang out sharply as she exposed everything Qiao Hongye had done.
Then she looked at Li Zhaodi with cold contempt.
“If the child were his, it would be harder for me to report him. But since the child isn’t his—then Qiao Hongye is a trafficker!”
“Li Zhaodi, your precious son has already been arrested by the police! Let’s see how a trafficker can still be an officer!”
“I’m divorcing him! I will raise my two children myself, and I’ll wait to see your retribution!”
“I curse both of you—evil will be repaid with evil, and you will not die well!”
She finished loudly, eyes sharp as blades.
Then she picked up the water scoop Li Zhaodi had thrown and smashed it hard under her foot, as if crushing Li Zhaodi herself.
Li Zhaodi shuddered, her face turning ashen.
“You… you’re lying…”
But Lu Ning stepped forward and testified.
“I can prove everything she said is true!”
“Qiao Hongye has already been arrested in Beijing for trafficking the child. But don’t worry—the child has been found by my leader, and will be sent back tomorrow.”
“People like Qiao Hongye—heartless beasts who don’t treat humans as humans—will never escape justice!”
The crowd immediately erupted.
“What?! He’s a beast!”
“I can’t believe such a disgusting person exists in our team!”
“Have the team leader expel them! We cannot keep this kind of scum here!”
Everyone became furious, demanding that Qiao Hongye and his mother be removed from the brigade.