Qin Wenying, who had been listening from the side, frowned deeply.
“Your son has already passed out from the pain. If you don’t hurry and get him transferred now, it’ll be too late to make a scene if something happens.”
Only after hearing that her son had fainted did Granny Tan finally stop arguing. She hurried over to the nurse on duty and started shouting.
“Take my son to the county hospital right now! He can’t wait!”
The nurse had already endured a stream of abuse from Youngest Uncle Lin while trying to stop his bleeding. Seeing Granny Tan now, she could only look helpless.
“Ma’am, we’ve already sent someone to get a vehicle. As soon as it arrives, we’ll take him to the county hospital for surgery,” the nurse explained patiently.
But Granny Tan kept grabbing her arm and urging her over and over.
“When will it get here? My son has already fainted from the pain! Did you do something wrong? If anything happens to him, you won’t be able to afford the consequences!”
Just watching made Qin Wenying’s head ache.
She turned to Lin Qimo.
“Does your village actually have a vehicle?”
She was genuinely worried that if no vehicle showed up, the noisy old woman would never stop causing trouble.
“We have a tractor,” Lin Qimo explained while leaning back against a chair. “People use it when they go to market or deliver grain. I also saw the nurse send a telegram earlier.”
She continued,
“Once the county hospital receives the telegram, they’ll send people to pick him up. Transferring patients on the road happens all the time. Medical conditions here are limited. If my uncle were hauled all the way to the city by tractor, he’d probably be finished before he got there.”
Privately, she hoped his finger couldn’t be reattached.
Maybe then he’d learn a lesson.
Seeing how calm Lin Qimo appeared, Qin Wenying felt a complicated mixture of emotions.
More than anything, she felt sorry for her.
“I never imagined your family situation was like this,” she said gently. “Don’t worry. Your brother-in-law used to be a military doctor when he was younger. As long as he’s here, your sister will be fine.”
Lin Qimo nodded.
She would be lying if she said she wasn’t worried.
What she couldn’t understand was why events were unfolding so differently from what she remembered.
She couldn’t stop wondering whether her younger sister had been harmed because she herself hadn’t followed the path of her previous life.
Suddenly, a thought struck her.
She jumped to her feet.
“Sister Ying, please watch things here for me. I’ll be back soon.”
Qin Wenying was startled by her sudden reaction.
She reached out instinctively, but grabbed nothing but air.
Lin Qimo was already gone.
She ran all the way home.
She searched the house three times, inside and out.
Neither of her two younger sisters was there.
It wasn’t until their neighbor, Zhang Chunhua, spotted her that she finally got some answers.
Pulling her over to a corner by the wall, Zhang Chunhua lowered her voice.
“Stop looking. Your Little Bao was taken away by your second uncle. I saw him leave several days ago, and he still hasn’t come back.”
“And your Doudou your aunt took her to the county yesterday morning. She said she needed someone to cook for her where she works. Your Doudou has always been smart and hardworking, so people like her.”
Lin Qimo’s brows knitted together.
“Your aunt wants to become a rich man’s wife so badly she’s gone crazy,” Zhang Chunhua whispered. “I think she’s copying city people. She can’t afford a servant, so she simply tricked Doudou into going with her.”
Then she added another shocking piece of information.
“I asked your second uncle about Little Bao. He wants to trade him to another family and get a son in return someone who can support him in old age and handle his funeral arrangements.”
“You tell me, why go through all that trouble? If I marry him, it’s not like I can’t have children.”
Lin Qimo was still processing those astonishing words when a furious roar erupted behind them.
“Mom! What are you doing now?”
Turning around, she froze.
The speaker was Zhang Chunhua’s son, Gou Dan.
Muttering curses, he strode over and grabbed his mother.
“I’ve told you a hundred times to stay away from the Lin family! That whole family is nothing but troublemakers. There’s never a peaceful day around them. Why are you sticking your nose into their business?”
“You’re fifty years old already! Why do you keep hanging around that drifter Lin Lao’er? Have you no shame? Because I still do!”
“Son, don’t talk nonsense,” Zhang Chunhua replied shyly. “He’s different with me.”
Gou Dan nearly exploded.
“He only wants our money! If I weren’t bringing home fifty yuan a month from the factory, do you think he’d even look at you?”
Zhang Chunhua disagreed.
“What about Widow Gong from the next production team? Her son is just as successful as you are. Why doesn’t Lin Lao’er go after her?”
“My dear mother, wake up!” Gou Dan cried. “If he doesn’t want our money, then what? Does he like you because you’re old? You’ve already got gray hair!”
He sighed heavily, completely exasperated.
“Nonsense. Lao’er told me he likes women with quiet personalities.”
Even listening to the conversation made Lin Qimo speechless.
In her previous life, her wandering second uncle had indeed had a relationship with Zhang Chunhua.
The whole village had known about it.
Whether they eventually stayed together, she didn’t know she had already married and moved away by then.
But among all the production teams nearby, anyone who could be taken advantage of had already been taken advantage of by Lin Lao’er.
Women in their fifties, like Zhang Chunhua.
Young girls who had only just reached marriageable age.
Many had fallen victim to his lies and manipulation.
To put it bluntly, Lin Lao’er was a man who lived off women.
Over time, his reputation became so bad that no respectable family wanted to marry their daughters to him.
So he turned his attention elsewhere.
He planned to trade away Little Bao.
In exchange, he hoped to obtain a son who could support him in old age and care for him after death.
When Lin Qimo returned to the clinic, Youngest Uncle Lin and the others had already left.
Seeing how distraught she looked, Qin Wenying became concerned.
“Little sister, what’s wrong?”
“My second uncle took Little Bao away. I don’t know who he traded him to. I’m really worried about him.”
At first Qin Wenying didn’t understand.
But after Lin Qimo explained the situation, she immediately burst out,
“What kind of bastards are these people?! How can something like this even happen?”
She had heard of adoption before.
But exchanging children like livestock?
That was a first.