After hearing her daughter’s words, Mother Zhao felt that they made some sense. The panic in her heart eased slightly. However, Lin Siya still had not woken up, and fear slowly crept back in. If others found out, they would say that the Zhao family had driven their daughter in law to death. How would that affect her own daughter’s chances of marriage in the future? And if the Lin family came knocking, how were she and her daughter supposed to deal with them?
There was also her son. If he found out that something had happened to his wife, no one knew what he might do.
“Lin Siya, get up. Get up,” Zhao Meiyun said loudly, convinced that Lin Siya was pretending and trying to threaten them with death.
But no matter how long she shouted, there was still no response. At that moment, both mother and daughter truly panicked.
Zhao Meiyun cautiously reached out and placed her hand near Lin Siya’s philtrum. Before she even touched it, she screamed in fright.
“Xiao Yun, Xiao Yun, she did not really die, did she?” Mother Zhao grew anxious as well.
If anything truly happened to Lin Siya, her husband would never forgive them. The Lin family would also come looking for trouble. And how were they supposed to explain this to their son?
The more she thought about it, the more she felt that Lin Siya was a jinx. The Zhao family had spent a large sum to marry her into the household, yet she dared to talk back to her as a mother in law. Now she had even spoken to a strange man. Where did that leave her son?
Zhao Meiyun tried checking again. It still felt as though there was no breath. Her face turned pale as she collapsed onto the ground, stammering in terror, “It seems like she is not breathing anymore. Mom, what do we do, what do we do?”
No matter what, Zhao Meiyun was only seventeen or eighteen years old. She had never imagined that after just saying a few harsh words, Lin Siya would seek death and collapse in their home. It was simply too much.
“Call someone!” Mother Zhao panicked as well and immediately ran to the production team to fetch her husband. She had only nagged a little. She never expected Lin Siya to be so extreme, to lose her reason and drink poison to kill herself.
Zhao Meiyun was truly terrified. Hearing her mother say this, she did not want to stay in the house guarding Lin Siya’s body. She bolted away without a second thought.
No one noticed that something unbelievable had happened.
A streak of white light shot straight down from the roof of Lin Siya’s room.
When Mother Zhao hurriedly brought Father Zhao back and stammered through what had happened, Father Zhao was so furious that he nearly struck her. If Lin Siya had truly died, how would he ever face the Lin family, or his own son?
He no longer cared about propriety or avoiding suspicion. He rushed into his son and daughter in law’s room. Seeing Lin Siya lying motionless on the ground, he hurried forward and checked her breathing. When he sensed a faint trace of breath, he finally let out a long sigh of relief.
“What are you standing there for? Hurry up and help carry her to the clinic,” Father Zhao shouted at Mother Zhao, who was frozen at the doorway.
Mother Zhao wilted instantly. She hurried over and helped support Lin Siya on Father Zhao’s back. The two of them rushed toward the village clinic.
This scene quickly became the talk of the village.
“What happened to the Zhao family’s daughter in law?”
“I heard Wang Cuihua scolded her daughter in law, and she could not take it and did something foolish.”
“If the Lin family finds out, who knows what will happen?”
“That Zhao family daughter in law is a high school graduate.”
“Sigh, Wang Cuihua has committed a terrible sin.”
Some watched eagerly for drama, some spoke with sarcasm, and others felt pity.
The production team leader glared at the women and shouted, “Are you all that idle?”
The crowd scattered at once.
The production team leader sighed. How could he not know about the Zhao family and the Lin family? The Linjia Village was not far away. This news would probably reach them very soon.
He had heard that Zhao Tianlei was now a company commander in the army. As for the Lin family, they had been itinerant doctors for generations. Back then, when his own son had a high fever, it was only after carrying him to the Lin family that his life had been saved.
Now, this situation was truly difficult.
Father Zhao and Mother Zhao hurriedly hitched a ride on an ox cart and rushed toward the town.
Mother Zhao was unwilling to spend money. Spending money felt like cutting her own flesh. But her husband kept staring at her, and Lin Siya’s condition was indeed caused by her sharp tongue.
As for Zhao Meiyun, she had already hidden herself elsewhere. Whether Lin Siya lived or died had nothing to do with her, not even a single cent.
Once they arrived in town and saw the doctor, they were told there was no hope and to prepare for the funeral.
Those words froze Mother Zhao where she stood.
Father Zhao’s aged eyes were bloodshot. His daughter in law had met with disaster, and he did not know how to explain it to the Lin family, nor how to face his cold hearted son.
“You stay here. I am going to send a telegram to our son.”
“Old man, old man,” Mother Zhao tried to stop him, but in the end swallowed her words. If their son found out that she and her daughter had driven his wife to this state, no one knew how he would treat them.
She had known since he was young that this son of hers did not like socializing and always kept a cold face. After joining the army, he had become even colder.
Mother Zhao looked at Lin Siya lying on the ox cart with her eyes tightly shut, her face full of worry.
The one driving the ox cart was Liu the Lame, a villager. Living in the same village, how could he not know Wang Cuihua’s temper? It was surely because of those two hundred yuan in betrothal money. Now it had driven the daughter in law to drink pesticide. The people from Linjia Village would surely hear about this soon.
He knew Zhao Tianlei well. That boy had always worn a cold expression since childhood and spoke little. After joining the army, he became even more aloof. But people like him, once treated sincerely, would repay it tenfold.
Father Zhao returned quickly after sending the telegram, and they soon headed back toward Zhaojia Village.
“My daughter, Xiao Ya, Xiao Ya, Xiao Ya, what happened to you, what happened to you?” Before they even reached the village, a middle aged woman rushed over and threw herself onto Lin Siya, shaking her desperately. Yet Lin Siya, lying on the ox cart, did not move at all.
A pair of father and son who looked about seventy percent alike followed closely behind her.
“Wang Cuihua, I will fight you to the death. My Xiao Ya has only been married into your family for a short time, and you already forced her to drink pesticide. Wang Cuihua!”
An enraged person’s strength was unimaginable. Mother Zhao was already feeling guilty and completely unprepared. When Mother Lin lunged at her, she was knocked onto the ox cart and scratched wildly.
Father Lin was trembling all over. If not for the young man supporting him from behind, he would have collapsed long ago.
“Dad, little sister will not leave us like this,” the young man said, his eyes red as he stared at Mother Zhao and Father Zhao with murderous intent.
Those few steps felt unbearably long to Father Lin.
Looking at his daughter lying motionless on the ox cart, so young, so small, gone just like that, leaving them to send off the young before the old, how could they possibly accept this?
When people from Zhaojia Village had delivered the message earlier, both Mother Lin and Father Lin had fainted on the spot. Yet they still forced themselves to rush over, only to be met with this scene.