Zhou Muchuan had no intention of moving aside. Instead, he spoke calmly, “Lu Yusheng, let’s discuss this properly. Hitting your wife is not the act of a real man.”
“Discuss properly?” Lu Changsheng stepped forward to defend his brother. “Officer Zhou, look at this shrew! She’s being so unreasonable do you think she’s the type to listen to reason?”
As the eldest brother, it wasn’t proper for him to strike her, but Lu Yusheng was her husband. It was his absolute right to discipline her.
In the countryside, a man correcting his wife was family business. It was only natural.
“That’s right, Officer Zhou,” the second son joined in, spewing nonsense. “Shen Zhiyi never had this kind of guts before. She’s acting so bold today because someone is backing her up, isn’t she? Are you planning to protect her?”
“Officer Zhou, how can you act like this?” Father Lu leaned on his cane, resorting to emotional blackmail. “Don’t forget, it was our Fifth Brother who operated on your father last year! No doctor in Nancheng dared to take the case. If it weren’t for Yusheng, your father wouldn’t have recovered so well!”
Zhou Muchuan’s face burned with guilt. He did owe Lu Yusheng a favor.
But it wasn’t exactly as Father Lu described. It wasn’t that no doctor in Nancheng dared do it. His father had been visiting from the city when his appendicitis flared up suddenly.
There was no time to transfer him to a major hospital, so they brought him to the town clinic, and Lu Yusheng happened to be on duty.
He never realized that in the Lu family’s eyes, this simple surgery had been exaggerated into such a heroic tale.
Once Zhou Muchuan fell silent, the villagers’ anger erupted.
“Officer Zhou, you can’t be ungrateful! You’re our police officer, you shouldn’t be protecting a convict!”
“Officer Zhou, you were the one who arrested her three years ago! Why are you taking her side now?”
“That’s right! This woman was so vicious back then, pushing a toddler less than two years old into that deep reservoir! If the child hadn’t been lucky, she’d be dead!”
“Yes! Our Lujia Village has always been peaceful. We’ve never had criminals before. She doesn’t belong here! Make her leave!”
“Get out! Get out!”
The crowd chanted in unison.
Shen Zhiyi had crashed their happy celebration, and the villagers were furious.
Public sentiment was against her. Facing nearly a hundred angry villagers, even Zhou Muchuan had a headache.
The Lu family stood aside, sneering.
They wanted to see how she planned to get her chest back now.
“Shen Zhiyi, maybe… maybe we should come back another day?” Zhou Muchuan turned to her. Seeing her unhappy expression, he quickly added, “Don’t worry, I promise I’ll help you get it back, I swear. It’s just… today isn’t a good time.”
“Lu Yusheng, are you and your family really not going to return my chest?” Shen Zhiyi ignored the shouting crowd. Her eyes were fixed solely on him and his family.
“You ruined my son’s first birthday banquet!” Lu Yusheng snapped. “That chest isn’t worth enough to pay for the damage! You want it back? Not a chance!”
How dare she? She destroyed his own son’s celebration. Why should he give her anything?
“Fine. Remember your words.”
Suddenly, Shen Zhiyi turned to Yang Jiehui, the husband of Lu Yusheng’s third sister. “Third Brother-in-law, don’t you think Qiangqiang looks a lot like Lu Yusheng? Besides Yusheng, he also looks a bit like Jiang…”
Before she could finish the name, Lu Yusheng grabbed her wrist tightly, his voice cold with warning. “Shen Zhiyi, what nonsense are you spouting?”
Yang Jiehui, who was suddenly named: “…”
“Nonsense?” Shen Zhiyi smirked. She lowered her voice, speaking only loud enough for Lu Yusheng to hear. “You’re a doctor, you should know they have DNA testing technology now. If you don’t believe it, we can do one. Though… I’m afraid the cost might be a bit too high for you to afford.”
“Shen Zhiyi, what exactly do you want?” Lu Yusheng gritted his teeth.
He was shocked. How did she even know about this technology? He had only heard about it himself last month at a medical conference in the capital.
He had been completely confused by it at the time, struggling to understand how it worked.
How could a woman who had been in prison for three years possibly know about it?
“I want my camphorwood chest,” Shen Zhiyi enunciated each word clearly, then forcefully shook off his hand.
She patted her wrist repeatedly in disgust, as if his touch had left her covered in filth.
“Who has that damn box? Bring it out and give it to her!” Lu Yusheng suddenly snapped at his family.
Lu Yusheng was the fifth child, but he was the most intelligent and educated. He was the prodigy of Lujia Village.
Among the siblings, Lu Yusheng held the real power.
Even his parents listened to him. The whole family pinned their hopes on him to change their fate. They knew that as long as they followed Lu Yusheng, they would live a good life.
And indeed, in the original story, after they killed the original Shen Zhiyi, Lu Yusheng and Jiang Ruochu did lead the family to prosperity.
The eldest brother started a transport company, the second opened a clothing store, the third ran the biggest supermarket in town, and the fourth became a construction contractor.
They all built their success on the original owner’s grave.
The family looked at each other in confusion. What had she whispered to him? Why was he suddenly shouting at them?
Were they really just going to hand it over just like that? What about the damage she caused?
“Yusheng, you…” Mother Lu tried to speak. Only she could possibly reason with him.
“Mom, just do as I say. Stop this. Give her the box. We can talk about everything else later.”
“…”
In the end, it was Lu Changsheng’s wife, Mrs. Liu, who dragged the chest out from their room with great reluctance.
“No wonder you were jumping around like a firecracker,” Shen Zhiyi sneered as she took it. “Guilty conscience, are we?”
“What did you say, convict?!” Lu Changsheng’s face turned red with shame and anger.
Wanting to vent her frustration, Mrs. Liu refused to hand it over properly. When Shen Zhiyi asked her to pass it, she simply threw it violently across the ground.
Even Zhou Muchuan, with his reflexes, couldn’t catch it.
The box rolled several meters across the ground, but the quality was truly excellent it didn’t break at all.
“Satisfied now, Shen Zhiyi?” Lu Yusheng asked coldly, raising an eyebrow.
“Lu Yusheng, far from it.”
Shen Zhiyi turned her head, her gaze burning intensely as she stared at Jiang Ruochu’s neck.
“Teacher Jiang, isn’t there something else you should return to its rightful owner?”
Jiang Ruochu: “…”