Looking at the weighty stack of things in his hand, Qin Jian nodded, "Okay."
Ning Yibin’s guards took Qin Jian and An Hao back to the village. As the couple got out of the car and walked under the stage, they heard a few village women basking in the sun and gossiping.
"Did you hear about the disgraceful thing that girl from the Qin Family did?"
"I was right there yesterday, gathering around to watch the excitement; it really was quite a drama. The Qin Family has now completely lost face in the village; I bet they can’t even hold their heads up. Li Junping has always cared about appearances, but look what happened—first, there was the fiasco of the ’wrong baby’ drama, and now her daughter has caused a scandal, getting pregnant before marriage. Qin Feng wasn’t even worried at first, but then, hearing that the Song Family had arranged a marriage for Song Fei, she made a big fuss about it. Liu Junping, knowing her daughter was wronged, got furious and ran to the Song Family’s house with a club, smashing it up without even asking for the whole story, and even caused Song Fei’s mother to bleed from a head injury."
"That serious? Now the feud between the two families is surely set."
"You can say that again. I heard the Song Family curse so badly, calling her lazy, gluttonous, shameless, saying she traded her body for money to spend and that they would look down on such a daughter-in-law; even if there were no women left in the world, they still wouldn’t let Song Fei marry Qin Feng. With all this ruckus, everyone in the village knows now, and Li Junping is so desperate she actually passed out in a fit. Now two out of three in the Qin Family are down. Sigh..."
"It’s karma! All karma! Who asked them to be so unscrupulous, to switch another family’s child."
The women were cracking sunflower seeds and discussing with relish when they suddenly noticed Qin Jian standing not too far away and quickly lowered their voices, "Stop talking, everyone stop talking."
Seeing Qin Jian’s deeply furrowed brows and gloomy expression, An Hao tugged at his sleeve, "Let’s go, we can talk about it when we get back."
As soon as they entered the Qin Family’s gate, they heard Li Junping’s heart-wrenching cries coming from inside the house, "What sins have I committed? Qin Feng, in your past life, you must have been a debt-collecting ghost born into the Qin Family to settle scores with me. How could I have given birth to such an utterly shameless creature like you?"
Qin Feng’s crying could also be heard intermittently, "Mom, don’t be angry, I’ll go find Song Fei, and if he won’t marry me, I’ll cut him with a knife."
An Hao was full of wonder; just yesterday, she was desperate not to marry Song Fei, and today, instead of talking about getting married, she was talking about knifing him?
"Enough, you two, quiet down! Haven’t we had enough trouble?" Qin Ru Hai gasped angrily, "Was the money you compensated them with yesterday not enough? If you take a knife to someone again today, we might as well give up on this family, just let it fall apart and be done with it!"
Qin Jian could no longer bear to listen and strode towards the room.
Upon lifting the curtain, he saw his elderly parents lying on the bed, with Qin Feng sitting at the head of the bed, all three with red-rimmed eyes.
"Dad, Mom! I’m back."
The moment they saw Qin Jian, Qin Ru Hai’s face showed a mix of joy and sorrow, "Jianzi! Jianzi is back."
"Jianzi! I thought you would never want us again!" As soon as Li Junping spoke, tears streamed down abundantly.
Despite being sick, she couldn’t stay lying down and sat up, then she got off the bed and embraced Qin Jian, "My son, you’re finally back. If you hadn’t come back, this family really wouldn’t have made it."
Qin Jian gently patted her shoulder, "Don’t be afraid! I’ve got this!"