Without Lin Yuan having to ask aloud, they had already received the answer from the onlookers.
It turned out that the person was Lin Yongle, who had a disabled leg and was bedridden at home. Somehow, last night, no one was watching him, and he managed to crawl out of the house once again. Because it was New Year’s Eve, and it was snowing, there were no pedestrians on the road. Moreover, no one at home noticed he had sneaked out, leading to him freezing stiff in the snow.
Only when Lady Ma and Lin Jiazhong, the couple, returned home this morning did they discover their son’s absence from the house. When they went out to look for him, Lin Yongle was already covered by the snow. If Lady Ma hadn’t been walking quickly and tripped over her son’s leg, they probably wouldn’t have found him until after the snow had melted.
"Oh my, this cripple has not just crawled out for the first time, you know. Just last time, he scared my Niuniu so much that she cried for a long time."
"Exactly, we’ve told Boss’s family over and over again to watch him, we’ve said it so many times yet they don’t listen. Tsk tsk, now that this has happened, it’s really terrible!"
"This Boss’s couple too, not even knowing their son ran out, I can’t understand how she can be a mother. Didn’t they stay up for the New Year’s Eve? Didn’t they realize their son was missing? It’s just unbelievable!"
The onlookers each had their say, sighing one after another. Although Lin Yongle had been paralyzed and not fully lucid, he was after all still a living being. For him to be just gone like that, it was truly lamentable.
When Lin Jiaxin found out that the dead person wasn’t Lin Jianling, he breathed a huge sigh of relief. However, when he realized it was his own nephew, that relief turned into immediate concern.
Even though Lin Yuan could see that Lin Yongle’s body was already still, she still wanted to ask Lao Fan to see if he could be saved.
Receiving Lin Yuan’s pleading look, Lao Fan pursed his lips, tucked his hands into his sleeves, and closed his eyes.
Lin Yuan’s heart sank. Lao Fan’s gesture didn’t mean he wouldn’t try to save him, but rather it was already too late — Lin Yongle was truly dead, frozen to death.
"My son, my son!" Lady Yang’s voice was also somewhat raspy, her withered hands attempting to grab Lin Yongle’s hand.
But before she could get close, Lady Ma already disdainfully pushed her hand away, viciously yelling, "Get lost! Don’t pretend to mourn like a cat crying over a dead mouse! You old hag, you deliberately let him freeze to death because you looked down on him, didn’t you? If you had kept an eye on him, how could he have crawled out of the house by himself, and how could he have frozen to death in the snow? You despised our Yongle because he was cripple, useless, unable to bring you any benefits, so you just watched him go to his death with your eyes open!"
With trembling lips and shaking hands, Lady Yang protested, "Not at all, not at all, he’s my own grandson. How could I just watch him go to his death without doing anything! Last night, last night I didn’t know you two had gone out, nobody told me to watch him."
"You old wretch, does being his grandmother make him dear to you? When the second child’s leg became disabled, you didn’t care for him at all. If you didn’t care for your own son, how could you care for your grandson?" Lady Ma kept cursing at Lady Yang. Though her words were harsh, they were true, and even Lady Yang herself was left speechless.
Hearing this, many people’s attention shifted from Lady Yang’s evasive excuses to her mistreatment of her own children and grandchildren.
Lin Yuan frowned, sensing that Lady Ma had said this deliberately, as if she was hiding something.
Lin Jiazhong, who had been silently watching his son, suddenly looked up as well, fixing Lady Yang with a pair of malicious eyes. It was as if the woman in front of him was no longer his mother, but a ferocious demon who had killed his son, evoking in him nothing but aversion.