Xu Huiqing raised the stool high above her head, frightening everyone who had followed her inside. They all quickly grabbed onto her, trying to wrest the stool from her hands.
“Don’t smash it! If you hit someone with this stool, it could kill them~”
Even though someone held Xu Huiqing’s hand, she still twisted her wrist hard and brought the wooden stool down onto Zhao Zongbao’s head.
It wasn’t as hard as the first blow, but a solid wooden stool hitting the head still hurt a lot.
Yet, no matter how much it hurt, it was nothing compared to the pain in his leg—his leg, which had just been broken!
At that moment, Zhao’s father, mother, and eldest sister all came rushing in. They witnessed Xu Huiqing, held by several people, still swinging the stool and striking Zhao Zongbao’s head as she shouted wildly, “Did you make them sell Xiaoxi? Did you make them sell Xiaoxi?”
She looked utterly mad.
Seeing Zhao Zongbao’s leg bent sharply at a 120-degree angle, Zhao’s eldest sister and the others were terrified, their eyes wide with horror as they screamed, “Zongbao!!!”
They could hardly believe it and cautiously approached, afraid even to touch him.
Several younger sisters-in-law cooking in the kitchen also heard the commotion and hurried out. Zhao’s third sister, the loudest among them, held a spatula and asked, “What’s going on? Why so much noise?” When she saw Zhao Zongbao’s broken leg, she gasped, “What happened? How did Zongbao’s leg break again when it was fine just now?”
Seeing everyone gathered around, she quickly urged, “Why are you all standing there? Go get a doctor!”
Zhao’s mother was so heartbroken she almost fainted. She shouted fiercely, “I’ll fight you to the death, you wretched woman!”
At this moment, Xu Huiqing was surrounded and held tightly by many, unable to move.
But with Xu’s mother, sisters-in-law, eldest brother, and second brother present, several sisters-in-law hurried to restrain Zhao’s mother.
Those holding Xu Huiqing, seeing Xu’s mother arrive, believed that she and the other Xu family sisters-in-law could calm her down. They hurriedly tried to reason, “Let’s talk this through calmly. Is there some misunderstanding? You didn’t even explain yourself clearly before swinging that heavy stool. Look at his leg—if he ends up crippled, you’ll regret it for life, believe me.”
Xu’s mother also hugged her daughter and pleaded, “Huiqing, what are you doing? Are you trying to ruin your life?”
But Xu Huiqing seized the moment when the crowd loosened their hold and grabbed the hair of Zhao Zongbao, whose face had gone pale and was drenched in sweat from the pain.
“Your second sister said you agreed to sell Xiaoxi?” she asked, then slapped Zhao Zongbao hard across the face.
She kept slapping while demanding sternly, “Was it you? Was it you? Was it you?”
The slap was so forceful that everyone around winced in sympathy.
Zhao’s father, who had been dizzy from being hit with a porcelain plate earlier, finally recovered and started looking around the yard. He found a wrench used for repairing televisions, picked it up, and silently marched toward Xu Huiqing, raising the heavy wrench to strike her head.
Xu Huiqing didn’t notice his movement, but Xu’s eldest brother and Zhao’s eldest sister’s husband did.
Zhao’s eldest sister’s husband acted faster, rushing behind Zhao’s father, grabbing him and pulling him back, shouting, “Dad! Dad! Calm down, don’t be impulsive, don’t be impulsive!”
Zhao’s father, who had killed more than one person when he was younger, was extremely ruthless.
He had completely lost his reason now, only wanting to kill Xu Huiqing for breaking his son’s leg.
He struggled violently to break free from Zhao’s eldest sister’s husband, shouting, “Let go of me! I want to kill that wretched woman! Let me go!”
Being in his sixties and with few years left to live, all he wanted now was to kill Xu Huiqing for what she had done.
Xu’s eldest brother reacted quickly, snatching the wrench from Zhao’s father’s hand. Zhao’s fifth sister’s husband also came over to restrain Zhao’s father.
Zhao’s fifth sister, who had been cooking by the stove, rushed out after hearing Xu Huiqing attacking Zhao Zongbao, her mind reeling. She shouted sharply, “Why are you hitting my brother?”
Once quite polite toward Xu Huiqing, she now charged at her wildly, reaching to grab her face and hair.
Zhao’s eldest sister also rushed forward, intending to fight Xu Huiqing and Xu’s mother.
But Xu Huiqing’s three sisters-in-law were no pushovers. Regardless of how they usually got along with Xu Huiqing, at this moment they stood united, blocking Zhao’s fifth sister and eldest sister from attacking Xu’s mother and Xu Huiqing, all the while urging, “Calm down, calm down!”
Zhao’s third and fourth sisters looked stunned.
Zhao’s third sister and her father shouted from the crowd’s edge, “Stop fighting! Stop! Stop fighting!” The father told her, “Go get the doctor!” while shouting to Zhao’s fourth sister and her husband, “Hurry and pull them apart!”
Only then did Zhao’s fourth sister and her husband snap out of it and rush forward to separate the fighting—though they didn’t know who to pull away first.
Zhao’s fifth sister and Xu’s second sister-in-law were tangled together, and seeing Zhao’s third and fourth sisters unable to break up the fight, she screamed hoarsely, “Zhao Pandie, Zhao Youdie, why are you pulling me away? Pull them away!”
She meant Xu’s second sister-in-law and Xu’s mother, who were grappling with her.
Xu’s mother was dazed from the beating. She had come over to hug her daughter and break up the fight, but somehow got caught up in the brawl, locked in a fierce tussle with Zhao’s mother.
Being tall and strong, she dominated the smaller, weaker Zhao’s mother, pinning her down with little effort.
Zhao’s fourth sister looked at Zhao’s fifth sister being held down and having her hair pulled by Xu’s second sister-in-law, then at Zhao’s mother lying helpless beneath Xu’s mother. She hesitated, unsure whether to help Zhao’s fifth sister or Zhao’s mother, before quietly calling out in a near-social-anxiety tone, “Stop fighting, please stop fighting.”
Her helplessness almost made Zhao’s fifth sister explode with rage. Even with her face pressed into the dirt under Xu’s second sister-in-law, she screamed through gritted teeth, “Hit her for me!”
The Zhao family’s three prominent storefronts were all located in the bustling Shui Bu town, with convenient access everywhere. The Shui Bu town police station was not far from the Zhao residence.
Xu’s third brother, tall and long-legged, arrived at the police station in no time.
The police officers, upon hearing that the Zhao family was a human trafficking den and that their niece had been sold by them, were shocked. They immediately gathered all available officers, armed themselves, and rushed to the Zhao residence.
Upon arriving, they saw the chaotic brawl unfolding, surrounded by a crowd of onlookers.
When the crowd saw the police, they quickly shouted, “The police are here!”
“Officer Wu, hurry! The Zhao family is fighting!”
“Someone’s getting hurt!”
Several officers stepped forward, pulling everyone apart, their voices stern as they demanded, “What’s going on? Why are you fighting? Where are the human traffickers?”
Xu Huiqing, who had just recovered from childbirth and was already weak from exerting herself, was helped to sit on a chair in the backyard’s main room. Leaning weakly against the backrest, she cried as she pointed at Zhao’s father, mother, second sister, and Zhao Zongbao.
“Officer Wu, I want to report! The Zhao family are human traffickers! They made their fortune selling people and even sold my daughter!”
Hearing Xu Huiqing’s words, Zhao’s father sprang up again, trying to attack her.
“I’ll kill you, you foul-mouthed woman!” But Xu’s eldest brother held him down firmly, preventing him from turning over.
Zhao’s mother, face pressed to the ground by Xu’s mother, still sobbed loudly, “It’s a misunderstanding! All a misunderstanding! No human trafficking, no kidnapping! Xiaoxi was only sent to my second daughter’s house temporarily. My daughter-in-law just said we sold her girl—that’s not true! It’s a misunderstanding! All a misunderstanding!”
Xu Huiqing shouted in a shrill, heartbreaking voice, “I heard you with my own ears say you sold Xiaoxi. Zhao Daiyi just admitted it was you who instructed her to sell Xiaoxi. So many people heard it. Are you still going to deny it?”
If this had been any other matter, bystanders might have avoided trouble and kept quiet.
But when it came to human trafficking, no one dared to stay silent. What if the next kidnapped child was their own?
Moreover, the Zhao family was the town’s top and only home appliance dealer. Many secretly envied their wealth.
Now, as Officer Wu questioned them, people stepped forward, saying, “I heard it too! Zhao’s second sister openly admitted that old man Zhao and old lady Zhao told her to sell their big niece!”
“I heard it too!”
“They’re heartless! Selling their own grandchild and niece, who knows how many children they’ve sold to get all this property!”
“Officers, you must thoroughly investigate the Zhao family! Their wealth clearly has illegal origins!”
The Zhao family was rich, naturally attracting jealousy, and the crowd joined the uproar.
“The Zhao family must be traffickers. Otherwise, how did they get so rich in just a few years? Where did they get the money to buy these three big storefronts and run this color TV business? It’s definitely from trafficking!”
Hearing this was a child trafficking case, the police took no chances. They took everyone back to the station for investigation and even called the county Public Security Bureau.
Soon, officers from the county arrived in Shui Bu town in their two police vehicles.
These days, children going missing and trafficking were rampant, especially with strict family planning policies. Cases like this usually went unreported by civilians and uninvestigated by officials.
Zhao’s second sister had never sold children before. She thought it was just her own niece from her family and that her own parents wanted to send the child away, so it wasn’t a big deal.
She never imagined that her usually mild-mannered sister-in-law would suddenly explode, breaking her brother’s leg and calling the police, leading to them all being taken to the station.
“My parents told me to sell her! Otherwise, how could I dare?” she wailed.
Facing the police interrogation, Zhao’s second sister was terrified and confessed everything she knew, unwilling to hide a thing.