Huang Xiaojuan took a deep breath, angrily retorting, “I didn’t want to say this, but you forced me. Xiao Feng isn’t your brother-in-law’s child; your sister cheated behind his back!”
What the heck! After blurring the lines between right and wrong, now she wants to invert them? If Xia Mian wasn’t holding the child, she would have slapped her, “Huang Xiaojuan, you really are ruthless, stepping over my sister’s body to enjoy life, and now you even slander her?! Whether Xiao Feng is Zhang Qiming’s child or not, a test will tell!”
Huang Xiaojuan blurted out, “Blood tests are not scientific, they’re not accurate!”
“So, you were banking on that, so you dared to slander my dead sister,” Xia Mian scoffed, “Nowadays, paternity is not determined by blood tests.”
An elderly woman with gray hair explained, “Now it’s called DNA testing. It’s very scientific. Just need the child’s and the father’s hair, and you will get 100% accuracy. My grandson Xiao Bai said so.”
Someone immediately agreed, “Xiao Bai studied abroad, so he must be right.”
Seeing Huang Xiaojuan still trying to argue, Xia Mian coldly said, “You better think carefully before you speak. If you dare to spread rumors about my sister, I’ll sue you for slander.”
The female officer corrected her, “It’s libel.”
Xia Mian, feeling more empowered, declared, “Did you hear that? I’m going to sue you for libel. Get ready to spend some time behind bars!”
With the police chiming in and the mention of jail, Huang Xiaojuan no longer dared to make unfounded statements, her eyes darting around in panic.
Now, both the police and the neighbors understood the situation. Xia Mian was not in a hurry; no matter how eloquent Huang Xiaojuan was, she couldn’t escape the abuse charges, and everything else was just the first step in dismantling the Zhang family’s reputation. Next, she led the police and onlookers to the bathroom, pointing to the basin with filthy, tattered clothes, “These are all the clothes my nephew has, and he’s been washing them himself.”
Huang Xiaojuan followed, claiming, “It’s impossible for him to have no clothes. The two brothers are close in age; they wear each other’s clothes.”
Xia Mian glanced at her, “Not in pain anymore? Your legs seem quite agile.”
Huang Xiaojuan immediately put on a pitiful face of enduring pain.
Unfortunately, there’s a saying that justice resides in the hearts of people. The neighborhood old lady, who had just been scolding Xia Mian and somehow followed them in, stood at the bathroom door, “The child has been here for over half a year, and apart from when he first arrived clean from his grandmother’s, I’ve never seen him wear any decent clothes. Since summer, he’s been wearing these few pieces from the basin.”
“I remember mentioning once that the child’s clothes needed washing. But Xiao Huang said the child was too rowdy and ruined his good clothes, so he’s just wearing Xiao Zhang’s clothes for now.”
Huang Xiaojuan didn’t expect the old lady to interject, “Auntie Liu, you’ve only seen the child a few times…” she hastily retorted.
Auntie Liu bluntly countered, “Right, you keep him locked up and beat him all day; how could I see him more? I believed you were a good person. If I had known how malicious you are, would I let you stay in this building?!”
Huang Xiaojuan’s complexion changed drastically. It’s important to note that this particular building housed the factory’s management, and Zhang Qiming’s salary increase over the past two years was due to good relations with their direct neighbors. Recently, Huang Xiaojuan had been currying favor with the director’s wife, aiming for Zhang Qiming to be awarded an outstanding worker by the end of the year, which could lead to another promotion next year.
As Huang Xiaojuan racked her brain for excuses, Xia Mian opened the door to the north room, mocking Huang Xiaojuan, “So, making my nephew sleep here is because he’s too dirty and messy?”
The crowd that followed in, led by Aunt Liu, fell silent instantly. In the dark, windowless room, roughly six square meters and filled with clutter, a dirty mattress lay on the floor near the door. The cotton inside was clumped together, with a lump in the middle indicating the child had been sleeping there for quite some time.
“How do you explain this?”
Aunt Liu slammed her cane down hard, sighing angrily, “What a sin…”
In the novel, the villain Zhang Yuxuan rose to fame as a genius painter at eighteen, and it was only when his reputation soared, and his paintings sold for higher prices, that he moved away from here. This implied Xiao Feng might have been confined in this dark, gloomy room for more than ten years…
Thinking of this, Xia Mian couldn’t hold back her tears. She sobbed: “Such a heartless murderer. If you didn’t like him, you could have sent my nephew away. Why abuse him like this…”
Seeing Xia Mian cry, Xiao Feng became frightened. Despite his fear, he tried to comfort her, gently touching Xia Mian’s eyes and saying, “Auntie, don’t cry.” His voice was tender and tearful. He was too young to understand the cruelty he had endured, his clear eyes only filled with concern for Xia Mian.
Xia Mian was deeply moved. She tried her best to hold back her tears as she pressed the child’s head against her shoulder, sobbing, “It’s okay, Auntie is fine, Xiao Feng, don’t be scared. Auntie will protect you.” Despite her efforts, tears kept trickling down.
Many in the crowd also felt their eyes well up with tears.
“Beast!” someone in the crowd cursed.
Huang Xiaojuan, looking embarrassed and wronged, retorted, “It’s not what you think! Xiao Feng doesn’t sleep here at all! She’s the one slandering!” She even used the term learned earlier, “I’m going to sue her for libel!”
“Whether it’s slander or not, we can discuss that at the police station,” the middle-aged police officer said, “Liu Hong, did you get everything?”
The female officer named Liu Hong put away her camera, “Got it all.”
“Why are we going to the police station? I, I haven’t committed any crime!” Huang Xiaojuan became instantly flustered, making excuses for herself in panic, “I haven’t abused the child. It was our Qiming who said the child wasn’t his and didn’t want to see him. That’s why he was occasionally left in there. He gets dirty and messy himself, managing to soil the bedding in just three days.”
Xia Mian scoffed coldly. She had deliberately avoided directly implicating Zhang Qiming because, in the story, he was depicted as an extremely dangerous hypocrite. With an outward appearance of being simple and warm-hearted, his actions were exceedingly cautious and thorough, and his ability to argue convincingly meant no one believed he could be a bad person.
Unexpectedly, Huang Xiaojuan was the one to drag him into the mud with her, which actually suited Xia Mian’s purposes perfectly.
“So, he condoned your abuse of my nephew?” Xia Mian feigned realization, “Indeed, if he hadn’t agreed, how could you have abused the child under his watch?”
“So what you mean is that Zhang Qiming suspected my sister of infidelity, so his own affair was justified, and your being a mistress was equally justified?”
Xia Mian pointed at the tattered mattress, angrily stating, “So my nephew should suffer because of an unfounded suspicion of yours? If it turns out the child is indeed Zhang Qiming’s, will you two bow down and apologize to my sister?”
“Exactly,” someone in the crowd spat out, “Regardless of what Xia Chun was like, Zhang Qiming and Huang Xiaojuan’s affair is a fact.”
“It’s not like that…” Huang Xiaojuan started crying, “We…”
“Murderers!” Xia Mian suddenly shouted.
“Officer, I want to accuse them of murder! Zhang Qiming suspected my sister of infidelity, so he conspired with Huang Xiaojuan to murder her. Otherwise, why would my sister be called out just after giving birth, only to coincidentally have an accident? Their abuse of my sister’s child stems from guilt, wanting to eliminate all traces!”
Huang Xiaojuan was dumbfounded. She had only wanted to deflect the blame but ended up being accused of a far more serious crime. Hearing the buzzing accusations from the crowd, Huang Xiaojuan couldn’t help but scream, “You’re making it up! Where’s your evidence?!”
Xia Mian responded coldly, “Then what evidence do you have that my sister was unfaithful? They say it takes two to tango; there should at least be a partner in infidelity, right? Or did Zhang Qiming personally tell you, who knows if he was just looking for an excuse to justify his own affair? After all, Xuanxuan is the living proof of his infidelity!”
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You go girl!!!
I like Xia Mian a lot! Her nature does seem impulsive and one of the officer’s thoughts about her still being a child based on her actions makes me wonder how old Xia Mian was in her previous life. I also wonder what will happen with Zhang Qiming, considering that he seems pretty dangerous. Hopefully they can both be thrown in jail, but it’s highly likely it’ll only be Huang Xiaojuan in the end.
Thanks for the chapter! 😀