I Got Rich in Period Fiction-Chapter 577 - 571: No One Can Escape

He Xiuwen’s warning gaze swept over Zhao Cheng.

Such a gaze actually made Zhao Cheng freeze in his tracks!

He had never seen such a gaze before, one that made one’s entire body chill, as if one’s blood could stop flowing, as if the next step he took forward would prompt this man to kill him.

Indeed, he stood still, his mouth opening and closing, until he finally spoke up, "Leader... leader, this is my wife, she’s gotten into a tangle with my mother, and I need to take her home for a look. She has injuries on her face, I need to put some medicine on them..." freeωebnovēl.c૦m

He Xiuwen’s fierce eyes swept toward Zhao Cheng again, but this time, ignored him.

He took an old photograph out of his pocket. It was black and white, of a girl with two braids, wearing a round-necked dress, holding a book, smiling brilliantly.

He showed the photograph to Liang Xiaocui.

Liang Xiaocui glanced at it once, and her heart started to beat wildly.

Tears came pouring out in an instant.

This was her photograph, her own photograph!

It was from her younger days, fifteen years ago.

"Is this you?"

"...Yes, it’s me."

Before He Xiuwen could say anything else, a disturbance arose in the crowd. Zhao Cheng tried to push forward but was held back by two older men beside him. He looked around and his gaze suddenly fixed on something.

Minister Xu had been carrying a weapon all this time, and no one dared to stand close to him. Following He Xiuwen’s gaze, he frowned.

Then, in the next moment, He Xiuwen took several quick steps forward, and Minister Xu’s face changed color as he reacted. He shouted, holding the gun up, "Back off, everyone back off."

The people, showing their fear, really did back off. He Xiuwen knelt down, brushed away the yellow earth, and turned up a stained piece. It was blood.

And it was fresh, not yet completely coagulated.

He Xiuwen stood up, looked at the two colleagues beside him, and pointed at Zhao Cheng, commanding, "Take him into custody."

Upon He Xiuwen’s command, the two men moved like smoke, swiftly taking Zhao Cheng down, while someone on the side pulled out handcuffs to restrain him.

Zhao Cheng fought desperately. He was strong and seemed to know some moves, but his limited skills were not nearly enough against two experienced special forces members.

The onlookers were frightened, in part because Minister Xu was still holding his weapon, and seemingly the most terrifying figure was He Xiuwen, the man who had arrived last.

Zhao Cheng struggled with the special forces members and shouted loudly, "What are you all staring for? I’m telling you, if I really get taken in, none of you will escape."

What Zhao Cheng meant was that he wanted the villagers to stand with him in solidarity, to unite as they had in the past.

Yet, what he didn’t expect was that not all of the hundred or so people shared his sentiment. If he hadn’t spoken up, perhaps out of fear for him and being complicit, they wouldn’t have dared to make a sound.

But after his outburst, the young man he had beaten was the first to hoarsely shout, "It’s all because of you. If you hadn’t told everyone to hide the person, why would they come to arrest us?"

After this shout was made, the noisy courtyard immediately fell silent.

Zhao Cheng glared at the young man with a fierce hate, angry with himself for being too lenient; he should have beaten this wolf pup until he couldn’t get up or speak.

At this moment, in the cave dwellings behind the village.

Sun Xiuyuan was tied up with ropes, a disgusting rag stuffed in her mouth that made her want to vomit but couldn’t, her tears seemed to have run dry, her eyes ached a lot, and her whole body was still trembling nonstop.

She was held captive together with Lin Feng, who was lying on the ground motionless.

And she was tied to a wooden post inside the room.

Such scenes should only appear in movies, not in real life; was everything in front of her a dream? Was she watching a movie at the cinema?

Sun Xiuyuan cried with muffled sobs, desperately trying to make a sound, to call out to Lin Feng, but this pitch-dark place was like a cave. She only knew that Lin Feng was lying on the ground, motionless, and she couldn’t see anything else clearly.

Desperate Sun Xiuyuan truly regretted her actions; it was her stubbornness. If she had listened to Lin Feng, or even to Qiao Qingyu, she wouldn’t have fallen into this situation today.

In the village, Zhao Cheng was pinned to the ground by two team members, their knees pressed against his waist, forcing him to clasp his hands behind his back.

After Zhao Cheng was restrained, the villagers of Shuiwa Village finally panicked, but they also calmed down.

At this time, Liang Xiaocui, with her hands clenched tightly, staggered over to where Zhao Cheng, who had been grabbed and was standing there.

Zhao Cheng also glared back at her with the same fierce hate.

And just at that moment, two children crying and shouting squeezed through the crowd; one hugged Zhao Cheng, and the other embraced Liang Xiaocui. They were two boys, the elder one looked about twelve or thirteen years old, and the younger one seven or eight.

These were the children of Zhao Cheng and Liang Xiaocui; the older one had stopped going to school after finishing elementary school, and the younger one had not yet started schooling.

Getting an education was truly difficult here, with the need to traverse mountains and hills because there was no school in the village, only the option to go to the township to learn, which took a three-hour round trip from their village.

As a result, very few of the village children were able to continue their schooling, but a few years back there was a policy that spoke of relocation, of moving these remote mountain villagers together to form a new village town, equipped with schools, health clinics, and shops.

Yet, with such a favorable policy, these people adamantly refused to leave, especially some of the elderly, who even banded together, hundreds of them, to sit-in protest at the gates of what was then the commune’s township office.

The difficulty of leaving one’s native soil was strong; they believed that it was their root and the root for the younger generation, and nobody should leave, so the matter eventually came to nothing.

Thus, there were hardly a few individuals with a high level of education in the village.

But Zhao Cheng’s older son had also become sensible early on, and he cried out loudly, "Dad, Mom, where are you going to go? What’s going on? What happened?"

Liang Xiaocui looked down at her younger son, who was hugging her and crying loudly; a trace of softness flickered in her bloodshot eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a look of ruthless determination as she pushed her younger son away with all her strength.

Caught off guard, the child fell to the ground. His older brother hurried to help him up, looking at their mother in disbelief.

And Zhao Cheng was looking at this woman before him with same disbelief.

Liang Xiaocui breathed heavily, clenching her fists tight. She looked around; although this was just a small mountain village, it was a hell, and she had lived like a ghost in this hell for fifteen years.

She thought she would die here, but she never expected to live to see this day.