Chapter 109: Greed

The jeep drove slowly along the road, a police car following behind.

Sheng Zexi glanced at the child sitting in the passenger seat, still silently crying, and frowned slightly. Why did this kid cry so much? Were all children this prone to tears?

Would his and Ningning’s future child be a little crybaby too?

No, definitely not.

This child was crying because he’d been bullied and deceived.

In the future, if anyone (except Ningning) made his child cry, he’d beat them to a pulp.

Catching sight of the child’s red, swollen eyes, Sheng Zexi spoke up, “Hey kid, why are you crying?”

Qin Tian, who had been silently weeping, was startled and snuck a glance at Sheng Zexi.

Why was he crying?

Of course he was crying—because, just as he’d guessed on the way here, his parents hadn’t forgotten about him and Grandma after all, even though they’d gone off to serve the country. For eight years, they’d sent money home every month.

His parents still wanted the best for them.

Qin Tian didn’t answer. Sheng Zexi continued, “It’s okay to cry for a bit, but you can’t be a crybaby.”

“Your parents aren’t home. You’re the only man in the family now. You have to hold things together.”

“If you’ve been tricked or bullied, you should fight back. Crying won’t help.”

“And if you’re crying because you trusted the wrong person, that’s even less worth it. Is it really worth shedding tears for bad people?”

“You should be grateful that Ningning helped you uncover the truth today. Now everything’s out in the open, and the police will deal with that person. If it weren’t for Ningning, who knows how much longer you’d have been kept in the dark.” He couldn’t forget to give his wife credit for this.

Even if Ningning didn’t care about such things, Sheng Zexi did.

Today’s outcome was all thanks to Ningning.

“Wipe your tears. No more crying.” Maybe it was his years of military training, but Sheng Zexi’s tone carried a hint of command. Still, seeing the child’s trembling lips, he tried to imitate Gu Jianing, softening his voice awkwardly, “Things will get better from now on.”

Sheng Zexi’s words were like sunlight breaking through the clouds, dispersing Qin Tian’s sorrow and confusion.

Thinking it over, he realized Sheng-ge was right.

With his parents gone, he was the only man in the family. He really did have to hold things together.

And if Uncle De—no, Qin De—was a bad person, then he wasn’t worth crying over.

They’d met Sister Gu and Sheng-ge, who had helped them again and again. He had to remember this and tell his parents when they came back one day.

With the bad people gone, life at home should get easier, right?

Qin Tian clenched his little fists and stopped crying.

Sheng Zexi noticed out of the corner of his eye that the child had stopped crying, a look of determination gradually replacing the sadness in his eyes, and the corners of Sheng Zexi’s mouth lifted slightly.

Back at the Qin house in Kaoshan Village—

After Sheng Zexi left with Qin Tian, Grandma Qin took her medicine and fell asleep again.

Qin Qing, on the other hand, had cooked some coarse grain porridge and was drinking it. All their money had been spent on Grandma’s treatment, and what little they had left had been traded for coarse grains. Now, every meal at the Qin house was just coarse porridge. She even invited Gu Jianing to have some.

But Gu Jianing declined.

For one, she wasn’t hungry. For another, the coarse porridge was rough on the throat—Gu Jianing was delicate and couldn’t handle it.

Whether at home or now, following Sheng Zexi to the Northwest Military District, she’d never had to drink it.

The two chatted idly.

Until the sound of brakes came from outside, and Qin Qing immediately reacted, standing up.

When Sheng Zexi’s voice came from outside, Qin Qing hurried to open the door.

Gu Jianing watched Sheng Zexi approach from a distance, saw him nod, then looked at Qin Tian, whose eyes were still red. She more or less guessed the outcome.

Sure enough, the flashes of the future she’d seen were correct.

Meanwhile, at home, Qin De was still scheming how to coax Qin Tian into agreeing to go to Mincheng.

“Dad, hurry up and make Qin Tian’s family move out. I want to live in the big house,” Qin De’s son said, stuffing his mouth with braised pork.

Qin De’s wife chimed in, “When can we spend money openly, instead of sneaking around?”

She knew her husband had money, but their family had always been poor and jobless. Suddenly living well would arouse suspicion, so even eating meat had to be done in secret.

Qin De puffed on a cigarette—rare, expensive Da Qianmen—and replied, “Soon, soon.”

As long as he got rid of the old and the young in the Qin family, moved into their house, there’d be nothing left to worry about.

To be honest, the Qin De family had been poor.

But after Qin De started taking the money sent by Qin Zhihong and his wife, they weren’t poor anymore—or at least, they only looked poor on the surface. In reality, they could wear new clothes and eat meat from time to time.

Back then, when Grandma Qin asked him to check at the post office if Qin Zhihong and his wife had sent money home—

Qin De went, and sure enough, they had: seventy yuan a month.

Seventy yuan! Even now, the Qin De family hadn’t managed to save that much.

“This money might come every month from now on,” Lu Ping had muttered at the time.

Lu Ping was Qin De’s brother-in-law.

It was that offhand remark from Lu Ping that planted the seed of greed in Qin De’s heart.

Qin De didn’t know where Qin Zhihong and his wife had gone. He’d asked Grandma Qin, but the old lady wouldn’t say.

At the time, Qin De owed a lot of gambling debts. The collectors had threatened to break his arms and legs if he didn’t pay up.

His wife had said that if he didn’t get money soon, she’d leave him for someone else.

So, gritting his teeth, Qin De conspired with Lu Ping to steal the money, splitting it between them.

One month turned into two, then three...

Now, it had been eight years.

At first, Qin De had been worried—afraid Qin Zhihong and his wife would come back, afraid the truth would come out.

But as the years passed, with no word from them at all, Qin De thought, maybe they’d never come back. Maybe he could keep collecting this “salary” forever.

So, at first, he’d hoarded the money, hardly daring to spend it. But eventually, he started using it.

Until not long ago, when Qin De suddenly had a nightmare.

In the dream, Qin Zhihong and his wife came back, found out what he’d done, and punished him severely.

He woke up in a cold sweat, and started thinking about what to do.

“If there’s no one left in the Qin family, even if Qin Zhihong and his wife come back and get suspicious, there’ll be no one left to testify.”

“Yes, that’s it.”

So, hardening his heart, Qin De began plotting the deaths of the three remaining members of the Qin family.

Grandma Qin was old and sick—she could die of illness easily.

But the two children...

In the end, Qin De contacted human traffickers, making up a story about an apprenticeship at a woodworking factory in Mincheng, trying to trick Qin Tian into going with the traffickers."