Chapter 25: Strike First to Gain the Upper Hand

“My son!” Madam Bai burst into tears. “No, you have to find a way to get my son out of there—”

“If it really doesn’t work, we’ll go to the Fu family, find Fu Mingxue, and make her let my son go. She took so much money from us before—how dare she have my son arrested?”

Madam Bai’s eyes were bloodshot, filled with hatred.

If Fu Mingxue happened to be standing in front of her right now, she’d probably tear her apart with her bare hands.

Bai Siqi gritted her teeth and said, “That’s right, let’s go find her. Their family goes back on their word—”

“Calm down, both of you. If you go to them now, they definitely won’t give you a letter of forgiveness. They already said yesterday that these are two separate matters. Yesterday’s case made that clear.”

Song Yan’s words made Madam Bai furious.

She glared at him with red eyes. “This is all your fault! Why didn’t you get things straight at the time? If you’d been more careful, how would my son have ended up arrested again?”

Compared to a good son-in-law, her own son was obviously more important.

“Mom, it was indeed my oversight. But if you go to them now, it’s really not appropriate. Do you want this matter to blow up and become the talk of the town?”

As soon as he said this, both Madam Bai and her daughter turned pale.

If they made a scene, there’d be no way to keep Bai Chunsheng’s arrest a secret.

Just then, Father Bai came out, his face dark and stormy. “Song Yan, you said my son’s been arrested?”

Song Yan looked at his bleary-eyed father-in-law and nodded. “—Yes.”

“Was it that Fu mother and daughter who reported him?” Father Bai’s face was murderous.

“Yes, it was them. Yesterday they extorted eight hundred yuan from us, and then turned around and had Chunsheng arrested. He’s our only son—you have to find a way to get him out.”

“Damn it, I’ll go settle the score with them—”

Just as Father Bai was about to rush out, the front door was suddenly pounded on, hard.

“Bai family! Get your asses out here—!”

The Bai family was stunned for a moment, then realized who was outside.

They couldn’t believe it.

“Damn, I haven’t even gone to find her, and she dares to come to our door first— I’ll kill her—”

Father Bai stormed over to open the door in a rage.

The others hurried after him.

Just as Father Bai opened the door, a wooden pole came swinging straight at his head.

He wasn’t prepared at all and didn’t have time to dodge—he took the blow full on.

“You evil people! My daughter really was pushed into the river by your Bai Chunsheng, you heartless bastards—”

Madam Fu was strong—she struck him several more times, each blow landing squarely on Father Bai.

He couldn’t dodge at all.

Father Bai howled in pain, “Damn it, stop—ow, you’re killing me—”

“I’m beating you because you’re a lousy father! What a fine son and daughter you’ve raised. Just to steal my daughter’s acceptance letter, you plotted to harm her. On such a cold day, that brute Bai Chunsheng actually pushed my daughter into the river, and even hired someone to do it!”

“Everyone, come out and see! This heartless family is rotten to the core!”

Madam Fu’s voice was loud as she chased Father Bai around, beating him with the pole and shouting at the top of her lungs.

None of the neighbors had left for work yet, so they all came out to see what the commotion was about.

After hearing what happened, they were all shocked.

Good heavens, could this really be true?

Madam Bai and her daughter looked at the fierce Madam Fu, and then at the crowd of neighbors gathered at the door—they didn’t dare step forward to stop her."

"**Chapter 26: Those of You Who Live Nearby, Better Watch Yourselves**

When Mrs. Fu heard the news, her first thought was to strike first and gain the upper hand.

After all, if she didn’t go looking for the Bai family, the Bai family would soon come looking for her.

If, by then, that Bai mother and daughter came and knelt at her doorstep—wouldn’t all the good luck of her family be ruined by their bad luck?

Not to mention, if they started making a scene and crying, wouldn’t the neighbors be moved by their tears and think the Fu family was being too harsh?

The best way to resolve a conflict, in her mind, was to confront it head-on and act first.

So, as more and more neighbors gathered around, Mrs. Fu began her accusations:

“This heartless family, why do they insist on targeting a widow and her orphaned daughter like us?”

“In order for Bai Siqi to steal my daughter’s university admission letter, their family has truly shown their viciousness! Bai Chunsheng paid someone to push my daughter into the river, then had that beast Song Yan pretend to save her.”

“If my daughter had really been ‘rescued’ by him in front of all those people on the riverbank, wouldn’t she have been forced to marry that beast? He can’t bear to have Bai Siqi stay at his house to take care of those three little kids and his bedridden mother, so he wants to drag my daughter into that pit of fire instead!”

The crowd was stunned, their eyes growing wider at the explosive revelations.

Heavens, could this really be true?

Song Yan’s face turned ashen. He hadn’t expected Mrs. Fu to drag him into this, too.

He couldn’t just stand by any longer.

He immediately stepped forward. “Auntie, you can’t just make things up like that. Slander is a crime, and besides, you’re slandering a soldier—”

“Pah! How am I slandering you? And you, do you even deserve to be called a soldier? I’ll report you to your unit right now! People like you should be kicked out. Don’t you dare try to pin this on me, thinking you can scare me with your accusations!”

“Didn’t you jump into the river yesterday? And didn’t you send a matchmaker to my house right after? You’ve got the nerve to accuse me here—tell me, did I say a single thing that wasn’t true? I think you’re one of the masterminds behind all this!”

Song Yan’s voice grew harsher. “Auntie, stop making trouble out of nothing. Fu Mingxue fell into the river, and I just happened to be passing by, so I instinctively tried to save her. Even if it wasn’t her, I’d have done the same for anyone. As for sending a matchmaker, that was because—”

A clear, bright voice cut him off:

“Because you just wanted to find some fool to marry into your family and take on all the burdens for Bai Siqi. When I took back my admission letter, you and Bai Siqi chased after me together, clearly trying to snatch it from me. I already told the police everything about that yesterday.”

“As for the admission letter, I was willing to forgive you all, since you begged so pitifully and said there were young children at home. But I never expected Bai Chunsheng would really try to harm me. If he hadn’t been caught and confessed to the police himself, I wouldn’t have believed you all could be so vicious.”

Song Yan glared at Fu Mingxue, his eyes dark and stormy, fists clenched tight.

Seeing his menacing look, Mrs. Fu immediately stepped in front of her daughter, glaring back fiercely.

“What, you want to hit my daughter now? Let me tell you, Bai Chunsheng is a rotten scoundrel, and don’t even think about getting any letter of forgiveness from us. He deserves whatever punishment he gets!”

And she wasn’t done yet—she turned to the neighbors and called out,

“All of you who live nearby, you’d better keep your eyes open! This family is rotten to the core—who knows when they’ll start scheming against you next!”

The neighbors: …?

Song Yan: …?

The Bai family of three: ?…"