“Shao Qihai, they’ve already seen your attitude. Bai Lu has also seen it, so let’s stop here. You’ve already abandoned them once. You can’t leave them behind again. The dead can’t be resurrected, but the living have to continue living.”

  Shao Qihai looked at Mu Jingzhe’s eyes and his already stiff legs went limp. He fell to his knees. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

  Three apologies. The first one was to Bai Lu, the person he had let down the most in his life, the second one was to the children, and the third one was to Mu Jingzhe.

  Mu Jingzhe sighed and took the key from Shao Qihai to open the door to Zhao Lan’s room.

  Zhao Lan had been silent for a while, but her eyes were still open and she hadn’t died. Indeed, good people didn’t live long, and scourges would live for a thousand years.

  Mu Jingzhe stood on the ground and looked down at Zhao Lan. She didn’t move for a moment. Zhao Lan’s eyes lit up when she heard the door open, filling with hope. She was saved… Saved…

  Zhao Lan looked up, but her eyes were blurry, so she couldn’t see clearly. She only saw a vague figure looking down at her.

  Their clothing was very white, and at the same time, it seemed very red. It reminded Zhao Lan of the ghost of Bai Lu that she had seen previously. “Don’t come over… Who are you… Help, help!”

  Logic told her that this was fake, but she was still afraid. She slowly moved back and told herself, “She’s Mu Jingzhe. She’s Mu Jingzhe…”

  Mu Jingzhe squatted down and edged closer to Zhao Lan’s ear. “Yes, I’m Mu Jingzhe. I’m not Bai Lu, but that doesn’t mean that Bai Lu isn’t here.”

  Mu Jingzhe’s voice was icy and sinister. “Zhao Lan, don’t think that just because the children and I are speaking up for you, you can escape this calamity. Your true suffering has just begun. You just experienced the taste of despair. You also experienced the feeling of hatred soaring to the sky. You yourself just said that you wouldn’t let Shao Qihai off even if you became a ghost. What do you think of Bai Lu? Does she hate you? Will she let you off?”

  Zhao Lan’s pupils constricted abruptly as she trembled. No, Bai Lu wouldn’t let her off.

  \r \r \r

  Zhao Lan’s lips quivered. She wanted to say something, but she couldn’t make a sound.

  Mu Jingzhe added, “Zhao Lan, you don’t know, right? Actually, people with grievances won’t reincarnate after being killed. They will stay beside the person who caused their death, watching them every day and biting their body. They won’t stop until the day they take revenge and know that their enemy has died.

  “Say, why did you end up in such a state after falling down such a short flight of stairs? Think about it yourself.”

  Zhao Lan’s eyes were wide open as she panted. “It was her… It was Bai Lu…”

  It was Bai Lu who had pushed her. Bai Lu had come to take revenge.

  “Get out of the way. Don’t look at me. Bai Lu, I know you’re here. Don’t come looking for me…”

  Mu Jingzhe finally stood up in satisfaction after seeing Zhao Lan go crazy.

  If Shao Qihai was torturing Zhao Lan’s body, then Mu Jingzhe was destroying her by attacking her psyche.

  In Mu Jingzhe’s opinion, it wasn’t enough for a person like Zhao Lan to die. However, even though she had helped persuade Shao Qihai in the end, this didn’t mean that she’d let Zhao Lan off.

  Mu Jingzhe lowered her head and looked at Zhao Lan’s horrified, crazed expression. She stood up and made way for the village chief and the rest to enter.

  The village doctor quickly checked Zhao Lan’s injuries and bandaged them. As for her waist injury… he said that there was nothing he could do.

  “She’s still alive, but she’s lost too much blood, and her waist is injured. It’ll all depend on how lucky she is now. It’s up to you whether you want to take her to the hospital or not.”

  After the village doctor finished his job, he didn’t care anymore, and neither did the village chief. Everything else would depend on Eldest Brother Shao and the others’ decision. Whether she would be taken to the hospital or die there was none of their business.

  They couldn’t just watch as Shao Qihai stopped them from interfering, but that was all they could do in the end.

  They couldn’t care less if Eldest Brother Shao took her to the hospital or not. This was their family matter. Everyone knew that when someone fell sick, they should be taken to the hospital, but no one could force anyone to do so. That was their own choice.

  If Zhao Lan survived, it would be because she got lucky. If she didn’t, she would deserve it.

  Initially, the Shao Residence was filled with people inside out. However, after the village doctor finished bandaging her wound and left, everyone else didn’t want to meddle in this matter anymore and left one after another. Each of them ran faster than the other, afraid that Eldest Brother Shao would ask for help to carry Zhao Lan to the hospital. Many of them didn’t want to help at all. In the blink of an eye, the courtyard was empty.

  Of course, there were also people who wanted to watch the show, but most of them were dragged home by their wives. With very few exceptions, most married women in the village had basically either given birth or were planning to give birth, unless they couldn’t conceive due to medical reasons. All women hated people like Zhao Lan. Even their mother-in-law and husband seemed like an eyesore to them now. They were afraid that they would learn from Zhao Lan.

  Just like that, they ran away. Eldest Brother Shao and Eldest Sister-In-Law Shao wanted to find someone to discuss if they should take her to the hospital, but no one paid them any heed.

  Due to their sh*tty personalities and stinginess, no one wanted to befriend the couple.

  Seeing Shao Qihai like that, they naturally didn’t dare look for him, for there was no chance in hell he would bother helping her. Shao Qiyang wasn’t around, but even if he were, he wouldn’t care either. Only Eldest Brother Shao could make this decision.

  This made things difficult for Eldest Brother Shao and Eldest Sister-In-Law Shao. Previously, when Shao Qihai hadn’t allowed them to interfere, they had been afraid that she would die, so they had asked the village doctor to come over and spoken about taking her to the hospital.

  However, they hesitated now that they could take her there. Were they really going to take her? If they did, it would easily cost a large sum of money. Now that they didn’t have Shao Qihai, their money bag, and they didn’t earn much money themselves, they didn’t have any money.

  Zhao Lan was in a daze and kept shouting ‘don’t come over’, making Eldest Sister-In-Law Shao feel even more afraid. Eldest Brother Shao kept refusing to make a decision and asking her what to do, so she was annoyed and she directly replied, “Who knows what you should do? She’s your mother, not my mother. Don’t ask me about everything. If I tell you to take her there, it’s going to cost money, and it’s not like we can afford it. If I say no, you’ll blame me if she dies.”

  They had lived together for more than ten years, so how could Eldest Sister-In-Law Shao not understand Eldest Brother Shao?

  In the past, she had given Eldest Brother Shao face and liked the feeling of being the head of the household. But now, she wasn’t going to make this decision for him. She wouldn’t bear the reputation of a vicious wife who had deliberately not taken her mother-in-law to the hospital and caused her to die.

  Eldest Sister-In-Law Shao got up and chased Fu, Lu, Shou, and Xǐ to school. “Stop looking. Go to school. The final exam is coming up soon. Don’t come in last.”

  She didn’t want the kids to get involved in this either. What did they know? Studying was more important. After chasing Fu, Lu, Shou, and Xǐ away, Eldest Sister-In-Law Shao wiped the blood off the ground with water. She just didn’t want to look at Eldest Brother Shao.

  Eldest Brother Shao was extremely vexed. He wanted to say something but stopped himself. He kept looking at Eldest Sister-In-Law Shao, but even after standing in the courtyard for half a day, he didn’t hear Eldest Sister-In-Law Shao make a decision. Since she wouldn’t make a decision, Eldest Brother Shao wouldn’t say anything either. In the end, by the time noon came around, Zhao Lan was still lying at home.

  Eldest Brother Shao wanted to wait for someone in the village to say something, but in the end, no one did. He also wanted to wait for Shao Qihai and Shao Qiyang to come back and say something, but that was clearly a dream.