Chapter 39 - 32: Reversal! The Decisive Ironclad Proof

"Stop!" Li Sheng said angrily.

Xu De took a few steps forward.

Li Sheng took half a step back, his muscles tensing as he stared daggers at the man. "One more step and we’re calling for help!" he said again.

Xu De kept advancing until they were nearly face-to-face.

He suddenly reached into his coat, as if about to pull something out.

Panic surged through Li Sheng. Every nerve screamed at him that he was in danger. Just as he was about to shout for help...

In that instant, Xu De pulled the object from his coat. It was...

Under the moonlight, a thick stack of red-tinged bills appeared in his hand.

Hundred-yuan notes!

A quick glance suggested it was at least several thousand yuan!

Li Sheng’s move to call for help froze mid-action. Beside him, Li Li was also stunned.

The standoff resumed, but this time, it didn’t last long.

SMACK!

With a stone-faced expression, Li Sheng took the money, peeled off half the stack, and handed it to Li Li beside him.

Then, the two of them turned to the side, stood by the road with their backs to the trio, and pretended they hadn’t seen a thing.

Phew~

Xu De let out a sigh of relief. He immediately beckoned with the hand behind his back, signaling for the others to hurry.

Lin Yue and Wang Chao clearly hadn’t expected things to be resolved so quickly. Without delay, they picked up the child and started walking away.

As the two passed by Xu De’s side...

Xu De was about to follow them, but he suddenly paused, glancing at Li Sheng and Li Li out of the corner of his eye.

’Three thousand yuan is all it takes to buy them off... If their moral baseline is this low, then...’

A glint flashed in his eyes, and he halted the foot he had just lifted.

Suddenly, he spoke up.

"Lawyer Wang, in your opinion, what’s the most vicious thing that happens in a village?"

Walking ahead, Wang Chao heard him and slowed down. He glanced back, puzzled. Although he didn’t understand the point of the question, he still answered.

"Preying on a family with no heirs, I’d say."

Wang Chao said casually,

"Usually, if a family has no children, or all the young and middle-aged men have died, leaving only widows and orphans, or just the elderly... it’s very difficult for them to stop others from taking everything they have."

The moment he said this...

At the village entrance, Li Sheng and Li Li, who had been about to leave, froze.

A family with no children, only the elderly...

A flicker of understanding passed through their eyes, and they stopped in their tracks.

Xu De continued walking forward slowly, remarking with a sigh,

"It’s true. After all, you’re talking about an entire family’s wealth, with almost no one capable of protecting it. If someone with ill intentions sets their sights on it, it would be very hard for two old people to hold on."

Then, his tone shifted abruptly as he continued,

"In the Wang Qiang case, the parents of the deceased, Li Erniu—Li Youcai and Liu Cui—they fit the description quite well."

"Tsk, and that family is really something. Their courtyard is twice the size of a normal one, and the land they were allocated is incredibly fertile. You should have seen it—it’s the kind of land where you could just toss a handful of seeds and get a bumper crop!"

"When Li Erniu was alive, it was one thing. But now that he’s dead..."

Li Erniu had been a brawny, intimidating man, but now he was dead, his body long since decomposed.

All that was left at home were Li Youcai and Liu Cui. The only child who could have grown up, Li Yang, was now apparently being taken away. So...

By the side of the road, Li Sheng and Li Li’s breathing grew softer. They glanced at each other, seeing the same calculating glint in the other’s eyes.

At that moment, however, Wang Chao shook his head and disagreed.

"Lawyer Xu, preying on a family like that can easily lead to someone getting killed."

"Honestly, it would be one thing if Li Youcai and Liu Cui got arrested for a crime. They wouldn’t be able to get out, and with no one to look after their home, their property would be completely up for grabs."

"By the time they got out, they’d be too old to even think about revenge!"

"But the problem is..."

As he spoke, Wang Chao clapped his hands together in frustration.

"Those two aren’t going to jail."

"If we had even a shred of physical evidence, we could legally put them away. But the reality is, we have nothing..."

That was right.

Li Youcai and Liu Cui weren’t going to jail. The police had no way of knowing if those two old-timers had been involved when Li Erniu bought Wang Mei all those years ago.

Wang Mei’s word alone wasn’t nearly enough.

Because the people of Li Family Village could easily back up Li Youcai’s story. He could claim that Li Erniu forced the two of them to watch over Wang Mei, pinning all the blame on a dead man. That wouldn’t constitute abetting or a separate crime.

"What a shame."

Xu De heaved a deep sigh and shook his head.

The two men said no more and continued on their way out of the village.

Behind them, Li Sheng and Li Li turned around. They watched the pair’s retreating figures, words catching in their throats, a desperate indecision twisting inside them. Their breathing grew more and more rapid.

Just as Xu De’s back was about to disappear into the shadows...

Li Li finally couldn’t hold back any longer. She immediately called out to stop them.

"Hey, uh, you! Wait up!"

"That couple, Li Youcai and his wife, they owe us money! Ten years ago, they borrowed a thousand yuan from my ma, and they still haven’t paid it back, even after she died!"

In the distance, Xu De’s pace faltered for a moment before resuming its normal speed. He sighed internally.

’A financial dispute over an unpaid loan... The courts and the police would only mediate. What good is that to me? It’s completely useless.’

But just as he was thinking this, her voice called out from behind him again.

"I remember my ma tellin’ me before she died, that was the money Li Youcai borrowed to buy his daughter-in-law."

Li Li added from behind him,

"And what’s more, the IOU says it plain as day, in black and white: ’Loan to buy a daughter-in-law.’ He even signed it and put his thumbprint on it!"

The moment those words fell...

TAP...

Xu De’s footsteps stopped.

His usually calm heart began to pound uncontrollably, beating like a drum. THUMP-THUMP-THUMP.

He turned around, looking at the anxiously waiting Li Sheng and Li Li. His breathing was slightly ragged. After a stunned moment, he spoke.

"Are you saying..."

"You have an IOU for human trafficking, with a precise date, signed and thumb-printed by Li Youcai and Liu Cui!?"

...

PS: After thinking it over, the author has decided to release this entire plot segment at once. It uses up some of my buffer Chapters, but it allows everyone to read it in one smooth go.

This is an 8,000-character Chapter today, which is equivalent to four Chapters for a normal author during their new book period!