Chapter 2778 - 2840: Family With Children

They caught quite a lot of crayfish, everyone had a taste, and the remaining hundred-odd were all packed up to take home—these days even if you want to buy this kind of delicacy, you just can’t get it.

The matter of the graveyard was still not over; Li Yifei left five security guards there to continue handling things and to communicate with Xie Zizai and the others. Just as he was about to leave, a few more cars came up from the foot of the mountain. A whole bunch of people piled out, and at a glance at the situation, Li Yifei knew these were probably local government officials. As they came over, one man walked in front, looking very agitated, and when he was still a few meters away he reached out his hand and said, "You must be Mr. Li? Hello, I’m the town head, my name is Li Changsheng. I feel very sorry about what happened earlier!"

"Oh, hello." Li Yifei reached out, shook his hand, and let go quickly.

Town Head Li was full of apology. He said, "The people who broke the law have already been arrested. I’ve come to explain this matter to you. This stretch of mountain was never sold to the Song Family; the Song Family colluded with the village head to try to swallow state assets. They were even planning to cut down all the trees on the mountain and sell them. This has already been investigated clearly, and that village head is now in police custody for further investigation."

"It’s fine, don’t be so nervous. It’s not that big a deal—there are just some people who’ve long needed to be cleaned up, or they’ll keep harming the whole area." Li Yifei said.

Town Head Li nodded over and over. In front of Li Yifei... he didn’t have the slightest confidence; the other party’s status was simply too high. On top of that, this kind of incident made him worry it might implicate him. The County Head had personally called to curse him out: the Li family’s ancestral grave is here, so how could he not say anything earlier, and almost let someone dig up the Li family’s ancestral grave? It hadn’t quite happened, but if Li Yifei and the others hadn’t come, it would have soon. If that had happened, the issue would have blown up much more.

After getting scolded, Town Head Li kept nodding and hurried over with his people.

"Thank you, Mr. Li, for being understanding. It’s our dereliction of duty; we didn’t know about this beforehand, or we’d never have let it happen." Town Head Li said.

"Wipe your sweat, don’t be nervous. I don’t intend to blame you. But that Song Family really does need to be dealt with—waving around a police gun, and even firing at my security guards. If he dares open fire on my guards today, he’ll dare shoot someone dead tomorrow, wouldn’t you say?"

"Yes, yes, on that point please rest assured—setting aside everything else, just the gun alone means he’s suspected of illegal use of firearms and attempted murder!"

"Mm, that’s good. All right, there’s nothing much else. In a while I’ll pick a day to have the ancestral grave repaired, that’ll be enough, and you don’t need to come out again."

"Repair the grave? Then let us handle that. Mr. Li, you’re so busy, you don’t need to come for everything yourself. I guarantee we’ll get it done!"

Hearing his guarantee, Li Yifei looked back at a few of his aunts and said, "That works too. I’ll settle the costs with you—labor and materials and all that, you’ll take charge."

"No, no, there’s no need. Mr. Li’s ancestral home is here with us, you’ve brought us so much honor. As fellow villagers, helping you fix up your ancestral grave is something we ought to do!"

"All right, then I’ll trouble you with it." Li Yifei didn’t insist.

At the intersection, Li Yifei invited a few aunts and relatives to come stay at his house for a while, but they all refused, saying they’d come during New Year. Li Yifei didn’t push it. The two sides parted ways, and Li Yifei took the remaining bodyguards and the two women back home.

On the way, Chu Xiaoyao read out the replies from the other women; those who couldn’t come all said they were sorry, and especially missing out on Li Yifei’s personally grilled crayfish—everyone was full of complaints over that. Li Yifei promised them that once they were home he’d set up a barbecue stall; as long as they wanted to eat, he’d grill.

"Then let’s grill more, I want to eat other things too." Chu Xiaoyao said at the right moment, and Li Yifei agreed.

So once they got back home, Li Yifei began his barbecue career. That day alone he grilled two to three hundred skewers. He was just short of putting on a little white cap and yelling out, "Delicious lamb skewers, come get your lamb skewers," and only then were the women finally satisfied. They ate a lot of the crayfish they’d brought back, and Li Yifei gave the rest to the security guards so they could split them and try the taste.

Sometimes what you miss is that childhood that will never come back. Li Yifei remembered once when it was so cold, yet after school he still threw down his schoolbag and rode his bike straight to the small river. Some spots on the river were even frozen over. Late autumn is the best season to catch frogs, especially a kind of wood frog, also called oil frog; it’s said to be a medicinal ingredient and also a very delicious food. Back then there were plenty of them there, and a single female could sell for four or five yuan. When Li Yifei was little, four or five yuan for one frog was basically a fortune: a piece of candy was only five cents, sometimes three for a dime, so catching one frog meant you could buy a pile of candy. A spicy strip was five cents, and a big bag was only a couple of yuan. So catching wood frogs to sell was a major source of extra income at the time.

But that day Li Yifei was unlucky. While catching frogs at the riverbank, he toppled headfirst into the water. His clothes got completely soaked, and he was freezing. The water was especially deep there, and Li Yifei almost didn’t make it back up. So once he got home, his mother gave him a thorough beating—utterly miserable. Back then he’d felt terrified, but thinking back now, Li Yifei actually wishes his mother could hit him again. No matter how much it hurt, he wouldn’t dodge.

Of course, that’s just wishful thinking. The night stars were unusually clear and bright; lying on a deck chair, Li Yifei looked up at the sky, and his parents’ faces vaguely appeared there. His emotions, which rarely shifted, rippled for once. A child longing to care for his parents only to find they are no longer there—that is one of the great sorrows of the human world.

The next day, Li Yifei got up as usual and saw his eldest son dressed in a very cool outfit, trotting over, calling "Daddy" as he ran. Li Yifei bent down and picked him up, smiling as he asked, "What’s up? Coming to look for Daddy this early?"

"Daddy, Daddy, I just missed you, so I came. And Mommy’s going to work. She said, ’Go, go find your daddy,’ so I came, even though I don’t know why."

"Ha, then today you can tag along with Daddy. Daddy will take you guys to the garden." Li Yifei laughed.

"Okay, okay! But my tummy is really hungry. Can we eat first?"

"Sure. Daddy hasn’t eaten either. Let’s see who can eat more."

"I’ll definitely win, because I eat a lot. Mommy always says, how can I eat so much, and still not hurry up and grow taller?"

"All right, let’s have a contest!"

Father and son each quickly took a plate of food and buried their heads in eating. There were several boys in the house, and the other two were still little, but already one or two years old and talking quite fluently. Su Mengxin’s child was the eldest son; under his mother’s teaching and her genes, he was already showing very outstanding qualities, and his IQ was high—like a little old soul. As for the other two children, Jiang Ningxiang’s child had to embark on the path of cultivation from a young age, so Li Yifei felt for him. Cultivation is tough and dry work; no matter how gifted you are, without hard training afterward and a certain amount of luck, it still won’t work.

The other child was Li Xinyue’s. Li Yifei was very fond of her too; her child was the most delicate-looking, just like her mother, and had the nickname of little princess. All the kids were wonderful; Li Yifei loved every one of them. So whenever he had the chance, he’d play with the children.

Today the garden was once again a sea of joy, because all the kids were here except for the eldest and second daughters who had school. Normally they all played together, so they didn’t fight. Today Li Yifei didn’t have to be their beast of burden.

Right up till noon, the kids played themselves tired and hungry. After they’d bathed, they ate and then took their naps. Li Yifei was freed up. There weren’t many people at home today; everyone had gone out to work, even Na Yi had gone out. Only Li Yifei was left—at least for the moment it seemed that way—so he went back to his room.

The case of that pervert in Black Province had hit a dead end; the police were at a loss. Some basic evidence now pointed at Li Yifei, but it was all ambiguous and not the most direct proof. They suspected that in the second killing of the pervert’s parents, the murderer might have been provoking them, as if saying: You cops are investigating, aren’t you? Fine, I’ll keep killing. Let’s see how you manage to catch me.

In this way, the police were also goaded. Faced with such a cruel killer, many of them were holding back a fierce determination to track him down.

It’s just that the killer was extremely cautious in committing the crimes. Right now they only had that one piece of footage that might be the killer, and even that was hard to verify; they didn’t even know if it really showed the killer’s doing.

Li Yifei wasn’t paying much attention. He had a few files in hand, all information from the covert investigations during this period. The intel showed that Black Province was now united under the Zhao Family, and they had indeed consolidated their grip. The Zhao Family had somehow brought in a large batch of experts, and it was precisely because of these experts that the Zhao Family could unify Black Province in such a short time. Whenever those experts appeared, anyone who didn’t obey would immediately be dealt with. Over the past year, five or six medium and large families in Black Province had vanished into thin air. All their direct relatives had disappeared. After police investigation, there were no findings at all, as if those people had collectively traveled through time. Of course, disappearing so suddenly could only mean they’d been killed.

But with no bodies and no evidence, there wasn’t a single clue; they’d just vanished. After these incidents, the other families in Black Province agreed to form an alliance and obey the Zhao Family’s command. So it wasn’t hard to guess that those missing family members were the Zhao Family’s doing.

Their ambitions were not small, and they’d been plotting for a long time. Starting a while ago, the Zhao Family, having unified their own province, began preparing to move against neighboring Ning Province. First they cut off all of the major Ning Province families’ industries in Black Province, in every field, clearing them out across the board. Only the Li family’s industries remained intact, with no covert moves taken against them.

On this, Li Yifei harbored no illusions. Everyone else had been targeted, but the Li family hadn’t been touched? Impossible. The other side was definitely holding back some hidden move. Right now the key was to figure out where those experts had come from—such fighters don’t just appear out of thin air.