Classmate Li Zhuangsheng doesn’t want to be reborn

Chapter 742 IF·0·14
“The police have already compiled the surveillance footage, so we can just go directly there.” After putting down his phone, Li Minghua pondered for a moment, “However, it wouldn’t be good for so many of us to go all at once. I think I’ll just take Li Zhuangsheng with me.”

Everyone nodded in agreement, and Hu's mother even said she would make noodles to wait for Li Zhuangsheng to return.

"Mengdie, would you like to come and take a look together?" Chen Lanying gently patted Hu Mengdie's hand with a smile.

She noticed Hu Mengdie's coldness towards Li Zhuangsheng, but she didn't think too much of it, assuming it was a normal reaction after amnesia. Hu Mengdie was probably just a little lost; letting her spend more time with Li Zhuangsheng would surely increase their mutual affection, wouldn't it?
Hu Mengdie remained silent, but a look of resistance was already visible on her face.

"That's right, Mengdie, why don't you go with Zhuang Sheng and see what's going on? See if they can find out where you were yesterday!"

Mother Hu echoed, saying that she and Chen Lanying shared the same thought.

Hu's father looked at Hu Mengdie and said in an unquestionable tone, "Hu Mengdie, you should stay with Zhuang Sheng. That way, you can find out what's going on!"

Hu Mengdie trembled, biting her lip, her eyes silently welling up with tears.

“Um…” Li Zhuangsheng suddenly raised his hand and said weakly, “She must be dizzy and tired today. I think we should let her rest more and not let her run around.”

Li Zhuangsheng didn't know how to address his wife, Hu Mengdie, as if even calling her by her given name would be extremely inappropriate, so he simply used "she" instead.

Li Zhuangsheng looked at Chen Lanying with pleading eyes. Chen Lanying understood her son's plea and immediately smiled, pointing to Li Zhuangsheng's head:

"Oh dear, you don't remember anything, but you still know how to love your wife!"

Everyone laughed, and so it was decided that Li Minghua would take Li Zhuangsheng to the police station.

Li Zhuangsheng then looked at Chen Lanying: "My dad must be tired after a long day at work. Mom, can you take me with you?"

Chen Lanying sighed: "Your dad is taking you, why would I take you? Your dad and your Uncle Yan are good buddies, it would be awkward if I took you!"

Although she loved her son dearly, she was still able to make sense in crucial moments. She knew that Li Minghua was the best choice.

Besides, the Hu family of three is all here now, and the house can't be left unattended.

"Li Xiuyu, since you're free anyway, why don't you come with me?" Li Zhuangsheng forcibly pulled Li Xiuyu along.

Li Xiuyu was furious and couldn't help but complain, "Damn it, Hu Mengdie is tired but I'm not! Who drove you to the hospital and accompanied you to your check-up all day today!"

"Stop talking nonsense, let's go!" Li Zhuang forcibly dragged Li Xiuyu out with him.

Li Xiuyu complained, but still followed Li Zhuangsheng as he put on his shoes and went out.

"If Dad beats me up later, you have to stop him!" Li Zhuangsheng whispered to Li Xiuyu.

Although he felt there shouldn't be any security cameras in his house, he was still incredibly nervous, just like any other high school student. What if Li Minghua saw him cheating on his wife with his sister-in-law on the security camera? He'd beat him to a pulp!

This is also why Li Zhuangsheng didn't allow Hu Mengdie to come along and hoped that Chen Lanying would take him instead.

Of course, Li Zhuangsheng didn't allow Hu Mengdie to come along because he saw her resistance. If she didn't want to, why force her?

"Call my sister."

Li Xiuyu smiled, wondering what Li Zhuangsheng was thinking.

"A true man cannot be subdued by force, I will not shout!" Li Zhuangsheng said with great determination.

"Then you can just wait to be beaten to death!"

"……elder sister."

"good!"

Li Xiuyu smiled smugly.

Li Zhuangsheng endured humiliation and hardship.

"Actually, don't be afraid. You're already 26 years old. He won't hit you."

Li Zhuang thought to himself, "Is this how you say you're not afraid? You've never been beaten by Seven Wolves!"

Thinking to himself, Li Zhuangsheng silently got into the car. Li Minghua didn't say much the whole way, his face somewhat gloomy.

“Dad…” Li Zhuangsheng asked tentatively.

"It's alright. If they don't find anything wrong, your mom will take you to Nanjing Brain Hospital for further treatment tomorrow."

Li Minghua forced a smile and reassured him.

Hearing Li Minghua's unusually gentle voice, Li Zhuangsheng finally breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that his affair with his sister-in-law last night would not be exposed.

Damn it, I've been thinking about this the whole time, and I haven't cared about anything else. It's true what they say, you can't do anything wrong. Once you do something wrong, you'll be paranoid and guilty about everything!

The three arrived at the police station and were taken to a small room where a police officer took over, asking Li Zhuangsheng what he remembered and what happened after he woke up last night.

Li Zhuangsheng answered all the questions, but he only talked about his relationship with Hu Mengdie and how Li Minghua kicked him out of the bridal chamber after he returned home.

As for what he did after returning to the new house, Li Zhuangsheng was extremely vague, only saying that he ate some food and went straight to sleep because he was too sleepy.

The person on the other end noticed the flicker in Li Zhuangsheng's eyes, but did not press him for details in front of Li Minghua and Director Yan.

The group watched the surveillance footage, which showed that Li Zhuangsheng went to work normally in the morning, but became noticeably more nervous when he left work in the evening, pedaling his bicycle very fast.

At this point, a police officer added that Li Zhuangsheng had received a call from Hu Mengke.

At this moment, Li Minghua was deep in thought, Li Xiuyu looked thoughtful, and Li Zhuangsheng was very nervous.

In the surveillance footage, Li Zhuangsheng quickly entered the residential area, but soon after, he hurriedly ran out again, looking somewhat bewildered.

Then he received a text message inviting him to the Shanshui Park.

The scene shifts to a mountain and water park, where a long-haired woman is meeting Li Zhuangsheng.

The park's surveillance footage was too blurry, and Li Minghua couldn't even make out her face.

"Who is this person?"

Li Zhuangsheng turned to ask Li Xiuyu, assuming that Li Xiuyu was also a new friend he had made in recent years... or perhaps, like Hu Mengke, had a relationship similar to that of a lover.

Please, please, please don't let it be the latter!

Li Xiuyu stared at the screen for a long time but still couldn't recognize him. She just vaguely felt that he looked familiar.

However, it doesn't matter if they don't recognize each other. The surveillance footage shows that the two were just walking and chatting in the park, then went to KFC, ate something, and came back to say goodbye.

There were no abnormalities during this period.

"So that lock and that scarf were gifts from her!"

As Li Zhuangsheng watched the two part ways, the other person gave him his scarf, and he couldn't help but sigh. Although the lock was heavy and made his hands ache from the cold, the scarf was very warm. He was so grateful for the scarf that kept him from getting too cold after walking so long in the dark last night.

"Who is this woman?" Li Xiuyu grumbled and nudged Li Zhuangsheng.

"I don't know, how am I supposed to ask you? The picture is too blurry... but the person looks familiar..."

Wait a minute, Li Zhuangsheng suddenly felt like he recognized her! While fiddling with his phone today, he realized he had been in contact with a girl last night.

Before he could think any further, Li Zhuangsheng opened the box, seemed to have discovered something, and tried to make a phone call, but then gave up. He sent a text message, and then his phone seemed to run out of battery and shut down automatically. He then left the Shanshui Park.

Surveillance footage shows him walking into a nearby shop, buying some beer with cash, then sitting in a pavilion by the mountain and water to drink, before Hu Mengdie arrived.

The two seemed to have had some kind of argument. Hu Mengdie seemed to want to please him, but Li Zhuangsheng was rather indifferent.

Perhaps he was drunk, or perhaps for some other reason, Li Zhuangsheng lay down by the pavilion. Hu Mengdie seemed to want to take him away, but she couldn't support him for a moment, and the two of them fell to the ground, as if they had fallen into a coma.

After lying there for about a minute, the two woke up, and from that moment on, their behavior became slightly strange.

"This is it! My memories begin after I got up from the ground!" Li Zhuangsheng pointed excitedly at the screen.

The scene was paused, and Director Yan looked at Li Minghua: "That should be it. There was no criminal case, and no other third party involved. Zhuang Sheng and your daughter-in-law's amnesia should be related to that fall."

Li Minghua frowned deeply: "The fall didn't seem that serious, so how come they all lost their memories, and their last memories were all from the same day?"

Director Yan nodded in agreement: "This is indeed very strange, but I think we can consult a doctor... Although it's still very strange, how about you give me your son and daughter-in-law's phones and I'll check them carefully for you? Or tomorrow, I'll check your daughter-in-law's whereabouts for that day?"

"...No need, thank you, Brother Yan." Li Minghua.

"If so..."

Director Yan shook his head. He felt that Li Minghua was acting strangely, as if he had remembered something.

But since the other party didn't mention it, it wasn't appropriate for me to meddle. The head of the other party's unit was recently investigated by the disciplinary committee, and he certainly wouldn't be able to escape unscathed. It was time for Li Minghua to make a move.

Li Minghua quietly led Li Xiuyu and Li Zhuangsheng home. When the car arrived at the apartment building, Li Minghua smiled and said, "Son, you go home first. We're out of soy sauce. Xiuyu and I will go buy some!"

Li Zhuangsheng didn't think much of it and obediently got out of the car and went upstairs. Li Minghua gestured for Li Xiuyu to follow him, and the father and daughter silently walked to the supermarket at the entrance of the community and bought a bottle of soy sauce.

"It's my fault, I knew something was off about that kid a long time ago!"

After remaining silent the whole way, Li Minghua finally spoke.

“His mental instability didn’t just appear overnight,” Li Xiuyu said.

"Xiuyu, tell me honestly, does your sister-in-law... have someone else on the side?"

Li Xiuyu looked at Li Minghua with some surprise, while Li Minghua's eyes flashed with a complex light.

“…Li Zhuangsheng didn’t tell me,” she said.

"He really didn't tell you?" Li Minghua stared at Li Xiuyu. "Your brother is in this state. At a time like this, you shouldn't be hiding anything from me."

“He certainly didn’t say that…” Li Xiuyu said calmly. “I was also guessing that Li Zhuangsheng had discovered that Hu Mengdie was having an affair… but thinking about it, that shouldn’t be the case.”

"why?"

“If he believed it was Hu Mengdie’s fault, he wouldn’t have been so conflicted and evasive a few days ago.”

After leaving Zhang Qixiang's liquor store today, Li Xiuyu was certain that Li Zhuangsheng's recent dejection was due to that video.

Whether Hu Mengdie actually cheated is still uncertain, but Li Zhuangsheng certainly doesn't think so, or rather, he didn't discover it.

"Is it……"

Li Minghua was skeptical. Although he was Li Zhuangsheng's father, he knew he was far less familiar with his son than Li Xiuyu.

This is also the awkward predicament faced by most families, where fathers and sons rarely understand each other.

Based on Li Zhuangsheng's behavior in the past few days and Hu Mengdie's actions in tonight's surveillance video, it seems that he can only conclude that Hu Mengdie "had someone else" and was caught by Li Zhuangsheng.

Even though Li Xiuyu denied this claim, the seeds of doubt were still sown.

He had a good impression of Hu's parents, but in his eyes, Hu Mengke was a good-for-nothing delinquent. With a sister like that, it was hard to guarantee that the older sister would be dignified and virtuous.

He used to like Hu Mengdie, his daughter-in-law, very much, finding her beautiful and sensible, but now he wasn't so sure. That's why he refused Director Yan's further assistance just now.

He worried that if the other party continued to investigate, they might actually uncover some family scandals that should not be made public.

“I really can’t get away from work lately, so I’ll have your mom take them to the Nanjing hospital tomorrow,” Li Minghua said. “I’ll ask for leave from his workplace.”

“I’ll go with you.”

"That's good, it'll be good to have someone to look after you." Li Minghua nodded slightly. "You can also ask your sister-in-law more questions."

After discussing their matter, the father and daughter returned home. Li Zhuangsheng was eating noodles without a care in the world.

"Xiuyu, do you want some handmade noodles that Auntie made herself? They taste delicious!" Li Zhuangsheng buried his head in the bowl.

"Auntie..."

Mother Hu's gaze shifted slightly, a hint of melancholy in her eyes; the way she addressed her sounded very unnatural.

"You eat, I'm not hungry."

Li Xiuyu glanced at Hu Mengdie indifferently; Hu Mengdie also seemed to have no appetite.

In fact, Li Xiuyu suspected that Hu Mengdie was pretending, but if she really was pretending, then her acting skills at this moment were too good.

But to say that the two of them lost their memories of the same period at the same time is too coincidental to be believable.

He has photos of Hu Mengdie and Qi Haoyu, but those photos are not conclusive evidence... and given the current chaotic situation, showing the photos would only make things worse.

If Hu Mengdie had cheated on her husband, she would have already checked her phone and probably already knew about it... In fact, Li Xiuyu also knew that Hu Mengdie's feelings for Li Zhuangsheng were genuine.

After Li Zhuangsheng finished his noodles, the two families sat down together to discuss their next steps and ultimately decided that the two mothers would take Li and Hu to Nanjing for medical treatment.

Li Zhuangsheng sat next to Li Xiuyu the whole time, while Hu Mengdie remained quiet and silent, as if none of this concerned her.

Finally, seeing that it was getting late, the Hu couple prepared to say goodbye and leave.

"Then tonight, Mengdie can stay at the new house with Zhuang Sheng. Mengke is home today, so no one will bother you two," Hu's father said to Hu Mengdie. "Anyway, you're already married, and you'll be together for the rest of your lives!"

Hu Mengdie's face instantly turned ugly. She bit her lip, and her body trembled slightly.

(End of this chapter)