1990s: Spring Water Family

Chapter 266 My cousin caused a scene at the Zhang family's house and took another daughter with her.

How can you talk like that?

Zhang Hongmei's mother-in-law yelled, adopting the manner of a shrew: "Why should we admit it just because you tell us to? Who do you think you are?"

"Because I'm her cousin."

My cousin exuded an air of dominance: "I've watched her grow up since she was little, and I know the whole story. Don't even think about making excuses. If you really push me too far, we'll see you in court. Once the paternity test results are out, you won't be able to deny it anymore."

"What do you want with her?"

Zhang Hongmei's father-in-law chimed in from the side.

"I don't want to do anything, I just came to recognize my relatives."

My cousin scoffed, about to add, "Let her see the true colors of her biological parents."

Before he could even finish speaking, Zhang Ershan, who had been silent with a gloomy face, suddenly said, "We can acknowledge her, as long as you pay the fine. I don't mind raising another daughter."

"I bother!"

My cousin spat back at me.

What do you need her for?

Zhang Hongmei's mother-in-law's expression also changed; she couldn't understand what her son was planning.

This girl is alright looking. If we raise her a few more years, she can marry a rich older man and get a good dowry to help his younger brother find a wife.
Zhang Ershan was plotting to sell his daughter, but he couldn't say it directly. He kept giving his mother meaningful glances.

"Son, what happened to your eyes? Did they upset you?"

His mother was quite something; she didn't understand what her son meant and mistakenly thought he had a twitching eye. She even tried to turn the tables and use this as an excuse to extort some medical expenses.

"His eyes weren't glared from anger, they were bulging with malice."

My cousin laughed in exasperation and retorted with a mix of cursing and insults.

"I don't want her to be my older sister!"

Before Zhang Ershan and his mother could retort, a rather sturdy little boy rushed out of the house yelling.

"Zhuangzhuang, why are you out here?"

"It's cold outside, hurry back inside."

When Zhang Hongmei's parents-in-law saw their grandson, their expressions immediately changed, and their concerned demeanor seemed particularly jarring at that moment.

A slender girl then emerged, watching the scene with a cold eye and a sarcastic smile playing on her lips.

"You know nothing, kid!"

"I did it all for you."

Zhang Ershan was so angry that his son ruined his plans that he almost kicked him.

"I knew you were planning this."

My cousin saw through my act and her eyes filled with disgust: "How can there be such a heartless father like you? You have no regard for family ties and would do anything for money."

"We didn't ask for any money when we gave her away."

Zhang Ershan was a scoundrel to begin with, and upon hearing this, he simply abandoned all pretense of decency and retorted, "What you said has reminded me that we can't just give our daughter away for nothing. You have to pay up, or you're not taking her away today."

"Nana."

My cousin turned to look at Nana and asked, "Do you want to stay in this house?"

"No, I don't want to."

Nana shuddered in fear.

"it is good."

My cousin was satisfied, and her fighting spirit went straight to the max.

"I bother!"

Turning back, she spat directly at him: "I've seen shameless people, but I've never seen anyone as shameless as you. You dare to ask us for money? Come on, come on, believe me, if you dare to reach out, I'll chop your hand off!"

"You crazy woman, how dare you cause trouble in my house?"

Zhang Ershan didn't take his cousin seriously and deliberately acted tough, raising his fist to hit her: "Damn it, I'll beat you up."

Who do you want to beat up?

Gu Bin acted decisively, grabbing his wrist and twisting it behind his back.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch, it hurts so much!"

Zhang Ershan is just a good-for-nothing. He can act tough in the village and harass women, but he's actually not very capable.

Gu Bin restrained him, kicked him hard, and forced him to kneel on the ground.

"Hey, what do you want to do?"

"Let my son go."

Zhang Hongmei's mother-in-law got angry and rushed over to try to pull him away.

Her cousin grabbed her arm and shook her off.

"Let's see who dares to make a move now."

Gu Bin used more force, twisting Zhang Ershan's arm into a pretzel shape.

Zhang Ershan let out a bloodcurdling scream like a pig being slaughtered.

"Let him go, we don't want the money anymore, we don't want it."

Zhang Ershan's mother was so frightened that she kept waving her hands.

"That's what you said"

Her cousin deliberately threatened her: "When did we say we were going to give you money? From the beginning, it was your son who was extorting you. Such a heinous act must be severely punished. I'm calling the police right now and taking legal action. If I don't sue your son and send him to jail, I'm not Liu!"

"No, I don't want to go to jail."

When Zhang Ershan heard that he was going to jail, he was so scared that he almost wet his pants.

Please, please don't call the police.

"We don't want this child anymore, we really don't want it."

“Take her away. From now on, she has nothing to do with us. We’ll pretend she never had this child.”

Zhang Hongmei and her parents-in-law were also terrified, their faces turning pale, and they kept begging for mercy.

"Nana, did you hear that?"

Having achieved her goal, my cousin lost all interest in continuing the conflict.

"I heard."

Nana glared at her mother with resentment and couldn't help but shed tears.

"Let's go, we'll never come back to this place again."

My cousin bent down and wiped away her tears with heartache.

Gu Bin shook off Zhang Ershan and clapped his hands in disgust.

"Please, take me with you."

Zhang Dashan's eldest daughter, Zhang Juan, mustered her courage just as they were about to leave, rushed out of the main room, and grabbed her cousin's arm.

Why are you coming with us?

My cousin paused, her eyes wide with surprise.

"If I don't leave, my dad will beat me to death."

Zhang Juan rolled up her sleeves to show her: "He beat me when he was drunk, complaining that I'm ugly and a burden, and he won't let me go to school."

"Oh my God!"

When her cousin saw the scars on her arm, her expression changed drastically.

"You brat, you've gone too far!"

Zhang Ershan revealed his true colors, got up from the ground, and slapped Zhang Juan on the back of the head.

Zhang Juan was so badly hit that her vision went black and she almost fainted.

Gu Bin reacted quickly and caught her.

"Try hitting me again!"

My cousin was so angry that she rolled up her sleeves, ready to teach this scumbag a lesson herself.

"What's wrong with me hitting my own daughter?" Zhang Ershan, relying on being the biological father, started to act arrogantly again: "We don't want the little one anymore, but this big one is registered in the household. She is a member of our Zhang family. If you want to take her away, you must get my permission. Without my permission, it is illegal trafficking, and I can sue you in court and put you in jail."

"You want to sue us, huh?"

My cousin wasn't afraid of him at all: "Fine, go ahead and sue me. I'm waiting for you to sue me. Whoever doesn't is a coward. I want to see if you have the guts."

"Even biological parents cannot abuse their children."

Gu Bin's expression was cold and stern: "Your actions have violated the law. Even if you don't sue us, we can't just sit idly by. We have to take this child away today. You can wait to go to jail. See you in court."

"You can't take her away."

Zhang Ershan's mother suddenly rushed over as if possessed, trying to grab Zhang Juan.

In her view, Zhang Juan was a witness, and as long as they were not allowed to take Zhang Juan away, they would have no evidence to sue their own son.

What she could think of, Gu Bin certainly could too.

As she rushed towards him, he pulled her behind him and used his body to block her.

"Juanzi, what are you doing?"

Zhang Hongmei also became anxious and scolded her daughter angrily: "Does our family lack you food or clothes? Are you going to team up with outsiders to go against your own parents?"

"How dare you call yourself her biological mother?"

My cousin retorted dismissively, "Where were you when she was being beaten? Didn't you ever think of her as your daughter then?"

"She's disobedient, what's wrong with giving her a couple of slaps?"

Zhang Hongmei stubbornly argued, "In all my life, I've never heard of a father beating his son and it being illegal. Which naughty boy in our village hasn't been beaten? They won't amount to anything if they're not beaten. If they're not properly educated, they'll all turn out badly."

My cousin found it incredibly ironic: "I bet you two didn't get beaten enough when you were kids, that's why you grew up to be such ugly and wicked people."

"No matter what, you can't take her away."

Unable to win an argument with her cousin, Zhang Hongmei steeled herself, picked up a shovel from the ground, and blocked the entrance.

"You? You think you can stop us?"

My cousin had already reached her limit, so she seized the opportunity to rush over and start fighting with her.

"Hit her! Hit her!"

During the scuffle, Zhang Hongmei's son suddenly rushed over and started yelling, only to be indiscriminately attacked by his mother, who knocked him to the ground with a shovel.

"what!"

The noisy courtyard fell into a deathly silence, as if a pause button had been pressed, because of his scream.

Zhang Hongmei was so frightened that it took her a long time to react. She dropped the shovel and rushed towards her son.

Her son, Zhang Bo, was hit on the shoulder by a shovel and fell face down to the ground. When they helped him up, he looked quite pitiful.

His forehead was bruised and swollen, his nose was broken and bleeding profusely from both nostrils.

"Zhuangzhuang, my precious little darling."

Her parents-in-law also gathered around, holding their grandson and wailing.

"She took the photos herself, it has nothing to do with me, right?"

Seeing this, her cousin reacted quickly and immediately slipped to Gu Bin's side.

"fine."

Gu Bin deliberately spoke loudly so that Zhang Ershan's family could hear: "Anything that can be solved with money is not a big deal."

"Good brother-in-law."

His cousin saw through his intentions and cooperated perfectly with him: "I've already vented my anger, now it's up to you."

-

Just as Gu Bin had expected, upon hearing his words, the Zhang family indeed had an idea and wanted to take the opportunity to demand compensation.

He went along with it, pretending to agree, and told them to go to the hospital for a medical examination to assess their injuries.

Unaware of the trap, the Zhang family followed them to the township health center.

Gu Bin took the opportunity to bring Zhang Juan along so that the doctor could examine her. After the injury assessment was completed, he promptly called the police.

Zhang Bo only suffered a superficial injury; the doctor gave him some treatment and stopped the bleeding.

Zhang Juan was different. She was pale and thin, malnourished, and it was obvious that she had been abused and beaten for a long time. Even doctors and police officers couldn't bear to see the scars on her body.

Gu Bin argued with reason and evidence that long-term and frequent beatings of children, if the circumstances are egregious, constitute the crime of abuse, punishable by imprisonment for up to two years, detention, or public surveillance; if the abuse results in serious injury or death, the punishment is imprisonment for two to seven years.

Zhang Ershan was forcibly taken away by the police. Zhang Hongmei and her parents-in-law were now truly frightened, cowering in fear and no longer daring to cause trouble.

"Now you're chickening out? Weren't you all so arrogant just now?"

My cousin felt relieved and completely satisfied.

"We're taking Zhang Juan with us."

Gu Bin's expression was cold and stern, giving them no chance to refute: "I will ask a lawyer to come and handle this matter."

"You'd better not mess with us again."

My cousin deliberately scare them with a dark face: "Otherwise, I'll sue you too, and you'll go to jail with him."

"Think of your son, your grandson."

Gu Bin's icy gaze swept across Zhang Hongmei and her in-laws' faces in turn: "If you all go inside, who will take care of him? You don't actually think that an ignorant 8-year-old child has the ability to survive independently, do you?"

"Your son also needs to be disciplined."

My cousin added insult to injury: "He wasn't beaten enough. He should have been beaten more often so he would learn his lesson."

"Let's go, there's no need to waste any more words with them."

Gu Bin glanced at his watch and saw that the hour hand was already pointing to 22 p.m., so he lost the will to stay any longer.

"Come on, let's go home."

My cousin waved her hand dismissively, grabbed one girl in each hand, and led the two girls into the car.

Gu Bin started the car, and it roared away, gradually disappearing into the dark night.

-

Qinglong Back Street.

In the dead of night, the lights at my grandmother's house were still on.

"Grandma isn't asleep yet?"

My cousin got out of the car and glanced out the window overlooking the street. She could vaguely see a blurry figure sitting under the lamplight.

"They're probably waiting for us to come back."

Gu Bin parked his car by the roadside, thought for a moment, and said with a smile, "You take Nana home. It's too late, so I won't go in."

"Okay, wait for me a moment, I'll be out in a bit."

My cousin readily agreed and ran home with Nana.

"elder sister."

Nana kept looking back at the car as she ran.

"Your sister cannot live here."

My cousin had her own plans: "Let her come back with me first, I'll take care of her schooling."

"Ah."

Nana obediently agreed and didn't turn around.

"Nana."

The two sisters entered the building and arrived at their door. Suddenly, the older sister stopped and said with a serious expression, "There's something I haven't told you before, but now I think it's better to tell you."

"W-what's wrong?"

Nana was quite frightened at her biological parents' house. When she saw her cousin suddenly change her expression, her little eyes trembled, and she was very panicked and uneasy.

"How should I put it?"

My cousin had mixed feelings: "It was your aunt, my mom, who told me. When I heard it, I felt really sorry for my uncle and aunt. You don't know how much they love and care for you. They even gave up their own children for you."

"what?!"

Nana is eleven years old and can understand the underlying meaning in words.