Reborn in the 80s: Divorced and Spoiled by the Military Man - Chapter 157

Chapter 157: I’m Here to File a Complaint

“Yingzi said that unless Yunshu speaks up, they’ll be locked up for at least twenty days.” Li Taohong gave a soft hum and let out a long sigh. “Big Sister, no matter how wrong Mom and Dad were, Yunshu can’t do this as their granddaughter. If she remarries in the future, what will her in-laws think of her?”

She felt she was doing it for Yunshu’s own good. The girl was capable and smart, but she was too unyielding when she handled things. Wasn’t she afraid of being drowned in other people’s spit?

Li Fenlan’s expression gradually darkened. The only thing she had truly heard was this: Li Dayong and the others had actually gone to the Construction Site to make trouble! No one knew better than her, as Yunshu’s mother, how much sweat and effort Yunshu had put into contracting this canteen.

She had to get up before five in the morning. In the morning, she watched over the kitchen while the food was being cooked. In the afternoon, she had to count and check the meat, rice, and vegetables delivered to them. At night, she still had to attend night school. There was hardly a single minute when she was resting. It was only in the past two days, after the canteen had finally started running smoothly, that Yunshu had found a moment to catch her breath.

And yet Li Dayong and the others still wanted to ruin Yunshu’s business. Li Fenlan knew her parents and her younger brother all too well. She barely had to think to know what they would say and curse once they ran to the Construction Site, and how much trouble they would bring Yunshu!

“Big Sister?”

Seeing that Li Fenlan wasn’t saying anything, Li Taohong called out uneasily, “They’ve already been inside for several days. Just have Yunshu say a word. They won’t dare go make trouble again after this.”

Li Fenlan’s usually gentle eyes stared straight at Li Taohong. “Taohong, did you come today to plead on their behalf?”

Li Taohong froze for a moment. She had assumed her eldest sister was the same as her. Even if things had gotten so ugly with their family, surely she couldn’t truly cut ties with them. These days, there were only parents who refused to acknowledge their children. Since when did children refuse to acknowledge their parents?

Go back a few hundred years, and an unfilial person could be dragged to the execution grounds. In the countryside, being unfilial was a grave sin.

“What they did was definitely wrong, but they’ve learned their lesson! Big Sister, think of Yunshu. With the way Li Dayong is, once he goes back to the village, who knows how he’ll drag Yunshu’s name through the mud! She’s already divorced. Her reputation is already bad. How is she supposed to remarry in the future?!”

Although Li Taohong did want Li Dayong and the others released, from her own point of view, she was also considering Yunshu. When the younger generation went up against their elders, they were already in the wrong by three parts. If they could endure it, then they should just endure it.

Li Fenlan pressed her lips together tightly. She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost nine. Yunshu and Mingcheng would be back soon.

“I’ll talk to Yunshu. You go home first.” She pulled open the door, her expression very calm. “Taohong, you don’t need to concern yourself with this matter anymore. I’ll handle it.”

Li Taohong let out a breath of relief. She had known her eldest sister wouldn’t ignore it. “All right, then talk to Yunshu properly. Don’t get angry with her either. In the end, Li Dayong and the others did go too far.”

Of course they had gone too far. Her daughter was the one who had been wronged!

A shadow lay over Li Fenlan’s usually gentle face. She gave a hum and only said, “I know.”

Li Taohong was just about to leave when Xie Yunshu and Xie Mingcheng came in from the stairwell. The siblings were still discussing a math problem, and they were both a little surprised to see Li Taohong. “Little Aunt?”

Li Taohong was fond of this niece of hers too. It was just that she wasn’t Yunshu’s biological mother, after all, so she considered things more from her own perspective. Now that she saw Yunshu, she felt a little guilty and glanced at Li Fenlan.

Thinking that it was better to let her eldest sister talk about this kind of thing, she smiled and said, “I came to see your mom about something. It’s so late already. Hurry up and get some rest.”

She left in a rush. Xie Yunshu and Xie Mingcheng exchanged a look, both finding it strange. “Mom, what did Little Aunt come about?”

Li Fenlan lowered her head and called the two of them over to drink pear water. “I made some pear water. You study every day, so drink a little to soothe your throat. It wasn’t anything important. She was just passing by.”

The siblings did not think too much of it and went back to discussing the math problem from earlier.

“Sis, this is a senior-year high school question. My answer has to be right.”

“You little brat. Who are you looking down on?”

Li Fenlan picked up her knitting again. This time, she was making a light blue sweater. Yunshu kept saying she owed Xiao Bai a huge favor, but she was so busy every day that she had no time to repay it. As her mother, Li Fenlan could at least knit a sweater and send it over…

As for Li Dayong and the others, this time, none of them should even think about getting in the way of her daughter making money and dating!

Early the next morning, Li Fenlan dressed herself up neatly, slung a small bag over her shoulder, and headed out. “Yunshu, I’m going to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative to buy some sunflower seeds. You all won’t be home tonight, and I’ll be bored watching TV by myself.”

Xie Yunshu did not pay much attention and only said casually, “Mom, if you’re bored, just ask Lin Cuiping to come downstairs. Isn’t she always going on about wanting to watch some Yiping and Ruping?”

Li Fenlan smiled. “That girl is about to get married. These days, she’s holed up at home making new clothes for herself!”

Xie Yunshu found that a little strange. “The groom’s family isn’t buying her new clothes?”

In Haicheng, betrothal gifts and such were not usually that much. Some highly educated families did not even ask for betrothal gifts at all. But there was one thing the groom’s side had to do at the very least: buy the bride a new outfit. Especially the clothes she would wear on the wedding day-those were basically always prepared by the groom’s family.

The two of them were about to get married, but Xie Yunshu did not think she had ever seen Lin Cuiping’s future in-laws come by with New Year’s gifts, let alone seen the groom himself visit. After all, with Lin Cuiping’s inability to keep anything to herself, if her boyfriend had come over, wouldn’t she have bragged about it in front of Xie Yunshu eight hundred times in a single day?

“Maybe their customs are different!” Li Fenlan had something on her mind and did not say more. She turned and left the communal apartment block.

The Police Station across from Haicheng Hospital.

Li Fenlan was rather nervous. Although she was already forty this year, she had spent her whole life developing a timid, yielding nature. A place like this-forget going inside, she normally would not even dare look at it too long when passing by.

But what she was about to do today was enough to overturn all the submissiveness of the first half of her life.

It just so happened that Old Zhang was on duty at the Police Station today. Holding his big enamel tea mug, he had been watching the woman outside with her head lowered for quite some time. She wore a blue cloth jacket, her hair coiled at the back of her head. Every so often, she would glance inside, but the moment she saw someone, she would shrink her neck back in fright.

Was she here to report a case, or to turn herself in?

After sitting behind the desk for almost twenty minutes, he finally saw the woman walk in, her face taut with nerves. She looked as if she were marching bravely to her execution.

Old Zhang frowned, his tone quite stern. “What is it?”

Li Fenlan jumped in fright. She looked around and saw that aside from a few uniformed comrades working, there was no one else. Only then did she relax a little. Slowly, she sat down in front of Old Zhang, bit her lip, and asked in a low voice, “Comrade, I wanted to ask… Was a man named Li Dayong locked up here a couple days ago? There were also two elderly people with him.”

Li Dayong?

Old Zhang remembered that name. Captain Shen had personally ordered the man to be detained, so of course he remembered clearly. A couple days ago, a woman had brought a child over and cried and made a scene once already. But when they arrested someone, they did so with evidence and justification. It was not as if they would release someone just because you cried and threw a tantrum.

So, was this another one here to plead for leniency?

Old Zhang’s expression darkened. “This is a Police Station, not a marketplace. Don’t go casually asking about things you shouldn’t be asking about.”

Li Fenlan shrank back, almost losing her nerve. But when she thought of Xie Yunshu, she straightened her chest again and spoke softly but firmly. “I’m here to file a complaint. Against Li Shenggen and Li Dayong!”