The next night, she used all her wits to please the steward, begging him to throw Lin Baoshan into a woodshed to live.

After that, Li Yimin never saw Lin Baoshan again.

At first, those living near the woodshed could still hear Lin Baoshan’s shouts and curses, but later, the sounds became less frequent.

Lin Baoshan starved to death.

When Mrs. Lin was carried back, the whip wounds on her body got infected due to lack of timely cleaning and disinfection, and she developed a high fever that very night.

Mrs. Lin lived with Uncle Lin, and Uncle Lin still had feelings for her. Despite being dead tired from working, Uncle Lin would stay up all night to care for Mrs. Lin.

When he earned two wild vegetable cakes, he would share one with Mrs. Lin.

However, Mrs. Lin’s fever wouldn’t subside, and her body was gradually consumed by the festering whip wounds. Uncle Lin begged the steward to send Mrs. Lin to the hospital, but the steward completely ignored him.

On the same day Lin Baoshan starved to death, Mrs. Lin also died from the severe fever.

Mother and son, both passed away so effortlessly.

Even Yuan Chun, the bystander, could only click her tongue in astonishment and admiration.

The day after Mrs. Lin’s death, Uncle Lin learned that Lin Baoshan had starved to death. It was only then that he remembered his own son was also injured. He had been so focused on caring for Mrs. Lin that he neglected his own son.

Uncle Lin was filled with guilt, grief, and despair.

Not long after, his increasingly frail body fell ill as well. His two sons resented him for betraying the family, so they barely cared for him, only sending him one wild vegetable cake a day to keep him alive.

His condition worsened, and two months later, Uncle Lin died from his illness.

A month after Uncle Lin’s death, Old Man Lin, who lived far away in the Lin Family Village, followed suit.

Lin Baoshui became feebleminded. A simpleton like him couldn’t take care of anyone; he only spent his days playing with the village children. As a result, Old Man Lin didn’t eat or drink well, and he gradually became emaciated and weak. He only lasted four to five months before he too passed away.

After Old Man Lin’s death, Lin Baoshui didn’t even realize it was the smell of Old Man Lin’s decaying corpse that the neighbors next door detected and reported to the team leader. That’s when everyone discovered how long Old Man Lin had been dead.

Since Lin Baoshui was now mentally impaired, and there was no one left in the Lin family to take charge, luckily several elders from the same clan stepped in. They rolled Old Man Lin’s body in a tattered mat and carried it to the Lin family burial ground to bury it in a pit.

The Lin family was left with only one simple-minded person.

Many relatives from the same clan had their eyes on Lin Baoshui’s big brick-tiled house. To seize it, several of Lin Baoshui’s uncles and great-uncles quarreled and fought daily, each scrambling to become Lin Baoshui’s guardian.

Later, the team leader intervened and had them draw lots to decide.

Then one of Lin Baoshui’s paternal uncles moved into the big brick-tiled house and took on the responsibility of caring for Lin Baoshui’s life.

At first, perhaps out of fear of being criticized, the uncle’s family treated Lin Baoshui well. He dressed cleanly, ate the same meals as his uncle’s family, and didn’t have to do any work, spending his days running and jumping with the village children.

But as time passed, Lin Baoshui’s treatment slowly differed from that of his uncle’s family.

While they drank thick, he drank thin.

Even this simple-minded person knew to follow village children up the mountain to pick wild fruits when he was hungry. One time, on a rainy day, driven by unbearable hunger, he went up the mountain alone to find food, fell from the mountain, and drowned in the river at its base.