After the money and tickets at home were taken away, Cai Aliu became visibly thinner, having not eaten a full meal for several days. Instantly, she fell to her knees on the cold ground and began to cry loudly.

"Heartless thing, I am your real grandmother. Your mother crawled out of my belly, and that’s how there came to be you little ones. Now you’ve done well, become an official, and you look down on us." Cai Aliu wailed.

"We are truly starving, and you all should be the ones taken to the public security bureau." Li Dabing’s voice was weak from hunger, but his shaky figure made the people around him more sympathetic.

Li Hongguang stood behind the two elders without saying a word. Compared to those days, Li Hongguang was eating the most after all; being young meant the elders couldn’t compete with him.

Li Hongguang was a person who understood the times well. Although he was hurt by the deceit of the beautiful widow, he truly took advantage, and it wasn’t the beautiful widow who took the family’s money; it was that scoundrel Pan Changmiao. In the future, he still had this sister Li Hongying to rely on, so Li Hongguang hoped the elders could be a bit more responsible.

Ding Anguo, throughout, did not change his expression, and the people around murmured about him, thinking he had a hard heart.

"If you’re dying of hunger, it’s your own laziness to blame, and it can’t be pinned on us, the Ding Family." Ding Anguo said calmly, "During the famine years, when you secretly sold my elder brother behind our family’s back, we were no longer associated with you."

"Wow—"

"Sold a child? Even sold the son of their daughter and son-in-law."

"What kind of cruel maternal family is this."

...

"That wasn’t even your real elder brother, the family couldn’t even feed themselves, yet they were raising someone else’s child. You can even support outsiders, how can you neglect us relatives." Cai Aliu huffed angrily.

"You can support non-blood relative elder brothers, how can you neglect relatives, what kind of family is this!"

The public opinion shifted back towards the Li Family, yet Ding Anguo remained unwavering.

"When my mom signed the severance agreement, she settled your elder years’ pension in one go, assuming you’d live to a hundred." Ding Anguo stated, "Forty yuan a year, a total of two thousand yuan."

"Two thousand yuan!" People around exclaimed, as this was a large sum of money.

"Back then our entire family emptied our savings and even incurred debts just to cover up the pension my parents owed you. Our family has only recently paid off that debt."

"Now you’ve come again claiming we’re not taking care of you; how can you have the gall to say such things." This statement from Ding Anguo was powerful and resonant, quieting the people around and the Li Family.

"The Lotus Production Team has enough grains even after submitting the public grain every year, leaving the team members well-fed; why can everyone else live well but not you?"

"You all know how many work points your family earns in a year. There is no unearned reward in this society, only through hard work will there be returns."

Ding Anguo’s words earned applause and praise from those around, shifting all the support to Ding Anguo’s side.

"Anguo, it’s only because we really have no other way that we’ve come." Cai Aliu, seeing the situation wasn’t favorable, quickly switched her approach, starting to plead.

"That damned Pan Changmiao divorced your uncle, but she not only took away my grandson, but also took all the money and tickets from the house. The three of us have been starving for days."

"That heartless, damned woman, we’re about to die..." Cai Aliu, with tears streaming down her face, and the ragged clothes and disheveled hair accentuating her plight, made one feel some pity.

"I didn’t expect it to be like this, truly, one can’t just watch people die, right?"

"Being so old, it’s indeed time to retire, unable to do farming anymore." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Yes, ultimately, can’t completely ignore them, after all, they are biological relatives."

...

Ding Anguo slightly furrowed his brows, just about to speak when two figures squeezed in through the crowd; it was Li Honghua and Dai Zhenhua.

"Cai Aliu, do you still recognize me?" Li Honghua strolled to stand before Cai Aliu, who was kneeling on the ground, successfully stopping her cries, and raised her head to look.

Cai Aliu squinted her eyes, unable to react for a moment. After getting a clear look at the face, she showed shock and fear, "Ghost, ghost, ghost——"

"Mom, there’s a shadow, it’s a person." Li Hongguang, looking at the gentle-dressed woman in front of him, felt a sense of familiarity. Ah, it was somewhat like Li Hongying.

"Hua, Hua?" Li Dabing recognized her, "You, you, how..."

"Are you trying to ask how I’m here, and how I’m still alive?" Li Honghua said coldly, "Seeing me not dead surprises you, right? After all, when I was eighteen, you two sold me to human traffickers at a high price."

"Selling your own daughter to human traffickers?"

"Wow, what kind of heartless parents are these."

...

"My legs were broken and reattached repeatedly, right now no one supports me, I can’t even stand upright. If it wasn’t for our nation’s brave soldiers rescuing me, my life would’ve ended twenty years ago."

"Human trafficking is a crime; I’ve already called the police. You can wait for the police officers to take you for reform," Li Honghua stated with an indifferent expression, "When I was rescued back then, the public security bureau of Gui Province had my statement, and at that time I was bent on dying, thinking my life was given by you."

"I’ve already considered myself as having died once, this life has been repaid, I originally wanted to be strangers, didn’t expect that even to your youngest daughter’s family, you are so heartless."

"Actually, it’s just as well, now you have no food to eat, being taken to reform through labor, our great country wouldn’t let you starve to death, as long as you work hard. So, peacefully go with the police officers." Li Honghua gazed at the three, her eyes brimming with coldness.

Upon hearing that the police were involved, the people around pointed at the Li Family, while they looked at Ding Anguo’s group with sympathetic eyes, realizing though each family has its own difficult story, parents as cruel as these were rare.

Terrified by the police, the Li Family fled, not forgetting to hurl insults back at Li Honghua and Ding Anguo and their group.

"Sorry for making a scene for everyone." Li Honghua could no longer stand, and Ding Anguo hurriedly stepped forward to support her.

"Auntie, let me take you back." Ding Anguo knelt down and carried Li Honghua on his back. Li Honghua maintained a stiff expression, the pain causing cold sweat to drip.

"Child, you’re foolish too, what’s the point of sparing face for those people? Just reveal all the evil things they’ve done." Li Honghua whispered.

"The suffering was endured by you, auntie, and you’re now... is it alright?" Ding Anguo asked with concern, after all, the Dai Family was in Huaixi County.

"It’s alright, when I married into the Dai Family, I knew with your uncle around, they may not like me, but they wouldn’t dare do anything to me." Li Honghua smiled.