His height was not much taller than his mother's, estimated to be only 1.6 meters. He was short and small.
He had a common buzz cut and dark skin.
He wore a red cotton vest, dark blue trousers, and blue slippers.
His features were flat, and his face was full of red acne.
Seeing Mai Le Di open her eyes, he was both shy and happy, stammering, "Ah, Mom, her eyes are so big. So, so strangely beautiful."
She had been tied up for too long, and her limbs were almost useless. Seeing that he didn't seem particularly evil, Mai Le Di put on a pitiable expression. She looked at the two of them for a few seconds, her eyes reddening. "It hurts. Can you help me untie it?"
Her voice was so pleasant!
Zhu Zi raised his foot to untie her ropes, but the woman reached out and stopped him. "Don't move, you idiot."
Then she looked back at Mai Le Di. "It's not that we won't untie you, but we need to make things clear beforehand."
"You are our family's purchased wife, and from now on, I am your mother-in-law, and he is your man, do you understand?"
"From now on, you will obediently call me Mom and him 'the master of the house.' As long as you are obedient and live well with your master, and have children for our family, you will naturally not be treated unfairly."
"But if you are disobedient..."
Mai Le Di had seen a documentary about this kind of situation before. Usually, the more impoverished the area, the more severe the preference for sons over daughters. It was a vicious cycle that led to fewer and fewer women in the villages, and men couldn't find wives, so they started buying and selling. In such cases, it wasn't usually just one or two families buying wives, but entire villages, or several consecutive villages.
She knew that everyone was very united and highly vigilant towards purchased wives. Resisting forcefully would bring no benefit, and escaping blindly was also useless. Showing weakness to gain sympathy and then looking for an opportunity to leave was her only way out.
"I understand. The brother on the road has already told me. Don't worry, I'm unfamiliar with this place and won't run around."
"I need to use the restroom. And I'm very thirsty. Can you untie me first?"
Zhu Zi liked this wife too much. After hearing her words, without waiting for his mother to say anything else, he rushed to the bed and untied her ropes. Her hands were liberated, feeling as stiff as if they weren't her own.
Mai Le Di lay down and looked at the layout of the house. After a while, she finally had the strength to sit up. This was truly a very poor family. Even in this era, the most decent furniture in the house was this bed. Besides the bed, there was a red old-fashioned cabinet and two wooden chairs. Nothing else.
Seeing her sit up, the mother and son immediately became wary. Mai Le Di leaned against the wall weakly. "Thank you, master of the house. Where is the restroom? Can you take me there?"
The woman took her to the restroom, which was a small wooden shed about five meters outside the house, near the yard. It seemed that under heaven, rural dry toilets had similar designs. A pit was dug in the ground, with two wooden boards placed on top to prevent people from falling in. A small house was built around the pit to provide some privacy, and that was considered the toilet.
In the early summer weather, the toilet reeked. Mai Le Di dared not look or smell. She held her breath, squatted down quickly, and then stood up again. Her standing height was 1.72 meters, making her seem like a giant next to the 1.5-meter-tall woman. Even so, Mai Le Di still acted affectionately towards her. "Do I smell bad? I've been in that car for a long time, and it smells like chicken droppings. Can you get me some water to wash?"
"People from the city are so particular. Others who come cry and make a fuss, acting like something is wrong, but you, on the other hand, want to wash first."
"Rural people are not so particular. I am your mother-in-law, and I shouldn't be serving you."
The woman impatiently urged her, "Hurry in. When you're with your master of the house tonight, you can wash."
Mai Le Di knew that acting affectionately with her was useless, so she stopped talking nonsense. She went into the house and looked pitifully at Zhu Zi. "I'm so hungry. Is there anything to eat?"
Zhu Zi looked dull, but his movements were quick. He immediately brought her two steamed buns and a plate of cooled dishes. Regardless of whether it tasted good or not, she needed to replenish her energy first. Mai Le Di sat at the wooden table and ate ravenously.
Lu Qing Xu had been awake all night. At six in the morning, with bloodshot eyes, he sat at the traffic police station waiting for them to check the surveillance results. Zhan Bei Jue suddenly called. "I've arrived in Hangcheng. Where are you now?"
Lu Qing Xu told him his location. "Don't say too much to the traffic police. Come find me." Zhan Bei Jue sent him an address, and Lu Qing Xu drove over without a word. It was a derelict unfinished building. As soon as he walked in, he heard movement on the second floor. He hurried upstairs and saw Zhan Bei Jue sitting in the center of a chair, with a group of tall, strong bodyguards standing beside him. Four men were kneeling in front of him, their faces beaten black and blue.
He didn't understand what was happening. He ran to Zhan Bei Jue and asked what was going on. Zhan Bei Jue didn't explain but tilted his chin towards the men. "You ask them yourself." So, it was these four who were responsible for Mai Le Di's incident! Lu Qing Xu was instantly furious!
Mai Le Di's health was not good. She had been missing for 11 hours. If something had really happened to her, and it was the work of several men, he couldn't imagine the consequences. Without a word, he rushed to one of the men, grabbed his collar, and punched him. "I'm asking you, where did you take her? Speak!"
The man's eyes were swollen high, as if stung by bees, making him look very comical. But his mouth was stubborn, and he refused to speak. Lu Qing Xu had no time to entangle with him and changed to another person. "Bang, bang, bang!" Several consecutive punches. "You don't know either, do you?" The man was bleeding from his nose and mouth from the beating and could barely kneel. "I'm just a runner. I really don't know anything..."
"Fine, you all don't know anything. You're all innocent, very good." He had waited all night at the traffic police station without any clues and was extremely anxious. Now that the people were finally in front of him, they were stubbornly refusing to admit anything. He completely lost his patience. He stood up, aimed at the man's head, and kicked him. "All of you can go to hell! Whether you know or not, you all have to die. Let's see how I flay you alive!"
As if finding it not painful enough to kick with his sneakers, after several more kicks, he looked at the ground. There were no suitable tools, so he turned and pointed at Zhan Bei Jue. "Get up and let me use your chair." Zhan Bei Jue was cooperative. He stood up elegantly, holding the armrests. Lu Qing Xu lifted the heavy boss's chair and smashed it down on the person at the very side.
As he was about to smash the second person, someone finally broke down in fear. "Don't hit me anymore, big brother, don't hit me. Spare my life, I'll talk, I'll talk, okay?"
While Mai Le Di was eating, Zhu Zi watched her, and Zhu Zi's mother also watched from the side. There were only the two of them in the house, and neither of them seemed particularly ferocious. Mai Le Di felt she could handle them completely.