C16

Zhou Deqing was gone.

He had no other relatives, and the funeral matters could only be left to Zhou Sitian, his daughter.

There was a large ancestral hall in Qinghe Town, where the town’s red and white celebrations were usually held. Only this time, the He and Yang families had already occupied the ancestral hall. Wang Aijuan cried day and night in front of the ancestral hall, shouting, “Zhou Deqing killed Yang Kaijian and He Zhiqiang.”

The people passing by the ancestral hall listened, and whether they believed it or not, it left traces in their hearts.

The dilapidated house, perhaps because it hadn’t been inhabited for too long, even though it had been cleaned once, there were still many cobwebs in the corners of the house. This was Zhou Deqing’s family’s old house, which had been abandoned for a long time, but there was no place in Qinghe Town other than here where Zhou Deqing’s spirit could stay.

Unlike the time when Li Qiang left, no one came to help at Zhou Deqing’s funeral. Even in the Zheng family, mother Zheng had only asked Zheng Xiaodong to deliver lunch.

“I’m sorry, they don’t believe me, I can’t prove your innocence.” Zhou Sitian kneeled on the ground, her look hollow. Losing two fathers in just one month was too cruel to this girl who was already lacking love.

Li Zheng stood behind him with his mouth pursed, he didn’t know how to open his mouth to comfort this sister of his. The day after Zhou Deqing left, the news of “Zhou Deqing killed He Zhiqiang and Yang Kaijian” spread like wildfire in Qinghe Town, and the reaction of Yantian County Public Security Bureau was most alarming to Li Zheng, they gradually shifted the direction of investigation of He Zhiqiang’s case to Zhou Deqing, this was a very dangerous signal, they wanted to pour all the dirty water on Zhou Deqing! .

In doing so, the Yantian County Public Security Bureau could quickly close the two murder cases, showing their excellent work ability; Yantian County. The committee could give an account to the South region and not affect the cooperation with foreign investors; Wang and Yang could also suppress Yang Kaijian’s case and leave him a good reputation. For several parties, this was simply a triple-whammy ending .

“Sister… “For the first time, Li Zheng understood the helplessness and pain of ordinary people in the face of power, if it was his previous life, how could they dare…how could they dare!

“Xiao Zheng, I’ll be fine, go back.” Zhou Sitian knelt straight up on the cold ground.

Li Zheng quietly looked at Zhou Sitian’s straight back for a moment, sighed, and then slowly exited the hall. She probably needed her space now.

Shortly after walking out of the Zhou mansion, Li Zheng heard the sound of a woman crying loudly coming from inside. He rubbed his reddened eyes, an ironic smile on his face, looking out for the greater good? The best of three worlds? Aside from crushing a young girl’s life to smithereens, it was really the “best of three worlds”.

Li Zheng subconsciously touched his jacket pocket, and after touching the rough cotton material, he smiled bitterly again, he missed the taste of nicotine.

　Zhou Sitian cried inside the ancestral hall all night, crying until her voice was hoarse. Li Zheng stood at the door until midnight, seeing that it was almost dark before he went home to shallowly catch up on his sleep. In the icy cold wind, he finally realized that in this era where the legal system wasn’t even very sound, the only way to protect himself from those around him was to be strong!

**************

“That’s, like, the daughter of a murderer.”

“No way, the little girl is quite soft looking.”

“Knowing one’s face and not knowing one’s heart, when Zhou Deqing was young, wasn’t he also quite popular with young girls.”

As Zhou Sitian and Li Zheng walked on the road, the sound of pedestrians’ comments kept drilling into their ears, and Zhou Sitian’s face grew whiter and whiter, then she quickly ran.

“Li Zheng, wait for me.”

Li Zheng wanted to chase after Zhou Sitian, but he heard someone behind him calling his name and turned around, only to see Li Chaoyang quickly running towards him.

Li Chaoyang ran in front of Li Zheng, holding his shoulders and breathing heavily.

“Aigoo, I’m exhausted.”

The corner of Li Zheng’s mouth twitched, Big brother, you didn’t run a total of a hundred meters….

“Okay, stand up straight yourself.” Li Zheng disgustedly pushed Li Chaoyang.

Li Chaoyang trailed off, “It’s a good thing I was worried about you all night, and you did this to me.” He cautiously observed Li Zheng’s appearance and continued, “Is Sis Sitian okay, she can take two days off…”

“She said there’s a mock exam in the next two days, and she doesn’t want to pull down the class average.”

“Oh my god, with Sis Sitian’s grades, even if she took the test with her eyes closed, she wouldn’t be able to score below average, she doesn’t need to come to class these days at all.” Li Chaoyang said in an exaggerated manner.

Li Zheng’s eyebrows slowly furrowed, Li Chaoyang had already mentioned twice that Zhou Sixian didn’t need to come to class in the next few days.

“At school, did something happen?”

Li Chaoyang was startled, then scratched his head, “Did I show that much?”

“Zhou Deqing and Yang Kaijian’s affair happened in our school, so naturally, it’s spread like wildfire. It’s nothing really, it’s just that they’re rather nasty, and I’m afraid that Sis Sitian can’t stand it.”

It was only when he actually arrived at the school that Li Zheng realized how embarrassed Zhou Sitian was. One morning, a teacher had been pointed out to him several times because of Zhou Sitian, not to mention Zhou Sitian herself.

In this kind of environment, in just a few days, Zhou Sitian’s entire body was rapidly losing weight, her face was pale, her nerves were crumbling like a bowstring that could break at any moment, and Li Zheng knew that if this continued, something would definitely go wrong with Zhou Sitian.

“Sister, let’s leave.” Li Zheng suddenly spoke up.
　　
　　Zhou Sitian who was packing her school bag was stunned, “Leave?”

“Right, leave Qinghe Town, leave Yantian County, even leave Haidong Province.” Li Zheng had been thinking about it for days, originally he didn’t leave because he didn’t want to affect Zhou Sitian’s life, Zhou Sitian’s grades were very good, according to the normal trajectory, she could have gotten into a good university and assigned a good job when she came out.

But now it was different, the school’s classmates, Qinghe Town’s townspeople, their colored eyes almost overwhelming Zhou Sitian’s nerves, if this continued, not to mention the college entrance exam, Zhou Sitian’s health will be out of the question.

Leave? A glimmer of light flashed in Zhou Sitian’s eyes, then immediately extinguished. How could they leave? All of the Li family’s possessions were in Qinghe Town, how could they survive as two minors?

“I’ll be fine, let’s go to school.” She closed her bag woodenly, forcing a smile.

“Sis, has anyone ever told you that it’s ugly when you smile like that.”

Li Zheng turned around and took out the wad of money that Zhang Bingkun had given him in the first place from under the bed, “Let’s go to Xiangjiang. This money is enough for us to live for a while.” Because the amount of money was a bit too huge for two minors, Li Zheng didn’t tell Zhou Sitian about its existence at the time.

“Xiangjiang?” Zhou Sitian muttered to herself, a hint of yearning slowly appearing in her eyes.

The Fragrant River, just like the medieval Europe in china, the Fragrant River seemed like an unreachable paradise to the current Chinese people.

Zhou Sitian looked at the overlooking River far ahead, she could see the revolving restaurant at the top of that building, men and women seemed to be stepping on top of the clouds.

“Are you going to find your mother?” Zhao Qihua was the one who had gone to Xiangjiang, so Zhou Sitian’s first reaction was that Li Zheng was going to find her.

Li Zheng’s eyes flashed with consternation, he had really forgotten about the fact that Zhao Qihua was in Xiangjiang, he shook his head and said, “No, I’m going to find David, he still owes me a little something.”