Chapter 102: It Wasn’t Giving Her Away, It Was Selling the Child!

“My child!”
Wang Chunling lunged forward like a madwoman, trying to snatch the baby from the rural woman’s arms.

But the woman clutched the baby tightly, refusing to let go. She kept muttering, over and over,
“This is my child! My child! She’s mine!”

Wrapped around the baby was a clean, neatly tied swaddle made from a familiar patterned cloth—the very one Wang Chunling had hand-stitched for her own baby.

There was no doubt now—this child was her Nuan Yang.

In the end, the “battle” between the two “mothers” was won by Wang Chunling. Fueled by desperation and motherly instinct, she wrestled the baby from the rural woman’s arms and held her tightly, refusing to ever let go again.

“Nuan Yang… Nuan Yang… it’s Mama… Mama finally found you…”
She cradled her child, gently pressing her tear-streaked face against the baby’s cheek.

The baby was crying. She was crying. Their tears mixed and ran down together.

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Just then, the rural man entered the house. What he saw was the child being taken from the woman’s arms. The rural woman immediately rushed to his side, eyes red, still unwilling to give up, staring longingly at the swaddled baby.

Enraged, the man grabbed a hoe from the side—a brand-new one he had just forged with his own hands. It had never even been used in the fields yet. He held it upside down; the sharp metal glinted coldly in the dim light.

“You can’t leave! That child belongs to us! Give her back!”

“Nonsense! She’s mine—my Nuan Yang! I gave birth to her! She’s my daughter!”

Sensing danger, Wang Chunling quickly backed up, hiding behind Chu Yue and Lu Zhanlin, cradling the baby in her arms as tightly as she could, terrified she would be taken away again.

But the rural man wasn’t backing down either. He slammed the hoe to the ground with a loud thud and shouted,
“I paid money! She belongs to us! If you dare take her, don’t blame me for what happens next!”

At those words, Chu Yue and Lu Zhanlin’s hearts sank even deeper.

So Li Jinhua had lied again. She didn’t give the child away—
she sold her.

Her own grandmother sold her own granddaughter.

Chu Yue questioned him coldly,
“How much did you pay for the child?”

The man replied,
“A hundred yuan! That’s my life’s savings! You took my money—she’s ours!”

In the 1970s, one hundred yuan was an enormous sum for a poor rural family. It wasn’t just the man’s life savings—it was the combined lifetime savings of both him and his wife. And they had spent it on this one child.

Chu Yue continued,
“I’ll return your hundred yuan. But we’re taking the child back.”

The man hesitated. The rural woman frantically tugged his sleeve and shook her head in panic.

The man quickly snapped back,
“No! We don’t want the money—we want the child!”

They had only spent one day with the baby, but she was a beautiful little girl—fair, delicate, and bright-eyed. The rural woman had fallen in love with her at first sight. She didn’t care about the money anymore.

She only wanted the child.

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While the argument continued, Wang Chunling sensed the growing danger. She tightened her grip on the baby and quietly tried to slip away behind Chu Yue—
She needed to get her daughter to safety, no matter what.

This action triggered the middle-aged man. He picked up a hoe and shouted fiercely:

“You can’t leave! The child was sold to me—she belongs to our family now!”

The hoe swung high in the air, and if it had come down, it might have injured Chu Yue, who was shielding Wang Chunling.

But Lu Zhanlin reacted quickly. He reached out and grabbed the hoe mid-air. No matter how hard the man struggled, he couldn’t match Lu Zhanlin’s strength.

With a firm grip, Lu Zhanlin yanked the hoe out of the man’s hands, removing the threat to Chu Yue.

Taking advantage of the man’s momentary panic, Chu Yue immediately said:

“This is my partner, Lu Zhanlin. Do you see what he’s wearing? That’s a military uniform—he’s a soldier. And this child’s father is also a soldier. Her father is on duty tonight and doesn’t yet know the child has been sold.

When he finds out, he’ll definitely come here to get his child back! This is a soldier’s child—do you really think you can keep her?”

She pressed on:

“And legally, human trafficking is a crime—it means handcuffs and prison! If you don’t let the child go, then we’ll have no choice but to contact the Public Security Bureau, the local police station, the village secretary, the village head—someone will stand up for what’s right.

If anyone’s guilty of a crime here, it’s both the one who sold the child and the one who bought her.

If you agree to return the child to us, we’ll give you your money back. We’ll treat this as if it never happened—you won’t have to wear handcuffs or go to jail.

So there are only two options now. Either take the refund—or prepare for this to get very big. Your choice.”

At that moment, Lu Zhanlin, standing in his dark green military uniform, seemed to glow in contrast with the dim, grimy room.

The man had already been startled by Lu Zhanlin’s uniform earlier when opening the door—that’s why he immediately lied and said there was no child.

Now, it was as if a mountain of pressure had settled on his shoulders.

The woman standing nearby, having heard Chu Yue’s words, grabbed her husband’s arm tightly—afraid he’d really end up in jail.

A child. Her husband…

Tears silently streamed down her face. In the end, she turned to the man and shook her head.

“…You can’t get into trouble.”

Left with no choice, the middle-aged man reluctantly gritted his teeth and muttered:

“Money! Give me the money and I’ll let you take her.”

“Okay. I’ll pay you right now.”

Chu Yue quickly reached into her pockets and pulled out all the money she had on her—but it was only a few scattered bills.
Lu Zhanlin didn’t have any on him either.

As for Wang Chunling, she hadn’t expected to need money and hadn’t brought any.

Chu Yue’s dimensional space also couldn’t help her now—her money was all at home or stored in a bank account. The space didn’t contain any money from the 1970s era.

What were they going to do now…

Just then, Song Qi, who had taken a different route earlier, seemed to have heard the commotion and showed up—dragging Li Jinhua along with him.

The man and woman immediately pointed at Li Jinhua excitedly:

“It’s her! She’s the one who took our ten yuan!”

“What nonsense are you talking about? I don’t know you! I’ve never seen you before! What money? Are you crazy for money and trying to extort me? I never took anything from you!”
Li Jinhua shrieked in protest, denying everything.

She wasn’t just trying to deny her involvement in the child trafficking—she also wanted to pocket the ten yuan herself.

But as soon as Chu Yue saw her, her eyes lit up. She gave her a full once-over from head to toe—and an idea formed in her mind.

“Song Qi!” Chu Yue shouted. “Hold her down—don’t let her move!”

What Chu Yue was about to do next was clear:

Search her!