When Bai Zhu arrived at Lin Yongdong’s house, he saw much more devastation than he had heard.

Lin Yongdong’s parents had already passed away.

His younger brother, Lin Yongbei, had only a layer of skin left around his neck, and his third leg had been stabbed several times, with his pants soaked in blood, making him as tragic as Lin Yongdong.

Just looking at Lin Yongbei’s wounds, Bai Zhu could almost guess why Lin Hongni had gone mad.

He looked up in the direction of Lin Hongni.

Lin Hongni no longer had the kitchen knife in her hand; she had been tied up and thrown into a corner, her mouth gagged with a rag.

The murderous aura she had when wielding the knife had dissipated. Now, she looked at her younger brother and sister with worry, her final concern.

Lin Qingni was crying uncontrollably, her hair soaked with sweat.

Lin Zhijun held his sister in a corner, one hand covering her mouth.

Bai Zhu didn’t do much, just glanced at them.

Village Party Secretary Lin Shiyuan urgently asked, “Doctor Bai, is there any hope for the others?”

Bai Zhu replied, “They’ve all been poisoned. First, use soap water to induce vomiting. They’ve been poisoned by more than one kind of poison. Whether we can save them depends on fate.”

In truth, there was already no hope.

They had ingested rat poison, along with a large amount of wood ear mushrooms that had been soaked for a long time.

The poisoning had been going on for a while—almost two hours. Now, inducing vomiting was too late.

Bai Zhu didn’t speak definitively, but his last words made Lin Shiyuan’s heart sink. If it was all left to fate, how could they save them?

“Will sending them to the hospital help?” Lin Shiyuan asked.

“It’s hard to say. After inducing vomiting, take them to the hospital and try,” Bai Zhu replied.

Lin Shiyuan’s heart felt like it was turning cold.

Still, holding onto a small hope, he quickly instructed the two young men to prepare soap water and induce vomiting first.

Just as they had finished inducing vomiting, Captain Lin Changjin arrived with the police.

When they saw the tragic scene at Lin Yongdong’s house, the police gasped in shock.

A family of nineteen, four had been hacked to death, one was floating in the well, and eleven were still hanging between life and death. It was too horrific!

Only Lin Hongni and her two younger siblings were alive, but Lin Hongni wouldn’t survive.

In the end, only the eight-year-old Lin Zhijun and the six-year-old Lin Qingni would remain.

It was truly a massacre!

With such a major incident, no one had the energy to work anymore.

Fortunately, the harvest season had not yet arrived, and the farmwork wasn’t too much, so it wouldn’t cause much delay.

The bolder villagers squeezed into Lin Yongdong’s yard, while the more timid ones watched from outside, acting like detectives as if they had witnessed the incident firsthand. In a short time, seven or eight different versions of the story had emerged, with each one being told with great certainty.

“I heard that Lin Yongbei went crazy and killed his sister-in-law. His parents helped throw Chen Xiaolan’s body into the well. Lin Yongdong is such an honest man, and he always listens to his parents. Hongni cried all night and only picked up the knife to kill Lin Yongbei this morning.”

“Tsk… Lin Yongbei is really a scumbag, even killing his sister-in-law.”

“Lin Yongdong and Chen Xiaolan were too honest, that’s why they were bullied to death by their younger brother.”

“Hongni still has some spirit, she avenged her mother.”

“So how did Lin Yongdong die? I heard his head was moved.”

“…”

The phrase “I heard” spread like wildfire.

No one knew where it came from, but it spread quickly, and each retelling was more certain than the last.

In nearly every corner, there was a different truth.

In another corner, the villains were portrayed as Lin Yongbei and his parents.

No matter who was the villain, Lin Yongdong was always seen as the most honest man.

No one said anything bad about him, which showed how deeply his honest image had been ingrained over the years.

Outside the yard, the rumors were rampant, but inside, the situation was different.

The rag in Lin Hongni’s mouth was removed.

Without anyone asking, she confessed voluntarily.

The afternoon before yesterday, Lin Yongbei had gone to his father-in-law’s house and drunk two shots of “cat urine” (a type of alcohol).

When he returned home, he started to go into a drunken rage and violated her. That night, she told her parents about it.

Chen Xiaolan was furious and said she would report him.

Lin Yongdong, the man who was so honest in the eyes of outsiders, was a weakling in front of his parents. He was the most useless person.

But when he returned to his own house, he became a different person. He would bully his wife and children, venting his frustration on them.

At that time, Lin Yongdong beat Chen Xiaolan brutally, calling her shameful, and threatened her not to tell anyone.

He said the Lin family couldn’t afford such disgrace.

He beat his wife and slapped Lin Hongni twice.

He blamed everything on her, accusing her of being vile and likening her to a prostitute. He accused her of seducing her younger uncle.

Lin Hongni had been wronged, but instead of helping her, her father insulted her.

Could she not hate him? She hated him to the bone!

Compared to the evil of Lin Yongbei, Lin Yongdong, the useless father, was even more detestable.

Of course, even though she hated Lin Yongdong and Lin Yongbei, she wouldn’t go as far as poisoning the whole family.

The real trigger was Chen Xiaolan’s death!

Even after being beaten, Chen Xiaolan still wanted justice for her daughter.

The next day, during dinner, she exposed the truth.

Her two other brothers-in-law were indifferent, while the women in the family mocked her, with Lin Yongbei’s wife calling Lin Hongni a little slut and the in-laws constantly accusing her of being dirty.

Chen Xiaolan was isolated in this family, fighting alone against everyone.

Her three children were on her side, but unfortunately, they were still too young.

All they could do was accompany her in being beaten and insulted.

As things escalated, Lin Yongdong, fearing she would cause a scene, beat her again, locked her in the house, and forbade her from leaving.

Only when Lin Yongdong fell asleep at night did she find the chance to escape, but Lin Yongdong caught her and immediately went after her.

Lin Hongni was worried something would happen to Chen Xiaolan.

She asked her brother Lin Zhijun to look after her sister and ran out after them.

When they reached the village entrance, under the moonlight, Lin Hongni witnessed a scene that made her want to tear her eyes out.

Lin Yongdong was pulling Chen Xiaolan, who ran towards the well.

They circled the well several times, but Lin Yongdong was faster and eventually grabbed her.

In the struggle, Chen Xiaolan fell into the well.

When they returned home, the others in the household were also alarmed.

Lin Yongdong didn’t mention that he had caused Chen Xiaolan to fall into the well, but he still tried to tarnish her reputation.

He kept accusing Chen Xiaolan of being unvirtuous, running out late at night to who knows whose wild man’s house, and then coming back to sleep as if nothing had happened.

Lin Hongni witnessed her mother falling into the well and then heard the Lin family slandering her mother.

Her hatred instantly surged to its peak!

The next day, which was this morning, Lin Hongni got up to make breakfast.

She had always been the one to cook for the family, and everyone was used to it.

Because of the incident the day before, the wood ear mushrooms that were soaked the night before hadn’t been cooked.

Yesterday, everyone was too busy to care about meals, so they just ate whatever.

The mushrooms were forgotten.

When Lin Hongni saw the bowl of soaked mushrooms in the morning, she remembered hearing years ago in the county that soaked wood ear mushrooms could kill.

She also remembered the vengeance for her mother’s death; everyone in this house was guilty.

So, she made a cold dish with those mushrooms, soaked for two days.

Lin Hongni no longer cared about life or death.

She was only afraid that they wouldn’t die and that her younger siblings would suffer. She even mixed rat poison into the corn paste.

Double insurance, and it worked quite fast.

Then, she took a knife and started killing people.

…

After Lin Hongni explained everything, everyone’s gaze turned to Lin Yongbei’s corpse, then to Lin Yongdong’s dismembered body.

They couldn’t feel any sympathy for them.

Lin Yongbei was a beast, and Lin Yongdong was no man. He did nothing when his daughter was bullied and instead took his anger out on his wife and children.

Such scum, despicable!

The village secretary, Lin Shiyuan, had his eyes reddened with anger.

The Lin family in the Shanglin Brigade all shared the same ancestor, and according to the family hierarchy, Lin Yongdong and the others should have addressed him as “uncle.”

Looking at the several children whose fates were uncertain, he felt heartbroken!

“Yongdong and Yongbei got what they deserved, but what did Yongnan and Yongxi’s families do wrong? What about your cousins and cousins, should they die too?”

“Should they live to bully my younger siblings?” Lin Hongni retorted.

“They are still children! Don’t you feel any remorse?”

“I don’t regret it, and I won’t regret it!”

After saying this, Lin Hongni glanced at her younger siblings.

Lin Zhijun tightly covered his sister’s mouth, his eyes empty of life.

The light in his eyes had gone out the moment his mother didn’t come home last night.

He knew why his sister didn’t spare their cousins. The truth his sister had risked her life for them, he would also keep secret!

Lin Hongni turned her head away and sniffed.

“I’ll give them back their lives.”

The six simple words were calm, yet filled with sorrow.

From the moment Chen Xiaolan fell into the well, she had never considered continuing to live.

The only thing she couldn’t let go of was her younger siblings.

Lin Shiyuan fell silent, realizing that she too was a pitiful person.

She had been wronged and humiliated, witnessed her mother’s death, and had gone mad.

Anyone would have gone insane in her place. But she should never have dragged the innocent children into this.

Bai Zhu looked at Lin Zhijun and Lin Qingni.

Noticing his gaze, Lin Zhijun looked up and met Bai Zhu’s eyes, which seemed to see through everything.

A chill ran down his spine, and beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

Just as Lin Zhijun was tense and scared, Bai Zhu casually withdrew his gaze.

In just a few seconds, Lin Zhijun’s back was soaked in sweat, as if he had just been pulled out of water, and his small, dark hands were still trembling.

Bai Zhu himself had a daughter and a granddaughter.

Even if he discovered the truth, he would not expose them.

Those who had been induced to vomit still died.

The murderer, Lin Hongni, was taken away by the police. The only ones left in the house were Lin Zhijun and Lin Qingni.

When Lin Hongni was taken away, the two siblings cried as they chased after her.

They lost their shoes but could only watch their sister being taken away.

They didn’t return to the well until they could no longer see her, kneeling in front of their mother.

The siblings were eight and six years old, respectively.

Taking care of themselves was already a problem. Seeing them crying like little children, the villagers couldn’t bear it either.

The aftermath of the family could only be handled by the relatives within the clan.

The Lin families in the Shanglin Brigade were all related, and everyone contributed a bit.

It didn’t take long to deal with the aftermath of more than ten people.

But Lin Zhijun and his sister had no one to adopt them.

Some closer relatives, like Lin Zhijun’s grandfather, were already leaving.

After sending his cousin off to school, the old man hurried to run away.

He was afraid that if he stayed too long, Lin Zhijun and his sister would end up clinging to them.

Other close relatives also ran away.

Lin Hongni had been ruthless enough to destroy her own family.

They were also afraid of dying, worried that if they weren’t kind enough to Lin Zhijun and his sister, their own families would face the same fate.

Who could they cry to then?

Lin Zhijun and his sister were completely without support. Even their maternal grandmother refused to take them in.

The only relief was that no one fought over the family’s house.

The house was too old, and too many people had died there. Others found it unlucky and didn’t want it.

At least they had a place to stay.

As for the other things in the house, some of their aunts’ families came by, but the Lin families in the Shanglin Brigade were numerous.

How could they let them take the orphans’ belongings? At most, they could take the dowries of their daughters, but nothing else was to be touched.

The food in the house was preserved, and Lin Zhijun even found a few dozen coins in his grandparents’ house. They now had a foundation for survival and wouldn’t starve in the short term.

But they were too young, and if they relied on old savings, it wouldn’t last long.

After three days of thinking, on that afternoon, Lin Zhijun took his sister to the health center.

The health center had no patients, and Xiao Zisu was drooling while sleeping on a mat.

Little Bai Guo was also lying there, and Bai Zhu had tied a stinky bug with thread and was waving it in front of her.

Xiao Bai Guo waved her little hand, trying to swat away the bug. It smelled terrible!!

“Good girl, just one more time.”

“Just a little more, and it’ll go away.”

Bai Zhu was trying hard to get the lazy little girl to move her hands and feet.

The door of the health center was open, and as soon as Lin Zhijun and Lin Qingni arrived, they heard Bai Zhu playing with the children.

Lin Qingni’s eyes flashed with a hint of fear.

Lin Zhijun was also very nervous.

But looking at his little sister, thin and small, his courage surged.

He held his sister’s hand and entered.

The first thing he said upon seeing Bai Zhu was, “Dr. Bai, I want to be your grandson. My sister and I can change our surname. I can do a lot of work, and my sister can do housework. As long as you give us food, we’ll be fine.”

Bai Zhu was stunned.

Little Bai Guo was directly stunned.

Huh? They don’t need kids in their family!