Hearing Lin Guodong and Lin Jianshe call her “mom,” Li Shuping truly felt physically disgusted.

No matter who they were, they were all more important than her as their mother.

Yet she was blamed by outsiders on their behalf.

How could she be their mother?

She was clearly just a big sucker.

Outside Room 5, neighbors had gathered to watch the commotion.

Seeing Li Shuping hitting both her son and daughter-in-law, and even trying to send her daughter-in-law’s brother to jail, they all felt deep down that this woman was truly fierce.

“Oh, Shuping,” Aunt Yuan started seeking attention, “look, your daughter-in-law’s mother just knelt to you. You should let her son go. After all, you’re all relatives. If you send her son to prison, how will your relationship be? Can your son and daughter-in-law still live together peacefully?”

Lin Jianshe looked at Li Shuping with resentment.

Listen, even outsiders understood things better than she did.

His own mother had sent his wife’s younger brother to jail.

How were he and Qin Qin supposed to live from now on?

“Exactly, we’re all relatives. If someone’s wrong, admit it. If something of yours got broken, just compensate for it. How can you ruin a young man’s life forever?” Cui Juanzi chimed in.

Lin Yongnian looked at Li Shuping and said, “Listen carefully, even outsiders understand things better than you do.”

Li Shuping thought they were talking nonsense. “The beating didn’t fall on them or on you. Of course you can generously advise me to withdraw the case and let Liu Yong go. But if Liu Yong went to your factory, beat you up, and caused you to lose your proud job, I bet Lin Yongnian would be so furious he’d stab him to death.”

Lin Yongnian: “…”

“Mom!” Lin Jianshe shouted, “If you don’t withdraw the case, if you don’t let Xiao Yong go, then don’t expect me to ever recognize you as my mother again.”

Li Shuping: “Is that so? That’s great! Don’t worry, I definitely won’t withdraw the case, and you can stop calling me your mother. From now on, when we meet, just call me Aunt Li, Auntie Li, or Comrade Li Shuping.”

In the previous life, it was in the summer of ’83 — next year — that Liu Yong had ruined a girl named Gao Zhaodi.

Her family, afraid it would cause scandal, didn’t report it to the police but demanded a bride price of three thousand yuan from the Liu family, and married the girl to Liu Yong.

Three thousand yuan was an astronomical bride price at the time, and the Liu family naturally could not afford it, nor did they want to pay.

But the Gao family refused to accept any less. If they didn’t get the full amount, they would report it to the police.

At that time, the government had just started cracking down on crime. Liu Yong’s offense was considered hooliganism, a sure case once reported, and arrest meant serious punishment.

Whether or not the Liu family could pay, they had to come up with the money somehow. Lin Jianshe and Liu Qin, the young couple, gave their entire savings to the Liu family, but it was still far from enough.

Yang Meifeng and Liu Jianping begged Lin Yongnian and Li Shuping for help.

She was reluctant to lend money, thinking Liu Yong deserved to be shot for his misdeeds.

But Lin Yongnian felt since they were relatives, they should help relatives in trouble, so he lent a thousand yuan to the Liu family.

Of course, the Liu family never paid back the money, which caused great resentment in the older couple.

After Gao Zhaodi married into the Liu family, they resented her family for demanding so much bride price and vented all their anger on her.

Yang Meifeng tormented her, Liu Yong beat her, and Liu Qin, the elder sister-in-law, mocked and scolded her.

Eventually, after giving birth to a daughter, Gao Zhaodi held the baby and jumped into the river during her postpartum confinement.

Even for these two lives lost, Li Shuping absolutely would not withdraw the case.

She wanted Liu Yong to serve several years in prison.

“Xiaoyu, go get paper and pen. I’m going to write a severance letter with your second brother, so he can’t deny it later and insist on calling me mom.”

“Oh, okay.” Lin Xiaoyu quickly went to the desk and grabbed paper and pen.

Yang Meifeng and Liu Jianping, along with the five members of the Lin family, were all stunned.

They had expected that when Lin Jianshe said he wouldn’t recognize Li Shuping as his mother if she didn’t withdraw the case, she would be scared.

But she actually said it was great—she’d rather not be recognized by him than withdraw the case.

“Mom, do you think I’m joking?” Lin Jianshe felt his mother must think he wasn’t serious.

Li Shuping: “I don’t think you’re joking. A son who would say he won’t recognize his own mother just because she’s defending herself against an outsider who hurt her—whoever wants him, can have him. I don’t want him.”

“Xiaoyu, I’ll dictate, you write.”

“The severance letter: I, Lin Jianshe, because my mother Li Shuping refuses to withdraw the case and let my little uncle Liu Yong go, hereby sever mother-son relations with Li Shuping, no longer recognize her as my mother, and have no further contact…”

Lin Jianshe’s hands trembled with anger, and the muscles on his cheek twitched.

Yang Meifeng, Liu Jianping, and the neighbors at Courtyard 23 all thought Li Shuping had truly gone mad—to write a severance letter with her own son.

Was it really necessary?

“Mom, are you serious?” Lin Guodong frowned and asked.

Li Shuping looked up at him, “Do you want to write one too?”

Lin Guodong: “…”

He hadn’t done anything wrong; did she want to sever ties with him as well?

“Write it!” Lin Yongnian shouted with glaring eyes. “If you don’t withdraw the case and let Xiao Yong go, the whole family will sign severance letters with you. No birth, no burial.”

He wanted to see if Li Shuping dared to actually write that letter.

“Fine.” Li Shuping slammed the table hard. “Anyone who won’t sign it is a damn coward and bastard!”

“Xiaoyu, add your eldest brother’s name.”

Liu Qin and Zhang Jiao’s names wouldn’t be added, as they were daughters-in-law.

Since she was severing relations with Lin Jianshe and Lin Guodong, naturally she was cutting ties with them too.

“Should we add Dad’s name?” Lin Xiaoyu asked.

Li Shuping: “I have nothing to do with your dad anymore. Why add his name?”

“…” Lin Yongnian clenched his fists.

Even Yang Meifeng, as a woman, couldn’t tell if Li Shuping was serious or just bluffing.

“In-law, you better think carefully. If you really sever ties with both your sons, when you die, you won’t even have a son to knock the funeral basin.”

“That’s just fine. Then when I die, I won’t have to see them come back from the grave angry at me.” She had died in a nursing home last life, and no one even claimed her body.

She figured no one would claim it this time either, since claiming it would cost money—and those ungrateful wolves wouldn’t be willing.

Lin Guodong’s face darkened.

His mother’s words made him and his younger brother sound like terrible sons who had done her wrong.

Even dead, they could anger her enough to come back from the grave?

What had they done to deserve that?

“Mom, it’s done.” Lin Xiaoyu handed Li Shuping the completed severance letter.

Li Shuping looked at it and signed her name with Lin Xiaoyu’s pen, then blackened her index finger and pressed it down to seal it.

“Here, sign and seal it.” Li Shuping slammed the pen down on the table.

Lin Jianshe angrily walked to the table, picked up the pen, and shouted, “Mom, if you don’t withdraw the case, I’ll really sign this letter and sever relations with you!”

Gu Zhenyuan had just arrived at the crowded doorway of Room 5 when he heard this.

“Please make way.” He reached out, motioning for the crowd blocking the door to move aside.

Aunt Yuan and the others saw it was a police officer and quickly opened a path.

Li Shuping rolled her eyes. “Hurry up and sign. Don’t dawdle.”

“Police officer’s here!”

Someone shouted, and everyone inside turned to look at the door.