Chapter 98: Must Protect Zhou Xinyue

Whether people came with a mindset of watching a joke unfold, or genuinely wanted to find the child—whether selfish or harsh—everyone has their limits. Not laying a hand on a child is the baseline of conscience for all normal people.

Even Chen Xue’s eyes widened in shock, stepping back two paces and covering her mouth with her hand.

Xie Yunshu quickly buttoned up and wrapped Lu Xiaowei’s padded jacket tightly. When she turned around, her icy gaze fixed sharply on Zhou Xinyue and Lu Zhixing: “I found the child last night at the entrance of the old apartment building. It was raining heavily, and he was only wearing a thin shirt. If I had found him an hour later, he could have frozen to death! His wounds are everywhere except his face and hands!”

Her voice was as cold and harsh as a winter wind, full of suppressed anger: “Zhou Xinyue, don’t tell me you didn’t know!”

Under the piercing gaze, Zhou Xinyue involuntarily stepped back a pace, biting her lip as she turned to look at Lu Zhixing: “Zhixing, I didn’t know, I really didn’t…”

No one present was a fool. As the child’s biological mother, how could she not know that he had been abused for so long? And Lu Xiaowei had just moved into Lu Zhixing’s house in the past two days. Before that, he lived with Zhou Xinyue.

The injuries on his body were inflicted by Zhou Xinyue. The fingernail marks on Xiaowei’s neck from just now proved it—Zhou Xinyue was crying and holding the child while scratching him out of venting her anger!

Lu Zhixing slowly stepped back two paces, staring at Zhou Xinyue in disbelief. He couldn’t believe that right under his nose, Xiaowei had been suffering daily abuse from Zhou Xinyue, while he thought it was just because Xiaowei’s health was poor and he often fell ill.

Yet Zhou Xinyue was still crying and complaining: “Zhixing, I didn’t know, I really didn’t! I gave birth to this child, how could I harm him! It was Yunshu, she secretly took the child and vented her anger at me on him! My Xiaowei is the most pitiful…”

She tried to reach for Xiaowei: “Xiaowei, come here and tell your mother! Say it was this bad woman who took you away and hit you, right?”

But Xiaowei stood behind Xie Yunshu, clutching the corner of her clothes tightly with one small hand, looking at Zhou Xinyue with terrified eyes and shaking his head hard: “Mom, I listen, don’t hit…”

“What nonsense are you talking about?!” Zhou Xinyue shrieked, bypassing Xie Yunshu to grab Xiaowei: “How many times have I told you?”

Xie Yunshu firmly shielded Xiaowei with one hand, while grabbing Zhou Xinyue’s hair with the other, pushing her fiercely aside: “You know yourself whether the child is lying! There are plenty of doctors and nurses here; you know better than I do when these wounds happened!”

As a surgeon, Lu Zhixing could tell at a glance these wounds were caused by long-term abuse. He couldn’t hold back, glaring at Zhou Xinyue: “Have you gone mad? How could you lay a hand on such a small child?”

Officer Zhang sighed deeply: “The child was lost for an entire night without anyone knowing. If it weren’t for this young lady’s kindness in taking him in, who knows what would’ve happened. You parents…”

He couldn’t finish. The biological mother abused the child regularly, and the man was a stepfather—who could this child possibly rely on?

Zhou Xinyue sobbed desperately: “Zhixing, Xiaowei was rescued. These injuries were from those other people before! Yes, yes, it was them, not me! I didn’t know…”

But her lies became more glaring by the minute. Some wounds were old, but many were clearly new. And from how terrified Xiaowei looked just now, it was obvious he feared this mother deeply!

Lu Zhixing’s eyes darkened with suppressed emotions—a mixture of hope and despair. He couldn’t believe that because of a woman like her, because of her obvious lies, Yunshu had been harmed for a whole year!

He hardly dared look at Xie Yunshu’s expression, clenching his teeth: “Zhou Xinyue, are you even human?!”

The child had been abused for so long by her. She was clueless after losing him for a whole night, and yet dared to slander Xie Yunshu. Did she think he was an idiot? If he wasn’t an idiot, what was he, to believe such a despicable woman?

Zhou Xinyue continued to sob helplessly—now she didn’t know what else to say. Her hatred for Xie Yunshu deepened! Xiaowei was her child, and she could hit or scold him as she pleased. Even if she killed the child, it wouldn’t make Xie Yunshu the “good person”!

“Zhixing, I was wrong, I know I was wrong… I must have gone crazy. I was always beaten by those people back then, so I couldn’t control myself. I know I was wrong!” she stammered and cried, repeatedly mentioning the trafficking story, hoping to awaken Lu Zhixing’s protective instincts and evoke pity.

But clearly, the most pitiful person was Xiaowei. Chen Xue couldn’t help whispering harshly: “No matter what, you can’t treat a child like that. She’s simply crazy!”

She used to think Zhou Xinyue and Lu Zhixing were a perfect couple, so she relentlessly pushed them together for selfish reasons, even offending Xie Yunshu many times.

Now she deeply regretted it. Zhou Xinyue was not weak and pitiable; she was clearly venomous!

Thinking this, Chen Xue’s face suddenly turned pale. What if Lu Zhixing or Lu Jianshe found out about what happened between Lu Zhixing and Zhou Xinyue, and that she was involved? How could she have been so blind to help Zhou Xinyue? Now it seemed she not only wouldn’t gain anything, but might be implicated and suffer!

Zhang Qingshan noticed her odd expression and quietly asked: “What’s wrong?”

Her husband didn’t know when she did that thing, so Chen Xue didn’t dare say a word. Biting her lip, she nervously shook her head, deciding to keep that matter buried forever.

Lu Jianshe, who came by car, hadn’t said a word the entire time. His face was as dark as ink. If he had known that Zhou Xinyue could stir up such chaos in the family, he would never have sent Zhixing to the mountains to rescue her just to boost his own political achievements.

He never liked Xie Yunshu. When Cheng Yuxiang and Lu Xueting bullied and oppressed her, he pretended not to see. After all, a daughter from a low-class family marrying into theirs was already an act of climbing above her station—she deserved some grievances.

But after Lu Zhixing and Xie Yunshu divorced, even the Lu family’s status began to change!

No matter how ashamed he felt, the most important thing now was to suppress this matter, not let it drag on endlessly at the police station. So Lu Jianshe spoke sternly: “Yunshu, thank you for bringing Xiaowei here. I’ll handle this matter. Everyone, please disperse.”

Then he softened his expression, looking at Xiaowei who was hiding behind Xie Yunshu: “Child, stay with your mother for now. She knows she was wrong and will change. Think about it—where in the world is there a mother who doesn’t love her child? She just has the wrong way of educating. When you grow up, you’ll understand.”

In short, this matter had to be handled delicately. He would not let anyone make the Lu family a laughingstock. No matter how much he despised Zhou Xinyue, he had to protect her now—not to harm the family’s interests!