Chapter 10 – Liu Ying and Her Daughters Are Released

“Your second son and daughter-in-law were both killed by your eldest son’s family!”

Ah Feng’s words echoed again and again in Old Master and Old Madam Tao’s ears. Their expressions were blank, clearly unable to accept the truth for the moment.

After a long pause, Old Madam Tao suddenly cried out, “That’s not true!”

“You’ve all been fooled by that wretched girl!”

“She’s been a jinx since she was a child! After she cursed her parents to death, now she’s trying to kill off my eldest son’s family too!”

“You must stand up for us!”

“Wuuu…”

Ah Feng frowned slightly. “What jinx nonsense are you spouting?”

“This is a new era. Stop talking such superstitious garbage!”

Old Madam Tao wanted to argue—Sang Feiyu was a jinx!

She had even hired someone back in the village to curse Sang Feiyu with voodoo dolls. That person had said Sang Feiyu had a tough fate, and it would be difficult to bring her down.

But now, with superstitious practices banned nationwide, she didn’t dare say such things in front of the police.

Eventually, Old Master Tao spoke up. “Officer, my eldest son has always been honest and kind since he was young. He would never harm his own brother.”

“If he hadn’t helped his younger brother all these years, that business would never have gotten so big.”

“The second son’s death was strange, but maybe it was karma.”

He sighed heavily.

Ah Feng was dumbfounded. “What did you just say?”

How could someone speak about their own son like that?

He was dead, and yet his own father still spoke so coldly!

Old Master Tao stood his ground. “The second son married a woman who tore our family apart. He stopped caring about us long ago.”

“You have no idea how miserable we’ve been. We thought our children had grown successful and we’d be able to enjoy life in the city.”

“But that woman didn’t like us, and the second son always listened to his wife. He sent us back to the countryside and told us if we came looking for them again, they wouldn’t support us in our old age.”

“So we didn’t go. Then the big campaign started, and the second son was classified as one of the ‘Five Black Categories.’ He was bound to be dealt with eventually.”

He let out another sigh before continuing, “Just before they tried to escape, he had a car accident and died.”

“If that’s not karma, what is?”

As heartless as it sounded, he truly believed the second son and his wife brought it upon themselves.

They had angered the ancestors of the Tao family and suffered divine retribution.

At that moment, Ah Feng finally understood something clearly—not everyone deserved to be a parent.

He couldn’t help but retort, “If Tao Jiaxing’s family didn’t want to monopolize the inheritance, then why did they abuse and imprison Sang Feiyu?”

Old Master Tao didn’t hesitate, “Those injuries were probably faked by that dead girl to fool you all.”

Ah Feng followed up, “Then how do you explain the tools of abuse found in Tao Jiaxing’s basement?”

“Don’t tell me that Sang Comrade planted those to slander them!”

No matter the truth, Old Master Tao knew one thing for certain—his eldest son couldn’t be implicated any further.

Otherwise, who would even be around to perform the funeral rites when he died?

“Those tools must’ve been left there by someone else on purpose!”

“If my eldest son’s family really abused that girl, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave the tools behind.”

Ah Feng was taken aback. He had to admit, there was some logic to what Old Master Tao said.

Tao Jiaxing was capable of clearing out an entire household—why would he be careless enough to leave incriminating evidence behind?

If those tools weren’t theirs, then how had Sang Feiyu gotten those injuries?

Seeing his hesitation, Old Master Tao seized the opportunity to add, “My son has always been sharp. If he was planning to escape, he must’ve hidden the family assets early on. Now that he’s dead, only his daughter knows where they’re hidden.”

He was extremely reluctant to part with that inheritance, but for the sake of his eldest son’s family, he had no choice.

“My eldest son’s family were farmers by birth. They have nothing to do with capitalists. To tell you the truth, they relied on me and my wife to support them secretly all these years.”

“We can even show you bank remittance records as proof.”

He thought, as long as they could prove they weren’t capitalists, it wouldn’t be a serious issue.

But unexpectedly, Ah Feng replied, “They’ve already been taken by the Revolutionary Committee. That’s not under our jurisdiction anymore.”

Old Madam Tao quickly asked, “Then, Officer, can we go now?”

“You two knocked someone unconscious and have serious ideological problems. You can’t leave just yet!”

Upon hearing that, Old Madam Tao threw a massive tantrum—crying, screaming, and rolling on the floor, causing a huge scene in the police station.

Ah Feng still wanted to get Tao Ronghua’s whereabouts from the couple. Since they hadn’t committed any major crimes, the police only detained them for one day before releasing them.

The Revolutionary Committee had the same thought process. On this day, they also released Liu Ying and her two daughters.

Apparently, no matter how much they were tortured, the women refused to reveal the location of the missing fortune. Even the Red Armband members were starting to believe they genuinely didn’t know where it was.

That kind of wealth couldn’t just vanish. So they suspected Tao Ronghua had hidden it.

Their destination was believed to be America. Tao Ronghua had attended university, and it was likely that he was the one handling arrangements, while the others just followed his orders.

The worst-case scenario was that the assets had already been moved out of the country.

It wasn’t unheard of.

No matter what, they couldn’t give up hope.

…

Liu Ying and her daughters leaned on each other as they made their way home.

From a distance, they saw the white seal tape across their front door. Their legs went weak and they couldn’t take another step.

Tao Jingjing’s face crumpled. “Mom, they took all the money off me. Where are we supposed to live now?”

Liu Ying gritted her teeth and forced herself to stay upright. She couldn’t collapse now, not at such a critical moment.

“We’ll find Sang Feiyu!”

“This time, no matter what, we can’t let her escape again.”

When Tao Yingying heard that, she couldn’t help but mutter, “It’s all Fourth Brother’s fault.”

Liu Ying was silent for a while before saying, “He didn’t want her to escape.”

She understood her own son—he had probably developed greedy thoughts about the inheritance.

She had warned Tao Jiaxing before that if he didn’t treat all the children equally, some of them would start having other ideas. He hadn’t believed her.

“You mean… she escaped on her own?” Tao Jingjing asked in shock.

Liu Ying didn’t want to waste time explaining to her silly daughter. She just said, “Stop asking. Right now, our top priority is to find Sang Feiyu.”

“The three of us against her alone—we’ve got the upper hand.”

As she spoke, she leaned in and whispered something to her daughters. Their eyes instantly lit up.

Just as they were about to go hunt for Sang Feiyu, an unfamiliar man appeared in their line of sight.

A flash of fear passed through Liu Ying’s eyes—