Chapter 14

“Ah! Yan-hong, what happened to you?”

Li Fang and the others quickly helped Li Yanhong up. She was unconscious, so they slapped her cheeks and pinched the philtrum hard.

After a long moment, Li Yanhong finally opened her eyes, looking dazed. “What… what happened to me?”

“We should be the ones asking you!”

Ye Li guessed, “You were just struck by lightning.”

At that moment, Li Yanhong smelled the burnt odor of her own hair and suddenly remembered—she had been struck by lightning.

She angrily questioned the robots, “What right do you have to hit people with lightning?”

But the robots didn’t answer, so she could only consider herself unlucky.

Why did it feel like these three robots were siding with Meng Yingying?

And who would’ve thought robots could control lightning? This Time-Space Administration must be pretty formidable.

Seeing that she didn’t speak, Li Fang gave her a hard shake. “Yanhong, did the lightning fry your brain?”

Li Yanhong snapped impatiently, “Just help me up already! What rotten luck today!”

Seeing her suddenly acting so arrogant, Li Fang and the others exchanged confused looks.

Maybe her brain really was fried.

When Li Fang helped Li Yanhong past Zhan Tingxu’s courtyard, the three children playing at the gate spotted them and immediately ran to report to Meng Yingying.

“Mom, you know what? Sister Yanhong got struck by lightning!”

Meng Yingying was shocked. “How could that happen?”

She had just been wondering if Li Yanhong was the one who pushed her into the river. And now Yanhong had an accident… was this karma catching up with her?

Meanwhile, Zhan Tingxu was peeling five boiled eggs for Meng Yingying and the children to dip in soy sauce. “Come have some eggs.”

The kids ran over to eat and urged him too. “Daddy, you eat some too!”

But Zhan Tingxu suddenly acted spoiled. “Daddy will only eat if Mommy feeds me.”

Meng Yingying shot him a look. “I’m not feeding you.”

But Liang piped up, “Mommy, feed Daddy!”

“Yeah, Daddy’s waiting for you to feed him!”

The other two kids joined in, chanting for her to feed him.

Under their expectant gazes, Meng Yingying reluctantly picked up a peeled egg and shoved it into Zhan Tingxu’s mouth. “Here. Eat.”

He happily chomped it down in one bite.

Tingting gaped. “Daddy’s mouth is huge! He ate the whole egg in one bite!”

Zhan Tingxu patted her head. “Don’t imitate that, you could choke.”

Then the children brought up Li Yanhong being struck by lightning, which surprised Zhan Tingxu.

“Something like that actually happened?”

Still, since Li Yanhong had always been stirring up trouble, he figured she deserved it.

Meng Yingying warned the children, “Stay away from Li Yanhong in case lightning strikes her again and hurts you by accident.”

“Yes, Mommy!”

Zhan Tingxu chuckled, then noticing Meng Yingying hadn’t eaten yet, urged her to try an egg.

She dipped one in soy sauce and nibbled at it.

Watching her eat like a little squirrel, Zhan Tingxu reminded her, “You should also stay away from the river, so you don’t fall in again.”

Meng Yingying frowned. “I didn’t fall in—I was pushed.”

“What!?”

Zhan Tingxu’s eyes widened in shock, then turned cold and sharp. “Did you see who did it?”

Meng Yingying shook her head. “If I had, I’d have already gone after them.”

“Were there people nearby at the time?”

She shook her head again, then a sudden fear crossed her face. “Could it have been a water ghost? I heard they drag people down to find someone to die in their place…”

Zhan Tingxu couldn’t help feeling both exasperated and amused.

“That’s just old superstition. Don’t believe that nonsense.”

But considering that she’d already experienced something as strange as rebirth, Meng Yingying thought, “Well, water ghosts don’t sound that far-fetched…”

A-ming asked curiously, “Mommy, what’s a water ghost?”

Meng Yingying half-warned, half-scared them: “It’s something terrifying in the water that drags people down to drown them. So don’t play near the water, understand?”

The children turned pale and nodded frantically.

“Yes, Mommy!”

Zhan Tingxu chuckled. “Why are you filling their heads with superstition?”

Meng Yingying shot him a glance. “I just don’t want them having an accident.”

After laughing for a while, Zhan Tingxu asked again, “Do you remember if anyone was nearby then?”

Meng Yingying thought carefully.

“I think the sisters-in-law were the closest, but there were too many people around. It was noisy, no one heard me calling for help.”

Imagining how desperate she must have been at that moment, Zhan Tingxu couldn’t help feeling protective. He put an arm around her shoulders.

Tingting shuddered at the thought. “Good thing Daddy was there, or Mommy would have…”

She couldn’t finish and hugged Meng Yingying tightly. Ming and Liang joined in.

Meng Yingying patted them gently. “Alright, Mommy’s blessed and nothing bad will happen.”

“With Daddy here, Daddy will protect Mommy,” Zhan Tingxu said firmly.

But in his heart, he was determined to find out who pushed her into the river—and not let them off easily.

He went straight to the courtyard where Li Fang and the others lived.

Li Fang, sweeping fallen leaves, saw him arrive and exclaimed with hands on her hips, “Well, look who’s here! Fourth Brother showing up in person—what a rare guest!”

The eldest brother, smoking a dry tobacco pipe in a chair, added, “Fourth Brother, what brings you here?”

“I need to talk to you.”

Zhan Tingxu’s tone left no room for argument. “Call out the other sisters-in-law too.”

The eldest brother frowned, clearly displeased, wanting to put Zhan Tingxu in his place.

“Fourth Brother, do you think you’re the eldest now? What kind of tone is that?”

Zhan Tingxu’s voice grew colder. “Big Brother, I’ve sent plenty of money home over the years, haven’t I?”

That made the eldest brother’s expression falter. “Y-yeah, but that money was sent to your wife. What’s it got to do with me?”

“I heard you pocketed quite a bit yourself—so much that my wife couldn’t even buy baby formula.”

He’d learned this from the children.

No wonder Meng Yingying once wrote to ask him to send money to her parents’ home instead. He hadn’t questioned it and just did as she asked.

Now it turned out his brothers had been intercepting what he sent.

Zhan Tingxu’s words carried a cold menace that made even his elder brother shiver. He hurriedly ordered Li Fang to summon the other two sisters-in-law.

“Well? Don’t just stand there! Call Second Sister-in-law and Third Sister-in-law out!”

Li Fang quickly raised her voice and shouted, “Ali! Xiuxiu! Come out!”