Chapter 105: Deception

Gao Suhua became displeased upon hearing this remark. “It’s true he changed his name, but we raised him with our hard work. Adopting him is just like having our own child. It’s only natural for him to support us in our old age, and…”

She didn’t finish her sentence, afraid of being laughed at. The truth was, they had paid money to secure him the job that would support them in their old age.

The woman who spoke earlier asked, “Why not say it?”

Gao Suhua rolled her eyes at the woman. “Sour grapes. Clearly jealous and still talking nonsense.”

Feeling guilty, she turned and went back home.

In Ji City, on that day, Luo Tao brought up again to his father what the official at the street office had said, “Dad, think about it carefully. Do we really not have any relatives or friends in Beijing?”

Luo Tiancheng said, “Really, we don’t have any. I’ve thought about it over several times these past few days. Don’t worry about this matter anymore. Just focus on doing your job well.”

Luo Tao replied, “Dad, don’t you think things haven’t been going smoothly for us lately? There must be a reason behind it, we just don’t know yet.”

Luo Tianming added, “For now, we can only take it step by step.”

Luo Tao frowned, feeling disappointed in his father. “Dad, how about you give me some money and coupons? I’ll treat that official to a meal to get closer to him and see if I can get some useful information out of him.”

Luo Tianming had no other choice but to agree with his son’s idea. He got up and went inside, taking out three yuan and some coupons.

In Qingshan Village, when Luo Qiao finished work at noon, she went to the pond as usual because today was delivery day, at the same old time and place.

This time, Luo Qiao brought over two hundred and sixty pounds of fish, wanting to show them that catching these fish wasn’t easy, to dispel any doubts they might have.

In the afternoon, she went back to work as usual without showing any flaws.

These past few days, the village had been buzzing with the news about Gao Shunyi and Qiao Congshan. As the villagers discussed, when Li Xiulan returned and learned about Gao Shunyi helping Zhang Degang’s family and was injured.

Instead of going to the hospital first to see how the injured person was, she caused a scene at Zhang Degang’s house. Zhang Degang’s family agreed to resolve the issue in the end, and then they packed up and went to the commune hospital.

Qiao Congshan indeed broke his leg, with ligament and bone injuries that required a hundred days to heal. However, the splint applied by Luo Qiao that day was a great help, preventing further injuries. So, he was being well taken care of without major issues.

The two families didn’t disclose how they settled things privately, and over ten days had passed without him being discharged from the hospital.

The Zhang family was distressed. Not only did they have to pay hospitalization fees, but also nutrition costs and compensate for the days of work missed.

Li Xiulan had been at the commune health center these days, taking care of her husband. Everything she consumed was accounted for by the Zhang family, and they even had to work in her place to earn work points, spending each day gossiping with people from the health center.

Eventually, after Zhang’s family sought the village’s esteemed people to negotiate, Li Xiulan finally took Gao Shunyi home from the hospital to recuperate. It cost a whopping thirty yuan for them to leave the hospital.

In truth, Gao Shunyi only needed to stay in the hospital for three days due to blood loss. He could have gone home to recuperate, but Li Xiulan insisted, fearing potential complications.

As for Qiao Congshan, he was simply benefiting from the arrangements made by the Gao family.