On the phone, He Jian told me the second half of the story about No. 29, which was also the truth they had just learned from the Hu family members.

After that great fire, in the power struggle with the Guan Yinli authorities, the severely injured Lin Xiufen had always been the trump card held in the Hu family’s hands. However, this one-sided situation also changed after Hu Lin’s death.

Hu Lin’s death, even if it wasn’t directly orchestrated by Guan Yinli, seemed like a warning to the Hu family that conspiring with tigers was inherently a very dangerous business, and if they weren’t careful, they would pay an unimaginably heavy price.

After continuously demanding four payments for medical expenses from Guan Yinli, the Hu family began to have thoughts of retreat. They had originally thought that if Lin Xiufen could just die at this point, they could demand a massive lump sum compensation from Guan Yinli once and for all, cutting all ties thereafter to eliminate future troubles.

However, it was precisely at this moment that Lin Xiufen’s condition improved.

After more than half a year of treatment, Lin Xiufen’s body miraculously began to recover, and when the medical representative sent by Guan Yinli noticed this, an indescribable eerie feeling began to sprout in the hearts of every Hu family member involved in this matter.

Although Lin Xiufen survived, if her injuries required continued treatment, it would undoubtedly be a bottomless pit, which was obviously not the outcome the real estate developers hoped for.

Once Lin Xiufen survived with her injuries, she would be nothing short of a walking scandal, potentially bringing risks to the highly promising new commercial district at any time.

In the next round of negotiations, the representative sent by the authorities was still polite and measured, but just as everything was about to end, the other party suddenly asked: “I heard there were other accidents in the family before. Have those been properly handled now?”

Just this seemingly casual remark instantly made the two Hu family members present break out in cold sweat.

Hu Chong had just transferred his son to his younger brother through adoption, and had been feeling very unhappy about it for the past few months. Now that the other party had poked at this sore spot, he felt like a deflated balloon, not only losing all confidence but also feeling his stomach fill with ice-cold water.

Although both the fire that Lin Xiufen encountered and the car accident that befell Hu Lin appeared to have nothing to do with Guan Yinli on the surface, but…

With such enormous interests at stake, if the other party wanted to use some methods to deal with ordinary people like them, it would naturally be easy as pie, without leaving any evidence.

If the other party had now lost patience with them and believed they would keep using Lin Xiufen to blackmail them, then what would happen next?

The more Hu Chong thought about it, the more panicked he became, but the problem was that things had already reached this point. Even if they promised never to ask for money again, would the other party believe them?

Unknowingly, they had already placed themselves in a very dangerous situation.

After the representative left, Hu Chong frantically wanted to discuss with his younger brother, but the brother who had just lost his son only gave him a cold look: “It’s too late to give up the rescue now. If you don’t want the money anymore, will you support that woman afterward?”

At this point, the dilemma facing Hu Chong was very straightforward.

If Lin Xiufen didn’t die, then for Guan Yinli, they would always potentially “go back on their word,” and in that case, similar “accidents” might befall them at any time.

However, if they wanted Lin Xiufen to die…

It could be said that only at this very moment did Hu Chong truly begin to regret playing this dangerous card for the first time. He thought that perhaps letting his ex-wife burn to death and only asking Guan Yinli for one payment from beginning to end would have been the best outcome for this matter. Now, everything was too late.

Guan Yinli was watching them like a tiger, and Lin Xiufen would soon be discharged from the hospital. In this impossible situation, a terrifying thought surfaced in Hu Chong’s mind for the first time.

What if they could make Lin Xiufen die once and for all…

Another week passed, and as the severely injured patient returned home, Hu Wei, who had now become Hu Lin, once again returned to his mother’s side.

The reason he had this opportunity to care for his mother was simply because no one in the Hu family was willing to clean up this mess now, and additionally, his biological father was brewing a plan that Hu Wei could never imagine.

Obviously, for a woman severely burned, whose son had also just “died,” it would be perfectly normal for her to commit suicide by drinking poison under such circumstances.

Everything was ready; all that remained was the method of execution.

With one accident after another, Hu Chong’s nerves seemed to have become completely numb. In the second week after Lin Xiufen returned home, he went back to his hometown to get pesticide, planning to let it “accidentally” appear in the house.

Originally, Hu Chong’s plan should have been quite comprehensive. He had considered all aspects of the practical implementation, but he had forgotten one thing.

Even though Hu Wei had been adopted as “Hu Lin,” Lin Xiufen was still his biological mother, and he couldn’t just watch his already severely injured mother suffer more harm.

Twice in a row, the pesticide that Hu Chong put in the cup was directly poured out by Hu Wei. When Hu Chong tried to use the same trick for the third time, Hu Wei stood directly in front of him.

The young man’s face showed only icy coldness, as if the person in front of him was no longer his father.

Hu Wei said: “If you try a third time, I’ll call the police.”

Hu Chong’s head heated up, and only then did he realize that perhaps his son understood everything. Hu Chong gritted his teeth: “Are you trying to destroy me?”

“You’re the one who wanted to harm people first.”

Hu Wei’s voice carried no emotion: “For the sake of making money off her, you harmed her to this state, and even forced me to become someone else’s son. Isn’t that enough? You still want her life?”

Although only seventeen years old, Hu Wei at this moment seemed like a complete adult, and Hu Chong felt a chill in his heart.

He knew in an instant that even though Hu Wei was truly his son, he would really call the police.

Having no choice, Hu Chong had to soften his attitude. He told his son about their current predicament, trying to persuade him with the reason that Lin Xiufen would also be in pain if she stayed alive, but Hu Wei remained unmoved.

Due to a series of dramatic changes, Hu Wei had grown into someone Hu Chong didn’t recognize in just a few short months. He sneered and said word by word: “If you dare touch my mom, I will definitely send you to prison. After all, I’m not your son anymore now, am I?”

As he spoke, Hu Wei held his old, broken phone in his hand, and Hu Chong’s expression changed several times before he finally slammed the door with an iron-blue face.

With Hu Wei as this variable, he could only think of other methods for Lin Xiufen.

No one had expected that because of this fire, the Hu family was not only not united together, but completely torn apart. As a result, the father became the murderer, the mother became the victim, and the son became the most unforgiving person in the family.

Hu Chong didn’t dare underestimate Hu Wei’s determination and was ultimately forced to compromise. They obtained fake death certificates and sent Lin Xiufen back to their hometown to hide her—a woman so severely injured that she couldn’t speak obviously had no ability to survive on her own. The Hu family wanted to let her fend for herself, but Hu Wei once again stood in the way.

After all, his uncle and aunt didn’t really like him either. Making Hu Wei their son was just to recover some losses, so whether he was there to accompany them or not didn’t matter. What mattered was that they needed someone to support them in their old age.

Once again, Hu Wei returned to his mother’s side, preparing for the college entrance exam while caring for her. He blackmailed his father for living expenses, threatening to report him otherwise, but even so, the money he received was still very little, and Hu Wei used it all on his mother.

After all, in his heart, if he had also been in the house at that time, his mother wouldn’t have been burned like this.

One year was enough time for the skin that had been burned beyond recognition to grow new flesh, and because she had inhaled too much deadly smoke, Lin Xiufen’s vocal cords were damaged, and she could no longer speak complete words. Most of the time she just sat quietly alone, curled up in the dark room like a broken puppet.

The fact that his mother was conscious from beginning to end made Hu Wei feel particularly painful.

The woman who used to smile at him and take him to eat cake could now not even go out. Occasionally, when his mother’s body was weak, he would take her to the county hospital. Even though he had wrapped his mother up tightly on the way there, as soon as she removed her hat and revealed the face that had been burned by fire, even the most experienced doctors would change color dramatically.

His mother had become a frightening existence, even though she was the one who should be most afraid.

Hu Wei felt angry, but his anger had nowhere to go, so he could only vent it on books in the deep of night.

After becoming Hu Lin, he became someone who needed to repeat a year for the college entrance exam, and Hu Wei had already thought it through clearly—he must go to university, because… he still had revenge to exact.

One year passed in a flash, and Hu Wei finally got into a second-tier university in his hometown. On the day he received his acceptance letter, there was no one to celebrate with him, only his mother… He bought a small cream cake from the county cake shop and placed it in front of his mother, celebrating his and his mother’s new life.

From the very beginning, Hu Wei had made up his mind that he would take his mother back. Whatever those people wanted to take away, he would take back and place it in his mother’s palm again.

During his four years at university, Hu Wei traveled back and forth between school and his mother. Gradually, Lin Xiufen could do some simple housework again. She had difficulty walking and often had to crawl, and to make his mother feel better, Hu Wei tried all kinds of methods—makeup, skin wax, pale silicone—just to make his mother look more like a “person.”

When they returned to Guan Yinli, even though everything had changed, Hu Wei could see his mother’s excitement.

This was the place where she was born and raised, and which was ultimately forcibly taken from her. Hu Wei saw tears rolling from the corners of his mother’s scarred eyes, and the pain in his heart was like being cut by knives.

His mother had already lost too much; he just wanted to get back what she had lost.

At first, Hu Wei settled his mother in a cheap rental nearby, but several times when he came home from work, he saw his mother staring blankly in the direction of their former home, with a longing in her eyes that he hadn’t seen for a long time.

His mother also wanted to go back.

A wave of relief surged in Hu Wei’s heart. Fortunately, at least his mother still had things she wanted, and he still had ways to fulfill his mother’s wishes.

At night, he took his mother to see No. 29. The woman made some unclear but happy sounds in her throat, and Hu Wei made out the vague words within them.

She said: “Go home… home…”

Yes, No. 29 belonged to the Lin family. It should be his mother’s home, and it shouldn’t belong to anyone else.

He had to let his mother go back.

Thinking this way, Hu Wei obtained the key to the air-raid shelter. Compared to No. 29, this huge air-raid shelter couldn’t possibly find an owner in a short time, so he had enough time to implement his plan.

In the deep of night, Hu Wei dug tirelessly, and sometimes he even had his mother accompany him.

As if she knew what he was doing, his mother always just watched quietly, like when he was little and would patiently wait for his mother to cook.

Hu Wei desperately dug through the secret passage before No. 29 was rented out, and finally, he let his mother return to this place.

Not surprisingly, the quiet air in No. 29 soothed his mother like a sedative, and that night they even slept in the house, sleeping peacefully all night.

From then on, Hu Wei brought his mother to the air-raid shelter more and more frequently, entering and leaving No. 29, until… the house was rented by the first tenant. For several months, Lin Xiufen stayed in the dark air-raid shelter, staring blankly at the entrance to the secret passage. She wanted to go home, but the key wasn’t in her hands.

Once again, intense unwillingness surged in Hu Wei’s heart.

It was originally his mother’s property—why should it now be so easily transferred to others? Since none of that compensation money had reached his mother’s hands, there was no need to give this house to others either.

Thus, half a year after the first tenant moved into No. 29, Hu Wei brought his mother back into that room through the secret passage in the dead of night.

They were the true owners of this place.

Hu Wei thought that no one deserved to sleep in that house more than they did.