Zhang Jingchan accompanied Li Weiyi and followed the ambulance to the hospital. Xiang Qinling and Li Xiaoyi also rushed over, and together they sent Li Zhongheng into the emergency room. The family broke down crying once again. Zhong Yi also hurried over upon hearing the news and voluntarily ran errands for them.

Zhang Jingchan went to the emergency department for examination. Fortunately, they were all superficial injuries without any bone damage—his forehead, arms, and lower back had multiple injuries, some requiring bandaging and others requiring ointment application. The Li family mother and daughters were extremely distressed. Li Weiyi squeezed in beside him, her eyes also reddening with heartache. This made Zhang Jingchan simply hide away and run errands together with Zhong Yi.

When Xiang Qinling and her daughter learned that it was once again A-chan (Li Weiyi) standing before them who had helped find Li Zhongheng, they were both profusely grateful. Seeing A-chan eagerly keeping watch outside the operating room, tears flowing as fiercely as theirs, they felt even more that he was upright and tenderhearted, greatly increasing their favorable impression of him.

As for this young man always being inseparable from their younger daughter, the mother and daughter pair had also noticed, but right now they really had no time to concern themselves with it.

Several hours later, Li Zhongheng was wheeled out. The emergency treatment had been very successful—he was no longer in life-threatening danger, only fallen into deep sleep. He would need to recuperate his body properly afterward.

The police investigation made rapid breakthroughs. Under Ding Chenmo’s powerful interrogation pressure, combined with various trace evidence that formed ironclad proof, Zhou Zhihao quickly couldn’t withstand it and confessed truthfully.

Indeed, as Li Weiyi and Zhang Jingchan had deduced, during this period Zhou Zhihao’s family had been trapped in a pile of troubles, going from bad to worse. When Li Xiaoyi proposed breaking up with him, it made his anger burn even fiercer.

Before the incident occurred, he had already been following Li’s parents for several days. He had always known they were softhearted—originally he wanted to wear them down, and if playing pitiful didn’t work, he would use threats and inducements to get them to persuade Li Xiaoyi to change her mind.

On the evening of the 8th, he followed Li Zhongheng. As he followed, he gradually sensed something wasn’t right. Zhou Zhihao often bought lottery tickets and frequently had dreams of getting rich overnight. When he saw the honest and simple Li Zhongheng standing at the lottery station entrance, looking at the winning numbers on the wall with his face flushed red, and then saw Li Zhongheng secretly run to a deserted place and take out a lottery ticket from his waist pouch, looking at it treasuringly again and again, Zhou Zhihao’s eyes turned red.

He intercepted Li Zhongheng on the small road leading to the bus station.

Originally he wanted to trick the lottery ticket away—once it was in his hands, who could say clearly whose it was? Who knew Li Zhongheng would be extremely cautious and absolutely refuse to take it out, brushing him off and trying to leave.

On one side was the Zhou family, stuck in the mud; on the other side was a huge sum of money plus his sweetheart. When Zhou Zhihao thought about how getting this money would be enough for him to use for half a lifetime—he hadn’t thought about using it to save the Zhou family from their predicament—and then thought about how with this money, the Li family would definitely have to bow their heads and let Li Xiaoyi reconcile with him, he could no longer restrain himself. As if ignited and driven by a ball of mad flames, he approached from behind and smacked a brick on top of Li Zhongheng’s head.

Afterward, as Ding Chenmo had deduced, he knocked the man unconscious, grabbed the lottery ticket, but had nowhere to go. In a flash of inspiration, he first hid Li Zhongheng in the woodshed of Third Sister’s restaurant.

But once daylight came and Third Sister and her husband arrived, the matter couldn’t be hidden. Zhou Zhihao didn’t want to share the money with them. He had also thought about killing, digging a pit in the courtyard, but in the end some humanity still remained. Thinking that Old Li had always treated him well, killing a living person—he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Later he carried Li Zhongheng to the abandoned courtyard next door.

Those wounds on Li Zhongheng’s body were all inflicted by him—unskilled, chaotic, not fatal. He wanted to kill but couldn’t be ruthless enough, back and forth repeatedly. But if time dragged on long enough, Li Zhongheng would definitely die from blood loss and infection.

……

What awaited Zhou Zhihao would be the law’s most just and stern punishment. For the rest of his life, he would never again have the opportunity to lay a finger on Li Xiaoyi.

As for that sum of money, he had already squandered nearly a million—buying luxury brands, buying gemstones, buying phones, buying a car, living it up in Xiangcheng and throwing money around like dirt. Whatever could be recovered, whatever could be liquidated, Ding Chenmo said he would help get back.

Yet the Li family showed no joyful expression whatsoever. Compared to coming into sudden wealth, what pained them more was the injuries Li Zhongheng had actually suffered and the hardships he had endured. However, when Li Zhongheng woke up that evening and heard that after paying for surgery, medical treatment, and rehabilitation expenses, more than half the money could still be left over, he grinned and said: “Heaven still has eyes after all. My suffering wasn’t in vain.”

Hearing that it was Li Weiyi and Zhang Jingchan who had brought the police to find him and helped catch Zhou Zhihao, Li Zhongheng grasped the young man Li Weiyi’s hand and said weakly: “A-chan, great kindness needs no thanks. I’ll be shameless—as long as you’re willing, from now on treat the Li family as your own home, treat us as your… closest people.”

Li Weiyi’s eyes brimmed with hot tears as she threw herself on his hospital bed: “Dad! Mom! Sister—”

Even though the Li family was endlessly grateful to her, at this moment they all froze in unison.

Li Weiyi had already grasped Li Zhongheng’s hand, pressing her handsome face against it and nuzzling, making Li Zhongheng feel both moved and amused.

Zhong Yi suddenly glanced at Li Xiaoyi, his eyes carrying unclear meaning. Li Xiaoyi’s face reddened as she spat, though it wasn’t clear what she was spitting at.

Zhang Jingchan waited until Li Weiyi had acted coquettish enough, then grabbed the back of her clothes and forcefully dragged her back to his side, saying: “She’s a rather emotional person who likes to follow my lead in addressing people. Don’t overthink it.”

As soon as these words came out, Dad, Mom, Sister, and brother-in-law all looked at him. Only the brother-in-law’s eyes contained hidden envy.

Zhang Jingchan also realized his words hadn’t gone through his brain—probably the Li family’s atmosphere was too soft and sticky, making his brain turn slower too. His face, extremely rarely, turned slightly red as he said: “Alright, you all rest well. I’ll take her back first.”

Mother Li said: “You’re also injured. After dropping off A-chan, go straight home. Your sister and I are watching here—it’ll be fine.”

Zhang Jingchan nodded and pulled the reluctant Li Weiyi away.

The two had just walked out of the hospital room when they came face to face with a large group of people walking their way in a grand procession. Leading them were Zhang Moyun and Wu Xinhui. Following behind was Xu Yi, as well as Zhang Fengming, Cheng Chuan, Li Jingxiong and other high-level executives of the group—one could say almost half of Fu Ming Group’s leadership team had come. The hospital director and vice director were all accompanying them.

Both sides met face to face and all froze. Wu Xinhui rushed over with red eyes and grabbed Li Weiyi’s hands: “Son, are you alright? I heard you helped the police catch a murderer—you, how could you be so bold? Don’t you want your life? You scared Mommy to death, wuwuwu…”

Li Weiyi glanced at Zhang Jingchan and quickly hugged her: “Mom, I’m fine, I’m fine. Look how strong and agile I am—only I get to beat up the bad guys!”

Wu Xinhui: “Nonsense! The police called and said you got severely beaten up.”

Li Weiyi: “……”

All the executives laughed. Zhang Moyun gazed fixedly at his son, a smile also appearing on his originally solemn face. Wu Xinhui pulled Li Weiyi’s hand and walked before Zhang Moyun.

Zhang Moyun hadn’t expected that there would be such a day when his son would look at him so eagerly, his eyes revealing timidity, attachment, and shyness. After his son turned five, he had never again had such dewy eyes.