He was not much taller than his mother, estimated to be only 1.6 meters, short and small.
He had a regular crew cut, and his skin was equally dark.
He wore a red cotton vest, dark blue trousers, and a pair of blue slippers.
His features were flat, and his face was covered in red acne.
Seeing Mai Ledi open her eyes, he was both shy and happy, and stammered,
"Ah, Mom, she, her eyes are really big. Really, really strange and beautiful."
Having been tied up for too long, her limbs were almost useless. Seeing that he didn't seem like a particularly evil person, Mai Ledi put on a pitiful appearance. She looked at the two of them for a few seconds, her eyes turning red.
"It hurts. Can you help me untie it?"
What a nice voice!
Zhuzi raised his foot to help her untie the ropes, but the woman reached out and stopped him.
"Don't move, you idiot."
Then she looked back at Mai Ledi.
"It's not that we won't untie you, but we need to make things clear beforehand."
"You are the wife bought by our family, and I will be your mother-in-law from now on. He is your man, do you understand?"
"From now on, you will obediently call me Mom and call him the master of the house. As long as you are obedient and live well with your master, and continue our family line, we naturally won't treat you unfairly."
"But if you are disobedient..."
Mai Ledi had watched a documentary about situations like hers before.
Generally, the poorer the place, the more severe the preference for sons over daughters, leading to a vicious cycle. This resulted in fewer women in the villages, and men unable to find wives, leading to buying and selling.
In such cases, it was usually not just one or two families buying wives, but the entire village, or several consecutive villages.
She knew that everyone was very united and very wary of bought wives. Resisting forcefully would not bring any benefits, and escaping blindly was also useless. The only way out for her was to feign weakness to gain sympathy and find an opportunity to leave.
"I know. The big brother on the road has already told me. Don't worry, I'm unfamiliar with this place, and I definitely won't run around."
"I need to go to the restroom. I'm also very thirsty. Can you untie me first?"
Zhuzi liked this wife too much. After hearing this, before his mother could say anything else, he rushed to the bed and untied her ropes.
Her hands were freed, feeling as stiff as if they weren't her own.
Mai Ledi lay there, looking at the layout of the house. After a while, she had the strength to sit up.
This was truly a very poor family.
In this day and age, the most decent piece of furniture in the room was still this bed.
Besides the bed, there was a red old-fashioned wardrobe and two wooden chairs. Other than that, there was nothing else.
Seeing her sit up, the mother and son immediately became wary.
Mai Ledi leaned against the wall weakly.
"Thank you, master of the house. Where is the restroom? Can you take me there?"
The woman took her to the restroom, which was a small wooden house about five meters outside the main house, not far from the courtyard.
It seemed that under the vast land, rural dry toilets were all similar in design.
A pit was dug in the ground, with two wooden planks placed on top to prevent people from falling in. A small house was built around the pit to provide some privacy, and that was considered the toilet.
In the early summer weather, the toilet stank to high heaven.
Mai Ledi dared not look or smell. She held her breath, squatted down quickly, and stood up again soon.
Her height was 1.72 meters. Standing in front of the 1.5-meter-tall woman, she seemed like a giant. Even so, Mai Ledi still acted spoiled with her.
"Do I smell bad? I was in that car for a long time, and it smelled of chicken manure. Can you get me some water to wash?"
"People from the city are so particular. Others come here crying and making a fuss, like they're doing something else, but you, you want to wash first."
"Rural people don't have so many demands. I am your mother-in-law, and I shouldn't be serving you."
The woman impatiently urged her, "Go in quickly. When you're with your master tonight, you'll have plenty of chances to wash."
Mai Ledi knew that acting spoiled with her was useless, so she stopped talking nonsense. She entered the house and looked at Zhuzi pitifully.
"I'm so hungry. Is there anything to eat?"
Zhuzi looked dull, but his movements were quick. He immediately brought her two steamed buns and a plate of cold dishes.
Whether they tasted good or not, she needed to replenish her energy first.
Mai Ledi sat at the wooden table and wolfed down the food.
Lu Qingxu had been awake all night. At six in the morning, with bloodshot eyes, he sat at the traffic police station waiting for them to check the surveillance results.
Zhan Beijue suddenly called.
"I've arrived in Hangcheng. Where are you now?"
Lu Qingxu told him his location.
"Don't say too much to the traffic police. Come find me."
Zhan Beijue sent him an address, and Lu Qingxu drove there without a word.
It was a derelict unfinished building. As soon as he walked in, he heard movement on the second floor.
He hurried upstairs and saw Zhan Beijue sitting in the center of a chair, with a group of tall bodyguards standing beside him. Four men were kneeling in front of him, their faces bruised and swollen from beatings.
He didn't understand what was happening. He ran to Zhan Beijue to ask what was going on. Zhan Beijue didn't explain, but gestured with his chin towards the men.
"Ask them yourself."
So it was these four who had caused Mai Ledi's accident!
Lu Qingxu was instantly enraged!
Mai Ledi's health was not good. She had been missing for 11 hours. If something had really happened to her, and it was the work of several men, he couldn't imagine the consequences.
Without a word, he rushed to one of the men, grabbed his collar, and punched him.
"I'm asking you, where did you take her? Speak!"
The man's eyes were swollen very high, as if he had been stung by a bee, which looked very comical.
But his mouth was tough, and he refused to speak.
Lu Qingxu didn't have the patience to argue with him and switched to another person.
"Bang, bang, bang!" Several punches in a row.
"You don't know either, do you?"
The man was bleeding from his nose and mouth from the beating and couldn't even kneel properly.
"I'm just a runner. I really don't know anything..."
"Fine, you all don't know, you're all innocent, very good."
He had waited at the traffic police station all night with no clues, feeling extremely anxious.
Now that the people were finally in front of him, they refused to admit anything.
He completely lost his patience. He stood up, aimed at the man's head, and kicked him.
"All of you go to hell! Whether you know or not, you all have to die. See how I flay you alive!"
As if the sports shoes weren't painful enough, after several kicks, he looked at the ground. Finding no suitable tools, he turned and pointed at Zhan Beijue.
"Get up, let me use your chair."
Zhan Beijue was cooperative and stood up gracefully, holding the armrests.
Lu Qingxu lifted the heavy executive chair and slammed it down on the person on the far side.
As he was about to hit the second person, someone finally broke down in fear.
"Don't hit me anymore, big brother, don't hit me. Spare my life, I'll tell you, I'll tell you, okay?"
While Mai Ledi was eating, Zhuzi watched her, and Zhuzi's mother also watched from the side.
There were only the two of them in the house, and neither of them was particularly vicious. Mai Ledi felt that she could handle them completely.