"Shh! Keep your voice down," Mrs. Xie reminded him.
Mr. Xie nodded. He pulled away the hand Mrs. Xie had clapped over his mouth and held it in his own. "How did you run into the patrol team? Are you hurt? You must have been terrified. I told you I’d go with you, but you insisted on going without . Well, not entirely—you took our fourth daughter-in-law. I never should have listened to you."
"It’s a good thing you didn’t co. If you’d been arrested, your position as factory director would have been..."
"You were arrested?" Mr. Xie lowered his voice. He rembered Jing San asking him for the car keys. To cover for his wife going to the black market, he hadn’t asked any questions when Jing San needed the car that night and had just handed the keys over. "Did Jing San go out because of you two? Was it serious enough to involve him? I thought you didn’t manage to buy anything."
Mrs. Xie thought for a mont before deciding to tell him the truth. "Xiao i wanted to eat so potatoes, so we bought a few."
"Buying a few potatoes shouldn’t have been enough to get Jing San involved," Mr. Xie said, confused.
Mrs. Xie looked a little embarrassed. "We bought a little more than a few."
"How much is ’a little more’?" Mr. Xie asked.
"Well, I only ant to buy five jin, but I let him talk into twenty. Right as I was paying, the patrol team showed up. The vendor grabbed the money right out of my hand and forced the whole basket of potatoes on . I’m not even sure how many jin there were." Mrs. Xie pulled her hand from her husband’s grasp and hung her satchel and scarf on the rack.
"Reselling potatoes." Mr. Xie’s mouth twitched. A small quantity could be considered a personal purchase, but a large amount would definitely be classified as illegal resale. "No wonder Jing San had to get involved."
"All right, don’t dwell on it. The people who arrested us didn’t recognize , and they’ve never seen Xiao i. I didn’t reveal my identity, and the matter has been handled properly," Mrs. Xie said.
"Jing San himself showed up, and you didn’t expose your identity?" Mr. Xie was skeptical. But whether their identities were revealed or not was secondary; what mattered was that they were safe.
"I didn’t say I was Jing San’s stepmother. I just said I was a distant relative." Mrs. Xie wasn’t a fool. When she gave them Jing San’s na, she hadn’t specified their real relationship, only that they were distant relatives.
"Tonight wasn’t a scheduled patrol night. Why would the patrol team suddenly show up at the black market?" Mr. Xie couldn’t figure it out. He had thought the black market would be safe, which was why he’d let her go, and with Qin i at that.
"I don’t know. When Jing San gets back, you can ask him yourself." Mrs. Xie picked up a bucket and headed to the kitchen, with Mr. Xie following behind her.
Qin i sat by the window, replaying the night’s events in her mind. It would be a lie to say she hadn’t been scared when they were arrested. Just thinking about it now sent a shiver of fear through her.
During the interrogation, she had only been forcing herself to stay calm. No matter what they asked, she repeated the sa thing: she was buying potatoes, not reselling them.
Jie Jingchen’s arrival had been a complete shock. The mont she saw him, all the fear in her heart vanished.
They hadn’t spent much ti together, but she had already developed a sense of reliance on him. It was a dependence that made her feel even more secure than when she had relied on Jie Jingling.
After Mrs. Xie finished her bath, she saw that the light in Qin i’s room was still on. Without hesitation, she walked over.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! Mrs. Xie knocked on the door.
"Xiao i, are you asleep?" Mrs. Xie asked.
Startled, Qin i collected her thoughts, took a deep breath, and stood up to open the door.
"Ah!" Qin i fell to the floor. She had been sitting in the chair for so long that her legs had gone numb.
"Xiao i, are you all right?" Hearing Qin i’s cry, Mrs. Xie was startled. Forgetting everything else, she pushed the door open. Her pupils contracted when she saw Qin i collapsed on the floor. She reacted quickly, rushing in to help her up. "What happened?"
"Mom, don’t worry, I’m fine. I just sat for too long, and my legs fell asleep." Qin i gritted her teeth against the pins and needles, using Mrs. Xie’s support to get up. Mrs. Xie helped her back to the chair.
Mrs. Xie finally relaxed, a gentle smile blooming on her beautiful face. "There’s hot water in the pot. Once the feeling cos back, go take a bath."
"Okay, thank you, Mom," Qin i said gratefully.
Her fourth son and Jing San still hadn’t returned. Mrs. Xie knew what the two brothers were up to. Since her sons weren’t back yet, she had to take good care of her daughter-in-law. She carried the bucket toward the kitchen.
"Mom," Qin i called out, but she was a mont too late.
"Just go straight to the bathroom when you’re ready," Mrs. Xie called back.
A warmth spread through Qin i’s heart. ’Whether it was before I transmigrated or after, fate has been kind to . I must have saved the galaxy in my past life to be blessed with such good fortune in this one.’
As the pins and needles subsided, Qin i got up, grabbed her pajamas, and went to the bathroom to wash up. Without Jie Jingchen standing guard outside, she felt uneasy. She took a quick shower, washed her undergarnts, then dashed out of the bathroom, ran back to her room, and shut the door.
She hadn’t put on a robe and couldn’t help but shiver.
After hanging up her undergarnts to dry, she dove into bed.
Rushing around during the day, rushing around at night—the whole day had been a whirlwind. She was truly exhausted. Curled up in a ball, she fell asleep in no ti.
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