Chapter 223

Shu Ying sneered, then thought of the scars on Shi Tou's arm. She took a step forward, finally meeting Lü Jie's gaze.

“Swearing comes at a price. You say you didn’t do anything, so where did the scars on Shi Tou’s arms come from? He’s such a small child, and his arms and back are covered with thin vine marks from being hit. Is this what you call occasional beatings and scoldings?”

Liu Xiulan clenched her hands, her voice suddenly rising several decibels, "It's true, I saw it with my own eyes. A few days ago, I invited the child to my house for meat pies. When Shitou was washing his hands, he accidentally revealed the injury on his arm. Lü Jie, how could you be so heartless as to harm a child?"

The crowd gasped in disbelief.

Sister-in-law Wang struggled to suppress her urge to strike. "You, you are truly despicable. You deserve to be struck by lightning. How could you abuse someone else's child like this? Stone's mother died young. How heartbroken she must be watching from heaven."

Liu Jing glared at her fiercely, "No wonder you haven't gotten pregnant all these years. You can't tolerate other people's children, and you'll never have your own. This is karma; you have to bear the consequences of your own actions."

Shu Ying sighed deeply, wanting only to find the stone as soon as possible. Her eyes were filled with anger, but she regained her composure at the last moment.

"If you can't be a good stepmother, then why did you get married in the first place?"

A mocking laugh came from the crowd, "Isn't it obvious? Everyone knows what she's up to. She's just after Stone Dad's salary and benefits. She sees that Xiao Xueyi is away from home all year round, and she doesn't want to treat his child well. Being a stepmother is already difficult enough, and she's constantly being criticized. Now that she's doing this, isn't she just narrowing the path for those who want to be good stepmothers?"

Amidst the accusations around her, Lü Jie felt only chaos. Her head spun, and her pale face moved her lips, but she couldn't utter a single word.

She wanted to explain herself, but she didn't know how to start.

The fact is that the child is missing, and she can't clear her name even if she jumps into the Yellow River.

"This kind of person is too vicious. Xiao Xueyi's judgment of people is really bad. He actually handed over the only child left by his deceased wife to this kind of person."

After learning the whole story, Yang Suxian put one hand on her hip and started spitting as she spoke.

"Well, you shameless hussy, so this is how you treat my grandson all the time? When my son said he wanted to marry you, I thought you'd been married before, so at least you'd know how to serve people. You really can't judge a book by its cover. Look what you've done to my grandson!"

Although she looked down on stones from the bottom of her heart, with so many people and such a grand occasion today, she certainly couldn't show it.

"All these years you've eaten and drunk our food, and my son has fed and pampered you, yet you've only grown to hate us. Even a stone would have to call you 'Mom.' Is your heart made of iron? I blame myself for being blind back then. How could I have let such a vicious woman like you enter the Xiao family?"

As Yang Suxian spoke, she slapped her thighs and sat cross-legged on the ground, then began to wail and cry again.

"My poor grandson, you lost your mother at such a young age, and your stepmother doesn't treat you like a human being. My darling, where have you gone? How can your grandmother live alone?"

Everyone originally came to watch the spectacle, but Yang Suxian doesn't usually live here. In just a few words, she shifted all the blame onto Lü Jie, and no one could help but feel sorry for her as a grandmother.

"Auntie, don't be too anxious. Although there's still no news about the child, there's no bad news either. Let's all help look for him. Maybe we'll find him soon."

Liu Jing bent down to try and pull Yang Suxian up from the ground. The first thing to do when a child is lost is to look for them, not to stand here and blame them.

Yang Suxian cried uncontrollably, slapping the ground with both hands, wailing with snot and tears streaming down her face, "I'm so sorry to my son, I'm so sorry to our ancestors of the Xiao family. We only had one child in our family, and you, you heartless woman, lost him. You deserve to be struck by lightning, and you should be fried in oil in hell."

Lu Jie experienced a ringing in her ears and looked at everyone's faces, feeling somewhat unsteady.

She took two steps back, her expression extremely unnatural, and murmured softly in protest, "No, I didn't do it, it has nothing to do with me, I didn't kill him..."

She was completely absorbed in it. Shu Ying's expression changed. She felt that Lü Jie's mental state seemed abnormal. Her emotions were clearly not right. However, everyone was angry and it was hard to notice these things.

"Everyone, please calm down first. Once the responsibility for the child is determined, the relevant authorities will make the final decision."

If Lü Jie were to feign madness at this point, the chances of finding the stone would be extremely slim.

The others stopped, but Yang Suxian continued her incessant accusations.

“Everyone in the village says you’re a jinx. If you hadn’t killed off your last husband, you wouldn’t have come to my house. Now that you’ve killed off my grandson, you have to give me an explanation.”

Lu Jie's eyes were bloodshot as she looked at Yang Suxian, who was spitting everywhere. Her blood seemed to freeze, and she screamed in despair, her face pale.

"Shut up!"

As she spoke, she roared like a wild beast, throwing the broom and everything else within reach onto the ground, desperately venting her emotions.

"It's all your fault, you old bastard! You're the one who instigated me to do this!"

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