Reborn before the famine, kicking away the scumbag's family and living a carefree life.

32. Annulment of engagement (5)

Zeng Jianming never expected that Su Jinru would arrive silently with two militiamen at this crucial moment.

He tried to frame Su Jinyu to achieve his goal, but Su Jinru slapped him twice and dragged him to the village office by the militia, where he was locked in a dark room.

When Zeng's mother heard that her son had been taken away by the militia and locked up in a small dark room in the village office, she came to the Su family crying and sobbing.

Liu Yulan did not allow the couple to enter the house.

It's bad luck to go to someone else's house crying and sobbing.

The entrance was crowded with villagers who came to watch the spectacle.

Mother Zeng: "You are all too cruel. It's not a big deal to break off an engagement. Why go to such lengths to harm someone?"

Liu Yulan: "Who is hurting whom here? You two are not good people. We demand that the engagement be called off, but your son has been harassing my daughter, asking others to tell her to meet him every day. To avoid any negative impact, my daughter said we should part amicably and meet one last time to clarify things, and that we would each marry someone else and not interfere with each other. But your son is trying to act like a hooligan and ruin my daughter's reputation. This kind of person should be taken to the police station for a lesson."

"Isn't it just that your family wanted more dowry and then broke off the engagement when they couldn't get it? You just want to sell your daughter. At this point, you're having trouble even eating, and you still want 300 yuan as a dowry. How can you even say that?"

"It's because your family didn't want to pay the bride price that they schemed and treated us like fools. That's why we said this in anger. It's not about the bride price at all. It's because your family is no good that we're planning to break off the engagement."

“None of your daughters are any good. It was your daughter who seduced my son first. A young woman, not even married yet, meeting with a man in private, what kind of behavior is that? Isn’t that just shameless? You just want to extort money from me, so you deliberately framed my son.”

“Reason prevails everywhere. We framed your son, so go to the police station and report us! Why are you crying here?”

Mr. Zeng frowned, tugged at his wife, and said in a low voice, "What are you crying for? Can't you even speak properly? Why are you making up these nonsense things now? Tell them to release him! Our son is suffering in that dark room!"

Father Zeng: "Su Ke, those old women don't think before they speak. They don't even know what they're saying. Can't we two men resolve this matter ourselves? We've lived in the same village for generations, and we're bound to run into each other all the time. If things get too ugly, it won't be good for anyone."

Su Ke: "Okay! You sound like someone who wants to solve a problem. So tell me, how do you plan to solve this problem?"

“Marriage should be a happy and willing event, but now that things have turned out like this, then this matter is off. You need to write a certificate of annulment. We will write it now and ask the village officials to witness it. From now on, both families can marry and have their own marriages, and they will not interfere with each other.”

Su Ke: "Okay, if we had done this earlier, we wouldn't have all this trouble now. Let's go to the public housing and send people to invite the village officials."

Father Zeng: "In that case, my son will no longer be involved. You should explain the situation to the village officials and release my son from the dark room. The child was just being naughty! Adults shouldn't hold grudges against such a child."

“Your son has to promise in front of the village officials that he will never bother my daughter again, and he is not allowed to ruin my daughter’s reputation. Your wife has to do the same.”

Father Zeng: "Okay, I can guarantee that."

So the two families went to the village's public housing and asked several village officials to write a certificate of annulment of the marriage, which was witnessed by the officials.

Zeng Jianming was locked in a small dark room for three hours. There were no windows, nothing in the room, just a space that was one meter wide, one meter long, and one and a half meters high.

I don't know who designed this room. I didn't feel anything when I first went in, but after a while, it started to feel a bit eerie.

Zeng Jianming sat on the floor inside. Because the space was so small, there wasn't even room to lie down. With the door closed, he couldn't see or hear anyone outside. In that cramped space, if you stayed for too long, you would experience hallucinations. Once, someone stayed inside for three days and three nights and went insane afterward.

Zeng Jianming hadn't thought much of it before, thinking it was just being in a small, dark room, nothing to be ashamed of. But after spending an hour inside, he realized it wasn't as simple as he thought.

First of all, the space is small and feels very oppressive. You can't stretch your body out. You can't lie down, stand, or move around except when you're sitting.

Secondly, it was very dark and quiet inside, so quiet that he could hear his own breathing. Gradually, it felt as if he was the only person left in the world. The desolation and loneliness were just like the space itself, suffocating and devastating.

Then, he felt he could hear his own heartbeat and the sound of blood flowing through his body.

The sounds grew louder and louder, the heartbeats like thunder, vibrating his eardrums.

A fear he had never felt before engulfed him, making him feel like every minute and every second was torture.

He felt tightness in his chest and shortness of breath; his clothes were soaked with sweat. He wondered if he was going to die.

Just as he felt he was about to give up, the door to the dark room was opened.

Zeng Jianming seemed to wake up from a nightmare. He stood up abruptly, but bumped into the roof. He felt dizzy and his head was buzzing.

Ignoring the pain, he scrambled out of there.

When he saw the light outside and breathed in the fresh air, he had only one thought in his mind: he had come back to life.

He then collapsed to the ground and lost consciousness.

Zeng's mother rushed over, wailing and crying.

"My son! What's wrong with you?"

The person next to him said, "It's okay, he just fainted. Many people are like this when they come out of the dark room."

Sure enough, someone pinched his philtrum and Zeng Jianming woke up.

After he woke up, he looked at the small dark room behind him and said in terror, "I dare not, I dare not, I don't want to go into the small dark room again."

Zeng's mother: "Okay, okay, let's go home and not go into the dark room again."

As they spoke, the couple helped their son walk home.

Back home, Zeng Jianming collapsed onto his bed, saying he wanted to get a good night's sleep by himself.

The couple came out of their son's room.

Zeng's mother: "What happened to the child? Did someone hit him? He's fine, there are no injuries!"

Zeng's father said, "No one hit him; he was scared by being locked in a dark room."

His wife was puzzled: "It's just being locked in a dark room, right? I don't see anything in there, what's so scary about it? Why are you so frightened?"

"How could it not be that bad? This notebook was originally made specifically to punish people. It was later kept to punish those who made mistakes. Think about it, can people stay in those notebooks that were used to punish people without any problems? Not to mention, quite a few people have died in there. They are all wronged souls. That's why I had no choice but to bow down to the Su family and get my son out as soon as possible."