To make up for the debt owed to Lin Qingping and Gu Juncheng

"You said you raised me from scratch, so who have you fed all these years?" Lin Qingping questioned.

“You…” Wu Axiu’s face flushed red. “I was just saying! How did you grow up if I didn’t feed you!”

"Yes, my second sister and I ate bran and sweet potatoes, while my brother ate white rice every meal, with eggs and meat. After we finished eating, we went to work, from morning till night, under the scorching sun and in the cold wind, without ever resting. My brother, who ate good rice and meat, never had to do anything! So, why were my second sister and I able to get into the capital university? Was it because we suffered more?" Lin Qingping wished she could bring up the events of the last few decades.

Hearing this, her father felt extremely ashamed and roared, "Shut up!"

Her father was a man who was extremely proud and couldn't bear to lose face anywhere. For family matters to be brought up like this, she, as the daughter, was in the wrong from the start.

“You’re just a girl! It’s good enough that you were able to raise her to adulthood, what more do you want?” her father yelled at her.

Even though Lin Qingping had been reborn, hearing these words still chilled her to the bone. She smiled faintly and said, "Yes, girls, once a daughter is married, she's like water spilled from a bowl. What are you doing here looking for me again? What do you want from me? Do you expect me to step aside when things are going well, but then call on you to cover for me when things go wrong?"

"You..." Her father was not good with words to begin with, and when she retorted, he got so angry that he picked up his pipe and was about to hit her.

The village secretary persuaded her father to stop and spoke kindly to her mother. Only then did Lin Qingping say, "Secretary, neighbors, I'm really sorry. As the saying goes, 'Don't wash your dirty linen in public,' but our family's shameful deeds have been seen by everyone time and time again."

“But Party Secretary,” she looked at him, “I really hope this is the last time, because this time, we are truly powerless to do anything about it.”

The Party Secretary knew that Lin Jiagui had been arrested for gambling, which was illegal. What could the student Lin Jiagui possibly do?

He nodded. "That's exactly why I came here."

Such a thing happened in the village, and he, the village party secretary, was not happy. But he was both the village party secretary and a fellow villager. Lin Jiagui had been sent to a labor camp, and it was not right to leave Wu Axiu alone in the capital. Lin Jiagui had never been far from home before, so when Lin Qingping invited him, he accompanied her.

Wu Axiu was unwilling to let the matter rest so easily. She jumped out, grabbed the old man of the Lin family, pointed at Lin Qingping and cursed, "She caused Jiagui to have a finger cut off! It was her fault! She has to pay for the finger!"

Her father's face turned pale. Lin Jiagui was the root of his Lin family. With one finger cut off, the whole family was ruined!

Seeing that her father was about to lose his temper again, Lin Qingping said coldly, "You should find out how this finger was cut off first! Otherwise, my mother might lose her finger too!"

Upon hearing this, Wu Axiu recalled the fear she felt when Lin Jiagui's finger was chopped off that day, and she couldn't help but shudder.

Lin Qingping stared directly at her father, "Lin Jiagui, your precious son, got involved in gambling. He not only owes my second sister's classmate five thousand, but also owes another fifty thousand!"

The onlookers were astonished. "My God! Fifty thousand!"

The previous figure of 5,000 had already shocked everyone, but the figure of 50,000 was simply unbelievable.

This is an era where even those with ten thousand yuan are incredibly wealthy!

What kind of spendthrift son could squander his family fortune like this?

Her father's face went from furious to deathly pale, and he staggered back several steps...

fifty thousand……

How long will it take to pay this back...?

"So, Party Secretary, please tell me the truth. Even if we sell everything we own, no one can repay this money, right?" Lin Qingping asked earnestly.

The Party Secretary sighed after hearing this.

"Moreover, Party Secretary, my brother is in jail, but the money was clearly borrowed with an IOU. They said they would ask for the money back in three days, and if he couldn't pay it back, they would cut off one of his fingers."

Lin Qingping looked at her mother and said, "Mother, the deadline is almost here again, and people are looking for you all over the city! If you can't pay back the money, are you planning to cut off your own fingers?"

"Then... weren't those people arrested?" Wu Axiu asked, trembling.

"The person has been arrested, but the debt is still outstanding. Do you think other people will come looking for money from you?"

Her mother trembled with fear, cowering behind Old Man Lin, but she was still unwilling to let Lin Qingping go. Hiding behind Old Man Lin, she pointed at Lin Qingping and cursed, "You heartless bastard! You won't even save your own brother! And you're still trying to fool me! I... I'm going to report you at your school! I'm going to report you to your son-in-law's military unit!"

Lin Qingping sneered, "What are you going to sue?"

"I'm accusing you of being unfilial to your parents!" Being unfilial is a serious crime! At least that's what Wu Axiu thought.

"Then what counts as being filial to one's parents?" Lin Qingping asked. "Does it mean going to great lengths to get your younger brother, who is involved in illegal gambling, out of trouble through back channels?"

"Yes! You clearly have a way, but you don't take advantage of it!" Wu Axiu shouted in rebuke.

Lin Qingping laughed and said loudly, "Even if we had a way, Gu Juncheng wouldn't do it. As a soldier, Gu Juncheng's duty is to protect the country, to ensure the safety of thousands of families, and to safeguard the motherland's territory from invasion! Not to use his limited abilities to help lawbreakers get away with it! That goes against the interests of the vast majority of the people!"

Lin Qingping's words were resounding and each one struck a chord with the onlookers.

The onlookers immediately burst into applause.

"Well said, Kobayashi! We support you!"

"Comrade Xiao Lin! Commander Gu is a good man, and so are you. Let's give you a round of applause!"

Lin Qingping did not exaggerate.

Gu Juncheng was such a person; his lifelong ambition was to protect his country and its people. She would never allow him to do anything that violated his principles and tarnished his life and ideals.

Amidst the applause, the Party Secretary looked somewhat embarrassed, and Old Man Lin was even more humiliated. Wu Axiu was about to say something when Old Man Lin yelled, "Have you made enough of a scene?"

Wu Axiu was so angry that she yelled at the old man, "How dare you talk about me like that? How dare you talk about me like that?"

"Who else should I criticize? You've ruined a perfectly good son! He can't lift a finger, he's all talk and no action, he's ambitious but unrealistic, he didn't work hard at the garment factory, and now that he's lost his job, he's come to the capital and still doesn't learn anything good. Isn't it all because of you?"

Lin Qingping didn't feel much pleasure watching her father scold her mother.

Her father was such a coward, obsessed with saving face but incapable of upholding it. Whenever something went wrong, he would only blame others. Now that he knew he had raised a useless son, he refused to admit his failure in educating him and instead pushed all the responsibility onto Wu Axiu.

Fearing the elderly couple might start fighting, the village secretary stepped in to mediate, offering earnest advice. Finally, he resorted to his trump card, saying, "I think we should head back as soon as possible, in case the debt collectors really come..."

Upon hearing this, Wu Axiu felt as if she had been frozen in place.

The Party Secretary dragged the two men away.

Lin Qingping believed that the Party Secretary would handle the rest of the matter well and would definitely bring her parents back.

Yesterday, when she picked up the Party Secretary and her father and met with the Party Secretary alone at the hotel, she gave him a large red envelope. The Party Secretary had been polite and refused to accept it before, but she pretended to be a weak woman and begged him to accept it while crying, saying, "My brother has caused such a big problem, and my mother is still my mother no matter what. She's wandering around the capital. What if something else happens to her, or she really gets her hands or feet chopped off? What will I do?"

Seeing her like that, the Party Secretary accepted the red envelope.

The man would naturally be indebted to Lin Qingping for his money, and after bringing her parents back, he would be able to keep an eye on them in the village.

That evening, Lin Qingping did something else that made her parents return to the village the very next day without stopping.