Chapter 1456: You Are Repaying Kindness with Enmity

Captain Ye also lost his temper: "Fine, then as you wish, we shall investigate right here."

He glanced at the few children being held in their parents' arms, pointed to the last child who had been revived, and said, "You speak."

Liu Chuxue had never seen this child, nor did she recognize the woman half-holding him, so she quietly asked Fu Yan Cheng: "Whose child is this?"

Fu Yan Cheng leaned close to her ear: "The second son of Deputy Battalion Commander Feng of the Second Battalion's First Company, Feng Cunguang."

Feng Cunguang pointed to the boy on the ground who had already lost his breath: "When we arrived, he was already thrashing in the water. Because we always played together, we thought to jump down and save him, but who knew the more he thrashed, the farther he went.

I had already grabbed him, but he held on tightly and wouldn't let go. I was pulled in and drank several mouthfuls of water. I was terrified, so I shouted for people on the shore to come help. Some of those who came with me ran back to the family compound to get others, leaving only Qi Zixuan and Jiang Tao on the shore..."

He felt a bit embarrassed speaking up to this point; after all, he was a twelve-year-old boy shouting for two seven- or eight-year-old children to save him. If not for the duty personnel at the unit gate running over to rescue them, the consequences were unthinkable.

Perhaps still shaken, Feng Cunguang actually shivered.

After hearing him out, Captain Ye looked at the woman earlier: "Did you hear that?"

The woman immediately put her hands on her hips, her voice suddenly rising: "Whatever he says is the truth. Who saw it? Don't think you can fool me!"

At this moment, several older children brought a crowd of men and women running over.

The man at the front saw the child lying on the ground and immediately threw himself forward: "Mao Dan, child, wake up, don't scare Grandpa..."

Following that was the old man's heart-wrenching wailing: "It's all Grandpa's fault. Grandpa has harmed you."

The villagers who followed also wiped away tears. Some wanted to step forward to comfort the old man, but he could hear nothing now, simply holding his grandson's small body and sobbing loudly.

From the villagers who had rushed over from Baifu Village, Liu Chuxue learned that the little boy's mother had run off with a man from the road-building team because the Zhang family life was too bitter. After his father had remained a bachelor for several years, he married a widow whose husband had died.

Because his biological mother had run off with someone, his father had never liked him to begin with. After this stepmother entered the household, life became even worse. Forget about eating full meals; having one meal a day while enduring beatings and scolding was considered a good day.

Every time the Zhang family elder protected the boy, this woman would bully the child even more viciously behind his back. The elder dared not protect him anymore, so he could only save a bit of his own food ration and secretly help his grandson.

Seeing that the old man could not recover for the time being, Captain Ye told the village party secretary, who had just rushed over, what had just happened.

The village secretary already knew what had occurred on the way over. A child in the village had seen the Zhang family's eldest grandson fall into the water and ran back to the village to call for help.

The children who stayed behind saw the soldiers' children jump into the water to save someone, and later saw soldier uncles jump in to rescue them. However, the Zhang family's Mao Dan was farthest from the shore, so he was rescued last.

The village secretary's face was grim: "Zhang family daughter-in-law, they jumped into the water to save people, yet you are wrong. Not only do you refuse to thank them, you want to extort them. This is repaying kindness with enmity, shaming our Baifu Village."

The woman argued: "How can you believe the words of a few children?"

At this, the parents of those children could not stand it: "My child never lies. You saw you couldn't extort us, so now you want to turn the tables. You really have no shame."