Chapter 662: Wife Helps with Bath

After paying respects to Su Yuhong, Yang Qing originally wanted to take Lin Dongfan to a hot spring to wash off the dust, but Lin Dongfan refused. Lin Dongfan now doesn't want to go anywhere; he just wants to return to his father-in-law's house to reunite with his wife and children.

The two years and nine months of imprisonment, what he missed most was his child.

During Lin Dongfan's imprisonment, although Chu Lingxi visited him every month, she never brought the two children along, mainly for fear of causing them psychological trauma.

To this day, the two children still don't know that their father experienced the imprisonment disaster.

Yang Qing drove Lin Dongfan to the Municipal Party Committee residential compound in Wuzhou City, then, too lazy to get out of the car, said: "I'm not going in; I've been feeling off lately, I need to go steam a sauna. If anything comes up, call me."

"Steam a damn sauna, go back to work overtime."

Lin Dongfan still kept in mind the matter of revenge, convinced that the disaster in June 2014 was orchestrated behind the scenes by Li Hengbo.

The basis for his judgment is:

He and Li Hengbo already had an unresolved grudge; on the day of the incident, they also had a direct confrontation at Hanbi Mountain Villa, causing Li Hengbo to lose face.

Li Hengbo, who always repays grudges, is a major suspect in retaliation.

Lin Dongfan bluntly gave Yang Qing an order: "Within three days, I want to see all of Li Hengbo's data."

"Boss, I'm after all a bureau chief; give me some face, okay?" Yang Qing burst into tears of embarrassment, laughing: "Your grandpa, just out of prison and you're ordering me around as a bureau chief. If this gets out, how can I still survive in officialdom? I still want to enter the ministry, the minister's department."

"Then you'd better get back to work overtime, stop whining."

Lin Dongfan couldn't be bothered to deal with Yang Qing this idiot, opened the car door and got out, not even bothering to hold up his umbrella, walking toward his father-in-law's house in the drizzling wind.

The atmosphere at home was colder than imagined.

Their seven-year-old son and five-and-a-half-year-old daughter were staying in Jingcheng for school, only to be released for summer vacation in a few days. Their father-in-law, the busy Chu Jinsong, wasn't home either.

Only the mother-in-law Shen Junlan and his wife Chu Lingxi were at home, along with the nanny cooking in the kitchen.

"Husband, you're back."

Chu Lingxi was just as before; upon seeing him, she flung herself onto Lin Dongfan like a girl in heat, arms around his neck, legs wrapped around his waist, her movements unusually practiced.

Those two shallow dimples were very charming when she smiled.

Shen Junlan, whom he hadn't seen in years, now had a few white hairs on her head; she still scolded her daughter like a child: "Lingxi, you've gone too far—who taught you to be so improper?"

"What's improper about it? I'm hugging my husband—it's not illegal." Chu Lingxi not only refused to let go, she also gleefully planted a kiss on Lin Dongfan's lips.

Shen Junlan couldn't stand it anymore and wanted to scold Chu Lingxi again.

Lin Dongfan laughed: "Mom, it's fine, I can handle it."

"Just keep spoiling her—look what you've turned her into, she has no sense of propriety at all." Shen Junlan shook her head helplessly.

Chu Lingxi suddenly asked: "Mom, does Dad never hug you?"

"!!!"

Shen Junlan likely felt a sting to the heart; her face darkened considerably. She had only intended to scold Chu Lingxi a couple of sentences, but now she felt the urge to give her a good beating.

Lin Dongfan, eager to protect his wife, also sensed a hint of danger at that moment.

Holding Chu Lingxi, he hurried away: "Mom, I'm going to take a shower first; call me when it's time to eat." Only after entering the bedroom did he set Chu Lingxi down.

In the living room.

Shen Junlan shook her head and sighed, then shouted toward the bedroom: "Dongfan, there are a few pomelo leaves in the washbasin; I had someone pick them from the countryside, you can use them to scrub your body later."

"Got it, thanks, Mom."

Washing with pomelo leaves is a traditional custom.

Folklore holds that pomelo leaves can ward off evil, purify body and mind. People like Lin Dongfan, who have just been released from prison, usually wash with pomelo leaves.

However…

Lin Dongfan really hadn't expected that Shen Junlan, a former college professor and intellectual, would also believe in folk remedies.

He supposed she, too, had had her edges smoothed by the tumultuous lives of the younger generation, sometimes forced to resign herself to fate.

In a big city, it's not easy to get hold of these few fresh pomelo leaves. Regardless of whether they work, out of respect for his mother-in-law's caring heart, he couldn't waste those few pomelo leaves.

After stripping naked, Lin Dongfan stood under the splashing shower.

He didn't need to do anything himself.

Chu Lingxi used the pomelo leaves as a scrubbing ball, rubbing every inch of Lin Dongfan's skin, even the soles of his feet.

"Husband, does the wound on your back still hurt?"

Seeing the long knife scar on Lin Dongfan's back, Chu Lingxi's eyes welled up. While scrubbing, she dared not press too hard, gently and slowly wiping him down.

"It doesn't hurt."

Lin Dongfan wore a smile, but the bloody memory replayed in his mind like a film clip.

After more than two years.

Though the knife wound on his back had healed cleanly, the wound in his heart would never heal in this lifetime—because Su Yuhong, lying in her grave, could never come back to life.

Chu Lingxi seemed to sense Lin Dongfan's emotional shift.

She hastily wiped away her own tears.

She chuckled: "Husband, actually there are benefits to being in prison. Before, you always wanted to leave politics for business, but the old man wouldn't allow it. Now it's fine—you can finally do what you want."

"Haha, my silly sweetie finally learned to be smart; now she even thinks in reverse."

Lin Dongfan curled his finger, turned, and lightly flicked Chu Lingxi's high nose bridge.

Chu Lingxi's smile grew even brighter: "I've always been smart, okay? It's just that your brilliance is too dazzling, overshadowing my light."

Saying that, Chu Lingxi squeezed out a big blob of cool shower gel from the bottle.

She gently smeared it onto Lin Dongfan's body.

Lin Dongfan simply turned off the splashing shower, sat on the toilet, lit a cigarette, and enjoyed his wife's bubble-scrubbing service while smoking.

Chu Lingxi said: "I've already booked the plane tickets; after dinner tonight with my parents, we'll head back to Jingcheng—your father-in-law is waiting for you at home."

"Is the old man's health still okay?"

Calculating the time, the old man is now 99 years old; each meeting means one less, and Lin Dongfan can't help feeling guilty—he hasn't fulfilled his filial duty at his father's knee for over two years.

Chu Lingxi smiled and said, "Old Sir is hearty, he doesn't need others' help and can go out to sunbathe."

"The matter of my imprisonment..." Lin Dongfan doubted, "Did Old Sir really take it so lightly? You're not deceiving me? Did he really praise my conduct?"

"Really, I'm not deceiving you."

Chu Lingxi, while blowing bubbles for Lin Dongfan, said: "Old Sir said, at the time of the incident, that underground passage was like a battlefield; the enemy stabbed your comrade to death right before your eyes—if you have no hot blood, are you still a man? If it deserves killing, kill it, even if you must pay a great price, you must fight to the death."

Upon hearing that, Lin Dongfan finally relaxed and smiled.

He thought that Old Sir truly was a soldier with undiminished hot blood, his idea differing from that of certain judicial workers.

As a reborn person who has lived two lives.

Lin Dongfan understands the evolution of judicial concepts better than anyone around him.

In the past year of 2014, "unlimited defense right" was still a controversial topic.

If the incident's time were pushed forward by 11 years, the criteria for recognizing "unlimited defense right" would differ, and it would likely exempt one from all criminal liability.