Du Junlin!
Although Li Qianfan hadn't seen her for years after she stabbed him, he would recognize her voice even if he were ashes.
"She's really come to Si Jiu. She ultimately won't let me have Su Ziyu's name enshrined in the ancestral hall."
Li Qianfan's right hand holding the phone showed bulging veins on the back of his hand as he closed his eyes.
Du Junlin had kidnapped Mo Hongti.
She intended to marry the fair-skinned and beautiful Mo Hongti to an old bachelor in two hours.
If Li Qianfan wanted to prevent Mo Hongti from marrying an old bachelor, he would have to abandon his plan to have Su Ziyu's name enshrined in the Li Family Village ancestral hall.
And Du Junlin—
was waiting for him there!
Instead of intercepting Li Qianfan directly at Li Family Village, she chose to kidnap Mo Hongti to force him to go to the remote outskirts for a "rendezvous" alone, which was very much in line with Du Junlin's style of doing things.
Just as Li Qianfan figured this out, a panicked voice came from behind him: "Young Master Li, Miss Mo is gone!"
He turned around and saw Zhang Bao.
Li Qianfan raised his hand, signaling Zhang Bao to stop.
Zhang Bao, with a face full of panic, immediately halted, looking at him pitifully.
"Du Junlin."
Li Qianfan spoke softly into the phone, "Do you think I care about that woman who is full of ulterior motives?"
Du Junlin on the other end of the line remained silent.
Li Qianfan continued, "Du Junlin, there are three words I've wanted to say to you for a long time."
"Pah!"
"Bitch!"
After spitting those three words at Du Junlin, Li Qianfan hung up the call directly. He ignored Zhang Bao and opened the car door, stepping into the taxi.
The thing he hated most was being threatened.
The person he hated most was Du Junlin.
So.
When the person he hated most threatened him with a woman he didn't care about, Li Qianfan would only give her those three words.
"Young Master Li—"
Zhang Bao rushed to the car, tapping on the window: "Miss Mo is gone, Miss Mo is gone!"
"Mo Hongti is gone, what does that have to do with me?"
Li Qianfan frowned, glanced at Zhang Bao, and said to the taxi driver, "Drive, I don't know him."
The driver immediately started the car.
"Young Master Li!"
Zhang Bao's pleading roar was soon left behind.
Li Qianfan didn't even look back.
He made another call to Ye Tianjiao: "Aunt Jiao, is the village ready?"
Ye Tianjiao's voice was solemn: "The Eight Elders are all prepared. As soon as you come to pay homage to the flag, we will open the ancestral hall."
"Good, I'll be there in half an hour at most."
Li Qianfan nodded and put down his phone.
He closed his eyes and began to recall the procedures for paying homage to the flag, opening the ancestral hall, filling in the genealogy, and enshrinement.
He had been taught this set of procedures by the Grand Elder himself since he turned eighteen and had memorized them perfectly.
After all, he would get married someday.
But why—
When Li Qianfan recalled the procedures he had long memorized, they were always interrupted by a woman's desperate cries?
This woman's desperate cries were, of course, an auditory hallucination.
Or rather, Li Qianfan had imagined them himself.
"Young man, what's wrong?"
The taxi driver, seeing Li Qianfan's troubled expression, asked caringly.
"It's nothing."
Li Qianfan opened his eyes and forced a smile, "Just some worries that I can't let go of."
"Ha, you're so young, what worries could you possibly have?"
The taxi driver chuckled and said, "It's us middle-aged people with parents and children who truly have worries."
He had finally opened up.
He rambled on—
With someone talking, Li Qianfan could naturally "not hear" the desperate cries, which gradually calmed his agitated heart.
Another intersection, and it would be Li Family Village.
The taxi driver said with emotion, "In life, as long as you can live with a clear conscience, you won't have any worries. In fact, many times, after we do things, we regret them when we look back."
Regret?
Will I regret it if I don't care about Mo Hongti's life or death and only want to enshrine Su Ziyu's name in the ancestral hall?
Sigh.
Li Qianfan suddenly sighed heavily and said, "Brother, let's go to the Thirteen Tombs."
Not many people took taxis at this hour.
And the Thirteen Tombs were far from here. The taxi driver was naturally unwilling to refuse such a lucrative fare.
He immediately agreed and turned the car around at the intersection ahead.
As the car sped back in the direction they came from, Li Qianfan called Ye Tianjiao again.
His voice was bitter, "Aunt Jiao, I'm not going to the village anymore."
Ye Tianjiao remained silent.
She was patiently waiting for Li Qianfan to give her a reason.
After a long pause, Li Qianfan said softly, "Du Junlin has also come to Si Jiu. She kidnapped Mo Hongti. If I don't arrive at the location she specified within two hours, she will marry Mo Hongti to an old bachelor."
In the conference room of Li Family Village.
After hearing Li Qianfan's explanation, Ye Tianjiao glanced at Li Wujiang, who was seated at the head of the table, and asked, "Does Li Family Village need to do anything?"
Li Qianfan replied, "No, this is a personal matter between her and me. I'll handle it myself."
After a pause.
Li Qianfan added, "Aunt Jiao, please convey a message to my mother for me."
"Okay, tell me."
Ye Tianjiao glanced at Li Wujiang again and turned on the speakerphone.
"Beauty Wujiang, don't be angry, or you'll age faster."
After Li Qianfan finished speaking, the call ended.
"Rebel son!"
Li Wujiang squeezed out these two words from between her teeth and picked up the willow branch from the table.
This was what she had prepared for her son.
The willow branch was as thick as a little finger and a meter and a half long, perfect for spanking that brat's backside.
Everyone else in the conference room, apart from the Eight Elders, included the head of the disciplinary hall.
Everyone averted their gaze, focusing on their own business.
Other matters were fine.
But when it came to the village chief's family affairs, it was truly inconvenient for them to get involved.
However, the Grand Elder subtly winked at Ye Tianjiao.
Ye Tianjiao could only brace herself and say, "Wujiang, should we send someone to help mediate the conflict between Qianfan and Junlin?"
"No."
Li Wujiang said coldly, "If he can't even handle his own family matters, is he still a man? Does he have the face to be the village chief of Li Family Village, or to call me mother?"
"What you said makes perfect sense."
Ye Tianjiao nodded, "But I'm worried that Du Junlin might seriously harm Qianfan. After all, that girl's temperament is quite capricious."
"Since he dared to escape the engagement and shamelessly become a live-in son-in-law, should he blame Du Junlin for dealing with him? He deserves to be beaten to death."
Li Wujiang said coldly, but in her heart, she thought, "Du Junlin, if you dare to injure my son, I'll skin you alive!"
At 5:07 PM that afternoon.
In Liujia Domain, two kilometers north of the Thirteen Tombs.
Du Junlin, standing in a small courtyard at the entrance of the village, checked the time on her phone. She turned and walked quickly to the door of a side room, kicked it open.
In the corner of the side room.
Mo Hongti, still wearing a white work uniform, was curled up in the corner, her face full of panic.
Seeing Du Junlin enter, she trembled in fear, "Who... who are you? Why did you kidnap me?"
"I am Li Qianfan's fiancée, Du Junlin."
Du Junlin's expression was blank. She strode to Mo Hongti's side, grabbed her arm, and pulled her out, "I kidnapped you to marry you to a 47-year-old bachelor. The auspicious hour has arrived, and it's time for you to enter the bridal chamber."