Reborn in the 1990s, I want my husband to live to be a hundred.

Chapter 53 Acting Foolishly, Still Getting Beaten Up

Deng Xiuzhen helped Qin Yanlin lie down on the bed, covered him with a blanket, and put a hot water bottle in his chest.

"Dad, this is some rock sugar pear soup I made for you. It's already warm, so please drink it quickly." Wenxin said, and then started crying.

Wen Yu also started crying.

Wenjing didn't cry, but her eyes were red.

Deng Xiuzhen lowered her voice and said, "Don't cry. If you want your dad to be alright, you have to pretend that nothing happened!"

The two children immediately stopped crying and even managed a smile that looked even worse than crying.

With the meticulous care of his family, Qin Yanlin finally recovered. Although he was still thin, almost skin and bones, his energy and spirit were much better. His throat was no longer sore, his voice was no longer hoarse, and he was able to get up and move around.

But he never went out, nor did he let Deng Xiuzhen and the others know that he had returned.

The children go to and from school as usual every day, and Deng Xiuzhen also goes out every day to look for work and buy some groceries.

In the alley where people don't usually go much, no one knew that Qin Yanlin had returned.

More than a week passed, and Qin Yanlin's health finally improved significantly. Only then did he tell Deng Xiuzhen about his experience.

That day, I heard Deng Xiuzhen say that because of a dream, she took the money and bought those worthless lands.

He was angry and frustrated, and in a fit of pique, he ran out. He had no relatives or friends in the city, and nowhere to go.

I just wanted to be alone, so I walked towards the secluded riverbank.

As soon as I reached the foot of the tower, I felt a sharp pain in my head, and then I knew nothing more.

When I woke up, I found myself in a car, with a headache and a foul stench all around me.

He came to his senses and observed that he was surrounded by people who were either crazy or foolish.

How did he get here? Why is he with these people? He has no idea.

But he certainly couldn't just stay there, so he pushed the carriage hard and found that it was made of sheet metal, very sturdy, and impossible to break. The only exit was the carriage door. To get out, he had to open the carriage door.

Taking advantage of the chaos, he pretended to be pushed to the door and tried to open it, but he couldn't open it at all; it must have been locked from the outside.

The car kept driving for several hours since he woke up. The door opened once during the journey; two men used iron bars to open it, threw in some food, and then tried to close it.

Most people scrambled for the food, but one man tried to get out of the car. He shouted, "Who are you? Why are you arresting me? Let me out!"

The two men didn't reply at all, and instead hit the man on the head several times with heavy blows, completely disregarding whether they might kill him.

The man collapsed immediately, blood flowing down the train carriage. He was so frightened he didn't dare move.

Only after the carriage door was closed did he dare to approach the doorway, and then he heard someone say, "How come a normal person came in?"

Another said, "Give us a heads-up later, and we'll see if we kill him or what."

Upon hearing this, he knew he was in trouble, so he quickly tore his clothes and pretended to be crazy like those lunatics.

When we arrived at our destination, it was a brick factory with a high wall and barbed wire around it.

The car drove directly into the factory, and they were herded out like livestock. Each of them was given a cold steamed bun and told to eat it quickly.

Then they were forced to work; some fired bricks in the kiln, some transported bricks, and some stacked them. Everyone had to work honestly; if they disobeyed, they were beaten.

He had secretly observed that the man who had yelled at those people to release the people in the car, and then was beaten with sticks, was seriously injured and forced to do work for several days before collapsing. He was then dragged by those people and thrown into a brick kiln to be burned.

Those people are not human at all, and we don't treat them like human beings. We make fun of them, we beat them up.

When I'm unhappy, I take it out on them, and I might even hit them.

They get up before dawn every day to work and don't go back to sleep until very late at night. They work themselves to the bone every day, but all they get is cold steamed buns and well water.

Those who were imprisoned, if alive, were to work diligently. If dead, they were to be thrown into a brick kiln and burned.

He pretended to be crazy every day and did things foolishly, but he still got beaten up.

After about two months, he finally found an opportunity.

That day, another group of people arrived by truck, which parked next to the pile of bricks.

He hid behind the bricks, and while the guards were driving the people to the brick kiln, he climbed under the truck. When they drove away, he clung to the ground underneath and escaped.

Exhausted and afraid of being discovered, he got out of the car and hid in the woods after driving a few kilometers past a grove of trees.

Then, he stayed up all night and ate grass roots, tree buds, and leftover food to fill his stomach, and made his way back.

"Why didn't you call the police?" Deng Xiuzhen's heart ached as she listened to his story.

"You have no idea how bad things were. When I escaped, I saw a car. It looked familiar; it seemed to belong to some organization."

One year during the Spring Festival, I went to the city to buy goods and saw such vehicles arresting homeless people and lunatics on the street.

A friend told me that they would arrest people several times a year and send them to other counties.

At the time, we all thought it was to pass inspections, and that sending away the mentally ill and homeless was for the sake of the city's appearance.

Now it seems that this matter is far more complicated than it appears, so how could I dare to gamble?

"I was only able to escape because they thought I was crazy and stupid, and they weren't on guard. If they had caught me again, how could I have escaped?"

Deng Xiuzhen touched Qin Yanlin's back tenderly and asked, "Does it still hurt?"

Qin Yanlin shook his head and said, "It doesn't hurt anymore, but how to deal with this is a big problem. I don't know who to trust."

After discussing it for a while, the two decided that Deng Xiuzhen should secretly go to find Tian Guoqiang. In her previous life, Deng Xiuzhen didn't know Tian Guoqiang, but she had heard of him; he was a good policeman with a strong sense of justice.

Deng Xiuzhen didn't go to the police station. Instead, she pretended to go see Xiaobao and then took Xiaobao to play in the alley.

Upon seeing Tian Guoqiang return, Deng Xiuzhen greeted him and then naturally followed him inside.

Deng Xiuzhen recounted Qin Yanlin's experiences in detail, and even though Tian Guoqiang had seen too many cruel and wicked people, he was still terrified as he listened.

He stood up and angrily cursed, "These beasts are worse than pigs and dogs! They deserve to be torn to pieces!"

He suppressed the burning anger in his chest and said, "This matter must be kept secret; we must not alert the enemy."

Sister Deng, why don't you go back first, or pretend nothing happened and have Brother Qin draw up a route map and describe the situation inside the brick factory?

I will report this to my superiors immediately. We must rescue the others and prevent these people from continuing their evil deeds!

Tian Guoqiang said this and left in a hurry.

Not long after, Tian Guoqiang came over with a bag of fruit, pretending to be going to Old Zhao's house.

Deng Xiuzhen greeted him and quietly handed him the rough circuit diagram drawn by Qin Yanlin.