At this moment, Eldest Aunt Shi also spoke up, "Mr. Xu and Madam Xu should first resolve the issues at home. Only when everything is settled should we discuss bringing Song Ying back. Otherwise, we really can't feel at ease. Even if our family is poor, we can still manage to provide for a child's food, clothing, and shelter."
Song Ying felt a warmth in her heart. This feeling of being cared for and fought over proved that she was also a loved child.
The mistress of the Shi family made her intentions even clearer: you can't take Song Ying back home unless you send away the fake daughter.
Madam Xu was soft-hearted and couldn't make a decision right away. How could she send that child away? Although she wasn't her biological daughter, they had lived together for a long time.
Xu Xing immediately assured them, "Don't worry, although our family is wealthy, we can't take care of just anyone. We have our own daughter, and we can barely manage our own children, so we probably don't have extra energy to care for an adopted daughter. Ms. Hong and Xinxin are mother and daughter, so they probably wouldn't feel comfortable letting others take care of the girl. So we should set things right and put everything back in its proper place."
Like his wife, he also had feelings for the adopted daughter, but thinking of Hong Yan's despicable actions, he felt a sense of disgust that extended to Xu Xinxin as well.
Xu Xing wore a polite smile, "Please rest assured, in the future, our whole family will have no more contact with Xinxin. We'll treat the past dozen years as a dream, and now that we've woken up, we should focus on living well in the present."
Hong Yan was still pinned under Younger Aunt Xu. She gradually shifted from impotent rage to playing on their emotions.
Her greatest hope was still for the Xu family to continue raising Xinxin. She was very clear that the resources the wealthy Xu family could provide for a child were incomparable to what she, an ordinary woman, could offer.
This was also the reason why she had taken such a risk to switch the two children in the first place.
However, among all the people present, except for the soft-hearted Madam Xu, others treated this as merely noisy background music.
With these matters resolved, all that remained was Hong Yan, still pinned down by Younger Aunt Xu.
Huang Jie nodded towards Hong Yan's direction, "Ms. Hong Yan, how do you plan to resolve this?"
This time, Madam Xu didn't soften, "I want to report her to the police for child trafficking. I want her to rot in jail."
Although Youngest Uncle Shi hadn't stepped forward to help when Younger Aunt Xu was beating Hong Yan, feeling she deserved it, he felt a bit of sympathy when he heard about sending her to jail. "She's already realized her mistake, why don't you let her go?"
Shi Li righteously stated, "Uncle, your words are misguided. It's not about us forgiving her, it's about the law not letting a bad person go. If the law says Ms. Hong is innocent, we as ordinary people have no right to interfere with judicial justice. But if the law says Ms. Hong is guilty, then we ordinary people must certainly respect the law."
Youngest Uncle Shi's thoughts were indeed swayed by Shi Li's words. Hong Yan's plea of "Husband, save me" didn't have much impact on him.
Of course, Youngest Uncle Shi's thoughts wouldn't sway the Xu family's decision. No matter how much he didn't want Hong Yan to suffer, the Xu family wouldn't give up reporting to the police for the sake of an unimportant person like him.
Youngest Uncle Shi didn't have enough face to make the Xu family change their minds for his sake.
In short, his words were useless, and no one cared about Youngest Uncle Shi's thoughts.
If his own family didn't care, why would outsiders?
It wasn't the first time the police had been called to the villa district. Sometimes the richer people played harder, and while fatalities requiring police intervention weren't common, they did happen occasionally.
Not to mention all sorts of other incidents.
Compared to cases involving bloodshed, Hong Yan's situation with a face full of slap marks and disheveled appearance was considered mild and not too frightening.
Seeing Hong Yan's victim-like appearance, the police initially thought she was the one reporting the case.
However, there was another caller who said someone had trafficked their child.
They rattled off the cause and effect of the situation.
The matter was very complex, but thanks to the clear logic of the narrator, the police easily understood this story of a best friend's jealousy leading to switched children and a true and false daughter.
The police were stunned. Rich people really knew how to create drama.
Poverty limited my imagination but also protected our family's children.
We poor common folk have nothing, so no one wants to swap children for a better life.
Thank you, thank poverty. Amen.
In the end, the whole family went to the police station for investigation, including the Xu family.
It wasn't until late at night that the Shi Li family of three returned home from the police station.
Although they had been exhausted for most of the day, the family of three was energetic and in high spirits when they returned home.
Regarding the events that happened this afternoon, Shi Li and her parents conducted a review, drawing inferences from one instance to another, savoring the experience endlessly.
Song Ying wasn't taken away by the Xu family after leaving the police station. The two families agreed to give her a buffer period.
During this time, Song Ying would continue to live in the Shi family's villa, allowing her to prepare adequately.
Meanwhile, the Xu family would use this time to resolve some historical issues, such as the matter of Xu Xinxin at home.
Since they had promised Eldest Aunt Shi that they wouldn't keep Xu Xinxin, they would definitely keep their word.
This wasn't a joking matter; otherwise, they might not be able to get custody of the child.
As for Hong Yan, she was now operating a sewing machine in prison.
Youngest Uncle Shi hadn't divorced Hong Yan yet. He wanted to take responsibility and was trying to find a good lawyer for Hong Yan to minimize her sentence as much as possible.
However, the Shi family wasn't willing to help Youngest Uncle Shi, so he had to use his monthly salary of 6,000 yuan to find a lawyer for Hong Yan.
It's not that you can't find a lawyer with a monthly salary of 6,000 yuan, but you get what you pay for. Due to the limited budget, the lawyer Youngest Uncle Shi found was a young lawyer who had just graduated from university and obtained his lawyer's license.
On the other hand, the Xu family's legal team had an annual salary of one million yuan and over twenty years of experience.
It was like encountering a max-level boss right after leaving the newbie village. In TV dramas, it's extremely rare for a newcomer to take down a big shot.
Under these circumstances, Hong Yan was sentenced to ten years.
Shi's Grandmother urged Youngest Uncle to divorce Hong Yan quickly, saying that even living alone in the future would be better than being with Hong Yan.
However, Youngest Uncle showed an unwavering will at this point, firmly refusing to divorce Hong Yan, which infuriated Shi's Grandmother.
Of course, only Shi's Grandmother was urging Youngest Uncle to divorce. The others had long given up on him, letting him do as he pleased.
After Hong Yan began serving her sentence, Song Ying moved out of the Shi family home and into the Xu family's villa.
As Song Ying's half-family, Shi Li and her family members were quite worried about whether she would adapt after moving into the Xu family's villa.
Her classmates were also concerned about Song Ying. She had suffered too much before, and everyone hoped her life would be smoother from now on.
Shi Li was very worried that Song Ying wouldn't be able to adapt to the Xu family's lifestyle, concerned that she wouldn't be accepted by her brother, and also worried that Madam Xu might thoughtlessly bring Xu Xinxin back home.
She often asked Song Ying how she was doing at the Xu family. If she wasn't happy there, Shi Li would first bring Song Ying back to their home, and then plan how to claim a share of the Xu family's assets!
However, none of the concerns everyone had came to pass.
Song Ying had always had a strong ability to adapt since she was young. Going to the Xu family wasn't about living a hard life of eating bran and swallowing dregs, so how could she not adapt?
After returning to the Xu family, Song Ying's hairstyle was no longer just a single ponytail. There were all sorts of small braids, sometimes pleasing to the eye, sometimes out of place, but clearly not Song Ying's own handiwork.
Sure enough, when asked, it turned out that Madam Xu was braiding her hair every morning, probably wanting to make up for lost time with Song Ying.
Just by looking at the smile on Song Ying's face now, one could see that she had been doing very well lately.
Although fate had shortchanged her for the first fifteen years, it would compensate her doubly in the future.
While Song Ying returned to the Xu family, the Shi family took a long time to adapt to life without her.
When Song Ying was at home, although her presence wasn't strong, she could help Shi's Grandmother read the newspaper, discuss TV drama plots with Eldest Aunt, and assist the housekeeper.
Song Ying was observant and knew how to integrate into the family quickly, so even with Hong Yan as her unpleasant mother, the Shi family all liked her very much.
After Song Ying left, Shi Li's cousins suffered.
Shi's Grandmother complained that Youngest Uncle's newspaper reading wasn't as standard as Song Ying's Mandarin, and Eldest Aunt got into arguments with her daughter when discussing TV drama plots...
Shi Li was so frightened that she didn't dare to return to the old family house, fearing she might provoke bad luck and be scolded.
