The wicked mother-in-law doesn't try to whitewash herself; she only abuses her awful children.

Chapter 385: Battle of wits
The crunching sound of footsteps on snow came from outside, followed by knocking on the door and hushed voices.

"Fatty, open the door, it's me."

"Oh my god, who's lying here?"

"You fat bastard, of all times you have to sleep here."

With a thud, the skinny cripple fell to the ground, followed by his curses.

The fat cripple opened the door.

The fat cripple said, "Let's nip it in the bud and freeze her to death."

The skinny cripple let out a chilling laugh in the moonlight. He always said that the fat cripple wasn't ruthless enough, but today he really showed his ruthlessness.

It's better for Jiang's mother to be dead than alive, since the dead can't speak.

"Why are you so late? Did you deliver the letter?" the fat cripple asked expectantly.
The skinny cripple rubbed his hands together and breathed on them as he said, "It's been delivered. I was afraid that little brat would try to cheat us, so I climbed up the big tree in front of the Nie family's house to take a look. The Nie family's wife was crying her eyes out, trying to raise money."

"After tonight we'll be rich, then we'll go to Yangzhou and have a good time," the skinny cripple said.

Fat cripple chuckled, his voice like a rat scurrying about in a bellows.

“The other three children are fine, but that child can’t be kept.” The fat cripple gestured with his chin toward Xiaolong.

This mute little brat filled him with inexplicable fear; he always felt that keeping this little brat around would be a disaster.

The skinny cripple laughed and said, "What harm can a mute do?"

This child is so beautiful, if we take her to Shengjing, we won't have trouble selling her.

Anyway, they can't speak, and their eyes are like a cheetah's—that's because they haven't been tamed and I haven't seen their abilities. Once we get the silver, we'll take the children away and torture that kid in all sorts of ways; I'm sure he'll behave then.

Jiang's mother had so many disobedient girls, but in the end, they were all disciplined and made obedient.

“He can’t speak, so no matter how we torture him, he won’t make a sound. Tie him up, prick him with needles, burn him with fire, don’t give him food or water, and he’ll behave in less than two days.”

When the skinny cripple saw the fat cripple's hesitant expression, he gave the fat cripple some advice.

Such a handsome boy represents a lot of money, and he certainly doesn't want the money he's about to get to fly away.

Fat crippled thought about what Skinny crippled said and decided to keep Little Dragon.

The two of them were now talking without any regard for the children. When Man'er and the others heard about the kidnappers' methods of torturing people, they trembled with fear.

Xiao Long calmly held Man'er's hand, still maintaining his mute persona, but his gaze toward the two cripples grew increasingly angry.

“A mute dares to look at me like that.”

The fat cripple was enraged by Xiaolong's gaze and went up to grab him.

Let's do it today, let's beat him into submission today.

Xiao Long nimbly dodged, and Fatty tripped and fell.

Man'er couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Enraged, the fat cripple turned his attention from catching Xiaolong to catching Man'er.

Man'er couldn't dodge in time and was about to be caught when Xiaolong rammed into the fat cripple from behind.

"Ouch."

Fat cripple crashed into the wall, howled, bounced back, and landed squarely on Chunwang.

Chunwang was woken up by being sat on, and he started howling and barking.

Enraged, the fat cripple slapped Chunwang across the face, knocking the cloth out of Chunwang's mouth.

Chunwang screamed like a pig being slaughtered.

"Shut up!" the fat cripple roared, standing up and panting heavily.

Chunwang was so frightened that he trembled violently.

Unwilling to accept defeat after being caught by Xiaolong twice, Fatty grabbed a stick from the ground and started hitting Xiaolong.

"You little mute, how dare you play tricks on me."

Little Dragon ran around the pillar, and Fatty Chasing him for a while, panting heavily, couldn't catch him.

"Skinny, you hold him for me," the fat cripple said angrily to the skinny cripple.

The skinny cripple looked down on the fat cripple. He couldn't even handle a child; how could he be his partner in the aftermath? "You can't even handle a mute."

The skinny cripple rolled up his sleeves, determined to teach Xiaolong a lesson and also to intimidate the fat cripple. Now that Jiang's mother had been left behind, the two of them had to decide who should take charge.

Skinny guy reached out to grab Xiaolong, but for some reason he suddenly stepped on a pebble and fell face-first into the mud.

This time, not only Man'er laughed, but Yaozu and Duo'er also laughed.

The skinny cripple not only failed to show off his prowess in front of the fat cripple, but also lost face and became even angrier.

He stood up and cursed at Xiaolong viciously, "You little brat, you little mute, I'll make you pay!"

Chunwang stared in disbelief at everything before him.

Man'er, Xiaolong, Yaozu, and Duo'er were all kidnapped by human traffickers, just like him.

Chunwang was old and shrewd. He quickly came up with an idea and shouted, "He lied to you. He's not mute."

The fat cripple and the thin cripple looked at Chunwang.

Chunwang shrugged and said with a fawning expression, "I'm from the same village as them. They really lied to you. His name is Xiaolong, and he's not mute."

Man'er glared angrily at Chunwang and cursed, "You're so mean!"

Fat and Skinny realized that Xiaolong wasn't mute, and the little girl who lied to them that Xiaolong was mute wasn't some kind of fool.

How much of what these four children said is true?

The fat cripple squinted and asked Chunwang, "Are they surnamed Nie?"

Chunwang pointed to Xiaolong, Man'er, and Yaozu: "These three people, surnamed Gu, are from our village."

He then pointed to Duo'er: "She's from Black Dragon Pool. Her mother and father are divorced, and she now lives with the Gu family."

The two kidnappers were furious after hearing this.

They thought they had caught a few big fish and were just waiting for the Nie family and the town officials of Yanguan to deliver the money, but they never expected that these children had been lying to them from beginning to end.

The two kidnappers exchanged a glance. The humiliation of being completely outmaneuvered by the children made them determined not to let the four kids go.

"Idiot," Xiaolong muttered disdainfully.

Driven mad by Xiaolong's contempt, the two men spread their arms and forced the four children into a corner step by step.

"You catch those two, I'll catch these two."

The skinny cripple pointed at Man'er and Xiaolong, leaving Duo'er and Yaozu to the fat cripple.

Duo'er was terrified and clung tightly to Man'er, refusing to let go.

Man'er was terrified, but she forced herself to stay upright, clutching the chili water tightly in her hand.

The skinny cripple reached out to grab Man'er, but suddenly changed his mind and grabbed Duo'er instead. Duo'er was so frightened that she burst into tears.

At this moment, Man'er sprayed the pepper spray in her hand into the eyes of the skinny man.

"Ouch, ouch!" The skinny cripple covered his eyes.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Xiao Long swept his leg hard across the skinny man's knee, and the skinny man fell to the ground and howled in pain.

Before the fat cripple knew what was happening, Yaozu sprayed the pepper spray in his hand at him fiercely.

The next second, the fat cripple started wailing just like the skinny cripple.

Man'er picked up the stick that the fat crutch had thrown away and beat the fat man and the skinny man in turn.

The two kidnappers never expected that they would be killed by four children.

Chunwang was stunned.

Seeing that the two cripples had no chance of turning the tables, Man'er walked step by step to Chunwang and waved the pepper spray in her hand in front of Chunwang's eyes.

"No need for that. Just break his leg."

Xiao Long had long disliked Chun Wang at the private school, and now that this guy dared to betray them, he would have to accept the consequences.

Chunwang was so frightened that his eyes rolled back and he fainted.

Wishing everyone a wonderful new year.