Blissful Days After Widowhood

by Usui Takumii

not mine, word drain.

2. 01 to 20

In the middle of the summer night, there was no wind.

The place was too silent. Thick clouds in the sky obscured the moonlight, leaving only a few dim stars. The night was dark like thick ink.

The village households in Batou Village all rested early, and only the whimpering of the wind and the intermittent barking of dogs could be heard in the silent fields.

After a few rumblings of muffled thunder, a flash of lightning pierced the night sky.

A sneaky figure suddenly appeared in the field. He looked left and right, looked around, and after confirming that there was no one around, he arrived at the only house in the east of the village where the lights were still on, and tiptoed over the dirt wall.

At this time, in that family's house, Gu Yin was lying on the kang, staring at a bean lamp on the table in a trance.

Just a few days ago, she was still an ordinary person living in modern times. After graduating from college, she inherited the family's time-honored porridge shop.

The porridge shop was left by her grandfather, and it stood to reason that this craft should be passed on to his son and daughter-in-law first.

But unfortunately, her parents died in a car accident the year she was just in college.

In order to fully fulfill her grandfather's wish, Gu Yin gave up life in the city after graduating from university and returned to her hometown.

Not long after that, her grandfather passed away, and Gu Yin devoted herself to the porridge shop.

But in the past two years, the business of Gu's time-honored porridge shop had become more prosperous.

Gu Yin opened several branches in one go, but she fainted during overwork when she was about to show off her grand plans.

After the darkness, when she opened her eyes again, she transmigrated in the past era and became a farmer's daughter-in-law with the same surname and name.

The original owner's situation was much worse than her.

After the death of her mother, her father remarried. After the stepmother gave birth to two sons, the family was even more poor.

Later, when she was almost ten years old, there was a locust plague in her hometown. Her father took her stepmother and fled with his children.

Although there was no disaster there, the family's money was spent on the way to escape, and food had become a problem.

The stepmother couldn't tolerate her, so she blew pillow air (talks on bed to convince him) to her dad two or three times, and Dad Gu took the girl who was still called Gu Daya to the side of the road and inserted a sale tag.

On the same day, the Wu family from Batou Village asked to buy Gu Daya.

From their ancestors to this generation, the Wu family in Batou Village were all farmers who worked in the fields, and their population was also thin. Logically, they were not rich enough to buy a maid to come back to serve them.

But the family's eldest son, Wu Qingyi, was told by a wandering Taoist in the early years, that he would die young leaving behind his widow alone.

There were many people in the village who believed in that kind of Taoism, and Mrs. Wang's vision was also high, and not many could get into her eyes. Therefore, although Wu Qingyi was born tall and strong, with a handsome appearance, he did not get married even when he was fifteen years old.

People from the countryside married early, and it was not uncommon to be a parent at the age of fourteen or fifteen. Seeing that if she dragged her son down any longer, he would not get married, Mrs. Wang, was so anxious that two fire bubbles rose from her mouth.

They decided to use all their savings to go to Renyazi to buy a child bride for their son.

Then she happened to meet Gu Daya with a sale sign stuck on the side of the road.

At that time, the little girl was so hungry that her face was yellow and her skin was thin, her hair was disheveled. Her clothes were dirty. She looked only eight or nine years old, but even if she was so messy it failed to cover her beautiful facial features and clear eyes.

The old man of the Gu family was also a smart person. At that time, when he saw Mrs. Wang stop, he stepped forward to sell his daughter, saying that his first wife who died was a maid from a well known family, and her appearance was famous in their countryside. His own girl had been brought up to be smart and clever. Although she looked a little worse as she was hungry, dragon birthed dragon, phoenix birthed phoenix, so the girl would definitely look beautiful in the future! And then he quoted a very affordable price.

The Wu family's couple had saved 10 taels of silver to buy a decent maid, but Gu Daya in front of her only cost half the price. How could that not make people excited?

However, after scrutinizing Gu Daya carefully, Mrs Wang still showed a dissatisfied look, saying that she looked so young to be her daughter-in-law as her son was fifteen years old. Although the girls in Renyazi were a little more expensive, there were many older, grown-up girls!

Because of that, Father Gu lowered the price again, and finally made the deal for four taels of silver.

Mrs. Wang saved a lot of money and was in a good mood, and immediately took Gu Daya to change into a new dress. On the way, she met a poor scholar who wrote books for people, and he even gave her a new name, Yin.

After that, Gu Yin arrived at the Wu family.

Wu Qingyi didn't know his parents' plans. But only when he saw another person in the family, he knew that the little girl in front of him was his future wife.

The little girl said she was ten years old, but she looked like a generation behind him. How could he want to? In addition, Wu Qingyi was also open-minded, and he had long thought that since he had such a fate, he would live alone for a lifetime. Anyway, his parents were young, and they could always add children to the family and continue the incense.

But Mrs. Wang had spent the money, so naturally she refused to do any money-losing business. She only said that she should keep Gu Yin at home first. If he didn't like her when she got old, she would be married off from their home as a daughter.

After three years of being treated well, Gu Yin finally changed from the poor and weak appearance, and grew into a beautiful girl.

Mrs. Wang was full of joy, and only felt that the four taels of silver she spent were worth it. As far as Gu Yin's appearance was concerned, not to mention the eight villages in ten miles, there were few people in the county who were more beautiful than her.

It was also in that year that the imperial court suddenly began to recruit strong men into the army to attack the rebels. If there was no money to bribe the officials, many men had to go to the battlefield desperately.

At that time, Mrs. Wang, who was pregnant, was burning with fire, but there was nothing she could do. She could only watch her man and eldest son being recruited.

Before parting, Mrs. Wang insisted that Wu Dalang and Gu Yin worship heaven and earth to marry.

Wu Qingyi could be regarded as self-restrained and observant, and did not do anything to Gu Yin that night on entering the bridal chamber, and said to her with guilt, "Mother is still pregnant, and my father and I are leaving, I am afraid she would not be able to bear it. So I had to agree with her. I am going to have a lot of misfortune, and this is just an expedient measure to fulfill my mother's wish. If I come back, I will naturally treat you well for a lifetime. If I don't come back or die, in two years you can get married. My mother is soft-hearted, and naturally she will not embarrass you at that time."

Wu Qing had been in school for a few years, and when he spoke, he spoke eloquently. After a sudden change in his home, Gu Yin was even more dazed. She didn't understand the meaning of his words at all. In her heart, she responded with a heavy voice.

Half a year later, Mrs. Wang gave birth to a young son, named Wu An. Since then, the three of them had depended on each other for life. Although life was hard, in the end, Mrs. Wang and Gu Yin were both able to work, and they finally survived for five years.

However, the wews came saying that the army of the imperial court on the front line was completely wiped out by the rebels.

Wasn't it the front line where Father Wu and Wu Qingyi were recruited?

Although Mrs. Wang and Gu Yin were already mentally prepared, they were so shocked that they fainted when they heard the news.

Mrs. Wang's body was in good shape, and she woke up after a while after fainting. Poor Gu Yin couldn't stand things when she was young, so she fell ill.

A high fever broke out, and modern Gu Yin passed through.

After sorting out her thoughts, Gu Yin couldn't help sighing.

As a modern person, she had read a lot of novels and TV dramas about transmigration.

But in general, even if she didn't become a lady or a noble girl (that's the court marquis novels), she must have a younger brother/fiancé who was dedicated to the imperial examination (that's the imperial examination novels).

Well, she transmigrated as a child bride and a little widow, but she had a little brother-in-law Wu An. He had undergone great changes since he was born. He was five years old now, but had not read a day, still illiterate.

No matter how difficult it was, they were supposed to think about the road ahead!

Gu Yin couldn't help but sigh again.

At that moment, the door of the house creaked open, and a woman in a cloth skirt came in.

The woman looked less than forty, and her face was still somewhat youthful, but she had long eyebrows and dangling eyes, and there were two gully-like decree lines on her face, which added a lot of years. It was the original owner's adoptive mother and mother-in-law, Mrs. Wang.

Mrs. Wang put the medicine bowl on the table heavily, and when she saw her, she scolded, "I heard you sigh dozens of times in the room in less than a stick of incense."

Immediately, Mrs. Wang thought that her man and eldest son should be gone, so wouldn't she suffer a great disaster? But the head of the family didn't act like Gu Yin, and she became more impatient, her face became a bit more fierce, and she slapped the table and said in a vicious tone, "Get up and take your medicine, why are you still waiting for me to serve you?"

It turned out that Gu Yin was very afraid of Mrs. Wang.

Although Mrs. Wang's treatment of her was not as good as that of her own son, she still did not trouble her.

Mrs Wang had a fierce appearance, a loud voice, and a sharp tongue. She could scold people for dozens of sentences without any heavy words, and even frightened the original body by saying that she would sell her for money.

The timid original body was stunned for a moment.

Of course, she was not the only person who was afraid of Mrs. Wang. There was almost no one who could scold Mrs. Wang in Batou Village. Otherwise, the widows would not be able to live happily for so many years.

Gu Yin was not very afraid of her, but felt that the eldest son of the Wu family was right, that Mrs. Wang was hard-mouthed and soft-hearted. Otherwise, she wouldn't talk about it. After hearing the bad news, when she had the disease in which she had been lingering in bed for more than a month, Mrs. Wang looked for a doctor and getting the medicine had hollowed out the last of the Wu family's money. As long as her heart was a little bit crueler, she would have cut off the medicine to save money and let the original body fend for herself.

Seeing her getting up slowly, Mrs Wang became more angry, the table clacked and the medicine bowl jumped twice.

There was another creaking sound on the door, and five-year-old Xiao Wuan pulled in his shoes, rubbing his eyes and muttering, "Why is my mother still yelling in the middle of the night? Sister-in-law is sick."

Mrs. Wang was in a bad mood, and she was indifferent to her own son, "You know it's in the middle of the night? I work outside for a day, and after working in the fields, I have to go to wash clothes for other people's homes, and I have to come and prepare the medicines for your sister-in-law's when I come back. Haven't I been busy until now? You also know that your sister-in-law can't get out of bed when she is ill, so she can be the young master in the house with her feet not touching the ground?"

That was an injustice.

In the past, Mrs. Wang did the most work, Gu Yin was the second, and the younger Wu was the third.

After Gu Yin fell ill, it was Mrs Wang who took care of the outside work, while Wuan took care of the housework and his sister-in-law.

Which child of his age was not playing around outside? Only Xiao Wuan was more sensible than others since he was a child. He was diligent and capable. When he was taking care of his sister-in-law, he would watch her every step of the way. In terms of properness and meticulousness, most adults couldn't compare to him.

Wuan originally wanted to help with the medicines, but he had little experience, so Mrs. Wang was afraid that he would ruin the expensive medicinal materials, and repeatedly emphasized that he had to wait until she came back.

However, he also knew that his mother was in a bad mood, so Wuan didn't argue, he just smiled and said, "I got sleepy waiting for the evening meal. When I laid down on the kang to rest for a while, I fell asleep. You should have called me as soon as you came back, and I'll be here to eat a hot evening meal."

Hearing what he said, Wang Shu's anger went down halfway and her eyes stopped burning. First, she said that she would go to warm up the meal, and then asked Wuan to feed Gu Yin the medicine then told her not to get down and get cold again.

As soon as she finished talking, Mrs. Wang went out like the wind.

"Even though mother is acting like this, she still cares about my sister-in-law." Xiao Wuan smiled at Gu Yin again, and sat on the edge with the medicine bowl in his hand, "Sister-in-law, didn't take it to heart, it's troublesome to get emotional during illness."

In recent years, the conditions of the Wu family had not been very good. Wuan was five years old. In fact, he was thin and much shorter than his peers. He looked only three or four years old, standing at the table, he was at the same level as the table.

Seeing him standing on tiptoe, holding the medicine bowl in his small hands in front of her as his dark face was full of genuine concern, Gu Yin's heart softened, and she followed with a smile, and took two or three sips. After a while, she said, "I can drink it."

Xiao Wuan watched her finish drinking the medicine, then took a handkerchief to wipe her mouth, and then stared at her and yawned again when she was done.

A child of this age easily got sleepy, and he was always busy taking care of her during the day. Gu Yin couldn't bear to see him in such a condition and pulled him onto the kang, took off his little shoes, and put him to bed to sleep.

Xiao Wuan was so sleepy that he couldn't open his eyes, but he still said, "Mother said that I'm getting older, so I'm not as tired as I used to be."

Gu Yin covered him with the thin quilt, patted his chest with one hand, and coaxed slowly, "Just rest for a while, mother will take you back to your kang after she's done."

The two were talking, but suddenly heard a crisp sound in the quiet night.

"I'm afraid she dropped the bowl again," Wuan closed his eyes and muttered, then turned over and started snoring.

Mrs. Wang's temperament was fiery, and her work was a little frizzy, and things like breaking things were not uncommon.

Gu Yin also smiled.

But after the crisp sound, there was no scolding from Mrs. Wang as usual outside, only the gust of wind carrying whimper, weeping like a complaint, and it was a little strangely quiet.

Gu Yin's heart was beating wildly, and she faintly felt that the situation was not right.

Gu Yin glanced at Xiao Wuan who was sleeping soundly, then got out of bed and walked out of the house, lightly walking to the stove.

The stove was lit with an oil lamp, and the dim yellow light was stolen from the oil-paper hole in the window, and it was so quiet as if there was no one in it.

"Mother, what's wrong with you? Did you drop a bowl?" Gu Yin asked at the door in a normal tone.

Before waiting for the response from inside, Gu Yin touched the bat peddle for washing clothes in the yard and took it in her hand.

At that time, in the kitchen room, Mrs. Wang's mouth was covered tightly.

Hearing the voice outside, the man whispered, "If you don't want your son to die, just give it to me!"

Mrs. Wang who talked to Gu Yin fiercely before was so frightened and her head was full of cold sweat.

She recognized the man in front of her as Li Daniu, a gangster in the village.

Li Daniu lived up to his name, as strong as a cow. He had all the strength but didn't do the right thing. But his uncle was in a strong position; he had no children under his knees, and he treated him as his own son. Although the people in the village were tired of him, no one dared to do anything to him.

In the past, there were two strong laborers in the Wu family, especially Wu Qingyi, who was naturally strong and could crack rocks with his bare hands at the age of fifteen.

A few days ago, he heard the news that the men of the Wu family were gone, so Li Daniu waited until a dark night when he could not see his fingers, and came to the Wu house.

Li Daniu originally came for Gu Yin, but looking at Mrs. Wang in the dim light, he felt a little different.

Immediately, he thought that there was only a five-year-old child in this family. As long as Gu Yin was tricked, wouldn't the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law let him do what he wanted?

He laughed evilly and said, "How about letting your daughter-in-law come in, and I'll let you and your son go?"

Mrs. Wang was still clenching her teeth in horror.

Li Daniu saw that Mrs. Wang refused to open her mouth, and the expression on his face became a bit fierce.

Just as the two were at a stalemate, they saw that the door of the stove was suddenly knocked open.

Li Daniu was guilty of being a thief, and when he heard the sound suddenly, he didn't realize that he was panicking.

Seeing the opportunity, Mrs. Wang immediately broke free from his shackles, and shouted "help" at the top of her voice.

Mrs. Wang's voice had always been loud, and the cry for help was so loud that it was no exaggeration to say that it broke through the sky. However, unfortunately, a thunderstorm hit outside at the same time, and then pouring rain poured down, completely blocking her voice.

The pea-sized raindrops crackled, and Li Daniu secretly said, "God is helping me as well", then turned around and slapped Mrs. Wang aside, and was about to beat her to death with another ruthless hand.

However, before he could do it, he suddenly felt a pain in the back of his head.

It turned out that when the thunder sounded, Gu Yin silently came behind him and used all her strength to hit Li Daniu on the back of the head with the pedal in her hand!

However, Gu Yin, who had just recovered from a serious illness, had no strength at all, and Li Daniu stumbled twice before stabilizing his figure.

He stretched out his hand and touched the back of his head. Seeing that his hand was already dyed red, the anger on his body became even stronger.

He turned his head and glanced at Gu Yin, who was still holding the peddle a few steps away, and smiled contemptuously, "I didn't know that you were such a fierce little lady. It just so happens that the lord likes chaste martyrs, they taste good enough!"

After that, he ran toward Gu Yin again.

Mrs. Wang, whose mouth was full of blood, had just got up from the ground at that time. Seeing that the situation was not right, she immediately hugged Li Daniu's waist from behind, and shouted to Gu Yin, "What are you doing here? Why didn't you run with Wuan?!"

Gu Yin was calm in the face of danger, and said solemnly, "Wuan has already left the house to call for help, mother, don't worry, someone will come to take down this thief soon!"

Li Daniu was not annoyed when he was stumbled by Mrs. Wang, but instead smiled slyly, "Trying to scare me, little lady? Your home is at least two quarters of an hour back and forth from other people's homes, and now every family is sleeping soundly. Xiao'er called out, but today it's windy and rainy outside, and the Wu family's child is weak like a chicken. Would it take half an hour to run out to find someone for help? You say, isn't a half an hour enough time for me to do what I want?"

Gu Yin was just bluffing to scare him, but she didn't expect that the man in front of her, who looked at the sky with all the strength and no brain, would not be so easy to deceive!

"What are you talking about, you idiot, run!" Blood flowed from Mrs. Wang's mouth, and her eyes were red with anxiety.

But Gu Yin knew that she could not retreat.

The original owner owed her upbringing. As soon as Mrs. Wang's words came out, a strong reluctance emerged in her subconscious – that should be the last remaining consciousness of the original owner.

How could Gu Yin do such an immoral thing after taking over someone else's body and go against the will of the original owner?

Furthermore, she was recovering from a serious illness. Her body was weak. There were lightning flashes and thunder outside, and it was raining heavily. Even if she ran away, Mrs. Wang most likely would faint to death after she ran half a mile. Not to mention that since she beat him, Li Daniu's eyes seemed to stick to her, so his main target was her.

How long could Mrs. Wang stop him? At that time, it would not be enough for Gu Yin to escape.

Gu Yin lowered her eyes. Her thick black curled eyelashes were like a pair of mysterious butterflies fluttering their wings, and her face was as lustrous and white as snow.

Li Daniu was stunned when he looked at her face for a while.

This child bride of the Wu family was really the most beautiful in this ten mile and eight townships! It was not a waste to take a risk coming and picking this delicate flower!

And Li Daniu also thought that as long as he succeeded in breaking Gu Yin's body, the woman would have fear for her dignity. As long as that little lady of the Wu family was not too stupid, she would not make things too difficult. Besides, most of the men in the village were gone, and if his uncle helped him, he would naturally be able to completely cover up this matter, and maybe he would be able to take over the women in the entire village from then on!

Li Daniu looked at Gu Yin madly. He didn't speak ill-natured anymore, instead he softened his voice and learned to make up nonsense like a scholar in the book, "Little lady, I'm not the kind of person who can't take pity on fragrance and cherish jade. You should know me. I'm Lizheng's nephew. Our Li family is well known. Speaking of which, the magistrate in the county town is a relative of my family. Today you follow me, tomorrow I'll carry a big sedan chair to marry you. Instead of being a little widow in the Wu family, why don't you marry me? I will keep you hot and spicy for the rest of your life!"

These words were naturally made up indiscriminately. No matter how good-looking Gu Yin was, she was a little widow who married someone. Moreover, Wu Qingyi's reputation was also poor, saying that he was going to marry her, he just wanted to touch Gu Yin's body, and he did not dare to take her home as his wife.

After listening to his words, Gu Yin frowned, as if she was really thinking about what he said.

Li Daniu continued patiently, "I promise that as long as we get married, I will let my uncle find me an errand, work hard, and treat you well. Come, it's not my original intention to use force, I really liked you for a long time."

Gu Yin bit her lip and hesitated, "I understand your sincerity, but fornication without marriage is what people look down on. You are right, my husband is dead, and I can't live this boring life as a widow. Why don't you go back and bring your family to propose marriage tomorrow?"

As soon as Li Daniu said these words, he didn't respond, but Mrs. Wang was already angrily and scolded, "You understand shi*t! The old lady has worked so hard to raise you, but you want to turn around and have xoxo with a wild man?!"

Gu Yin replied angrily, "Although you have raised me for all these years, I haven't eaten at your house all these years for nothing. I always get up before dawn to work with you. If you hadn't bought me, maybe a rich family would have done that. I heard that the maids of the rich families wear gold and silver, and have the opportunity to be the concubine of the main family, which is better than the young lady of ordinary people!"

Speaking of it, Gu Yin glared at Mrs. Wang angrily, as if she really hated her for a long time, and it was only that day that she had a sudden attack.

Mrs. Wang was so angry that she stopped holding Li Daniu's waist, and threw her hands at Gu Yin.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law scuffled together immediately, and they fought all the way from the door of the stove to the front of the stove.

Li Daniu was also stunned. He never expected that Gu Yin's attitude would change so quickly, nor did he expect that Mrs. Wang would sacrifice her life just to save Gu Yin.

Mrs. Wang's reputation was very strong. After Li Daniu reacted, he was afraid that the little lady would lose her will, so he hurried forward to fight.

However, as soon as he grabbed one in one hand, he suddenly felt a chill in his chest—

He looked down dumbfoundedly, and saw that the kitchen knife on the stove had been inserted into his chest at some point!

Li Daniu fell down.

Gu Yin and Mrs. Wang were panting and frightened.

"I… I killed someone," Mrs. Wang was also stunned, and the kitchen knife in her hand fell to the ground with a clang.

Gu Yin closed her eyes, stabilized her mind, and then leaned down to check Li Daniu's breath and pulse, "Don't be afraid, he is not dead."

Mrs. Wang was so frightened that she could not stand still, and only stabilized her body by holding on to the stove.

Seeing that she was so frightened that her face was pale, Gu Yin turned to praise, "Mother, you are really strong. I just said that, but it was an expedient measure that you could react to immediately."

When Mrs. Wang received the praise, she trembled uncontrollably, and said proudly, "You were raised by me, how could I not know you?!"

Just now, when she heard what Gu Yin said, she felt that it was very wrong, as if she was deliberately angering her.

After she rushed over, Gu Yin gave her a wink, and Mrs. Wang immediately understood, and the two scuffled together.

Later, Gu Yin led her all the way to the edge of the stove. Before she could reach out, Mrs. Wang swiftly grasped the kitchen knife in her hand.

Thinking that her daughter-in-law, who had always been cowardly and only knew to hide behind her when encountering an accident, was quick-witted that time, Wang Shu realized that even being a mother-in-law could not be at a disadvantage, so she forced herself to calm down.

Seeing that the fear on her face had disappeared, and she could listen to people talking, Gu Yin first handed the kitchen knife to Mrs Wang, "Our kitchen knife is small, only the tip of the knife is stained with blood."

Immediately, she squatted down again, pointed to the wound on Li Daniu's chest and said, "This wound is not deep, and the amount of bleeding is very small. It can only be regarded as a skin wound. This person should have fainted from fright."

Mrs. Wang looked down, and the wound on Li Daniu's chest turned out to be not serious, and the blood was no more than smeared on the front of the shirt. The bleeding stopped on its own when she spoke, and it was less than the blood flowing from her mouth!

"Amitabha! I thought I killed someone!" Mrs Wang stroked her chest and gasped, and the hanging heart finally fell back into her stomach.

Gu Yin couldn't help but glance at Mrs. Wang.

In fact, at first, what she meant was that she wanted to find an opportunity to use a kitchen knife to scare Li Daniu away – after all, no matter how strong Li Daniu was, he was only bare-handed, and he was alone against the two of them. Mrs. Wang had always been strong, and ordinary men couldn't compare to her in work. She would restrain him so easily. As long as she got the kitchen knife, Li Daniu would not do anything bad to the two of them.

And in the original owner's memory, Li Daniu bullied the weak and feared the strong. Knowing that the Wu family's men were gone, he went there alone.

But she didn't expect that her mother-in-law would grab the kitchen knife and stab Li Daniu hard.

She tried to kill but was frightened like that.

"Then what should we do now?" Mrs. Wang, who was relieved, asked Gu Yin unconsciously.

Gu Yin went to the corner of the kitchen to find a hemp rope, and while tying Li Daniu, she said, "We'll tie the person first, and then take him to the officials when it is dawn."

Mrs. Wang had regained her composure at that time, and she felt that she had lost face with her chaotic appearance. After hearing that, she spat blood at Li Daniu and hummed, "This beast won't admit it. He has someone protecting him! He was injured in our house today, no matter whether it was his fault or not, if our family falls into their hands, we will have to retreat even if we didn't die!"

Saying that she also started to help, and the two quickly tied Li Daniu firmly.

After a while, Li Daniu's eyes moved, and he was about to wake up, but Mrs. Wang picked up the laundry peddler that Gu Yin had dropped before, and sturdily hit the back of Wang Daniu's head, knocking him out again.

After Gu Yin cleaned up the blood in the stove and Mrs. Wang wrapped a cold towel on her face, the two returned to the house.

At that time, Xiao Wuan in the room had already woken up. Seeing that they were all coming back from outside, he rubbed his eyes and asked them what they were doing.

Mrs. Wang covered her injured half of her face with a towel, and told the child it was not his business.

Gu Yin comforted him warmly, "It's nothing, it's just raining heavily outside. Mother and I were worried that the roof would be damaged, so we went out and took a look."

Wuan was so sleepy that he couldn't open his eyes. He was quickly infected by Gu Yin's calm mood, and laid back in the bed and fell asleep again.

Seeing that he was fast asleep, Gu Yin pondered and thought of the next countermeasures.

At the beginning of her time travel, her understanding of that era came from the original owner's memory, and the original owner was young and knew little about the outside world. Only one thing was certain, that the court was rotten to the core from top to bottom, otherwise it would not be able to forcefully recruit all the men of the poor family, and leave the b*stard. Not to mention that the people quietly supported the rebels and looked forward to the situation where the rebels overthrew the imperial court.

It was really useless to send the thief to the official.

"Let's go back to my natal house!" After being relatively speechless for a long time, Mrs Wang said, "There are many thieves, we can stop one but how can we stop thousands? Your father-in-law and Qingyi are gone, and our family has nothing to worry about in this Batou Village. Now that this kind of thing has happened, we should simply move away. No matter how big the Li family is, they could do nothing if we leave this village or this county!"

Mrs. Wang was used to being a family person, so she would listen to Gu Yin when she was in a panic. But since she made up her mind, she didn't say anything more. She also woke Wuan up, didn't explain anything to him, and just made everyone pack their belongings.

Gu Yin lived in the room of the eldest son of the Wu family. Although it was the largest room in the family, the Wu family was originally wealthy farmers. In recent years, the family had lost two strong laborers. In addition, Gu Yin was seriously ill again. The most valuable fields were sold, and there was nothing else of value in the house.

Gu Yin only packed a few of her own clothes.

Wuan quickly packed up his own small baggage, and his belongings were even smaller, the package was smaller than Gu Yin's.

The two waited in the main room for a long time, but Mrs. Wang did not come for a long time.

When Gu Yun went to Wang Shu, she saw that she had already packed several huge bags, and was packing the pots and pans from the stove into a newly rolled wrapping cloth.

Gu Yin held her forehead helplessly. They were going out to escape! Packing up so many things, how could they carry it?

Seeing her hesitating to say anything, Mrs Wang said, "You don't know how expensive firewood is! Although these things are old, they are of everyday use. As the old saying goes, it's good to stay at home for a thousand days, but it's hard to go out for half a day. Do you have money to spend to buy new ones?"

Gu Yin put Wuan aside, and then persuaded, "It is urgent to go, we are going out to move, how can we bring so many things?"

Mrs. Wang also knew that it was inconvenient to take these on the road, but she still said, "You don't have to worry about it. I will take care of it myself."

She did have that strength, so Gu Yin didn't persuade her any further.

When it was dawn, the three of them were all packed up.

At that time, the rain was even heavier than in the middle of the night, and everything was covered with a layer of fog.

But because they were fleeing, Mrs. Wang and Gu Yin didn't dare to stay. Mrs. Wang took the baggages from Gu Yin and Wuan's hands on her backs, and gave Gu Yin a shawl.

Gu Yin was frightened and sweated all over the previous night, and by the morning, her illness had completely disappeared.

She was about to refuse, but was scolded by Mrs. Wang again, and finally she couldn't help but tell her to put it on.

Gu Yin carried the little Wuan under her shawl.

The little guy was not happy at first, and said with his hands twisted, "I can walk by myself since I've grown up. Sister-in-law, you just got better."

Gu Yin couldn't do what Mrs. Wang did, although it was for the good of others, but she couldn't force people, so she winked at him and said, "I'm just sick, and I don't have the strength, so I have to walk slowly when I'm on the road. When the time comes, my mother will definitely scold me. If I carry you on my back, won't I have a reason then?"

Xiao Wuan obediently laid on her back, but still did not forget to tell her, "If you feel tired, you must put me down immediately."

Gu Yin stood up and held him, only to feel that the little guy on her back was not as heavy as a big watermelon.

The group of three went out of Batou Village, until the sky was bright, and the wind and rain were so strong that the umbrella in Wang Shu's hand was overturned. In the end, they couldn't continue, so Mrs. Wang found a broken temple on a nearby barren mountain to rest.

At that time, those things that Wang Shu brought in came in handy. She first gathered the hay in the ruined temple, then took out the fire rock to set it on fire, and then folded the branches to build a simple shelf, and finally put the clip on the shelf. She went to her own pottery pot, poured clean water from the water bag, and finally took out the ginger slices in the small cloth bag, and cooked ginger soup on the spot.

The water in the clay pot boiled not long, making a "gudugudu" sound, accompanied by the majestic and powerful sound of raindrops outside, Gu Yin felt relaxed.

At that moment, a loud "bang" sound suddenly came from the horizon, just as the dull thunder exploded in the ear, making all three of them tremble.

"This thunder is so terrible!" Wang Shu murmured.

…

This torrential rain lasted for half a month, and finally turned into a rain disaster.

The river dam in the upper reaches of Batou Village had been in bad condition for a long time, and finally it was overwhelmed..

The rebel army played the banner of "The monarch is tyrannical and is not tolerated by the heavens", and its momentum had become more powerful.

And a month after Gu Yin and the others left, a group of men on horses in disguise quietly came to the vicinity of Batou Village.

They were a group of ten people, all dressed in black outfits, their movements were uniform, and they were well-trained.

The man at the head was in his early twenties, with strong arms, a burly stature, a tough face, and a thumb-length scar on the side of his face near the ear, which did not diminish his handsomeness, but added a touch of edge.

The group of them galloped all night, and they had seen countless tragic situations along the way, all of them looked solemn.

But the leader's face was even more hesitant and sad, with a hint of defeat.

He jumped off his horse and threw himself into the ruins.

He stood in a panic in the devastated area, and began to dig with his sword first, and then he simply dug with his bare hands.

The blood fell into the mud along his fingertips, but he didn't feel the pain at all. After digging for a long time, it was in vain.

The faces of the people accompanying him were unbearable. A young general with brown hair and deep eyes opened his mouth and said, "Cheif, we should go to the county magistrate here and ask to see how many casualties were there…"

In fact, when they came, they inquired about the news. The dam collapsed, and Batou Village bore the brunt of it, and no one survived.

The local officials had fled long ago, and the bodies of the people had long been swept away by the flood. So no one had come to count any casualties. But he knew that the small village in front of him had their leader's family.

When faced with that kind of situation, people would always want to do something, and even if it were in vain in the end, they would feel better in their hearts. But no matter what, it was still better than being so crazy at the moment.

"Or your family happened to be on a long journey and avoided it."

The man finally calmed down. He shook his head slowly, his movements sluggish like a puppet.

After a long time, the man said in a hoarse voice, "My mother came from a distant marriage. Because the elders were not in harmony, they had not communicated for many years. Besides, my wife is timid, and my small brother is too young to go somewhere else."

When he said that, his voice became more low, like a rotten tree, and it was like blood trapped in his throat.

The people accompanying him didn't know how to comfort him, so they turned their heads.

"The purpose of our trip is to find King Yi's son. Because of me, you all traveled here with me. I thank all the brothers." He closed his eyes in pain, "Now that… Now that we know the result, we won't stop here. Let's not delay the important matter of King Yi."

That man was Wu Qingyi, the eldest son of the Wu family who was forcibly conscripted into the army.

It was winter when he left home, and he encountered heavy snow before he joined the army.

Heavy snow blocked the mountain, and more than half of their group died of freezing and sickness.

Delaying the timing was the crime of beheading, so the prison guard simply ignored these recruits and ran for his life.

They thought they had no way out, but they were lucky enough to meet King Yi.

King Yi rescued them, but he did not force them to follow him, but said to them, "A bad ruler or peaceful world, would you rather have a sense of justice? How innocent are the common people who suffer when the ruler is blinded by tyranny?"

The emperor of the dynasty was stupid. He only cared about his own pleasure, let eunuchs take power, and the tyranny was fiercer than tigers. The masses had long been resentful.

If it weren't for helplessness, who would be willing to die for such an emperor?

At that time, Wu Qingyi and others had missed the military battle and were punished according to the military law. Even if they returned to their hometown, they would be labeled as deserters. They did not know when the imperial court would attack and implicate their family members, so they joined the rebel army.

But in the end, it was a rebellion. Wu Qingyi did not dare to communicate with his family, and only waited for the situation to stabilize before bringing his family to his side.

Unexpectedly, that wait was five or six years.

Over the years, Wu Qingyi had made many achievements, and he had won King Yi's appreciation. He had been promoted from an ordinary soldier to a general.

So, he really wanted to take his family by his side, and it happened that a major event happened with King Yi; a child he raised in the countryside was lost.

In fact, it was not just lost, but had been lost for several years.

But King Yi, like Wu Qingyi, was born at a very low level, and was only a small corporal before his fortune.

After the uprising, he relocated his family to a remote place to remain anonymous, and only dared to return home every few years, lest they would be implicated.

It wasn't until half a year ago that the rebel army was in a position to win, and the righteous king went back to pick up his family in person, and only then did he know that his son was lost.

The righteous King Yi was honorable. He was not close to women when he was out in the army, and he seldom returned home to reunite with his wife. The child was his only seed, and he naturally attached great importance to him.

Wu Qingyi was instructed to look for the child, but although the group were all elites, it had been many years since the incident, and they were looking for a young child, so they only had a rough range, and searched all the way to the vicinity of their hometown.

He had made up his mind to pick up his family, but he didn't expect torrential rain and the river bank burst, another tragic disaster.

His heart was grief-stricken, but years of self-control had paid off in that moment. Now that his family was gone, he should help the righteous king who had been kind to him find his son, so that he could avoid the pain he was suffering.

After getting his order, the group got on their horses.

Wu Qingyi pulled the reins and turned the horse's head. After a moment of looking at his homeland, he finally left with his subordinates.

At that time, in Hanshan Town, hundreds of miles away, Mrs. Wang was talking to Gu Yin, but suddenly sneezed more than a dozen times in a row, and scolded, "I don't know which turtle son is talking about me!"

Immediately, she thought of her man and son, as well as those old acquaintances in Batou Village. Except for Gu Yin and Xiao Wuan in front of her, who else would remember her?

After they came out of Batou Village that day, it rained heavily for several days. It was not convenient for them, an orphan, widows and a mother to travel at night. They carried a lot of luggage in large and small bags. They stopped and heard about the disaster in Batou Village.

This time, they didn't dare to stop, they accelerated their pace, and finally arrived at Hanshan Town a day ago.

The three of them were tired. When they arrived in the town, Mrs. Wang led them to find a cheap inn and stayed overnight.

On the way there, Gu Yin asked her future plans. She was reluctant to say more, but when she arrived in Hanshan Town, she had to tell her some things.

Mrs. Wang told Gu Yin about the past.

It turned out that Mrs. Wang's family was considered a wealthy family in the town. Regardless of Mrs. Wang's current situation, she was also a young lady from a small wealthy family back then.

The second elder of Mr. Wang gave birth to two sons before, and only got a daughter in his later years. He raised her like a jewel, and regarded her as more important than anything.

Until Mrs. Wang was fifteen years old, the two elders were not willing to marry off this precious daughter.

It was in that year that Mrs. Wang met Father Wu, who came to a different place to make a living.

Father Wu was a very handsome young man back then. After his parents were gone, he and his fellow villagers came to Hanshan Town to do business.

Because of the limited capital, what he did was a business.

At that time, Mrs. Wang was the age when she liked novel items including jewellery and makeup, so the two of them knew each other after meeting back and forth.

After a lot of contact, Mrs. Wang took the initiative to express her intentions.

Father Wu was flattered and felt that he was not worthy of her, so he rejected her at the beginning.

But Mrs. Wang was stubborn and said that if Father Wu didn't want her, she would shave her hair and become a nun. Father Wu already liked her. Hearing the girl he liked say that, naturally he didn't hesitate anymore. The two fell in love.

Mrs. Wang's temperament was very straightforward, and after falling in love, she told her family that she would marry.

That made her parents angry.

It was not that they were stubborn—the town's atmosphere was simple and honest, and they knew about the families who lived close by, but Wang Shu loved a foreigner!

When they asked about the situation of the Wu family again, they came to know that his parents died, and he had no relatives, so they got even more angry.

But Mrs. Wang was determined, and she threatened to go on a hunger strike if the family did not agree.

Mrs. Wang's parents were also distressed for their daughter, and finally came up with a compromise solution to let Father Wu join the Wang family. He was alone, wouldn't it be just right to join the Wang family? In that way, Mrs. Wang's wish would be fulfilled, and they could keep their daughter by their side for a long time.

But Father Wu was not willing.

It was not that he didn't like Mrs. Wang enough, but that after joining the family, he had to give up his surname and become part of the Wang family.

Their Wu family was not prosperous in the early years. The court levied heavy taxes. In order to continue their incense, both parents saved food for him to eat. It could be said that his parents starved to death for him.

How could he give up his surname and cut off his family's inheritance?

Afterward, things were deadlocked, and Mrs. Wang hanged herself.

That time, Mrs. Wang's parents were really heartbroken. They immediately kicked her out of the house and told her not to return to Hanshan Town in the future.

Mrs. Wang married into the Wu family like that, and the later fields of the Wu family were bought with her jewelry at that time.

Father Wu was down-to-earth and willing to work hard, and Mrs. Wang also learned to be the master of the house. The days after marriage could be described as harmonious and beautiful.

But Mrs. Wang was ashamed to go back to her parents' home, so she could only have people bring home letters and small gifts back every once in a while.

After two years, Mrs. Wang's parents lost their anger, and just as Mrs. Wang gave birth to an eldest son, they sent a letter saying that when their eldest grandson got a little older, she should return to Hanshan Town to let them see him.

When Wu Qingyi was half a year old, Mrs. Wang ruched back to her parents' home with her husband and son, but was shocked to hear the sad news of the passing of both the parents.

There were two older brothers. At that time, they were having a lot of trouble over the family property. When they saw their distantly married sister come back, they thought she was also there to get the family money. Naturally, it was a shame.

A lot of ugly words were said, and Mrs. Wang was also arrogant. After the parents' funeral was over, she left with her husband and son, and never communicated with her parents' family again.

The most recent correspondence between her and her family was probably the time when the imperial court forcibly recruited strong men five years ago.

A strong man was worth ten taels, and she could keep her husband and son for twenty taels of silver.

Wang Shu didn't expect her brother and sister-in-law to be so generous to give out all the 20 taels. She just thought that she still had 8 taels in her hand, and then if she got more than 2 taels of silver, anyway, one man could escape.

But they never responded to her message and in the end it was over.

Mrs. Wang was really annoyed. If it wasn't for the incident earlier, she might never have returned to Hanshan Town in her life.

Of course, these past things were not glorious, and even a little deviant. She had never even mentioned anything to one of her own two sons, let alone tell Gu Yin.

But she thought about having to deal with her family in the future. Rather than letting the two sisters-in-law make up the story, it would be better for her to tell her honestly.

It was also a shame that Mrs. Wang got through so early, because just after she finished talking about these things, her two sisters-in-laws came to her door.

At that time, Mrs. Wang had already finished talking to Gu Yin. Seeing that she had no words for a long time, she said, "Don't you believe me?"

"I do," Gu Yin replied.

They had returned to the realm of the Wang family, and there was absolutely no need for Mrs. Wang to lie to her.

And in retrospect, in her memory, although Mrs. Wang was a peasant woman, she was not as careless as other villagers. She worked quickly, kept the house spotless, trimmed her nails, rinsed her mouth every day, and changed her personal clothes. Even if she didn't have decent clothes and jewelry, she had black hair that was neat and tidy. It was very clean and refreshing, and it also made the hygiene habits of the entire family very good.

It was just that Gu Yin didn't expect that when Mrs. Wang was young, she had the style of a modern woman, daring to love freely and challenging dogma and stereotypes.

At the same time, this incident also reminded Gu Yin that Mrs. Wang's temperament, who dared to go against her parents when she was young, was really stubborn, and even eight horses couldn't pull it back.

Gu Yin already had a preliminary plan for the future, of course, she would still rely on her craftsmanship to earn money.

It was just that no matter how small a transaction was, it needed capital. Although the original Gu Yin was also nineteen and almost twenty years old, she had no money, not even a penny.

It was indeed difficult for Mrs. Wang to follow the advice of her daughter-in-law and provide her some capital.

It was at that time that the sisters-in-laws of Mrs. Wang came.

Speaking of which, Mrs Wang hadn't seen the two sisters-in-law in twenty years.

The two older brothers were already in their old age. The two sisters-in-law were about the same age as their own man, so naturally they were no longer young.

The elder sister-in-law of the Wang family, Mrs. Zhao had a slender figure, looking a little dull.

The second sister-in-law, Mrs. Zou, was short and chubby, with a round face and round eyes, and she smiled at first when she saw them.

Both of them were grandmother-aged, with gullies on their faces and white hair on their heads.

Mrs. Wang didn't recognize the two at first sight when she saw them.

But when Mrs. Zhao and Mrs. Zou saw Mrs. Wang, they wiped their eyes with a handkerchief excitedly.

"Last night, we heard that they met someone very much like you at the gate of the city. We didn't believe it at all. After thinking about it for a night, we couldn't feel relieved, so we asked about the news and came over to have a look!" The second sister-in-law, Mrs. Zou, spoke first, her eyes were already red as she spoke.

Sister-in-law Zhao was also excited, "It's good to be back, it's good to be back!"

In fact, Mrs. Wang's heart was somewhat estranged from these two sisters-in-law. After all, the separation of the family and the matter of borrowing two taels of silver later in the year made her very uncomfortable.

But they hadn't seen each other for many years, and both sisters-in-law had grown so old. But they burst into tears when they saw her. Thinking of the fact that they were once a family, Wang Shu's heart softened.

Before she could open her mouth, Mrs. Zou took the initiative to talk about what happened back then, and said, "Little sister hasn't come back for many years, so you don't know, our life has not been good these years. Back then, my parents suddenly left, and it took a lot of money for the funeral. Your two brothers were not good at business, and they lost their net worth in a few years. Later, the kids went to school, and it cost a lot of money every year. It was five years ago when the imperial court recruited strong men…"

As she spoke, Mrs. Zou's face also showed a thankful and ashamed look, "At that time, your many nephews were also implicated and no one would bear letting their children leave! We spent a lot of money to bribe the officials, and finally keep them. I have given birth to a few children. When I received your letter, I really didn't have any money left."

Mrs. Zhao also quickly echoed, "Yes, at that time, I went back to my mother's house overnight to get some silver, thinking of helping my sister-in-law's family to tide over the difficulties."

These two sisters explained the events of the year one by one, and Mrs. Wang thought it should be true. Before she got married, the eldest sister-in-law gave birth to two children, and the second sister-in-law gave birth to three children. Son, nephew and niece, the next generation had also grown up.

She herself did not want her husband and son to enlist in the army, and naturally they would not be willing to give up their own children.

Mrs. Wang looked at the clothes of her two sisters-in-law again – they were all gray and old clothes, there was no jewelry on their hands and head, and their expressions were also miserable, and the tears never stopped since they met.

Was it really a misunderstanding?

Without waiting for Wang Shu to think about it, Mrs. Zou's eyes fell on Gu Yin, and she exclaimed, "What a beautiful little lady! Is this your daughter-in-law?"

With a slight smile on Mrs. Wang's face, she said, "Second sister-in-law guessed right. She is my eldest son's wife, and half my daughter. She has been raised by me since she was a child."

Mrs. Zou and Mrs. Zhao looked at each other, and they understood that Gu Yin was a child bride.

Both of them praised Gu Yin, and then Mrs. Wang introduced Xiao Wu'an to them and asked him to greet them.

After the emotions calmed down, Mrs. Zhao and Mrs. Zou sat down with Mrs. Wang to talk.

The sisters-in-laws asked Mrs. Wang why she came to her hometown. Although Mrs. Wang was feeling up and down at that time, she still knew what to say and what not to say, so she didn't mention Li Daniu, and only said that there was a flood in her hometown. In the disaster, the three escaped by luck.

Mrs. Zhao and Zhou Shi took the handkerchief to wipe their eyes again, exclaiming that they were distressed.

Afterward, Mrs. Zhao said, "It is reasonable to say that you have escaped hardship, and we should entertain you. But you are not an outsider, and the plight of the family is not hidden from you. It is really impossible to open the pot… But you have good luck. Next door to Yuanshan County, they are recruiting female workers here, not only do they provide accommodation and meals, but also pay 6 yuan a month. You and your daughter-in-law are smart people, and you will definitely be selected."

Mrs. Zou also took out a small silver bracelet wrapped in a coarse cloth handkerchief from her arms, and said, "Yuanshan County is five or six days' journey away from us. This is for my sister."

Mrs. Zou's father was an old scholar, and he failed the exam all his life. When she got married, the family only gave her that fine silver bracelet as a dowry.

Mrs. Wang had an impression of that bracelet, and she felt more uncomfortable. How would she accept her sister-in-law's dowry?

After another refusal, Mrs. Zou stubbornly put the bracelet on Mrs. Wang's hand, and said, "I really don't have anything decent at home, only this dowry silver bracelet is my favorite, and I haven't given it up for many years. If you don't accept it, I'll think you still hate us because of what happened back then."

Mrs. Wang had to accept it.

Later, Mrs. Zhao and Mrs. Zou also said that Mrs. Wang had not returned for many years and was not familiar with the affairs of the town.

Seeing that they were old and frail, but still were happy to accompany her around, the last trace of resentment in Mrs. Wang's heart was suppressed.

The kindness was difficult to accept, and Mrs. Wang was about to agree, but Gu Yin suddenly coughed at that time.

She frowned and held her heart, coughing out of breath, and her already pale face became more bad.

Xiao Wu'an hurriedly poured water for her.

Mrs. Wang slapped her forehead and said, "Look at my brain! I just heard what my sister-in-law said, and I just thought about earning money. I forgot that my daughter-in-law was seriously ill before. Although she can get out of bed and walk around now, I'm afraid it's hard to work for her yet."

There was a brief pause in the smiles on the faces of Mrs Zhao and Mrs Zou, but soon Mrs Zou said again, "What a poor child. Sister, don't blame me for being so talkative, go to the county town for the sake of this child. There are good doctors there. The medicinal materials are not comparable with our small town. Don't leave the root of the disease. "

Mrs. Wang thought about it seriously, nodded and said, "Second sister-in-law, you are indeed right, but we've been on our way for a month, and I can't bear to let her run around again. I'd better let her rest for a few more days."

Mrs. Zhao wanted to say something, but was stopped by Mrs. Zhu's gesture.

The two sisters didn't stay any longer, they told Gu Yin to have a good rest, and they would come to visit the next day.

Mrs. Wang sent the two away, and when she came back, Gu Yin had stopped coughing.

She glared at Gu Yin and complained, "On the way here, you kept saying that you were fine, but you fooled me, right? If it weren't for your papery body, I would have already gone to the place where they recruited people to work. It's a good job which can cover and pay monthly money, and I know that I won't have a chance if I went one step later!"

But despite the scolding, Mrs. Wang still took out an old purse containing all the money from her close-fitting clothes, and was going to go to the street to ask a doctor to prescribe medicine for her.

What could Gu Yin do? She could only look at her helplessly.

If she hadn't deliberately coughed and interrupted their conversation, this stupid mother-in-law would have been sold!

Gu Yin made such a judgment, of course it made sense.

First of all, Mrs. Zhao and Mrs. Zhou kept saying that their situation was not good these years, and they were dressed plainly, but they had no calluses on their hands.

Of course, it may also be that the younger generation in the family was filial, and they had not been allowed to do any work since the fall of the family.

But when Mrs. Wang invited them to sit down, one of them quickly took out a handkerchief and wiped the ashless stool, while the other frowned slightly, pursed the corners of her mouth, and sat down reluctantly.

Later, Mrs. Wang poured water for them in a large porcelain bowl, but neither of them touched it.

Gu Yin lived in the lower class room of the inn, with only a large bed, a table and chairs. The table and chairs were so old that they lost their original color.

But Mrs. Wang was a person who didn't like dirt. On the day she came, she cleaned and scrubbed the inside and outside of the room.

How could people who had lived in poverty for half their lives be as particular as they were?

Also, ordinary people shed tears first, and then wipe their eyes with a handkerchief.

That pair of sisters-in-law was very good, first they wiped their eyes with a handkerchief, and then there were tears. When Gu Yin stepped forward to salute them, she smelled a faintly spicy scent.

Those tears were mostly forced out with a handkerchief soaked in ginger juice.

Finally, listening to what they said, did they really care about Mrs. Wang as they said? Even if the family was poor, they should let her go back to her mother's house to reunite with the family first. The two sides talked about the situation over the years.

How could they not ask about Mrs. Wang's situation, and just keep saying that their family was not doing well? Was it just to drive Mrs. Wang who had just returned to Hanshan Town for a day to a farther place?

Based on the above analysis, Gu Yin felt that these two were cheating!

Gu Yin pondered for a while, then asked, "Before my grandparents passed away, did they leave anything for you?"

Mrs. Wang was still counting the copper coins in the purse, and when she heard the words, she replied, "Didn't I tell you that when I was going to marry your father, they were mad. My mother prepared a lot of dowry for me at that time. But the dowry furniture was cut by my father with an ax. Later, they died unexpectedly, and they left without leaving a word." Her eyes darkened when she said, "Father wrote a letter which said that the several rooms that the family agreed to allocate to me have been cleaned, and I can go back to live for the first half of the year…"

"The rooms at home?" Gu Yin extracted some clues from her words.

"Yeah, my family used to be rich, and your grandfather bought a second-class yard, but the family was not very populated, and many rooms were empty. Although the one left for me faced north, it was very spacious and still with two bungalows and a small patio."

Yes, Mrs. Wang thought, the two sisters-in-law only said that these years were not good, but they didn't say a word about the wealthy mansion of the Wang family.

Was it already sold? But it was normal, if living was a problem, there was no need to live in such a good house.

"Okay, I'm going to invite the doctor. I don't know if this amount of silver is enough," Mrs. Wang touched the silver bracelet that Mrs. Zou had put on herself, thinking that if it wasn't enough, she could only pawn the bracelet. She just didn't know how much money it could make.

"I feel better now. I might have been excited when I saw your relatives."

Mrs. Wang shook her head and insisted, "I'd better ask a doctor to take a look, and the old doctor at the beginning also said that high fever is dangerous for you and after so long, your body would be empty, and even if it heals, you have to take some tonics to warm up. It takes half a year to ensure that the root of the disease gets out. In short, it is better to be safe."

Gu Yin couldn't persuade her, so she said that she could at least walk around, so it would be better to go directly to the medical center, which would also save the cost of bringing the doctor back.

Mrs. Wang nodded, and the three of them left the inn together.

When she got to the street, Mrs. Wang sighed again, saying that in the past she would never get lost if she closed her eyes in the town, but she really didn't know it anymore. They should just find a place closer to Batou Village to settle down.

Later, they asked someone and found a hospital.

The doctor who was in the clinic received them and checked Gu Yin's pulse. He said that she was fine, but her body was badly depleted of energy and she had to take medicines.

Mrs. Wang glanced at Gu Yin, her eyes full of "Look, your mother is still your mother, what could be wrong?".

Later, when it was time to prescribe the medicine, Mrs. Wang realized that the price of the medicine was doubled.

Because of the flood in Batou Village, Hanshan Town, which was far away, was not affected, but the transportation road was affected.

Mrs. Wang was so distressed, but she still paid for Gu Yin's medicine for three days.

After taking the medicine, Gu Yin proposed to find someone to inquire about the recruitment of workers in Yuanshan County.

Mrs. Wang was also worried about money. Although she knew that such a good opportunity would not wait for others, they wouldn't not lose anything if they asked. If it was still recruiting. Gu Yin couldn't do the work, so she could do it alone, anyway, five or six yuan a month was enough to support the family.

After talking to the shopkeeper of the pharmacy, they learned that the recruiter was a ship company in Yuanshan County, but the workplace was not in Yuanshan County, but they had to go out to sea on the ship, and it would take at least two or three years to come back.

It was precisely because they had to leave their hometown that the treatment was so good.

People in that era were still very obsessed with their hometown, let alone leaving the land to go to sea to seek a life.

In addition, women who went out for several years did not conform to the dogma and rules, so people who value rules and reputation would naturally not do that work.

But in that chaotic world, there were a lot of people who couldn't survive, so there were indeed many people who signed up.

Mrs. Wang frowned after hearing that.

She didn't care about her reputation, but it sounded dangerous to go to sea to seek a life. What if you were not used to it and got sick outside? Even if there was a doctor on board, but the person was overseas, could the medicinal materials be complete?

Moreover, Wu An was only five years old, so it was extremely unsafe for such a young child to be left alone on land or go out to sea with her.

It was a good thing that she only got to know so much after slowly inquiring about it. If she just listened to the words of the two sisters-in-law and reported their names and signed the contract, it would be too late!

Mrs. Wang frowned, let alone Gu Yin.

It was indeed normal for a company to recruit people to go out to sea, but what did it mean to recruit female workers?

Women were naturally weak, and they were not as useful as men. Even if they went to the ship to take care of the boatmen's food and clothing, they didn't need so many people.

Unless…

With a dignified expression on her face, she inquired again, and after knowing that the ship was run by the godson of the court eunuch and the formalities were complete, she did not ask any further questions.

That world really wanted to eat people!

After leaving the pharmacy, Gu Yin proposed, "Mother, although the work introduced by the aunts is not reliable, since we are out, we should visit the uncles' house."

Mrs. Wang was still recalling the two sisters-in-law who encouraged her to become a female worker, and when she heard the words, she responded, "They are doing so bad. They have to spend money to entertain us when we go there. If we don't inform them beforehand and go in a rush, we will have to trouble them to prepare now."

What Gu Yin wanted was just such a "rush". If they told them in advance, it would have been meaningless to come to the door.

She said calmly, "It doesn't matter. You, my uncles and aunts are of the same generation, but Wu An and I are juniors, if we don't go to see them and perform a meeting ceremony, we won't have a complete set of etiquette. Besides, I am also curious about what your other relatives are like, and want to see if they are as good as you. "

Mrs. Wang was smoothed out by her words, although it was strange that her daughter-in-law suddenly talked about etiquette, she still reluctantly bought half a catty of oranges and half a catty of pears on the street, "Then let's go, sit down and talk for a while. If so, don't eat there."

Afterward, Mrs. Wang asked passers-by and took them there according to the location of the old house in her memory.

After half an hour, the three finally arrived at the Wang family's old house.

Mrs. Wang didn't lie. Back then, the Wang family in Hanshan Town was one of the few people who were wealthy. The second-entry house had white walls and black tiles, wide doors and high walls, and it was very imposing.

Unfortunately, it had really fallen over the years. The house was still the same house, but the eaves and corners of the roof and the roots of the walls were a bit tattered.

Mrs. Wang thought that most of the house was sold to others, so she didn't know if she could find out their new residence and knocked on the door.

After a long while, an old housekeeper responded slowly, and when he saw her, he was pleasantly surprised, "Miss, you're back!"

Mrs. Wang was overjoyed, "Uncle Zhong!"

Uncle Zhong cheerfully responded, and quickly pushed open the door to invite them inside.

At that time, in the Wang family's house, the eldest sister-in-law Zhao and the second sister-in-law Zou were sitting and talking together.

Mrs. Zhao looked at Mrs. Zou with some resentment, and said, "Why didn't you let me persuade her to apply for the job earlier? Once the contract is signed, we won't have to care about her."

Mrs. Zou looked at her stupid sister-in-law, but at the moment they were worried about the same thing, so she didn't say anything about her, only explained, "Although our little sister believes in us, her daughter-in-law is ill. If we say more, it may reveal the truth!"

"What can she reveal? She hasn't come back for so many years. She has been a peasant woman for half her life. What can she know?"

They said that it was a good job, the ocean-going shipping line to recruit female workers, but Mrs. Wang was better informed than the average person. She was told that the ocean-going shipping line had recruited people from other places a few years ago, and the result was that those female workers never returned, and not even the dead body was brought back.

Later, the family members of the female workers started to make trouble, but the ocean-going line only said that there was a plague outside, so they didn't even dare to bring the corpse back.

Afterward, they were paying a sum of money, and with the endorsement of the power and eunuch in power, they put all the troublemakers in jail, and the matter was over.

Because the ocean-going shipping line was notorious in such big places as the capital and prefecture, they had to go to such small places as Yuanshan County and Hanshan Town to recruit people.

"Sister-in-law, don't be in a hurry." Mrs. Zou picked up the tea cup and slowly dipped the foam with the tea lid, "Let our men go there later, just because they heard that her daughter-in-law is not well, they went to take care of her."

Mrs. Zhao also thought about it, the words of sisters-in-law were naturally not as useful as real brothers.

It was at this time that Uncle Zhong's excited voice came from outside.

The old man was really happy, and shouted, "Your honored guest!"

"Why did this old lunatic come here again?" Mr. Zou put down the tea cup heavily, frowning in displeasure.

Uncle Zhong was an old servant of the Wang family, and he followed the old man of the Wang family since he was a child.

Since the death of the second old man, the old servant had lost his mind and couldn't listen to people's words.

The family wanted to drive him away, but the elders had no choice but to remember him as a good person, so it was not easy to do such a heartless thing. They only drove him to live in the firewood room, gave him some cold food and was kept as a watchdog.

When they heard that Mrs. Wang was back, Mrs. Zou had already explained to the concierge that if someone came to look for them, they would say that the master had changed.

"I don't know who's here."

While talking, Mrs. Zhao and Mrs. Zou went out of the house, and the rest of the family also came out when they heard the noise. After a while, everyone in the family arrived at the gate.

The two families were three generations in the same house, and there were twenty or thirty people in total.

Mrs. Wang couldn't help laughing when she saw Uncle Zhong's cheerfulness at first, but when she saw the clothes of the twenty or thirty people, she couldn't laugh—

When she saw Mrs. Zhao and Mrs. Zou, who were the first, were still wearing the same old gray clothes, while the other younger daughters-in-law's clothes were all made of silk and satin, and wearing thumb-sized gold and jade bracelets.

That was what her two old sisters-in-law said about the house where they couldn't open the pot and couldn't eat?!

Mrs. Wang gritted her back molars angrily.

The scene was awkward for a while.

"Uncle Zhong, leave first!" Mrs. Zou frowned, as if she had changed her mind when she ordered the servants. She didn't have a happy face when she first saw Wang Shu.

Mrs. Wang was very angry, and poured beans into a bamboo tube, she shouted, "Is this the home that my sisters-in-law said can't be opened? I thought, even if my parents left so much family business, why did my brothers, sisters-in-laws suddenly fail to make money and even lose it? If I didn't come here, would you dare to lie to me and take me as a fool?! You want to tell me to go to Yuanshan County to apply for a female worker position. I just went to the town to ask clearly. The female workers are going to go to sea on the boat, which is so dangerous. The work was suggested by you, you were trying to kill me!"

All the daughters-in-law did not know what happened. When the eldest came in, Mrs. Wang was no longer at home.

Especially in the early morning when Mrs. Zhao and Mrs. Zou disguised themselves to deceive Mrs. Wang. It was even more disgraceful, and they didn't mention a word to their daughters-in-law.

Mrs. Zou didn't expect Mrs. Wang to come so soon, and she didn't expect that it was so coincidental that Wang Zhong, the madman, ran out and let people in.

But in front of all the daughters-in-law, she naturally couldn't show her timidity, and immediately retorted, "Sister-in-law is really wrong! My sister-in-law and I went to look for you early in the morning, and our concern was obvious! Since it was the reunion of relatives and reminisce, are people like us not allowed to have some unspeakable suffering? We told you what we had in our hearts, why do you think we deceived you? Besides, why didn't we let you come home? At that time, it was your daughter-in-law who suddenly felt uncomfortable. We just wanted to let her rest. In the end, the ocean-going shipping line is a serious merchant, and the recruitment procedures are complete and the treatment is generous. I thought you were a strong person. I kindly recommend you to go, how can it be me who is trying to kill you?"

Ms. Wang clenched her fists in anger, "Second sister-in-law is so eloquent, I won't say anything to you about that. But you kept saying this morning that your family was having a hard time, that business was in short supply, and that your kids went to school. You even gave me such a bracelet, saying that there is nothing better at home."

As she spoke, she took off the silver bracelet on her wrist and placed it in front of Mrs. Zou.

"It's my fault, it's because I only thought that this is my dowry and my most precious thing." Mrs. Zou pretended to wipe away tears, "It turns out that the little sister thinks that whatever is valuable is better."

Mrs. Zou was worthy of being the oldest daughter of a scholar's family. She spoke in a well-mannered way. She didn't hesitate to say a few words, and she overthrew her. It was like taking advantage of it.

Seeing her wipe away her tears, Mrs. Zou's daughter-in-law hurried forward to persuade her.

Because Mrs. Wang was also their elder, it was not easy to talk, one said, "They were also excited when they met you, so they poured out their heart, it is not what aunt said about pretending to be poor."

Another said, "My mother-in-law took out her dowry. She is really kind, but it's a pity that my aunt didn't understand."

Mrs. Wang knew from a long time ago that her second sister-in-law was eloquent and had read for a while.

But at that time, she was not married yet, her parents were both around, and Mrs. Zou kept making funny jokes to make her happy.

The world had changed and the words that the same mouth said were completely different!

After some reversal, Mrs. Wang's angry words were almost inconvenient.

If they were in the village, Mrs. Wang would be able to scold, and the woman would be no match to her.

It was just that she was at her parents' house, so some juniors were watching.

Seeing that Mrs Wang couldn't get angry anymore, Gu Yin stepped forward and grabbed her arm, and said, "Mom, don't be angry. This is a misunderstanding. I don't think the two aunts are like that."

Mrs. Wang didn't expect her to speak in favour of the other party as soon as she opened her mouth.

She glared at Gu Yin and was about to tell her to stop interfering with the adults, but then Gu Yin squeezed her hand under her sleeve.

Not long ago, the two cooperated to subdue the thief in a tacit understanding, so Mrs. Wang was ready to come over and Gu Yin was prepared.

But she knew that although her daughter-in-law had become calm and smart after being ill, but she had been stupid since she was a child, didn't know to say anything, let alone scold people.

Could she speak against Mrs. Zou who came from a scholar family? And her two daughters-in-law didn't seem to be easy to get along with.

Mrs. Zou had been persuaded by her daughter-in-law to stop crying, and when she heard Gu Yin's words, the corners of her mouth brought a mocking smile.

Check mate! A countryman was a countryman, this little daughter-in-law was fooled by her words!

A pair of idiots!

Mrs. Zou smiled kindly, "I have long said that you are a smart and transparent child at first sight. Please, persuade your mother."

Gu Yin also smiled back, and then said calmly, "I heard what the two aunts said earlier, and it really seemed like the family situation was difficult. Although you said the family can't open the pot( don't have enough to eat), but with the appearances of the two aunts, I don't blame my mother for misunderstanding."

As soon as she said that, the rest of the Wang family noticed that the two old ladies were indeed underdressed.

The jewelry had been removed, not to mention, the clothes on their body were similar to those worn by the maids at home.

Mrs. Zhao's daughter-in-law's eyes looked uncomfortable. Although she was not as good as Mrs. Zou's ability to confuse black and white, she still knew that she had to follow her words, and said, "They were going to see you, their sister, not outsiders. Is it necessary to make special arrangements and dress up?"

Mrs. Zou said, "Yes, my sister-in-law and I know that your situation is not good. If we still wear gold and silver, wouldn't it be a show of prestige?"

The two of them sang together, and they were still unbeatable.

Gu Yin was still not in a hurry, and said calmly, "Yes, what the two aunts said is reasonable. But my mother didn't know. She saw the clothes, so she thought it was you both pretending to be poor and crying. But I think you must not be crying on purpose. Such people must have no conscience and lie to their relatives who had no choice but to return home after the disaster? It must be a misunderstanding!"

Mrs. Wang grinned and tried to laugh, but held it back. She just nodded and said suddenly, "It turns out that the two sisters-in-law were dressed like that for my sake. I really thought they had lost their conscience. But it's also strange that their daughters-in-law are dressed so richly, their faces are red, and they look nourished. How can their mothers-in-law live such a bad life?"

Gu Yin pondered for a while, lowered her voice, but also ensured that everyone present could hear, "What the two aunts are trying to say was not a lie, that is, they have lived brightly on the surface but had a hard life on the inside these years. Their daughters-in-law enjoyed life, and the hardship was left to them."

After speaking, she sighed and said sadly, "Mother, although our family is poor, the best thing in the family is that Wu An and I are filial to you, and we will definitely not let you live that kind of bright life on surface but poor inner life. It's terrible. I can't think of people in the world who don't pay attention to filial piety. I feel really uncomfortable."

Mrs. Wang held back her laughter until her face almost twitched!

Mrs. Zhao and Mrs. Zou changed their faces at the same time. They never thought that the farmer's daughter-in-law would open her mouth and make up these words. She could put a big hat with no conscience and no filial piety on their heads.

Especially since both of them had children who were studying, they all knew that reputation was the most important thing. If that word got out, let alone the examination in the future, then everyone would be disgusted with them!

"Sister's daughter-in-law, don't talk nonsense!" Mrs. Zou was shocked and angry, but Gu Yin's words followed her previous words, and she couldn't think of how to refute it for a while.

"Aunt, sister, this is a misunderstanding." One of Mrs. Zou's daughters-in-law said with a smile, "Mother and aunt are setting an example, setting an example for the younger generation in the family, and teaching the children to remember hardships and live positively. Although we are juniors, we have the ability to let in-laws live a rich and noble life. How can we treat them harshly?"

Mrs. Zou was so articulate, the daughter-in-law she chose was naturally the same as her.

Gu Yin didn't argue with her either, she just nodded as if suddenly realizing, "That's it! I thought it's bad. I'll just say, the Wang family is my mother's family, and my mother is so good, the family atmosphere must be better. There would never be such a conscientious person."

She said apologetically, "I am young and stupid, I grew up in the countryside and had never seen the world, so I was anxious to explain the misunderstanding to the two aunts, but I was confused for a while, and let my aunts and sisters laugh."

She was beautiful and fair, and not very old. Her tone and expression of apology were very sincere, and she looked like she was thinking of others. It was really difficult for Mrs. Zhao and Mrs. Zou to attack her.

But as soon as they fought each other, Mrs Zhao and Mrs. Zou didn't want the younger generation to watch the fun, so they all went away with a wave.

When everyone dispersed, the two invited the three to the hall.

Without outsiders, Mrs. Zou didn't go around in circles, and issued an expulsion order with a cold face, "Your brothers are not at home, the children are studying outside, working and doing work, and there is nothing good to entertain at home. We also can not keep anyone."

"Who asked you to entertain?" Mrs. Wang sneered, "Why can't I stay longer when I can go back to my own house?"

As she said that, she took out the family letter that her father wrote to her back then.

The paper of the letter had turned yellow, but the handwriting was still clearly visible.

It was clearly written that the big courtyard on the north side of the mansion was left to Mrs. Wang, so that she could come back to live in it at any time in the future.

Mrs. Zhao and Mrs. Zou's expressions changed at the same time.

Although Mr. Wang was a merchant, he loved calligraphy, and it was difficult to copy his handwriting.

Mrs. Zhao didn't know how to deal with that, and only looked at Mrs. Zou with her eyes.

Mrs. Zou pondered for a while and said, "How can we women understand this? It's better to wait for your brothers and nephews to come back later and let them see it."

Mrs. Wang had suffered a loss before, and did not talk much to them, only said, "Then I will go back and pack my bags first, and then move here. When the eldest brother and the second brother come back, it will be decided by them."

Without waiting for them to answer, Mrs Wang stuffed the family letter back into her clothes, picked up the pears and oranges she brought, and called Gu Yin and Xiao Wu'an to leave the Wang family.

When she came out to the street, Mrs. Wang didn't care about anything, and scolded, "I believed these two uneasy and kind old women who were crying! They almost got their way!"

Gu Yin gave her words of consolation, "My mother was also excited when she saw her relatives, and they concealed it so you didn't notice."

Although it was a word of consolation, it was also Gu Yin's true thoughts.

Although Mrs. Wang was an ancient woman who was born and bred in the countryside, she was quick to respond, not stupid, and had some wisdom in life – just like when they were escaping, Gu Yin felt that she had brought excessive luggage with her.

But when she was on the road, she realized that these things were very necessary, and thanks to those things, they spent a lot less money along the way, and they were able to be self-sufficient when they were in the wild village.

The incident with her sisters-in-law was the first and only time that Mrs. Wang had been deceived after Gu Yin had crossed over.

But it was also easy to understand, she was always cold-hearted, but attached great importance to family affection. How could she think that the relatives whom she had not seen for many years would come up with a full set of hypocritical singing and playing?

"Thank you," Mrs. Wang's eyes dodged a little as she spoke.

At home for so many years, she claimed to eat more salt than Gu Yin ate rice (experience), but that day she almost got slapped, and then she almost got embarrassed in front of her family's juniors, and it was Gu Yin who took care of her, so it didn't get ugly.

Gu Yin tilted her head in confusion, "What did you say, mother? Isn't this what you taught me all these years?"

Having said that, Mrs. Wang thought of it again. When this girl was brought, she didn't know anything, and she didn't understand anything. Wasn't it all her credit that she got so smart now?

"Dead girl, don't flatter me," Mrs. Wang scolded her with a smile, and couldn't help but turn her face away and laughed twice, her footsteps becoming brisk.

The three returned to the inn to pack their luggage.

Gu Yin asked about Mrs. Wang's plans in the future. She had asked that many times in secret, but Mrs. Wang had always told her to leave it to her, the adult.

After the day's events, she finally changed her tone, and turned to talk to her in detail, "That courtyard was left to me by your grandfather, and we can't fake a letter written by him. The elder brother will come back to make a decision, but by virtue of the invitation of my deceased father, what should be mine is mine, and we can live with peace of mind. After we live there, you can take care of your illness, and I will go out to wash clothes as before. Although I might earn less, as before, we don't have to rent. We can always live there."

Mrs. Wang's plan was not wrong, but Gu Yin thought that the Wang family might not let them live so easily. She hesitated for a while and said, "Mother, I don't know if I should say it or not."

Mrs. Wang rolled her eyes, "What else should we talk about? Let it go, don't hide it like my second sister-in-law."

Gu Yin attached herself to Mrs. Wang's ear and talked in detail.

…

That evening, Wang Dafu and Wang Dagui came back from outside with their sons.

Mrs. Zhao and Mrs. Zou were waiting early in the morning, and they went out to meet them in person as soon as the next person passed the message.

Wang Dafu was intercepted on the way to the party, so he was very angry, and when he entered the house, he asked Mrs. Zhao in a bad tone, "What's the big deal that you have to rush us back?"

Mrs. Zhao had always been afraid of him, that old man, so she didn't dare to speak after a meal.

It was when the two families made concerted efforts that Mr. Zou helped to smooth things out and said, "Don't be annoyed, brother-in-law, it's your little sister who came to the house today."

While talking, several people entered the hall, and all the servants were screened out.

Wang Dafu blew his beard and stared, "I got the news last night, you said there was a way to send her away. This is your way? Bring everyone home?!"

Mrs. Zhao lowered her head after being scolded by him, but Mrs. Zou's face did not show anything, in fact, fire had already risen in her heart.

Since the old man was gone, their main and second houses had actually been separated.

But a good mansion like the old mansion of the Wang family was hard to find in Hanshan Town, so although the property was divided, neither of the two families was willing to leave the mansion, so they still lived in one place.

They were not a family anymore, was it his turn, Wang Dafu, to question her?!

However, Mrs. Zou was still a calm person, she explained the ins and outs of the matter in a leisurely manner.

Wang Dafu was relatively calm at first, but when he heard that the old letter was in Mrs. Wang's hands, he stood up and asked, "Where's the letter? What else is written on it besides that courtyard?"

Mrs. Zou shook her head, "She only showed one page of paper, and we just took a look at it and she put it away. It's really impossible to know what is written next to it."

Wang Dagui, who had been silent all the time, said slowly, "Could we not know our sister's character? She concealed it from us, just because she was so angry. I think my father only wrote about the courtyard."

Wang Dagui and Mrs. Zou, husband and wife from the second house, didn't talk much.

Hearing his words, Wang Dafu finally calmed down a bit, but he still said anxiously, "What did she mean? Does she want to stay at our house?"

Mrs. Zou nodded, "She didn't make a statement, but she said that she was going to pack up with her cunning daughter-in-law. It seems that mostly they want to stay."

"We must not let them stay in Hanshan Town, let alone in our house!" Wang Dafu patted the table, "Second daughter-in-law, think of a way."

Mrs. Wang had the letter written by Mrs. Wang in her hand. Mrs. Zou never expected that things would develop to that point.

"Brother, don't worry, it's just a courtyard. Let them live there, and when it's quiet at night, we will send someone to steal the family letter and destroy it. What they say will become unfounded, we'll just ignore it." Wang Dagui smiled and said, "We will drive them out of the house later, the soldiers are in chaos outside, and the little sister and the others are an orphan and widows. Whether they are kidnapped or bullied by hooligans, it doesn't matter. It's not our business."

"This… this is not good." Wang Dafu hesitated, "After all, she was raised with us and she won't be able to survive all that."

Wang Dagui and Mrs. Zou looked at each other, their eyes showing contempt for Wang Dafu's benevolence.

"That's another story." Wang Dagui said, "Anyway, let's destroy that letter first. If she wants, let's give her some money and let them go to other places to make a living."

Several people were discussing, and the concierge came to tell them that Mrs. Wang had come again.

"She is really anxious to be reincarnated. She won't let anyone take a breath at all," Mrs. Zou was also a little impatient, but she still had people lead the guests in.

Not long after, a group of four or five elderly people came in tremblingly with crutches.

At that moment, Wang Dafu and others couldn't sit still. They all stood up and saluted.

"Why did the uncles suddenly come? You didn't inform us, or we could have come, there was no need to come to us in person."

Mrs. Wang poked her face from behind the leading old man, "Of course I invited them."

Wang Dafu laughed dryly, "Your second brother and I just came back from outside and heard that you came back, and we were trying to talk to you. Why did you invite all your uncles so suddenly?"

Mrs. Wang smirked, "Did you just find out that I'm back, eldest brother, second brother? Were you discussing where the letter is with my two older sisters?"

Wang Dafu was embarrassed by her words.

Naturally, the brothers got the news the previous night, but they were not sure, and secondly, they felt that Mrs. Wang had been a peasant woman for many years and had not returned for many years, so they only let Mrs. Zhao and Mrs. Zou come forward.

Mrs. Wang had known the characters and habits of the two older brothers since she was young, and by looking at their unnatural faces, she knew that these two were lying.

"Uncles, please come to the table." Wang Dagui smiled and asked them to take their seats, "Although it is a great event that my little sister came home, we shouldn't bother the uncles to come forward. Today, the uncles came here to…"

The old man at the head was Old Wang's cousin, and he was also the patriarch of the current clan.

The patriarch did not go around in circles with them, and said, "It was Baoyun who said she had a letter from your parents before they died, and invited us to come over for an appraisal."

Baoyun was naturally Mrs. Wang's name.

The faces of the Wang family's brothers and their wives became embarrassed. Just a while ago, they were planning to destroy the letter in Mrs. Wang's hands! But after several uncles made such an appraisal, their so-called plan became a fantasy!

Wang Dafu and Wang Dagui couldn't help thinking at the same time, it was no wonder that their old wives failed to fool the little sister. Who would have thought that after being away for so many years, she got more shrewd than before!

Wang Dafu smiled stiffly and said, "We are all a family, and we all recognize our father's handwriting. Besides, even if there is no letter, we still believe what the little sister said."

The patriarch nodded and asked Mrs. Wang to take out the letter.

Everyone compared it together, and it was naturally identified as true.

"That room should belong to Baoyun. Although your family has been separated for many years, you can still empty one room, right?"

Mrs. Zou and Mrs. Zhao pretended to be poor before. They were bullying Mrs. Wang for not returning home for many years and not knowing what was going on inside. However, several uncles were getting old and became sophisticated, so they were not so easy to fool. The two didn't dare to lie again.

"Naturally, it can be given." Wang Dafu said with a smile, "However, you also know that the two rooms in the family are now very populated, and we didn't know in advance that the room was left to the younger sister by the parents. It is given to the daughter-in-law earlier to live in. If my little sister wants to live in it, we have to clean up for a few days."

The patriarch was invited by Wang Shu, and before he came, he felt that Mrs. Wang was making a big fuss—it was just a room, and the Wang family brothers were so rich, how could they possibly want something like that from her?

But Mrs. Wang was the most beloved child of the two elders of the Wang family, and the patriarch still had old love in mind.

He didn't expect these two brothers to actually dare to say that in front of their uncles. It was conceivable what kind of face they had toward Mrs. Wang in private!

Mrs. Wang was not very surprised, because a few hours ago, Gu Yin said to her, "Although my mother has a handwritten letter from my grandfather, there is no guarantee that they won't give some excuses to delay, or that the family can't vacate the room, or that the room is old and needs time to repair. If you invite your uncles to be the masters, as long as they keep dragging them, the uncles are all old, they can manage the uncles for a while, but can they do that for a lifetime? Why don't we just convert it into cash, and buy a small courtyard, far away from them?"

It was also Gu Yin's idea to invite the elders of the clan to come forward, and after saying something like that, Mrs. Wang saw that she was becoming more organized in what she was doing and speaking. Thanks to her thoroughness before, she followed her advice.

Unexpectedly, they really did what her daughter-in-law thought.

So Mrs. Wang was not surprised, only said, "Big brother is right, so I won't even think about living there. Why don't you convert that courtyard into silver and give it to me?"

The patriarch's expression darkened slightly, and he nodded, "Yes, since the room cannot be vacated, you can turn it into money and hand it over to Baoyun. This will also save the juniors in your house from moving around."

Sister-in-law Zhao couldn't help muttering, "How old is the courtyard, how can an old courtyard be converted into silver?"

"Really, but I didn't ask you, did I?" The patriarch looked at Mrs. Zhao unhappily, and even Mrs. Zou, who wanted to help, chose to keep her mouth shut.

Mrs. Wang also looked at the two sisters-in-law and sneered, "I don't dare to ask for more, just convert it to me at our market price. But let's talk about the ugly, the courtyard that my parents left for me back then was new. Now that it is dilapidated, even if it has been a long time, this depreciation cannot be counted on my head. "

Finally, the patriarch came forward and said a compromise price – twenty taels of silver.

Ten taels of silver were enough for ordinary people to eat for a year. Twenty taels were not a small sum.

But the entire Wang family's house was worth hundreds of taels. The big courtyard on the north side had two hoods and a small patio. If a small kitchen room was built in the yard, it would be separated into a small yard. Although it was small, it was in a prosperous area. It was very common to sell for dozens of taels.

Of course, that was an ideal state. The reality was that the two elders of the Wang family only mentioned the courtyard in the letter, not the land. The ownership of that well was still under discussion, and the brothers of the Wang family would not let her separate the wall, and Wang Shu had no money to build the wall, so the patriarch said the number twenty-two.

Naturally, the two members of the Wang family were reluctant, but the patriarch said something, and the price was really fair, so they could only smile with a bitter face and hand over the money.

The patriarch was also a fair man, and he wrote a contract and let Mrs. Wang put her fingerprints, indicating that the courtyard had been sold to the two brothers.

After finishing, the Wang family's two husbands and wives had strange expressions on their faces, but with their uncles, it was not easy for them to show it. Wang Dafu had to put on a smile and invite the group of uncles to stay for dinner.

At the back of the table, the patriarch talked to Mrs. Wang, asked her about her situation over the years, and asked how she was lucky enough to survive the flood unscathed.

The previous question was easy to answer, and Mrs. Wang directly told the uncles about the suffering of these years.

The following question was also asked by Mrs. Zou to which she answered that it was luck.

To the patriarch, it was not easy to get rid of it with just a single sentence, so Mrs. Wang cried both truthfully and falsely, "A month ago, I heard that my husband and eldest son were gone, and I had nightmares all night long. One night, I dreamed of my son's father, and he kept telling me to take the children away in the dream. When I woke up, I felt uneasy, so I left with the children, and then I avoided the catastrophe."

The dream of relatives had existed since ancient times. Although that was a bit bizarre, the uncles were not suspicious, and they comforted her by saying, "Although you had a bad life a few years ago, you escaped such a catastrophe, it can be considered good luck."

As the patriarch spoke, he gave Wang Dafu and Wang Dagui a meaningful look. The meaning couldn't be more obvious – your own sister has been so miserable, she finally escaped death, you brothers don't talk about helping, but you still thought about taking the courtyard your parents left to her? Such black hearted people!

In the end, Wang Dafu, the eldest brother, opened his mouth to smooth things out, "Little sister, you will definitely be able to have a very peaceful life in the future, I don't know what you plan to do in the future?"

Twenty taels of silver had been given, and Wang Dafu was afraid that he would not be able to get rid of the burden.

He clearly knew that the patriarch was fair, and although he was helping her to get ahead, Mrs. Wang was a married woman.

However, Mrs. Wang didn't have any intention of taking advantage of them, so she said, "It's not a big plan, thanks to a few uncles calling the shots, I can use the twenty taels of silver left by my father and mother to rent a small yard to live in. Let Qingyi's wife take care of myself, and then I would do some cleaning and sewing to support the family. Brother, don't worry, even if I have to beg for food, I won't beg your family. "

"What are you talking about?" Wang Dafu laughed dryly.

After the matter was settled and the meal was over, when it was getting dark, the patriarch and several uncles didn't stay too long. The Wang family followed them out of the house and hired an ox cart to take them home.

As soon as the uncles left, Mrs Wang stopped holding it, clutched the purse on her chest and ran to the inn.

In the inn, Gu Yin brought Xiao Wu'an to eat dinner. Because there was no money, of course, the food was very ordinary, that was, dry biscuits mixed with hot water.

Looking up and seeing Mrs. Wang, Gu Yin unconsciously smiled, "Mother, did everything go well?"

Mrs. Wang sat down beside them, poured a large gulp of hot water first, and then said, "It went well! As you expected, my two brothers are not good people, they dare to talk nonsense in front of the patriarch. They wanted to drag it and didn't want to give me that courtyard. Later, I followed your method, and the patriarch watched, so they could only convert the house into silver and give it to me."

Speaking of that, Mrs Wang smiled so much that her eyes were bent, she got up and closed the windows and door, took out two big silver ingots and placed them in front of Gu Yin as if offering treasures, "Look, twenty taels of silver!"

Gu Yin also had bright eyes as she had the capital to do business!

Mrs. Wang looked amused, and reached out to pat her head, "Look at you, little money fan!"

Gu Yin touched her forehead and smiled, "Mother, I think we will need money for food, clothing, housing, and transportation in the town in the future, and the money made by sewing and washing will not be enough. We have to do a job."

Mrs. Wang also stopped laughing when she heard the words, and became worried again, "How can I not know what you are talking about? But how expensive it is to go to school. When Qingyi went to school, it cost five or six taels of silver a year because the old man saw that the two families had little friendship. Twelve taels in a year is not enough here. Even if you use all the twenty two taels for study, it's only enough for Wu'an. It's only enough for two years of studying, what kind of fame one you achieve with that?"

"Yeah!" Gu Yin nodded in agreement, "That's why we use money to make money, and it's only then we can make money."

"Can we do a little business?!"

Mrs. Wang immediately shook her head, "How is it so easy to do business? Our family doesn't have any skills, what kind of business can we do?"

"I think we can make some food and sell it."

Hearing that, Mrs Wang shook her head even more like a rattle, "I'm a good cook, it's not a big deal for you to learn from me. But when you were a teenager, you almost burned the kitchen to cook. Can we sell the food you make?"

Gu Yin had long expected her reaction. After all, the change in temperament was easy to explain, but the craftsmanship could not be conjured out of thin air. But fortunately, she had already prepared her speech.

"Actually, before I came to Hanshan Town, I had a dream one night."

Mrs. Wang: …

That daughter-in-law really deserved to be the one that she raised, as she had a similar way of talking nonsense.

Gu Yin was very depressed, because before she could say anything, Mrs. Wang told her about her making up nonsense to fool her family.

It was no wonder that Mrs. Wang didn't believe her, as she didn't believe Mrs. Wang either!

She was not good at lying, and that rhetoric was the one used in novels, and other stories were not taught in novels!

…

Early the next morning, Mrs. Wang began to look for a house.

Although they got twenty taels all of a sudden, they could not be considered to be rich, as in the end their wealth was so thin that they couldn't run out of money all at once. Therefore, a good location like Mrs. Wang's old house could only be given up.

Hanshan Town was divided into north and south. The south was close to the wharf. There were many coolies and small vendors. Most of the poor people made their homes there.

But that place also had hidden dangers, that was, people came and went, and the security was not as good as other places in the town.

Mrs. Wang thought about it. They were widows, and the matter of Li Daniu left an impression. After a day of searching, she could not make up her mind, so she had to go back and discuss with Gu Yin.

Gu Yin said, "Mother, it is right to be frugal, but safety is indeed the most basic need. Why don't I go with you tomorrow and help you with references?"

Mrs. Wang could now listen to whatever Gu Yin would say. Seeing that her complexion improved after staying in the inn for two days, she brought her the next day.

Because the money given by Mrs. Wang was not generous, and she didn't like a house after searching for a day, the middleman who greeted her before became impatient, and a new apprentice took them around.

The little apprentice looked only twelve or thirteen years old, with a tanned face and big eyes. He smiled before everyone, but he was quite clever.

Mrs. Wang was not very happy when she saw that the middleman sent a child to greet her.

However, the little apprentice came to see her, smiled and said, "Madam, hello, I looked at you from a distance yesterday and thought that you are a blessed person, looking more kind than the Guanyin Goddess in the portrait. I didn't expect to have the opportunity to greet you, it's a blessing for me."

She stretched out her hand so as not to be hit with the smiling face, and Mrs. Wang was coaxed into laughter by him, but she still said, "Where's your master? Why is it you, the only one here today?"

It was not easy for the young apprentice to directly say that his master looked down on a customer like Mrs. Wang, so he explained, "Master happened to have something at home today, let me show you around first. Don't look at my young age, there is no place that I don't know about. I grew up wandering in the streets, I know all the places, not to mention Hanshan Town, even of our entire Qingshan County."

Mrs. Wang was still unhappy, so Gu Yin persuaded, "Mother, we're all here anyway. It's better to follow this little brother for a while than to run for nothing."

The reason for "we're all here" was quite sufficient. Living in the inn, they had to spend money every day. If renting a house could be done one day earlier, that would be better, so Mrs. Wang nodded.

The little apprentice saw that Gu Yin was approachable, so he turned to her and said, "Thank you sister for helping me, I don't dare to let you call me a little brother, just call me Xiao Erhei."

After the greeting, Xiao Erhei continued, "Yesterday, the lady was looking at the place near the pier, where the location is cheap, but there are indeed all kinds of people. Today I will take you to another place, although it is not so convenient, a bit more expensive, but it's safer."

After speaking, Xiao Erhei led them to Jinyi Lane in the southern part of Jinyi.

That place was not spacious. When he first entered the alley, the road was narrow, and only two adults could pass through.

Mrs. Wang was not very satisfied when she saw it, "This place is small and crowded, and the house is in tatters. It's not as good as what I saw yesterday. Is it really more expensive than the other places? Kid aren't you trying to fool us?"

It was the first time for Xiao Erhei to do things by himself. Just when he wanted to show it, he immediately explained, "Madam, you don't know that although this place is shabby, it does have a good reason."

Xiao Heizi took them to one of the small courtyards, lowered his voice and said, "This family on the left side of this yard has a scholar! The neighbor on the right side, even more so, is a well-known bureaucrat in our town!"

Seeing that Mrs. Wang and Gu Yin were unmoved, he continued, "He was transferred from another place. Although he has only been in our town for a few years, he has been able to solve big and small cases. And he is a good person, he is unselfish, and he never puts on a show. The county magistrate has to give him some face when he sees him. With him living next door, no one dares to steal!"

That spoke to Mrs. Wang and Gu Yin's heart, what they needed most was an absolutely safe and comfortable environment.

Gu Yin and Mrs Wang went in and took a closer look. That small yard consisted of three large rooms in the shape of a zigzag. In the middle was a main room with a kitchen attached to the back, on the left and right sides were sleeping rooms, and in the middle of several rooms was a small patio and thatched cottage.

Wang Shu said that the place was small and crowded, but if compared with the house she went to see the day before, a place where fish and dragons were mixed, it was bigger. If it was compared with the courtyard left to her by the elders of the Wang family, it was already several times larger.

Generally speaking, the yard was quite spacious and the orientation was good, but it seemed that it had been a few years, and the walls were falling down. The living conditions were similar to those of their original life in Batou Village.