Wang Naiyun's head was wrapped in layers of gauze.

The senior doctor at the outpatient clinic repeatedly advised against wrapping her up like a rice dumpling, saying it was a waste of medical gauze and that it wasn't that serious.

When Han Zhiyuan arrived at the clinic, he saw his own mother talking badly about his father-in-law to someone.

Wang Naiyun was full of energy, talking animatedly, but as soon as she saw her son arrive, she instantly became weak, clutching her head and groaning, "Ouch... Ouch... It hurts so much... It hurts so much..."

She tearfully recounted to her son how unreasonable her father-in-law was, how he bullied her, how he beat her so badly, and how he wouldn't take her to the hospital.

While exaggerating how she was bullied, Wang Naiyun groaned and covered her head, saying she was about to die.

Han Zhiyuan knew his mother was being dramatic, and he was seething with anger. Finally, he snapped at her, "Who told you to go play cards? The old man and the three kids need someone to look after them at home. What are you doing playing cards? Can't you just relax a little?"

When his wife first ran away with the money, they went to her parents' house to make a scene, and his mother and father-in-law even got into a fight back then.

The father-in-law was being unreasonable, insisting that they had killed their daughter-in-law and hidden the body, and then demanding their daughter back.

The argument back then was so ugly, but now these two old geezers can actually sit together and play cards!

Wang Naiyun, scolded by her son, clutched her head and groaned, "Ouch... I can't take it anymore, it hurts so much, it hurts so much..."

"Stop humming!" Han Zhiyuan couldn't do anything with his mother. "Mom, I'm not trying to be mean, but you know perfectly well what kind of person Wanping's father is. Why are you playing cards with him?"

"I didn't play cards!" Wang Naiyun stiffened her neck, then started groaning again, "I just happened to run into your father-in-law at the village store on my way back to the village. I asked him to call his daughter back to see the three children and return our money, and then he beat me... Ouch... I'm going to die, I'm going to die..."

Han Zhiyuan felt both heartbroken and angry when he thought about how his wife had taken all the money and left not a single penny for their three children.

How could I have been so blind back then, insisting on marrying no one but her?

The mother and son left the clinic to go home. Before they even reached the gate of their own yard, they could hear the cries of three children from afar.

The crying was mixed with the sound of banging on the door.

Han Zhiyuan rushed inside and saw that the door to the main room was locked from the outside. He called out anxiously, "Mom, the key."

Wang Naiyun groaned, "Ouch, ouch, it hurts so much, it hurts so much," and limped slowly and weakly over.

Han Zhiyuan shouted anxiously, "Mom, you only hit your head, your leg isn't broken, come and open the door quickly!"

Wang Naiyun muttered to herself as she walked over, and with a dissatisfied look on her face, she took out the key from her pocket and unlocked the lock.

Pushing open the door, a stench of crying mixed with excrement and urine assaulted the nostrils.

The three-year-old eldest son stood there crying, holding half a dirty pancake he hadn't eaten. The two-year-old second son sat on the ground behind the door, howling at the top of his lungs. There was a puddle of freshly pooped poop on the corner of the door, covering the second son's calves. The little girl's crying could be heard from inside the room.

Han Zhiyuan covered his mouth and gagged.

He wished he could just faint right then and there, so he wouldn't have to worry about all of this.

"Ouch, I can't take it anymore..." Wang Naiyun covered her head, closed her eyes, and collapsed to the ground.

No matter how Han Zhiyuan called her, she wouldn't wake up.

In the other room, Han Youcai heard his son and the others return and called out incoherently.

Faced with this family, Han Zhiyuan felt so desperate that he wished he were dead.

He became even more determined to marry Song Yinhua as soon as possible.

-

Inside the space, Song Yinhua was digging the ground with a shovel.

The soil was so fertile that it was easy to dig it out with a shovel.

Song Yinhua prepared several small vegetable gardens, sowing all the autumn cucumber seeds and vegetable seeds she had bought from the market that morning, planting garlic bulbs, and planting several rows of scallions along the way.

He fetched two buckets of natural spring water, put the carrying pole on his shoulder, and began to carry them.

After watering the vegetable garden and finishing up, I put away my farm tools, washed my hands by the stream, and saw that the fish fry I had released into the stream had grown a lot.

They swam along the stream towards the spring lake.

Qiao Guilan spent the morning weeding her sister-in-law's rice paddy. When she returned for lunch, she remembered to ask if the chickens and pigs at home had been fed. She then instructed Song Yinhua to weed her own rice paddy in the afternoon.

"I went to the pond to fish for crayfish this afternoon with Cai Xing."

"Isn't there lobster on this table?" Qiao Guilan glanced at the dining table. "We eat lobster every day, what's so good about it? Mom has been busy all morning, weeding in the fields and having to bend over the whole time. Mom suffered a lot when she gave birth to you, and now my back hurts whenever I do any work. Yinhua, you have to be sensible. Mom's poor health is all because of you."

In her past life, Song Yinhua would have felt sorry for Qiao Guilan and thought that her mother's suffering was all because of her; that the family's poverty was also because of her.

Qiao Guilan picked up a large lobster and placed it in Song Yinhua's bowl. "Mom can't bear to eat these lobsters, so I'll give them all to you. This afternoon, you go to the fields to weed. Mom has a lot of work to do this afternoon. There are too many weeds in your uncle's fields. It will probably take a few days to finish. I'll leave the housework to you."

As Qiao Guilan spoke, her voice trembled with tears. "Yinhua, Mom knows you've been wronged. Mom is the eldest in the family, and being the eldest is always unlucky. Good things never come your way, and all the dirty and tiring work is done by you."

As she wiped away her tears, Qiao Guilan recounted how unwelcome she was as a child.

Throughout her life, Song Yinhua still felt heartache for her mother.

In her past life, she married Han Zhiyuan and was so poor that she often had to go back to her parents' home to borrow money. Her mother would secretly give her money and eggs without her sister-in-law's knowledge. When she died, her mother held her hand and said her last words: "Even the eldest son has a hard life. We two are both unfortunate people..."

“Caixing and I agreed to go fishing for crayfish in the pond this afternoon. Your back is hurting badly after working all morning, so rest this afternoon. I’ll go with you to the fields to weed tomorrow.” Song Yinhua said with a hardened heart, “There are so many people in your uncle’s family. They’re doing just fine without you.”

"But I promised your aunt I'd help her weed her fields..."

“Then go ahead, but don’t complain to me about how tired you are. Do your own chores at home. There’s no reason to push your own chores onto your daughter and go work for someone else.”

"You child, how can you not care about your mother?" Qiao Guilan said, feeling very aggrieved. "Back then, I suffered a severe hemorrhage during your birth, and I couldn't conceive for several years afterward. Even when I did conceive, I miscarried. It wasn't until five years later that I finally gave birth to your brother. And now you talk to your mother like this? Why is my life so miserable!"

In the afternoon, Qiao Guilan secretly went to weed her sister-in-law's rice paddy.

Sisters Song Yinhua and Song Caixing spent the afternoon fishing for crayfish in the river pond before returning home at nightfall.

Qiao Guilan had just finished dinner. She gave the two sisters who had returned a cold look, then went back to her room to sleep without saying a word.

Cai Xing whispered, "Big sister, Mom is still angry about lunch."

"Let's have dinner first." Song Yinhua struck a match to light the kerosene lamp.

There was nothing to eat in the two pots in the kitchen, only a dirty bowl and chopsticks soaking in water.

The leftover lobster from lunch is nowhere to be found.

"Mom must have hidden it again, sis, I'm hungry."

Song Yinhua thought about how she felt sorry for her mother at noon, but now she felt no more sorry for her and was just speechless.

"Let's make spicy crayfish."

The two sisters quickly prepared some freshly caught river shrimp, stir-fried them, and sat in the yard eating while admiring the fireflies fluttering all over the yard.

They didn't notice that someone had been wandering around the yard with their hands in their pockets for quite some time.