When his wife, who had run away, was mentioned, Han Zhiyuan became angry and snapped at his child: "Your mother is dead. Don't mention her again."

"Waaaah... Ahhh..." The eldest son was so frightened that he cried.

The second son and youngest daughter, who were sleeping inside, were woken up and started crying as well.

Han Zhiyuan finally managed to calm his three children down. He cooked some noodles for his two sons and fed his youngest daughter some low-quality milk powder. After putting all three children to sleep, he ran to the village store and vented his anger, calling his elderly mother back from the mahjong table.

The mother and son argued all the way, each accusing the other of neglecting the family and the child.

Wang Naiyun said matter-of-factly, "I raised you and paid for your marriage, so my job is done. Now that your wife has run away and there's no one to take care of your child, you have to figure it out yourself. Don't always expect me to bail you out!"

“I’m living like this now, having to work and take care of the kids, how am I supposed to manage? You’re my own mother, I’m your own son, what’s wrong with you helping me?” Han Zhiyuan was also full of resentment towards his mother.

Wang Naiyun was also angry. "What did I tell you back then? That Chen Wanping is no good. You insisted on marrying her and even wanted to sever our mother-son relationship! As soon as she saw your father was sick, she ran off with all our money, leaving not a single penny for our three children. And you still have the nerve to blame me? Those are her own flesh and blood!"

Faced with his own mother's accusations, Han Zhiyuan couldn't utter a single word in rebuttal.

After the mother and son finished arguing, they started discussing what to do.

"A house can't function without a woman!" Wang Naiyun said. "You said marrying Song Yinhua would be a piece of cake, but when are you going to marry her?"

"It'll be in the next few days."

"You keep saying it'll be in the next few days, but which day is it exactly?"

"Mom, don't force me!" Han Zhiyuan was also annoyed. "I will marry her. I can't explain it to you right now. Just help take care of the child for a few days. I promise you, it won't be long before I can marry Song Yinhua."

The mother and son argued a few more times as they talked.

Back home, Han Zhiyuan just wanted to go to his room and sleep as soon as possible; he was annoyed by his mother.

"Zhiyuan, your dad hasn't eaten all day. Have you fed him?" Wang Naiyun called out to her son.

"Mom, I worked all day and didn't get home until after 8 p.m. How could I have time to check if Dad had eaten? You were home all day and didn't feed Dad anything."

“Your dad can’t move. He poops right after eating, making a mess all over the bed. I didn’t feed him at noon. I was thinking that when you come back tonight to cook for the kids, you could bring some for your dad. After he’s eaten and pooped, you can go to sleep.”

"Mom, I'm tired after a long day at work, so don't always expect me to take care of Dad!"

"Mom is almost fifty and can't handle your dad anymore. You're young and strong, and you're his own son. If you don't take care of him, who will?"

The mother and son started arguing again about who should take care of their elderly father.

"If you hadn't insisted on marrying Chen Wanping, would our family's money have been gone?" Every time they argued, Wang Naiyun would bring up her runaway daughter-in-law. "If our family still had money, we could have hired a nanny to take care of your father. It's all your fault!"

"Mom, can you please stop bringing her up all the time? Is this ever going to end?"

Han Zhiyuan slammed down the dishes his two sons had left uneaten on the table, which frightened the children in the inner room and made them cry again.

Wang Naiyun angrily slammed the door and left, shouting, "It's your own child, take care of it yourself! Don't always expect me to do things for you!"

Han Zhiyuan plopped down on the ground, ran his hands through his hair, and sighed heavily, "Ugh, ugh, ugh!" in utter misery.

"Old Han's family, you need to keep an eye on your kids. It's late at night and other people need to rest!" a neighbor shouted from outside the yard.

Han Zhiyuan had no choice but to stand up and go into the inner room to coax the children.

After he finished comforting the children, he went to check on his elderly father who was lying on the bed.

He brought the leftover noodles from his two sons into the house and fed them to his father.

Han Youcai kept his mouth shut and refused to speak.

"Dad, hurry up and eat. I've been busy all day and have to go to work early tomorrow morning. I don't have time to waste with you here!"

Han Youcai opened his mouth and took a bite of noodles, "putt putt putt..."

He spat all the noodles onto his son's face and body.

Han Zhiyuan clenched his fists in anger, wiped the noodles off his face, and continued to feed his father.

"Put-put-put-put-put..."

Han Youcai chewed the noodles a few more times and spat them all onto his son.

Han Zhiyuan raised his hand and slapped his elderly father, "If you don't want to eat, then starve to death!"

He got up and left when something hit his back. He reached down and brushed it off; it felt sticky and a little wet, like mud.

When the hand was brought from behind his back to his eyes, Han Zhiyuan felt nauseous and vomited.

His father, Han Youcai, threw his own excrement at him again.

When my father gets angry, he does this kind of self-destructive thing.

The walls of the room and the area around the bed, wherever you could reach, were covered in feces, many of which had dried out.

Han Zhiyuan took off his shirt, ran to the yard to fetch well water, and rubbed his back several times. He went back to his room to change his shirt, then rode his old bicycle out the door.

In the darkness, he knocked on the door of a farmer's house more than 20 miles away.

When the other person opened the door and saw his face, they were so shocked that they immediately turned and ran away.

Han Zhiyuan chased after him and hugged him tightly.

In the midst of the struggle, the two ended up embracing and kissing.

"Wanping, who has come?" a voice asked from the innermost room.

"Seventh Aunt, I'm asking for directions." Chen Wanping pulled Han Zhiyuan into her room.

After a tender moment, Chen Wanping finally asked Han Zhiyuan how he had found this place.

"Never mind how I found this place, I'll just ask you one question: are you coming home with me or not?" Han Zhiyuan asked.

His wife, Chen Wanping, had been hiding at her relative's house. In his previous life, he learned about her at Xie Daguang and Song Caixing's wedding.

The villages in this small town all intermarry.

Chen Wanping had been hiding at her relatives' house in Tangzhuang, and coincidentally, the Song family also had distant relatives in Tangzhuang.

We started talking about it casually while attending a wedding banquet.

Only then did he learn of her whereabouts.

"How can I go back with your dad in that condition?" Chen Wanping said, feeling wronged.

Han Zhiyuan gritted his teeth in anger, "Chen Wanping, how cruel you are! I trusted you and put all my money with you, but you not only ran off with all my money, but also stole my mother's savings book, leaving not a single penny for me and my three children!"

“I just wanted to keep it safe for you and the child,” Chen Wanping explained. “Your father is a bottomless pit. If I don’t take that money with me, it will just be spent on him and then it will all be wasted! Why don’t you understand my good intentions?”

She said the same thing when he found her in his past life.

The two continued to keep in touch after that.

He never let Song Yinhua know about this until his death.

It wasn't that he didn't want to tell Song Yinhua, but he didn't want to hurt her, which is why he hadn't told her.

Song Yinhua has a sister-in-law who is unreasonable. If he divorces Song Yinhua, she will have nowhere to live and will be ridiculed by her sister-in-law from her maternal family.

For Song Yinhua's sake, he endured all the grievances alone.

How many men in this world are as loyal and righteous as him!

Han Zhiyuan was moved by his own loyalty and righteousness. Fortunately, he found his ex-wife before marrying Song Yinhua.

"Honey, let's go together, with the three kids, just the five of us."

Chen Wanping clearly didn't expect him to say that.

She can't even handle taking care of one child, let alone three. She'd go crazy.