In the past, if Lan Yin pretended to be a good person in front of Su Xiaonuan and then taught her some tricks to make her make fun of herself, Su Xiaonuan would have obeyed without question.

Of course, when Su Xiaonuan sees Lan Yin and Jiang Yi together, she also gets so impulsive that she wants to fight Lan Yin to the death.

The old Su Xiaonuan was so much better. She could be manipulated by Lan Yin at will. No matter the occasion, Lan Yin could always figure out Su Xiaonuan's thoughts. She would listen to her with a little coaxing and get excited with a little irritation. Su Xiaonuan used to be completely at Lan Yin's mercy.

The Su Xiaonuan of the past was easy to control, but the current Su Xiaonuan is impervious to both soft and hard approaches. On the surface, she greets Lan Yin with a smile, but in the shadows, she is constantly slapping her in the face. Is this Su Xiaonuan still the same person?

"What's wrong with you?" Jiang Yi saw her standing there blankly and reached out to shake her.

"Jiang Yi, why don't you go back to the provincial capital first? Once my family's rice is harvested, I'll come back to the provincial capital to be with you."

Why are you kicking me out?

“It’s not that I want to kick you out, it’s just that the environment here is terrible. You’re used to a good life in the provincial capital, this really isn’t a place for you.”

"Didn't you spend a few years here before?"

“The past is the past, and the present is the present. Jiang Yi, go back. I’ll go back to the provincial capital to be with you in a few days.”

"I'm not going back," Jiang Yi said unhappily. "I've already told my family I'm not going back."

Lan Yin was at her wit's end.

She was quite pleased with herself yesterday because of Jiang Yi's arrival.

I'm not happy about it now.

The villagers have developed feelings for Su Xiaonuan, and Xiao Moran also has feelings for her. If Jiang Yi rekindles his old feelings for Su Xiaonuan, then all her efforts and hard work over the past few years will be in vain.

Most importantly, Jiang Yi's parents have not yet accepted her as their future daughter-in-law.

"Fine, don't give me that attitude if you're not going back." Lan Yin said coquettishly, linking her arm with his. "I'm doing this for your own good, and you treat me like this. How about we go to the mine to see my dad while you have a car?"

“That’s a good suggestion,” Jiang Yi agreed. “Let’s go now, let’s go to your dad’s mine for a couple of days and then come back.”

The villagers are all talking about how capable Su Xiaonuan is. It's good that she can go out and play for a couple of days. Once this buzz dies down, no one will say that Su Xiaonuan is capable anymore.

When Li Chunxiang heard that they were going to the mine to see her husband, she wanted to go too. There was a car available, and she wouldn't miss such an opportunity. Usually, when she went to the mine to see her husband, she had to transfer several times.

She abandoned the matter of finding someone to harvest the rice, put away the money her daughter had given her, and rushed to the Xiao family's house like a whirlwind. Upon entering, she saw that the Xiao family was already in the yard. Too lazy for pleasantries, she directly gave orders to Xiao Moran. "Moran, we're going to the mine for a couple of days. Help us harvest the rice from the fields and dry it."

After Li Chunxiang finished speaking, she ran away without waiting for Xiao Moran's reply.

"Brother, look at them, they really treat you like free labor," Xiao Moxi said indignantly. "We'll return all of Lan Yin's gifts. You can't be beholden to someone who pays the bills. Honestly, just because they bring a few gifts doesn't mean they can order my brother around to do things for them. Why should they go out to have fun while my brother has to do all the hard work for them?"

"Li Chunxiang is really taking herself too seriously," Zhang Yulan said angrily. "Mo Ran, stop helping them. The more you help them, the more entitled they become. Her daughter's boyfriend is here, and she's making you do chores. It's outrageous."

"Don't worry, I won't work for the Lan family anymore." Xiao Moran looked at Su Xiaonuan sitting in the yard teaching the children to read pictures. "I need to find a way to get rich. Once I've made money, I'll take Xiaonuan back to the provincial capital to see her parents with my head held high. Over the years, because Xiaonuan married me, her family has cut off all ties with her. I have to prove them wrong and make sure Xiaonuan and the children live a good life, so they'll realize that Xiaonuan made the right choice by marrying me."

"Brother, I support you."

“That’s the right way to think. Mom has been preventing you from using your demobilization and resettlement allowance because she has this idea in mind.”

......

Su Xiaonuan pretended not to hear and used a small twig to write words and draw pictures on the ground. She drew pictures instead of words that the children could not recognize.

DouDou and GuoGuo had a lot of fun.

With the support of his mother and sister, Xiao Moran acted immediately. He asked his sister to get paper and pen so he could write to several close comrades-in-arms and ask them if they knew of any good business opportunities. These comrades were all city folks with connections, and asking them would surely be helpful.

Xiao Moran wrote five letters in one go; he was casting a wide net.

"Xiao Nuan, can I borrow your bicycle?" Xiao Moran didn't like to procrastinate and waved the envelope in his hand. "I'm going to town to mail a letter."

"Okay." Su Xiaonuan tossed him the car keys. "Go pump up the tires yourself."

As Xiao Moran was about to leave on his bicycle, Xiao Moxi chased after him, calling out, "Brother, leave your pen behind."

"What are you doing?"

"Of course we'll return it to Sister Lanyin. We shouldn't accept her little gifts anymore." Xiao Moxi reached into his shirt pocket and took out a pen. "So that you won't always have to do chores for her family."

Su Xiaonuan glanced at Xiao Moran intentionally or unintentionally and saw that Xiao Moxi had actually folded the silk scarf she loved and put it into the brown paper bag, along with the unopened bottle of medicated oil.

After packing all the gifts Lan Yin had given him into a brown paper bag, Xiao Moxi walked over to Su Xiaonuan. "Sister-in-law, from now on we'll cut ties with Lan Yin, so don't be angry with my brother. Let's just eat together from the same pot; it'll save time and ingredients. Besides, food tastes better when there are more people eating together."

Su Xiaonuan bent down and picked up the two children, sitting them on her lap. "Moxi, I'm finally able to stand on my own now. Don't you want to separate from the family? If I'm still as lazy and good-for-nothing as before, do you want to kick me out?"

“Sister-in-law, why would we kick you out? You've always been the one making a scene about divorcing my brother. Even if you don't do anything, we haven't kicked you out. We only scolded you because you did things that went too far,” Xiao Moxi explained. “Even if you hit my mother and ruined my marriage, we were only angry for a few days and then for the sake of Dou Dou and Guo Guo, we didn't hold a grudge against you.”

"We can eat from the same pot, but you have to listen to me from now on."

"No problem," Xiao Moxi readily agreed. "As long as my sister-in-law doesn't make a fuss, I promise I'll listen to whatever you say."

Zhang Yulan put on her straw hat and waved her sickle. "Xiao Nuan, you stay home and take care of the children. Mo Xi and I will go and harvest the rice that hasn't been harvested yet in your field."

"Mom, what about my sister-in-law's land? She said she's eating with us, so the previous agreement is null and void." Xiao Moxi raised an eyebrow at Su Xiaonuan. "Sister-in-law, don't you think so?"

Su Xiaonuan thought about it and agreed. Although she was not afraid of anything, she could not be in two places at once and did not have any special abilities. When she was doing things, the children still needed to be taken care of by them. After all, the Xiao family treated the two children quite well.