His name was Li Shiwan, the man who married his widowed sister-in-law, and he was about ten years younger than Old Master Chu.

When his widowed sister-in-law married this man with her nephew, Old Master Chu was actually not very happy.

His unhappiness wasn't because his sister-in-law had remarried, but because Li Shiwan was dishonest and younger than him, let alone his sister-in-law.

The young man and the old woman were a laughing stock in the village back then.

Old Master Chu had tried to persuade his sister-in-law, but she insisted on getting married, so he didn't say anything more.

After that, Li Shiwan seemed to treat his wife and children well, and he didn't think about having any more children. He treated his stepson like his own son.

There's one downside: the man is lazy and lacks ambition, so the family's expenses are entirely covered by his wife selling braised food.

Out of consideration for his deceased brother, Old Master Chu would occasionally provide some financial assistance.

After a while, Li Shiwan started to regard Old Master Chu as a god of wealth, always smiling when he saw him.

Old Master Chu didn't give him a friendly look, just gave him a perfunctory reply, and then walked towards his sister-in-law, Qiao Lanru.

"Happy New Year, Sister-in-law! I've brought the children to wish you a Happy New Year!"

"Young man, please come in. Children, come in too. Let me pour you some tea to warm your hands!"

Qiao Lanru warmly invited everyone into the house.

Li Shiwan is not ambitious, so his family still has three brick houses. His son, Chu Zhou, only used some money to do some simple renovations after he started working.

Grandpa Chu's large family filled the living room, and there weren't enough chairs to go around.

"We don't have any good tea at home, please don't mind!"

Qiao Lanru served tea to everyone one cup at a time, and Li Shiwan didn't lift a finger the whole time, just stood by with his hands in his pockets.

"Sister-in-law, where is Xiao Zhou?" Old Master Chu asked.

Qiao Lanru grinned, but her smile seemed a little forced.

“He said the company was very busy this year and he had to stay and work overtime, and they were even paying him a lot of overtime pay, so he didn’t come back.”

Old Master Chu frowned, but said nothing.

Qiao Lanru is old, and she was already panting a little after carrying the heavy kettle to pour water.

Gu Xicheng quickly took the kettle from him:

"We can pour it ourselves, please have a seat!"

"Grandma, let me help you sit down!"

Lu Qing helped Qiao Lanru sit down by supporting her arm.

"You are the elder, so we should be the ones pouring tea for you!"

Qiao Lanru raised her cloudy eyes to look at Lu Qing, her eyes seemingly glistening with tears:

"Good child, so sensible!"

"Young man, is this your granddaughter? It's not easy to find her after she's been missing for so many years!"

Qiao Lanru patted Lu Qing's hand. Lu Qing lowered her eyes slightly and saw her swollen hands and the scars on them.

These scars weren't from working or from being frozen; they were from being hit with sticks or something similar.

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year. Lu Qing originally didn't want to read people's faces, fearing that he might discover something else wrong, so he kept it to himself.

But seeing this scene now, she couldn't help but want to see what had happened.

Lu Qing's gaze was fixed on Qiao Lanru's face, and he was about to circulate his Qi when Helian Shi stopped him.

His voice came through my ears:

"You told me not to use my power, but you're ignoring my words?"

Gu Xicheng now has a trace of Qi in his body and can sense that something is wrong with Lu Qing.

Looking at the warning in Helian Shi's eyes, he quickly guessed what had happened.

"Qingqing, be a good girl!"

Gu Xicheng saw Lu Qing and pulled her back.

Lu Qing's body has just recovered, and now is the time when she needs to rest. It's best not to exert herself if possible.

With these two people blocking his way, Lu Qing had no choice but to give up.

But she still couldn't help worrying about Qiao Lanru.

It seems that Grandpa cares a lot about this sister-in-law. If something really happens to her, Grandpa will probably be sad too!

While he was pondering, Helian Shi transmitted his voice again:

"Don't think about it anymore. I can tell you, she brought this on herself. Even if she dies, she has no one else to blame but herself."

Lu Qing looked at him with a puzzled expression, but Helian Shi did not explain to her.

After exchanging New Year's greetings, Qiao Lanru wanted to give a red envelope, but was stopped by Grandpa Chu:

"Sister-in-law, the children are all grown up now, how can we accept your red envelope! Please put it away!"

"No, no! It's the New Year, the adults can do without it, but the children have to!"

Qiao Lanru forced several red envelopes into his hands, and since Old Master Chu was unwilling to fight over them anymore, he let Lu Qing and the others accept them.

The red envelope contained only two hundred yuan, but the old man secretly slipped ten thousand yuan into the things he brought with him.

Chu Zhou's salary wasn't high, Li Shiwan was used to being lazy, and Qiao Lanru still pushes a cart around the streets selling braised food.

So every time, the old man would try to slip her some money so that she could live a better life.

After leaving Qiao Lanru's house, the old man sighed heavily.

"Grandpa, do you and Grandma have a good relationship?" Lu Qing asked.

Before the old man could answer, the old woman chuckled and teased:

"Our relationship is more than just good; I almost married her back then!"

"Huh??" Lu Qing was immediately dumbfounded.

"Didn't Grandpa like Grandma back then?"

Grandma rolled her eyes at Grandpa:

“Your grandfather was so handsome when he was young that even your father couldn’t compare to him. So many girls liked him that matchmakers practically wore down his doorstep.”

“From the beginning, Sister-in-law Qiao had her eye on your grandfather, but your grandfather had someone else in his heart, so she said that if her younger brother couldn’t marry him, then marrying her older brother would be good too.”

"Who knew my elder brother would die young, passing away in his fifties, leaving her all alone. The man she remarried was a lazy bum!"

At this point, Grandma sighed, feeling helpless for Qiao Lanru.

"Was that old man nice to Grandma?" Lu Qing asked, still unwilling to give up.

"I heard she's doing alright. At least when we went to see her, she didn't say anything, just that life was a bit tough."

Lu Qing: "Have you ever heard of that old man who hits people?"

Upon hearing this, Grandma looked puzzled:

"Hitting someone? You mean Li Shiwan?"

"No way! He wouldn't dare! We visit her every now and then. If Li Shiwan were that kind of scoundrel, your grandfather would be the first to punish him!"

"Qingqing, why would you ask that?"

Lu Qing smiled and shook her head: "It's nothing! I just think that old man isn't a good person!"

"He's certainly not a good person, but there's nothing we can do. We can't really interfere too much in other people's business," the old man said.

Lu Qing pursed her lips, put her mind at ease, and stopped thinking about it.

Lu Qing visited several elders in one morning and received several red envelopes.

Aside from the large sums given by my maternal grandparents, the rest were mostly two or three hundred yuan each. It wasn't much, but it was still a small fortune.

Lu Qing had barely had the money in his pocket before he had to donate it.

That damned money-starving fate of hers is acting up; if we don't donate it, it won't last two hours on her before it disappears.