Hearing the noise, Lin Chen prepared to get up, but saw Jiang Ning with her arms wrapped around his neck, fast asleep, so he nudged her.

"There seems to be someone in the kitchen."

Jiang Ning said lazily, "There's nothing of value in the kitchen, is there?"

Anyway, before going to sleep, she put all the valuables into her spatial storage, and also put the two bicycles into the room.

Lin Chen was still worried, so he deliberately made a commotion.

Sure enough, a dark shadow flashed past the window.

Early the next morning, cries of "ouch, ouch!" came from next door.

Lin Zhoushi was vomiting and had diarrhea, and was rolling on the ground in pain, clutching her stomach.

Lin Baojia frowned deeply. "Mom, what's wrong with you?"

Yu Xiaofeng hurriedly asked, "Did you eat something wrong? Did you get food poisoning?"

After hearing this, Lin Baojia scolded her severely: "Last night, Mom didn't eat a single bite of food. How could she have been poisoned? Mom just didn't eat any meat, and the stress made her heart ache!"

"How about we go to the health center to get checked out?"

Upon hearing that they were going to the health center, Lin Zhoushi immediately stopped them, saying, "No, why waste that money?"

I endured the pain and drank a bowl of cold water, but my stomach felt churning and I felt even worse!

When Wang Xiufen was cooking breakfast, she rummaged through the cupboard and immediately knew what had happened. The old lady must have come to steal some dried cabbage last night.

The vegetables were dark and you couldn't tell unless you looked closely, but they were actually moldy.

She told Jiang Ning and the others about it, and felt a wave of fear wash over her!

Jiang Ning saw that Lin Zhoushi, who was already pale and on the verge of death in the main room, still refused to admit that she had food poisoning, so she gave Wang Xiufen a solution.

Wang Xiufen understood immediately, went next door and started wailing.

"Mother-in-law, please don't let anything happen to you!"

Her howl attracted the attention of the villagers living nearby.

The crowd surrounded Madam Lin, and seeing her ashen-faced and barely breathing, they thought she was going to die and were all wiping away tears.

"Although this old lady is a bit arrogant, her life is really hard; she's been a widow for decades!"

"Have you prepared your coffins? All of these need to be prepared in advance!"

......

Lin Zhoushi: "..."

I only had a stomachache at first, but now my chest and head are starting to hurt too. Can't we get rid of these messy people?

Wang Xiufen disagreed. She humbly sought advice from experienced people about whether she should prepare funeral clothes for the old lady in advance!

After enduring several hours of pain, Lin Zhoushi, finally feeling a little better, struggled to her feet and, amidst the horrified gazes of the crowd, roared:

"I just have food poisoning!"

Wang Xiufen immediately pointed to the vomit on the ground in surprise.

"Mom, you didn't eat any dried cabbage and get poisoned, did you?"

At this moment, Jiang Ning made a timely appearance.

"Grandma, so it was you who broke into the house and stole things last night! I thought it was the thief that Company Commander Gao was talking about, and I was so scared that I couldn't sleep all night!"

The crowd erupted in uproar!

Tsk tsk, a person lives for their reputation, a tree lives for its bark. At your age, you're still doing such petty theft. You deserve to die in pain!

The crowd gave her a mocking and disdainful look, and then left.

Wang Xiufen feigned concern:

"Xiaofeng, when we separated the family property, you promised to take good care of your mother-in-law. What kind of nonsense is this? It's so shameful!"

Unexpectedly, Lin Zhou not only showed no shame, but also demanded compensation from Wang Xiufen:

"Since I admit that I was poisoned after eating your dried cabbage, give me five yuan so I can see a doctor."

Wang Xiufen turned her face away and left, saying, "Dream on, I'm being lenient by not handing you over to the police."

In the morning, Wang Xiufen led Jiang Ning and Lin Qiao to pick tea, and everyone in the tea garden was talking about it.

Each family in Chayuan Village is allocated several rows of tea bushes. Besides eating them themselves, any surplus tea leaves can be sold to the state-owned tea factory.

For the commune members, they could pick tea leaves all year round and sell them for ten or twenty yuan, which was a source of income for the women.

Captain Gao's tea plantation was right next to Lin Chen's house.

Li Ying couldn't stop smiling as she recalled what happened that morning.

"Sister-in-law Wang, you two work together so well. Otherwise, we really wouldn't have known that Old Mrs. Lin could do something like stealing vegetables."

“Who says otherwise? You said there were rumors of thieves everywhere, and every household was on guard, but no matter how much they guarded against it, they couldn’t stop a thief from within their own home!” someone agreed.

Li Ying's daughter, Gao Xiaolan, also came to pick tea. She pouted and said, "If you bring vegetables to the old lady, would she need to steal them?"

The tone was somewhat condescending.

“There are all sorts of twists and turns in the countryside, what do you know?” Li Ying quickly pushed her and gestured for her to shut up.

Gao Xiaolan retorted, "Am I wrong? When my family makes something delicious, we give Grandma a bowl first."

Lin Qiao and Gao Xiaolan were high school classmates and even deskmates. Their relationship was generally okay. She explained:

“Every family’s situation is different. My grandma has more than 800 yuan in hand, which is enough for her to buy meat to eat.”

Gao Xiaolan, who ranked first in her grade at the end of her first year of high school, looked down on Lin Qiao, whose grades were only average. She continued, "You're all selfish and disrespectful to your elders..."

If Li Ying hadn't intervened in time, Wang Xiufen's family would have been condemned as utterly wicked.

Jiang Ning finally couldn't take it anymore and sneered, "When we divided the family property, the obligations of supporting her were clearly stated in black and white. She keeps the money to herself and won't even eat meat, what does that have to do with us? Why should we stoop so low as to fawn over her?"

The old lady is still in bed. You should respect her; why don't you bring her some meat for lunch?

Gao Xiaolan choked back a sob, "Where would I get meat for her to eat!"

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