“What Guoqing’s wife said makes sense. As long as you stay true to your beliefs, we aunties and grandmas will definitely stand by your side!”

"No matter how the Lin family tries to smear and slander us, we're not blind. We can't let them make baseless accusations!"

"Guoqing's wife, look at you now, you've really stood up for yourself! Let me tell you, a woman has to be able to stand on her own two feet. As long as you stand up for yourself, would the Lin family dare to really make a move?"

"Even the older women in our village can't just sit idly by and watch the Lin family come knocking on our door!"

The group offered Lin Xue words of encouragement, and then escorted her home.

"I really appreciate the understanding from the aunties and grandmas today. I've figured it out now. They were the ones who abandoned me first, and now they're trying to use filial piety to pressure me. If I fall for their tricks again, I'll really be doing them a disservice!"

Seeing that Lin Xue had truly come to her senses, the aunties and uncles offered a few more words of comfort before dispersing.

Aunt Fang walked at the back of the crowd, and when everyone had almost left, she took Lin Xue's hand.

"Daughter, if you need anything in the future, just come to my house. I'm almost always home, so you'll definitely be able to find me!"

"We're from the same village, so we're not afraid of those unreasonable people!"

Aunt Fang comforted Lin Xue for a while before reluctantly leaving.

After seeing off the last aunt, Lin Xue finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Old Lin family, old Lin family, you always try to pressure me with the idea of ​​filial piety. After my performance, let's see who will still believe your lies.

Lin Xue gently curled the corners of her lips, closed her courtyard gate, boiled some hot water to wash up, and then felt refreshed.

She went to the old house to tell the old lady that she had returned, then took her basket and went up the back mountain.

She still had some time, so she planned to go up the mountain to see if she could pick some wild vegetables or mushrooms.

If you're lucky, you might even catch some prey.

After her experience in town that morning, Lin Xue felt she needed to buy a bicycle.

I can't afford a new bicycle, mainly because I don't have a bicycle ticket!

However, if you can find old bicycle parts, it's not impossible to assemble one yourself.

However, even if you were to assemble one yourself, you'd probably need at least 20 or 30 yuan just to buy the parts.

Although she had a little over 100 yuan in her hand, it was hardly enough to make ends meet, and Lin Xue felt anxious because she had no money.

We strolled into the mountains and first visited a few places where we were most likely to find wild animals.

I shot a pheasant, but unfortunately I didn't find any rabbit.

I picked some mushrooms along the way, chopped a bundle of firewood, and headed home.

Hunting sometimes really does depend on luck.

When you're lucky, you can encounter one or two prey every few steps.

When you're unlucky, you might search halfway up the mountain and not find a single hair.

"Mother, didn't Father chop a lot of firewood for us? Why are you going to gather more firewood?"

As soon as Wang Yating saw Lin Xue from afar, she immediately ran towards her.

Lin Xue was carrying a large bundle of firewood, afraid that the little girl might lose her footing and hurt herself on the bundle of firewood.

He immediately threw the firewood in his hand aside, took two quick steps forward, and hugged the little girl into his arms.

"Why are you running so fast? What if you fall into the firewood? Your little face will get scratched!"

Lin Xue gently stroked the little girl's nose with her finger and then hugged her small body.

"Hehe, Mom, I can run really steadily now, I definitely won't bump into the firewood!"

Wang Yating looked up at the bundle of firewood and thought her mother's words made some sense, but she was too embarrassed to admit her recklessness, so she clung to Lin Xue's arm and started to act coquettishly.

"Alright, now that you're here, help your mother hold this pheasant. It's a little hen, so you have to hold it carefully and don't suffocate it!"

"Our family will be relying on her for eggs from now on!"

Lin Xue patted Wang Yating's head, took the pheasant out of the basket, and stuffed it into Wang Yating's arms.

The pheasant was not very big; it was even smaller than a regular domestic hen.

Chickens raised in this era were not very big, unlike the broiler chickens and farm chickens of later generations that weighed 10 kilograms or more.

In this era, small, grass-fed chickens were the main species, let alone wild chickens.

So even if she handed the child over to Wang Yating, the little girl was able to hold on to her tightly.

"Mom, I'll go put the little hen into the henhouse!"

Having gotten the job, Wang Yating picked up the little hen and ran home quickly.

"Have your grandma trim the pheasant's wing feathers first, to prevent it from flying away!"

Lin Xue hurriedly gave Wang Yating instructions from behind, then walked back a few steps, picked up the firewood that had been thrown on the ground, and carried it home.

He put a bundle of firewood in the woodshed in the backyard, and then carried the basket back to the front yard.

"Mom, I picked some mushrooms. Let's make mushroom and egg soup with two eggs later!"

Lin Xue saw Old Mrs. Wang sitting in the yard picking vegetables and placed her basket in front of her.

"Hmm, I think it's a good idea!"

Just then, Grandma Wang finished cleaning the bunch of chives in her hand. She put the chives into a clean basin and then helped Lin Xue pick up the mushrooms from her basket.

"Yaqin should be getting out of school soon, why hasn't she come yet?"

Lin Xue glanced in the direction outside the courtyard. She had never worried about Lin Yaqin's safety on her way to and from school before, but ever since passing that reed marsh, Lin Xue couldn't help but think that other girls might have met with misfortune there.

"Judging by the sun, we should be home soon. How's it going? How many words have you learned from Yaqin these past few days?"

Speaking of Wang Yaqin, the old lady recalled her third daughter-in-law learning to read and write from Yaqin.

"Not many, only a little over a thousand words!"

Lin Xue was very modest and gave a number, even though she didn't know exactly how many words she had learned in the past few days.

She remembered everything Wang Yaqin had taught her.

At first, Wang Yaqin was afraid that she wouldn't remember, so she only taught her five words each day.

Gradually, after discovering that this third aunt could read very quickly, they increased the number of characters to ten.

Now she teaches a dozen or twenty students every day, and she learns as many as Wang Yaqin teaches her.

And ensure that when King Yaqin Timo comes on the second day, he can recite all of them correctly.

Wang Yaqin always sighed in front of Lin Xue, saying that if she had half of Lin Xue's memory, she probably wouldn't have any problem getting into university.

Moreover, Wang Yaqin not only taught Lin Xue to read, but also included mathematics in Lin Xue's learning scope.

"One thousand eight hundred words?"

"My God, Third Brother's wife, is what you're saying true?"

Upon hearing this number, Grandma Wang was so surprised she couldn't close her mouth.

She also attended literacy classes, but listening to the teacher explain words was like listening to gibberish.

She couldn't remember any of the strokes, and after studying for more than half a year, she could only barely recognize the basic characters for heaven, earth, and man, as well as the numbers for big, small, many, and male and female!