"Xiao Qi, how can I let you do this? You must be tired from walking all this way. Go and rest over there." As soon as Aunt Gao entered the kitchen, she saw her niece busy at work and quickly went over to take over.

"Auntie, don't get involved, I'm almost done here." Yunqi shielded her with his body.

Aunt Gao saw that the ingredients had been almost processed and said, "Our Xiao Qi is becoming more and more capable. Look at how skillful he is with his knife."

Yunqi smiled at his aunt, thinking to himself, "I'm always busy cooking at home, I have to master these skills."

"You came here for Acheng's mother, right?" Aunt Gao asked, sitting by the stove and adding fuel to the fire.

“Yes, we need to make things clear. If the village hadn’t been sealed off last time, who knows what would have happened?” Yunqi knew that if things weren’t made clear, similar incidents would happen again in the future.

"I'm afraid she's greedy and insatiable. She hasn't even visited her brother since he's no longer of any use to her. Now, even if your uncle wants to say something good about his sister, he won't have an excuse." Aunt Gao said this with a gritted teeth. She always tells everyone in the village that Si Cheng is an ingrate who doesn't care about his own mother and doesn't even think about how she treats her own family.

"Hopefully this time things will be clear." Yunqi didn't want to criticize his uncle, so he simply changed the subject.

"I think it's unlikely. Her youngest son isn't a good person either," Aunt Gao said, not optimistic.

Just as the two were busy preparing the meal, a series of curses came from the doorway. The two quickly put down what they were carrying and ran out.

"I'm telling you, you're all grown up, don't you have any manners at all? Don't you know your mother lives in this village too? You actually come to visit outsiders." Gao Shuzhen's harsh voice sounded particularly shrill at this moment.

"Hurry up and take your things with you. I'll show you around so you don't get lost next time." Gao Shuzhen had heard the villagers say that they had carried a huge load of things into the village.

When he heard his sister refer to him as an outsider, Gao Zian was stunned and didn't know how to react.

"You've finished talking. Now let's settle some accounts." Si Cheng stared coldly at her, spitting out each word clearly.

"What accounts could we possibly have? How could you owe me for giving birth to you?" Gao Shuzhen was initially a little guilty, but she quickly became assertive again.

Si Cheng said nothing more, only staring coldly at her.

At this time, the villagers who had returned from working in the fields also gathered in twos and threes. After all, Si Cheng was an old acquaintance of theirs, and they had been very grateful for his help along the way.

Gao Shuzhen felt a little uncomfortable under his gaze, and her eyes wandered around. At that moment, she saw Yun Qi standing at the kitchen door, and her eyes lit up.

"Is this my ill-mannered daughter-in-law? No wonder she was raised by the Hu family women, taking so long to come see her mother-in-law." Gao Shuzhen directed all her criticism at Yun Qi.

"You must be my mother-in-law who only gave birth but never raised her, right? I wonder what Cheng-ge owes you? I heard that when you left, he compensated you a lot, including a large maternity allowance and a letter of severance." Yun Qi had heard some things from Si Cheng, but what she didn't expect was that this woman in front of her had even asked her ex-husband to pay money to sever his relationship with their son in order to get more money.

"How do you know all this?" Gao Shuzhen hadn't expected that her daughter-in-law would know about these things and bring them up at this time. She was caught off guard and asked the question.

Her words were a tacit admission of the truth, shocking everyone around her. They had never seen a mother like this before. Even Gao Dongxing stared at his mother in astonishment; he truly had no idea there were such underlying reasons.

"How would I know? You don't know, do you? Because of your actions, Brother Cheng is often ridiculed by his stepmother, who often uses this to attack him in private." Yunqi thought about how resentful he was when he first heard these things.

"Shuzhen, did you really do this?" Uncle Gao looked at his sister in disbelief. Although he knew his sister was somewhat selfish, he didn't expect her to be not only selfish but also heartless.

"Isn't there no other way back then? I couldn't possibly walk there empty-handed, could I?" Gao Shuzhen saw everyone looking at her with incredulous eyes, but she still felt that she hadn't done anything wrong.

"Then you shouldn't have..." Uncle Gao didn't know what to say; his heart had turned completely cold.

"Since you sold your own son back then, how dare you ask him to repay your kindness in raising you? And you want me to acknowledge you as my mother-in-law? Do you think you deserve it?" Yunqi knew that Sicheng wouldn't say a word in defense of these words, but since she knew, she certainly wouldn't let her take advantage of her for nothing.

“No wonder, no wonder.” Uncle Gao muttered to himself as he squatted down. “No wonder A-Cheng’s father looked at me with such a strange expression when I came to visit. I was wondering why he looked at me like that when I was just visiting my nephew. It turns out that you sold A-Cheng out back then.”

Gao Shuzhen disagreed with her brother's words, saying, "Don't use such harsh terms as 'sell' or 'don't sell.' It's just some compensation from back then, and this is just a way of putting it."

Seeing the contemptuous looks from those around her, even if Gao Shuzhen was stupid, she knew she couldn't admit to selling the child. In her view, it was just a divorce agreement and couldn't change the fact that she had given birth to and raised him.

“Since you’ve kept that agreement all these years and haven’t appeared in front of A-Cheng again, let’s continue to do so and not interfere with each other.” Yun Qi directly stated the result he most hoped to achieve.

"That's impossible. Even if there was an agreement before, that's between me and his father. I raised him, so this is between him and me. As his wife, you have no right to interfere. Besides, I might not even acknowledge you as my wife." Gao Shuzhen had been blaming Yun Qi for all the problems lately. If Si Cheng wasn't married yet, she could find him a wife who was close to her, and then she wouldn't have to put him in such a difficult position.

Si Cheng approached Yun Qi and said to Gao Shuzhen, "Since you made that choice back then, what right do you have to interfere in my life? I'm here to make things clear to you. What you did before is fine, but from now on, we'll keep to ourselves."

"Why should I? Shouldn't you repay the debt of giving me life and raising me?" Gao Shuzhen could only cling to this point now.

"Wasn't everything settled back then?" Si Cheng really didn't want to dwell on this issue any longer.

"That's just a settlement between me and your father; it's something I can never settle with you in this lifetime." At this moment, Gao Shuzhen probably recalled the scene of giving birth to him, and her eyes couldn't help but redden.