Guan Baiyu could feel that his health had improved a lot during this period.

He used to have frequent leg pain, especially in his knees, which sometimes kept him awake at night, and cramps were a common occurrence.

It all started before his grandmother passed away, and he never told anyone about it.

Neither his grandmother nor his adoptive parents took his knee pain seriously.

Moreover, he wasn't the only one with leg pain; other people in his school also had leg pain, though not as severe as his.

After getting to know Shi Zhen, he didn't tell Shi Zhen anything.

His brother is already very busy, and he doesn't want to bother him.

Then... miraculously, the pain in his leg gradually subsided.

He figured it was probably because he had been eating very well lately.

His leg pain used to be due to malnutrition, but now that he eats meat and eggs every day, his leg pain has naturally subsided.

They have energy when they run.

Guan Baiyu ran very fast, and soon he arrived at the village where Yan Jiangtao lived.

Unlike Qian Qi, who had friends everywhere and traveled extensively, knowing the surrounding villages like the back of his hand... he used to only wander around his own village.

Guan Baiyu found an old lady sitting in the sun at the door and asked her if she knew where Yan Jiangtao lived.

The old lady didn't even ask him what he wanted to see Yan Jiangtao; she just gave him directions and explained the location of Yan Jiangtao's house.

Their house is the only three-story building in the village, so it's easy to spot.

Guan Baiyu quickly found the place.

J City has a generally humid environment, making it very uncomfortable to live on the ground floor. Therefore, people have always tried to build two-story houses.

The old houses in town all have attics.

In recent years, after rural people have saved up some money, as long as they can afford bricks and tiles, they will build houses, and if they do build a house, they will definitely build a two-story house.

The new house can occupy a small area, like Guan Baiyu's adoptive father's house, where if it's too small to build later, it can wait, but it must be two stories high.

However, while two-story houses are common, three-story houses are still rare, let alone Yan Jiangtao's house, which occupies a very large area.

At that time, people's houses mostly occupied only about 100 square meters. Perhaps a shed would be added later to raise pigs, but the houses they lived in were not very big.

Yan Jiangtao's three-story house is different. It occupies an area of ​​at least 200 square meters and is surrounded by a large courtyard with beautiful mosaic tiles on the walls.

Although the house was surrounded by a wall, the door was wide open. Next to the wall were some branches of old mulberry trees, a rice threshing bucket, a stone mortar, and a cart. It looked no different from the houses around it.

But there was something different: an unpleasant machine roar could be heard coming from his house.

There must have been a loom on the ground floor of his house, and people lived on the second and third floors. This sound must have come from the loom.

Although they were weaving cloth there, people were not prohibited from entering or leaving. Guan Baiyu went in and immediately spotted Yan Jiangtao's father.

Yan Jiangtao's father often picked him up on his motorcycle; he knew him.

The man was in his forties, a bit overweight, with a protruding belly, which was tightened by a tan leather belt... It was noon, and he was holding a stainless steel rice bowl and a spoon, stuffing rice into his mouth while watching the machine.

His appetite was clearly very good; each time he would scoop up a large spoonful of rice mixed with braised pork broth, and each bowl of rice was topped with a piece of braised pork about the size of a thumb.

Besides Yan Jiangtao's father, there were other people there, including workers who were watching the machines with him, and villagers who came to chat and watch the excitement.

Upon seeing someone enter, everyone looked at Guan Baiyu.

Yan Jiangtao's father knew Guan Baiyu. He had chatted with Guan Baiyu when he attended a parent-teacher meeting at the school before. Now, he put down the stainless steel rice bowl he was holding and said to Guan Baiyu, "Hey! You must be Guan Baiyu! You've come to play with Yan Jiangtao? He's upstairs watching TV. Come on up!"

Mr. Yan was exceptionally warm and welcoming, but Guan Baiyu's eyes reddened as she looked at him: "Uncle Yan, I didn't come to see Yan Jiangtao, I came to see you... Uncle Yan, Yan Jiangtao is..."

I was always bullied at school.

As Guan Baiyu finished speaking, he wiped his eyes with his sleeve, and tears streamed down his face.

He doesn't usually cry, but he's crying now because he has garlic slices hidden in his sleeve.

Yan's father had a very good impression of Guan Baiyu, but now that Guan Baiyu had come to his door and even cried... he was a little confused and felt even more ashamed.

Yan's father knew what his son was like, so it was probably true that Guan Baiyu said Yan Jiangtao bullied him.

“He’s been my deskmate for over half a year, he curses at me every day, and he always kicks me… And yesterday, during the city-wide joint exam, he asked me to let him copy the answers, but I didn’t dare, so he threw crumpled paper on my desk and told the proctor I was cheating… I was suspected of cheating by the teacher and almost got a zero,” Guan Baiyu spoke coherently without sobbing, but tears kept flowing, making her look even more pitiful. “Yesterday at lunchtime, he poured the soup on my backpack again, ruining all my books… He’s stepped on my books before, and he’s torn up my homework…”

Guan Baiyu knew that Yan Jiangtao was very afraid of his father.

Yan Jiangtao's father was not a good-tempered person.

He caused a scene at school, demanding a result from the teacher, but it was useless and might even make the teacher have a bad opinion of him, affecting his chances of being recommended for university admission.

But finding Yan Jiangtao's father is a different story.

Now is an excellent time – there are six people watching!

If he cries like that, Yan Jiangtao's father will definitely teach Yan Jiangtao a lesson, since he has lost face.

Actually, it might have been more effective if his parents had come to him, but he didn't want to bother Shi Zhen, nor did he want Shi Zhen to know that he was being bullied at school.

Yan's father was indeed very angry.

His son actually hit classmates, cheated, and bullied people at school... What a brat!

Guan Baiyu was still crying: "Uncle, you know, my parents aren't my biological parents. I have no one to take care of me, and sometimes I don't even have enough to eat... Yan Jiangtao always says I eat pig swill and wants to throw my food away... He even tore my clothes..."

Yan Jiangtao routinely looked down on the rotten, yellowed vegetables he ate, saying they looked like pig slop or excrement. He even said he would throw away what he ate, but he never actually did.

Yan Jiangtao was reluctant to touch his very worn-out enamel mug, which had been repaired in some places.

Yan Jiangtao had indeed torn his clothes before, since his clothes were already quite tattered and would break easily if torn.

"I went to the teacher, but the teacher didn't care. I really don't know what to do..." Although Guan Baiyu had recovered a bit during this time, he was dressed in rags today and kept crying, looking particularly pitiful.

Most importantly, Yan's father knew about his family affairs.

Yan's father always told Yan Jiangtao to learn from Guan Baiyu, saying that Guan Baiyu's family was poor and had nothing, yet he was still able to study well, while Yan Jiangtao was in a lucky place but didn't cherish it and didn't know how to study hard.

He made Guan Baiyu his son's deskmate hoping his son would learn from Guan Baiyu, but not only did his son not study, he even bullied Guan Baiyu!

Yan's father's dark face flushed red.

At this moment, someone nearby recognized Guan Baiyu: "Isn't he Guan Guangguo's son? The child Guan Guangguo's mother brought back?"

Guan Baiyu's background is quite bizarre, so many people know about his origins. Another person said, "He's quite pitiful. I heard that Guan Guangguo didn't want him from the beginning and hasn't taken care of him all these years."

Everyone sympathized with Guan Baiyu, and then felt even more that... Yan Jiangtao had gone too far.

That kid is already pitiful enough without parents, yet Yan Jiangtao keeps bullying him!

At this point, Yan's father had to make a statement.

He's capable of making money, so he must have some skills and be good at navigating social situations.

"Young man, I'm so sorry, I'll definitely teach my brat a lesson! He broke your things, and I'll pay for them too!" After saying that, Yan's father reached into his pocket, pulled out a roll of money, stuffed it directly into Guan Baiyu's hand, and added, "I'm going to beat that kid up right now!"

The roll of money that Yan's father took out was quite large, including two hundred-yuan bills and some loose bills, totaling at least three hundred.

When Guan Baiyu arrived, he had already anticipated this, thinking that Yan's father would probably give...

I only wanted to offer a small compensation, but I didn't expect Yan's father to give so much.

His brother has a lot of things he wants to buy. Can he buy them now?

Yan Jiangtao's family is really rich!

Guan Baiyu lowered his head, suddenly feeling a sense of enlightenment.

Sometimes, just enduring it won't do any good. If you want something, you have to work hard to get it.

Why didn't he think of contacting Yan Jiangtao's father before?

As Guan Baiyu was thinking this, Yan's father rushed upstairs to find Yan Jiangtao.

Yan Jiangtao knew he definitely didn't do well on yesterday's exam, so he was unusually well-behaved today. He didn't ask his father for money to go out and play, but stayed at home watching TV.

He was lying on the leather sofa on the second floor, watching cartoons with his legs up, when his dad burst in: "Yan Jiangtao!"

"Dad?" Yan Jiangtao felt a little guilty—could it be that the teacher had contacted his father? That shouldn't be the case...the results shouldn't be out yet.

"You brat, I sent you to school so you could study, and what have you done? You've been bullying people at school!" Yan's father reached out and dragged Yan Jiangtao off the sofa.

Despite his arrogant demeanor at school, Yan Jiangtao was as docile as a mouse before a cat in front of his father, and dared not resist. He was dragged downstairs by the back of his collar by his father.

Yan Jiangtao's father was very poor in his early years. He finally managed to get married and had Yan Jiangtao. Because the family didn't have much money, they weren't in a hurry to have a second child.

Then, less than two years later, the one-child policy was implemented.

He only has one child, Yan Jiangtao. No matter how much he scolds him, he can't bear to hit him, let alone really do anything to his son.

But today is different; all the good students from the school have come to our door!

Yan's father also got angry. After going downstairs, he picked up a broom from the corner and started whipping Yan Jiangtao's buttocks and thighs: "You brat, I'll teach you to bully your classmates! I'll teach you to cheat! You stop right there!"

When Yan's father was about to hit him, Yan Jiangtao naturally couldn't just stand there and let him do it. He ran around, constantly dodging.

Yan's father followed behind.

There was a loom inside, so the two of them ran outside and chased each other on the drying ground.

Yan Jiangtao initially didn't know why his father was angry, but when he went downstairs and saw Guan Baiyu, he knew the reason. While avoiding his father, he couldn't help but curse, "Guan Baiyu, you son of a bitch..."

Guan Baiyu used to not mind being insulted like that, but ever since Shi Zhen arrived, he can't stand people insulting his mother anymore...

"Uncle Yan, please stop hitting me... I'm afraid he'll beat me up when we get to school." Guan Baiyu wiped her eyes with her sleeve, tears streaming down her face even more. "He's rich, lots of people at school follow him, nobody dares to mess with him..."

Seeing this, Yan's father hit harder: "You brat, you're still using my money to do whatever you want! Don't even think about me giving you that much money again!"

Yan Jiangtao dared not curse anymore.

Guan Baiyu didn't leave; he just watched Yan Jiangtao get beaten. Later, Yan Jiangtao couldn't take it anymore and ran away along the road in front of his house. Yan's father was too exhausted to catch up, so he said to Yan's father, "Uncle Yan, I'm really scared of Yan Jiangtao and I don't want to sit with him anymore... Could you ask Yan Jiangtao to talk to the teacher and ask to change seats?"

In fact, the reason why Yan Jiangtao had been bullying him all this time, and why he had no choice but to sit next to Yan Jiangtao, was all because of Yan's father, but Guan Baiyu didn't mention it.

He also needs people to stand up for him.

Upon hearing this, Yan's father felt somewhat embarrassed and quickly said, "I will definitely tell the teacher about this."

At this moment, Yan's father started complaining about the teacher.

He asked the teacher to arrange a good deskmate for Yan Jiangtao so that Yan Jiangtao could study hard. But now Yan Jiangtao is not studying properly at school and is bullying his deskmate and has gone astray... Why doesn't the teacher tell him and change his son's seat?

After all that commotion, many villagers gathered around to watch the spectacle, and Yan's father felt as if his face had been ripped off and stomped on several times.

The people around him were also a little gloating—so what if Old Yan makes a lot of money? His son is hopeless, and who knows, he might squander all his wealth in the future!

There are always many people who can't stand seeing others do well. From now on, when people talk about Yan's father...

While talking about how much money he makes, they'll also say how disgraceful Yan Jiangtao is.

When Shi Zhen returned home with two coal stoves, he found that Guan Baiyu was not there.

There was a pot of rice in the pot, and a large bowl of steamed eggs was steaming on top.

Steamed egg is made by beating eggs, adding water, and stirring until smooth.

People here put salt in their steamed eggs, and after they're done, they pour some soy sauce on top and eat them as a dish.

Two eggs are enough to make a big bowl of steamed food; it's delicious and inexpensive.

Shi Zhen didn't know where Guan Baiyu had gone. He scooped out the rice from the pot, stir-fried some greens, and ate his fill with braised pork head meat. He then used the cup that Qian Qi had used to scoop out rice, added some vegetables, and prepared to take it to town to eat.

Just as he was about to leave, he saw Guan Baiyu return, his eyes red.

"Xiaoyu, where did you go?" Shi Zhen asked immediately. "Were you crying?"

"I went to see Grandma." Guan Baiyu's face showed no unusual expression.

Shi Zhen had no doubts and simply said, "In a few days, during the Qingming Festival, I'll go with you to sweep Grandma's grave."

In his past life, Guan Baiyu would visit his grandmother's grave every Qingming Festival, but he would have to go back to his hometown to visit his mother's grave during Qingming, so he never accompanied Guan Baiyu.

Now... he can accompany Guan Baiyu to sweep the tomb this year.