"Mom, look what Dad has done! Am I not his son anymore? He's ruining my reputation!" Xu Minghan's face was ashen. He had initially thought it was just rumors spread by the petty people in the village, but it turned out to be his own father's doing.

"No way, Uncle Liu, how could the old man say such a thing? You must have misheard, right?" Granny Liu put the spatula in her hand on the stove, glanced at her third son, and then hurriedly asked Xu Hongzhen for confirmation.

Although the old man can be unreliable at times, he wouldn't say such things carelessly, after all, he's his own son, right?

"Well, although my brother didn't say it himself, he chatted with Xu Baiqiang and the others when he came back from Tianshui last time. He mentioned that Minghan had his tubal ligation done, and then he had some problems in that area, so..."

Xu Hongzhen finally realized that this was a misunderstanding.

"No, Minghan, can you do it?"

"Third Uncle, I'm a man, of course it'll work." Xu Minghan was truly at a loss for words. Could he prove it to anyone? He could only insist verbally.

"That old geezer must have just said too much in a moment of carelessness, and those people with ulterior motives have exaggerated it."

Granny Liu gritted her teeth and said, then looked at Xu Minghan and comforted him, "Third son, your father definitely didn't do it on purpose. He just likes to show off. It must be because you brought him a lot of things last time, and he kept showing off and accidentally revealed that you had a tubal ligation. We'll make him explain later. Don't worry!"

Xu Minghan: "..." What can I do? I can't exactly fight my own father.

Xu Hongzhen also looked embarrassed. "Minghan, I'm sorry. It was my third uncle who misunderstood. You see, wait, I'll explain it to you right away."

"Third Uncle, forget it, don't bother explaining it. How can you explain this? It's hard to explain, and the more you talk about it, the worse it gets."

Xu Minghan also figured it out. These kinds of things only get more confusing the more you explain them. It will all pass after a while. Anyway, he's not a young man anymore and doesn't care that much about saving face.

"Xu Baiqiang, what did you say? Say it again if you dare! Who gave you the right to talk about my third son?"

With a roar, the three people in the room looked at each other in confusion. Had they started arguing?

So he hurriedly ran out and saw Old Man Xu, who had just returned from the fields, standing barefoot on the bridge, leaning on a hoe, looking angrily at Xu Baiqiang on the other side.

Caught talking badly about someone behind their back, Xu Baiqiang was still a little guilty and explained in a low voice, "I didn't say anything, you must have misheard me."

"Did I hear that right?" Old Xu pointed at himself and then shouted, "I'm not deaf! I just got back and I heard you saying that my third son is no good in bed? How can you, a man, have such a gossipy mouth and spread such rumors? You're not like a man at all."

Xu Baiqiang was already in the wrong and was thinking of letting it go after being scolded a few times, but he couldn't stand being told by Old Man Xu that he wasn't a real man.

“What rumors have I spread? Didn’t you say your third son was dying? Do I need to tell you? Ask anyone in the village who doesn’t know about this. Now that your son is back, you’re afraid of being criticized, so you’re trying to pin this on me. Don’t even think about it, I’m not going to take the blame for this!”

As soon as Xu Baiqiang finished speaking, he saw Xu Minghan standing at the bridgehead. Without any guilt, he shouted loudly, "Minghan, it's not that your uncle is talking about you, it's that your dad said it first. He said as soon as he came back last time that you had your tubal ligation done and that you couldn't function anymore. We all heard it, right?" As he spoke, he looked at the people surrounding him and asked them for confirmation.

"Is that right? That's what Old Man Xu seems to have said."

"Yeah, yeah, and she also said she won't have a third child because she can't anymore."

"Yes, yes, I heard it too." The onlookers chimed in, saying that they had all heard it, and even those who hadn't heard it firsthand had heard Xu Baiqiang and the others recount it afterward.

"Bullshit! When did I say that the third son was impotent? I only said that he had his tubal ligation done and wouldn't have any more children. You're all just gossiping like long-tongued women!" Old Xu shouted back at them, his face flushed red.

Then he hurriedly turned to Xu Minghan, who was expressionless, and loudly explained, "Third brother, don't listen to their nonsense. Dad isn't senile. Why would he say such things? It must be that Xu Baiqiang is jealous of how well our family is doing, so he hastily made up these stories..."

“Who’s jealous of your family? Old Xu, have some conscience. What am I jealous of? Am I jealous that you’re all alone now, or that you can’t even afford two dishes for a meal?” Xu Baiqiang was unwilling to be labeled like that, so he quickly jumped out.

"Why aren't you jealous? Otherwise, how could you say something like that? You are jealous."

"Alright, Dad, stop talking," Xu Minghan couldn't hold back any longer and stepped forward to pull his father, who had been trying to rush towards Xu Baiqiang, back.

Then she looked at Xu Baiqiang and said, "Uncle Baiqiang, let me explain here as well. I have a vasectomy, I am not a eunuch. Please don't spread such rumors. In addition, the family planning office supports men getting vasectomies, which means that there are no side effects. You should also trust the medical facts."

After saying that, without caring whether they believed him or not, he picked up the hoe on the ground, grabbed his father, and started walking back.

"Hey, look at the mess you've made of this. I told you Minghan wouldn't do it, you guys are just talking nonsense." Someone felt a little guilty after seeing Xu Minghan leave with a stern face, so they quickly tried to make amends.

"Are you saying too little? If it weren't for your effective dissemination, would the whole village even know?"

"That's right, that's right, I only said one sentence, and you guys are the ones doing all the talking..."

Xu Minghan ignored their excuses, entered the main room, sat down on the stool with a stern face, and stared straight at Old Man Xu without saying a word.

"Well, sister-in-law, I'll head back now. Honghua's waiting for me to eat!" Xu Hongzhen hurriedly ran off.

Granny Liu stepped forward, pinched Old Man Xu's arm hard, and scolded him in a low voice, "You old fool, why do you have to talk so much? Why did you have to bring up the fact that Third Brother had his tubal ligation? Is it something to be proud of? Look at all the trouble you've caused, you're getting more and more senile as you get older."

"Hey, hey, take it easy. I didn't mean to. They said the third child was hiding and having a third child. I just blurted it out. It wasn't intentional."

Old Xu felt wronged. He had only meant well and didn't want people to think that his third son had violated the one-child policy again, so as to avoid the family planning office coming to his door again. Who knew that Xu Baiqiang, that big mouth, could distort the matter like this?

"Okay, Mom, Dad's always like this, I'm used to it. Never mind, let it be!"

Xu Minghan rubbed his forehead. He knew his father well enough to know what kind of person he was. He wasn't a bad person, but he always meant well and ended up doing bad things. Fortunately, it wasn't anything too serious, and he didn't live in the village often, so it would pass with time.