True heartbreak is never about making a scene.

"Is this even real?" The brigade leader's wife scrambled to her feet, grabbed the old man's arm, and spoke with hope.

“You come with me to apologize to the villagers and shift all the blame onto those few educated youths who are sons of bitches. Isn’t that guy surnamed Ruan very rich?”

"Make her patch up the hole; if she can't, threaten to send her back to the city to be given a farm."

He twitched at the scar on Xiang Hongjun's face, and his gaze toward his bedmate gradually turned cold.

"What kind of look is that?" Li Chunfen was startled by her husband's cold and piercing gaze.

He plopped back down on the ground, kicked his legs back and forth, covered his face with his hands, and let out a deafening wail.

"I'm going to die, I'm going to die! Are you having an affair with those female educated youths? I only said one sentence and you looked at me like you were going to kill me."

"What? You're going to be reported by the villagers and thrown into jail for not becoming the brigade leader? Do you want us, a widow and her children, to starve to death? Do you want your son to be talked about behind his back, unable to find a wife and never be able to hold his head high again?"

"That's enough," Xiang Hongjun ordered Li Chunfen to shut up.

He had some ideas, but he needed to wait for a few educated youths to return to discuss them.

"Hiccup!" Caught off guard by the sudden scolding, Li Chunfen hiccuped, peeking through a crack in her fingers to see her husband's gloomy face.

She also knew that the educated youth surnamed Ruan had military connections, and had even sent a letter of commendation last time. It was normal for her husband not to want to provoke him.

But solving the immediate problem is the most important thing.

She put her hand down and sighed, "How about this, you bow your head to Lao Hu."

He promised that as long as you bow your head and voluntarily give up your position as captain, he would not pursue the matter with you after taking over as captain.

If we marry Nuannuan into his family, our two families will be even closer. We're blood relatives, and we can't let Xiangbei down in the future.

The captain was stunned by his wife's words; it turns out that people really do want to laugh when they are speechless.

He knew that the "Old Hu" his wife was referring to was the old village chief. He angrily pointed at Li Chunfang and said, "You, you are simply unworthy of being a wife, unworthy of being a mother."

"Get out! If I hear that bastard talk again, don't blame me for breaking both your legs."

Should she hand over power to the village chief? And the village chief won't pursue the matter? Once the Hu family rightfully regains real power, does she think the Xiang family will have no chance of survival in the village?

This person I'm sleeping with... has been spoiled and pampered for years, to the point of being foolish.

Seeing that her husband was really angry and was looking around the yard with his head down, searching for a weapon to break her legs, Li Chunfen was so frightened that she jumped up and ran out of the yard without looking back.

He was still shouting, "Someone's been killed!"

Xiang Hongjun wearily rubbed his temples, glanced sideways at his son standing outside, his expression softened, and he dismissed the servant, saying:

"Go out and keep an eye on your mother, don't let her get into more trouble as she's busy."

He bowed his head to the north, making it impossible to see his expression.

"Dad, Mom said she wants to marry my little sister off to the village chief's son. What do you think about this?"

"Keep dreaming. Unless I die, I'll make her give up on that idea. Even if you marry off your mother, she'll never marry my daughter."

The village chief's son... if it's due to an acquired cause, like a fever that made him stupid, maybe if he marries a wife and has children, the next generation will be healthy.

But that's the product of incest!

Let alone marrying his daughter, wouldn't marrying anyone else be a disgrace to the woman?

Before he joined the army, his superiors had sent people to explain that close relatives should never marry, and even if people with the same surname had passed away, marriage was not recommended.

If people in a village are too closely related by blood, it is easy for them to have children with birth defects.

But Hu Bin, who was focused on consolidating his position as village chief, wouldn't listen to any of that advice. He directly married the granddaughter of an elder from Wufu Village.

What happened? What happened? They gave birth to a big, silly son with an international look.

Not only is he stupid, but he also has violent tendencies.

Although the children born later were fine, no one could explain whether the eldest child's mental illness was due to incest.

Thinking of all this, he raised his eyes suspiciously, scrutinizing his son who was always close to his mother.

"And you? What do you think? Do you also want to marry your sister to that idiot?"

Upon hearing this, Xiang Bei quickly concealed the gloom in his eyes and put on an expression of shared hatred with his father.

"How could I possibly push a girl into a fire pit? I'll go and have a serious talk with my mom right now."

She heard that her son hadn't been fooling around with his mother.

Xiang Hongjun felt relieved, but his thoughts drifted back to the matter of building the factory.

He was not unaware of the villagers' opinions and hostility. After retiring from the army, he could have had a decent job to live on in his old age. It was only by taking over his father's responsibilities that he became the brigade leader.

The wind suddenly changed direction. There was no instigation from the old village chief Hu Bin. He cut off his head and used it as a stool.

Even so, after years of hard work for the brigade, can't I earn even a little bit of the villagers' trust?

Is such a large team really worth my continued dedication?

He wiped his face, his mind in turmoil.

...

Li Chunfen, who had run out of the house, did not go far. She squatted down by the wall and peered out. Not long after, her precious son walked out of the yard with a heavy expression.

Li Chunfen whispered, "Bei, Xiao Bei, Mom is here."

Seeing the person approaching, she eagerly asked, "How did the test go? Was your father able to reconcile with the Hu family?"

Xiang Bei shook his head, "Father's attitude is very firm; it's impossible for my sister to marry him."

"You damned bastard, what sins did I commit in my past life?" Li Chunfen plopped down on the yellow earth, slapping her thigh, about to wail again...

Xiang Bei strode forward and quickly covered his mother's mouth with his hand. "Shh, be careful. I promised Dad I'd come and talk to you. Are you trying to make Dad hear you crying so loudly?"

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