The sister-in-law learned about her true parentage.

Li Xiuman already felt that hitting people was wrong, and now Chen Yaozu said it reminded him of Shen's dying wish. If his mother knew that her precious son was being beaten like this, how heartbroken she would be.

Lee Soo-man felt a pang of heartache when he thought of Madam Shen's distressed expression.

"Spring Breeze, Spring Breeze, please stop hitting him!" Li Xiuman cried out hesitantly. "Although he came here to cause trouble today, he didn't get away with it. Spring kicked his leg, Spring slapped his face, and you whipped his body. Let him go."

Zhang Chunfeng put away the whip and stared intently at Li Xiuman.

Her gaze was so intense that Lee Soo-man immediately recalled everything they had done together. He had gotten up so early today because he wanted to completely forget the absurdities of the previous night.

It turns out that the people you try so hard to forget are truly wasted the moment you meet them again.

Lee Soo-man's ears turned red.

"Sister-in-law, you really have a good temper." Zhang Chunfeng smiled. "With such a good temper, you're not afraid of being bullied."

She deliberately emphasized the word "bully," and Li Xiuman thought to herself, "You bullied me last night, who else would bully me normally?"

“But since you’ve asked, I’ll listen to you.” Zhang Chunfeng raised an eyebrow, her words full of obedience. Li Xiuman recalled how she had told her not to move around last night, but she hadn’t listened. Now, however, she was being quite obedient.

Zhang Chunfeng put away his whip and looked down at Chen Yaozu.

“But just now, this bastard insulted my sister-in-law like that, and she wasn’t angry at all.”

Li Xiuman blushed immediately, realizing that Zhang Chunfeng had overheard those extremely filthy words.

Chen Yaozu covered his face and sobbed, "Brother Man'er, I really didn't mean to scold you. It's all my fault as your brother. I shouldn't have scolded you. Here, scold me back. Come on, scold me, hit me. I should go to that Drunken Immortal Pavilion and get messed with. Calm down."

Lee Soo-man turned his face away; he truly couldn't bring himself to utter such disgusting words.

He couldn't bring himself to hit someone. From childhood to adulthood, Lee Soo-man had only ever been in a conflict once, when he was eight years old. A neighbor's child, the same age as him, called Shen a whore and said Lee Soo-man was a son of a whore. Lee Soo-man couldn't help but get into a fight.

The next day, the neighbor's parents, along with their uncles and aunts, all came to Shen's door, demanding that she hand over Li Xiuman. Seeing this, Shen refused to hand over Li Xiuman, and instead knelt on the ground, kowtowing and apologizing to each of them.

Lee Soo-man hid in the closet, which was pitch black. A ray of light shone through the cracks in the closet, but he saw something even darker than darkness in that light.

Shen kowtowed to each person in turn, her forehead covered in blood blister, until she finally managed to appease them. As the child's uncles were leaving, they grinned and pinched Shen's chest one by one before departing, satisfied.

That time, after Shen found out the reason, she didn't beat Li Xiuman. In the past, Li Xiuman would be beaten for writing the wrong character, for sleeping in late, or for speaking too loudly. This time, Shen just held Li Xiuman and cried.

“Man’er, life is only a few tens of thousands of days. Many things will pass if you just bear with them. They curse their mother, but it won’t hurt her. Just ignore them and it will pass. Man’er, just bear with it.”

From then on, Li Xiuman never got into any more conflicts. Whether he heard people cursing Shen Shi or was teased for his fair complexion as he grew up, Li Xiuman never argued back. He gradually understood that unlike others, who had brothers, uncles, nephews, cousins, and other relatives, he and Shen Shi were an orphan and a widow. He couldn't stay by Shen Shi's side every day, and if they really offended someone and someone came looking for them, the two of them couldn't afford to offend anyone.

“He only verbally insulted me, he didn’t actually say anything, so why should I bother to take it to heart,” Lee Soo-man said.

Zhang Chunfeng shook his head. "He used such disgusting words to tease you, why shouldn't you hold it against him? If you don't, this bully who preys on the weak will only become more demanding. He started by teasing you with words, then moved on to physical violence, and you're going to put up with it?"

Chen Yaozu immediately protested his innocence, "How could I have laid a hand on you! How could I have!"

"That's because I arrived at the right time. If it weren't for my brother and me, and it were just Li Xiuman alone, you wouldn't have laid a hand on him!"

"Me." Chen Yaozu hesitated for three seconds. "Of course not. I love fragrant women, how could I have feelings for men?" Chen Yaozu argued, but those few seconds of hesitation had already betrayed his true intentions.

Li Xiuman hadn't thought of these things, and only now, after Zhang Chunfeng brought them up, did he belatedly realize that someone like Chen Yaozu could really lay a hand on him.

"Never mind, I can run fast." Li Xiuman shook his head again. He couldn't bring himself to hit Chen Yaozu again when he thought of Shen's dying face.

Zhang Chunfeng shook his head, "I can let him go, sister-in-law. Just slap him once, and I'll let him go."

Lee Soo-man was stunned. What was this all about? Why did he have to hit him? If the deceased Shen Shi knew, she would be heartbroken.

Li Xiuman was stunned when Zhang Chunfeng suddenly walked over, grabbed Li Xiuman's hand, and slapped Chen Yaozu hard across the face.

Chen Yaozu burst into even louder sobs.

Li Xiuman's palms went numb, and he hurriedly broke free from Zhang Chunfeng's grasp.

"What are you doing!" Lee Soo-man looked down at her hands, her palms tingling. Then she looked at the mark on Chen Yaozu's face and felt ashamed. She had really hit her mother's own son!

Zhang Chunfeng, however, didn't take it seriously. "I only taught my sister-in-law how to fight back when she encounters trouble. If she endures it today, she can endure it tomorrow. But a lifetime is only 30,000 days long. Does she have to endure it every single day, for a full 30,000 days?"

"This..." Lee Soo-man didn't know how to answer, then suddenly remembered the day Zhang Chunfeng asked him, "Why endure it?"

Li Xiuman was also in a state of confusion. His mother told him that life is only 30,000 days, and he should just endure it. Zhang Chunfeng asked him, "Do you mean I have to endure 30,000 days?" His mind was in turmoil. He looked down at his numb palms and remained silent for a long time.

"The matter is resolved, let's go," Zhang Chunfeng said.

He mounted his horse and went to pull Li Xiuman away. Li Xiuman waved his hand, indicating that he had to go with Zhang Chuntian.

"I have something to say to you," Zhang Chunfeng said.

Lee Soo-man thought Zhang Chunfeng was going to talk about what happened last night, so he lowered his head and said, "Spring is here."

"I'm talking about your biological parents."

Lee Soo-man suddenly looked up, his eyes filled with astonishment.

"Brother, go and pack your things first. I need to talk to my sister-in-law." Zhang Chunfeng pointed to the things in his own field.

Although Zhang Chuntian didn't understand the second half of the sentence, he still knew the first half, so he went to his own field to gather his hoe and other things.

Zhang Chunfeng rode his horse slowly, walking with Li Xiuman to the ridge beside the field.

"Let me ask you this: do you want to know about this? If you don't want to know, I won't tell you," Zhang Chunfeng said sincerely. After all, this news might not be helpful to Li Xiuman, but he still had the right to know about it.

Lee Soo-man tensed up upon hearing this. For so many years, he had never considered the possibility that his biological parents were fake. As a child, seeing other children with parents, he would wonder why he didn't have one. But as the years passed, dwelling on the past became pointless, and he stopped thinking about it.

He was silent for a moment, then asked, "Do you only know about my mother, or do you know about both my parents?"

"I know."

"How could they find out so quickly?" Li Xiuman wondered. Logically speaking, more than 20 years had passed, and it shouldn't be so easy to investigate. He himself didn't even have any memories of his childhood, so how could Zhang Chunfeng know so quickly? As he pondered this, a guess that made him tremble suddenly came to mind.

"Is my mother...?"

"Um."

Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Chunfeng nodded. Li Xiuman was immediately taken aback; without even asking his name, the two already knew the answer.

He did indeed resemble Shen Shi, especially since Shen Shi was not yet seriously ill and had a fair, jade-like face, which was exactly the same as Li Xiuman's current face shape.

"How could this be? How could this be? I asked her, and she... she didn't say that." Li Xiuman couldn't understand. If Shen was truly his mother, why did she never acknowledge him? Why did she tell everyone that he was bought? He was indeed bought. Why did his mother want to buy her own biological son? They were both his biological sons, yet his mother doted on Chen Yaozu so much, hoping for Chen Yaozu even on her deathbed, instead of him, who stayed by her side day and night!

Lee Soo-man's heart was in utter turmoil.

Zhang Chunfeng dismounted and let Li Xiuman sit firmly on the tree stump.

"Let me explain slowly." Zhang Chunfeng recounted the whole story in a gentle tone.

Lee Soo-man's face was deathly pale, and he murmured, "It was my father who abandoned her."

"Let's go back and eat first," Zhang Chunfeng said, reaching out to pull Li Xiuman.

Lee Soo-man shook his head. "You guys go back first. I want to be alone."

"How can you not eat?" Zhang Chunfeng softened his tone, wanting to persuade her again, but he saw that Li Xiuman's eyes were red and her tone was unusually serious.

"I told you to let me be alone for a while."

Zhang Chunfeng stopped trying to persuade him and simply took Zhang Chuntian back with him.

Unexpectedly, even at night, Zhang Chuntian returned from the fields, running into the yard calling out "Wife, wife."

Zhang Chunfeng had been reading all afternoon when he heard Zhang Chuntian's shout and hurriedly went out.

"What are you calling? Isn't your sister-in-law in the fields?"

Zhang Chuntian grinned, on the verge of tears, "My wife ran away, I don't have a wife anymore."

Zhang Chunfeng frowned. "Not in the fields? Not here all afternoon?"

Zhang Chuntian shook his head and started crying again. Just as he was crying, Li Shi, who had been busy all day, returned home.

"What? Man'er is missing?" Madam Li exclaimed in shock.

Zhang Chunfeng shook his head. "Don't listen to my brother's nonsense. Aunt Liu is sick, and he went to see her." Zhang Chunfeng made up a reason on the spot.

Li was relieved. "Aunt Liu is like a second mother to him, so it's only right that he go back to visit her."

Zhang Chunfeng nodded, "I'll go take a look too. Don't wait for me for dinner; Aunt Liu is so kind, she'll probably invite me to stay."

In this household, whatever Zhang Chunfeng said, Li Shi would agree with. She immediately nodded and turned to persuade Zhang Chuntian, "Your wife won't run away, don't cry, people will laugh at you."

Zhang Chunfeng slowly left his house.

She had just casually mentioned Aunt Liu, which reminded her of where Li Xiuman had gone.

The sky was overcast, and it really looked like it was going to rain. Zhang Chunfeng took an umbrella and two still-warm steamed buns from the basket Li was carrying. Without riding his horse, he quickly walked to Li Xiuman's ancestral home.

She had barely arrived at the dilapidated little house when it started to rain heavily.

"Rain is good." Zhang Chunfeng smiled, the weather reminding her of the first time she met her sister-in-law.

The dilapidated door of Li Xiuman's house was indeed open, and Zhang Chunfeng entered the yard. The yard was muddy, but there were no weeds. She turned her head and saw bundles of weeds piled up in the corner of the yard, which still gave off the fragrance of pulled grass and mud.

She went straight into the Shen family's old house, and as soon as she pushed open the door, she saw Lee Soo-man lying on the bed that had once belonged to the Shen family. He was staring at the messy ceiling with his eyes open.

There were no candles in the room, so Zhang Chunfeng put down the basket he was carrying and lit a candle. He then walked to Li Xiuman's side and saw that Li Xiuman's eyes were swollen like walnuts from crying, with obvious tear stains at the corners of her eyes.

He was like a peach blossom battered by a torrential rain. A peach blossom that did not want to leave its branch and wanted to bloom for a few more days was brutally beaten by large raindrops, its petals falling to the ground and turning into mud.

She glanced at Lee Soo-man and immediately regretted telling him about his parents. Why tell him? He had already suffered enough in the past. She had always brought him joy and peace, and she would give him whatever he wanted. Why tell him?

Rain began to fall from the thatched roof of Li Xiuman's house, and a drop landed squarely on Li Xiuman's cheek.

Zhang Chunfeng reached out and helped Li Xiuman up, then had him rest his forehead on his shoulder.

As if by magic, she produced a piece of honey and stuffed it into Lee Soo-man's mouth.

"Your eyes are swollen from crying, why bother?" Zhang Chunfeng asked.