Lin Yinan laughed in anger, pushed her aside to protect Li Shulan, and said coldly, "If you're so capable, go back and save her yourself."

"Anan, there were some misunderstandings between our two families in the past, but that cannot be a reason for you to stand by and watch my brother die!"

Lin Qiutao stepped out of the crowd, quickly reached out to support her mother, and began to berate Lin Yinan with tears streaming down her face.

Lin Yinan coldly observed the girl with a tea-like demeanor, desperately searching her memory for any trace of this seemingly innocent woman.

Lin Qiutao is 15 years old and lives in the same village as her.

As for the misunderstanding she mentioned, it was actually Yu Suqin's own wishful thinking and unrequited love; her parents had no connection with their family at all.

Lin Qiutao's mother, Yu Suqin, loved her father, Lin Zheng. Since childhood, she dreamed of marrying Brother Zheng when she grew up, but in the end, it was just a dream.

The saying "a simp who licks his boots until he ends up with nothing" perfectly describes Yu Suqin.

After Lin Zheng passed the imperial examination at the age of 18, he immediately married the daughter of his mentor, which Yu Suqin resented from then on.

Later, arranged by her family, she married Lin Boren, the perennial runner-up from Linjia Village, who could never beat Lin Zheng in anything and had a bit of bad luck.

After marriage, they had two sons and three daughters.

The eldest son, Lin Zhaohui, and his original brother, Lin Yiheng, studied together at Jiancheng Academy.

The second daughter, Lin Qiutao, is the same age as Lin Yinan. Influenced by her mother, she likes to compete with her in everything and try to outdo her.

The third daughter is Lin Dongmei, and the youngest daughter is Lin Chunfang.

The youngest son, Lin Chaoming, is the same age as his younger brother, Lin Yi'an, and they both study at Qinglian Academy.

Thinking of this, Lin Yinan rolled her eyes and snorted coldly, "Our family has no connection with you, so what misunderstanding is there? Don't try to pin this on us."

Lin Qiutao was speechless after being rebuked. Zhao Shi spat and then added insult to injury, "Yu Suqin, why don't you tell everyone what misunderstanding exists between our two families?"

Yu Suqin's face turned deathly pale.

Zhao continued, "It's nothing more than that you, this little whore, had your eye on my Lin Zheng when you were young, but alas, my Lin Zheng didn't like you. You wouldn't give up, so you shamelessly married into Lin Family Village. Your in-laws must have been blinded by greed to marry such a wretched thing like you."

Some gossipy women began to whisper among themselves.

"No wonder she always dressed up so beautifully when Lin Zheng came back, and walked from one end of the village to the other all day long. So that's why."

"Yes, yes, I've seen it a few times too."

Seeing that the topic had been steered away by Zhao, Lin Qiutao blinked her innocent big eyes.

Pointing at Lu Changqing, he said, "Anan's kung fu is so good, she even saved other children, so why did she only save three children in the village, but leave my brother and the other children in the village to die?"

Just as Lin Yinan was about to speak, her grandmother, Zhao, blocked her way.

"What? Just because my granddaughter is good at kung fu, does that mean she has to save your brother and everyone else?"

Yu Suqin was unwilling to accept this and quickly jumped out to accuse, "We're all from the same village, why didn't she help? What she did was simply too cold-blooded!"

Lin Yinan rolled her eyes so hard they almost reached the sky, watching the mother and daughter jumping around like clowns.

“Auntie, we barely escaped from the city by the skin of our teeth,” Li Shulan tried to explain.

Hearing the argument, the villagers gradually gathered around.

Seeing that the villagers had all been drawn over, Lin Qiutao's eyes were filled with resentment, as if she wished she could tear Lin Yinan to pieces.

"Lin Yinan, you're just standing by and watching me die!"

Almost everyone in Linjia Village is literate, and Qinglian Academy was founded by the ancestors of the Linjia Village people. The tuition is cheap, and many children from outside Linjia Village, as well as from surrounding villages, are sent there for their early education.

The villagers gathered around and started pointing and whispering about Lin Yinan.

A woman cried out, "Why didn't you save my son?"

The clan chief held his great-grandson who had returned and cried. Hearing the commotion getting louder and louder, he and the village chief pushed through the crowd.

Why are they all gathered here?

Yu Suqin and her daughter, working together and wiping away tears, recounted, with exaggerated details, how Lin Yinan deliberately abandoned her son and the other children in the village without helping them.

Some villagers were filled with indignation, clenching their fists, wishing they could rush forward and give Lin Yinan a good beating.

The clan chief's great-grandson was rescued by Lin Yinan, so naturally he didn't believe it.

The villagers didn't believe it either. He looked at Lin Yinan and asked, "Yinan, tell me what exactly happened?"

"No matter how much I say, no one will believe me, so why waste my breath? Just go and ask those three kids and you'll know," Lin Yinan said calmly.

She and her family lived in the city, so naturally they weren't as familiar with the villagers as Yu Suqin's family.

Lin Daoqin, held by her mother outside the crowd, puffed up her cheeks in anger when she heard that her sister Anan, who had saved her, had been slandered.

He broke free from his mother's embrace and nimbly slipped into the crowd.

Standing in front of the village chief, she said in a clear voice, "The Hu people tied us up and took us to the backyard of the government office. They said they wanted to offer us, the younger ones, to their general to eat. Before Sister Anan came, the Hu people had already killed Lin Chaoming and Lu Changsheng. Changqing was terrified when he saw the Hu people chop off his brother's head through the crack in the door."

Then, Lin Daoqin eloquently told the villagers how Lin Yinan had rescued them and how they had escaped up the mountain.

When the truth came out, Yu Suqin collapsed to the ground in embarrassment, rubbing her face and sobbing.

The villagers surrounded Lin Daoqin, asking him about the academy.

When he recalled the scene of the academy being like a living hell, even with his great courage, Lin Daoqin was still terrified and turned pale.

He murmured, "Blood, so much blood, everyone is dead."

After saying that, he bent over and vomited.

Upon seeing Lin Daoqin's affection, the mother, Madam Fan, pushed everyone away, saying, "What are you asking? Can't you see how frightened my son is? If you want to know, go back and see for yourselves."

The clan chief and village chief tactfully waved to the villagers, "Everyone, disperse. It's getting dark. Go do what you need to do."

Lin Yinan led two horses, along with Lu Changqing and Li Shulan, to the simple tent that Lin Shuo had set up himself.

My aunt Zhang and my cousin had already prepared dinner: a pot of fairly thick wild vegetable and millet porridge.

Lin Yinan tied the horse to a tree nearby, carried a bow and arrows on his back and two large bundles, and led Lu Changqing toward the tent.

Zhang filled a large bowl with wild vegetables for the four of them, while she herself only had a small half bowl.

Lu Changqing and Lin Yi'an took the bowls, sat obediently on the oilcloth, and began to eat heartily.

"Mother, what is this?" Li Shulan looked at her own bowl, then at the small half-bowl of wild vegetable paste in Zhao's hand, and quickly pushed the bowl in front of her.

As her mother was an elder, she felt embarrassed that she could only eat from a small bowl.

Zhao pushed the bowl back, saying, "You're injured and have been traveling for days, eat more."

"Grandma, you eat mine, I can't eat this much."

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law kept refusing, so Lin Yinan simply poured half of the wild vegetable paste from her bowl into Zhao's bowl.

She had plenty of food in her spatial storage, but she couldn't just take it out of thin air, or they would think she was a monster. She ate a little less, and would secretly have extra food later.