Unfortunately, Shi Guang knew that a severe drought was about to occur, and from then on, natural disasters would continue, people would suffer, and wars would break out everywhere. Rather than become cannon fodder, he would rather hide in the deep mountains with his wife and live a carefree life.

The day before the Dragon Boat Festival, Lin Momo soaked a lot of glutinous rice and various beans, and wrapped about a hundred zongzi (sticky rice dumplings). Some were wrapped in bamboo shoots, and some in reed leaves. There were both savory and sweet varieties, such as salted egg yolk and pork zongzi, red bean paste and jujube zongzi, zongzi with baking soda and brown sugar, and zongzi with dried plum and pork.

After eating the Dragon Boat Festival rice dumplings, Zhu Rui, who had basically recovered, was about to leave with his servant.

Even if he still longs to stay here, he should leave now. If he doesn't, his family will go crazy looking for him.

Since the two didn't know the way, Shiguang and Lin Momo had no choice but to escort them down the mountain, and of course, they were still blindfolded when they left.

There is no room for negotiation on this point.

Even though Zhu Rui had resisted, feeling that they were already friends and shouldn't be treated like that anymore, and even though he was thinking of visiting them again in the future, he was still suppressed by the ruthless passage of time.

He said that if they wanted to contact him in the future, they could send the letter to the Shi family residence in town, and he would see it when he came down the mountain.

*

Because they had two young children with them, they kept stopping and starting on the way down the mountain. As a result, the group got up very early but arrived late, and the sun was already setting when they reached the bottom.

After parting ways with the master and servant, Lin Momo and Shiguang did not return to the town, but instead spent the night in the space and took the opportunity to tend to the vegetable garden.

The next morning around 10 a.m., the two left the space and carried a bamboo basket of zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) to Lin Daya's house at the foot of the mountain.

When I last went back to Linjia Village, I heard that the Cai family came to tell me the good news that Lin Daya was pregnant. Now, almost two months have passed, and her belly must be showing by now.

It just so happened that Lin Momo had wrapped a lot of zongzi this time, so she thought of sending some to the Cai family to see if her eldest sister was being treated better by her husband's family now that she was pregnant.

Several villages are nestled at the northern foot of Nanshan Mountain, each only two or three miles apart. Caijiapo Village is located among them, closer to the mountain, but it would still take about an hour to walk there.

So Lin Momo simply took out the mule cart and rode over in it.

After all, the Cai family would assume they came from the town, so it would be more reasonable for them to travel by mule cart.

Since it was her first time here, Lin Momo only knew the general location and had to ask people in the nearby villages for directions.

Upon hearing that the young couple was visiting relatives in Caijiapo, the aunties and grandmas were incredibly enthusiastic, answering every question with ten answers. They not only pointed out the location of Caijia Village, but also said, "After passing our village, just go straight down to the second village. There's a big privet tree at the entrance that you can easily spot. It's only a couple more miles away."

After finishing their business, another auntie nearby started gossip: "I heard there's a family named Cai in Caijiapo, and the eldest daughter-in-law almost miscarried when she was only five months pregnant..."

Hearing this, Lin Momo's heart skipped a beat, and a bad premonition immediately crept into her mind.

Seeing this, Shi Guang stepped forward, squeezed her hand under his sleeve, and gestured for her not to panic before she understood the situation.

The auntie, dressed in patched-up clothes, was getting into her story when she pouted and said regretfully:

"Oh dear, what a tragedy! The mother-in-law is reluctant to spend money to hire a doctor. It is said that she even had a big fight with her son and daughter-in-law because her eldest son hired a doctor from the next village for his wife. She said that the young couple was unfilial for hiding money from their parents and did not respect the two elders. She even turned her daughter-in-law's room upside down."

"Oh dear, this matter caused quite a stir back then; people from several nearby villages knew about it. My neighbor's wife is from that village; she heard about it when she went back to visit her mother."

Upon hearing this, a thin, elderly woman chimed in: "I heard that the eldest daughter-in-law was pushed by her husband's younger sister, causing her to fall and almost lose her child. But some say she was pushed by her husband's younger brother. Anyway, that family is completely unreasonable. The youngest daughter-in-law is truly pitiful. I heard they have three sons who aren't married yet. Honestly, they're so shameless; aren't they worried about their sons not finding wives?"

The older women and aunties who had gathered around also chimed in with their own opinions.

“If a family treats its daughter-in-law like that, she’ll suffer terribly if she marries into such a family.”

"Yes, yes, families with daughters and granddaughters need to be more careful and not tell their children about families like that."

“You know, even though the daughter-in-law is an outsider, the child in her belly is her own grandson. How can she not care at all? Luckily, the young couple had some money to hire a doctor, otherwise the child would have been miscarried. If it had been a boy, they would have been heartbroken! It would have been too late to regret it then.”

......

By this time, Lin Momo had long lost interest in gossip. She and Shi Guang quietly withdrew from the crowd, boarded a mule cart, and hurried towards Caijiapo.

When a story is told to many people, it gradually becomes unrecognizable and gets further and further away from the truth.

Seeing is believing.

Whether or not the daughter-in-law from Caijiapo they were talking about was Lin Daya, thankfully the child in her womb was saved, which is the greatest comfort for a mother.

*

Cai Family Courtyard.

Because it hasn't rained for the past two months, the crops in the fields are extremely thirsty, and the Cai family father and son have to fetch water from the river every day to irrigate the wheat.

Only Granny Cai, her youngest daughter, and her eldest daughter-in-law Lin Daya remained at home.

My little girl, Hehua, has been feeling unwell lately because of the hot weather, so she's been lying in the house.

Cai Erlang was already eighteen years old, long past the age for marriage. However, because his family was too poor, no one in the nearby villages was willing to marry their daughters to him. But Cai Erlang was a man of his own mind. He knew that relying on his family would mean he might not be able to find a wife anytime soon, so he set his sights on a girl from a neighboring village.

With his sweet talk and the best looks among the four brothers, he won the heart of a girl who was willing to marry him without a dowry and live a life of hardship. However, the girl's family refused to let their daughter, whom they had raised with great difficulty, marry him off.

The family said that if the Cai family could afford a dowry of eight taels of silver, they would marry their daughter to them; otherwise, they should go somewhere else and stay away.

The Cai family is currently very troubled by this marriage proposal.

It was a great thing that a girl was finally willing to marry into the family, but she demanded a dowry that was astronomical for the Cai family, turning a good thing into a troublesome one.

These past two days, Granny Cai has been extremely busy. On one hand, she has to go to that family every now and then to negotiate with them to lower the bride price. On the other hand, she is trying to squeeze some money out of her eldest daughter-in-law to help her second son get married.

The fact that her eldest son had money to hire a doctor for his wife last time proves that he still has money. Although she didn't find it on the search, she had already interrogated her honest son, and the money was given to him by his wife.