"Another useless money-loser."

Liu Fengshi disdainfully shoved the baby in her arms into her youngest son's hands, snorted coldly, and turned to leave the house.

When I arrived at the kitchen and saw the crucian carp soup still warm on the stove, I was furious.

He held up a large bowl and said to his eldest daughter-in-law, "Give all of this to the boys in the family. Your sister-in-law doesn't need any for now."

"Yes, Mother, I'll take it over to the boys right away." The eldest daughter-in-law, Ma Chunhua, quickly ladled out the fish soup from the pot and carried it to her son Tiedan's room.

After finishing the large bowl of fish soup, Liu Fengshi wiped her mouth before returning to the delivery room.

She lifted the curtain and glimpsed her youngest son standing at the doorway, holding his newborn daughter in his arms, his face dark and unreadable.

He took out only two of the eight coins he had prepared in advance from his pocket and handed them to the midwife.

"Auntie, you've worked so hard to make this trip."

The midwife took the two coins. Although she was not happy, she thought that this was another girl, and who knew how angry the old lady was! So she decided to give her something.

"There's no such thing as hard work or not. I think this child is pretty and might be a lucky one. It's getting late, so I'll head back now. If you need anything, just call me; it's not far anyway."

Liu Fengshi quickly replied, "Okay, thank you for your trouble, Auntie. I'll have Chunhua take you there right away."

After saying that, he called out to his eldest daughter-in-law, who was still in the yard, "Chunhua, go and see your aunt off."

"No need, no need, I'll be right back."

After saying that, the midwife carried her medicine box and left the Liu family's gate.

Once the midwife left, Liu Fengshi turned her attention to her youngest daughter-in-law, who was still lying on the kang (a heated brick bed).

At this moment, the woman in labor on the kang (a heated brick bed) turned her head to the side, pulled the quilt over her head, covered her eyes, and cried loudly.

The man carrying the swaddled baby entered the room, his lips tightly pressed together, his face terribly gloomy.

He already had three daughters, but this time he was pregnant with another girl, which made Liu Wentao both angry and ashamed.

He had two brothers. The eldest brother had three sons, and the second brother had two sons and one daughter.

Unfortunately, all four of her children were girls.

More than a year ago, the third child froze to death shortly after birth.

Now, she only has Da Ya and Er Ya in name. She originally thought that if this pregnancy was a son, she wouldn't be laughed at by others, but unexpectedly, it was another girl.

Liu Wentao felt his head was spinning and he was so ashamed he couldn't face anyone.

As the saying goes, of the three unfilial acts, the greatest is to have no offspring.

Is it possible that his branch of the family is going to die out?

The thought of enduring strange looks from relatives and friends, as well as the veiled criticisms from his own parents, made him feel uneasy.

He also had to bear the gossip and rumors circulating throughout the village, and Liu Wentao felt his blood run cold.

Looking at the baby in her arms, she felt nothing but disgust and wanted to strangle it.

Then he turned around and stormed out of the house.

It was already evening, and there were hardly any pedestrians on the road.

Liu Wentao hurried towards the back of the mountain.

If someone were paying attention at that moment, they would see that Liu Wentao seemed to be hiding something in his wide sleeves.

At this moment, the baby in the sleeve twisted its little head, sucked a few times, and then fell into a sweet sleep again.

Beside the mass grave on the back hill, the man stood quietly for a while, thinking that this location was already quite far from his village.

Just leave this little beast here!

She had just thrown it down and started to walk back, but after a few steps she came back again. No, if this little beast were picked up by the villagers by the roadside, wouldn't that be too good for her?

I've heard older people say that if you torture and kill the baby girl who's going to be reincarnated, no girl will dare to be born next time, so the next baby will definitely be a son.

Thinking of this, a wicked thought arose in Liu Wentao's heart, but he only held his outstretched hand on the child's neck for a moment before letting it go.

"Fine, I'll let you off easy, you worthless piece of trash." In the end, the man didn't go through with it, after all, he didn't want to cause any more bloodshed.

Thinking that it would soon be dark, and that the newborn baby would not be able to withstand the cold of the night, he was sure that he would freeze to death in no time.

They might not even have a chance to freeze to death before being snatched away and eaten by some wild animal from who-knows-where.

Looking around and seeing that no one was around, Liu Wentao turned around and quickly went down the mountain.

...

Taoliu Village

Several women were washing clothes and vegetables by the river at the east end.

"Have you heard? Yesterday, Su Sanlang brought back a baby girl, but we don't know which family she was lost to."

"Tsk tsk, their little faces were purple from the cold when I picked them up, so pitiful!"

"Really, Auntie? Did you see it with your own eyes?"

The newlywed woman simply couldn't believe it. Even though it was a famine year, it shouldn't be so bad that they couldn't afford to raise a child. They could just give the child some food and the child would survive.

But isn't the Su family dirt poor with a house full of boys? Why did they have to pick up a person?

Another woman chimed in, "It's true. Last night, in the middle of the night, his third daughter-in-law came to my house to borrow rice, saying she wanted to make rice porridge for the baby."

"Oh, what a tragedy! Where did you find it?"

“He came to my house to borrow rice last night and I asked him about it, but the third daughter-in-law of the Su family refused to say. But there are only a few villages around here, so I don’t know which family did something wrong.”

Another woman stopped what she was doing and laughed, "No matter whose family committed this sin, it's not from our village. We don't have such heartless people in our village."

"Who can argue with that?"

Several women were pounding clothes here, making a clattering sound, while their mouths were also busy.

Within half a day, the news that the third son of the Su family had picked up a little girl spread throughout the entire village.

...

The Su family was all smiles.

Old Su had always wanted a daughter, but he never got one. Instead, he had three sons, and now his three sons have had five grandsons.

Yet, not a single one of them gave birth to a beloved granddaughter.

I never expected that my youngest son would bring home a little granddaughter last night.

She has a soft and gentle appearance, unlike my own bratty boys.

Old Su was gazing happily at his granddaughter in the crib when Su Sanlang came in carrying a bowl of goat milk.

"Dad, I borrowed a bowl of goat's milk from Uncle Er in the village. Is the little girl awake yet? Should we give her some?"

Old Su looked at the little girl sleeping soundly in the crib and muttered to himself.

I brought this baby home last night. He woke up once in the middle of the night and has been sleeping ever since. I'm really worried that he might have some kind of illness.

She was also calculating in her mind how much silver she had left at home, and that she needed to take the baby to see if there were any problems.

If you have any illness, you should treat it as early as possible so that you can recover quickly.

At this moment, the baby on the bed slightly opened its eyes and suddenly grinned at Su Sanlang.

"Look, my little daughter can smile! Does our daughter recognize her dad?"

Su Sanlang looked at his little daughter with delight. It seemed that his daughter still liked him!

Sure enough, he woke up as soon as he arrived, and the first thing he saw was him looking at me and smiling.

Old Su pushed his mentally challenged son aside.

"Nonsense, how old is she? How could she recognize you? Go away, get out of my way and block my view of my granddaughter!"