"Why waste money like that? I'll take care of everything at home from now on!"
“Mom, you are guests, how can we let guests do the work?” Song Yinhua politely refused Qiao Guilan’s request.
“I’m your mother, not a guest. Even if you have some money now, you can’t spend it like this. You’re almost forty, how can you still be so insensible? Why hire a nanny? Save the money for your retirement. Kids these days are selfish, you can’t count on them…”
"Mom, are you thirsty? Have some tea first," Song Yinhua changed the subject.
The nanny brought over tea and pastries.
"Where are the children?" Qiao Guilan looked around.
Song Yinhua: "They are all in the toy room, with an auntie keeping them company."
Qiao Guilan asked about Huo Jianguo's situation again, and did not forget to instruct Song Yinhua to keep an eye on Huo Jianguo.
They say no man is any good.
With his high position, he must have many women outside.
Qiao Guilan kept asking Huo Jianwai if he had someone else outside the family.
For example, Luo Xiangling, who has always had feelings for Huo Jianguo.
"Luo Xiangling is married and has a family. Her child is already in elementary school."
Back then, Luo Xiangling wrote a letter to Huo Jianguo, saying that she thought he was dead and had remarried. Then, Luo Xiangling found Huo Jianguo herself at the address on the envelope and pursued him relentlessly. After being rejected, she fell in love with Huo Jianguo's comrade-in-arms.
Qiao Guilan didn't get any information, so she started asking about the crazy woman.
"My mother-in-law went abroad to hold an art exhibition."
"Going abroad?" Qiao Guilan exclaimed in surprise, "How could someone with a mental disability go abroad..."
"Mom, don't underestimate my mother-in-law. She has held more than a dozen art exhibitions at home and abroad. Some of her paintings have been collected by museums, and foreign artists' associations have invited her to visit."
"The crazy woman can't speak." Qiao Guilan felt a little jealous.
“My mother-in-law has someone accompanying her.”
Qiao Guilan began to have doubts. What kind of art could a madman be doing? What could a madman paint?
"What about the other dogs?" Qiao Guilan asked again. "When I came in, there were only two left."
"Several wolfhounds have now been trained as military dogs and live at the base. The two dogs at home are their offspring."
Qiao Guilan listened more and more, becoming increasingly reluctant to leave, and wanted to stay and enjoy her life.
She couldn't stand seeing the nanny and housekeeper at home idle.
While Song Yinhua and her aunt were out with the children, they secretly fired the nanny.
She helped the girl tidy up the house and do her laundry, mixing everyone's clothes together to wash.
He didn't know how to use the washing machine, and the whole bathroom was a mess.
Song Yinhua then hired the nanny back.
Qiao Guilan couldn't stand the nanny and housekeeper being idle. Whenever she saw that the nanny and housekeeper weren't doing any work, she would constantly order them around to do things.
The nanny is responsible for taking care of the children, but not for housework.
Qiao Guilan didn't care about any of that and ordered the housekeeper to clean and do laundry, wiping the house inside and out several times.
While the nanny was cooking in the kitchen, Qiao Guilan complained that the nanny was too slow and treated the nanny and the housekeeper like thieves, fearing they might steal things.
The nannies and housekeepers couldn't continue working, so Song Yinhua secretly gave them a raise and advised them to be patient, saying that her own mother would leave once school started.
Song Yinhua told her own mother not to interfere so much, and that the nanny and housekeeper should act with discretion, and that she shouldn't always order them around.
Qiao Guilan felt wronged and went to Huo Jianguo to complain when he came home that night.
Behind Song Yinhua's back, she complained to Huo Jianguo more than once, saying that her daughter had a bad temper and advising him to divorce her and find someone with a better personality.
"Even if this is my own daughter, I can't bear to see you suffer," Qiao Guilan advised, not noticing Song Yinhua standing behind her.
“I support you in divorcing my daughter. Yinhua is too immature. The fortune teller said long ago that she was no pushover. She doesn’t deserve you…”
"Mom!" Song Yinhua called out, startling Qiao Guilan.
"Yinhua?" Qiao Guilan looked a little awkward. "When did you get here? Why did you walk so quietly?"
"You were too focused on talking to hear my footsteps," Song Yinhua said as she walked over. "Huo Jianguo and I are doing very well, so why are you advising him to divorce me?"
Song Yinhua realized at that moment that Huo Jianguo had deliberately let her hear these things.
His own mother must have said similar things to him more than once, but he never mentioned it to him. He deliberately had the housekeeper invite him to the study, saying he had something to discuss with him.
"Mom just feels sorry for Jianguo." A hint of guilt flashed across Qiao Guilan's face, but the next second she became righteous and said, "Jianguo has a high position, and you are so much older than him. How can you be worthy of him? Listen to my advice, divorce Jianguo, and come back with me."
"A three-year age difference, is that a lot? When I married him, why didn't you mind that he was younger than me?" Song Yinhua had long since lost all temper with her mother. She calmly asked her mother, "Was it because he was a poor boy back then, and he had a crazy mother? Did you think I was only worthy of marrying someone with poor conditions and living a hard life?"
"Don't you know what kind of person you are?" Qiao Guilan, seeing that the girl had discovered her true thoughts, simply stopped hiding them. "What makes you worthy of Jian Guo? Fortune tellers all say you're a jinx reincarnated, destined to be a concubine..."
"Mom, others may not know, but how could you not know? Those fortune tellers were all hired by my great-uncle to slander me."
"Anyway, you're not good enough for Jianguo. Divorce Jianguo now and come back to my hometown with me. When you get old, your brother will take care of you."
Song Yinhua took out her phone and dialed her younger brother Song Baogen's number in front of her own mother.
“Baogen, the children are about to start school. Come over here and pick up Mom and the children to go home.”
"You want to kick me out?"
Song Yinhua hung up the phone. "Mom, you've been staying with me for a while now. School's starting soon, you should go back."
Qiao Guilan burst into tears, “Yinhua, I’m your biological mother. Do you know how hard it was for me to raise you? Your father listens to his older brother and sister-in-law in everything. I’ve never had a good day since I married your father, and now even you can’t tolerate me!”
The next afternoon, Song Baogen arrived.
He sensed something was wrong when he received Song Yinhua's call.
There are still about ten days left before school starts.
He took a train to the provincial capital overnight and then transferred to a plane.
When Qiao Guilan saw her son come to pick her up, she refused to leave no matter what, insisting that Song Yinhua divorce her husband and go back to her hometown with her.
"Mom, are you getting senile? What are you saying?" Song Baogen snapped at Qiao Guilan. "My eldest sister's family is doing just fine, what are you talking about, getting a divorce?"
When Qiao Guilan saw her son arrive, she thought she had someone to back her up, but she didn't expect that even her son wouldn't stand by her side.
She cried in anger, saying, "Why is she living so well? Why is she so happy? The fortune teller said your older sister is a jinx reincarnated. Why is she living such a good life? She must have sucked up all our good fortune. The fortune teller said she's our nemesis and will drain all our good fortune..."
"Mom, pack your things and come back with me now." Song Baogen pulled Qiao Guilan away.
Qiao Guilan broke free from Song Baogen's hand, grabbed Song Yinhua's arm, and pleaded tearfully, "Yinhua, give us back the good fortune you've taken from us! You can't steal your younger siblings' good fortune."
Only now did Song Yinhua understand that in her previous life, her mother held her hand until her death and said that the eldest child always had a bad fate.
It was because she had suffered hardships in her previous life that she felt sorry for this girl and secretly helped her out.
But in this life, seeing the girl living a good life, she couldn't bear it.
Song Baogen actually dragged his own mother, Qiao Guilan, away.
The nanny helped pack the luggage, and Song Baogen apologized to Song Yinhua before taking his mother and several children with him.
Huo Jianguo sent his subordinates to drive them to the airport and help them with the check-in procedures.
On the plane, Qiao Guilan was constantly feeling aggrieved. She picked up the corner of her clothes to wipe her tears and told her son how bitter and difficult her past had been.
As the eldest child, she had to give way to her younger siblings in everything.
After getting married, she was first tormented by her in-laws, who then died of illness. Her husband also listened to his brother and sister-in-law in everything.
She secretly gave some money to her family, and her husband almost beat her to death. He also took away the family's financial control and lent all the money to his older brother and sister.
It also caused the death of her third daughter.
She was forced to spend all her money on Tang Qiuxue, neglecting her own children and raising her great-uncle's granddaughter with great difficulty, sending her to university in the provincial capital. In the end, Qiuxue didn't even acknowledge her, and didn't even come back to attend her husband's death.
In the end, she gained nothing.
She couldn't swallow this insult.
Her own third daughter was murdered shortly after birth.
Every time Qiao Guilan thinks about these things, she gets so angry that tears stream down her face.
She married Song Erzhuang, but never had a good day.
She was terribly wronged.
They're both the eldest daughters, both women, so why does she have to suffer so much while I, the eldest daughter, have such a good life?
"Mom, my eldest sister is your own daughter. What kind of mother would demand her daughter get a divorce if she couldn't see her daughter doing well?"
“I don’t mean to be jealous of your older sister’s good life. I just feel sorry for Jianguo. Yinhua’s conditions are not good enough for Jianguo.”
"If your brother-in-law has no objections, what are you complaining about?"
"Isn't everything Mom did for you?" Qiao Guilan wiped away her tears, feeling wronged. "Mom is getting old. It's okay if Yinhua absorbs good fortune, she's my own daughter, it doesn't matter to me. But you can't have it. Yinhua has absorbed all your good fortune, what will you do in the future?"
"Mom, stop believing in fortune tellers!" Song Baogen said angrily. "I'm doing quite well. My pig farm can earn several hundred thousand a year, and Cai Xing and her husband can earn about two hundred thousand a year together. Compared to other people in the village, we are already living very well. Our good fortune hasn't been sucked away by my older sister."
"What do you know?" Qiao Guilan was convinced that the eldest daughter had absorbed all the family's good fortune.
The mother and son exchanged a few words on the plane, then transferred to a train after landing.
They argued a few more times in the train carriage.
After that, Song Baogen never allowed Qiao Guilan to cause trouble at her older sister's house again.
Song Yinhua no longer invited her biological mother to live with her.
After Song Baogen's second son was admitted to a university in the provincial capital, Qiao Guilan had some free time and suggested that she go to live with Song Yinhua to retire, but Song Yinhua politely declined.
She paid for her younger brother, Baogen, to renovate their old house in the countryside into a rural villa so that their mother could live there and enjoy her retirement.
Song Baogen didn't take Song Yinhua's money; he paid for the renovation of the old house himself.
Over the years, he has earned a lot of money, which has enabled him to send both of his sons to universities in the provincial capital. He has also bought wedding houses for both of his sons in the provincial capital.
He and his wife stayed in the countryside to take care of his elderly mother.
The construction team was renovating a house when they unearthed talismans and copper coins while digging the foundation.
Villagers came to watch the spectacle. Some elderly people recognized the talisman and said it was a curse, advising Song Baogen to find a knowledgeable master to take a look.
Song Baogen didn't dare hire any locals, fearing that he might encounter someone like his old uncle who bribed swindlers to cause trouble.
He used his connections to invite a master craftsman from another region to come over.
When the master arrived, he saw the talismans and copper coins and said they were magical artifacts, which must have been deliberately buried there by someone.
Song Baogen couldn't understand who would bury these things in his yard.
Has your family ever offended anyone?
"No, our family gets along well with everyone in the village, we don't have any enemies." As Song Baogen spoke, he inadvertently noticed that his mother, Qiao Guilan, looked guilty and nervous.
"Mom, do you know something?"
"I don't know, I didn't bury it." Seventy-year-old Qiao Guilan quickly waved her hands in fright. "It wasn't me!"
Li Wenxiu said, "I didn't say you buried it, why are you so scared?"
Song Baogen sensed something was wrong. "Mom, do you know who buried it?"
"I don't know, don't ask me. Let's just let this go. Who cares who buried it? Let's build the house first."
"Mom, if you know anything, just tell me!"
"Mom doesn't know." Qiao Guilan's guilty eyes flickered, and anyone could see that something was amiss.
"Mom, just tell me what you know, I can handle it."
"Mom really doesn't know anything." Qiao Guilan simply wouldn't say anything.
The youngest son and his wife, who were next door, were also there watching the commotion.
As Grandma Zhou's youngest son looked at the talismans, coins, and other ritual implements, he suddenly remembered something that happened when he was a child.
“It was your great-uncle who led people to bury it in the middle of the night. Aunt Song and her sister were buried there too, a total of four people,” Zhou Xiaoshi said, recounting what happened when he was a child.
One night, when I got up to use the bathroom, I accidentally saw several people sneaking around with shovels, digging something in the neighboring house.
Out of curiosity, he sneaked over and saw Old Man Tang instructing Tang Suxiang and Tang Su'e to dig the ground.
Then they heard Old Tang ask the person next to him, "Master Shi, if we bury this, will his family be plagued by bad luck forever? Will his eldest daughter also be unlucky until she dies?"
The man surnamed Shi said, "Old man, don't worry. Once this magic artifact is buried, his family's fortune will definitely get worse and worse. As for harming his eldest daughter, we'll have to dig another hole and bury this along with her clothes and hair."
Tang Suxiang: "This hair, these clothes, and this blood-stained cloth were all done by that idiot Qiao Guilan. Her family won't have a good life from now on!"
"Hurry up and dig! Why are you talking so much nonsense!"
Zhou Xiaoshi was a few years older than Song Baogen. He was about ten years old at the time. He pointed to the location he remembered and said, "It seems to be here. They buried something here."
Song Baogen brought over some shovels and dug with the workers. A few minutes later, they dug up bricks.
After removing the two bricks blocking the way, the worker who came to investigate saw a kitchen knife underneath.
Beneath the cleaver lay hair, somewhat rotten clothes, and blood-stained fabric.
Song Baogen recognized the clothes as belonging to his eldest sister, Song Yinhua.
The fortune teller said, "What kind of deep-seated hatred would drive someone to do something so vicious? Burying a kitchen knife here, with the hair, clothes, and nails of the person you're trying to frame underneath, will bring misfortune to that person. The house the knife's blade is pointing at will also suffer bad luck, and everyone living there will be cursed."
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