The four little ones were so happy that they forgot they had just been worried about whether Ning Huan would still be there after she left tomorrow.
It wasn't until the next morning, when they saw Ning Huan carrying her bundle and about to leave in the courtyard, that they became anxious.
"Mom, come back soon!"
"Mother, we're waiting for you to come back!"
Ning Huan gently patted the four little ones and said, "Your aunt will be here soon. There's some fruit I've saved for you in the kitchen. If I come back a little late, ask your aunt to take the fruit back to Grandma before she leaves."
Then she called Da Bao over and instructed him, "Take good care of Daddy, and make sure he doesn't hurt his leg."
Da Bao nodded and said, "Mom, don't worry. I can take good care of Dad and my younger siblings."
Ning Huan smiled and said, "Mother believes in you, I will come back soon. Don't worry."
Then, under the watchful eyes of the four little ones, Ning Huan walked further and further away.
The little boy asked with some worry, "Will Mother really come back?"
Little Erbao: "Mommy will, she will come back."
Xiao Sibao added, "We were worried when Mom went to town before, but she came back later, didn't she?"
On the way, Ning Huan noticed that her physical strength had been getting better and better recently, and walking on mountain roads was not as strenuous as before.
Her previously obese body has recently become noticeably thinner, and the pustules and spots on her face have completely disappeared.
These changes made Ning Huan very happy; at least her efforts were starting to show results.
Wushan Village is quite a distance from Ning Huan's home. The journey involves crossing Wushan Mountain. Because the original owner of this body didn't go home often, she had to rely on her memories to find her way, so Ning Huan could only walk very slowly.
However, just as Ning Huan was searching for direction in the woods, a familiar person walked towards her.
Ning Huan's third younger brother: Ning Liang.
However, Ning Liang didn't seem to recognize his sister and was about to walk right past Ning Huan.
"Ning Liang!"
Ning Huan called out to him helplessly.
When Ning Liang saw the woman call out to him, he asked with some confusion, "Who are you?"
Then he looked her over carefully, and his eyes widened in surprise: "Sister?"
Ning Huan nodded: "It's me."
"How did you become like this?"
Hearing Ning Liang ask her this, she chuckled and asked, "What have I become?"
Ning Liang quickly shook his head: "I didn't mean anything by it, it's just that you seem different from before. You've become more beautiful, sis."
Ning Huan didn't talk much about this with Ning Liang, but asked, "Why are you here when you're not home? You're walking in such a hurry, what are you going to do?"
Ning Liang then remembered his purpose: "Sister, I came to find you. Something happened to Mother!"
Hearing this, Ning Huan frowned and then asked, "What's going on?"
Ning Liang took Ning Huan home to Lin'an Village.
On the way, Ning Liang told Ning Huan that after Pang returned home, her father, Ning Xingde, discovered that twenty taels of silver were missing from the house that evening. He asked her about it in front of her elder brother, Ning Xu, and her sister-in-law, Kang Shi, during dinner.
Pang didn't hide anything and said that she was giving the twenty taels of silver to Ning Huan's family to help them in an emergency.
This displeased Ning Xu's family. They had taken care of the old lady's food, drink, and shelter every day, and now that she had money, she was thinking of taking it from her sister-in-law who never came home. Kang Shi was the most unhappy about this.
Ning Xingde was also unhappy. His family business was not doing well, and there was nothing else he could do with the twenty taels of silver, but he had to give it to Ning Huan to spend.
So he insisted that Pang ask Ning Huan for the twenty taels back, but Pang refused.
According to Ning Liang, Pang said angrily, "It's only right that I use it to help my own daughter, why do you say it's not okay!"
Seeing that Pang was unmoved by either soft or hard tactics, Ning Xingde and his elder brother's family came up with an idea.
That means a strike; people stop doing housework.
Ning Xu and the Kang family meant: You dote on your daughter, giving her all your money. Well, let's see what your daughter, who only knows how to take money, can do for you if we stop caring about your basic needs.
Ning Xingde's meaning was: since they won't listen to him, let Pang see how serious it is when the men in the family stop working. If they can't earn money, let's see how they'll get money out of the house then.
Even so, the Ponzi family was not one to be threatened.
Seeing that everyone was on strike and not working, she stopped working too. Not only did she stop working, she also stopped eating.
In this family, only Pang knew how to cook. Kang had only been learning to cook from Pang for a short time, and if Pang didn't remind her to cook, she simply couldn't eat anything.
Aside from that, Ponzi's continued hunger strike was also not an option.
By the time Ning Liang came to see Ning Huan today, Pang Shi had been on a hunger strike for three days and was so weak she could barely stand.
After Ning Liang finished recounting what had happened at home these past few days, he couldn't help but add, "Sister, really. If Mother hadn't given you twenty taels, none of this would have happened."
As soon as he finished speaking, Ning Liang noticed that Ning Huan was looking at him as if she wanted to devour him.
“Mother is right. Is there anything wrong with her using money to help her own child?”
Then she asked Ning Liang, "You've said so much about how Ning Xingde treated Mother, how Ning Xu and Kang Shi treated Mother, and how Mother fought against them. But I want to ask you, Ning Liang, what were you doing at that time?"
"Did you help your mother? Or did you, like your father, your brother, and your sister-in-law, also use rebellion to treat your mother and express your dissatisfaction to her?"
Upon hearing Ning Huan's words, Ning Liang's face first turned red with shame, and then he quickly shook his head: "I didn't."
“Sister, I didn’t treat Mother badly. I stayed with her and told Father and my older brother that they were being unreasonable. But no one listened to me; they just treated me like a child. I tried to persuade Mother to eat a little, but she wouldn’t listen to me.”
Ning Liang is almost of marriageable age, but his parents, older brother, and sister-in-law all treat him like a child and no one cares about his opinions, which is what makes him most upset.
He had no say in his own home and could not make any decisions.
"I really couldn't bear to see Mother like this today, so I thought I'd ask you for help..."
Ning Huan looked up at him and said, "When we get home, I'll ask my mother myself. You don't need to explain."
As soon as they entered Lin'an Village, they heard a woman teasing Ning Liang, "Oh, Ning's third brother has grown up, now he even has a young lady by his side?"
Ning Liang disliked the village women making fun of him, so he quickly shook his head.
Ning Huan wasn't surprised; it seemed that no matter which village it was, there were women with the same traits.
Seeing Ning Liang shake his head, the woman smiled and said to her companion, "Look, he's even shy!"
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