Shen Heping became even more anxious and angrily blamed his son for not letting him know about this earlier.

Shen Yu was speechless. Sure enough, he was still blamed.

But he did not regret hiding it. Seeing his father's condition, he couldn't eat or sleep, and was so distracted that he couldn't tell east from west. If he had told him earlier, his father would have been worried to death before he found his mother.

While the father and son were running around in all weather to look for their mother and wife, in a medium-sized market town somewhere on the coast, early in the morning, just as the sky was getting light, a tall and thin woman appeared. She was wearing local Hakka women's clothing, a cloth bag in her left hand and a basket in her right hand. She was wearing a hat with a black veil on her head, which completely covered her face. She walked quickly through the deserted streets with only a few pedestrians carrying loads on their shoulders, and went straight out of the town. She walked farther and farther away, and gradually disappeared in the white morning mist.

When the sun came out, the streets became crowded with people, some going to work, some going to school, men, women, old and young, all in a hurry to do their own things. The streets had a little more lifelike air but were not lively. In the quiet morning light, suddenly from an alley in the east came the sound of a woman yelling and cursing, her sharp voice could almost pierce a person's eardrums.

Along with the shouting and cursing, a woman in her fifties rushed out of the alley. She was of medium height, dressed in black clothes and pants, with an apron on and a bun on the back of her head. She looked neat and tidy but had a mean face. She ran back and forth on the street, knocking on the doors of two families. No one answered the door, probably because they had gone out to work. The woman in black was so angry that she clapped her hands and cursed, while preparing to look for someone else.

At this time, several aunts gathered around and listened carefully to the black-clad woman's scolding for a while. They curiously asked her who she was scolding. The black-clad woman said hatefully, "I was scolding that dead mute. I fed her well for half a year, but she didn't give me anything in return. She ran away before dawn and stole my food and a basket of eggs! I saved them for a long time to give to my eldest daughter for her confinement. I was so heartbroken! That dead mute, what a wretch!"

The aunties' train of thought was not in sync with the woman in black. They only focused on the dumb and unlucky woman she was talking about.

Auntie A asked, "Hey widow Mu, aren't there only you, your daughter-in-law, and your baby in your family? When did you start keeping a woman? I live in the same alley with you, and you didn't even know about it?"

Aunt B curled her lips and said, "Her gate is always closed and we are not allowed to visit her. How can we know what is in her yard?"

Auntie Bing sneered: "What if I told you that? Is that a woman I support? She's a cash cow, you don't understand!"

"What are you talking about? What cash cow? She's my distant cousin's daughter."

When the woman in black heard the word “money tree”, her expression suddenly changed. She pointed at Auntie C and threatened: “Be careful. If you dare to talk nonsense again, I will make you pay!”

Auntie C was threatened and refused to give in. She threw the bucket on the ground, put her hands on her hips and yelled at the woman in black: "Come here, you dead widow! How dare you make me suffer? I have three sons, so why should I be afraid of you, a family without a son? Come here if you dare!"

Widow Mu's son died the year before last, leaving behind a granddaughter. She hated being told that her family was extinct, and because the woman who ran away this morning also took away a basket of eggs from her, she was so angry that she had no place to vent it. When Aunt Bing scolded her, she jumped up and the two women started fighting in the street.

Among the onlookers, some tried to stop the fight and some fanned the flames, but most of them stood far away, watching the fun and talking about it.

"Hey, you live next door to Widow Mu. Is it true that she keeps a woman at home? Have you ever seen her?"

"Widow Mu said she was mute, which was true, because we didn't hear any sound from our side. But several times when my chickens flew over the wall, I climbed up to chase them and saw a lot of clothes drying in her yard. It was still hot at that time, how could two adults and a child wear so many clothes? Another time, I saw Widow Mu bringing food into the house, and then she came out again and ate at the table in the yard with her wife and children. If she brought food into the house, it meant someone was there."

"What the hell is this widow doing? She's so secretive about a relative coming over. Can't her distant cousin see anyone? She's been kept in the house for half a year and not allowed to go out."

"Oh, you believe what Widow Mu said? It can't be a relative. This isn't the first time she's hiding a woman in her home."

"What's the meaning?"

"Do you know how Widow Mu's son died?"

"Didn't he die in a shipwreck while working on someone else's ship?"

"Bullshit, Widow Mu was burning paper money at the backyard wall in the middle of the night, mumbling away, and she happened to be close to my room, so I heard it all: He got involved in gangster gangs and did bad things, and he got rich!"

"Ah? Isn't that the same as his father and grandfather? I heard from the elders that his Mu family specializes in that business."

"Why is it that a dragon gives birth to a dragon and a phoenix gives birth to a phoenix, and a mouse's son will dig holes?"

"What does this have to do with Widow Mu secretly keeping a woman?"

“Widow Mu’s son died, but those who had been involved with him knew his family. They would come to give Widow Mu some things from time to time, and then ask her for help, such as gathering information and taking in women. Those women were kept in her home, and if they were discovered, they would say they were relatives, otherwise they would not be allowed to show up at all. After three or four months, they disappeared again. They must have been taken away.

"That's true. Widow Mu and her daughter-in-law look better than others and never wear patched clothes. But what are those women hiding in her house doing after they were taken away?"

"They are not allowed to see anyone, just like raising pigs and cattle. What else can we do except sell them to make money?"

"Ah, this, this, this...Wood Widow, this is so scary!"

"There will be retribution for doing bad things, just wait and see."

“…”

Two women were fighting on the street. Widow Mu was finally defeated by Aunt C. After being beaten up, she had no intention of looking for anyone else. She ran home with disheveled hair and cursing.

The mute girl, who was called "unlucky woman" and "distant cousin" by the widow Mu, walked quickly along the road, not daring to stop for a moment. After walking for about an hour, she came to a three-way intersection. There were many people waiting for the bus at the intersection. The mute girl didn't want to go any further. She was tired and needed to rest. The basket of eggs and the bag of rice she was carrying in her hands were quite heavy.

She found a cement block away from the crowd, cleaned it, sat down, and put a basket of eggs and half a bag of rice in front of her. Soon a middle-aged man came over and asked her in a low voice if she wanted to sell eggs.

The mute girl nodded. Her face was covered by a black veil and people couldn't see her expression clearly. But the man really wanted to buy and didn't care too much. He just talked to her and gestured at the same time. In the end, the deal was made at five cents per egg. More than seventy eggs were sold for three dollars and sixty cents.

After a while, another woman came and pretended to ask the mute girl for directions, then bought the half bag of rice for three yuan.

The mute girl got more than six dollars. Another bus stopped. When the bus started and left, people looked at the concrete pier again and found that the mute girl was gone.

She got on the bus and handed the conductor a dollar. The conductor didn't ask any questions and just gave her a ticket. The mute girl looked carefully and saw that it was going to a place called Ducheng. Great, she wanted to go to the city.

The ticket girl directed the people getting on the bus to go to the back car. She watched a woman in black sit down by the window and then take off her black veil. That moment was a bright spot: I didn't expect that a woman dressed in an old-fashioned way could actually look so young. She was very thin but really beautiful. I have been following the bus for more than two years, but I have never seen such a beautiful, gentle and charming woman.

I couldn't help but take a few more glances at her. It was a bit of a pity that the two light red scars on the woman's left cheek somewhat affected her beauty.

If Shen Heping and Shen Yu, father and son, happened to find this place, they would definitely be overjoyed: the beautiful woman that the ticket seller looked at again and again was the reborn Xu Jia.

At this time, Xu Jia had no time to care about others. She looked at the scenery moving backwards outside the window and let out a long breath: Thank God for blessing! Finally got rid of the wooden widow and was going to escape from this place! But she didn't know that she could escape from the predicament thanks to her daughter-in-law Meng Tao. It was Meng Tao who came through, and the effect of the flapping of the little butterfly's wings changed some things, and Xu Jia's fate changed accordingly. Otherwise, she would still fall into the hands of Murong Shengjie as Tian Zhigao said in his previous life.

She was reborn half a year ago. Her current identity is Xu Meixia, a 28-year-old girl from a fishing village. She looks exactly like her in her previous life, like twin sisters, but their situations are completely different.

Xu Meixia's family was very poor. She was the eldest of seven or eight brothers and sisters. She had never been spoiled since she was a child and had to help her parents with work. It was okay to endure hardships, but the most uncomfortable thing was that she was often beaten and scolded by her parents. She was not born dumb, but she was sick when she was a child. The adults did not take her to see a doctor, but just picked some wild grass and cooked it for her to eat. It turned out that the grass was poisonous and she became dumb.

At the age of eighteen, Xu Meixia was married off and asked for a dowry.

She was unlucky. The man she married was rude and violent, and he would beat her at any time. During the three years of their marriage, she became pregnant several times, but each time she was beaten by her husband and had the pregnancies aborted. In the fourth year, her husband died while fishing at sea. People again accused her of having a hard life and of bringing bad luck to the man.

Her parents-in-law kicked her out of the house, so Xu Meixia had to return to her parents' home. Her parents took her in, but they wanted to marry her off again in exchange for a dowry!

This time she married a widower in his forties whose wife had died. He had a bunch of children, a powerful mother-in-law, and a brother-in-law and sister-in-law who were not married yet. Xu Meixia was bullied for several years and became so thin that she almost lost her human form. She got pregnant but had a miscarriage. Finally, a local doctor diagnosed that she would never be able to have children in her lifetime.

To make matters worse, the man also fell ill and died.

Xu Meixia could never get rid of the accusation that she was a jinx. Her mother-in-law, uncle, aunt, and children from her previous marriage beat and scolded her and drove her out of the house. Xu Meixia did not return to her parents' home because she knew that the only result would be that she would be sold for the third time, and there was no guarantee that she would be sold because she was not only a jinx, but she could also not give birth to children.

Xu Meixia felt too tired and didn't want to live anymore, so she jumped off the cliff into the sea to end her life.

(End of this chapter)