Su Qifen was filled with joy and held Sun Youfang's hand tightly.
"I am truly grateful to you, Auntie, for otherwise I do not know what I should do. This has made me sleepless and restless, and has caused me so much pain that I cannot eat or sleep."
There was a tremor in her words, a mixture of gratitude and relief.
Sun Youfang pretended to be modest, a hint of joking between his brows, "Oh, it's all my fault for being such a chatterbox. I shouldn't have been so talkative. Look at me, I'm just causing more trouble!"
Su Qifen was even more moved when she heard this. "Auntie, please don't say that. If you hadn't reminded me, I would still be in the dark! Xu Qinghe is such a treacherous person. Sooner or later, I will make her suffer. It can be regarded as a way to vent our anger!"
"That's right, Qifen, you are kind-hearted. It would be great if you were my daughter."
Sun Youfang's eyes were full of admiration. The two held hands, and the tacit understanding and support between them were warm and firm.
With this sincere gratitude and expectation for the future, Su Qifen happily set out on the journey home.
At home, sister-in-law Xie Yun was busy at the stove, cooking dinner.
Seeing Su Qifen with a happy face and humming a tune, Xie Yun's expression couldn't help but be shrouded in a layer of gloom.
"As soon as you get home, you should help out. You're the one with the least free time all day, and yet you always delay coming home until this hour. Don't think you're so great just because you're a scorekeeper. You're so cocky!"
Xie Yun's words revealed dissatisfaction and jealousy. Ever since Su Qifen became the scorer, the atmosphere at home has quietly changed.
She no longer participated in housework as usual, and her attitude seemed to have become more arrogant. In Xie Yun's view, all this was arrogance and imbalance caused by the change in status.
Normally, Su Qifen might fight back against such accusations, but today, immersed in joy, she chose to be tolerant.
She smiled, rolled up her sleeves, and walked into the kitchen. Despite being scolded, she continued to hum a light tune, with a smile on her face that was so bright that she couldn't suppress it.
This joy from the inside out seems to be able to dissolve all unhappiness.
Xie Yun stared at Su Qifen deeply, and her slightly furrowed brows revealed a barely perceptible irritation.
Despite her heart full of ups and downs, she just curled her lips slightly and chose to remain silent without saying a word.
Soon, Su's mother walked into the house. When she saw her daughter's complacent look, a hint of vigilance flashed in her eyes and the atmosphere suddenly became tense.
"Qifen, have you been hiding something from your family lately? How could a young girl like you be so frequently associated with Sun Youfang? You know, Sun Youfang has a shady reputation in the village. Getting too close to her isn't a wise move."
Su's mother is slightly older than Sun Youfang and has experienced more hardships.
In her memory, Sun Youfang's story is like a complex textbook of human nature and social skills.
Especially that time, when Sun Youfang was pregnant, she used an almost cruel method to force the old lady of the Xu family to cancel the original engagement, and carved out a place for herself in the Xu family.
This incident made Su's mother realize how scheming Sun Youfang was, and that it was definitely not just a simple neighborhood dispute.
Looking back on that time, the Xu family had a rich inheritance after the death of Xu Qinghe's mother, and the family life seemed particularly affluent. However, this peaceful place was soon targeted by the greedy eyes of the outside world, and the most notable of them was Sun Youfang.
She ignored the fact that the Xu family was still immersed in the grief of losing their loved one, and visited them every day, looking for any opportunity to exploit.
Soon, she became entangled with the men in the Xu family, causing a series of disturbances.
On the first anniversary of Xu's mother's death, the old lady of the Xu family thought she could start over and arranged a marriage for her son with an equal status. However, Sun Youfang, pregnant, openly came to challenge her, making the Xu family the laughing stock of the whole village and losing all face.
This incident lingered over the village for a long time and became the most popular topic of discussion among people in their spare time.
As time flies, those once sensational past events are gradually covered by the dust of time, and Sun Youfang's name seems to have disappeared from people's memory along with the passing wind.
Every family lives their own life, seemingly calm on the surface. Until recently, Su's mother discovered that her daughter Su Qifen and Sun Youfang had been interacting more frequently, and the deep-buried worry in her heart was awakened. She wanted to remind her daughter in time to prevent her from getting hurt.
However, Su Qifen was in her rebellious teenage years, and her mother's worries and reproaches aroused her deep dissatisfaction and resistance.
The vegetable basket in her hand fell to the ground with a loud bang, just like the anger and unwillingness in her heart, which she could not suppress.
She stood up abruptly, her eyes gleaming with stubbornness, her voice trembling with excitement. "I became a scorekeeper through my own ability. Don't you think I can tell right from wrong? I just want to find someone to talk to relieve my boredom. Don't you even want to give me this little freedom? Do you still want me to stay here?"
Deep down in her heart, Su Qifen always felt that her parents' balance was too tilted towards her brother. Ever since Xie Yun became a member of this family, she felt that her sense of existence was being squeezed to the edge.
Her parents saw it all, but never stood on her side to speak for her, leaving her to endure the injustice alone. They even sent her to live with relatives on the grounds that "a new environment might be better."
Now, just because of a few words with Sun Youfang, her mother's worries were so heavy. Su Qifen felt that this was an absurd and sad irony.
Su's mother was stunned by her daughter's sudden and intense reaction, and her words got stuck in her throat, making it difficult for her to continue.
She suddenly realized that perhaps her usual strictness and directness were not suitable for her grown-up daughter.
So, she tried to adjust her tone, attempting to communicate in a softer way: "Everything Mom did was for your own good. Look at Xu Jianguo, he was influenced by Sun Youfang and is still living in prison. How do you know she wasn't setting him up..."
"Alright, alright, are you tired?"
There was a hint of impatience and haste in Su Qifen's words.
She turned around suddenly, her skirt lifting slightly with the movement, and then she slammed the door and left. The sound echoed in the quiet courtyard, as if she was protesting something.
She walked alone on the path leading to the river, her steps hurried.
When she reached the river, she found a quiet corner and sat down. The cool river breeze blew across her face, but it couldn't completely blow away the indescribable irritability in her heart.
Looking at the shimmering water, Su Qifen's mind was in a whirlwind of thoughts - for her, staying in that home full of troubles and constraints for one more day was torture.
The hope that quietly grew in her heart was to find a good man as soon as possible and escape from this boring life.
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