The wicked mother-in-law doesn't try to whitewash herself; she only abuses her awful children.

Chapter 148 A Little Disheartening
Chen Sufen was rescued from Xu Si's clutches by her mother-in-law and escaped back home.

The belt on her clothes was undone, but luckily there was no one on the road.

All morning, listening to the noise outside and the hurried footsteps rushing to the threshing ground, she felt both ashamed and afraid.

Her mother-in-law told her to stay at home and not to come out, but she was too afraid to go out and was extremely worried.

She was afraid that her mother-in-law would be at a disadvantage in the confrontation with Xu Si, and that the entire Gu family would be implicated.

She cried at home, took a bath, scrubbed her skin until it was red, and then couldn't help but cry again.

She felt dirty after being touched by Xu Si, and felt sorry for Gu Dahan and Man'er.

If only I had held the fork tighter then, if only I had gone back to the Liu family's wheat field with Lu Zhaozhao, if only...
Chen Sufen felt increasingly remorseful, blaming herself for all the mistakes of the day.

Chen Sufeng, a pure-hearted woman, regarded a woman's chastity and purity as the most important thing. The more she thought about it, the more regretful she became, and finally she got stuck in a rut.

Gu Dahan pushed open the front door and called out "Man'er's mother" a few times. When no one answered, he pushed open the bedroom door in the side room and saw Chen Sufeng tying a rope to the roof beam and about to crawl her head into the rope.

"Mother Man'er, what are you doing?"

Gu Dahan was terrified and pulled Chen Sufeng down from the rope.

When Chen Su-fen saw Gu Da-han, she felt even more ashamed and cried incessantly, then tried to hang herself again.

"What's wrong with you?" Gu Dahan asked, puzzled.

Chen Su-fen covered her mouth with a handkerchief and sobbed silently.

How could she possibly explain this to Da Han? It was just too embarrassing.

He really didn't understand why Chen Su-fen would hang herself.

Even though life was so hard before, and she suffered mistreatment from her stepmother and bullying from her sisters-in-law, she never thought of taking her own life.

Why do people want to die now that they're living a good life?
Everything was fine when I came home from Liu's wheat field this morning, wasn't it?

Gu Dahan had initially thought that since the whole family was at the threshing ground supporting his stepmother, Chen Sufeng was at home and didn't know to come out and take a look. He was even thinking that he would have a good talk with her when they met. But now that he saw Chen Sufeng about to hang herself, he had already forgotten all about the words he was going to say to her.

"Dahan, don't ask anymore. I have no face to live. Just let me die." Chen Sufeng said as she tried to rush towards the rope, but Gu Dahan held her tightly.

As Tong Huaqiong led everyone into the house, they heard crying coming from inside the large house.

"What's wrong, sister-in-law?" Liu Yue'e ran to the door of the main room and pushed it open with a bang.

Tong Huaqiong saw the rope on the roof beam, Chen Sufeng trying to put it on, and Gu Dahan who was extremely anxious.

Everyone was shocked. Why would Chen Su-fen want to hang herself?
"Mother!" Man'er cried out, running over and grabbing Chen Sufen's leg, sobbing, "Mother, don't die!"

Tong Huaqiong entered Chen Sufen's room, and the others followed her in.

"What exactly happened? Did you bully your sister-in-law, brother?" Gu Dashu asked.

"No, I don't know what happened. When I came back, I saw that she was about to hang herself," Gu Dahan said.

Tong Huaqiong's eyes were dark and unfathomable. Apart from Chen Sufen, only she understood why Chen Sufen wanted to take her own life.

Of course, Gu Taohua was someone who knew a little about it.

“Eldest daughter-in-law, I asked you to come home, not to kill yourself,” Tong Huaqiong said.

Chen Sufen turned her head and saw Tong Huaqiong covered in wheat awns and dust. She knew that her mother-in-law had suffered a lot of grievances and was even more ashamed to face her.

"Sister-in-law, you should just hang yourself! If you die, your brother will find a stepmother for Man'er, and she'll call him 'brother' every day and bully Man'er, just like Mother bullied your sister and brother," Gu Taohua said, rolling her eyes.

She was certain her guess was correct.

The person Xu Si was trying to bully at the threshing ground wasn't his mother at all, but his sister-in-law. It must have been his mother who went to the threshing ground and discovered that his sister-in-law was being bullied by Xu Si, and in order to shift the blame onto herself, she sent her sister-in-law home.

Fortunately, my mother took the blame. If it weren't for my mother, given my sister-in-law's personality, she would have tried to kill herself even before the villagers found out. If things had been laid bare for Magistrate Liu and the whole village to judge, she probably would have smashed her head against the threshing ground.

How could Xu Si and Granny Yan be punished?

Gu Taohua was a little angry. She felt that Chen Sufeng's suicide attempt had betrayed Tong Huaqiong's good intentions.

Chen Sufeng was stunned by Gu Taohua's words, tears streaming down her face. She couldn't help but look at Tong Huaqiong and ask, "Mother, how are you?"

Tong Huaqiong snorted and said, "You still have the leisure to ask me questions? I thought that if I shielded you, you would serve me well in the future, but you've turned around and tried to kill yourself. If I had known, I wouldn't have saved you."

Tong Huaqiong was a little angry, just like Gu Taohua.

She knew that Chen Sufeng, being a pure-hearted woman, valued her innocence above all else, which is why she allowed Chen Sufeng to escape unscathed and leave everyone with the scene of Xu Si trying to bully her.

She was a widow, and she didn't care about gossip.

Chen Su-fen is no good. She is too sensitive and can't stand having her reputation damaged.

She originally thought Chen Sufen would understand her good intentions, but she just acted like she was being given a stick and wanted to hang herself.

Tong Huaqiong felt that her enthusiasm had been let down and was somewhat disheartened.

At first, everyone was quite puzzled when they saw Chen Su-fen hang herself.

They gleaned a clue from Tong Huaqiong's words, and after a moment's thought, they understood why Chen Sufeng wanted to commit suicide.

Everyone, like Gu Taohua, guessed that Xu Si was trying to bully Chen Sufeng at the threshing ground, but Tong Huaqiong blocked him and shifted the blame onto her.

"Su Fen, is the person Xu Si is trying to bully you?" Gu Dahan asked bluntly.

Chen Su-fen cried even harder.

Chen Su-fen didn't even need to say anything; things were just as everyone expected.

Gu Dahan's eyes reddened.

The stepmother's actions were completely unexpected.

In the past, if Chen Sufen was bullied by Xu Si, her stepmother would rush to scold her for being immoral before anyone else could laugh at her.

Now the stepmother is shifting the blame from Chen Sufeng onto herself.

Aside from his own family, who else would know that Xu Si was going to bully Chen Sufen today?

"No matter who Xu Si bullies, it's unacceptable if it's a woman from our Gu family. Bullying your wife is the same as bullying me. Da Han, you don't need to worry about who Xu Si bullied. Xu Si is the one at fault in this whole affair. Su Fen and I are not at fault," Tong Huaqiong said coldly.

She carefully examined Gu Dahan.

If this stepson has the mindset of feeling cheated on if his wife is mistreated, she will definitely kick him out.

Gu Dahan wiped away his tears and knelt down beside Tong Huaqiong with a thud, crying, "As long as Su Fen is alright, Mother, I don't know how to thank you enough for treating Su Fen like this."

Upon hearing this, Chen Sufen raised her head and looked at Gu Dahan with teary eyes.

"No need for those sentimental words, just comfort your wife. She was frightened today," Tong Huaqiong said.

Gu Dahan wiped away his tears and stood up.

"Su Fen, those who bullied you don't even want to die, so why should you? Since you want to die, then I'll have Da Han send you on your way," Tong Huaqiong shouted at Chen Su Fen. "How can you do this to me?"

(End of this chapter)