After the family split up, my stepmother and scumbag father begged me to come home.

As the sun was about to set, the group went home.

Old Mrs. Lin woke up, felt the urge to urinate, and shuffled towards the outhouse in the backyard. As she passed the chicken coop, she paused, sensing something was amiss, but couldn't quite put her finger on it. After relieving herself, she glanced into the chicken coop again—

empty.

The old hen that she had raised for two years and that laid eggs for her every day is gone.

There was blood on the ground.

Grandma Lin's scream of "Ah—" woke up everyone in the courtyard.

Lin Xiaohua, who was taking a nap in the main room, sat up with a start. Ding Yuxiang and Lin Yuanyuan in the west wing were also so frightened by the howl that they almost rolled off the bed.

"That old hag, she's always wailing and lamenting. What's wrong with her now, in the middle of the day?" Ding Yuxiang cursed as she slipped on her shoes.

Lin Yuanyuan rubbed her eyes: "Mom, did she do it on purpose? She just caused you trouble this morning..."

"So what?" Ding Yuxiang sneered. "Your father still has to listen to me, doesn't he?"

Lin Xiaohua was the first to run out and saw the old lady standing in front of the chicken coop, her face pale and her lips trembling.

"Mom, what's wrong?"

"My chickens...my chickens are gone!" The old woman pointed at the chicken coop, her fingers trembling. "There's blood! That bastard stole my chickens!"

She froze for a moment, then a scene flashed through her mind of Ding Yuxiang arguing with her that morning. Her anger flared up instantly, and she yelled at the top of her lungs, "Ding Yuxiang! Get out here! Give me back my chicken!"

Ding Yuxiang happened to be walking to the door when she heard these words, and her face immediately fell.

"Are you ever going to stop?" She shuffled out in her slippers, her clothes unbuttoned. "I don't know where your chicken went, I didn't take it!"

"You didn't take it?" The old woman's eyes widened like saucers. "If you didn't take it, who did? You're holding a grudge about what happened this morning, so you went after my chickens!"

"I..." Ding Yuxiang trembled with anger, "I already said it wasn't me! Who knows which shameless person stole your worthless chicken!"

After she finished speaking, she turned to go back into the house, but the old lady was not about to give up. She rushed up, grabbed her hair, and pulled her back with all her might.

"Give me back my chicken! If you don't give me back my chicken today, I'll have my second son divorce you!"

Ding Yuxiang's scalp was pulled painfully, so she grabbed the old lady's soft flesh at the waist and the two of them twisted into a ball.

"Divorced me?" Ding Yuxiang pinched and cursed, "With your good-for-nothing son, who else would he look for after leaving me? Do you really think your son is some kind of hot commodity? What, do you have the money to marry him off to a rich family's daughter?"

"You...you..." The old lady was choked and couldn't speak, her face turning a deep purplish-red.

She looked down on Ding Yuxiang, but she really didn't have the money to let her second son marry another woman.

The two started fighting, neither willing to give up.

Lin Qianqian squatted in the woodshed, peering out through the crack in the door, feeling increasingly frustrated.

Her envisioned scenario was this: the old lady would discover the chickens had been stolen, fly into a rage, interrogate everyone involved, and eventually suspect her—after all, she was the prime suspect. Then, she would take the opportunity to muddy the waters, ideally forcing the old lady to bring up the idea of ​​dividing the family property.

But now?

The old lady and Ding Yuxiang were arguing fiercely, their voices were hoarse from shouting, their hair was disheveled, and their shoes were kicked off, yet no one even glanced at the woodshed.

That pool of chicken blood, dripping brightly from the chicken coop all the way to the woodshed door, was like a road sign, but the people in the yard had eyes that looked like they had shit for eyes and couldn't see it at all.

"Sis, why aren't they coming to find us?" Lin Yulong leaned closer and whispered, his tone surprisingly aggrieved. "I'm all prepared to get beaten up."

Lin Qianqian rolled her eyes at him: "Do you want to get beaten up?"

"No..." Lin Yulong scratched his head, "I just feel like all that preparation was for nothing, it's a shame."

Lin Qianqian didn't say anything and continued to look outside.