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

Only then did the two dare to move.

"It tastes much better than brown rice cakes." Ding Xiaohu grinned.

"Sister really didn't lie." Lin Yulong's mouth was so full that he could barely speak.

Lin Qianqian didn't reply, looking thoughtfully at the soaked poisoned potatoes: "After you finish eating, Hu Zi will go to your house to grind poisoned potatoes."

"it is good."

The three men scooped out the poisoned potatoes, put them in their baskets, and headed towards the Ding family's house.

As she approached her doorstep, Lin Qianqian quickened her pace—she didn't want any interaction with the Lin family; even a glance was too much of a bother.

"Are you in such a hurry to be reincarnated, you brat!"

Ding Yuxiang came out carrying a basin of dirty water and bumped into it.

Lin Qianqian glanced at her, too lazy to bother with her. Business was more important; she'd let her off the hook for now.

Ding Yuxiang, however, thought she was scared and grabbed the basket tightly, refusing to let go: "What are you carrying? Let me see! You're always bringing things to your father instead of going to the Ding family, you can't even tell the difference between your own family and your own!"

"Let go."

Lin Qianqian suddenly struggled.

The basket wobbled, and several poisoned potatoes rolled out.

Ding Yuxiang's face turned deathly pale: "Poison...potatoes? You're carrying poisoned potatoes?!"

"Why don't you take some home to eat?" Lin Qianqian offered it to him with ill intent.

Ding Yuxiang slapped the hand away and jumped back as if she had been burned: "Keep it for yourself! I don't want to die!" After saying that, she ran away in a flash.

"Sis, why does she look like she's seen a ghost?" Lin Yulong scratched his head.

Lin Qianqian tapped him: "Who are you calling a ghost?"

The three of them quickly entered the Ding family's courtyard. Uncle Ding, unusually, wasn't weaving baskets.

"My dad went to town early this morning to sell baskets," Ding Xiaohu said.

"Qianqian and Along are here?" Aunt Ding poked her head out of the house.

"Auntie," Lin Qianqian said bluntly, "I heard from Hu Zi that you have a stone mill at home, and I want to grind the poisoned potatoes."

Aunt Ding's smile froze: "What? Grind poisonous potatoes? You can't eat those, they'll poison you!"

"Auntie, I have a way to remove the poison. We just ate it," Lin Qianqian said calmly.

"What?!" Aunt Ding's voice suddenly rose, "You little brats ate poisoned potatoes? It's all over, it's all over, it's going to kill you!" Before she finished speaking, she had already turned around and rushed to the outhouse.

Lin Yulong looked bewildered: "What's wrong, Auntie?"

Ding Xiaohu's face turned pale: "It's over, my mother must have gone to get manure water—last year the Zhang family next door accidentally ate poisonous potatoes, and they were saved by having manure water poured on them!"

Lin Qianqian's stomach churned violently, and she almost vomited up the poisonous potato she had just eaten.

"Auntie! We're not poisoned!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

That's too late.

Aunt Ding came out carrying a full spoonful of sewage, and no one could stop her.

The three little ones turned and ran.

Lin Yulong ran all the way to the village entrance, then, leaning on his knees and panting heavily, asked, "Sister... what do we do now?"

Exhausted, Lin Qianqian sat down on a roadside stone and closed her eyes briefly: "Let Aunt Ding calm down before we go."

She paused, then added, "Who could bear to carry that thing?"

Lin Yulong squatted down by the rock, catching his breath, and asked softly, "Sister, shall we go back?"

Lin Qianqian didn't answer, stared at the way she came for a couple of seconds, and then suddenly stood up.

"go back."

"Huh? Go back? Aren't you afraid..." Lin Yulong's face turned green. "Auntie hasn't even poured out that spoon yet!"

"If she keeps putting on airs, you take the lead and drink." Lin Qianqian glared at him. "Let's go."

The three of them reluctantly turned back.

As soon as we turned into the Ding family courtyard, we heard a loud crash coming from inside—the sound of a bucket hitting the ground.

Immediately afterward, Aunt Ding's voice boomed: "Why are you little brats running around like that!"

The three children paused, looking at each other in bewilderment.

"I...I'll go in and take a look?" Ding Xiaohu swallowed hard and cautiously peered through the gate.

Two seconds later, he shrank back, his expression very strange: "My mother... is laughing."

"Laugh?" Lin Qianqian frowned.

"She said she's figured it out," Ding Xiaohu said, scratching his head. "She said if you guys were really poisoned, you should have been lying on the ground by now, how could you have run so fast?"

Lin Qianqian breathed a sigh of relief and stepped into the courtyard.