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

Old Zhao took the money, weighed it in his hand, and grinned from ear to ear: "Alright, get in the car, we'll leave once everyone's here."

Ding Xiaohu squeezed through the crowd, clutching two coins in his hand, and forced them into Lin Qianqian's hand: "Sister Qianqian, I'll pay for my own fare."

Lin Qianqian put her hands behind her back, glared at him, and said, "Take them back."

"But--"

"But what 'but'?" Lin Qianqian interrupted him, "Keep that little bit of money for sending things home. It's just a few coins, I can't afford it."

Ding Xiaohu opened his mouth, but seeing Lin Qianqian's expression, he put the money back and muttered, "Thank you, Sister Qianqian."

Several women nearby craned their necks to look in their direction, their eyes darting back and forth between the three men.

Someone muttered something under their breath, and another person pulled them back, causing the group to cover their mouths and laugh.

Lin Qianqian pretended not to see anything, pulled Along and Huzi onto the oxcart, and chose a seat on the side.

Lin Yulong leaned closer and whispered, "Sis, they keep staring at you."

"Let them look," Lin Qianqian put the basket down at her feet and leaned back. "It's not like it'll cost them any more meat."

Old Zhao gave a shout, cracked his whip in the air, and the old ox slowly started moving, the oxcart swaying and wobbling onto the road.

The setting sun hung in the west, dyeing the horizon orange-red. The wind blew from the fields, carrying the scent of earth and grass.

Lin Qianqian closed her eyes, reached into her sleeve and felt for the remaining copper coins, silently calculating in her mind: meat 20 coins, sugar 15 coins, wontons 18 coins, rice 16 coins, cloth and scraps of cloth 180 coins, carriage fare 6 coins...

At this moment, the old woman sitting next to her suddenly reached out and started to rummage through Lin Qianqian's basket.

Lin Qianqian reacted quickly, pressing down on the opening of the basket and looking at her coldly: "Grandma Li, we're not close enough for you to rummage through my basket, are we? Please have some self-respect."

"Oh!" Old Mrs. Li curled her lip, nonchalantly withdrawing her hand. "Just a good-for-nothing, serves you right that your grandmother kicked you and your siblings out. I was just looking, and you dare to talk back to this old woman? Is this how your mother taught you?"

"At your age, you still do things that annoy people, don't you?" Lin Qianqian replied indifferently. "What? Did your mother teach you to do that too?"

Taking advantage of one's age, bad people get old.

"You—" Old Mrs. Li's face stiffened, "You're so quick-witted...you're born of a mother but have no manners..."

He hadn't finished speaking.

With a "snap".

Lin Qianqian's slap had already landed, clean and decisive.

The oxcart fell silent instantly.

Several women stared wide-eyed, and even Old Man Zhao turned around to look.

"You...you dare hit me?" Old Mrs. Li covered her face, trembling all over. "You wretched hussy!"

"Do you think no one knows you and my grandma are birds of a feather?" Lin Qianqian slowly withdrew her hand, her voice not loud, but everyone in the car could hear her clearly. "Like attracts like. No wonder you two are old best friends—one is vicious, and the other is foul-mouthed."

Old Mrs. Li was so angry that she trembled all over, foaming at the corners of her mouth. She pointed at Lin Qianqian and kept stammering "you you you" for a long time, but she couldn't utter a complete sentence.

Several women nearby quickly pulled her aside, patting her back and soothing her, saying things like, "It's alright, it's alright," and "Don't take it to heart with a child."

Lin Qianqian didn't even glance at her again.

The oxcart swayed and rattled into Qinghe Village. The old ox mooed and stopped under the old locust tree at the village entrance.

Lin Qianqian picked up her basket and jumped off the vehicle with a nimble motion.

"Let's go," she said without turning her head.

Lin Yulong and Ding Xiaohu quickly followed, their figures receding into the twilight. Behind them came the intermittent cursing of Old Lady Li, like the buzzing of mosquitoes, but no one paid any attention to it.