Old Mrs. Song is reborn; get out of here, you scumbag husband and illegitimate child!

The main room of the Zhou family was in complete chaos.

The wick of the kerosene lamp flickered and made a popping sound.

Three or four women surrounded Anxi Yang, spitting as they spoke.

"I think she's a jinx. Ever since she entered the family, the third son's heart has turned astray."

"Hurry up and return the bride price and all that fine grain. Our Zhou family has been poor farmers for generations. Marrying such a delicate young lady is a disgrace to our ancestors."

Zhou Lao Er's wife stood with her hands on her hips, her thick lips curling up and down.

The older sister-in-law made sarcastic remarks from the side:

"So the third son only picks pretty girls to marry. With that vixen-like face, who knows who he'll seduce when he goes to university. He's getting cuckolded, and the whole Zhou family is going to lose face."

An Xiyang huddled in the corner, holding her youngest son, her face pale and her whole body trembling.

"You ugly people think no one is a good person."

"Bang!"

Zhou Fang kicked the door open, letting in a blast of cold wind.

Zhou Fang stood at the door with bloodshot eyes.

"You guys have such foul mouths, you should just sew them up and pretend you're mute. You're always baring your fangs, your mouths are just for spewing filth."

After cursing, he then cursed Zhou Lao Er:

"After eating your fill for a few days, you don't even know your own name. Zhou Lao Er, are you dead yet?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Lao Er rolled his eyes.

"Third brother, how can you talk to your sister-in-law like that? They're only doing this for your own good..."

Before he could finish speaking...

Zhou Fang rushed over, grabbed Zhou Lao Er by the collar, and punched him hard in the face.

"Ah..." Zhou Lao Er screamed in agony as blood gushed from his nose.

"I'm beating you up for your own good."

The room erupted in chaos.

"Third brother hit someone!" Zhou Lao Er's wife screamed and pounced on him, her hands covered in black mud under her fingernails scratching at Zhou Fang's face.

"We mean well but don't appreciate it; we're just trying to help you."

"Your heart is so black it could be used as poison; if your second brother licked it, he'd be poisoned to death."

Zhou Fang didn't dodge at all.

With that burst of energy, he swung his arm and threw Zhou Lao Er's wife onto the dining table.

It all came down in a blur.

The bowls and chopsticks were broken all over the floor.

Zhou's mother rushed out from the inner room, grabbed a broom used for sweeping dust, and started hitting Zhou Fang hard on the back.

"You've been bewitched by a vixen. You beat up your own second brother for a woman from out of town. You rejected Tie Mei, the good-looking and thrifty housewife, and insisted on marrying this troublemaker. She's turned the house upside down!"

The broom bristles made a dull thud as they hit my skin.

Zhou Fang remained silent.

He stared intently at the few people inside the house on the ground.

Anxi Yang handed Erbao to Dabao.

She rushed over, crying, and stood in front of Zhou Fang to shield him.

He took two hard blows to the back from Zhou's mother.

"Stop hitting him. Stop hitting him."

Anxi Yang cried so hard she could hardly breathe.

"I shouldn't have accepted such a large dowry. I'll pay it back later, I'll pay it double, okay? Stop pressuring Zhou Fang!"

She was truly fed up with this kind of life.

She married Zhou Fang to escape the hardships of farm work, but later fell in love with this man.

Zhou Lao Er's wife got up from the table.

Clutching his waist, he cursed viciously:

"What will you use to pay me back? You've forgotten your roots by relying on your good looks to seduce men. I'm not afraid to say it right here: you're not allowed to go to university. Hand over your acceptance letter."

They're all sisters-in-law, so why is she the one who gets to go to university?

There wasn't a single woman in the surrounding villages who could go to school.

In comparison, those sisters-in-law seem like stepmothers.

"Shut up!"

Zhou Fang let out a loud shout, which shook the dust off the roof.

He snatched the broom from Zhou's mother's hand and pointed it at his second sister-in-law's nose:

"Look at you, you're barely tall enough to fit in a water vat, and you look like a black bear with a face full of dents from being poked by a wild boar. You're just jealous of my wife's beauty and kindness."

Still "not allowed"?

Do you really think you're a traffic light in the city, able to go or stop whenever you want?

Zhou Lao Er's wife was stunned by the scolding.

He was so angry that his eyes rolled back, and he stared at the ground for a long time without uttering a single word.

Zhou Fang, panting heavily, turned to look at his parents, his eyes as cold as ice.

"We must divide the family. We must divide the family today."

Zhou's mother was stunned for a moment, then slapped her thigh and wailed:

"Raising a son means he has to separate from his mother? This is driving me crazy, especially during the Lunar New Year!"

Zhou Fang completely ignored this whole "crying, making a scene, and threatening suicide" act.

He turned around and pushed Anxi Yang into the house.

"Go pack your things, take Da Bao and Er Bao with you, let's go."

Zhou's mother jumped up from the ground, pointed at his nose, and said, "If you dare to step out of this door today, you won't be able to take a single blade of grass with you. I'd like to see where you can freeze to death in the dead of winter."

Zhou's mother did not want her son to separate from the family.

Of all her sons, Zhou Fang was the most capable.

Zhou Fang looked back at his mother, who had given him life and raised him, and the last bit of warmth in her eyes was gone.

"Mom, when other people get married, their families pay the majority of the cost. But when I got married, I relied on the extra money I earned by working day and night carrying bags and repairing dams."

The eldest and second eldest brothers earn so few work points a month, and their families still have to pay them out of pocket.

In addition to work points, I also have to pay you five yuan every month.

Over the years, the money I've given home would have been enough to build three large brick houses.

"Which of the dowry money I gave for my wedding, or the grain I gave to my parents-in-law, came from my own home?"

Zhou's mother choked, her face turning pale, but she still stubbornly insisted:

"You are my child, and everything you own belongs to me. We haven't separated our households, so everything you earn should go to the family."

"Whatever my eldest and second eldest brothers give, I'll give the same amount."

Anxi Yang worked quickly and efficiently, packing out two boxes and a snakeskin bag in just over ten minutes.

Tears were still flowing, but her eyes had become much more determined.

"Walk."

Zhou Fang took the two boxes and carried a snakeskin bag on his back.

The family of four braved the cold wind of the eve of the Lunar New Year and walked out of the Zhou family's gate without looking back.

The curses behind him were shut out by the cold wind inside the door.

……

The Song Family Courtyard.

The courtyard gate was pushed open, and Zhou Fang came in with his wife and children.

"Eastward," Zhou Fang shouted, his voice hoarse.

Song Xianglan came out of the kitchen.

"Come in, Wang Zhi and the others have already arrived."

Zhou Fang pushed the still shivering An Xiyang into the house. "Auntie, could Xiyang and the child stay here to warm up for a while? I'll ask Xiang Dong for a key to your old house so we can stay here."

Song Xiangdong, along with Wang Zhihe, Huang Ronghua, Liu Yukun, and a few others, chopped firewood in the backyard.

They all ran out when they heard the noise.

Song Xiangdong slammed the axe in his hand onto the wooden block.

"They should have broken up a long time ago; who could stand that humiliation?"

Wang Zhihe and Liu Yukun also joined in the commotion:

"We've disliked your sisters-in-law for a long time. They're always nagging. It's only because you have a good temper that you're like this."

Zhou Fang didn't waste any words and went straight to the point.

"I'll go find the brigade leader first to clarify things. You guys help me clean up the old house of the Xiang family."

Song Xianglan's head was throbbing, and she glared at Song Xiangdong.

It must have been that brat stirring things up from behind.

She wiped her hands.

He turned around, went into the inner room, and came out with a set of brass keys.

"Xiangdong, you two go and tidy up. I'll sew the bedding. There's something fishy about that house; aren't you afraid?"

Zhou Fang: "Humans are scarier than ghosts."

Song Xiangdong and the others quickly grabbed basins, towels, brooms, and shovels to clean up the house.

"Zhou Fang, don't just sit around doing nothing," Song Xianglan said again. "Now that we're separating the family, the formalities need to be done properly. Go find the brigade leader and have it all written down in black and white to avoid any disputes later."

Zhou Fang nodded: "I know. I'll go right away."

After he finished speaking, he whispered a few words to An Xiyang.

He turned and left.

Shen Huijun pulled Da Bao and Er Bao to wash their hands and gave them fried meatballs to eat.

Then he pulled Anxi Yang to sit on a bench and chatted.

"Don't cry, you should be happy." Shen Huijun wiped An Xiyang's face with a hot towel. "Your lives will definitely get better and better from now on."

An Xiyang: "I just feel wronged. Why am I so hated?"

"Because you're stronger than them, you live like a human being," Song Tingting interjected. "They're like toads in a quagmire, unable to bear seeing swans soar high."

Song Xianglan and Song Tingting took out three thick quilts from the closet.

"Don't just stand there, hurry up and sew this quilt cover on." Song Xianglan brought over the sewing basket. "That old house is cold and damp, the child can't stand it. This quilt is thick and will keep out the wind."

An Xiyang wanted to say that she had brought it, but then she remembered that her own blanket was very thin. She swallowed all her words.

A mat was laid on the ground.

Several women knelt on the ground, threading a needle.

Anxi Yang also knelt on the ground to help.

Her hands were still trembling slightly, but the tears in her eyes had stopped.

Song Xianglan moved quickly, glancing at An Xiyang out of the corner of her eye.

"Xiao An."

Song Xianglan bit off the end of the thread, her tone flat.

"You and Huijun both got into university, that's a good thing."

Now that we've separated, I should just focus on my studies.

Zhou Fang is a loyal and devoted man. He was even willing to turn against his own parents for you. You should rest assured and hope that the four of you will live a good life together from now on.

She hopes that An Xiyang and Zhou Fang can stay together for the rest of their lives.

An Xiyang paused, a glint of light flashing in her red and swollen eyes.

She looked at Song Xianglan and nodded heavily.

"Auntie, I know. I'm not the kind of heartless woman. I still care about Zhou Fang and the children."