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

Anxi Yang stayed until noon before leaving.

She had just left.

Afterwards, Song Xianglan saw that Nie Erhua was fast asleep, tucked the blanket around her, and turned to leave the ward.

There is a public telephone booth at the main entrance of the hospital.

There's no one here right now.

Song Xianglan inserted the coin and dialed the phone number for Old Zhao's street in Qingyang.

I told them to ask someone to call Song Xiangmei to answer the phone.

Twenty minutes later.

She dialed the number again.

The phone rang for a long time before being answered, and Song Xiangmei's anxious voice came from the other end:

"Feed? Is it my older sister?"

"It's me." Song Xianglan held the microphone, her gaze fixed on a poplar tree by the roadside that had been eaten by insects. "Erhua has been found. She's at Haishi Hospital. For her to be alive is to suffer greatly."

There was a loud thud on the other end of the phone, like something had hit the ground.

This was followed by Song Xiangmei's suppressed sobs.

"Stop howling."

Song Xianglan's voice was deep, "Let's take care of business first. Has Xiao Chuan gone back?"

"He just came back from the next county, and he's coming with me now."

The microphone was snatched away.

Nie Xiaochuan's voice trembled: "Third Aunt, my second sister, she..."

"We'll talk about that when we meet. Now, tell me, when Erhua disappeared, which of your brothers took her out of the house?"

Song Xianglan cut to the chase, "I met Erhua on the road in Pingcheng. She said her brother sold her to an old man to have his baby, and she was tortured beyond recognition. She couldn't have run this far on her own without someone familiar with the area to guide her."

Nie Xiaochuan was stunned for a long time on the other end:

"That's impossible. My older brothers are notoriously lazy. The furthest they go is the commune. Who could possibly go that far?"

Song Xianglan's brows furrowed into the shape of the Chinese character "川" (chuan).

At that moment, a young man's voice came from the other end of the phone.

Hesitantly, he said, "Uncle... I just remembered something."

Nie Xiaochuan moved the microphone to the side.

Yan Shugen spoke into the microphone, his voice slightly weak: "Great-aunt, I remember my dad took my mom to visit my great-aunt's house once. That great-aunt's son worked on the railway, in the Pingcheng area. But I remember... my parents came home together."

Nie Xiaochuan asked anxiously from the side.

"You saw your mother come back with your own eyes?"

"I couldn't see her face clearly."

Yan Shugen swallowed hard. "That day, when I heard that my parents had come back, I ran to that room."

I saw a person lying on the bed, sleeping with their face turned inwards, covered with a blanket.

I was about to call out when my dad stopped me, saying that my mom gets carsick and is feeling terribly unwell, and that I shouldn't disturb her sleep.

Song Xianglan tightened her grip on the microphone.

"And then?"

"Then I went out. When I came home that night, the house was a mess. My dad was sitting in a chair drinking. He said my mom was being unreasonable, so he beat her up and she ran away. She probably went to my grandma's house."

Yan Shugen paused, then added:

"I asked my dad why we were arguing again, and he said my fourth aunt had spoken to him. My mom gave him the cold shoulder."

"fart!"

Song Xianglan cursed into the microphone, "That's a setup. The one lying in bed isn't Erhua at all; it's probably Nie Laosi's wife."

There was a deathly silence on the other end of the phone.

Then came Song Xiangmei's furious roar:

"That beast Yan Ergou. I'm going to chop him up."

After saying that, Song Xiangmei hurriedly added, "Third Sister, I need to go to Haishi to find Erhua."

"Big sister, don't rush to Haishi."

Song Xianglan calmly interrupted her, "Erhua, I'll take care of things here. You don't need to come over."

Your current task is to take some men to Yan Ergou's house, beat that bastard to death, and make a big scene.

The whole surrounding area knows Yan Ergou sold his wife. And that Nie Laosi's wife, she definitely took bribes, find her too!

Song Xiangmei gritted her teeth on the other end:

"I'll go get some people right now. I'm not a Song if I don't tear down the Yan family's house!"

"Remember, just say that Erhua has been driven mad by torture, don't mention anything else for now," Song Xianglan instructed before hanging up the phone.

Step out of the phone booth.

The wind outside felt hot on my face.

Song Xianglan was worried that Song Xiangmei wasn't tough enough, but then she thought that with Da Hua around, she didn't need to worry.

Early the next morning.

Nie Erhua was wheeled into the operating room.

Once inside, it takes almost half a day.

When the doctor came out, he took off his mask. "The surgery is over. The patient's health was too poor; whether he can recover is entirely up to fate. He'll need to be carefully cared for from now on and can't withstand the slightest exertion."

Nie Erhua was still under the effects of the anesthesia.

He lay on the bed, his face deathly pale.

Not long after I returned to the ward, An Xiyang arrived.

She was carrying a net bag containing a thermos and a lunchbox.

He had two dark circles under his eyes, indicating that he hadn't slept well all night.

Anxi Yang filled a bowl with brown sugar and eggs and fed it to Nie Erhua, who had just woken up, little by little with a spoon.

Nie Erhua weakly opened her mouth and drank two large bowls.

She fell into a deep sleep again shortly afterward.

Song Xianglan took the aluminum lunchbox handed to her by An Xiyang. Inside were two lion's head meatballs, a loofah stir-fried with eggs, stir-fried bok choy, and white rice.

She was really hungry, and she sat in the chair eating heartily.

The lion's head meatballs are a perfect balance of lean and fatty meat, soaked in broth, and bursting with flavor with every bite.

An Xiyang sat on the edge of the bed, staring blankly at the old sycamore tree outside the window, her fingers unconsciously picking at the hem of her clothes.

"What's on your mind?" Song Xianglan asked casually, picking up a piece of egg.

Anxi Yang stiffened for a moment, then gave a wry smile:

"It's my mom."

She turned her head, her eyes bloodshot.

"Yesterday, my mom's best friend's son, Fu Qingnian, came to visit her at my house. Last night, my mom confronted me again, telling me that I must divorce Zhou Fang, and that the child should go to An Jia's house and she would take care of him."

She said Zhou Fang wasn't good enough for me, and Fu Qingnian was the intellectual who truly understood me.

Song Xianglan paused with her chopsticks.

Swallow the food in your mouth:

What is Zhou Fang's attitude?

An Xiyang rubbed her temples. "They wanted to move the kids out to a guesthouse first thing this morning. They said they wouldn't be spending the summer in Haishi anymore, and they were afraid our family would take the kids away from them."

Song Xianglan put down her lunchbox and took a sip of water: "Your marriage is fine, and your partner hasn't made any fundamental mistakes. To demand a divorce with just a few words and then try to take the child away is really unethical. No wonder Zhou Fang is angry."

"I just feel... torn between my mother and my husband, it's making me feel suffocated."

Anxi Yang's eyes are a little red.

"Godmother, what would Shen Huijun have done if it were her?"

Song Xianglan knew that Shen Huijun was not easily swayed.

Although she remarried in her previous life, it was mostly Song Xianglan's fault.

"I won't get involved; let Huijun and Xiangdong make their own choice. Huijun and Xiangdong also have feelings for each other."

Anxi Yang was stunned.

Song Xianglan continued eating, "The important thing is what you think, not your mother's or Zhou Fang's thoughts. It's how you think you should choose your own path in life."

Anxi Yang was silent for a moment, then nodded:

"I see."

As she was leaving, An Xiyang seemed to remember something, "Oh right, godmother, news came back from Pingcheng that some villagers went to the hospital to beat people up, and accidentally injured other patients in the ward. This has caused quite a stir."

Song Xianglan raised an eyebrow: "Oh?"

"The village chief of Zhangjiazhuang and more than twenty ringleaders were arrested. In the midst of the chaos, several abducted women managed to escape and were rescued."

Anxi Yang's eyes sparkled. "Godmother, although you suffered this time, you also accumulated great merit by saving many people."