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

One by one, several more experienced slaughterhouse workers arrived, along with Liu Yidao's close friends, making the room bustling with noise.

Everyone made no attempt to be polite and pulled over benches to sit down.

Some people even brought their own loose liquor, ready to have a good drink with Liu Yidao.

Liu Yidao wiped the sweat from his forehead and arranged for Song Xianglan, Sister Zhao, and several old colleagues from the slaughterhouse to sit at the table in the middle.

He was still a little uneasy, having noticed earlier in the kitchen that the food preparation was insufficient.

But Chen Yuhuan patted his chest and said there were more big dishes to come.

He believed it.

Liu Yidao is a man with small gaps between his fingers; he never haggles over the price of meat.

"The food is served!"

The Chen family's daughters-in-law filed out carrying plates.

Everyone picked up their chopsticks, glanced at the plate, and then hesitated to take a bite.

The first dish is braised pork with radish.

The white radish was cut into pieces as big as bricks.

The plate was piled high, and it took me ages to dig through it with chopsticks before I finally found a few tiny pieces of meat, each the size of a fingernail, at the bottom.

The second dish was a braised platter.

The braised kelp and braised peanuts took up most of the plate, with only a few thin, translucent slices of pig's head meat attached to the side; to the untrained eye, they looked like the plate's pattern.

Next up is stir-fried pork intestines.

The large intestine wasn't even as thick as a finger; it was all chili pepper skin.

Taro stewed with pork hock, but you only see taro and no meat.

There was only half a steamed blue crab left on the table, but luckily there were boiled shrimp and soy sauce soft-shelled turtle.

There was an awkward silence at the table for a moment.

Sister Zhao, holding her chopsticks, stirred the braised pork in the dish a couple of times, picked up a large radish, and looked at Liu Yidao with a half-smile:

"Hey Lao Liu, we all know you're generous, but what's this all about today? A 'bitter past' dinner to savor the present?"

Several experienced workers nearby also joined in the commotion:

"When I used to come to your house for drinks, we'd eat huge chunks of meat. What happened today? Did the pork go missing?"

Liu Yidao's dark red face instantly turned a deep liver color.

He's not stupid.

This whole table of food and drinks would cost at most a few dollars.

He gave Chen Yuhuan a full thirty yuan to prepare for the banquet.

There's also a pig's head, with over ten kilograms of meat inside.

Then look at the two tables next to it.

Chen Yuhuan's entire family ate with great relish.

Sister-in-law Chen's mouth was stuffed full, there was a pile of crab shells in front of her, and she was gnawing on a large pork knuckle bone in her hand.

Liu Yidao felt a burning pain on his face.

It felt like being slapped twice in public.

"Um... well..."

Liu Yidao picked up his wine glass, forcing a smile. "I accidentally miscalculated the number of people and bought too little meat. I'm sorry everyone, let's just have a bite for now, I'll go to the state-run restaurant later and have two more tables."

Done.

He picked up a piece of braised pork and radish and put it in his mouth.

It wasn't Song Xianglan's cooking at all.

He picked up another piece of fish with his chopsticks, the fishy smell assaulting his senses; it wasn't made by Liu Dahua either.

Liu Yidao was extremely bitter. This wasn't a treat; it was paying money to suffer and losing face.

"This godparent..." he asked, a question mark appearing on his face.

Song Xianglan and the others drank some water but didn't eat anything.

Meanwhile, the three tables at the Chen family's next table were playing drinking games, making a deafening noise that drowned out the conversation of the guests here.

Old Mrs. Chen would occasionally glance in this direction with her cloudy eyes, muttering something under her breath.

The dinner party ended.

Song Xianglan and the others didn't linger; they said goodbye to Liu Yidao and left.

On the way back to the village.

Liu Dahua pedaled her tricycle, her brows furrowed in worry.

"Lanlan, I have a feeling that Old Liu's adoption of this godfather relationship is a bit questionable," Liu Dahua sighed. "That whole family doesn't seem like they're easy to deal with. Look at how they handled things today, they're practically ripping Old Liu off."

Song Xianglan sat in the back of the cart, smiling into the wind:

"You noticed?"

"I'm not blind."

Liu Dahua curled her lip. "That Chen Yuhuan looks all smiles, but her eyes are shifty. And that whole family looks like they've been starved to death. Old Liu is probably in for a rough time."

Song Xianglan leaned forward and patted Liu Dahua on the back.

"Since you can't stand seeing Lao Liu suffer, why don't you take him in? If you agree, I'll act as your matchmaker. Once he has a proper wife, all those godparents and goddaughters will have to take a backseat."

The tricycle lurched violently.

Liu Yidao's honest face flashed through Liu Dahua's mind.

"Get out of here! You're so unprofessional!"

Liu Dahua cursed, but a blush crept onto her face. "Why don't you find a match for yourself?"

"I'm not interested in that."

Song Xianglan smoothed her wind-blown hair. "You're different. Zhu Zi's body is in Cao Ying, but his heart is with Liu Bei. His whole heart is devoted to his grandmother. Who will you rely on when you're old? That ungrateful wretch who only asks for your help?"

When mentioning his son, Zhu Zi,

Liu Dahua's eyes darkened.

Liu Dahua's voice lowered, revealing a sense of helplessness and bitterness.

"I've met a few old widowers in private. But they all look respectable, and the first thing they ask is for me to help take care of their grandchildren and serve their whole family. They even want me to hand over the money I earn from beachcombing. They're looking for maids who will pay me out of their own pockets."

Liu Dahua became increasingly angry as she spoke.

He pedaled very fast.

"Men also feel like they're a treasure when they get old, and that they become more valuable with age."

They even think that we women are like grass, and that we should be grass that can work but doesn't need fertilizer.

The money I earn is his, the housework is mine, and I have to take care of his children and grandchildren. The day he gets old and can't move, he'll kick me out the door.

Sometimes Liu Dahua also harbored a bit of wishful thinking.

I don't think Zhu Zi's dad would be that heartless.

But every time she saw Zhu Zi's nonchalant attitude, she felt a chill run down her spine.

The father and son had a conscience, but not much.

He gave all his little conscience to others.

Song Xianglan felt uneasy after hearing this.

These days, it's really tough being a second-marriage couple.

It's all calculated.

"Old Liu is different from those people."

Song Xianglan said solemnly, "He worked in the slaughterhouse his whole life and had no children."

He doesn't need you to take care of his grandson, nor does he need you to serve the whole family.

He just wanted to find someone who cared about him and wanted to spend his life with him.

If you marry into that family, you'll be the lady of the house, and no one will dare to mistreat you.

Shen Huijun's eyes lit up when she heard this.

"Aunt Dahua, I think Mom is right. Uncle Yidao is a really good person, and he doesn't seem to be afraid of anything."

Song Tingting also joined in the commotion:

"Auntie Da Hua, you two are a good match."

Liu Dahua blushed deeply after they said that.

He turned around and spat:

"What do kids like you know?"

While he was cursing, the once still lake in his heart began to ripple.

The group arrived at their doorstep.

Song Xianglan had just gotten off the bus.

The gate to the neighbor's yard, which had been empty for a long time, was wide open.

The Yu family used to live next door to the ugly woman's house.

The entrance was piled high with large and small bags of luggage, as well as several old, blackened wooden crates.

Dust filled the courtyard.

Several people were cleaning up the area.

Liu Chounu was standing there with Lin Gang's wife and Lin Mu's wife, peeking around.

Liu Chounu's eyes lit up, and she quickly waved, "Lanlan, your nemesis is back."

Song Xianglan walked over in a few steps.

Liu Chou-nu lowered her voice, a smug look on her face, and said, "Lanlan, you two used to argue all the time, are you missing Granny Yu?"

Upon hearing this name, Song Xianglan...

His eyebrows then rose.

Back then, Granny Yu's fourth son was promoted to officer in the army and brought his whole family to live with him.

They were living a very glamorous life, as if they wanted to have a sign on their forehead that read "I am an old lady of the government."

Before leaving, he even went to Song Xianglan's door to show off, belittling Song Xianglan to the point of being worthless, saying that she was a country pig butcher who would rot in this mud pit for the rest of her life.

She's going to the city to enjoy a life of luxury and comfort.

The two cursed at each other across the courtyard wall of Liu Chou Nu's house for three days, making Liu Chou Nu so engrossed in the argument that she ate several pounds of melon seeds.

Did they slink back in disgrace?

Song Xianglan rolled up her sleeves and walked towards the courtyard gate.

We haven't gotten close yet.

A sharp and sarcastic curse came from the courtyard.

"Eldest daughter-in-law! Are you wiping the table or slacking off? Can't you put in a little more effort! Didn't you eat?"

"Second son's wife, are you laying eggs there? I can't even sweep the floor for half an hour. What good are you bunch of useless trash to me?"

"Third son's wife. Is she going to fall into the latrine or play Snake with a dung beetle?"

Granny Yu had gray hair, high cheekbones, and a fierce look on her face.

She was holding a feather duster and cursing loudly.

"You bunch of jinxes have ruined all our good fortune. I get angry just looking at you. Don't think you can live like you did in the family compound just because you're back in the village. From now on, you'd all be back in the fields earning work points."

It seems so.

Couldn't make it there and got sent back?

Song Xianglan felt more confident.

He cleared his throat and shouted loudly into the yard:

"Oh. Isn't this the official's wife from the Yu family? Had you had your fill of city life and come back to inspect the work?"

That shout was full of energy.

The shouting in the yard was so loud it broke the silence.

Granny Yu turned around abruptly and saw Song Xianglan standing at the door with a half-smile. Her face instantly turned ashen.

Her arch-rival came to see her make a fool of herself.

Granny Yu flung the feather duster in her hand. "Song Xianglan, stop with your sarcastic remarks. It's none of your business if I go home."

Song Xianglan slowly looked Granny Yu up and down, her gaze landing on her mud-splattered cloth shoes.

"It's none of my business. I heard chickens running and dogs barking in the yard, and I thought a weasel had gotten into someone's house. Just now I heard you scolding your daughter-in-law quite loudly, saying that she laid eggs."

"Old woman Yu, are you still brooding and laying eggs?"

The group of ugly women watching the commotion burst out laughing.

Granny Yu's old face turned as red as an eggplant.

"You...you pig-slaughtering brute, spewing filth from your mouth. You're the one who's brooding and laying eggs."

Song Xianglan sneered;

"Even I, a rough man, know that harmony in the family brings prosperity in all things."

Unlike some troublemakers who, after only a couple of days as officials' wives, slink back with their tails between their legs. Were they too disruptive over there and got kicked out?

These words struck a nerve with Granny Yu.