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

"Huijun, you keep an eye on the fire. I'll go dig up some Achyranthes bidentata and make soup for everyone. I'll also make you a lean pork and egg soup separately for lunch."

Song Xianglan wiped her hands on her apron.

He grabbed a small shovel from under the wall, then turned and left the kitchen.

The open space in front of the yard was overgrown with weeds and had become a haven for wild herbs.

It had just rained, the soil was loose, and the air smelled of mud.

Song Xianglan squatted down and rummaged through a clump of weeds, revealing the dark red stems.

Achyranthes bidentata can invigorate blood circulation and relieve menstrual cramps, while Gnaphalium affine can stop coughs. In those years when medical resources were scarce, these inconspicuous wild herbs were treasures.

Song Xianglan had just shoveled up a rootstock covered in wet mud.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a dark figure darting out from the gate of the neighboring courtyard.

Granny Yu carried a bamboo basket covered with a blue floral cloth and walked very fast, as if a ghost was chasing her.

The two walked towards each other.

Granny Yu paused in her steps.

His nostrils twitched violently as he smelled the beef aroma wafting from the Song family's courtyard.

"Your son's gone mad, all he does is cook." Granny Yu spat on the ground, her eyelids drooping and her face full of sourness. "Has he ever thought about us neighbors? The fishy smell every day is making my grandson cry with envy."

Song Xianglan scraped mud off the soles of her shoes with the shovel in her hand without even lifting her eyelids.

"I know you're incredibly jealous, so I'm going to make something delicious to annoy you. I'll make you so angry that you'll be wielding six hands with your left and seven with your right, circling your left foot and kicking your right, until you're half-paralyzed and have diarrhea."

"You...you're swearing!" Granny Yu's face wrinkled up.

Her family's life is getting worse and worse.

As Song the butcher's later years improved, she thought that Song Xiangdong's mental instability would curb her arrogance.

Song Xianglan is still striving for a better life every day.

"I'm insulting a dog, and you're asking for it."

Song Xianglan stood up, slapped the shovel in her hand, and said, "I've seen people pick up money, but I've never seen anyone pick up insults."

"You're so bored you're practically chapped. Even taking care of your daughter-in-law during her postpartum period can't shut you up? Are you trying to save your spittle for later use?"

"You sit on my mouth and don't know what's good or bad. You'll have days when you don't have enough to eat."

Song Xianglan's insults towards Granny Yu were even harsher: "Life has no mistakes, only idiots."

"If you don't need your brain, donate it to make fertilizer. Your capable son is as gloomy as if he crawled out of the underworld."

Granny Yu was so angry that she couldn't catch her breath and glared fiercely at Song Xianglan.

Song Xianglan smiled smugly, turned around and shouted into her own yard, raising her voice high:

"Huijun, wash those two pork bones clean, we'll make bone broth. I'll go cut some chives, we'll stir-fry beef blood later."

His shout was so powerful that it could be heard by more than a dozen households nearby.

Shen Huijun responded from the kitchen.

The crisp sound carried a cheerful energy.

Song Xianglan carried a few Achyranthes bidentata plants back home.

Liu Chounu was leaning against the half-mud wall of her own house, her arms supporting her chin, her face beaming with a smile, clearly enjoying the verbal battle she had just witnessed.

"I said Granny Yu's fighting spirit isn't up to par today." Liu Chounu said, cracking sunflower seeds and spitting the shells far away.

Granny Yu was the type to bite anyone she could get her hands on, but "I won't stoop to Song the butcher's level."

"Your basket is so heavy, where are you going?" the ugly woman asked mysteriously. "What good stuff do you have?"

Liu Chounu climbed over the courtyard wall and rushed over to lift the floral cloth from Granny Yu's basket.

"Get out of the way."

The ugly woman lifted a corner of the floral cloth, revealing pig's trotters and eggs inside.

"I'll take it to Xiujuan."

"I haven't seen you go to the commune, where did this pig's trotter come from?" Liu Chounu muttered.

Granny Yu picked up her basket and hurried away.

Liu Chounu shook her head as she watched her retreating figure, thinking to herself that she was becoming increasingly unable to understand this old woman.

She went to Song Xianglan's house to talk.

Just a few minutes.

A scream suddenly erupted from the Yu family's yard next door.

Where did the pig's trotters my mom brought this morning go?

Tang Xiuhe's voice was sharp and shrill, carrying a sense of hysterical collapse.

Then came a commotion of rummaging through drawers and cabinets, and a basin crashed to the ground with a loud bang.

"Where did the pig's trotters go? My mom got up early to queue at the supply and marketing cooperative to buy them, and they were delivered to me to help with lactation."

The eldest sister-in-law's voice followed immediately.

Cold and annoyed:

"Third sister-in-law, what do you mean? There are only a few of us in the family, do you think we would steal your raw pig's trotters?"

"Exactly, who cares about your two lousy pig trotters?"

Second Sister-in-law Yu chimed in sarcastically, "Don't blame someone else for something you didn't put away properly and it got snatched away by a stray cat."

Tang Xiuhe was clearly furious.

He wouldn't listen at all, and started jumping up and down cursing in the yard:

"Which heartless bastard stole my pig's trotter? Eat, eat, eat until you die without a child!"

The person who steals food has sores on their tongue and pus oozing from their head, not even afraid of their intestines rotting. Their face is bigger than a basin, yet they know no shame; only they know the retribution that awaits them.

The curses grew louder and louder.

Each sentence is more venomous than the last.

Song Xianglan and Liu Chounu exchanged a glance, their eyes sparkling with gossip.

In the neighboring yard.

Old Man Yu puffed on his pipe.

Finally, unable to bear it any longer, he roared with a dark face:

"Third brother. Control your wife. Who knows if she even has any pig's trotters? Have you no shame? You're just cursing and swearing at home over food, causing chaos and making a laughingstock of the household."

Yu Laosan is a good-for-nothing.

After being yelled at by his father, he immediately turned around and cursed Tang Xiuhe:

"What are you yelling about in the house? Who would take your pig's trotters? Go back inside right now."

Tang Xiuhe was in the middle of a tirade.

They won't stop.

Liu Chounv listened to the commotion over there and spat out the sunflower seed shells from her mouth.

Chong Songxianglan winked and shouted at the top of her lungs toward the next room:

"Old Yu, I just saw Granny Yu carrying a basket out, saying she was delivering pig's trotters to Xiujuan. Did she take the wrong one?"

That shout was uttered.

The neighboring yard fell into a deathly silence in an instant.

You can hear the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves clearly.

"A cripple farting—he's got a wicked look on his face. The old are shameless, and the young are brazen."

Tang Xiuhe was stunned for a moment, then burst out with an even more shocking curse, "If you want to eat pig's trotters, just tell me, can't I share some with her?"

Every time my family sends something, that shameless old thief steals it. He's addicted to stealing, and he can't shake this despicable habit even in his old age.

The eldest and second sisters-in-law of the Yu family remained silent this time.

Their mother-in-law often took their things to help her sister-in-law.

Right now, I can't tell how happy I am.

Old Yu was so embarrassed that he slammed his pipe hard against the sole of his shoe.

"Third son, your mother raised you all these years, and you're complaining over two worthless pig trotters? What's the use of raising you? This kind of daughter-in-law should be beaten to death; she's lawless."

"Is he lawless?"

Tang Xiuhe, her hair disheveled, rushed up to Old Man Yu and said, "If you want to be filial, go buy it yourself. Don't yell at me."

They don't even take a piss and look at themselves in the mirror. They treat everything like thieves and predators robbing and stealing for food. They even steal worthless pig's trotters. If you're so capable, give me my money back!

"Snapped!"

A crisp sound.

With red eyes, Yu Laosan slapped Tang Xiuhe hard across the face.

"You gluttonous woman who can't shut up, you got into a fight with an old woman over a pig's trotter. That's our mother, what's wrong with her pig's trotter? Huh... what's wrong with it?"

"Disobedient thing."

Tang Xiuhe was knocked so hard she stumbled and fell to the ground.

Second Sister-in-law Yu stepped forward to help her up.

Tang Xiuhe pushed her away, sat on the ground with her hair disheveled, and stared intently at Yu Laosan.

Yu Laosan looked at his hands, his palms felt numb.

A hint of regret flashed in his eyes, his lips moved, but the words "I'm sorry" stuck in his throat and wouldn't come out.

Tang Xiuhe suddenly laughed, a laugh that sent chills down one's spine.

She raised her hand to touch her swollen face, then slapped herself hard across the face.

"Snapped!"

This slap was even harder than the one from Yu Laosan, hitting the previous wound and causing it to swell up instantly.

Yu Laosan was startled and stepped forward to pull her away:

"What's wrong with you?"

Tang Xiuhe suddenly sprang up like an enraged lioness, grabbed Yu Laosan's face, her nails digging deep into his flesh, and pulled him down.

"ah--"

Yu Laosan covered his face and screamed in agony. Several bloody cuts instantly ran from the corner of his eye to his chin, the flesh torn open and blood gushing out.

The commotion was so huge, it was absolutely earth-shattering.

Several neighbors came to watch the spectacle.

With quick reflexes, Song Xianglan grabbed Shen Huijun, who had just run out of the house, and ran towards Liu Chounu's courtyard.

When we got to the base of the wall, we moved a chair and put it there.

"Huijun, stand up and look!"

Shen Huijun had never seen such a scene before, and she shakily stepped onto the chair.

I peered over the wall.

It was only visible on a stone wall less than a person's height on the other side of the old woman's house.

It was already packed with onlookers, a dark mass of heads.

Tang Xiuhe's fighting spirit was off the charts at this moment; she was still not satisfied after scratching his face.

It straddled the third brother, scratching and biting him.

Standing by the chair, Song Xianglan, as if things weren't getting serious enough, sneered: "Tang Xiuhe, hit him! You bore him children, and he still outsources your filial piety."

Your parents raised you, not your in-laws who take everything for granted. This is just a cowardly bully at home; why keep him around if you don't discipline him?

The onlookers immediately started cheering.

"Go ahead and hit him. If Yu Laosan dares to hit you the first time, he'll hit you countless times in the future for your in-laws."

"And your old, smoking father-in-law, all he does is instigate his son to beat his wife."