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

As I passed the paddy fields at the east end of the village, a series of intermittent cries drifted over on the wind.

Shen Huijun paused, looking at the ridge of the field with a puzzled expression.

In the rice paddy, a hunched figure is clumsily wielding a sickle.

Yang Dashan was bent over.

My palms were burning with pain, and several clear blisters had broken open, oozing blood.

The hunger in his stomach felt like a hand, squeezing his intestines tightly.

He was cutting rice while sobbing and cursing.

"Song Xianglan...you heartless bastard..."

"I, Yang Dashan, am a cultured man, and I married a butcher like you. How dare you treat me like this?"

"You're not human, making me do this kind of rough work..."

Although the voice was soft, every word penetrated into the ears of the three people standing by the roadside.

Song Xianglan stopped in her tracks.

There was no anger on his face, but rather a hint of mockery.

She turned to look at Song Tingting beside her and pointed to the figure wriggling like a maggot in the field.

"Tingting, look carefully."

Song Tingting blinked her big eyes and nodded vigorously.

"From now on, be more discerning when choosing a man. If you encounter a man like your dad who just cries and lives off women, get as far away from him as possible."

Song Xianglan's voice was cold and clear, with a hint of ruthlessness.

"It's not terrible for a man to be incompetent; what's terrible is that he's incompetent yet arrogant, eating his fill and then cursing his mother."

After she finished speaking, she looked at Shen Huijun.

"Luckily, Xiang Dong is with me, unlike that good-for-nothing."

Looking at her mother-in-law's straight back, Shen Huijun felt a surge of warmth in her heart.

I heard that my mother-in-law used to protect my father-in-law.

The house is always filled with smoke and fumes.

Now that my mother-in-law has realized her mistake, this house finally feels like a home.

She took Song Xianglan's arm and rested her head on her mother-in-law's shoulder.

"Mom, if Xiangdong were even half as much of a scoundrel as his father, I would have chopped him up with a knife long ago. From now on, we will only be filial to you."

Song Tingting squeezed over and hugged the other arm.

"Mom, I'll be filial to you too!"

Song Xianglan felt comforted.

This is enough.

In this life, all she wants is to live for herself and be the pillar of support for her children.

The three ignored the crying and cursing from the field.

They walked straight toward the old houses of the Yang family.

The Yang family uncles and brothers lived together in a cluster of houses, all made of a mixture of earth and stone, with low walls forming a continuous wall, typical of poor families by the sea.

The muddy ground in front of the door had been trampled hard.

Several women were sitting at the doorway eating their rice when they saw Song Xianglan approaching menacingly with a stick in her hand. They were so frightened that they almost dropped their chopsticks.

"Sister-in-law Song... what brings you here?"

Song Xianglan ignored her and walked straight to the middle of the road, slamming the wooden stick in her hand onto the ground.

"Thump!"

A muffled thud sent shivers down people's spines.

The people all around were relatives of the Yang family.

Song Xianglan took a deep breath, and her voice exploded instantly.

"Old Yang's family! All of you, get out here!"

"For a little money, you'd even throw away the dignity of your ancestors buried in the ground, wouldn't you?"

"You dare to lay a hand on my apprentice? You dare to kidnap my daughter?"

"Do you all think that good-for-nothing Yang Dashan can sell my daughter just because he accepted the bride price? If I hadn't come back in time, Tingting's life would have been ruined by you beasts!"

The curses echoed like thunder through the empty village.

The people inside the room were terrified.

Everyone knows that Song Xianglan is shrewish and unreasonable.

"Bullying my daughter? Fine! I, Song Xianglan, have nothing to lose. Let's settle this with a butcher's knife!"

The doors of several houses were tightly shut, and no one dared to show their face.

A low, hushed curse came from inside the room.

"Has this Song the butcher gone mad? He doesn't even give us any face."

"I told you not to get involved in Yang Dashan's mess, but for a few dollars' worth of kickbacks, you've now gotten yourself into trouble with this scoundrel!"

It was right after dinner when many villagers and educated youth came running with their bowls to see what was going on.

Song Xianglan's cursing was a local specialty.

It has a rich vocabulary and a strong voice.

And none of them are the same.

After a full ten minutes of cursing, the families across the street finally couldn't take it anymore.

Several older uncles and elders came out with dark faces.

Uncle Yang leaned on his cane, his beard trembling with anger.

"Wife of the mountains, what are you doing? What kind of behavior is this, shouting like that?"

Don't you care about the face of the mountains, or the face of our Yang family ancestors?

Song Xianglan gave a cold laugh.

The stick in his hand was pointed at Uncle Yang's nose.

"You dare to even mention shame?"

"When you were helping Yang Dashan sell his daughter, how shameless were you? When you beat Gan Zhiyuan until his head was bleeding, how shameless were you?"

"If the ancestors of the Yang family knew about the despicable things you unworthy descendants have done, they would be turning in their coffins."

I have to crawl out and talk to you guys tonight!

Uncle Yang was speechless with anger and trembled with rage.

"You...you shrew!"

"Old Yang's family must be blind to marry a shrew like you."

"Even a shrew is better than you vampires!"

Song Xianglan's eyes sharpened as she caught sight of the chicken coop of the family next door.

That's Yang Dashan's cousin's house.

His family contributed the most.

Without saying a word, she swung the stick and smashed it down.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The wooden stick slammed hard against the fence of the chicken coop.

The already dilapidated chicken coop fell apart instantly.

The hens inside were startled, clucking and flapping their wings, flying all over the yard, their feathers flying everywhere.

"Oh dear! My chicken! My chicken!"

Yang Dahai's wife screamed and rushed out, slapping her thigh in distress.

"Song Xianglan! You heartless bastard! You owe me my chicken!"

"I'll pay you back, you old hag!"

Song Xianglan held a stick horizontally in front of her, her eyes fierce.

"If you dare say another word, the next one will be a blow to the head!"

Yang Dahai's wife immediately shut up and huddled at the door, trembling.

The people from the other households also came out, their heads drooping like wilted eggplants.

We can't afford to mess with them.

They're really not to be trifled with.

This woman can be deadly when she goes crazy.

"Song Xianglan, tell me, what do you want?" Uncle Yang sighed, admitting defeat.

Song Xianglan pulled Tingting in front of her.

"First, apologize to my daughter."

"Secondly, my apprentice Gan Zhiyuan was injured. The medical expenses, lost wages, and compensation for mental distress totaled twenty yuan."

"Twenty yuan?!"

An uproar erupted in the crowd.

Twenty yuan is no small sum these days.

"Why don't you just rob it?" someone muttered under their breath.

"Robbery? When you helped Yang Dashan sell my daughter, did you ever consider that it was robbery?"

Song Xianglan lifted her eyelids.

"Since you are Yang Dashan's accomplices, you have to pay for it."

"It's fine if you don't give it to me."

Song Xianglan slung the stick over her shoulder and laughed in a way that sent chills down one's spine.

"Starting tomorrow, I'll come over at mealtimes three times a day to yell at you. Not only will I yell, but I'll also bring gongs and drums to beat. Let's see which of you can still eat and which of you can still live in peace."

The families looked at each other, their faces even more grim than if they had swallowed flies.

Come every day?

That would be unbearable.

Song Xianglan was a woman of her word; everyone knew her eccentricities.

"Give it to us! We'll give it to you!"

Uncle Yang gritted his teeth and squeezed out a few words.

Several families pooled their money, each contributing two or three yuan, and managed to scrape together twenty yuan.

A crumpled wad of bills was handed to Song Xianglan.

Song Xianglan took the money and counted it carefully twice in front of everyone.

Then he put it in his pocket.

He patted the corner of his clothes.

He glanced around with disdain.

"If you dare to help Yang Dashan bully my daughter and son again, I'll tear down your house."

"Let's go home."

Song Xianglan gave a shout, then turned and left with her daughter-in-law and daughter.

In the afterglow of the setting sun, the shadows of the three women stretched out long.

Yang's relatives stood at the chaotic doorway, looking at the old hen still clucking on the roof, feeling like crying but unable to shed a tear.