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

Song Xianglan walked up to a small shop.

Behind the counter was a young man wearing a tank top.

He had one leg dangling on the stool, picking his toes as he looked at the beautiful women in the magazine, grinning lewdly.

"Boss." Song Xianglan knocked on the glass counter.

The young man glanced at her sideways. "What are you buying? If you're not buying, don't knock on the door."

"Take two creamy popsicles with painted designs. Don't use your toes to hold them; wear gloves."

The man reluctantly stood up and opened the freezer door. He held his hand to his nose, smelled it, and then wiped it with a rag.

"Your hands are filthy. I'll come in and get them myself." Song Xianglan went in with a look of disgust and came out with two popsicles.

"One dollar."

Song Xianglan took a banknote out of her pocket and placed it on the counter.

The man took the money and continued reading his newspaper.

"I need to ask you something." Song Xianglan unwrapped the popsicle. "There was a little girl from Chaozhou named Ximei, about five or six years old, who just walked past with a thin, frail old woman. Have you seen her?"

The man rolled his eyes. "With so many people coming and going every day, I don't have time to remember what 'small girls' and 'large girls' are. Buy yours and get going."

Song Xianglan's face darkened, unable to suppress her anger, and she cursed in the Qingyang dialect.

The man's temper flared up instantly.

He slammed his hand on the table and stood up straight.

"You old geezer, who are you calling names? You're asking for it. Do you think I don't understand what 'Selinmu' means?"

He pulled a rusty iron pipe from under the counter, walked around the counter, and strode out.

Startled, Shen's mother backed away, pleading, "Young man, don't hit me! Let's talk this out!"

"Why should I bother talking to you nicely? You're old, you should stay home and take care of your grandchildren, don't come out and wander around aimlessly."

Song Xianglan shoved the popsicle in her hand into Shen's mother's arms.

He reached down to his waist with his right hand.

The boning knife was drawn instantly.

The knife tip traced an arc in the dim light, pressing directly against the man's heart.

The man froze, the iron pipe he was holding in mid-air coming to an abrupt stop.

Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"Try moving." Song Xianglan's eyes flashed with ferocity as she spoke each word clearly, "I'm an old woman with one foot in the grave, yet I dare to squat on the main road, take off my pants, and defecate. Dealing with a young upstart like you, even if it costs me my old life to take you down with me, it's still a bargain."

The man's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed.

"Auntie... let's talk this out. Swords have no eyes. Don't be impulsive."

Who in this godforsaken place would carry a boning knife while shopping? This old woman's eyes are as fierce as a wolf's; she'd actually dare to stab someone.

"I'm not going to argue with a crazy woman like you." The man slowly raised his hands, gripped the water pipe, and took half a step back.

Song Xianglan didn't sheath her knife; instead, the tip moved forward an inch. "Can you speak properly now? Do you recognize that girl named Ximei?"

The man nodded quickly, "Yes, I know him. He lives on the third floor of that red brick building behind here."

Song Xianglan's eyes sharpened. "What's her family's situation?"

The man wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. "That's how I remembered her. She was often kicked out by her family to play by the roadside."

Her father was a gambling addict who would beat his wife when he lost badly. He spent his days wandering the streets, bragging that his younger sister had married a rich man and that his son would one day be a tycoon in Shenzhen.

Song Xianglan's eyes sharpened instantly.

"Who is his sister?"

"How would I know?" the man said, scoffing. "He's just spouting nonsense about his whole family going to live a life of luxury from now on. This girl's life is neither good nor bad, what utter rubbish."

Song Xianglan pressed on, "That girl was covered in injuries. Does their family favor sons over daughters?"

The man's face twitched, and he spat, "That's what the gambler was bragging about. He said that although the girl is young, she has a good foundation and is very pretty. If we raise her a couple more years, we can send her straight to the red-light district on Hong Kong Island and sell her for a high price to make a profit."

Shen's mother trembled as she listened.

"Those beasts."

The man sneered, "If you exchange it for real money, you can continue gambling. It's not that I favor sons over daughters; I treat my other daughter very well."

Song Xianglan's face turned ashen.

She removed the knife from the man's stomach and skillfully tucked it back into her waistband.

She unzipped her coin purse, took out a ten-yuan bill, and threw it on the counter.

"Sorry for rudeness earlier. Here's your information fee."

The man's eyes lit up immediately when he saw the ten yuan.

His earlier fear vanished instantly. He quickly stuffed the money into his pocket, a fawning smile plastered on his face. "Auntie, you're too kind. This weather is unbearably hot. Would you like a couple more cups of winter melon tea to cool down? It's on me."

"No need." Song Xianglan turned around. "Let's go."

The two left the convenience store and walked quickly to the back.

The sounds of mahjong tiles and shouts behind me grew fainter and fainter.

Mrs. Shen walked very slowly, barely daring to breathe. The popsicle in her hand had long since melted, and cream had dripped all over her hand from the wrapper, but she didn't even notice.

Following the directions given by the shopkeeper, the two went upstairs to take a look.

The door of one of the houses was open, and Lin Ximei could be seen working inside.

Old Mrs. Lin walked over.

Startled, Shen's mother grabbed Song Xianglan's hand and quickly went downstairs.

We walked until we reached a brightly lit open space.

She finally stopped.

"Mother-in-law," Mrs. Shen's voice trembled, her eyes wide, "did you hear what that young man selling things said?"

"I heard it perfectly clearly." Song Xianglan's face was gloomy.

"That little girl... she looks exactly like Xiao Wu. And that gambler keeps bragging that his son will be a tycoon someday." Mother Shen's mind raced, piecing together all the fragmented information. "I told you, hearing too much of this rubbish makes people lose their minds."

Guess... isn't that little girl Song Qiang and Lin Xue'er's biological daughter? And the so-called son that Lin Xue'er is raising like her own lifeline... has absolutely no blood relation to Song Qiang.

Song Xianglan's eyes were extremely cold. "Ninety-nine percent of the time, that's what you guessed."

Shen's mother gasped.

"My God. That son is her gambling brother's?"

"They pulled a switcheroo." Song Xianglan gritted her teeth. "Back then, the blind fortune teller in Qingyang was right. He predicted that Song Qiang would have no children in his life."

Song Qiang insisted on defying fate, causing a huge uproar over having a son, and even divorced Yang Liu. In the end, after all that trouble, he had an illegitimate child raised by another family.

"Two years ago, during the Spring Festival, that blind man passed through Songjiazhuang. Song Qiang insisted that the blind man was wrong. The blind man touched his hand, but still insisted that Song Qiang was destined to be childless and that his family had seven phoenixes."

Enraged, Shen's mother kicked a plastic box off the roadside.

"Song Qiang deserves it for being blind, and it's his own fault for having his money emptied by Lin Xue'er's family. But how could they treat a young girl like this? Secretly switching Xi Mei out and making her live such a miserable life. Lin Xue'er's family doesn't deserve to be called human."

Song Xianglan sneered:

"Having Xiao Mei around in their house is an eyesore. She looks too much like Xiao Wu, and she'll be a problem sooner or later. They'll definitely sell her to eliminate any future trouble for the sake of wealth and status. They probably didn't sell her because they think her beauty can bring them income."

With Lin Xueer earning money, they naturally wouldn't give up on a girl like Xi Mei, who was clearly born a beauty.

Shen's mother's eyes reddened with anger. "That's how people from poor places are. A girl's life isn't even a life; it's just a stepping stone to pave the way and help the boys in the family."

Song Xianglan stopped in her tracks.

A nameless anger shot straight to my head.

In the past few years and the following decade or so, Song Xianglan had seen many girls who were drowned, given away, or used to exchange for dowries.

Xi Mei is just an insignificant little dot in this vast web of evil.

This is by no means a localized problem of poverty; it is a malignant tumor etched into the bones of many people.

"I want to send my daughter to school."

Song Xianglan's voice was as hard as iron. "I not only want to run a primary school, but also a junior high school. Only when they sit in the classroom, learn skills, and broaden their horizons will they have the ability to overturn tables. Relying on others' charity and pity will prevent them from ever holding their heads high in their entire lives."

Shen's mother nodded repeatedly.

"You're right. What you've done is accumulating good karma. But what about Xi Mei... should we get involved? That gambler is planning to sell her."