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

Early the next morning.

Huang Xiaoxiang woke up Dawei, Xiaoqun, and Xiaoqin. She pulled her honest husband along, carrying two baskets of eggs, and headed straight for Huang Zhuzi's house.

As soon as I entered the courtyard, I heard Zhu Zi raging in the main room.

It turns out that Zhang Haiyan had gone back to her parents' home yesterday in a fit of temper and didn't return until evening.

They cleaned up the third-floor room overnight for their father-in-law's family who were returning from the other side of the river.

Zhu Zi disliked her giving him the cold shoulder and was looking for a fight to scold her.

Huang Xiaoxiang ignored the pillar.

He led the family into the main room.

At the table in the main room, Huang Guoping was holding a bowl and drinking rice noodle soup sip by sip.

Huang Xiaoxiang stopped by the threshold.

Looking at the man in front of me, whose temples were gray and whose clothes were impeccably tailored.

She had planned everything perfectly before she came, intending to just go through the motions and get the money.

She has no memory of anything and doesn't feel close to anyone.

But when I actually stood in front of this person and looked at the wrinkles around his eyes, my chest felt like it was stuffed with a waterlogged sponge.

For some reason, the blurry figure in her dream, who was lifting her up above his head and laughing, suddenly overlapped with the person in front of her.

That unfamiliar feeling, mixed with a sense of grievance, suddenly surged up.

"dad."

Her voice was trembling.

Huang Guoping's hand holding the spoon froze in mid-air.

He turned his head.

The little girl who used to have a runny nose now has two braids and fine lines around her eyes.

Huang Guoping's eyes welled up with tears.

Compared to Huang Zhuzi's dry, ingratiating manner yesterday, this "Dad" and the undisguised tears pierced Huang Guoping's heart like an awl.

"Xiao Xiang." Huang Guoping's voice was a little hoarse.

Xiao Xiang wiped her eyes, turned around, and pulled Dawei and his three children over.

"Hurry up. Call him Grandpa."

David led the way: "Hello, Grandpa."

Huang Guoping nodded repeatedly, his eyes filled with undisguised kindness.

Xiao Xiang then pulled her husband behind her back.

The man rubbed his rough hands together awkwardly and gave Huang Guoping a simple, honest smile.

"Dad, this is my husband's silver dollar," Xiao Xiang introduced.

Then, she turned to Huang Guoping's new wife, smiled, and called her "Auntie." She then looked at her younger siblings sitting on the sofa, observing them, and gave them a reserved smile in return.

The Huang family exudes an honest and simple-minded charm.

Huang Guoping asked his wife to bring the bag over.

He took out five glittering gold rings and stuffed them directly into Xiao Xiang's and the children's hands.

Next came a large stack of bills.

"Here's 1,500." Huang Guoping pushed the money, along with the tape recorder, in front of Xiao Xiang. "Take it. It's a little something from Dad."

Xiao Xiang looked at the things on the table and quickly pushed them back.

"Dad, this is too much money. Keep the tape recorder for yourself. We don't need it in the countryside."

Huang Guoping: "If it's given to you, just accept it."

Zhang Haiyan happened to be carrying a plate of chopped pickled vegetables out of the kitchen.

Hearing this, he smiled and stepped forward.

"Sister, just take this from Dad. They'll come back often in the future, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to be filial." Zhang Haiyan put down the dish of pickled vegetables.

Xiao Xiang then asked:

"Dad, are you staying here for a long time this time?"

Huang Guoping's expression softened, his gaze following Xiao Xiang.

"There's still business to take care of over there." Huang Guoping pointed to Tianquan and the others. "Your younger siblings are either in school or working, so they won't be staying for more than a few days. This time you're only staying for a week."

Huang Xiaoxiang hurriedly spoke:

"Then come stay at my place for a few days. It's a bit cramped, but I can tidy it up and make room for you. Let me be filial to you for a few days."

Zhu Zi chuckled from the side.

"Your old house is full of crumbling debris. How can your younger siblings live there?"

Huang Guoping's children were used to living on the third floor of Zhu Zi's house. Zhang Haiyan was very clean, and the bedding in the house was always brand new. Apart from having to go to the backyard on the first floor to shower and use the toilet, they had no complaints.

Huang Guoping patted Xiao Xiang's hand.

"We'll stay here. Haiyan is a quick and efficient person; she keeps it very clean." Huang Guoping glanced at his watch. "Let's go for a walk later. It's been decades since I've seen this village."

Huang Xiaoxiang agreed.

She turned and told Dawei to hurry up and get to work in the shrimp pond, while she, her husband, and daughter stayed behind to keep him company.

Xiao Xiang accompanied her father for a stroll along the village road.

In the morning, several old men in the village would squat under the tree and smoke.

Several of them were Huang Guoping's childhood playmates.

At the same age of sixty-something, those old men had deeply lined faces and had lost most of their teeth.

Huang Guoping, dressed in neat clothes, stood among them, looking young and imposing.

After scattering a few cigarettes, Huang Guoping felt a surge of pride in returning home.

Zhang Haiyan suggested from the side:

"Dad, there are a lot of snack stalls near the newly built food factory in the village. Shall I take my younger siblings there?"

Tianquan, Tianwei, Tianyun, and Tianxin were already bored and immediately shouted that they wanted to go.

The group walked along the village road toward the food factory.

This is the time when the factory workers are going to work.

The once quiet village road has become unusually crowded.

The place was full of people pushing bicycles, and the sound of bells rang everywhere.

Workers from the same village walked to work in groups of three or five, chatting as they went, while those from other villages pedaled frantically to get there.

Everyone's face radiated enthusiasm and longing for life.

Huang Guoping's family was caught in the crowd.

The more he walked, the more depressed he became. This was nothing like the lifeless, impoverished rural village he had imagined.

We hadn't even reached the factory gate yet.

A strong aroma of fried food wafted over.

A long row of stalls has been set up on the large open space opposite the factory gate.

The aromas of various stalls mingled together: fried dough sticks, pan-fried buns, peanut soup, rice noodle soup, fried rice cakes, satay noodles, duck congee...

Several large trucks honked their horns as they drove from the wide road into the spacious side gate of the factory area.

Huang Guoping stopped in his tracks.

I stared in shock at the towering red brick factory buildings.

"Such a big factory," Huang Guoping pointed to the gate, "it must provide employment for several hundred people, right?"

Huang Xiaoxiang stood to the side, her face beaming with pride.

"It's not just a few hundred, there are over a thousand people in the factory. Not only in the factory, but now every household in the village has been inspired by Aunt Song. They grow vegetables and fruits. All those asparagus, mushrooms, and carrots are exported and earn money from foreigners."

"This is an asparagus growing base."

Huang Guoping immediately frowned.

"Aunt Song?"

Zhu Zi leaned half his body out from behind and chimed in, "It's Song Xianglan, Song the Pig Slaughterer is closest to my mother."

The words had barely left his mouth.

Huang Guoping looked up and met a pair of eyes that seemed to be smiling but not smiling.

Song Xianglan didn't cook today. She stood in front of a roadside stall, holding a bowl of freshly ladled peanut soup. Next to her, on an oil paper sheet, was a freshly fried water chestnut and a piece of fried rice cake.

Song Xianglan blew away the foam on the surface of the soup noodles.

He looked up at Huang Guoping and his group.

"Hey, Mr. Huang. You're up early! The snacks here are pretty much the same as those on the other side of the strait, right? Come and try some tastes of home."

The food stall area suddenly became quiet for a moment.

The workers eating breakfast from their bowls, the vendors flipping oil pans.

Dozens of eyes turned to look at them.

Whispers immediately broke out in the crowd.

"Is that Aunt Da Hua's ex-boyfriend?" The man selling pancakes next door wiped his hands on his apron. "He dressed quite well, but how could he be such a beast?"

"I heard she brought back a lot of gold. Yesterday, the Huang family cursed Aunt Da Hua like she was a slut."

"If you ask me, Aunt Da Hua is living a very comfortable life now. How much does Liu Yidao's shrimp pond bring in every day? He doesn't need to put up with these people's attitudes."

"Luckily, Aunt Da Hua remarried. Now that Liu Yidao is backing her up, who dares to mess with her?"

The discussions didn't go unnoticed.

It drifted directly into Huang Guoping's ears.

Huang Guoping's originally rosy face gradually turned ashen.

He felt as if those gazes were needles pricking him.

Unable to bear the pointing and whispering, Tianquan and Tianyun took two steps back with disgust on their faces.

Zhu Zi got angry, jumped up, pointed at the vendor, and yelled, "What are you gossiping about? You're eating your food, do you believe I'll overturn your stall?"

Song Xianglan took a big bite of the fried rice cake.

"Why are you so angry? Everyone can see whether Da Hua is doing well or not. By the way, Da Hua said she doesn't want to see people she doesn't want to see. She asked me to give this to you."

Song Xianglan took two pieces of paper out of her pocket and handed them to Huang Guoping.

He took it and looked at it.

The paper was written crookedly on the wall, listing the child support payments, the cost of getting married, the expenses Huang Laotai had in those years, and the money she had secretly taken.

The Huang brothers borrowed money from him over the years, and in total, they asked him for 1,600 yuan.

Song Xianglan took it upon herself to change the first 1 to 2.

"Dahua is soft-hearted. If it were me, you might have gone up the mountain. Money can't make up for it."

Huang Guoping was puzzled.

Someone nearby explained, "Yang Dashan wronged Song Xianglan and buried her on the mountain a long time ago. He ended up in a feng shui treasure spot that smells like excrement."

Huang Guoping: ...

I instinctively took a few steps back.

"This money needs to be returned to Da Hua. She said she won't ask you for child support for Xiao Xiang. She thanked you for giving her such a well-behaved daughter, Xiao Xiang."

Huang Guoping's wife glanced at Xiao Xiang again.

After comparing them over the past two days.

She liked Xiao Xiang's family and Zhang Haiyan and her three children.

The rest of the Huang family members, including Old Mrs. Huang, made people feel uncomfortable, but she didn't say anything to complain.

All eyes were on Huang Guoping's face.

"He won't renege on his debt, will he?"

"No way. Aunt Dahua protected his roots in his hometown and took care of his father for him. She also took care of his difficult mother for thirty years. He doesn't really think his brothers took care of her, does he?"

Huang Guoping couldn't stand the doubts from everyone.

"I will spend money on Liu Da. Including child support for Xiao Xiang."

Song Xianglan smiled so much that the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes looked like blooming chrysanthemums. "Little Xiang, you didn't call me 'Dad' for nothing. Hold onto the money you're entitled to. It's a token of my appreciation from your father."

Song Xianglan held the bowl and continued drinking the peanut soup. The taro chunks in the peanut soup were exceptionally sweet and soft.

Huang Guoping clenched his back teeth tightly.

He glanced at the stares he was getting from the people around him, as if they were looking at a monkey.

He had thought that without him, Big Flower would have to struggle in the mud.

As it turned out, she remarried and lived a more dignified life than anyone else. She even gained a good reputation, publicly demanding child support from him. In contrast, he looked like a complete clown.

"Go back." Huang Guoping's voice was deep as he turned and strode back.