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

Having said that, Song Xianglan was too lazy to meddle in other people's business anymore.

She slung her bag over her shoulder, walked to the intersection, and hailed a passing pedicab.

"Master, to Koizumi Village."

The tricycle swayed along the town's roads.

Around 4 p.m., Song Xianglan sat in the back of the truck, enjoying the rare tranquility as the wind blew through her.

We arrived at the village entrance.

As usual, the area under the banyan tree was filled with elderly people chatting and gossiping onlookers enjoying the cool shade.

Before she even got off the bus, someone with sharp eyes had already spotted her.

"Oh dear, Song the butcher is back."

"You're living a good life. We can only stay in the village, and you're always running off to other places. Luckily, you don't have in-laws or a man to take care of you, or your legs would be broken."

Song Xianglan: "It's just envy and jealousy. You have to worry about what others think even when you fart."

Seven or eight people suddenly surrounded them.

The tricycle couldn't move at all.

"Xianglan, you're finally back!" Granny San shouted from across the truck bed, "Do you know what terrible thing has happened in the village?"

Song Xianglan paid the fare and got off the bus with her bag.

"Did the sky fall or the earth collapse?" Song Xianglan glanced at Granny San.

"Widow Wang has gotten together with Zhao Shengli, the man who works for your family," a wrinkled old man shouted in a loud voice.

"Yes, yes, yes," another old woman chimed in, "the whole village has heard about it."

Song Xianglan stopped moving.

"I was the matchmaker for the ugly woman, and I went to the new city afterwards. I left everything to the ugly woman. That old hag didn't arrange things properly, so how come it sounds to you that the two of you did something bad?"

"So it was you who acted as matchmaker!" Granny San slapped her thigh. "No one would believe that ugly woman acted as matchmaker. Everyone says that Zhao Shengli was always hanging around Widow Wang's house, and they hit it off after a while."

There's always trouble around this widow's door.

At this age, even finding a spouse involves a flood of rumors.

Old Liu with the slanted eyes clicked his tongue:

"Widow Wang's son and daughter not only didn't make a fuss, but they also nodded in agreement. They said Uncle Zhao was a good person and was willing to let their mother remarry."

"That's a good thing," Song Xianglan said. "They can make a family together and live together. Widow Wang has been living a very difficult life all these years. Her children are also sensible and filial, seeing how hard their mother works all by herself."

"What's so good about it?" Granny San spat. "The child agreed, but those bloodsucking relatives of the Wang family won't stand for it."

"What does it have to do with them?"

"Wang's brother-in-law and brother-in-law somehow heard the news and a few days ago they brought a group of people to Wang's house and made a scene."

They said that members of the Wang family could not remarry and take the Wang family line with them, and they insisted that the widow Wang agree not to remarry.

"This group of people blocked Zhao Shengli's door again, preventing him from going to work in the fields, and almost got into a fight with him."

The old woman gestured vividly as she spoke, "If it weren't for those security guards from your factory coming out with iron bars to protect him, Zhao Shengli would have had his other leg broken by those guys."

Upon hearing this, Song Xianglan's face darkened completely.

"Those shameless old bastards took advantage of my absence to pull some dirty tricks!" Song Xianglan cursed. Where were they when Widow Wang was raising several teenagers all by herself?

They wouldn't acknowledge relatives when she was starving, but now that her children are grown and she wants to remarry, they suddenly appear as if they're family. A bunch of bastards with their mouths stuffed with eggplant.

The elderly people under the banyan tree all agreed.

Everyone says those guys are dishonest.

"Those damned bastards!" Song Xianglan exclaimed, hands on her hips, "They've peeled off their left cheek and stuck it on their right, one side shameless, the other thick-skinned. Do these sons of bitches even deserve to be called human?"

Grandma San swallowed hard.

"Xianglan, don't be so upset. This is ultimately a matter for the Wang family..."

"What business is it of the Wang family? Zhao Shengli is one of my men. Bullying him is slapping me in the face." Song Xianglan picked up the bag on the ground. "I want to see how tough they are to dare to step on my people. I was the matchmaker, and I'm sticking to my word as matchmaker."

She grumbled and cursed as she walked past the crowd, heading straight home.

He cursed as he walked.

The villagers passing by quickly walked close to the wall, afraid of bringing bad luck.

I arrived at my doorstep.

Before Song Xianglan could even take out her key to open the door, the door to the neighboring yard opened.

The ugly woman, wearing an old floral jacket, ran out when she heard the noise.

Upon seeing Song Xianglan, the ugly woman grinned, revealing her missing front tooth and smiling so wide that her eyes disappeared from her gaze.

"Lanlan, you're finally back." Liu Chounu rushed over, looking her up and down. "You looked a lot younger after your trip to the new city."

Song Xianglan put down her bag and sighed.

"How did your older brother's checkup go?" Liu Chounu glanced behind her. "Did they find out anything wrong at the big hospital?"

Looking at Liu Chounu's concerned face, Song Xianglan suddenly felt a wave of helplessness wash over her.

"Late-stage lung cancer," Song Xianglan said softly.

The ugly girl didn't understand and blinked:

"What does 'late stage' mean? Does it mean they need major surgery?"

Song Xianglan: "The doctor said to treat it conservatively. If I'm lucky, I might live for a year or two, but if things go wrong, I could die at any time."

The wind rustled through the treetops.

The smile on the ugly woman's face gradually froze.

His mouth was slightly open, and the gap in his missing front tooth was particularly noticeable.

She stood there helplessly, unsure of what words of comfort to say.

Song Xianglan turned around, inserted the key into the lock, and turned the door open.

The door creaked open.

A strong stench of chicken and duck droppings assaulted my senses.

Song Xianglan stepped across the threshold, her brows furrowing into a knot.

The cement ground in the yard was covered with patches of white and yellow, and was full of chicken and duck droppings.

Several hens clucked and ran around aimlessly, while two ducks waddled around and left a pile of runny droppings in the corner.

The vegetable patch along the corner of the wall was in an even worse state, having been gnawed down to just a few bare stalks.

The ugly woman squeezed in behind, her feet rubbing against the doormat twice.

"Oh dear, your bunch of beasts have really eaten all the vegetables in your backyard." Liu Chounu pointed to the backyard. "When you went to the new city, you said you'd only be gone for two or three days. Who would have thought you'd be gone for so long? And you didn't even leave me a key."

"I was thinking of going back in a couple of days, so I didn't leave you any." Song Xianglan threw her bag onto the bench.

She had no idea which unlucky Cai Youde she would run into.

The ugly woman looked up and gestured towards the courtyard wall.

"Your new fence is too high. There are even shards of broken glass stuck in it. How dare I, an old man, climb over the wall and jump in to feed the chickens and ducks?" Liu Chounu said as she walked towards the chicken coop. "I can only throw them some rice through the crack in the door. If the chickens and ducks get too hungry, they'll just eat all your meager food."

As he spoke, the ugly woman skillfully slipped into the chicken coop.

After groping around in the grass for a while, he pulled out seven or eight eggs covered in chicken feathers.

Song Xianglan opened her luggage bag and took out a change of dirty clothes.

He picked up the large wooden basin he usually used for washing clothes and threw all the clothes in.

I casually grabbed a bag of laundry detergent from the shelf and poured some detergent into it.

He then poured another bucket of water into the laundry basin.

Laundry detergent produces white foam when it comes into contact with water.

Song Xianglan stirred the water a few times with both hands, pressing the clothes to the bottom of the basin to soak.

She turned around and pushed open all the doors and windows of the main room.

The room had been stuffy for almost half a month, and it smelled really bad.

Ventilation and air circulation.

Liu Chounu took the eggs and walked to the sink, then picked up a bamboo broom from the corner.

"Lanlan, let me tell you, the matter with Widow Wang isn't over yet." Liu Chounu muttered as she swept up chicken droppings on the ground, "Those brothers-in-law of the Wang family are shameless."

He declared that Widow Wang could remarry with her children, but Zhao Shengli would have to pay a large sum of money to the Wang family as compensation, essentially severing the Wang family's ties.

Song Xianglan was wiping the table with a rag.

"They still dare to ask for money?" Song Xianglan slammed the rag down on the table.

Liu Chounu swept a clump of duck droppings into a dustpan. "Several people were lingering at Zhao Shengli's doorstep, saying that if Zhao Shengli didn't pay, they would make it impossible for him to work."

Song Xianglan let out a cold laugh.

"These bastards who rummage through latrines are trying to extort money from me. Tomorrow I'll give them a piece of my mind. I want to see who dares to stop Zhao Shengli from getting to work."