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

Song Tingting scooped Fu Bao up and held her on her lap, giving her a big kiss on her chubby cheeks.

"It's my aunt's fault."

Song Tingting teased her, "Auntie has been studying away from home all this time and hasn't even seen how tall our Fu Bao has grown. How about Auntie gets you a fun toy to make up for it later?"

"I want to be as smart as my aunt when I grow up. I'm already very smart."

Fu Bao immediately agreed, took out two pieces of candy from his pocket, unwrapped them, and stuffed them into Song Tingting's mouth.

"Auntie, have some candy!"

Shen Huijun gave pastries to Erying and Sanying.

The two little girls kept looking at Song Tingting, giggling.

A head peeked out from the threshold of the main room.

Youbao walked in slowly with a pained expression. Seeing Song Tingting holding Fubao, her lips were so pouty they could hold an oil bottle.

He sidled up to Song Tingting and nudged Fu Bao's arm with his shoulder.

"My aunt is biased; she only hugs Fu Bao."

Song Tingting quickly pulled Youbao over and hugged him.

"How could Auntie be biased? Come and let Auntie see why our Youbao looks so listless." Song Tingting pinched Youbao's cheek.

It's better not to ask.

When asked, Youbao's eyes immediately welled up with tears.

"I got beaten up by bad guys yesterday." Youbao raised his hand and gestured, accusing them with great emotion. "That bad guy held me down in the sea and choked me. I almost drowned. I'm still sick today and don't even have the strength to stand up."

It means, even though I'm like this, you still won't hug me.

Song Tingting was startled.

The smile on his face vanished instantly.

She looked up at Song Xianglan: "Mom, what happened? Who dared to hit Youbao right under our noses?"

Song Xianglan glared at Youbao, annoyed.

"How dare you say that? Instead of staying home, you went swimming and catching thieves at the beach with your second brother. What would your mother do if anything happened to you?"

"They dare to go winter tourism in the dead of winter."

Song Xianglan turned her head and briefly recounted what had happened yesterday.

"Yang Jianxin?" Song Tingting frowned. "Why did he go to the shrimp farm to steal shrimp?"

"He's desperate for money. He's lazy and unwilling to work," Shen Huijun chimed in. "Yesterday, Uncle Liu took him to the police station. This interrogation has brought up quite a few cases."

"I heard he not only steals shrimp from our village," Song Xianglan added. "A while ago, a few sheep went missing from the neighboring village, and a factory in town lost several hundred kilograms of scrap metal. He led a group of people to do all of that."

I heard they had a gang that frequently scouted out various villages. They even broke into people's homes to steal chicken coops. This time, with multiple offenses combined, they're really in jail now.

Song Tingting's brows did not relax after hearing this.

"Is no one watching over the shrimp ponds?" Song Tingting asked.

"Dahua's grandson, Dawei, was keeping an eye on things, but he went on a blind date these past few days, so I haven't been keeping an eye on him," Song Xianglan said. "There are so many messy things happening at the end of the year. Who would have thought someone would steal shrimp?"

Youbao saw that no one was paying attention to him.

He was so anxious that he kept groaning.

"Auntie, you said there were some fun toys too," Youbao tugged at Song Tingting's sleeve to remind her.

Song Tingting chuckled and pulled an assembled model train from her bag, handing it over.

"Here's another one for you to play with your second brother. Don't run around like that again."

Youbao's eyes lit up, and he ran out with the box in his arms, looking completely different from his previous weak state.

The main room fell silent again.

Looking at the pile of tonics from the capital on the table, Song Xianglan felt a surge of irritation.

"Huijun, go and call Dabao in." Song Xianglan stood up. "Have him move these boxes to the west room. They're in the way."

Shen Huijun responded.

He turned and walked into the yard.

Song Tingting felt that there was something strange about the atmosphere today, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what was wrong.

"Mom, I'll go cut the taro for you." She stepped out the door and followed Song Xianglan's back into the kitchen.

"Go upstairs and lie down in your room right away." Song Xianglan snatched Song Tingting's sleeves that she had just rolled up. "You're such a stubborn girl. You've been on the train for days and nights. Even the strongest body can't take it."

"I'm not tired." Song Tingting dodged her hand and put her arm around Song Xianglan's shoulder. "I really did sleep on the train. I came back lying in a sleeper berth."

"Sleeper berths are tiring too."

Song Xianglan glared at her, annoyed. "Last time I went to Xincheng, I rode that rickety bus for hours, and my old bones were practically falling apart when I got back. You're going from Beijing to Qingyang, a journey that takes two or three days. How can you not be tired?"

"I don't feel tired at all."

Song Tingting leaned against her with a grin, "Mom, when we do research in the lab, sometimes we get stuck on critical data and work for over forty hours straight without closing our eyes. If we really can't take it anymore, we just lean back in our chairs and doze off for ten minutes. We're used to it."

Song Xianglan frowned as she listened.

He turned to look at the dark circles under his daughter's eyes.

"You're risking your lives for knowledge," Song Xianglan sighed with heartache. "I see that you students are naturally high-energy people. You can't argue with that."

"If you have the energy, go and discipline Erbao and Youbao later." Song Xianglan changed the subject, snorted, "As their aunt, you have to teach them a lesson."

"Boys need to be a little mischievous to be energetic," Song Tingting said, trying to brush it off.

"Alright, stop getting in my way." Song Xianglan pushed her aside, turned around and walked to the cupboard. "I left some pork rib porridge this morning. There's also half a bowl of clams and some soy sauce-braised fish left over from last night. I'll heat it up for you to tide you over."

"I can do it myself." Song Tingting reached for the stainless steel pot on the cutting board.

Song Xianglan slapped her hand. "You've come all this way back, do you think I'd let you touch the stove? Go and take the miscellaneous fish and clams to the outside table."

Song Xianglan deftly lifted the wooden lid of the large iron pot and poured the pork rib porridge from the stainless steel pot into it.

She turned around, grabbed a handful of dry grass, stuffed it into the stove, and lit it with a match.

The flames suddenly shot up, making Song Xianglan's face glow red.

Shen Huijun walked in carrying a large wooden basin.

The wooden basin contained freshly chopped ribs, as well as large chunks of pork shoulder and pork belly.

"Mom, the meat is all cut." Shen Huijun placed the bowl on the cutting board.

"Just leave it there, we'll fry it all together this afternoon." Song Xianglan added a piece of firewood to the stove.

Song Tingting was carrying the dishes out when she glanced back at the meat in the bowl.

"Mom, did we not make vegetable cakes this year?" Song Tingting asked. "At this time of year, we would be steaming vegetable cakes."

"No, we didn't make any." Song Xianglan patted the dust off her hands. "Erhua came over a couple of days ago to say that her family is making a lot this year, so we shouldn't get involved. She'll just bring over two trays."

"Sister Erhua's cooking is excellent. I've been craving that flavor." Song Tingting nodded.

With the fire blazing, the pork rib congee in the pot quickly began to bubble and boil.

Song Xianglan used a large ladle to scoop the porridge into a large bowl and carried it out of the kitchen.

Song Tingting held chopsticks in her hand, spitting out a small pile of thin shells from the clams in front of her. Then she picked up a fish in soy sauce and sucked it from head to tail, spitting out all the fish bones.