Joyful Motherhood in a Rural Family

Ye Lei, how are you doing now?

“Mom…”

A small voice came from YingEr next to her. Liu Sisi looked down to see YingEr standing there, with a downcast head and a flustered face, constantly fiddling with her dress hem.

Liu Sisi looked at her for a moment, suddenly feeling unsure of what to say.

Eventually, she settled on the simplest topic: “Why haven’t you gone in to eat yet?”

“Mom, I’m sorry… YingEr didn’t do it on purpose! Second Aunt said that you deliberately didn’t save Dad, that’s why Brother got mad… sob sob… ”

YingEr was speaking and crying, growing more and more upset.

Liu Sisi’s heart eventually softened. She gently walked over to YingEr, quietly picked her up, and took out a handkerchief to wipe her tears.

“Trust mom, I’ll definitely rescue your father! You understand, right?”

“Yes! Mom, sob sob…”

YingEr suddenly buried herself into Liu Sisi’s arms, sobbing loudly.

In the room, Di Xuan watched everything going on outside through the crack in the door. He silently closed the door, leaning against it with his back.

I hope Dad is okay!

Spring nights still carried a coldness. The surroundings were pitch black and the lamp in the room had gone out. Liu Sisi sat quietly by the window beneath the rising crescent moon.

After an unspecified amount of time had passed, the cautious low growls of Ah-Hua and Ah-Huang came from outside. Soon enough, all was quiet again.

Liu Sisi got up from the chair and grabbed a flint to light a candle. Only then did she gently open the window.

“Mrs Di.”

A low call came from outside the window. Shortly afterwards, a silhouette appeared before the window.

“What’s the situation?”

Liu Sisi cut straight to the point, no unnecessary words.

“Everything turned out exactly as Mrs Di predicted, down to every detail! Our people have successfully set up surveillance, all that’s left is to execute the next step.”

“Good, very good! Tell them to keep up the surveillance. If the other side makes a move, take immediate action. There’s no need for further instruction.”

Liu Sisi’s face was filled with resolve.

“Understood.”

“If there’s nothing else, you can leave!”

“…”

“What’s the matter? Is there something else you want to say?” Liu Sisi raised an eyebrow in surprise as she looked at the figure.

The silhouette remained still for quite a while before finally speaking: “Your father hit your mother again yesterday.”

“…Why?”

Why did he hit her? Why was he bringing this up now?

Liu Sisi remained silent for a moment: “I thought they would be happier if they didn’t see me again.”

After finishing her thought, she moved away from the window and sat down on a chair nearby.

Just an adopted daughter! It was understandable if they didn’t value her.

When she found out about her origins, she had always tried to avoid the topic of her foster parents. But now it seemed, the time had come to confront the issue.

She once felt so much pain and sadness, but now after learning the truth, her heart strangely felt much lighter.

At the very least, she had let go of the resentment in her heart.

The silhouette fell into silence.

After quite a long time, Liu Sisi remembered the figure was still waiting there. Only then did she raise her head to look at the shadow.

“She… she’s okay, right?”

Both of them knew clearly whom Liu Sisi was referring to in her words.

Ms. Yao and Liu Sisi’s biological mother, Xin’er, were cousins. Their relationship was complicated, which was another story to be told.

“…It was said that she almost jumped into a well, but was discovered and saved in time. She is still unconscious now.”

Liu Sisi’s body trembled slightly, and then stabilized again.

“I see, you can go.”

“Yes.”

Seeing the other party slowly turning into a shadow, Liu Sisi quietly closed the window.

As she settled down, her mind was filled with thoughts—one moment it’s Di Yelei, the other it’s Ms. Yao’s shaking face—until she drifted off to dreamland.

Tomorrow is going to be a bright sunny day!

The next day, before dawn, there was a thunderous knocking at the main entrance.

“Open the door! Open the door! Are you pretending to be dead inside? Open the door!”

The door-shaking knock seemed about to break the door open.

Old Cheng hurriedly stepped forward to open the door: “Why are you knocking so hard? Aren’t you afraid of damaging the door…Wait wait, who are you? Stand still! Who let you in? Get out”

The roar outside the door made Liu Sisi in the house unable to resist looking out.

“Old Cheng, what’s the matter?”

Just as she appeared, she saw a middle-aged man swaggering into the courtyard from the outside.

“Who are you? What brings you here?”

The middle-aged man sized up Liu Sisi from head to toe, and then snorted lightly, raising his head arrogantly.

“You must be the woman of that criminal official? I am the original owner of this residence.”

His gaze swept over everyone, full of contempt: “Starting from today, I am taking back this residence and will not rent it to the criminal official even if it is empty. You are to move out by sunset today, or else… Humph! Don’t blame yours truly then!”

“You’re the owner of this residence?” Liu Sisi raised an eyebrow.

The middle-aged man’s face was rigid: “That’s right! It seems you haven’t heard clearly, I don’t mind repeating it…”

“You want to drive us away? Heh…on what grounds?” Liu Sisi chuckled coldly.

The middle-aged man nearly got dizzy by Liu Sisi’s circumlocution!

“On what grounds? Of course, that’s because I am the owner of this residence! You little wench…”

“Even if you are the owner of this residence, so what? Every piece of land under heaven belongs to the sovereign. Why do you claim this land as yours?” Liu Sisi stood her ground.

“Because I have the house and land contracts! What, are you planning to act shamelessly?” The middle-aged man flew into a rage.

On the contrary, Liu Sisi laughed!

“Since you have the house and land contracts, it means our rental agreement is valid. The initial agreement was a one-year contract, and since the rental agreement is valid, on what grounds are you trying to drive us away? You can drive us away but you have to give us 100,000 taels of silver as a breach of contract. Otherwise…”

Liu Sisi suddenly stopped smiling, and a mocking look flashed in her eyes.

“Humph! You will shoulder the crime of illegal invasion and robbery!”

“You, you are talking nonsense!”

The middle-aged man inwardly wondered, but showed no sign of backing down.

“Don’t think yours truly will be frightened by your prattle! If you don’t move out today, don’t blame yours truly for being impolite tonight!”

“No need to wait until tonight, I the Madam will show you right now!”

Liu Sisi cast a cold glance!

It seems that as soon as Ye Lei falls, these little shrimps jump out, eager to deal with me.

Do they really think I’m a sick cat just because the tiger doesn’t show its might?

“Old Cheng! Since the opposite party likes pointing fingers, I the Madam won’t play nice. Go ahead and break his finger! I want to see who dares to point at I the Madam again!”