Li An shook his head in denial, but under Ye Yunniang's all-seeing gaze, he lowered his head.
"Jiang Mingyue recognized me. She brought," Li An paused, "the Old Master, and wanted me to go with them."
"Go? Where to?"
"They said they were going to the mountain city, saying there's no drought there. That if I went, I wouldn't be a burden to you anymore."
"Do you believe their words? Do you want to go with them?"
"No." Li An looked up. "I don't want to go with them. But, that day, you and Grandma said we had no money. So I thought, I could go with them for a while. Wait out the drought and then come back."
Ye Yunniang recalled the day she and Cai Damei had discussed having no money.
That was the day Ye Yunniang and Cai Damei had discussed closing the Baise Embroidery Shop.
The drought was severe, and the summer harvest was poor.
People spent whatever money they had on buying grain. Few customers came to the embroidery shop; sitting there day after day barely earned a few coins.
With no money coming in, it was better to just close it.
Li An had understood it as the shop having no money, not the household having no money.
"Even if I had to support not just one you, but ten of you, your mother could afford it." Ye Yunniang reached out, pulling Li An into her arms and holding him tightly.
"An'an, don't listen to the nonsense from the Jiang family. They must have schemes for wanting to take you away." Ye Yunniang harbored the worst suspicions about the Jiang family.
Even towards Jiang Mingzhe, deep down, Ye Yunniang was wary.
Having cleared the air, Li An felt much better and nodded emphatically. He did not want to leave his mother.
"When did Jiang Mingyue see you?"
"At Aunt Chunyao's house." Li An did not hide it.
The relationship between Ye Yunniang and Liang Maimiao had, as she said, become completely distant because of Liang Hemiao.
At first, Liang Maimiao thought she wouldn't let it affect her.
Returning to her maternal home, hearing Yang Guihua complain about Liang Hemiao's difficult life, lamenting how good it would have been if Liang Hemiao had married into the Wang family...
Liang Maimiao paid no mind at first, annoyed by Yang Guihua's talk. But hearing it repeatedly left a mark on her heart, planting ideas.
These ideas could no longer be suppressed after she went to the Xing residence and saw the sister she had raised, now skin and bones with only a protruding belly.
Returning home, Liang Maimiao heard Xu Dalei and Xu Erlei laughing and saying they were going next door to play and eat the new pastries Ye Yunniang had made.
Liang Maimiao's resentment towards Ye Yunniang could no longer be contained.
"You are not allowed to go to the Li house!" Liang Maimiao's shout stunned the Xu brothers.
"Mother, are you unwell?" Xu Dalei thought Liang Maimiao was ill.
"Mother, are you having delusions?" Xu Erlei felt his mother was going mad.
"From now on, none of you are allowed to go to the Li house. You are not allowed to play with Ye Yunniang's children." Liang Maimiao forced Xu Dalei and Xu Erlei not to go play at the Li's.
When Li Pan and the others came to find the two boys to play, Liang Maimiao blocked the door, not letting them in.
As time passed, Li Pan and the others stopped going to the Xu house, and their relationship with Xu Dalei and Xu Erlei gradually faded.
The Li brothers grew closer to the Jin brothers instead.
Half a month ago, Li An went to the No. 2 courtyard to play with Jindou. There, he encountered Jiang Mingyue, who had come to see Chunyao.
The moment Jiang Mingyue saw Li An, she felt he looked familiar. Upon careful thought, Li An's face was a combination of Jiang Mingrui and Jin Huifang.
Hearing Chunyao call him Li An, not Jiang Tingjun, Jiang Mingyue began to doubt her own thoughts. Seizing a moment when no one was around, she called out to Li An, "Jiang Tingjun."
Li An, after all, was still young. Being called that, his little face showed a flash of panic, which was noticed.
Jiang Mingyue went back to find Old Master Jiang.
Accompanied by Jiang Mingyue and Li Mingshu, Old Master Jiang saw Li An and confirmed he was his grandson.
Old Master Jiang was displeased that Li An had changed his surname and been adopted by outsiders.
When Jiang Mingyue said she was willing to adopt Jiang Tingjun and would have him change his surname back to Jiang, Old Master Jiang relented. He told Jiang Mingyue what she had long wanted to know: the third hidden treasure was still in his possession.
Jiang Mingyue's condition for obtaining it was to take Li An away.
For the sake of the treasure, Jiang Mingyue sent people to inquire about the Li family's affairs, which alerted Bao Min's subordinates guarding the area around the Li residence.
Before Jiang Mingyue and Li Mingshu could act, they were warned by Bao Min's men.
Jiang Mingyue, Li Mingshu, and their family of four left Jiangcheng unwillingly.
Bao Min, not one to work for free, took the news to Cai Damei to claim credit.
How Cai Damei rewarded him need not be detailed.
It was only evident from Bao Min's satisfied face that he got what he wanted.
Early in the morning, knocking on the door woke Ye Yunniang, who had only fallen asleep in the latter half of the night.
Ye Yunniang got dressed, took a fan, and fanned herself as she walked.
"Coming, coming, stop knocking." Ye Yunniang could not hide her irritation as she shouted and opened the door.
Standing at the door was Zhou Lingling.
"Aunt, my grandmother... she's not going to make it."
The words Zhou Lingling cried out made the fan drop from Ye Yunniang's hand.
Hearing the noise, Cai Damei came from the backyard. "What happened to Little Sister? How can she not make it?"
"Aunt, it's my mother. My mother emptied the house and gave everything to my uncle." As Zhou Lingling said this, she felt deep resentment towards Zhang Cai'er in her heart.
There was no time for detailed questions. Cai Damei told Ye Yunniang to stay home and look after the children while she went to the Zhou house.
Ye Yunniang went inside, packed some rice and flour, and then went to the side room to pack a bag of silver.
Cai Damei took it and left for the Zhou house with Zhou Lingling.
Ye Yunniang suppressed her worry and busied herself in the kitchen.
Li Pan and the other two children were also woken by the noise and came out to find no one.
They went to the kitchen.
"Mother, I think I heard Sister Lingling's voice."
"Your Sister Lingling was here." After answering, Ye Yunniang urged the three children, "No more questions. Go brush your teeth and wash your faces. We'll eat soon."
Ye Yunniang wasn't in the mood to make anything complicated. She simply made some pancakes and prepared four bowls of rice noodle soup.
After the children ate, they went out to play for a while while it wasn't too hot yet.
Cai Damei didn't return until evening, looking exhausted.
Ye Yunniang helped Cai Damei into her room and brought over the bean porridge that had been kept warm on the stove, along with some side dishes.
Cai Damei drank a bowl of porridge and waved her hand, refusing more.
Ye Yunniang cleared the bowls and chopsticks to the kitchen and soon returned with tea.
"Mother, how is Auntie?"
"Furious agitation affected her heart. The doctor administered acupuncture. She needs to recuperate well and must not get angry in the future."
Recalling Cai Xiaomei's listless state, Cai Damei couldn't help but sigh.
Marrying an unvirtuous wife ruins a family.
The property built up by two generations of the Zhou family was gone.
"Mother, what exactly happened?"
After the wells were cleaned, everyone in Jiangcheng knew there was a drought this year.
The cautious ones bought and stockpiled grain early.
Some were indifferent, thinking Heaven wouldn't let it go half a year without rain. They thought buying expensive grain now was foolish and did not stockpile.
Zhang Cai'er's maternal family was among the indifferent ones.
But things changed in the direction people least desired.
Months without rain led to a severe poor summer harvest. Without rain, the rivers had no water, the land couldn't be planted, and the autumn harvest looked hopeless.
Under strict government control, grain prices kept rising. Purchase limits went from 5 jin to 1 jin, until yesterday it was limited to half a jin.
Even that was hard to buy.
The Zhang family couldn't buy grain.
Zhang Cai'er couldn't bear to see her family suffer from hunger, so she secretly took grain from her own home to send to them.
Zhou Lingling was the first to notice something was wrong.
Thirty jin of rice, just poured into the rice jar two days ago, was already nearly empty.
Usually, only Zhang Cai'er and Zhou Lingling entered the kitchen. Zhou Lingling hadn't taken any, so who it was seemed obvious.
