Xiao Mandong dodged the shoe that the old lady threw at her, then picked it up and hurled it far into the distance…
“Ouch, my shoe! You damn girl, you really are a worthless piece of trash, you little beast.”
The old lady then cursed and grumbled as she limped off to find her shoe.
Wang Fugui watched as his mother and sister were rendered speechless in front of Xiao Mandong, so he quickly stepped forward to smooth things over:
“Mandong, your uncle has watched you grow up since you were little. I’ve always treated you well. We’re family, bound by blood—we shouldn’t be at each other’s throats like this, don’t you think? Your uncle understands that you might not be able to accept your mother’s remarriage and the severing of family ties right now, but that was a necessary measure. It’s not just to protect the Wang family, but also to protect Xiao Zhenyu—he’s the only male heir of the Xiao family.”
“You’re the eldest daughter. You should be more sensible and set an example for your younger siblings. You’re a divorced woman now, so you should understand your mother’s difficulties. If she doesn’t remarry, she’ll be gossiped about, looked down upon, and there will be plenty of ill-intentioned people with designs on her. Only by marrying again can she live a normal life.”
“Wang Fugui, are you joking with me? You say you’ve always treated me well—my sister and I have grown up without ever receiving even a single piece of candy from you. Everything your family eats and uses comes from our Xiao family, including the house you’re living in now—my father built it. Your kindness is all talk. Case in point: you say you’ve traveled thousands of miles to see us—so what did you bring? The first thing you did was hit my sister—is that the gift you brought? Should I return the favor in kind?”
“Xiao Mandong, ‘your mother’s brother is as important as your mother’—don’t you understand that? How dare you speak to your uncle like that?”
Wang Meixia clutched her stomach and slowly crouched down: “Xiao Mandong, you unfilial daughter—I… my stomach hurts…”
She refused to believe that if she claimed her stomach hurt, that unfilial daughter Xiao Mandong still wouldn’t let them inside. If she watched her pregnant mother in danger and remained cold-hearted, she’d be drowned in gossip.
At that moment, Old Lady Wang returned with her shoe in hand. Seeing Wang Meixia’s condition, she was startled too: “Quick, quick—get her to the hospital!” She had only this one daughter, and the entire family’s good life came from her. They absolutely couldn’t let anything happen to her.
Wang Meixia squeezed Old Lady Wang’s hand, and Old Lady Wang immediately caught on: “Oh dear, if we bump her around too much on the road, something terrible could happen. Xiao Mandong, why are you two sisters just standing there? Open the door right now and carry your mother inside. Xiao Manxue, go quickly and find the village’s barefoot doctor.”
Xiao Mandong nodded at her sister, and Xiao Manxue turned and ran off.
“Xiao, the educated youth—you know medicine, don’t you? Take a look at her quickly! This is no small matter.”
“That’s right, refusing to let her in even now is too much. This is her own mother! No matter how much resentment she has, she should set it aside at a time like this. She’s truly cold-hearted.”
The speaker was Cai Shufen, who had abandoned her field work to come watch the drama. Finally finding a chance to mock Xiao Mandong, she wasn’t about to let it slip by.
“You’re so kind-hearted, then why not take her to your house?”
“Why would I? She’s your mother—what does that have to do with me?”
“If it has nothing to do with you, then shut your mouth. We’ve already severed ties—don’t you understand human language?”
Xiao Mandong didn’t dare take her pulse. If she did and the baby came out with problems, Wang Meixia would surely smear her name.
Just then, the brigade leader and the barefoot doctor came running over in a hurry, followed by Zhou Qichuan, who was leaning on a wooden stick.
The barefoot doctor placed his fingers on Wang Meixia’s wrist: “No major issue, but although the pulse is steady, it’s weak, thin, deep, and slow.”
He then examined her complexion and tongue coating: “I reckon your previous pregnancy miscarried before four months and damaged your foundation. The gap between the two pregnancies was too short, and you didn’t recover properly from the month of confinement before getting pregnant again. You need to nourish yourself now—ideally with something that replenishes vital energy, like lingzhi mushroom. Otherwise, this child will be weak in the future.”
Xiao Mandong’s eyes darkened. What was going on here? Had her mother gotten pregnant with a Xiao family child, and after the divorce didn’t want to keep it, so she secretly aborted it? Or was it a bastard child she didn’t dare carry to term because the timing would raise questions?
She took a deep breath. It didn’t matter anymore—none of it had anything to do with her now.
Zheng Chao felt anxious when he heard the doctor’s words and hurriedly asked: “Doctor, where can we buy lingzhi, and is it expensive?”
“It’s not too pricey, but it’s extremely hard to find. If you can’t get lingzhi, buy some wild ginseng instead. You can occasionally stew it with an old hen, but go easy—don’t overdo it, or the body won’t absorb it and could be harmed.”
Wang Meixia’s heart raced. She only found out she was pregnant after the divorce. She didn’t want to give birth to another Xiao family child, so she went to the hospital and had an abortion. Less than a month after the abortion, she couldn’t resist and got together with Zheng Chao. After that, she constantly felt unwell and often experienced bleeding. Her mother said it was probably a postpartum illness from the abortion and that if she had another child and did her confinement properly, she’d be fine.
So she and Zheng Chao tried hard, and sure enough, she got pregnant again. But this child was troublesome—she vomited continuously up until four months, and even now she could barely eat. Who would have thought it would lead to a weak child? What was she going to do? Xiao Mandong had been frail as a child, and she knew very well how hard it had been to raise young Xiao Mandong. If it hadn’t been for the Xiao family being generations of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, she probably wouldn’t have survived.
She remembered that before the Xiao family was sent down to the countryside, they had many precious medicinal herbs, but she didn’t know where Xiao Jingping had hidden them.
Now she couldn’t find out where Xiao Jingping was, so her gaze shifted to Xiao Mandong.
“Xiao Mandong, do you know where your father hid all those precious medicinal herbs?”
Xiao Mandong hadn’t expected Wang Meixia to ask such a brainless question.
Even if he hadn’t hidden them, it’s not like she’d tell her anyway: “Are you getting dumb from pregnancy? With so many precious herbs, they were surely confiscated during the house search—do you think they’d have left any for you?”
“Your father wouldn’t have left you with nothing. You were frail since childhood and grew up eating lingzhi. Give me some of the lingzhi your father left you—I can nourish your little brother in my belly. It’s better to supplement in the womb. Otherwise, what if he’s born too hard to raise?”
“I don’t have any. I haven’t eaten it in years—you know that.”
After she grew up, her constitution improved a lot, and she indeed ate very little of it. And it was true that her father had left her two lingzhi mushrooms before being sent down—but they had long since been eaten.
Back when the Xiao family had first been sent down, she couldn’t sleep through the nights, which led to a deficiency in blood and qi. She spent every day in a daze. After her ring was taken off, her body became even more delicate. She had eaten the last of them long ago.
The lingzhi she had fed Shen Linzhou today was from the pharmacy in her dimension—that was why it had such a strong effect. But she certainly wasn’t going to give any to Wang Meixia. She didn’t deserve it.
Wang Meixia, her eyes bloodshot, screamed hoarsely: “You’re just heartless—you don’t want to give it to me, do you? I’m your own mother. I gave birth to you and raised you. How could you treat me like this? You’ve always been frail since childhood, and you know that sickly children need constant, delicate care. Our family could never have the kind of money the Xiao family has. Can’t you, for once, put yourself in your younger brother and sister’s shoes? What grudge is worth anything when it comes to life and death?”
