Chen Wangda wasn’t there.

It was late August, with the rice harvest approaching. Chen Wangda had taken people to the provincial capital to look at threshing machines.

Liu Yong had gradually brought dozens of young laborers to Pengcheng, and those were just the ones who followed him. Some who hadn’t gone with Liu Yong were also envious of the money earned working in the South and formed their groups to leave.

In the past year or two, Qijing Village was naturally more prosperous compared to nearby villages.

But this created another problem – fewer young laborers remained in the village, and Chen Wangda, as village chief, had to find solutions. Previously they relied purely on manpower, but with insufficient labor now, they naturally needed tools that saved labor and improved efficiency. With the rice harvest approaching, Chen Wangda took villagers to the provincial capital to buy threshing machines.

It was a diesel-powered thresher. Chen Dasao said when the machine started rumbling, it could quickly thresh a handful of rice.

“Modern machines are so advanced!”

As she told Xia Xiaolan about these things, Xia Xiaolan listened in confusion. Director Xia was just a pseudo-farmer, and after her rebirth, she’d been busy with business without any chance to do farm work. But she at least knew agricultural machinery was beneficial, and Chen Wangda was an undisputed village chief, wholeheartedly wanting villagers to live better lives.

Thinking of this made Chen Qing’s deception of Chen Wangda even more despicable.

“Then I’ll call back when Grandfather Chen returns.”

After Xia Xiaolan arranged a time with Chen Dasao and hung up, Chen Dasao muttered:

“Being so secretive, what can’t she tell me?”

Of course, she couldn’t tell Chen Dasao.

She was just an ordinary village woman. Despite being the village chief’s daughter-in-law, she hadn’t experienced any major incidents.

She had always been proud of Chen Qing. If Xia Xiaolan told her now that Chen Qing had deceived the family out of 80,000 yuan and lost it all in America, Chen Dasao would probably have collapsed on the spot.

Perhaps only Chen Wangda could bear this news.

After hanging up, Xia Xiaolan thought about the Liang family’s situation.

Liu Fang was running around everywhere, constantly visiting Qijing Village – had she run out of options?

That made sense.

Previously, Li Fengmei had her shop in Shangdu, and Liu Fang could still go to ‘Blue Phoenix’ to find people.

Now Li Fengmei had also gone to Pengcheng with her son to reunite with Liu Yong, leaving the Shangdu Blue Phoenix store to her sister-in-law to manage. Li Fengmei was Liu Fang’s sister-in-law, and whether she liked her husband’s sister or not, she had to deal with her reluctantly.

Li Fengmei’s sister-in-law wouldn’t care about Liu Fang’s status, and besides, she couldn’t contact Xia Xiaolan and her mother anyway.

Xia Xiaolan had long drawn clear boundaries with the Liang family. For their benefit, Liang Bing’an and Liu Fang had tried to package her off to Fan Zhenchuan. Fortunately, Zhou Cheng was there and exposed all of Fan Zhenchuan’s misdeeds at once. Fan Zhenchuan’s serious dereliction of duty and violations of law and discipline have kept him in prison until now.

That was two years ago – time flew by so quickly. Two years had passed, and Liang Huan had been in her first year of high school then, so naturally it was time for her college entrance exam this year.

“The Liang family is quite amusing. Do they think my memory is so poor that after two years, I’d write off all our past grievances?”

Xia Xiaolan couldn’t understand.

Liu Fang’s logic was very simple.

She was jealous to death that Liu Fen and Xia Xiaolan were doing better and showing signs of doing even better – what could she do but lower her head?

She was only showing humility for the sake of her beloved daughter Liang Huan.

In Liu Fang’s mind, since she had admitted her mistakes, and since she, Liu Yong, and Liu Fen shared the same parents – one her dear brother, the other her dear sister who had always loved her… could they not forgive her for life?

Moreover, she had previously shown sincerity through her actions. When she saw Xia Dajun getting close to the maid, though she laughed about it, she still followed Liang Bing’an’s advice and warned Liu Fen!

That was sincerity.

It showed she had reformed and wanted to repair relationships with her siblings.

She hadn’t asked Xia Xiaolan for money or asked Liu Fen for official favors. She only asked for help now because it was about her child’s university education – her thoughts were quite beautiful, but for matters like borrowing money or asking for favors, Xia Xiaolan and her mother would have to be willing to deal with her first.

If they had been able to contact Xia Xiaolan and Liu Fen earlier, the Liang family would certainly have already become presumptuous.

Xia Xiaolan pondered for a while.

She still kept her distance from the Liang family, unsure if her mother had gotten over her anger.

Xia Xiaolan still called Liu Fen to ask her mother’s opinion. She could choose not to treat Liu Fang as her aunt, but Liu Fang was indeed Liu Fen’s biological sister.

Liu Fen wasn’t in Pengcheng this time but in Beijing.

The clothing stores in Beijing all had phones installed, so finding Liu Fen wasn’t difficult.

Receiving her daughter’s call, Liu Fen was very happy, but when she heard it was about the Liang family, her joy was largely destroyed:

“What do you mean she wants us to pull strings for Liang Huan?”

Who had such great influence?

No, the influence was certainly there, but who would use it for such a thing – wasn’t that embarrassing enough?

Couldn’t the Zhou family get a university spot if they wanted to?

If these were the years when university admission was based on recommendations, the Zhou family would certainly have had recommendation quotas.

But was this the era of getting into university through recommendations?

Even Zhou Yi hadn’t caught such good fortune, so why should the distantly related Liang Huan get to enjoy it?

The same principle applied to Tang Hong’en’s side. His biological son Ji Jiangyuan and stepdaughter Xia Xiaolan had both gotten in through their exam results. Liu Fen trembled with anger:

“We mother and daughter don’t have such faces. We can’t pull these kinds of strings! Even if we could, we wouldn’t. It’s too unfair to others – what great contribution has their family made to deserve to get into university without passing the exam? If they didn’t get in, they should keep trying. If the Liang family has the means, they can send Liang Huan to Beijing – anyway, I won’t get involved.”

Did the Liang family have any revolutionary martyrs?

No!

They only had Liang Bing’an, who had lost his position due to corruption.

If they could send Liang Huan to Beijing to repeat her final year, that would be the Liang family’s capability, and Liu Fen certainly wouldn’t interfere.

But if they wanted to push Liang Huan into her care, Liu Fen refused a hundred times over.

She hadn’t gone crazy – neglecting her daughter to devote love to someone else’s daughter was something only Xia Dajun would do. Liu Fen’s mind was very clear.

Xia Xiaolan held back her laughter.

Her mother had changed a lot. Previously she had been like a steamed bun, no wonder dogs wanted to take a bite.

Now Liu Fen had her own career and had remarried well. When a woman is constantly praised, she naturally becomes more confident. With broader horizons, her mind had gradually become clearer.

“I understand then.”

Xia Xiaolan thought she could dismiss Liu Fang in a few words, but Liu Fen wouldn’t let her handle it:

“Just focus on your studies in America, why bother with these things? Overseas calls are so expensive, and that money shouldn’t be spent on the Liang family. Don’t worry about this matter, let Mom handle it.”

Constantly pestering in Qijing Village, making the villagers laugh at the Liu family?

Liu Fen didn’t want to deal with it, but she still had to return home to visit the ancestral graves, and thinking about how Liu Fang might wail endlessly at their parents’ graves gave her a headache.

She couldn’t push everything onto her daughter to handle – Liu Fen had to deal with it herself.

Xia Xiaolan didn’t argue.

“Mom, just don’t get angry. I think Uncle Tang’s words make sense – now they’re the ones asking for favors, not you having to watch their faces to eat. If they can listen to your advice, you can say more when you’re in a good mood. If they make you unhappy, just hang up the phone… They won’t dare get angry, believe it or not?”

It wasn’t that Xia Xiaolan didn’t respect people, but the Liang family’s behavior – arrogant at first and humble later – made her look down on them.