Liang Bing’an’s intention was for Liu Fang to bring the children back today to pay respects at her parents’ graves. After kowtowing at the tombstone, this would symbolically restore relations with her maiden family.

However, Liang Huan refused to go along with her father’s plan, insisting on visiting her paternal grandparents’ house on the second day of the New Year instead.

Liu Fang, not wanting her daughter to travel back and forth, decided not to bring Liang Yu either since Liang Huan wouldn’t come. This led to the scene of her kneeling alone at the grave, crying incessantly. When Liu Yong tried to pull her up, he found her eyes were genuinely red and swollen, leaving him at a loss for what to do.

“Taotao’s Aunt, if you wanted to pay respects to our parents, did we ever stop you? You came here on your own – outsiders might think the Liu family has no sons left to conduct the ancestral ceremonies,” said Li Fengmei.

According to old customs in Anqing, married daughters weren’t even allowed to return home during New Year to sweep their parents’ graves, as this would upset their brothers, and outsiders would mock the family for lacking proper etiquette. Though these old rules were no longer followed, the newly accepted custom was that sons should light the incense while married daughters only needed to kowtow and burn paper offerings.

When had there ever been a case of a married daughter bypassing the son to come pay respects first?

During the New Year, Li Fengmei didn’t want to say anything more unpleasant. The way Liu Fang was acting, outsiders might think the Liu family had no son left… wasn’t that like cursing her husband to death? Last year, if Liu Yong hadn’t been saved by Zhou Cheng while out on a delivery run, he might not have made it back. Though Li Fengmei didn’t say it aloud, she was superstitious about such things.

Liu Fang understood what her sister-in-law was angry about, but she felt wrong too.

With her swollen red eyes, she looked at her brother and second sister. “Let’s speak clearly in front of Mom and Dad’s graves. I know you have issues with me – you don’t want to acknowledge me as your sister anymore, do you?”

Liu Fen shook her head.

It was better to have less contact with such an unreliable sister to avoid making everyone unhappy.

But it hadn’t reached the point of completely severing ties.

Liu Yong shared similar thoughts with Liu Fen – while they truly didn’t want to deal with Liu Fang, they weren’t ready to publicly announce cutting ties with her. Besides, this was in front of their parents’ graves. As the eldest brother, Liu Yong didn’t want to worry and sadden his parents in the afterlife.

“Get up, how does this look! Nobody said you couldn’t pay respects. If you have something to say, let’s talk properly.”

As soon as Liu Yong stepped back, Liu Fang immediately seized the opportunity as she got up:

“Big Brother, Second Sister, we’re still siblings, right?”

Liu Fen nodded first, while Liu Yong’s nod was more rigid. Li Fengmei and Xia Xiaolan exchanged glances, with Xia Xiaolan indicating she was helpless too. In her view, while Aunt Liu Fang might be crafty and sly, at least she hadn’t tried to plot Xia Xiaolan’s death like Xia Ziyu’s family had, making them different in terms of danger level.

Xia Ziyu hadn’t just stolen someone’s man – she had allowed rumors to run wild, and those rumors were directly connected to her, inside and out, driving “Xia Xiaolan” to commit suicide by running into a pillar.

Liu Fang’s little schemes were different – she just wanted to arrange a marriage for Xia Xiaolan.

As long as Xia Xiaolan wasn’t greedy and kept her principles straight, what era were they living in now? Freedom of marriage was written into national law!

If Xia Xiaolan didn’t want to marry, no one could force her… Those old stories of men ruining women’s reputations and covering it up with a marriage certificate were ridiculous in modern times and could never happen to Xia Xiaolan. She wasn’t like those masochistic romance novel heroines who end up in a happy ending with their rapist male leads. If Xia Xiaolan encountered something similar, she would treat it like being bitten by a dog, report it to the police, and send the rapist who claimed to love her to prison!

Having clear views about her marriage, Xia Xiaolan didn’t believe she could be manipulated by Liu Fang.

She just wanted to see how this drama queen of an aunt would perform her act.

Li Fengmei had no choice – when someone was begging for reconciliation in front of the in-laws’ graves if she spoke up with doubts, she would become the only villain.

Regardless of what she thought inside, after Liu Fang’s performance, she could now shamelessly chat and laugh with everyone again.

She had come prepared today. Besides paying respects to her parents, she had also prepared red envelopes for Liu Zitao and Xia Xiaolan, but Xia Xiaolan firmly refused: “Aunt, I’m different from cousin Huanhuan. Although I’m only two years older than her, I can already earn my own money, so I can’t accept Aunt’s red envelope.”

While this statement was correct, Liu Fang jumped to conclusions, feeling that Xia Xiaolan was criticizing her daughter Liang Huan for not earning money.

Liu Fang had come today to mend relationships, but being used to acting superior, she couldn’t accept anyone saying anything negative about Liang Huan. She instinctively countered Xia Xiaolan:

“Oh, Huanhuan is still in school, she’s in her first year of high school. Your uncle and I hope Huanhuan can get into university. For girls, it’s better not to work too hard – getting an easy job after graduating from university would be best… Xiaolan, about what your uncle mentioned, you should think it over carefully. Don’t be stubborn and miss out on this job opportunity.”

What was so good about being self-employed? It was embarrassing to even mention it to the Liang family.

Liu Fang couldn’t bear this loss of face and was thinking about arranging a job for Xia Xiaolan.

The job would naturally be in the neighboring county, where she could gradually persuade Xia Xiaolan to change her mind.

If Liu Fang hadn’t revealed her intentions so early, Xia Xiaolan would have truly appreciated her aunt’s concern for her career and livelihood.

“Aunt, I just enjoy being self-employed. I feel free working for myself and don’t like being restricted by workplace rules and regulations.”

Liu Fang said a lot, but Xia Xiaolan just casually went along with it. Since Liu Fang looked down on self-employment as embarrassing, no one had told her family about their business in Shangdu City.

They didn’t mention the “Blue Phoenix” business, nor did they tell her about Xia Xiaolan taking the college entrance exam in July.

Liu Fang didn’t realize she was having a conversation at cross purposes, believing she had completed her mission of repairing family relationships today – hadn’t her sister-in-law Li Fengmei invited her to stay for a meal? And hadn’t her niece Xiaolan seemingly lowered her guard and chatted with her?

It’s just that this girl’s way of speaking was somehow odd, always leaving her feeling vaguely uncomfortable.

While Xia Xiaolan’s words only made Liu Fang uncomfortable, Principal Sun found himself in a difficult position after hearing what Xia Dajun had to say.

Xia Dajun had laid his family problems before Principal Sun, who had never dealt with such matters usually handled by Women’s Federation mediators, and it was giving him a massive headache. However, Xia Dajun spoke so sincerely – this big, sturdy man was as meek as a quail in front of Principal Sun.

At the same time, Principal Sun felt that Xia Dajun made some valid points.

Xia Dajun said he could work hard to earn money, and at the very least, he could guarantee his daughter’s education.

He also mentioned that previously, it was Xia Xiaolan herself who didn’t want to study. Had he known she could study so well, he would never have let her drop out after middle school.

Xia Dajun’s point was that both mother and daughter were still angry with him, with Xia Xiaolan staying at her uncle’s house out of spite of her mother. The child was stubborn – if he and Liu Fen divorced, Xia Xiaolan would completely cut ties with the Xia family.

“She won’t even use my money – she’s capable of disowning me. If her mother and I reconcile, she wouldn’t have to worry about earning money while trying to study at the same time.”

This point particularly moved Principal Sun.

Principal Sun had always felt that Xia Xiaolan should properly stay at County No. 1 High School, living like other students with studies as her main focus. She refused the school’s subsidies, and if her father wanted to support her education, surely she couldn’t refuse that? Principal Sun got a bit excited – Xia Xiaolan had achieved second place in the grade through self-study, scoring 514 points in the final exam. If she could focus entirely on studying, where would her limits be?

“So tell me, how can I help?” he asked.