It was too late for wheat, and too late for rapeseed too.

Other families’ rapeseed plants had already grown over a foot tall and started bolting. After the New Year, with spring winds blowing, the rapeseed stalks changed daily. First came scattered small yellow flowers, and as the weather warmed, they gradually transformed into vast golden fields!

In Xia Xiaolan’s “memories,” such scenes were commonplace in rural areas. However, in her future life, as the economy developed, farmland became scarcer and fewer farmers remained in the countryside. Fields of rapeseed flowers became tourist attractions, and several young women working under Manager Xia even planned trips to Yunnan and Guizhou provinces to view the flowers!

While rapeseed flowers were beautiful, growing them was hard work.

The chopped leaves could feed pigs and chickens. Though “Xia Xiaolan” was lazy with farm work, she couldn’t escape these lighter agricultural tasks. In the cold weather, she had to carry a large basket to the rapeseed fields to pick old leaves. Filling a basket didn’t take long, but winter frost was heavy, leaving trouser legs and sleeves completely wet.

Without the luxury of changing clothes daily, what could you do about getting wet? Just wait for the damp sleeves and trouser legs to dry by themselves.

After bringing back the leaves, the best outcome was getting assigned to tend the fire, where you could warm your frozen, red hands. Cooking by fire was considered lighter work compared to going out in the cold wind, and such tasks were usually claimed first by Wang Jingui and Xia Hongxia.

There was no help for it – Grandmother Xia simply disliked Xia Xiaolan and Liu Fen, refusing to assign them easier farm work.

The original “Xia Xiaolan” wasn’t particularly caring toward Liu Fen, but they were still mother and daughter. She couldn’t let Liu Fen work without rest, so sometimes she had to go out and do these tasks herself.

“Xiaolan, what are you thinking about?”

Liu Fen nudged her, and Xia Xiaolan broke free from her memories: “When you mentioned what to plant in the fields, I remembered that mean old tiger of a grandmother in the Xia family. When I came back from picking rapeseed leaves to feed the pigs, my hands were frozen red, but she wouldn’t even let me use hot water to warm them, saying the household had limited firewood!”

Xia Xiaolan wasn’t trying to upset her mother, but with Xia Ziyu’s return, the Xia family would likely cause trouble.

Look at what Xia Ziyu said at the Baixi Temple entrance that day, about Liu Fen and Xia Dajun being married for twenty years, how separation was a pity, and how family conflicts could be resolved through discussion. Xia Xiaolan found it strange – was Xia Ziyu trying to show Wang Jianhua how kind and sensible she was, or did she have other plans?

Whatever the case, Xia Xiaolan needed to warn Liu Fen.

What if after a few months of good living, Liu Fen’s resentment toward the Xia family faded, and she wanted to go back to living with Xia Dajun?

Xia Xiaolan could treat Liu Fen as her mother because Liu Fen was wholly devoted to her.

She didn’t want to add a father who would lord over her using blood ties, and by extension get involved with that whole bunch of troublemakers from the Xia family!

Mentioning how Grandmother Xia wouldn’t even let Xia Xiaolan use hot water after picking leaves made Liu Fen’s face flush with anger.

After leaving the Xia family, things became clearer to Liu Fen – Grandmother Xia was simply biased, and even Xia Dajun didn’t take Xiaolan seriously. What was wrong with letting a child use hot water to wash their hands after working in winter? Young girls especially shouldn’t get too cold – the chill entering the body could affect their ability to bear children in the future. But Grandmother Xia would do such things. Most of that firewood had been collected by Liu Fen in her spare time. When the reeds turned yellow, every family would go to harvest dry reeds for fuel. Because reed leaves would sting the skin, Zhang Cui and Wang Jingui would dodge this work whenever possible.

Yet when it came to the dry reeds Liu Fen brought back, Xia Xiaolan could barely get hot water!

Despite both being granddaughters, Xia Ziyu could stay in a warm room doing nothing during winter.

Grandmother Xia was so worried about her precious granddaughter’s hands getting cold while writing that she had someone buy white cotton gloves from the county town that wouldn’t restrict finger movement, and would refill Xia Ziyu’s hot water bottle every hour to keep her hands warm… Xia Ziyu’s bedroom received the same treatment as Grandmother Xia’s, with charcoal fires kept burning through the night.

Thinking of these infuriating things, even the honest Liu Fen ground her teeth in anger.

“Even if you wanted to pick leaves to feed pigs now, we don’t have any pigs to feed. Look at my poor memory – when you’re studying and doing problems, I forget to fill hot water bottles for you to hold!”

They weren’t in the stingy Xia household anymore – they could afford such comforts now, and Xia Xiaolan could study while holding hot water bottles.

Xia Xiaolan quickly stopped her mother: “No need, no need! We already have a charcoal brazier in the room. Being too comfortable while studying and working isn’t good – when you’re too warm, you get drowsy. I’m more clear-headed studying like this.”

Xia Xiaolan wasn’t deceiving Liu Fen.

When you eat too much, blood concentrates in the digestive system to help with digestion, leaving less for the brain, making it completely unsuitable for studying on a full stomach – efficiency would be very low! Being too warm worked similarly – high temperatures made people drowsy while being slightly cold kept both brain responses and body in an active state, more suitable for efficient studying.

Liu Fen was half-convinced.

However, Xia Xiaolan’s subtle manipulation wasn’t wasted – Liu Fen mentally added another mark against the detestable Xia family.

Remarry Xia Dajun?

She wouldn’t harm her daughter like that!

On the third day of the New Year, Li Fengmei made quite a grand entrance at her maiden home.

When she originally married Liu Yong, everyone in her family opposed it, feeling that Li Fengmei’s second marriage brought shame to the Li family.

They thought she should have stubbornly stayed with her previous husband – she was already a hen that couldn’t lay eggs, so what right did she have to complain about a few beatings from her husband? Li Fengmei couldn’t bear that life anymore and didn’t dare continue living with her ex-husband, but when she returned home, her brothers were unwilling to help. It happened that Liu Yong was getting on in years without a wife, and when the matchmaker brought these two together, Li Fengmei heard the Liu family had no elders and Liu Yong was the head of the household. Not minding Liu Yong’s poverty, she agreed to marry him.

The Li family only found out after they had obtained their marriage certificate.

Li Fengmei’s maiden family was furious, though Taotao’s maternal grandmother felt sorry for her daughter and secretly gave Li Fengmei quite a bit of private money.

The Li family’s circumstances were neither good nor bad, but they couldn’t tolerate the shame of having a divorced sister. Her sisters-in-law didn’t want Li Fengmei to stay at home eating idle rice… Li Fengmei understood this feeling, which was why she never showed any reluctance when Liu Yong brought Liu Fen and Xia Xiaolan home.

She had endured several years of hardship after marrying Liu Yong. Every time she went home, her sister-in-law would follow her around like guarding against a thief, afraid Li Fengmei would bring her child home to eat and make money. When Liu Yong visited his in-laws, only his elderly mother-in-law treated him kindly – his brothers-in-law were all very cold toward him.

It was partly Liu Yong’s fault – being poor was one thing, but he was also idle and lazy, so looking down on him was justified.

This year, when accompanying Li Fengmei home, Liu Yong came prepared with generous gifts. Li Fengmei’s mother was elderly, so Liu Yong brought two cans each of milk powder and malted milk from Shangdu, along with the essential white sugar and noodles, plus a pork ham weighing over ten jin.

When these gifts were brought to Li Fengmei’s eldest brother’s home, Taotao’s aunt was amazed, and her attitude toward Li Fengmei became very warm.

“Why did you only come today? Taotao’s grandmother was expecting you yesterday. I had prepared dishes yesterday but didn’t see anyone until evening.”

With her sister-in-law’s attitude changing from arrogant to respectful, what could Li Fengmei say?

If her elderly mother wasn’t living with her eldest brother’s family, she wouldn’t even visit.

For her mother’s comfort, she had to play along with her sister-in-law: “We were entertaining guests at home – Taotao’s aunt came yesterday to pay respects at my parents-in-law’s graves.”

The eldest sister-in-law suddenly understood – so they had reconciled with the wealthy sister-in-law, no wonder this year’s gifts were so substantial.

“They’re all relatives – naturally there’s distance after years without contact. Among the Liu family, Taotao’s aunt is the most capable. Aren’t you foolish not to stay on good terms with her?”

Li Fengmei had nothing to say.

So what if Liu Fang married a capable man? She had never taken advantage of them for even a penny.

But since her sister-in-law misunderstood that these things came through Liu Fang, Li Fengmei couldn’t be bothered to explain. The clothing store business was all thanks to Xia Xiaolan’s management – she was just benefiting from her niece’s success. Why should she invite her maiden family to come and leech off them?

“Sister-in-law, there are two cans each of milk powder and malted milk – half is for our mother!”

The eldest sister-in-law had been about to take everything to her room, but now could only force a laugh, “What do you mean half is for mother? These are all for maintaining mother’s health – I’ll take them to her room.”