Chapter 4: Safe Return to Qinghe Village

“Everything gone overnight? Not even a single lock was tampered with?” After carefully checking, Song Wenzhi looked puzzled.

Then he said, “Report it to the authorities, Lord Ning. It seems a band of pirates has appeared in the city.”

Ning Yumo was struck like a bolt from the blue upon hearing the news and staggered unsteadily.

All five boxes of silver were gone, along with many congratulatory gifts from various households. How was he supposed to return such gifts now?

Ning Yumo never recovered, suddenly blacking out and collapsing to the ground.

Su Shi took Su Wan and left the Ning mansion. For Su Shi, this news was a tremendous relief. With this, Ning Yumo would have no time to pay attention to other matters.

“Mother, the journey is long and dangerous. Let’s hire some escorts,” Su Wan said. Her cultivation was not yet strong enough, so if they met bandits, it would be hard to escape.

Su Shi smiled gently at her, “I was just thinking the same. Wanwan, you’re so smart to even think of a carriage.” Earlier, Su Wan had suddenly broken free and run off, giving her quite a scare.

Fortunately, her daughter was very clever and knew to call out to her cousin.

The mother and daughter went to the escort agency and explained their situation. The price quoted was two hundred taels.

Su Shi only had a total of two hundred fifty taels on hand, so after paying two hundred taels, she was left short on cash.

In the end, Su Shi gritted her teeth and agreed. Money is just an external thing—if life is lost, money is useless.

And so, mother and daughter set off for Qinghe Village in Liuzhou, accompanied by four escorts.

With the Ning family’s warehouse robbed, they were preoccupied and lacked the funds or energy to hire assassins to pursue the two.

Apart from a few encounters with mountain bandits, the journey was mostly smooth.

During these twenty days, while Su Shi was asleep, Su Wan diligently practiced her cultivation and finally broke through to the third level of the Qi Refining stage. This breakthrough was aided by the spiritual jade given by Song Wenzhi.

Under Su Shi’s watchful eyes, she couldn’t set up a Spirit Gathering Array.

So she relied on absorbing spiritual energy from the jade to cultivate.

She was already very surprised that this world had Spirit Gathering Stones, but unexpectedly, there were also spiritual stones.

If there was one spiritual stone, naturally she could find a second.

With that, why worry about running out of Spirit Gathering Stones and having no spiritual energy to absorb?

Thinking this, Su Wan brightened considerably. “Mother, we’ll soon be back at grandma’s house. Wanwan is so excited.”

In her previous life, after leaving for the capital with Ning Yumo during the college entrance exam, she never saw her maternal grandparents again.

Until her death, she never got to say goodbye.

Su Shi kept mentioning her maternal family’s names until her death, saying that the people she owed the most to in this life were her maternal grandfather and grandmother.

“I’m very excited too,” Su Shi said with reddened eyes. The Ning family as well…

The people of Qinghe Village. The marriage between the two families had been arranged several years ago.

Because of this arranged marriage, Ning Yumo naturally enjoyed the support and aid from the Su family. Every time she thought about it, she almost felt heartbroken with anger.

At the village entrance, villagers saw a carriage arriving and gathered curiously.

Just as they were about to ask which noble family the carriage belonged to, Su Shi lifted the curtain.

“Oh, it’s the young lady from the Su family. Didn’t she go to the capital to enjoy a good life? Why has she returned so soon?” The villagers were puzzled.

Some nosy villagers hurried back to the Su household to spread the news.

Su Shi quickly wiped away the sadness on her face and replaced it with a gentle smile, greeting the villagers, “I came back to visit my family.”

“It’s been less than two months since you left, hasn’t it? And now you’re back to visit family?” Some villagers didn’t believe Su Shi’s words and kept scrutinizing her expression.

Su Shi ignored them and let the curtain fall.

The carriage continued on to the Su household. From afar, Su Shi saw her uncle’s family coming out to welcome them.

“Uncle, Aunt, Brother Shanyu, Sister Xinyao.” As the carriage stopped, Su Wan immediately jumped down and ran toward them.

The four escorts took their payment and left.

Su Shi’s uncle, Su Mingshan, came forward to help drive the carriage. Seeing Su Shi’s reddened eyes, he had a bad feeling in his heart. Since there were villagers present, he didn’t ask further.

Su Shi noticed her parents were not there and felt an ominous premonition. “Big brother, Father and Mother…”

“We’ll talk inside.”

Once inside the house, they learned that the parents had gone into the mountains to gather firewood and both had broken their legs in a fall.

“Father, Mother, your daughter is back.” Su Shi collapsed beside the bed, sobbing uncontrollably.

Some villagers, seeing the simple luggage of mother and daughter, guessed that Su Shi had been driven out by the Ning family.

“Look, those helping drive the carriage are escorts, none were sent by the Ning family. This doesn’t look like a visit to family, it looks more like they were kicked out by the Ning family.”

“The capital is bustling with many noble families’ daughters. Maybe after Ning Yumo passed his exams, he was chosen by some noble lady, and that’s why Su Shi was divorced and sent back.”

“That makes sense. Think about it — the trip to the capital and back would take at least forty days. So the Su girl was only in the capital for about ten days.”

“In my opinion, she was definitely divorced.”

The villagers freely speculated, sympathizing with the Su family’s misfortune.

Everyone had seen how the Su family had treated the Ning family in the past.

Su Shi did not clarify the matter and let the villagers guess.

Su Wan shared the snacks she bought in town with Su Shanyu and Su Xinyao, as well as other children in the village.

The children quickly got along well with her.

“Little sister Wanwan, were you really kicked out of the Ning family?” Zhu Wa, the eldest son of the village chief’s family, quietly asked Su Wan.

Su Wan smiled sweetly, “I don’t understand grown-up matters.”

“That makes sense. Did you bring these snacks back from the capital? They’re really delicious.” Zhu Wa ate with great enjoyment, looking like he wanted more.

Su Shanyu immediately took over the conversation, “Brother Wa, Wanwan gave you something tasty, so you can’t bully my sister anymore.”

“Brother Shanyu, how many times do I have to tell you? I never bullied Sister Xinyao, I was helping her.” Zhu Wa was chubby and dark-skinned, and he often scared Zhu Xinyao into crying.

Su Shanyu naturally thought he was bullying Su Xinyao.

Su Xinyao was only three years old, with round eyes and chubby cheeks, very obedient and adorable.

Inside the house, Uncle Su Mingshan and Aunt Xia Xian asked Su Shi if she had been dismissed. Knowing it would be hard to keep it a secret, Su Shi told them the truth.

Su Mingshan was furious, “That beast, truly a beast. Does Ning Yumo deserve your selfless devotion all these years?”

“Brother, lower your voice. The Ning family is backed by the Duke of Rongguo’s mansion now; ordinary folks like us can’t offend them.”

Xia Xian said, “You mean the duke’s legitimate daughter has her eye on Ning Yu? Does that lady know Ning Yumo is already married?”

Su Shi shook her head, “No. The Ning family hopes to use the duke’s influence to rise quickly, so they had me stay as a ‘cousin’ in their house.”

“I refused, broke ties with the Ning family, and changed Wanwan’s surname.” Once she left, the Ning family would surely remove Ning Buwan’s name from the genealogy.

The elderly Su couple were saddened for a while before accepting the reality. They said, “Good, break ties. Even if our Su family isn’t noble, we can’t endure such injustice. From now on, you stay here with your child; we have enough food for you both.”

But for now, she had nowhere else to go.

“Stay here and don’t worry too much. We’re family; it’s better to look after each other,” elder sister-in-law Xia Xian comforted Su Shi.

Feeling guilty, Su Shi took out the last thirty taels of silver she had and pressed them into Xia Xian’s hand. “Sister-in-law, please keep this money for now, I…”

“What nonsense! This money is all you and Wanwan have; how can I take it? It’s just two more mouths to feed. Your eldest brother is a hunter—are you afraid he can’t feed two mouths?” Xia Xian pushed the silver back to Su Shi.

Seeing the two women insist on sharing, the old couple felt comforted. “Fuer, just listen to you…”

“It’s your elder sister-in-law after all. If you really feel bad, then help your elder sister-in-law take on more of the household chores.”

“Your elder sister-in-law has not had it easy for this family.” Thinking about how she took care of the elderly couple and two children at the same time, she had lost quite a bit of weight recently.

“Thank you, sister-in-law.” Su Shi was moved and gave Xia Xian a tight hug, her voice choking with emotion as she spoke.