Chapter 5

“Sign what divorce agreement?”

Zhao Fang stopped in her tracks, shifted the baby in her arms, and looked at the anxious Liu Chunhua with a cold sneer:

“When did we ever agree to sign your divorce agreement?”

“……”

Liu Chunhua was dumbfounded…

When she finally reacted, her face turned pale with rage. Her hand trembled as she pointed at Zhao Fang holding the child, her emotions collapsing as she screamed:

“I already paid you! How can you go back on your word?!”

Su Yuwei stepped forward and grabbed her pointing finger, bending it hard. Glaring at her, she snapped:

“Old hag, who do you think you’re yelling at—my mom?”

With a cold laugh, she strode over, yanked the dress off Pang Wenli who was lying on the kang (heated brick bed), dragged her up despite her terrified expression, and flung her in front of Liu Chunhua.

Then, pointing at the dress, she said:

“See this? I made it for her. This is just one of many. The betrothal gifts I brought, and everything my family has provided over the past year—food, clothes, supplies—didn’t all of it go to your Pang family?”

She paused for a beat, then tugged at Liu Chunhua’s patterned jacket with irritation and continued:

“Even that jacket you’re wearing, I picked out the fabric and sewed it myself. And you? You think five hundred yuan is enough to buy my signature on a divorce paper? Dream on!”

“……”

Liu Chunhua was trembling with rage, clutching her chest, breathing heavily as she said:

“So what, now you’re just breaking your promise…”

Pang Wenli was also fuming and wanted to chime in, but she was sitting right by Su Yuwei’s feet. She was terrified that if she spoke up, this hot-tempered girl might just kick her again.

She was still sore from the earlier toss, so in the end, she stammered but stayed silent.

Su Yuwei was genuinely surprised…

She thought Pang Wenli was going to talk back, and had even readied her foot for a kick. Seeing her back down, she lost interest and went back to tearing into Liu Chunhua:

“You have the nerve to accuse us of breaking promises? Let’s not even talk about that bastard Pang Chuan—you should check your own brain first. You can’t talk straight or understand anything. You’re unbelievably dumb, yet you still dream big. Who’s to blame for that?”

After saying that, she couldn’t be bothered to deal with the nutjobs anymore and turned to leave with Zhao Fang, who was watching her with a big smile.

“Not bad at all…”

Zhao Fang, holding the baby, nudged her daughter with her shoulder. Her smile was radiant, with a hint of pride, and she smacked her lips and said:

“You really are my daughter—well said. That old hag looked like she was about to keel over from anger.”

“Of course!”

Su Yuwei laughed, chiming in:

“It’s because I’ve got a sharp-tongued mom—I take after her.”

“……”

…

After Su Yuwei and her mother left, Su Jianguo spoke a few words to the village chief and then followed his son out.

As they walked out of the Pang family courtyard, they could still hear Liu Chunhua and Pang Wenli sobbing and complaining to the village chief inside.

“Enough, enough…”

The village chief waved his hand impatiently. His wrinkled face twisted as he looked at Liu Chunhua’s family and said earnestly:

“Old Pang family, let me be honest—your son Chuanzi was in the wrong to begin with. You can’t blame the Su family for being upset.”

Not to mention that letter they’d sent—it was full of nonsense. Just listening to it made his teeth ache and his toes curl. It was downright disgusting.

“I already paid them! And they still made a scene!” Liu Chunhua cried, covering her face.

Pang Wenli tried to argue:

“They clearly agreed earlier not to cause trouble once they got the money.”

“And they’re not causing trouble now, are they?”

The village chief spread his hands, clearly exasperated, and shot back:

“Why didn’t you say all that earlier when that Su girl was here?”

Pang Wenli: “……”

…It’s not like she didn’t want to.

That Su Yuwei acted like a lunatic today, striking out without warning. She was scared of getting hit again. Just because she kept quiet doesn’t mean the Su family was in the right.

“Alright, that’s enough for now.”

The village chief saw she still wasn’t convinced and didn’t bother with them anymore. He got up and prepared to leave.

He knew full well—the whole thing was clearly Pang Chuan’s fault. He wasn’t about to be their scapegoat.

…

After the village chief left, the villagers who had come to watch the drama began to disperse, still talking and gossiping on their way out.

Now the Pang family’s dirty laundry had been aired for the whole village to see.

“It’s over… my poor Chuanzi…”

Liu Chunhua collapsed to the ground, defeated. After a while, she pulled out a yuan and handed it to Pang Wenli:

“Go to the shop at the village entrance and call your brother. Tell him those lunatics from the Su family might come looking for him at the military base. He should be prepared and make sure this doesn’t ruin his future…”

After a pause, she still didn’t feel reassured. Holding onto something for balance, she stood up and staggered toward the door:

“Forget it, I’ll go myself. You stay home and look after your brother. Make him something to eat later.”

…

Meanwhile, after the Su family left the Pang house, Zhao Fang cursed the whole way back.

From the west end of the village to the east end, she managed to curse out every single Pang family member—eighteen generations up and down.

Well, except for her precious granddaughter…

Holding the baby tightly, Zhao Fang turned to her daughter Su Yuwei, who seemed lost in thought, and snapped angrily:

“When the divorce goes through, we’re changing little Yueyue’s surname back. Did you see that old witch Liu Chunhua? We were carrying Yueyue away and she didn’t even glance at her.”

“Sure, whatever you say.”

Su Yuwei replied casually, but her eyes were fixed on her brother’s limp. Her expression turned serious.

Thanks to her inherited memory from a future-life as a Traditional Chinese Medicine PhD, she now had all the medical knowledge too—including surgical expertise.

She could tell that her brother’s tendons and ligaments were fine—the problem was with the bone. It had healed incorrectly after a poor treatment.

To truly fix it, he’d need surgery. And that meant going to a major hospital in the provincial capital.

She was desperate to take her whole family and leave this village, because in the novel’s plot, her family had an extremely tragic fate.

Her brother’s leg injury was just the beginning. After that, his new wife ran off with someone else.

That event triggered a chain of tragedies…

A year later, when his leg was just starting to recover, he and their father went to work a job together—only to both die in a worksite collapse.

When their mother Zhao Fang heard the news, she collapsed in grief and passed away soon after.

“……”

Su Yuwei quickly ran through the timeline and broke into a cold sweat—those accidents were set to happen within the next few days.

“Mom, I need to go to Pang Chuan’s military base and confront him.”

Just as they entered the courtyard, Su Yuwei turned to Zhao Fang and blurted it out.

Zhao Fang immediately stopped in her tracks and turned to her daughter, speaking with absolute determination:

“Go. I’ll go with you. If that cheating bastard dares bully my daughter again, I’ll claw him alive!”

Su Yuwei was moved to tears, her eyes glistening. Sniffling, she added:

“Let’s bring Dad and my brother too.”

Zhao Fang: “……”

She shot Su Yuwei a look and flatly refused:

“No need for those two. Neither of them can speak up for themselves. Just having me with you is enough—I’m worth ten of them. Let them stay home and earn some money for us.”

“……”

Su Jianguo and Su Yunxiang exchanged a silent glance and wisely kept their mouths shut.

But Su Yuwei didn’t let it go.

She stepped forward, tugged on her mother’s sleeve and said gently:

“Mom, when I passed out earlier, I had a dream about Grandpa. He said my brother’s leg could be healed—but we’d need to go to a big hospital outside for treatment.”

Zhao Fang’s face first turned stern hearing she had fainted, then fell silent at the mention of her father.

After a moment, she asked skeptically:

“You really dreamed of your grandpa?”

Su Yuwei nodded earnestly and locked eyes with her mom:

“Really. Have I ever lied to you?”

Zhao Fang took that with a grain of salt—she knew her daughter well. But thinking about her son’s leg… she couldn’t help but feel tempted.

…

On the train to the provincial military district.

In the end, Zhao Fang couldn’t resist her daughter’s persuasion, and the whole family boarded the train.

Since they had the baby, they splurged on two sleeper tickets—Su Yuwei and Zhao Fang shared a bunk with the baby, while the father and brother squeezed into regular seats.

After the baby fell asleep, Su Yuwei went out and brought her brother Su Yunxiang into the cabin. Then, under the puzzled eyes of both him and Zhao Fang, she pulled out an acupuncture kit.

“……”