Chapter 7

Both Daya and Sanya had scars on their bodies, some large, some small, all from being beaten by the original host. Particularly Daya, who had a burn on her leg, caused by the original host pouring hot water on her in a fit of anger.

Su Qianqian gently rubbed the scar with the spiritual spring water, and after a few washes, it should fade away.

After washing her two daughters, she began washing Erbao.

During the bath, Erbao seemed to want to say something. She didn’t rush him and waited for him to speak. Finally, just as she was finishing washing, Erbao spoke up. “Mom, you really won’t send my sister away, will you?”

“I really won’t, I promise. Don’t worry.”

Erbao nodded. “Thank you, Mom. We’ll work hard.”

Su Qianqian sighed inwardly. She knew she couldn’t change the impression the original host had left on everyone all at once. It would take time.

Bathing three kids wasn’t easy; her back was starting to hurt.

Daya and Erbao were very considerate and quickly came to help pour water. The three of them worked together to empty the bathwater.

“You’re really great, thank you!” Su Qianqian smiled gently and patted the two kids’ heads, making them feel incredibly surprised. They had never been praised like this before.

Although the original host had a bias toward sons over daughters, it was only toward the sons of her maternal family, not her own children. Erbao’s treatment was only slightly better than Daya and Sanya’s, but even then, it wasn’t much better.

Dinner was simple, cooked by Zhu Tianfang, but there were still eggs, meant to help Su Qianqian recover. She was touched. Despite how bad the original host had been, her mother-in-law was still kind to her. If it had been another, stricter mother-in-law, they might have fought every day.

She still divided the eggs for everyone, and Chuan Chuan, though hesitant, was allowed to eat his share. He had been wary after the lunch incident, but seeing the eggs being served in front of them, he ate without further doubt.

“Erbao’s mom, how did you know about Tiedan’s situation?” suddenly asked her father-in-law, Cheng Youmin.

Su Qianqian was taken aback. She shook her head and replied, “I didn’t know. She was the one who spread rumors about me. I just mentioned that Tiedan didn’t look like his father when I saw them together.”

“And what about your head?” Cheng Youmin asked seriously, as if urging her to tell the truth.

She explained everything honestly, omitting the part about the jade pendant.

After hearing her explanation, everyone fell silent. The Su family had never treated Su Qianqian well, and she had always been focused on supporting her maternal family. This had led to many arguments in the past. Whenever anyone spoke ill of her family, she would go mad. Now, no one wanted to say much more.

“Just in time for dinner.”

“Xiuxiu, you’re back? Haven’t eaten yet, right? Sit down, I’ll get you a bowl and chopsticks.” Zhu Tianfang stood up happily to fetch the dishes for her second daughter.

“With all this happening at home, I had to come back and see, or else some bad luck star might turn our family upside down.” Cheng Xiuxiu shot Su Qianqian a sidelong glance before sitting down next to her, deliberately nudging her.

Su Qianqian didn’t respond, just quietly eating. The original host and Cheng Xiuxiu often fought and even fought physically when they met, so there was never any peace between them.

“How can you still eat? You’ve turned our home into a mess. My brother must have had terrible luck marrying you. Now we have no news from him, and you should just leave our home already.”

At this, Zhu Tianfang, Wu Yuexiang, and Chuan Chuan all stood up in perfect unison, immediately lifting the dishes from the table to protect them and moving away from the table.

Su Qianqian was stunned. Their movements were so fast, it was almost like a blur. It was clear now—true experts hide among the people. She hadn’t even finished lifting her chopsticks when the food was already gone.

Well, that’s fine. Every time Cheng Xiuxiu and the original host fought, the food on the table often became collateral damage.

However, this time, Su Qianqian didn’t make any move. She simply continued eating the corn bread in her hand.

“I’m full, you all take your time eating.” After saying that, she got up and walked away.

The Cheng family: ??? Has her brain been damaged?

“Wait, what does she mean? Does she look down on me? She’s not even fighting with me anymore?” Cheng Xiuxiu rolled up her sleeves, looking frustrated.

Cheng Youmin replied irritably, “She’s calmed down, why don’t you calm down too?”

“Isn’t she too strange?” Cheng Xiuxiu still seemed afraid of her father. “Earlier, I suggested she remarry, what do you think? I’ve found a good match for her—a man whose wife died three years ago, and he has a son. He’s more than enough for Su Qianqian.”

Zhu Tianfang looked troubled. “I asked her, she said she doesn’t want to remarry.”

“What does she want to do? Does she plan to ruin our family completely?” Cheng Xiuxiu was itching to grab Su Qianqian’s hair and beat her up. “Since she married into our family, she’s taken so much to support her maternal family. If I haven’t beaten her to death, that’s already showing enough mercy.”

Wu Yuexiang whispered, “If she doesn’t want to remarry, there’s nothing we can do. After all, when she throws a tantrum…” She seemed to remember something terrifying and didn’t continue, just looking a bit unhappy.

“Really annoying. Where is Cheng Yue? Why is there no news about him?”

Mentioning Cheng Yue, the Cheng family became somber. They still held a little hope, hoping he was still alive.

“Big sister-in-law, find a chance to probe her a bit. If you mention the man’s good qualities, she might be tempted,” Cheng Xiuxiu handed the task to Wu Yuexiang. Wu Yuexiang was stunned, thinking, are you trying to get me beaten?

“Don’t make things hard for your big sister-in-law, if you want to ask, you should do it yourself,” Cheng Youmin said, and Cheng Xiuxiu immediately stopped talking.

Su Qianqian, however, didn’t care about their conversation. She had noticed that the herbs she picked today could treat lice, so she planned to remove the lice from her two daughters’ hair.

She mixed the juices of two types of herbs in proportion, adding a bit of spiritual spring water.

“Daya, Sanya, come here.”

The two sisters immediately ran over, very obedient.

She applied the liquid along their hairlines, then cut two pieces of her old clothes to wrap around their heads.

“Don’t scratch your heads tonight. If it itches, scratch lightly through the cloth, but don’t let the cloth fall off, understand?”

“Got it,” the sisters nodded. They didn’t dare ask anything more; whatever their mom told them to do, they obediently followed.

She checked Erbao’s head, thankfully, his hair was short, so there wasn’t much to worry about.

After they went to bed, she dozed off and dreamed of the spiritual spring again. To her surprise, she found that the spring, which had been the size of a small bowl before, seemed to have grown. It had been a small bowl used for meals, but now it was large enough to hold soup.

She opened her eyes in excitement, and after feeling it again, she confirmed that the spiritual spring had indeed increased in size.

Why? How did it suddenly grow?

If the spiritual spring can increase, does this mean she doesn’t have to be so frugal with it?

She was happy for a long time, then finally fell asleep. The next morning, she woke up later than usual. When she got up, she found the house was quiet. Walking into the kitchen, she saw Daya standing on a stool cooking noodles, while Sanya was stoking the fire.

When Daya saw her suddenly appear, she lost her balance and almost fell off the stool. Su Qianqian quickly reached out to catch her. “Didn’t you eat enough?” she asked.