Watching her dash away like a gust of wind, Ning Shu hadn’t recovered yet. What’s going on? Is this Aunt Yang the same one that Commissar Zhang mentioned? Giving gifts as soon as we meet? Wasn’t she supposed to be difficult to deal with? She found it very courteous.

Before Ning Shu could figure it out, Aunt Yang hurried back again, but this time, she was different from before.

Earlier, there was a bit of probing and sizing up, but now she was all smiles, her eyes narrowed into slits from smiling.

“Come here, kids. Your names are Yi Bao and Er Bao, right? Grandma Yang will give you candy.” Aunt Yang took out a handful of White Rabbit milk candies from her pocket.

“Here, have some candy. It’s nutritious.”

Speaking of these White Rabbit milk candies, they weren’t bought by Aunt Yang; they were given by others when her two granddaughters went to visit people during the New Year.

Aunt Yang kept them when she saw they were White Rabbit candies, planning to give them to her daughter-in-law to help her health and have a grandson when she’s in good health.

Now seeing these two boys, she really liked them, especially the younger one calling her Grandma.

She was overjoyed.

The two boys didn’t take them but looked at Ning Shu.

Ning Shu said, “This is Grandma Yang’s sincerity. If you accept Grandma Yang’s candy, what should you say?”

Yi Bao and Er Bao obediently took the candy, and Yi Bao said, “Thank you, Grandma Yang.”

Er Bao’s mouth was sweeter than honey, “Thank you, Grandma Yang. Grandma Yang, you’re so nice. I love eating White Rabbit milk candies the most.”

Ning Shu smirked.

San Bao was the quickest to learn from the twins. After listening to the twins, he also opened his mouth and said, “Hello, Grandma. Bao likes candy.”

“Ah, hello, hello. If you like it, there’s more after you finish these. Feel free to eat,” Aunt Yang was truly ecstatic.

What obedient and adorable children!

Ning Shu smiled, “I can tell you really like children, Auntie.”

“I do like children. Children are wonderful. With more children, the home becomes lively,” she said as she squatted down to pick celery leaves. “Girl, you seem very young. How old are you?”

“I’m 22,” Ning Shu replied.

Aunt Yang thought for a moment, then looked at the two boys. If Ning Shu was 22, she could indeed have given birth to such big babies.

Remembering what her relatives said yesterday, she asked, “Girl, are these two kids both yours?”

Huh? Ning Shu widened her eyes. “Why would you ask that, Auntie? Both boys are my biological children.”

“You look so young. People thought these two kids were left behind by Captain Lin’s former wife,” Aunt Yang explained.

“People don’t know you, so they speculate privately.”

Ning Shu didn’t mind.

Women gossip, they’ll comment on anything they see.

With experiences from both her past lives, would she not understand? But this needed clarification, “Both boys are mine. Guodong and I are from each other’s first marriage. If someone doesn’t understand the situation next time and says such things in front of you, please help explain, Auntie.”

“I’ll definitely make sure people know. This matter can’t be spread carelessly,” Aunt Yang said with a protective air.

Then, she continued mysteriously, “Speaking of stepmothers, we have one in our family compound, right next door to you.”

Ning Shu was puzzled, “What’s wrong?” The neighbor next door to them was the Zhang family, right? Ning Qin was playing the role of the stepmother to the female protagonist, so Aunt Yang must be referring to her.

Any gossip about Ning Qin was something Ning Shu definitely wanted to hear.

Moreover, seeing Aunt Yang’s attitude, it seemed like she had a grudge against Ning Qin.

Wouldn’t the enemy’s enemy be a friend?

No, she didn’t need to guess.

She knew from the plot that Aunt Yang and Ning Qin were at odds.

However, she didn’t know why they were at odds as it wasn’t mentioned in the plot.

At this moment, Ning Shu, who usually disliked trouble, couldn’t resist the temptation of gossip.

Her eyes sparkled as she stared at Aunt Yang.

Seeing Ning Shu’s expression, Aunt Yang was also quite satisfied.

Since she had a conflict with Ning Qin and Ning Shu was Captain Lin’s wife, and Captain Lin was her son’s superior, Aunt Yang felt that Ning Shu should be on her side.

Aunt Yang continued, “When that Zhang Captain’s wife first followed the army here, she visited households along this street with gifts. She brought dumplings for others, the kind made with glutinous rice flour with filling inside. Each household received four, claiming they were made by her mother-in-law and were specially brought for everyone to taste. But for our household, she only brought two. What do you think that means? Is she looking down on us? Later, when they hosted a meal, they invited several households from our street. They spoke nicely, inviting our whole family to attend, so of course, our whole family went.”

Then, when we finished eating, I stayed to help with the cleanup. But when I turned around, I didn’t realize she was behind me. Not only did I drop the bowl I was holding, but the oil stains in the bowl also splattered onto her.

Do you know what she said then? She said, “Ah, my skirt.”

When I heard that, I wanted to slap her. What’s with the skirt? She’s cooking at home and still dresses so flamboyantly, who is she trying to impress? So I said, “Why are you standing behind me? Didn’t you see I was cleaning up?”

She didn’t say anything at the time, but when she turned around, she said behind my back that I was uncultured, coming from the countryside, and that the skirt was bought by Captain Zhang for her for twenty yuan, made of some fabric called Bragi or something. I spat… She was trying to extort money from me. That kind of arrogance needs to be dealt with.

Back in the day, when I was in my hometown, my husband died early, and I raised my son on my own. What kind of people haven’t I seen? If she dared to extort money from me, I would lay her out on the ground to see.”

Ning Shu: “…”

She knew about the dumplings Aunt Yang mentioned.

It was a specialty of the Ning family’s side. They would make dumplings during the New Year, filled with various ingredients, and sometimes they would make them to give to relatives when visiting.

However, Ning Qin, as she remembered, wouldn’t do something like giving four dumplings to others and only giving Aunt Yang two.

Ning Qin was the kind of person who seemed dignified and generous on the surface but was scheming behind the scenes.

When she was first brought to the Ning family, Ning Qin called her sister in front of outsiders, but as soon as they were alone, she threw her dirty clothes at her.

But Ning Qin didn’t know that she had the soul of an adult in her body.

When Ning Qin told her to do the laundry, she tore up her clothes. Afterward, Ning Qin complained to her parents, and she made a big fuss about it.

Of course, she dared to do so for a reason. It’s because the Ning parents were bullies who feared the strong.

They would lock her up and beat her, but they didn’t dare to kill her. That’s why she dared to fight back.

In fact, what she did wasn’t wrong. Later on, the Ning parents didn’t dare to boss her around anymore or make her do household chores.

Of course, they didn’t stop mistreating her either. She lived in the Ning family for 16 years and never wore a new piece of clothing.

Not wearing new clothes was common in those days, but the Ning family went further by deliberately mistreating her.

Ning Qin would directly throw away or tear apart clothes that she didn’t want to wear or that were too small, and she wouldn’t let her wear them.

Those years were very difficult and humiliating for her.

Later, she met He Ling, and her life improved.

The clothes she wore during those years were all provided by He Ling.

Although at first, she approached He Ling intentionally, as they grew older, she genuinely regarded He Ling as a good friend.

Apart from Lin Guodong and the two children, He Ling was probably the only person she was close to.

“In theory, if she gave four dumplings to others and only two to your family, it’s unlikely. Could there be some reason behind it?” Ning Shu said this, not to make excuses for Ning Qin, but simply to inquire about the situation.

“Hmph. She said at the time that there were four dumplings on the table. Captain Zhang returned home without knowing, thinking they were for him to eat, so he ate two of them. I spit, how could it be so coincidental? Who does she think she’s fooling? Does she really think us country folk are easy to bully?” Aunt Yang refused to listen to her explanation.

Watching Aunt Yang insist on her own views, Ning Shu suddenly felt that there was no reason for the plot to set up an antagonist.

“Oh, by the way, what’s your name, dear?” Aunt Yang realized that she had been chatting for so long but still didn’t know Ning Shu’s name.

Ning Shu whispherd “…… My name is Ning Shu.” She wanted to see Aunt Yang’s reaction.

Aunt Yang remained calm. “Hmm? Your surname is the same as that witchy name over there?”

Ning Shu remembered that Sun Li had also reacted this way, merely curious about her sharing the same surname as Ning Qin.

It seemed she had overthought it; she had thought they might connect her name to possibly knowing Ning Qin.

But now it seemed completely unrelated.

“Oh, by the way, Ning girl, the woman next door with that witchy aura is pregnant. If you encounter her, be careful not to let her extort you. She deliberately fainted yesterday, trying to extort money from me. Luckily, I’m smart and didn’t fall for it.” Aunt Yang said, quite pleased with her own intelligence.

Pregnant?

Ning Shu remembered the plot setting where Ning Qin had a son.

Because Zhang Qian was the favored female lead in the novel, Ning Qin’s son was an important character too.

“Thank you for telling me this, Auntie. I’ll be cautious,” Ning Qin being pregnant was indeed something to watch out for. Originally, if she and Ning Qin met, there might have been a big fight, but now it seemed avoidable.

Aunt Yang continued, “Ning girl, let me tell you about the families in our street. If we talk about the one with the best personality, it must be…”

“Dad…” Before Aunt Yang could finish her sentence, Er Bao’s joyful voice interrupted the gossip.

He ran up to Lin Guodong, who was carrying two large bags, and asked, “Dad, what did you buy?”

Seeing Aunt Yang in the yard, Lin Guodong was somewhat surprised.

Then, he glanced worriedly at Ning Shu, remembering the scene where Ning Qin and Aunt Yang both collapsed yesterday.

Sensing the meaning in Lin Guodong’s eyes, Ning Shu explained with a smile, “I’m still new here and not familiar with everything. Auntie was just introducing me to the local customs.”

Aunt Yang thought to herself that Lin Guodong’s wife spoke so nicely, talking about ‘local customs,’ .

But now that Lin Guodong was here, she didn’t want to stay any longer. “I have something to do, so I’ll head back first. I’ll come back to introduce… introduce this… person when I’m free!”