Speaking of it, it’s still the mother who truly cares for her daughter.

She doesn’t ask for her daughter’s food for nothing; the daughter willingly offers it out of filial piety.

Yesterday, her nephew and niece had clearly just come to “visit” her, and today, her daughter and son are visiting the Xie family as guests.

The mother knows everything about her situation and even made a point to ask the second sister to come and check on her.

It made the mother seem like she truly keeps them in her thoughts.

In the past, she would have been moved to tears by this; even now, she is still moved.

However, her feelings now are mixed with something else.

Her mother-in-law once said, “Your mother’s tactics are specifically meant for honest people and fools. If you’re both honest and foolish, you’re in real trouble.”

But she truly feels for her second brother and second sister.

When she was little and couldn’t bear the hunger, she secretly ate a sweet potato.

When their mother wanted to beat her, it was always her second brother and second sister who took the beating for her.

Before she was five, she was too small, and her second brother said she couldn’t handle the beatings.

Whenever there was trouble, her second brother and second sister would take it for her.

Her second brother used to say, “I’m used to being beaten anyway; my body doesn’t fear the pain anymore.”

Lin’s mother wanted to use the opportunity to show filial piety to her own mother while sneaking some food to her second brother and his wife.

But her mother directly said he didn’t need to eat and kept it all for her eldest son and eldest grandson.

After all, that’s her own mother.

What could she do?

Could she let her own children speak badly of her mother?

Of course not, just like if her own children spoke badly of her to Panpan and Tiantian, she would feel hurt as well.

Maybe it’s only a matter of waiting for her…

Thinking this, Lin’s mother felt guilty.

How could a daughter wish for her own mother to pass away?

Isn’t that inhuman?

But what else could she do?

She would just have to endure it, keep bearing it. Isn’t everyone in life enduring something?

If her son hadn’t gotten divorced, she would have had to continue enduring her daughter-in-law too.

She thought that the day she closed her eyes for good would be the day she was finally freed from all worry and suffering.

That night, Lin’s mother dreamt again of falling into a river, struggling but unable to escape.

She often had this dream of almost drowning, even before she knew that she nearly drowned as a newborn.

After her mother-in-law told her the story, she realized that it might have been the near-drowning that caused her lifelong fear, even though she had no memory of it.

That fear stayed with her.

They slept with the men on one side of the bed and the women and children on the other.

When Lin’s mother struggled in her nightmare, she had originally been holding Panpan.

Panpan rolled outward.

Lin Shu was awakened by a small punch from Panpan.

Lin Shu went over to Tiantian, whom Lin Xia was holding, and Tiantian was sleeping soundly.

Lin Shu adjusted Panpan’s arm, which had come free…

Lin Shu put the arm back into the blanket and tried to tuck her into Lin’s mother’s side of the bed, but then she felt Lin’s mother’s body was all wet.

“Is she running a fever? She’s sweating so much?”

Lin Shu reached for the flashlight and shone it over her mother. She saw Lin’s mother clenching her teeth, looking very uncomfortable.

Startled, Lin Shu worried that her mother was having a health issue.

She quickly and gently pushed her to wake her up.

Lin’s mother let out a long sigh and woke up, still a bit dazed.

“Oh, I had a dream. It’s not a sickness, don’t worry.”

Lin Shu threw on a cotton jacket, got out of bed, and grabbed a towel.

She tucked it into Panpan’s bed to warm her up, then wiped the sweat off her mother.

Lin Xia also woke up. “Who wet the bed?”

Lin Shu: “Mom had a dream and sweated a lot.”

Lin Xia: “The bed was a bit too warm tonight.”

While wiping off her sweat, Lin’s mother couldn’t help but ask her daughters, “What do you think we can do to make your second aunt and uncle’s life a little better?”

“At the very least, they should have enough to eat and wear, right?”

Last night, Lin’s mother couldn’t sleep.

She thought about it for a long time but couldn’t come up with a solution.

No matter how she looked at it, the only answer seemed to be enduring it.

But maybe her daughter had an idea?

Look at her third daughter—so capable!

She was even recognized as an outstanding worker by the commune.

Lin Yue and her second daughter were able to get divorced smoothly, largely thanks to her.

Some parents, no matter how mediocre they are themselves, look down on their children.

They always think their kids are not as good as them.

Even if their children go to college or get advanced degrees, they refuse to listen to them.

Instead, they prefer to take advice from some colleague, neighbor, or relative and always criticize their children.

But Lin’s mother wasn’t like that.

She always thought of herself as someone without much knowledge or education, a person who’s blind to the world, and liked to listen to those who were knowledgeable.

So even though she didn’t get along well with her mother-in-law, she would still take her advice.

She also admired people like Fang Dihua and Grandpa Lu and liked hearing what they had to say.

Now, her third daughter was different from before.

She was praised by the commune secretary—she was clearly someone capable.

Lin’s mother wanted to hear what her third daughter’s solution might be.

Lin Shu thought for a moment.

Splitting the family wouldn’t help, because Grandma Xie had a firm grip on her son, and with the strict household registration system in place, her uncle couldn’t leave.

Take her second aunt, for example.

She married out, which was almost like splitting from the family, yet she was still controlled by Grandma Xie.

Getting Grandma Xie to let go of her control over her children?

That was impossible.

Getting her second aunt and uncle to resist Grandma Xie’s control?

That was also impossible.

They didn’t rebel when they were younger and more rebellious.

After all these years of being controlled, they hadn’t woken up, so it was unlikely that they would wake up now, especially as they got older and more set in their ways.

The key was that Grandma Xie’s control wasn’t the kind of cruel, stormy abuse that would provoke a backlash.

Instead, it was a slow, subtle manipulation over time.

The feeling of being bound, like a thin wire, tightening loop by loop until it cuts into the flesh, with no hope of escape.

Believe it or not, even if Old Lady Xie were to die, their devotion would continue to flow toward Eldest Uncle Xie due to inertia—it wouldn’t stop.

Because they never learned to love themselves since they were young.

The best solution would be to stay far away, severing the connection between Old Lady Xie and them.

If this were the 1990s, they could have gone south to work, making it harder to return; that would have been ideal.

Now, there’s really no way.

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Lin’s mother hadn’t heard any movement from Lin Shu for a while and sighed, “It’s too hard.”

Lin Shu said, “There is a way.”

Lin’s mother and Lin Xia were intrigued. “What way?”

Lin Shu replied, “I heard from Dad that there’s a piece of wasteland by the river near our village that needs to be developed. It won’t belong to the production team and will be distributed to the members as private land.”

Lin’s mother confirmed, “Yes, they said that. It seems it’ll start after the tenth.”

Lin Shu added, “Farming starts right after the fifteenth. My dad and Lin Yue have to prepare early at the commune and won’t be able to help with the reclamation. Why not let Second Uncle and Second Aunt help with clearing the land, and after that, they can help with planting and harvesting? You can occasionally provide them with a good meal.”

Reclaiming the land involved first removing stones, weeds, and vines, then tilling the soil, piling it up, and hauling silt from the river.

It was a complex and time-consuming task, not something that could be completed quickly.

However, once completed, it would be a permanent solution—land that could continuously be used for farming.

No other villages had wasteland to reclaim; only Linjia Village had this riverside plot.

Lin’s mother thought her third daughter’s idea was good.