Chapter 12

Years later, Ning Zheng, who had been working since he was a child, began to fall ill as is common with old people. Fortunately, he had Xiao Shui and his three children to take care of him. Ning Guan could grow herbs with peace of mind and take good care of his small family. Ning Zheng also warned Ning Guan that if anything happened to him, he should not let Lan Jiu and his children come to the house again. He knew how soft-hearted Ning Guan was. Ning Guan himself did not promise anything. He only said that she was his mother, and if he was not filial, what would others say? Ning Zheng listened and told his son to bury all the assets he had mentioned somewhere else so that they would not belong to Lan Jiu and his two children. He knew that these assets would not grow if they were in the hands of these people. He trusted only Ning Guan. Ning Guan could only do as his father told him. He found a place to bury the assets on a mountain far away from where people walked. He also made a mark so that he would remember where he was buried if something like his father predicted happened.

After taking care of Ning Zheng for almost a year, he passed away due to an illness. Ning Guan was very sad. He held a nice funeral for his father and buried him with his grandparents as his father had told him about. The village headman also came to help take care of the funeral.

Lan Jiu, who knew that her husband had died, was quite shocked. Now, her grandchildren had been living in a dilapidated house for many years. She therefore thought of moving into a house without Ning Zheng to look after them.

A week after Ning Zheng's funeral, Lan Jiu and his friends came to Ning Guan's house and said that they would move in like before. He had to be filial to his mother and siblings. He also had to bring her the money from selling medicinal herbs like before. The village headman himself came out to say that she had divorced Ning Zheng and had no right to move in here. However, Lan Jiu made a fuss, accusing Ning Guan of being ungrateful to her birth mother. Ning Guan could not help but let them move in. From now on, his house would be quite chaotic. He had a condition: if they came to cause trouble for them, he would immediately notify the authorities to come and deal with them. Lan Jiu did not think that this stupid son would think of the authorities. So she did not dare to do too much for fear that she would face punishment from the authorities even though she had divorced Ning Zheng for many years. After the chaos ended, Lan Jiu wanted to sleep in her old room, but now Xiao Shui was staying there instead. Not wanting to cause any trouble, Xiao Shui moved his children to another house. As for his brothers and sisters-in-law and children, they could live in whichever house they wanted. Ning Guan saw that they were causing trouble for his wife, and he was not happy, but he did not know what to do. He could not even chase everyone away. He could only endure and work in the herb garden to support his family. When it was time to eat, Xiao Shui, who had been helping the servants cook, was shocked when Lan Jiu ordered the food that he wanted. Xiao Shui could only turn to look at her husband.

“Mother, my wife is not your slave who can order anything. If you want to eat something, have your other daughters-in-law cook it yourself. I only have the ingredients. This place is not like before when I had to serve you.”

“How can you talk to Mother like that? Mother gave birth to you, Ning Guan.” Ning Ai, who could not stand it, could only speak to his mother.

“It is because of how she gave birth to me that I allowed her to come into the house. But it does not mean that she will cause trouble for my family like this. My wife is not anyone’s slave.”

Xiao Shui saw that things were getting out of hand, so she could only stop her husband from talking more. She could only cook, but she would not indulge them.

Ning Guan could only feel troubled that his wife was soft-hearted towards these people. He had never told her what everyone had done to him even once. Moreover, she wanted to show her filial piety to her mother-in-law, so Ning Guan could only indulge his wife. He also told her that if there was anything she shouldn’t do, she shouldn’t do it for them.After the food, Lan Jiu was still very demanding and even made his children work in the herb garden with him to support everyone in the house. Ning Guan couldn’t help his children, so he tried to teach his children about herb gardening. At least they would have some knowledge.Whenever Ning Guan went to sell herbs, Lan Jiu would always hit Xiao Chui and his grandchildren. He also warned them not to tell Ning Guan. If she found out that they had secretly told Ning Guan, they would hurt the children even more.Xiao Chui couldn’t help but cry, feeling sorry that she had been so soft-hearted and let them down that her children had to be hurt like this. She and her children could only feel sad that they couldn’t help her children. Moreover, the place where they hit her was under her clothes to prevent Ning Guan from seeing the traces. This made Xiao Chui even more miserable to see her children in pain all over. She didn't understand why Lan Jiu did this to her and her children. She didn't know how much longer her children could endure being physically abused. She could only tell the children to endure so that they wouldn't make their father sad. Ning Qing, the eldest of her siblings, had to hug and comfort her siblings and protect them, which made her the most injured. However, she didn't dare to tell her father like before. She didn't want her father to fight with her grandmother again. They had already endured so much. If their father ever fought with their grandmother, they would be hurt even more. They didn't know what they had done wrong. Why was their grandmother so cruel to them? They had already listened to everything.