242 Better To Take It That She Was An Orphan

Niu Tongsheng felt a little awkward. He cleared his throat and said, “I thought I should just come and ask you first, but it’s up to you what you want to do about it. I won’t stick my nose into other people’s business.”

“What can I do? I think we should just ignore people we dislike. You don’t need to take anything Madam Yang says to heart. There’s no way she can threaten you,” Zhao Chuchu said with a serious expression. “I won’t do anything for them.”

“Alright, in that case, you can just treat whatever I say about them in the future as stories. But, as the village chief, there are some things that I have to do.”

“Yeah, I understand.”

Zhao Chuchu wouldn’t try to find trouble with Niu Tongsheng for such a minute issue.

As the village chief, it was his responsibility to deal with certain things. How else was he supposed to assert his authority in the village?

Niu Tongsheng left after telling Zhao Chuchu about the incident. Zhao Chuchu couldn’t help but laugh as she thought about the Zhao clan chief’s plan to benefit from her success.

They really thought they could take advantage of her?

Did they think that she was soft and could easily be bullied?

Zhao Chuchu forgot about the incident in no time.

Madam Yang thought that she could probably gain some sympathy from Zhao Chuchu by being so “well-behaved.” However, she didn’t think that Zhao Chuchu wouldn’t even show her face throughout the entire incident, and Niu Tongsheng didn’t come back after leaving either.

Madam Yang was rather furious and felt it was unfair, yet she only dared to complain silently inside. She was afraid of saying anything aloud lest it reaches Zhao Chuchu’s ears and somehow provokes her.

Zhao Chuchu didn’t know what they were thinking, and she didn’t care.

She was quite free in the afternoon, so she decided to harvest the soybeans with Xie Heng.

The seeds were of high quality. So, naturally, the yield of the soybeans was good.

Many of the villagers regretted not listening to Zhao Chuchu and planting soybeans. Based on the current production volume of tofu skin from the watermill workshop, they were able to sell and use all their crops, even if they had planted soybeans exclusively.

“Chuchu, do you think we can reclaim barren land to plant soybeans next year like you?” Old Mrs. Chen asked Zhao Chuchu secretly. “I feel like the watermill workshop would use even more soybeans next year.”

“Of course,” Zhao Chuchu said. “But planting soybeans yourself would be very tiring. How about hiring some people to do it for you?”

“Hiring people? No way! We have manpower at home. I think we’ll manage if our family works together.” Old Mrs. Chen wasn’t willing to spend money to hire other people. From her point of view, since she could still work on the farms, her family should be able to manage if they work a little harder.

“Grandma Chen, we either don’t plant these soybeans, or we plant a lot of them. If we need to do everything ourselves, we will work ourselves to death! Besides, labor isn’t expensive at the moment. Also, no one else knows how to plant soybeans, so it would be easy to hire other people.”

“But it’s still extra money.”

“Everything has a cost. If you do it yourself, is your time and labor not worth any money?”

Old Mrs. Chen felt that Zhao Chuchu had a point. She said, “I’ll discuss with my son later and see if we should buy a plot of barren land to cultivate ourselves and plant soybeans next year. Chuchu, you can sell these soybean seeds to me, right?”

“We’re on the same side, of course.”

The soybeans that Zhao Chuchu planted were genetically modified. As a result, they could be sown directly and didn’t require additional tending or cultivation.

Old Mrs. Chen grinned ear-to-ear. She felt fortunate that she wasn’t shortsighted like the Zhao clan back then. Otherwise, there was no way something this great would happen to her family!

It was like their ancestors were blessing them with good luck!

“Oh yeah, Grandma Chen, my mother passed away early, and the Zhao clan didn’t really tell me about my mother. Could you tell me about her? What kind of person was she?”

“Ah, your mother; she was a great woman.”

Old Mrs. Chen made a thumbs-up.

“Although Madam Yang is a very lousy person, she often boasted about your mother when she was still alive. She said that your father had a really good eye and married a good wife. Moreover, your mother could do everything and was especially good at embroidery work.

“All of the girls and wives in the village asked your mother to teach them how to embroider. Your mother was very generous and was willing to teach them. But after your mother passed away, the girls in the village who had good relationships with your mother either got married or…never mind, no point talking about them.”

Zhao Chuchu was speechless.

The original owner was starving and didn’t even have enough clothes to wear. So why didn’t those people try to help her?

“Who were they?”

The original owner was very young, so she didn’t remember these things, but Zhao Chuchu wanted to know.

She didn’t want to let those ungrateful people benefit too much!

“Well, it’s pretty much just the Zhao clan and some of the other families. Wait, I thought you knew, and that’s why you kept your distance from them. You didn’t know about this?”

“I didn’t know.”

It seems like she did the right thing for other reasons.

No wonder. They were ungrateful people in the first place. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have neglected the original owner to such an extent after her mother died.

Zhao Chuchu thought about how they joined the rest in trying to abuse and even kill her initially. She felt absolutely disgusted. They were even more appalling than Madam Yang.

“That was why I decided not to interfere back then. I felt like they weren’t worth your effort. I was a little worried that you would get tricked by them again. It’s a good thing that you didn’t fall for their flattery,” Old Mrs. Chen said. “They forgot all about your mother the moment she died. It was honestly quite ridiculous.”

“Yeah. I always remember what other people do to me, be it good or bad deeds. So since they treated me like that, why should I be nice to them? Oh yeah, how did my mother marry into Lengshui Village? How come I’ve never seen my maternal grandfather and her maiden family before?”

“I don’t really know about that. All I know is that in the winter of that year, your father went to the county to do some work, and when he came back, he brought your mother with him. He said that it was his boss who introduced her to him. Madam Yang saw that your mother looked pretty and clean and was very easy-going, so she accepted her happily.”

“No one came to look for my mother?”

“No one came before. Chuchu, are you trying to find your mother’s maiden family?”

“I just felt strange. Why did my maternal grandfather not look for my mother?”

“Perhaps your mother was an orphan and no longer had any relatives. That’s why she let your father’s boss make the decision and married your father.”

“Other than that, did my father behave differently when she arrived at Lengshui Village?” Zhao Chuchu decided to ask it in another way. She said, “For example, did you or anyone else ever feel strange that she was willing to marry my father…”

“Chuchu, what are you talking about? Do you think that your father wasn’t good enough for your mother?” Old Mrs. Chen immediately cut Zhao Chuchu off and said, “You can’t say something like that. That’s being unfilial!”

Zhao Chuchu said, “… That’s not what I meant. Please don’t misunderstand, Grandma Chen. I’m just trying to know your first impression of my mother, like what kind of person you felt she was.”

Old Mrs. Chen pondered for a while, then said, “Well, actually, a lot of people were saying that your mother didn’t look like she came from an ordinary family. Instead, she looked like the daughter of a very wealthy family. But then she was able to do all the tough work, so people stop saying that after a while.”

Zhao Chuchu went silent.

Old Mrs. Chen said again, “Chuchu, your parents passed away a long time ago. Even if she really had a maiden family, they didn’t come to find her while she was alive. Now that she has passed away, there’s no way that they would come looking for you. So I think you should just take it that your mother was an orphan.”

“Yeah, what’s the difference anyway?”

Xie Heng said that Xia Chenglan was trafficked to Lengshui village by human traffickers. When the original owner’s father saved her, Xia Chenglan had already lost all her memories. But many things seemed strange about Xia Chenglan. Perhaps there were other secrets about this? Was that why Xie Heng wasn’t willing to tell her?

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