Back to 1984: Earning Money, Raising Kids, and Keeping the Household Busy

Seeing her younger siblings' cautious demeanor, Chen Ruiyu comforted them, saying, "I'm fine, really! Just like you said, everyone loves me. I have no memory of that woman from childhood. At most, I'll just be sad for a while."

"Really?" Chen Xinyue's eyes lit up.

Chen Ruiyu nodded emphatically.

Both men breathed a sigh of relief.

In the afternoon, Chen Wenjun went out alone to pick up his youngest son and take him home.

After making a phone call to her workplace, Lin Qin stayed home with her children.

Chen Wenjun returned with his youngest son around dusk.

The family ate dinner as if nothing had happened.

Chen Wenjun and Lin Qin went to the study.

"Today I asked Wen Feng and Gao Lei to help me investigate He Chunhong's whereabouts over the years. By using both methods, we found out quite a bit."

Seeing that he was in a good mood, which seemed to be good news, Lin Qin immediately sat down and asked, "What do you mean?"

Chen Wenjun pulled out a crumpled document from his pocket. "It's all here. Back then, she went to Xinwei with her family. The following year, she remarried a local Tanka man under her family's arrangement and had a son and a daughter."

Three years ago, her husband died. Her son was rebellious and unruly, a local thug. Her daughter went to work in another city and rarely came back.

Her son killed someone and fled a while ago; the police are after him. She was worried about the police coming after her, so she went back to Nanxi to hide. Now that she knows Ping An is capable, she won't let him off so easily. However, they probably don't know what materials I have. Let's keep an eye on them. If the He family dares to cause trouble, we'll call the police and settle the old scores from back then!

Lin Qin tapped the table from time to time, lost in thought. As a woman, she knew that He Chunhong would never let Ping An go. If it weren't for their blood ties, Lin Qin would have taken action to deal with He Chunhong.

For now, we can only wait and see.

Neither the couple took the initiative to intervene.

The next morning, just as Lin Qin was about to leave her house, a group of people blocked her at her doorstep.

She glanced around and saw He Xia and He Chunhong in the crowd, her face expressionless, before finally fixing her gaze on village chief Chen Yintao.

"Is there something you need, Village Chief?"

Seeing that Lin Qin was asking a question she already knew the answer to, Chen Yintao's expression became more embarrassed and ingratiating. "Lin Qin, yesterday He Xia and the others brought He Chunhong to us, saying that He Chunhong had come back to recognize her son. You tried to stop them, but they insisted that I stand up for them. I don't know what happened, but in order to give everyone an explanation, I had no choice but to come with them to ask. I didn't mean anything by it."

He didn't want to go on this trip at all, but since the village was mostly in the Chen and He families, and He Chunhong's relatives from her maternal family had all come along, he couldn't just do nothing.

Lin Qin understood his meaning, and her displeasure softened considerably. She chuckled and said, "Village Chief, I've heard something interesting. Would you all like to hear it?"

"What are you listening to! Let Ping An come out! You ungrateful wretch, he doesn't even recognize his own mother, what does he think he is! Let me tell you, Lin Qin, others may be afraid of you, but I'm not! If this matter isn't settled today, nobody will have a good time!"

The speaker was He Chunhong's cousin, who was also He Xia's nephew, named He Yong.

Lin Qin sneered, "Very well! I also want to clarify this matter so that no one will interfere with our family's life! Village Chief, what do you think?"

Chen Yintao nodded vigorously, "That's right, that's right, the matter still needs to be resolved." Lin Qin's smile deepened, "In that case, please ask the village chief to go back and find all the elders of our Chen clan, especially those who know the details of what happened back then, it would be best to call them all over! I, Lin Qin, will not let everyone make a wasted trip. In a few days, I will hold a grand banquet at the ancestral hall in the village and treat everyone to a good meal!"
I heard that they're going to build a temple in our village, and we'd like to do our part in that.

Upon hearing this, Chen Yintao immediately became eager and said, "Wait here, I'll have Ah Cai go back and call them. We'll bring you all the people you're looking for!"

"Lin Qin, what are you trying to do?" He Xia shouted fiercely, but was actually quite weak. Lin Qin's behavior was completely beyond her expectations, and she had no idea what Lin Qin was planning to do next.

Lin Qin leaned lazily against the door, arms crossed, looking at He Xia and He Chunhong with a half-smile, "I want to see just how shameless people can be!"

"You!" He Xia shouted angrily, hands on her hips, "If you hadn't bewitched Chen Wenjun and his son, how could Ping An not recognize his birth mother? It's all your fault, you wicked stepmother!"

The members of the He clan nodded in agreement with He Xia's statement.

He Chunhong immediately burst into tears, which aroused sympathy from her fellow clansmen, who looked at Lin Qin with increasing anger.

Hearing the pointing fingers and whispers, Chen Yintao's face darkened, and he shouted, "What's all the noise about? Even I don't know much about what happened back then, what do you know!"

That's all ancient history from over a decade ago. Chen Yintao was only in his early thirties back then, just a naive young man who knew nothing about Chen Wenjun's family affairs.

The elderly people who intervened back then have all passed away over the years, leaving only three or four participants alive. Two of them are severely hard of hearing, and two others have lived at the bottom of the boat for many years, suffering from severe rheumatism and memory loss. He can't find them to learn about their situation.

Only Chen Yongding and Zhou Shuifang could find out the details, but all they knew was that He Chunhong had abandoned her husband and children and run away. Some people said that He Chunhong might have killed her child, but there was no evidence.

It's a difficult job for him to be the village chief.

The He clan members were dissatisfied, but they tolerated it because Chen Yintao was the village chief.

About half an hour later, villagers surnamed Chen arrived one after another, mostly middle-aged and elderly people over forty years old.

As soon as Zhou Shuifang and Chen Yongding arrived, they pointed at He Chunhong's nose and started cursing.

"He Chunhong! You were the one who abandoned your husband and children back then! You were the one who couldn't endure hardship and suffering, and you were the one who tried every means to throw away your child! Now that you see Ping An is doing well, you want to run out and steal his fruits. What kind of trash are you!" Zhou Shuifang shouted angrily.

He Chunhong only knew how to cry, act pitiful, and try to gain sympathy, but she wouldn't say a word.

He Xia, enraged, exchanged insults with Zhou Shuifang, saying, "Your family and Chen Wenjun are in cahoots! You never liked Chunhong before, and now you're throwing mud at her and slandering her. Be careful, or you'll be struck dead by lightning!"

"Me!" Zhou Shuifang roared, rolling up her sleeves in fury.

If they weren't on the water, each in their own boat, she would definitely have rushed over and started fighting with He Xia.

Seeing that his wife was getting emotional and he couldn't calm her down, Chen Yongding quickly looked at Lin Qin and asked, "Where's Wenjun?"

"I went out at dawn, Uncle, don't worry, I can handle this." Lin Qin looked confident.

Chen Yongding was extremely worried. The matter had escalated so much; how was Lin Qin going to handle it? Was he going to let them fight with the man surnamed He in front of their house?
Oh! If only his old man could live a couple more years.

He knows best about Ping An's situation!
Chen Yongding kept sighing in amazement. (End of Chapter)