Transmigrated into the role of the matriarch, I ensured my family had enough to eat and wear during

Hearing Shen's complaints, Old Lady Yang's anger flared up instantly. Her sharp gaze pierced Shen like knives as she angrily shouted, "You still have the nerve to complain? You ungrateful thing, all you do is cause trouble all day long, like a troublemaker, turning the house upside down!"

After cursing, her chest heaved violently. Pointing at Shen's nose, she shouted angrily, "Hurry up and pack your junk and go back to your parents' home in Ma'an Village. Don't get in my way!"

Shen was initially quite self-righteous, but upon hearing the words "returning to her parents' home," her smugness instantly froze, replaced by astonishment and disbelief in her eyes.

She had been married to Yang Fugui for over ten years. Even though her mother-in-law had some dissatisfaction with her, she had never been so serious before. She had only spoken the truth, and now she was really going to be sent back.

Shen gritted her teeth, about to retort, when Yang Fugui rushed forward, grabbed her arm tightly, and hissed, "Are you crazy? How dare you talk to your mother like that! You're such a troublemaker! Stop it!"

He was anxious and scared, so he leaned close to Shen's ear and coaxed, "Be good, go do your work first, don't make your mother angry. I'll go hunting for wild game in the mountains later to nourish you and Peach Blossom."

Ms. Shen felt a tightness in her chest and her eyes welled up with tears.

She wasn't greedy for the meat; she was angry because she saw Tang Susu feeding the dog meat but not giving any to her own daughter, Taohua. She felt that her daughter was less precious than a dog, and the more she thought about it, the angrier she became.

Unfortunately, the heat was unbearable today, and in my irritability, a sudden wave of intense nausea struck me.

She hurriedly covered her mouth and nose, bent over and dry heaved incessantly, her face gradually turning pale.

Seeing this, Yang Fugui assumed she was just pretending and, fearing his mother would really kick him out, impatiently urged, "Stop pretending and hurry up and get busy. If you keep making a fuss, Mother will really get angry!"

Shen suddenly looked up, her face as pale as paper, her lips cracked, and she was even unsteady on her feet, gagging even more violently.

Yang Fugui panicked and quickly released his grip, asking urgently, "What's wrong? Where do you feel unwell?"

Shen was usually quite robust, so this appearance was definitely not an act.

Old Mrs. Yang also stopped her needlework, got up and walked to Shen Shi, reaching out to touch her forehead. It felt warm, with no signs of fever.

She frowned, her face full of confusion: "I don't have a fever, how could this be?"

Wen, who was standing nearby, glanced at Shen's expression, quietly leaned forward, and asked in a low voice, "Sister-in-law, have your periods been regular lately? Could it be... you're pregnant?"

"She's pregnant?" Upon hearing this, Madam Shen's eyes lit up instantly, her gagging stopped, and her pale face was replaced by excitement. She grabbed Yang Fugui's hand, "Fugui, quick, quick, go call Doctor Zhang! Quick!"

She then turned to Fangjuan and instructed, "Fangjuan, help me back to my room to lie down. I'm not young anymore, and I need to take good care of this pregnancy, otherwise it will be difficult to conceive again!"

Old Mrs. Yang stood there, her brows furrowed, without saying a word.

She knew that Yang Fugui and Shen had been hoping for a son for several years, and now that Shen was suspected of being pregnant, it was only right that they pay more attention to her.

After lunch, people from the Yang family's old house came to Tang Susu's house to work.

Taking advantage of the moment when no one was looking, Old Mrs. Yang quietly pulled Tang Susu aside and whispered about Shen's suspected pregnancy. She also specifically instructed, "Susu, she's not young anymore, she's considered an older mother, and she's not even three months pregnant yet. Don't tell anyone else about this, I'm just telling you secretly."

Upon hearing this, Tang Susu secretly clicked her tongue in amazement.

She and Shen were about the same age, both under thirty, which would be the best age for childbearing in modern times. But in this ancient era, they were considered elderly mothers. It was both helpless and funny to think about.

In the backyard, everyone was doing their job: grinding flour, boiling water, and washing utensils, and everything was in good order.

Tang Susu stood aside, secretly calculating: In less than ten days, she would stop selling jelly.

Firstly, the rice harvest will be coming soon, and the harvested rice needs to be dried and hulled, which will keep us busy for at least ten days. There is simply no time to make jelly.

Secondly, once the grain harvest is over, autumn arrives and the weather turns cool, so no one likes to eat this cold jelly anymore.

She did some mental calculations and realized that if she worked for a few more days, she could save up nearly thirty taels of silver, enough to buy several plots of wasteland. Thinking of this, she felt much more at ease.

In the front yard, someone was still tending to the pot of lantana camara. Once a pot was brewed, it was quickly taken to the fields and sprinkled evenly on the rice. The remaining lantana camara was piled up aside and left to be thrown into the campfire at night to kill any remaining grasshoppers in the fields.

Thanks to the concerted efforts of the entire village, the locusts in Yangqu Village have been almost completely wiped out, and the locust eradication campaign has finally yielded significant results.

Tang Susu stopped herding the ducks into the fields—there were no more insects in the fields, so the ducks would have nothing to eat there;

Furthermore, the rice is almost ripe, and we're worried the ducks will steal some;

Moreover, the fields were sprayed with lantana pesticide, and if the ducks ate wild vegetables contaminated with the pesticide, they would inevitably suffer losses.

In addition, the fields are almost ready for harvest and irrigation will cease, so it would be inappropriate for ducks to enter.

That evening, after eliminating the last remaining locusts, Tang Susu's family went to bed early.

Tang Susu lay in bed, but couldn't fall asleep. She kept thinking about what to do after the grain harvest: once the harvest was over, she would prepare the mud bricks and build the new house as soon as possible.

Her biggest worry was Tang Chengyu. The child had been sleeping on a wooden board, and with the weather turning cold, the chill would seep into his body and harm him.

Although Tang Chengyu was not her biological son, the child was sensible and well-behaved, and she cherished him from the bottom of her heart.

Just as she was lost in thought, Yang Dabai's soft, gentle voice called out from outside the courtyard gate.

Tang Susu thought it was hungry, so she quietly got up, put on a coat, and went outside.

By the soft starlight in the night sky, she could see clearly that Yang Dabai was circling the courtyard wall, jumping up and down every now and then, but he just couldn't get up.

Tang Susu secretly rejoiced that it was fortunate it couldn't jump up there; otherwise, if it had touched the wires on the wall, Yang Dabai, being so small, would have definitely been electrocuted.

Just as she was about to ask Yang Dabai if he was hungry, her heart suddenly tightened, and a chill swept over her, as if she were being locked onto by something.

Tang Susu suddenly looked up and gazed beyond the fence. She froze in fright, her heart pounding in her chest—outside the fence, eight gleaming green eyes were staring intently at the yard; it was Yang Dabai's mother and the other four wolves.

Without thinking twice, Tang Susu quickly bent down, picked up Yang Dabai, and gently tossed him over the wall, her voice trembling: "Quickly, go back to the mountains with your mother."

As soon as Yang Dabai landed, it ran happily toward the white mother wolf. The four wolves immediately surrounded it and gently licked it. In no time, Yang Dabai's fur was licked wet, as if it had just been pulled out of the water.

Tang Susu leaned against the door frame, her chest heaving violently, still shaken.

She genuinely liked Yang Dabai, but the wolf pack's sudden appearance at night was terrifying. She even regretted her decision and thought it would be better to let Yang Dabai go back to the mountains with its mother.

Before she could think further, Yang Dabai hopped back, squatted at the gate of the courtyard, and called out to her in a low voice, his eyes full of pleading.

Tang Susu had no choice but to open the courtyard gate and let it in.

As soon as Yang Dabai entered the house, he quickly ran to his sleeping den, grabbed a small piece of bone, and then trotted to the gate to offer the bone to the white mother wolf.

The bone was covered in its and Yang Dahuang's saliva and had long lost its flavor. The white mother wolf glanced at it with disgust and didn't even touch it.

The noise in the yard woke Yang Dahuang from his sleep.

It wagged its big tail and happily dug around in the yard. Before long, it dug out two pieces of bamboo rat meat covered in mud from the soil.

Tang Susu recognized it at a glance. It was the meat that Yang Xiaobao had dropped on the ground and gotten muddy before he finished eating it because he was too hasty in picking it up. She never expected that Yang Dahuang would hide it.

Yang Dahuang carried the bamboo rat meat in his mouth and presented it to the white mother wolf.

Seeing this, the white mother wolf lowered her body, her eyes turned fierce, and she was about to bite Yang Dahuang. Yang Dabai hurriedly stepped forward to block her, whimpering softly a few times.

The white mother wolf paused, looked at Yang Dabai, then at Yang Dahuang, and finally withdrew her ferocious demeanor.

Then, the five wolves surrounded the yard, howling softly as if communicating in hushed tones.

Before long, Yang Dahuang successfully integrated into the wolf pack, and the white mother wolf even gently stroked its fur with her tongue.

After finishing the bamboo rat meat, the white mother wolf raised her head and looked at Tang Susu. Her bright green eyes were exactly the same as Yang Xiaobao's when he was extremely hungry, clearly indicating that she still wanted to eat meat.

Tang Susu smiled helplessly, thinking that most of the wild animals in the house were brought by these wolves, so it was reasonable to share some with them.

She turned around, tore off the dried bamboo rat meat from the bamboo pole, and threw it over the wall. But the wolves sniffed it twice, then tossed it aside with a look of disgust, still staring at her.

At this moment, Yang Dahuang stepped forward, grabbed Tang Susu's trouser leg, and pulled her towards the kitchen.

Tang Susu instantly understood that these wolves wanted to eat cooked meat.

She sighed and went into the kitchen—a pot of pheasant soup and chicken was still warming in the pot, which was meant to be saved for Miao Yulan to nourish her body tomorrow.

But the pheasant was brought by the wolf, so Tang Susu reluctantly scooped out most of the chicken meat and threw it outside the wall.

The white mother wolf stepped forward, pressed down on the chicken with her paws, first tore off a piece for Yang Dabai, then bit off a small piece for Yang Dahuang, before the remaining four wolves gathered around to share the food.

Even after they finished eating, the wolves were still drooling, clearly not satisfied.

Tang Susu shrugged and said with a smile, "There's no more meat, really no more. Let's talk about it next time."

The wolves seemed to understand, and reluctantly licked Yang Dabai and Yang Dahuang before disappearing into the night, led by the white mother wolf.

Yang Dabai and Yang Dahuang skipped back into the yard, retrieved the dried bamboo rat meat that had been discarded, and circled around Tang Susu's feet, calling out softly.

Tang Susu squatted down, picked up Yang Dabai with a dark expression, and tapped its head: "Tell your mother next time not to come to our door in the middle of the night and scare us. You guys have scared me half to death."

Yang Dabai licked the back of her hand and rubbed his little head against her palm, as if in agreement.

The next morning, before Tang Susu was fully awake, she heard Tang Lifu shouting, "Susu, get up quickly! There are about ten pheasants in front of the gate!"

Tang Susu hurriedly got up and ran outside the gate. She immediately saw the pheasants—each one had been bitten on the neck and was already lifeless, covered in blood.

She pinched her temples, feeling a headache coming on. She knew without a doubt that these pheasants must have been brought by the wolves, probably because they hadn't had enough to eat last night and this was a special "midnight snack."

It seems highly likely that the wolves will return tonight.