In ancient times, there was a village called Taohua Village. The village was surrounded by mountains and rivers, with beautiful scenery and developed transportation. The people living here were self-sufficient and lived a carefree and happy life. Only the old Lin family at the west end of the village seemed out of place, all because his family had a very powerful old woman.
The old woman’s maiden name was Wu, and her parents made a living as escorts, so Wu also knew some boxing and kicking skills. Even after marrying Lin Changming, a member of Taohua Village, she was still arrogant and domineering, accustomed to using force to win over others.
has been married here for decades. She doesn’t even have a close friend or neighbor. She enjoys torturing her daughter-in-law all day long.
Lin Changming passed away two years ago before his son could have a baby. His son Lin Fusheng did not follow his father's footsteps, but learned a carpenter's trade. Because he could not stand the nagging of his mother Wu, he chose to go out to work and rarely came home.
He and his wife Ning Cuicui were originally set up by the Wu family and had no feelings at all. Therefore, they had been married for more than four years and the days when the couple lived together were numbered.
As the saying goes, "There are three ways to be unfilial, the first is to have no heirs." Her son did not come home for months and months. Mrs. Wu felt that it was her daughter-in-law's fault and felt that she could not win over her son's heart, so she became more and more unkind to her. It was common to insult her. But Ning Cuicui was also a virtuous and soft-hearted woman. Even Mrs. Wu treated her like this. She still endured her temper and served her, and was very filial.
Just like that, she still didn't get a good word from Wu. On the contrary, it was the middle of winter when the mountains were blocked by heavy snow, and he asked her to go to the mountains to find food. Ning Cuicui didn't dare to disobey her, so she had to wrap herself in an old patched cloak and carry a bamboo basket up the mountain.
But there was a vast expanse of snow on the mountain, and the snow covered Ning Cuicui’s knees. How could there be anything to eat?
But she was scolded if she went back too early, so she had no choice but to bite the bullet and walk deeper, enduring the pain of broken skin and bleeding frostbite on the back of her feet.
Along the way, she met a lot of pheasants and hares that were out looking for food, but Ning Cuicui couldn't bear to hurt them. They were both poor people and animals in the world, so she couldn't help but pity them, so she had to clear the snow to see if she could find some wild vegetables and mushrooms.
Seeing that the sky was getting darker, Ning Cuicui finally looked at a few cold-resistant wild vegetables and sighed, preparing to go down the mountain and go home.
At this moment, she actually heard a faint cry of a baby. At first, she thought it was coming from some wild animal. She thought that Mo was freezing to death and wanted to see if she could be treated, so she slowly groped towards the mountain road on the right in search of the sound.
Not far away, I saw a man in a leeward place. When the man saw someone coming, he looked at Ning Cuicui's clothes again, and after concentrating, he stood up and raised the baby in his hand high, preparing to throw it down the snow-capped mountain stream.
"No!"
Ning Cuicui yelled, and hurriedly threw away the basket in her hand and prepared to pick up the child, but the man not only refused to give it to her, but also hurriedly took a few steps back and said, "This child is a disaster. He killed his parents as soon as he was born, and even harmed me. I have been wandering around with him, and now I can't support him. It's better to throw him to death than to be dragged down by him."
After saying this, she tried to throw him away. This time, Ning Cuicui really lost her temper. She snatched the child over, held her in her arms and patted him gently. Looking at the child's pink and tender face, her heart almost melted.
She asked the man why he would hurt such a young child. After all, this is a life. If she dislikes him, then give the child to her to raise. Even if she starves to death, she still wants to bring up the child healthily and safely.
After hearing this, a look of gratitude flashed across the man's face. Before Ning Cuicui could notice, he immediately showed disdain and said mockingly: "Humph, you don't even look at your own situation. It's snowing so hard, and you still have to go up the mountain to find food. Yes, and her clothes are patched, and she looks like a poor woman. How can you say that you can raise a child who is less than two months old? It's just a dream!" After saying this, Ning Cuicui tried to snatch the child away, but Ning Cuicui sidestepped her.Seeing that she really wanted to raise the child, the man deliberately sighed and said, "You can insist on raising the child, but I spent a lot of money on this child, so I have to ask for some interest. How about this? I see that this carved wooden hairpin on your head is very unique, so I will use it to pay for it."
When Ning Cuicui heard this, she immediately hesitated, because this wooden hairpin was the only thing her husband Lin Fusheng gave her. Although it was originally carved by him as a token of engagement, it was also the only thing between them that she really couldn't bear to part with.
But when she looked at the baby in her arms with her eyes closed and her little mouth pouting, her heart softened again, so she decisively pulled out the wooden hairpin and exchanged it with him.
The man finally showed his kindness and escorted them to the mountain pass before turning around and leaving. Looking at his back limping away, Ning Cuicui felt it was unreal. She just came back with a different child?
She felt a mixture of sadness and joy in her heart at the moment. She was happy that she finally had a child, and it was a well-behaved and lovely daughter. She liked it very much. But she was sad that she still didn’t know what her mother-in-law’s attitude was. Would she be very angry when she saw the child?
But Ning Cuicui then thought about it. Her mother-in-law scolded her day and night for not laying eggs. Now that she has such a beautiful child, she should also be happy.
couldn't get in the way anyway, so she had no choice but to sigh, hug her child tightly and walk home.
No need to think about it, Mrs. Wu was furious, saying that this child was not related to her Lin family, so why should she raise it for others? Not only did they not pay for the rations, they even stole a wooden hairpin and ran away.
Although it was worthless, it was still an object. The old lady was really angry, so she drove Ning Cuicui and her child out with a wave of the broom, saying that she didn't like her son anyway, so she might as well let her divorce.
Ning Cuicui was given nothing from the house. On a snowy day, she held her child and walked aimlessly until she fainted in front of a ruined temple far away from the village...
When she woke up again, she was lying in the ruined temple. It turned out that an old beggar saw them lying in the snow, so he dragged them into the ruined temple with great effort, and lit a fire not far away.
At this moment, there was a broken earthenware jar in front of the fire. When he saw her waking up, the old beggar hurriedly used a clean bowl to pour out a bowl of white porridge from the earthenware jar, handed it to Ning Cuicui, and motioned for her to drink it.
He told Ning Cuicui that he was not a bad person, but that his hometown was hit by a disaster years ago, and his fields and houses were destroyed by heavy rain. He had fled all the way to get here, and because he was old and in poor health, he simply cleaned up the ruined temple and lived there.
He also said that the children had already drank rice soup and went to sleep, and asked them to just stay in peace. He would go out to beg for food and would not let them go hungry.
Just because no one had ever been so kind to Ning Cuicui, it was unexpected that an old man who had to beg for food would give her a lot of warmth.
Ning Cuicui burst into tears, and finally swore in her heart that she would repay this kind old man in the future...
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, Ning Cuicui has changed from a young woman in her twenties to an old woman in her forties. Now she and her daughter Ning Anning have settled down in the city. Mother and daughter have managed a small embroidery shop these years, and their life is not bad.
The old man who saved her mother and daughter was also recognized by her as her adoptive father. She has taken good care of her over the years. He is now over eighty years old and is still very strong. Recently, he has been joking about An Ning, saying that she is almost eighteen and should find a good man to marry so that he can hold his great-grandson.
Every time the old man said this, Ning Anning would blush and run away, saying that her grandfather was making fun of her. When Ning Cuicui saw it, she also smiled very happily, and she secretly felt sorry for her daughter.
On this day, a man walked into the store and asked Ning Cuicui if she still remembered him.
Ning Cuicui thought for a long time and suddenly recognized him!
She hurriedly looked outside the door and saw that her daughter had not come back from delivering goods. She was slightly relieved and asked the man: "You already used the wooden hairpin on my head to exchange for the child that day, so you shouldn't look for it again. Tell me, what else do you want?"
"Sister-in-law misunderstood." The man waved his hands hurriedly, saying that he did not regret coming to ask for money or people. He sighed and told Ning Cuicui a story.
It turns out that Ning Anning's surname was Chen, and she was the daughter of a wealthy businessman in Luo City thousands of miles away. Unexpectedly, less than half a month after she was born, something bad happened to her family, and her enemy burned down the house.
He was the younger brother of a wealthy businessman. When he rushed home, he saw his brother holding a child, lying dying in the grass not far from home. He handed the child to him and left before he could speak. In order to avoid being chased by his enemies, he ran for his life day and night with the child in his arms, and finally escaped into the mountains outside Taohua Village.
Just when he had a leg injury and was holding the child and not knowing where to go, he met Ning Cuicui who went up the mountain to look for food, and then he deliberately tested her, Tuogu.
He knew that if he ran for his life with his children, his enemies would find him one day. The wounds on his legs were caused by them. That time, he escaped by chance, but he also knew that he would never have such good luck again, so he had to take this step.
He was afraid that he would not have the certificate in the future, so he exchanged the only carved wooden hairpin on Ning Cuicui's head. He came here this time because he had already avenged his brother and sister-in-law.
was just afraid that the child would suffer for the rest of his life if he found out, so he deliberately found a time when the child was not around to return the wooden hairpin. It was also to return the Chen family property that he had taken back over the years to his niece.
While talking, Ning Anning came back. The man had no time to leave and wanted to see his grown-up niece, so he forced himself to hold back the tears in the corners of his eyes.
Ning Cuicui couldn't bear to see this scene, so she had an idea and said that this was her new errand boy, so that her daughter would not have to go out to show off when she was older, so she should be well prepared to find a good husband.
From then on, Chen Zhong was left here like this. As time went by, he and Ning Cuicui developed a secret love. With the help of Ning Anning and his grandfather, they got married, which was a great blessing.
As for Ning Anning, she was eventually attracted by the newly appointed young county magistrate, and she immediately became the county magistrate's wife that everyone in the city envied. The couple had a close relationship, and Ning Cuicui and Chen Zhong were relieved.
After that, they simply handed over the embroidery workshop to the servants, and the two of them took their adoptive father to travel around, which was very pleasant.
On this day, they returned to Taohua Village accidentally. Ning Cuicui also wanted to go back to the Lin family to have a look. After all, they were a married couple. She also wanted to know how they were doing now.
Before she even entered the village, a neighbor lady recognized her, took her hand and forced them to go sit in the house.
The group of them happened to pass by the door of Lin's house. Ning Cuicui recognized the old woman washing clothes in the courtyard with just one glance. She was her mother-in-law Mrs. Wu.
Mrs. Wu didn't know how to wash her own clothes before, but now she is washing her clothes with her head down, because if she slows down a little bit, a strong female voice will come out, swearing some unpleasant words, which makes people frown.
When the neighbor's wife saw Ning Cuicui stopped, she deliberately pulled her away. When Wu heard the sound, she looked up, and after a while, she recognized that the fair-skinned and beautiful lady was her ex-daughter-in-law, who was skinny and dark. Somehow, two lines of tears fell down without warning.
When I arrived at my neighbor's aunt's house, she was also a warm-hearted person, and soon she revealed all the dirty things that had happened to the old Lin family over the years.
It turned out that not long after he drove Ning Cuicui away, Lin Fusheng brought back a girl from the city. Mrs. Wu was so happy at the time that they soon got married.
Over time, she regretted it. It turned out that her daughter-in-law's family ran a martial arts school and she had a bad temper. She would beat her husband and mother-in-law when she didn't get her way. Her husband Lin Fusheng couldn't stand it anymore, so he picked up the carpenter's tools and ran away, leaving Mrs. Wu at home to brave the storm and suffer the same grievances Ning Cuicui had suffered.
Mrs. Wu has become much more docile in recent years, and she knows how to take the initiative to say hello to the people in the village. However, she has offended people to death in the past, and no one is willing to pay attention to her. This can be regarded as the retribution she deserves.
After leaving Taohua Village, Ning Cuicui felt mixed emotions. She was lucky to be kicked out of the Lin family, but Wu was getting older, and she began to sympathize with her plight.
Her husband Chen Zhong advised her to go with everything as she wished, otherwise she would buy some gifts and visit her in a few days. But Ning Cuicui shook her head and said no, otherwise, her daughter-in-law would be even more angry when she saw her. Who wants to see her husband's ex-wife?
Even if this matter passed like this, Ning Cuicui slowly felt relieved.
In the end, it was Lin Fusheng who did not take responsibility. Otherwise, how could the two of them reconcile? His mother, Mrs. Wu, would not have suffered this. In fact, this was not caused by Lin Fusheng. If he dared to speak for his wife, Mrs. Wu would not be so arrogant...
On this day, While she was doing embroidery work, she felt nauseous for no reason. Chen Zhong quickly called the doctor, and after checking her pulse, he realized that his wife was pregnant. He was as happy as a young boy. Even his adoptive father was so excited that he spun around in circles several times. The couple were afraid that he would fall.
Ning Anning and his wife soon learned of the incident and were very happy for their parents.
Only Ning Cuicui laughed at herself and felt embarrassed.
was pregnant for ten months and gave birth to a son named Chen Huaiyuan. He was even one year younger than his nephew, but this did not affect his desire to be an uncle at all.
The two uncles and nephews grew up together and obtained academic honors at the same time, but they both chose to go to a remote and poor small county to work for one of their parents and support the local people. Within a few years, they got out of poverty and were praised by others.
Ning Cuicui’s adoptive father died without any illness until he was ninety-nine years old. In the end, he was able to enjoy all the glory, and good people were rewarded.
Ning Cuicui and Chen Zhong also closed their embroidery workshop in the early years. They had no worries about food and clothing, and devoted themselves to taking care of their children and grandchildren. They lived without illness or disaster for a hundred years.
