"Tell me, what's the story behind your return this time?" Father Xu looked at Jun Jiuli with a hint of seriousness.
The rest of the Xu family also turned their attention to her.
Jun Jiuli calmly replied, "Yang Jinhan and I are divorced."
Brother Xu angrily slapped the stove's side. "That Yang brat dared to bully you!" Brother Xu clenched his fists, cracking his knuckles, his face flushed and veins bulging. If Yang Jinhan were in front of him, he would surely receive a thorough beating.
Jun Jiuli briefly recounted what had happened over the years.
Mother Xu listened, her heart aching, and quietly shed tears.
"Silly child, why were you so foolish? You didn't know how to fight back when you were bullied. A few sweet words from them and you were tricked. It's all my fault for not teaching you better," she sobbed, wiping her eyes.
"Mom, I'm sorry. It's my filial impiety. I shouldn't have been so headstrong back then. I didn't let that brat get away with anything either. I've taken the property now, and Nannan is with me. I'll stay and develop in Nanshi from now on."
Everyone supported Jun Jiuli.
"It's good you're staying, it's good. As a family, there's nothing we can't solve together," Sister-in-law Xu said happily. Sister-in-law Xu married into the Xu family two years after the original owner got married, and their relationship had always been very good.
Thinking of the hardships her sister-in-law had endured outside over the years, she also felt immense heartache. Her sister-in-law was a quiet one, never speaking of her suffering. Had she spoken up, she would have definitely booked a flight and gone to that old hag's house to cause a scene.
She would also have had Xu Xuan Dong teach that brat a lesson.
After chatting for a while, everyone dispersed to their rooms to rest. They had to get up early the next day to tend to the tobacco in the fields.
The next day, Jun Jiuli was woken by the crowing of roosters and barking of dogs in the village. She took out her phone from under her pillow and saw it was 9 AM. The little one who had been sleeping beside her had somehow gotten up.
When Jun Jiuli went downstairs, she saw her sister-in-law working alone in the threshing ground, tying tobacco. (This means taking the green tobacco leaves that were brought back and binding them with twine to a tobacco pole and stakes, making it convenient for them to be hung and fire-cured in the curing barn.)
"Zhuozhuo is up. Why don't you rest a little longer? You must be exhausted from sitting in the car all day yesterday. There's still warm water on the stove, go wash up quickly."
"Thanks, Sister-in-law. Where did those three little ones go?"
"The eldest took the two younger ones to dig for sweet potatoes." (Sweet potatoes are a type of small red fruit that ripens in June. They taste sweet and are very fragrant and soft. Their leaves are evergreen, always lush and green.)
After tidying herself up, Jun Jiuli came over to help. Sister-in-law Xu thought the tobacco poles, laden with leaves, were too heavy for her sister-in-law and that she definitely wouldn't manage. So, she had Jun Jiuli sit on a small stool to the side, arranging the leaves into bundles of three and handing them to her to tie, a process known as "sorting tobacco."
As they tied the tobacco, they chatted. Sister-in-law Xu's two children, Xu Zhili and Xu Zhiwen, were seven and six years old respectively, in their mischievous years, always wanting to go to the river to catch crabs.
Now, taking their sister out, Sister-in-law Xu had repeatedly warned them not to play by the river. The two children repeatedly promised they would only go dig for sweet potatoes before being allowed to go.
Xu Zhiwen had always been the youngest in the family. With the arrival of a sister, he thought he must protect her well. So, early that morning, he went to knock on his aunt's door.
Little Xu Nannan was a bit unaccustomed to the bed and had woken up early, but she was unfamiliar with her surroundings and didn't dare to go downstairs. She also didn't want to wake her mother. So, she dressed herself and squatted in the room alone. When Xu Zhiwen saw her, he called her out.
After a short while, the three siblings became familiar with each other, and Xu Nannan started talking more. Happily, she put on her second brother's old water shoes and went into the mountains to play.
She walked along paths he had never taken and climbed slopes, making him pant for breath. Her two older cousins essentially had to support him as they walked at night.
After her cousins taught her which ones were edible, she obediently searched in that area. She put the sweet potatoes she found into her small pockets. She peeled and tasted a few herself; they were very sweet. This must be the taste from her mother's childhood memories, she thought. She wanted to take them back for her mother to eat.
After playing in the mountains for a while, the three of them headed home together as it was nearing mealtime.
As they walked down the sloping path, Xu Nannan's water shoes were very slippery, and she fell twice on her bottom. However, she held onto her small pockets tightly, and not a single sweet potato fell out.
The three little ones saw Jun Jiuli and Sister Xu busy cooking when they returned home.
"Mom, I'm back, I'm so hungry," the brothers said in unison.
Sister Xu said speechlessly, "You two little rascals, you only think of coming home when it's time to eat."
"Hehe."
Just then, Xu Nannan took the sweet potatoes out of her pockets and handed them to Jun Jiuli.
"Mom, you like to eat these, right?"
Jun Jiuli looked at her earnest and slightly anxious expression, accepted them, went to find a small basin, washed them with water, and put them in a bowl.
"Thank you, Nannan. Mom really likes them."
Sister Xu, who was watching, teased, "As expected, a daughter is a considerate little padded jacket. Those two boys only think of filling their own stomachs and don't even think of bringing me anything."
At this, Xu Nannan grabbed a few sweet potatoes from the bowl, washed clean, and handed them to Sister Xu. "Auntie, you eat too. Nannan will find more later."
"Haha, our Nannan is the most obedient."
Some common farmhouse dishes were stir-fried: stir-fried eggplant, cold cucumber salad, stir-fried pork with green peppers, and stir-fried cured meat with dried chili segments. There was also a stew of potatoes and pickled vegetables.
After the meal was ready, the three people from the fields also returned. Mother Xu carried a relatively small back basket, but it still contained about 100 catties of tobacco leaves.
Sister Xu and Jun Jiuli quickly came to help Mother Xu hold both sides of the basket to make it easier to set it down.
Brother Xu and Father Xu followed a few steps behind and also came over. The two of them carried no less than 200 catties. The paths to the fields were all rugged, so the tobacco leaves could only be carried back by human labor.
Later, they would still need to tie the tobacco and cure it (this means putting the tied tobacco leaves into a special curing barn and using charcoal to roast them for 5-6 days), and then grade the tobacco (this means sorting the roasted golden-yellow tobacco leaves into different grades. Each grade has a corresponding price. After sorting, they are uniformly sold to the tobacco station.)
All the money earned was from hard work. If labor was factored into the cost, there was basically little profit. Sometimes, if the tobacco leaves got sick, or were cured poorly, or if the tobacco station could not accept that much and it couldn't be sold, there was a possibility of a loss.
Xu Zhili saw his grandparents and father return and quickly brought hot water and detergent for them to wash their hands. (Tobacco leaves are coated with tobacco oil, which is black, sticky, and very difficult to wash clean.)
After Father Xu washed his hands, he took a plastic bag from his pocket containing black, prickly berries and handed it to Jun Jiuli.
"I saw these on the terrace field and picked some to bring back for you. You loved eating these when you were little."
Jun Jiuli took them and lowered her head, suppressing the surge of sadness in her heart. The original owner's emotions truly broke down in an instant upon seeing her parents. She truly regretted committing suicide, causing her loving parents to mourn their child.
And those who had hurt her would not repent because of her death. They were happily living their own lives and soon forgot about her.
It wasn't worth it, it wasn't worth it. She had walked into a dead end herself back then. Taking a step back truly meant a wider horizon. In Nanshi, her family who loved her had always been waiting for her.
Her parents and brother had worked hard to support her through university, and she had never repaid them. Instead, she had caused them sorrow with her death. She was truly unfilial.
At this moment, the last shred of obsession residing in Jun Jiuli's heart spoke.
"Fairy, I must leave. My last request is that my parents not have to work so hard anymore. Thank you for making them happy on my behalf."
After she finished speaking, Jun Jiuli felt a lightness in her heart. "007, what's going on? I didn't know the original owner was still here?"
"It's just the residual consciousness of the original owner, wanting to see how her parents were doing. Her parents and Nannan were her greatest obsessions. Now that her obsessions may have been resolved, she is leaving."
"You can do that?"
"Because the body you brought is hers, a trace of her consciousness remained, and I didn't discover it in time. However, this will not affect the mission. I will pay more attention in the future."
"Alright."
After dinner, Mother Xu no longer had to go to the fields. The tobacco they had harvested was almost enough for one curing barn. She decided to stay and help tie the tobacco. This way, all the tobacco leaves would be tied and sent into the curing barn before 9 PM.
The three little ones also stopped playing outside and all offered to sort tobacco for the adults to tie. In this way, the three teams working together significantly increased the speed.
The family worked until nine o'clock in the evening before carrying all the tobacco into the curing barn and hanging it up.
Sister Xu, tired from the day, leaned back in her chair. "Oh, I didn't have a moment's rest today. Tomorrow I can relax. I'll stew a chicken then."
"Thank you, Sister-in-law, for still remembering to kill a chicken for me to eat."
"Hahaha."
After dinner, the family sat in the threshing ground, enjoying the breeze and cooling off, chatting and laughing together in a harmonious atmosphere.