Zi Qing was looking for clothes in the house when she heard Tian Shi sigh and say, "Those without sons worry, those with sons also worry. My elder sister's family has several sons, and there are seven or eight grandsons too, but who takes care of her? Every day, she relies on one household to scrape together some money, and another household to borrow from, it's not a good situation at all. Those few sons of hers are really no good."

  "Second sister, we're all just envious of your good fortune. Father and mother gave you a name with the character 'fu' (good luck), and it really wasn't given in vain. Both sons are filial, and Yu Mei is even more so - there's nothing to say about her. These past couple years, conditions have been better, and she often helps support me and big sister too. Every time she comes, she never leaves empty-handed. Second sister, just be content with what you have." said Xiaotian Shi.

  Zi Qing suddenly remembered that the husband of this aunt had passed away early, leaving behind only a daughter who had married out and rarely came back to visit her. It was said that this aunt still had some silver in her hands, but she didn't dare take it out easily. The clan had given her a son-in-law when her husband was alive, who was the nephew of her husband's family and was already quite old at the time, having been married for many years. But what could he be looking for now?

  Zi Qing pieced together a story from their intermittent conversations, and it turned out that the adopted son had been eyeing the silver money in his adoptive mother's hands. The old lady lived alone, and he would often go to her house to ask about her well-being and complain about his hardships. As time went on, he saw no other benefits, so he turned against her, frequently withholding grain from her. Now that his son was getting married, they had nowhere to live, and the small house of Xiaotian Shi had been promised to him after a hundred years. He came up with this idea, sending his son over, saying that he was accompanying the old lady because she was getting older and needed someone to take care of her, and they would spend their days together. Xiaotian Shi listened and didn't think it was inappropriate, thinking he was being kind-hearted.

  This son is also ignorant, and his wife is lazy and greedy. The oil bottle fell over and she wouldn't even pick it up. Instead, the old lady has to support them every day. Even so, they still quarrel every three or four days. The old lady endured for more than a year but can no longer bear it, so she filed a complaint with the clan head. This family matter was already complicated, and since Xiaotian's wife had no son, her daughter and natal family were not on good terms with her, so naturally they didn't speak in her favor.

  This time, I've come to find Zeng Ruixiang. After all, Zeng Ruixiang is a scholar, and I want him to go out and talk to the clan leader. Xiaotian's intention is to replace the adopted son with another one, as this has been going on for over ten years and it really hurts her heart.

  Zeng Ruixiang didn't linger either and hastily accompanied them as they left. Shen Shi's invitation to stay for dinner was also declined, saying she had to rush over before noon.

  "Mother, why doesn't the daughter of Auntie's family take care of her?"

  "Your aunt's mother was married to a poor family before, and after her husband died, she guarded for three years. At that time, she was not yet thirty years old, bringing up a daughter on her own, it was very difficult. Later, your grandma and big aunt advised her to remarry, through a matchmaker, they found a slightly richer family. After marrying into this family, they had a few acres of paddy fields, at first, she thought it was the end of suffering and the beginning of happiness, but later found out that she had been deceived by the matchmaker. This man is infertile, her daughter resents her, growing up with the grandparents on the other side, how can there be much mother-daughter affection?" Shen sighed.

  "Why didn't Grandma's brothers go to support their sister?"

  "That's your half-brother, these things are not clear even to your own children, what's the point of arguing with me? Just do what you should do, don't bother. You kids always like to ask about things that aren't your business, and you're not even ashamed."

  Zi Qing ran away in a hurry, and Shen Shi would go on and on if she started rambling.

  Zeng Ruixiang only returned before dinner, looking like things were not going well. Zi Qing heard him say to Shen Shi: "The dog's death was acknowledged by the clan members' signatures and seals back then. Now, it's hard to convince others with just one person's words, especially since the aunt is a latecomer and doesn't have any descendants. Who in the village would dare to speak up for her and offend the dog's family? The dog's family has many people and is very powerful."

  Ziying only then realized that her aunt's adopted son was actually called Doggie, Ziying covered her mouth and ran out of the house, laughing loudly. Zifeng looked at her and asked: "Qinger, why are you laughing alone here?"

  Ziying laughed for half a day before saying, "Big brother, I just found out that the adopted son of Auntie's family is called Dogzi, it's so funny. I've heard someone being called Dog Leftover, but never directly called Dogzi."

  "What's the big deal, I thought it was something good. Isn't your brother-in-law just called Doggie? And there are several in the village who are called Kitty and Mouse." said Zifeng.

  After that, Zeng Ruixiang went several times in succession, showing his attitude of not giving up. Finally, Zeng Ruixiang wrote a statement saying that if he didn't agree with the opinions of Xiao Tian's family, he would go to the county government office to file a complaint. Anyway, they knew that Zeng Ruixiang was a scholar and Zeng Ruizheng was still on duty at the entrance of Anzhou government office.

  Only after moving out these things, the clan head agreed to remove her adopted son's name, take back the land, and have his son move out of the Xiao Tian family home. He then chose another honest and kind-hearted person from the clan to rent and farm the old lady's land, making it clear that each year he would give the old lady a certain amount of rice, silver money, and vegetables. After 100 years, the house and land would all belong to him.

  This matter finally had a relatively perfect ending, and Zeng Rui Xiang also finally breathed a sigh of relief. After all, he didn't want to make trouble for the Xiao Tian family in the village either. Shen said with a smile: "If it wasn't for this, your legs would have been running non-stop, and you wouldn't have done anything else this summer."

  Before leaving, Zeng Rui-xiang took his eldest son to collect the rent. This year's harvest was good and the rice was abundant, so the tenants were very happy. Since the Zi family only asked for one and a half dan, the rest belonged to the tenants themselves, so they paid the rent with pleasure.

  There was no such large granary at home, and Zeng Ruixiang didn't want to keep so much grain either. He sold the excess grain for a total of only 15 taels of silver. Zi Qing thought that the income from rice was really not high, no wonder farmers worked hard all year round, but their lives didn't get any better. However, they couldn't stop planting grains either.

  Seeing off Zeng Ruixiang and Zi Fu, Zi Lu also followed to the county town to study. At home, only Shen Shi, a heavily pregnant woman, was left with Zi Qing and two younger ones. Fortunately, He Shi has been helping with cooking and taking care of the children, otherwise Zi Qing would not have time to manage the fruit trees in the backyard.

  In just a few days, Autumn Jade came to say that Spring Jade's child was about to be born and they should send a gift for the new mother. Zi Qing had thought that since all three families were pregnant this year and their due dates were around the same time, no one would need to give gifts to each other and it would save everyone trouble. But Shen Shi smiled and said that this kind of thing couldn't be skipped.

  Since the Zhous and Shens couldn't go, Tian decided to have Old Master hurry along with the ox cart, taking Autumn Jade, Zi Ping, and Zi Qing, and also brought a bag of glutinous rice and two baskets of green vegetables to Chunyu's house.

  Zi Qing's family gift was still a pig stomach, a basket of eggs and a piece of fine white cloth. If it wasn't for the fact that she had to go, Zi Qing really didn't want to step into her elder sister's house again.

  Fortunately, this time there was an old man present, and Zi Qing didn't leave Autumn Jade's side for a single step. After finishing lunch, they packed up and left, and fortunately, nothing went wrong on the way back.

  The Shens were busy asking people to harvest sweet potatoes, pull out cucumber vines, plant sweet potatoes and soybeans, and after more than ten days of work, they heard the news that Chunyu had given birth to a five-tael baby. Zi Qing had no choice but to follow Grandma and others on another trip, this time Eldest Uncle did not mention having a banquet with three rounds of toasts again.