Turning Antagonist to Protagonist: He is Both Soft and Fierce-Chapter 224 - 219: Just How Foolish Is the Villain
Upon hearing her talking about hiring someone, Mrs. Song crossed her arms and sneered, "Got money but never seen you show filial piety to us, you ungrateful wretch."
"Shut up," Song An glared and scolded her.
"It’s true though, giving them so much silver coin, where’s the filial respect towards us?" Mrs. Song retorted defiantly.
In such a situation, Lin Qiao originally didn’t want to say anything, but Mrs. Song acted as if Lin Qiao had a guilty conscience. Lin Qiao looked at her directly, "Aunt, have you been good to us?"
Her questioning stunned Mrs. Song for a moment, but she quickly retorted, "Your Uncle hasn’t been good to you? He gives you everything."
"You also know it’s Uncle, naturally, we should show respect to Uncle." For the first time, Lin Qiao openly confronted her in front of Song An and them, unable to bear any more as Mrs. Song always pushed for more.
In fact, every now and then, Lin Qiao bought something for Song An, but he probably didn’t say anything for fear that Mrs. Song would see they had money.
Song An, glaring at Mrs. Song, who wanted to speak again, explained in a low voice, "Tingfan and the others bought things for me, Mei’er and the others did too."
"Our sister-in-law always bought things for us," Song Mei echoed. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
Mrs. Song’s eyes widened, realizing that everyone but her had received things, instantly making her face flush with embarrassment as she shot a glare at Song An and them.
After much persuasion, in the end, the elderly couple settled down at Song’s second family.
Given the situation with the elderly couple, Lin Qiao couldn’t return to town for the time being, so she asked Grandpa Zhou to help send a message to Song Tingfan, saying the shop would be closed for recent times.
But Song Tingfan still returned, walked back from the town, by that time it was almost midnight.
However, Lin Qiao had just slept for a short while. She only went to bed after the elderly couple fell completely asleep.
Upon hearing the "thump thump" of a knock, Lin Qiao woke up immediately, opened the door, and stepped out. For some reason, she was sure it was Song Tingfan, "Uncle?"
"Sister-in-law, it’s me." A boy’s breathy voice answered from outside the door.
She opened the courtyard door, the moonlit boy’s hair slightly disheveled against his face, and his uneven breathing lasted for quite a bit.
Lin Qiao quickly let him in and locked the door behind them, "Why are you back? Didn’t I say everything is alright?"
"I was worried."
Song Tingfan glanced at the house where Song Qin and Song Rong lived, then quietly asked her, "Sister-in-law, are you all okay?"
"We’re fine. Uncle already drove them away when I got back."
Lin Qiao hesitated for a moment but still told him the situation with Song Qin and Song Rong, "Grandpa and Grandma are a bit emotionally unstable, they just fell asleep not long ago."
Song Tingfan wanted to go and see Grandpa and Grandma, but upon hearing they just fell asleep, he held back.
Thinking he might not have had dinner, Lin Qiao went to the kitchen, closed the door, and heated up some food for him.
After eating, it was already midnight. Lin Qiao told him to rest for an hour or two, as he needs to attend school early in the morning.
The private school is very strict, not attending without the teacher’s leave would be treated as a dropout.
Seeing her weary face, Song Tingfan said, "I know, sister-in-law, you should quickly sleep, I’ll take a bath and then sleep."
Lin Qiao nodded, left the kitchen, and couldn’t help but rub her throbbing forehead, wondering what was going on lately as her forehead kept throbbing.
Song Tingfan saw this unintentionally. He put down the firewood in his hands and chased after her, his voice full of concern, "Sister-in-law, do you have a headache?"
"No, didn’t you say you want to bathe? Go and heat water to bathe and sleep." Lin Qiao instinctively denied.
Not entirely convinced, Song Tingfan reached out to touch her forehead but found nothing out of the ordinary, "Sister-in-law, you mustn’t lie to me, is there something wrong?"
Lin Qiao smiled, looked up at him slightly, "I’m not lying, just tired."
"Then sister-in-law should go to sleep." Somewhat skeptical, Song Tingfan let her go inside to rest, and after closing the door, he stood for a while before leaving.
Who knows how much time passed, but the boiling water in the kitchen pot continued to "gurgle," and the boy’s gaze was somewhat distracted while staring at the burning stove, lost in thought.
The next day, when Lin Qiao got up, Song Tingfan had already left. She went to the kitchen to prepare a meal and found the rice already steamed, the vegetables washed, and even the garlic peeled and placed in a bowl.
It goes without saying who did this.
The boy’s maturity always made her heartache.
He quietly did his best to help the family with whatever he could.
She sighed softly, "Fool."
How foolish he must be to face such an end in his past life.
At this time, Mrs. Fan walked in and saw the items on the stove, "Why get up so early, you should have called me."
Lin Qiao shook her head, "I just got up too, this was done by Uncle."
"Tingfan came back?"
"He came back at night but left again."
"Probably couldn’t take it."
"Yes, just worried he couldn’t take it."
After a while, Song Qin and Song Rong got up, both with swollen eyelids, looking listless.
Song Rong couldn’t stop coughing, tried to help with the cooking, but Lin Qiao stopped him. She then examined his complexion, which indeed didn’t look good, causing her to worry involuntarily, given that in her dream, Song Rong had already passed away by this time.
"Grandpa, are you feeling unwell?"
Song Rong waved his hand, "No, don’t worry."
He was just irritated by having given birth to that thing, who even sold his niece-in-law.
Such a bastard!
Really wanted to beat him to death.
Lin Qiao knew how much impact Song Ming had on them, so she could only mention Song Tingfan to stabilize the two old men’s minds, "Grandpa, Grandma, don’t anger yourselves, it’s your own health at risk. Uncle still awaits your witness when he marries and has children."
"Uncle was worried about you yesterday and hurried back, but since I told him you were asleep, he didn’t disturb you and left for school very early in the morning."
If it weren’t for their grandson, Song Qin and Song Rong would have no hope left at all. Song Qin patted Lin Qiao’s hand, "Qiao’er, don’t worry, we know what’s at stake."
After breakfast, Lin Qiao worried that Song Rong and Song Qin would overthink at home, so she took them to the mountains to pick mushrooms, since it had rained a few days ago and mushrooms would grow in mossy areas.
Not just their family, but others were picking as well, though mostly young girls around ten years old.
Since the ground was slippery, Lin Qiao urged them to be careful. The group laughed and chatted while picking mushrooms, and for a time Song Qin and Song Rong felt much better.
Song Qin picked a big piece of mushroom, "Qiao’er, look, this one’s really nice. We can fry it and send some to Niu Niu."
Lin Qiao nodded, "Sure, we’ll fry it when we get home and let Grandpa Zhou help send it."
The group picked for about half an hour, gathering nearly half a basket of mushrooms, enough for a meal.
Lin Qiao originally stood up to stop picking, but seeing a whole piece of nice mushrooms not far away, she walked over, and as a result, the stone ground over there was slippery. She suddenly lost her footing and fell backward.
The faces of Song Qin and the others turned pale with fright and they hurried to help her, but failed to catch her, "Pa," she fell to the ground.
Lin Qiao didn’t know where she hit, her whole body ached for a moment, but there didn’t seem to be any major issue. Just as she was about to support herself to get up, she heard the anxious voice of a teenager, "Sister-in-law!"
The next instant, she was picked up by someone, facing the teenager’s face, Lin Qiao was stunned for a moment, "Why are you back?"
