"You bitch! How long will it take you to bring me some warm water to wash my feet?"

A hoarse voice echoed in the small house of the Qiao family. Han Xuehan, who was boiling water in the kitchen, clenched her fingers and hurriedly poured the water into the foot basin and went to the room where her mother-in-law lived. As soon as she entered the room, a shoe came flying and hit her on the face, leaving a dirty footprint on Han Xuehan’s cheek.

Seeing this, Madam Qiao was quite satisfied, and her vanity was also settled. She sneered coldly, "You bitch, I just asked you to boil some water. Why did you take your sweet time to bring it? Do you even know how hard it is for me to work in the fields?"

Han Xuehan did not say anything and simply poured the water into the foot basin with a cold face. She used to fight with Madam Qiao in the past, but then this woman started complaining to her son. Her husband was also extremely filial to his mother and quarrelled with her. At first, it was just quarrelling, but then he started to raise his hands at her when he realised that they were far from the Han family and no one cared about her in the Han family.

Since then, she realised that there was no point in fighting with her mother-in-law because the woman would always use her son’s filial piety against her.

She pursed her lips and then walked out of the room, not wanting to quarrel with her mother-in-law.

"You bitch, where do you think you are going—"

Madam Qiao shrieked and reached her hand out to slap Han Xuehan, but just as her hand reached out to touch her, a small child came running into the yard. "Aunt Han, are you in there? Your father has called you."

"What?"

"What!?"

Han Xuehan was sure that she had misheard. It had been six years since she got married, and no one from her family called her; they did not even invite her back on the day when the newly married woman returned home, which led to her in-laws saying that she was a jinx and no one in her family cared about her. Now why? Why did her father call her after so many years?

"Shitou, what nonsense are you saying?" Madam Qiao also did not believe that her in-laws would call this abandoned woman. "You must have made a mistake. Was it Aunt Hao?"

Han Xuehan’s eyes dimmed. Yes, how could her father call her? Shitou must have made a mistake. After all, he was just a child. However, to her surprise, Shitou shook his head and stated in a quiet and firm voice, "I heard it clearly; the village head told me to call Aunt Han, and he told me twice because he was worried that I would bring someone else." Shitou felt sorry for Aunt Han; she was one of the few people in the village who was nice to him and even gave him a coarse bun to eat. How could he not care about such an important thing?

As soon as Han Xuehan heard Shitou confirm, her eyes brightened, and she ran out of the yard, leaving Mother Qiao behind.

"You—"

Mother Qiao wanted to stop the woman, but she did not dare to; she had no idea why the in-laws were calling this bitch out of nowhere. Were they not uncaring toward her? Why did they suddenly call this woman out of nowhere? Mother Qiao did not feel good. This sudden call from her in-laws made Madam Qiao really nervous, and she chased after Han Xuehan right away. She was worried that the woman would say something to the in-laws, and then things would become troublesome for her and her son. These damned people. What were they thinking? All these years, they never called her and made them think that they did not care about this woman, but now they were suddenly calling her out of nowhere. What was going on in their minds?

Han Xuehan did not care about such things. Instead, she ran all the way to the common house of the village, and when she arrived, her heart was thumping wildly. But not because she ran all the way from the Qiao House to the commune, but because she was worried that as soon as she arrived, the village head would tell her that they had made a mistake.

"Vi–Village head—"

"Ah, Xuehan? You are finally here," greeted the village head with a smile on his face. "Your father called and is waiting for you. Go ahead and talk with him." Village Head Qiao felt sorry for Han Xuehan. Even though the Qiao family were his relatives and he should be protecting them, they were simply inhumane. They did not take care of this young woman and even hit her at the smallest drop of the hat. Even if Village Head Qiao was not a good person, there was a limit to things that he could ignore and beating a woman up until she was crying for her father was not something that he could ignore!

However, there was little to nothing he could do. He knew that this was a personal matter, and even if he wanted to cause trouble, he could not. How was he supposed to tell his distant nephew not to beat his wife?

Village Head Qiao sighed. He said to Han Xuehan, "Go and talk to your father."

Han Xuehan nodded and hurried inside the room where the phone was, and as soon as she walked inside, Mother Qiao chased after her but was stopped by Village Head Qiao. he raised his hand and stopped the woman from following Han Xuehan and said to her, "Where do you think you are going?"

"Village head, you need to let me in! What if that bitch tells her father everything?"

Speaking of this, Old Madam Qiao was really flustered. In the past, she used to bully Han Xuehan, thinking that there was no one who cared about her. But now that Han Xuehan’s father had called her out of nowhere, what was she going to do? What if these people suddenly wanted to connect with Han Xuehan?

Village Head Qiao remained unmoved. He glanced at Old Madam Qiao and stated coldly, "Now, you know how to be scared? What were you thinking when you sent the dowry of your daughter-in-law to your daughter’s house? No matter what, they are still her family. Even if they had some grievances, they would surely connect with her sooner or later. Did you really think that a father would leave his daughter in your hands without caring about her? I have told you this many times before, but you did not want to listen to me. Since that is the case, you can only blame yourself!"

Village Head Qiao had indeed told this foolish woman not to cause trouble for Han Xuehan. And when Han Xuehan came to complain to him about how her mother-in-law was sending her dowry with her daughter to her in-laws, he had suggested to Old Madam Qiao not to do something foolish and told her not to send the dowry that belonged to her daughter-in-law with her daughter. But this woman did not listen and thought that Han Xuehan had no one to protect her. That she could pinch and squeeze her as she wanted. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

There were countless times he asked this woman to stop and not cause trouble, but did she listen to him? No!

"Village Head Qiao, are you really going to support an outsider over your relatives?" Old Madam Qiao was furious. Why was it that Han Xuehan’s father called, and everyone thought that it was okay for them to talk back to her? Did she look like she was that easy to bully?

Village Head Qiao sneered and said, "You can think whatever you want. Anyway, you and your family think that you are really smart. Since that is the case, you can come up with a way to deal with this matter as well. After all, you are not someone who has dealt with all kinds of things, haven’t you?"

Old Madam Qiao was furious, but she did not dare to go against the village head. She could only purse her lips and silently scold the woman for causing trouble. She did not think that there was anything wrong with what she did; she only thought that this was the fault of the Han family. Why did they make them believe that they didn’t care about this girl!?

Inside the room, Han Xuehan picked up the receiver of the phone with trembling hands. "Hello?"

"Hello? Hello? Xuehan! Its dad...dad...wanted to talk to you." Han Yichen was feeling a bit troubled at the moment. He did not think that just because he shared his worries with Han Ruochen, the latter would pick up the phone and call Han Xuehan. These things were usually done by the mother of the daughters, and a father never cared about such a thing, except that Meng Yunhan was unreliable; he could only suck in this breath and do the duty that belonged to a mother.

As soon as Han Xuehan heard her father’s words, she burst into tears.

"Dad!" Han Xuehan’s tears could no longer be stopped as she cried her heart out. "Dad, do you not want me as your daughter? How could you not talk to me for so many years? No one called, and do you even know how I live in this place?" In the past, she did not dare to make any complaints, but now that her father had called her, how could she not tell him the grievances that she had suffered from?

She pursed her lips to stop the sobs coming from her lips, but she couldn’t stop the cries from escaping her lips.