She won't clear her name; she'll throw away all the scum.

"Is that really my Xiang Hong?"

Li Xiuzhu: "Yes, it's her. I can't be wrong. Auntie, I'm going home now. If you need anything, come find me at the house at the village entrance!"

Grandma Xia nodded her thanks, then turned to look at the person getting down from the ground and tentatively called out, "Xiang Hong—?"

Chen Xianghong wiped her sweat. How come she could hear her mother's voice so clearly? Could she be hallucinating from heatstroke again?

However, she still straightened up and looked in the direction from which the sound came, and sure enough, there were two people.

She squinted and looked them over; it really did seem to be her mother and her second brother.

Chen Xianghong felt a tightness in her chest. They came to see her? Why did they come to see her at this time?

Was it because they were worried about me because I wrote a letter saying I wanted to get married?

"mom--"

"Xiang Hong—"

"mom--"

"Xiang Hong—woo—"

Chen Xianghong felt as if something was blocking her throat. She really wanted to cry. After many years, she saw her mother again.

She walked back with difficulty, impatiently.

"mom--"

Grandma Xia also has to go to the fields. This is her Xiang Hong. How could she... how could she have become so thin?

Chen Xiangdong grabbed his mother's arm, pointed to the water and mud in the paddy field, and said, "Mom, don't make things difficult for Xianghong. You didn't bring any extra shoes, and the field is full of water. How will you wear these shoes if you go in?"

Grandma Xia glared at him. "I brought one, I have another pair! And I know you brought an extra pair too!"

Chen Xiangnan: Huh? How did his mother know? Was she a fortune teller?

Grandma Xia: With the second son's arrogant attitude, she'll definitely take him out more often. She's his biological mother, how could she not know?

Chen Xianghong had already reached them, excitedly wiping her hands as if she wanted to hug Grandma Xia, but then hesitated. Even if she wiped them, her hands were still dirty; she didn't want to get her mother's clothes dirty.

Grandma Xia didn't care about anything else, she hugged her tightly and cried out, "My dear Xiang Hong, you've suffered so much... Waaah..."

"Let Mom see, you've lost so much weight, you're just a skeleton now." After saying this, Grandma Xia squeezed Chen Xianghong's wrist and started crying again. How much suffering has she endured?

The patched clothes looked familiar to Old Lady Xia; she had just made them for her before she went to the countryside, and they had fit perfectly then. But now, they hung loosely on her, and she had tied them up with a tattered strip of cloth around her waist to make it easier to work.

Grandma Xia looked at the straw hat on her head. It was more worn and loose than the hats worn by other villagers, as if it had been picked up from the ground.

Grandma Xia was right; she had indeed picked up the hat that someone else didn't want. It even had a hole in it when she first got it, so she asked someone to fix it for her.

Xiang Hong wiped away her tears. "Mom, Second Brother, why did you come here? I'm fine, you don't need to worry about me."

Grandma Xia patted her lightly, hitting the hard bone. Chen Xianghong didn't feel any pain, but Grandma Xia's hand hurt. "You brat, you always say you're so great, but look at yourself, what's so great about you?"

Chen Xianghong smelled the scent on Grandma Xia's body. Although it smelled of sweat, it also smelled like her mother. "I just suffer from summer heat, otherwise I wouldn't be so thin."

Grandma Xia: "I don't believe it. You always only report good news and never bad. I never saw you suffer from the summer heat when you were at home, and you didn't suffer like this. You look like this now, you'd probably fall over if the wind blew you away."

Chen Xianghong held her mother's hand and said, "I'm much stronger now, I'm not that weak."

Chen Xianghong hugged Grandma Xia for a while and said, "Mom, I'm about to finish work. I got ten work points today, and there's only a little work left. I'll come find you as soon as I'm done."

After she finished speaking, she was about to leave again.

Grandma Xia immediately followed her downstairs, saying, "Mom will help you."

Faced with Old Lady Xia's oppressive gaze, Chen Xiangnan reluctantly went down as well.

"Ahhh, what is this thing?" Chen Xiangnan had just stepped into the field when he felt something sucking his calf. When he lifted his leg to look, he almost fainted from fright.

Chen Xianghong walked over and said, "It's a leech, Second Brother, don't move it."

She gently patted the calf muscles near the leech, and the leech was knocked off. Then she pulled the person to the side of the road and washed them with the salt water she hadn't finished drinking.