Ugly girl only wants to farm

Li San Niang asked her youngest son to take the meal she had just cooked to her father, instructing him to stay home and guard the door, while she and her sister went out to look for someone.

Grandmother was sitting at the table eating with great relish. Before leaving, Xu Xu Chaoyan took three mixed flour buns from the table, not wanting to let that old hag eat them until she was stuffed.

Grandmother's vicious gaze was like venom, but Xu Chaoyan was not afraid and replied with a smile, "Grandmother, I'm afraid you can't eat so much. You're old and your digestion isn't good. We'll help you eat some."

After saying that, she jogged out. It had rained last night, and the ground was still a bit slippery. Meng Jiuxia carefully helped her mother walk towards the village road. Along the way, they encountered several families who greeted them.

They searched along the road from the village toward the town, but didn't see anything along the way. Xu Chaoyan rubbed her aching legs and glanced at the anxious Li Sanniang. Continuing to search like this was not a solution. It would take the three of them a long time to walk to the town.

She walked over to Li Sanniang and said, "Mother, why don't we go back to the village and ask some people to help us? Many hands make light work, and we can also ask the cart driver to take us to town to see if we can run into my husband on the way back."

Li San Niang was also somewhat at a loss. Hearing her daughter-in-law say this, she nodded, and then she looked worried.

“You know we’re not very close to the people in the village. That day, Aunt He made such a scene. I’m afraid some people in the village who are related to her won’t help us and might even kick us when we’re down.”

According to Xu Chaoyan's observations over the past few days, Grandmother Meng is arrogant, domineering, and very mean. Many old women in the village had some grudges against her when they were young, so it's perfectly normal for her to kick you when you're down. Just now, someone greeted them very kindly, and the uncle who drove the cart seemed quite nice.

"Mother, my sister-in-law and I will handle this matter. You go home and take a look. When I returned to my parents' home before, Aunt Xu packed some candy for me to bring back. Go boil some water, make some sugar water, and put it there. It's good for everyone to have a sweet treat while they're searching for someone."

She didn't want to bring this up, but now there's something we need everyone for. If something happens to her husband, she won't be in much better shape. Right now, she can only pray that God will be kind to him. She also wants to distract Li San Niang so that she won't lose her composure if she gets anxious.

After the three returned to the village, Li San Niang went home. Xu Chao Yan took Meng Jiu Xia to find the families they had dealings with and explained their purpose. The people in the countryside were still relatively simple-minded. They gathered several neighboring families and split into several groups.

Some went to check the riverbank, while others searched for Xu Chaoyan along the path. They continued their search along the same route they had taken.

Just as they reached the fork in the road where Meng Jiu and the others had entered the woods the day before, an old man, who needed to urinate urgently, told them to go ahead while he went inside to relieve himself.

"Xia girl, Xia girl, come and take a look quickly."

Xu Chaoyan and the others hadn't gone far when they heard her uncle's voice saying there was a sock hanging on a treetop.

Xu Chaoyan and Meng Jiuxia quickly ran over. After she held the sock and examined it carefully for a moment, she exclaimed in surprise, "Morning Flower, this is my older brother's!"

Xu Chaoyan asked with some doubt, "It's just an ordinary sock, how can you be sure it's your brother's?"

“The stitches aren’t very fine. I made this for him before. I recognize it. You can see I cut it badly before.”

Xu Chaoyan's heart sank. The socks were lying there; could something have really happened to this person? The group, each lost in their own thoughts, remained silent and, in perfect unison, began searching into the woods.

Xu Chaoyan walked carefully, avoiding the branches that bounced off her face. Suddenly, she stepped on something and twisted her ankle, almost falling. Luckily, Meng Jiuxia caught her in time: "Morning Glory, you're such a big person, be careful when you walk. You can twist your ankle even on such a flat road."

It rained last night, and the ground is covered with a layer of fallen leaves. It's normal that the leaves are slippery and wet underfoot.

Despite complaining, Meng Jiuxia gently nudged the object in front of her with a stick, signaling her to be careful.

"Wait a moment."

Xu Chaoyan suddenly stopped her, and Meng Jiuxia's anxious voice came: "What time is it? Why are you still waiting? I'm just worried that you'll fall again when you come back. I'm clearing a path for you. You're really biting the hand that feeds you. You don't appreciate my kindness."

Xu Chaoyan snatched the stick from the little girl's hand and pulled out a shoe covered in blood and mud from a pile of fallen leaves. Meng Jiuxia burst into tears when she saw the shoe.

The two middle-aged men in front quickly came over: "Xia girl, what happened? Why are you crying? Did you fall somewhere?"

Xu Chaoyan stared intently at the shoes in her hand. She recognized them; they were the new pair that Li Sanniang had sewn before. She had seen Li Sanniang sewing them with her own eyes, and at that time, Meng Jiuxia had ridiculed her, saying that she was already married to someone else and that it was shameful for her not to even make a pair of shoes.

Li San Niang comforted her, saying it was alright, she could learn it slowly in the future, and it wasn't difficult at all.

Meng Jiu was crying so hard she could barely breathe. Suddenly, she ran wildly into the depths of the forest. Branches struck her face, but she felt no pain. She fell and got up again, her heart-wrenching screams startling the birds in the forest into a flurry of flight.

Xu Chaoyan quickly chased after him. The two uncles behind her were also on tenterhooks when they saw his appearance. They wondered if something had really happened to the young man from the Meng family. He was so young, had just passed the imperial examination, and had only recently gotten married. Their faces were not much better, and they silently followed.

"Xia girl, Xia girl, don't rush, slow down. Maybe your older brother accidentally dropped it. Don't overthink it and scare yourself."

The two men's words only made things worse. Meng Jiuxia cried even harder, screaming, "Didn't you see? These shoes are almost soaked in blood. Something must have happened to my brother."

Xu Chaoyan was also puzzled that the muddy ground from last night's rain hadn't been washed away; it was probably covered by fallen leaves.

When the group arrived at a small hill, they looked around but didn't find anything suspicious. The two uncles were about to persuade them to go to the next place to look.

Meng Jiuxia suddenly pointed to a strip of cloth hanging on a tree not far away and exclaimed, "Look, that's from my older brother's clothes!"

Following that gaze, the group saw a strip of cloth hanging from a tree below the hillside. It was easily missed if one wasn't paying attention, and it was fluttering gently in the wind.

Meng Jiuxia didn't care about anything at this moment. He grabbed the vines and branches and was about to go down when Xu Chaoyan stopped him.