Divorced woman with child travels through time

Chen Xuanyu looked at Xiao Ahao's dirty, faded coat, which made him look rather pitiful, and felt a pang of sympathy. He said earnestly, "I'll go back and ask my mother later, see if she wants to be your mother. Let's see if she agrees."

Little Ahao nodded emphatically, "Yes!" Wang Erniu was secretly pleased, but then felt inexplicably uneasy. He felt it was a bit underhanded of him to have the child push the relationship between the two of them like this. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Ahao, this isn't right. We can't do this."

Little Ahao looked at his father with a somewhat aggrieved expression, then said, "Alright."

Seeing that he was a little down, Wang Erniu said, "Ahao, this is a good thing. I taught you how to make rabbit traps before. Why don't you teach the older brothers?"

Xiao Ahao's eyes lit up, and he immediately grabbed the three of them with great enthusiasm, starting to teach them how to make a trap with a rope to catch rabbits. Wang Erniu smiled slightly, a smirk playing on his lips, thinking to himself, "You little punk, I can't handle you."

On the back mountain, along a narrow path overgrown with dry grass, a tall, dark-skinned man in his thirties wearing a coarse gray cotton jacket and a short, pockmarked, stocky young man walked with difficulty.

The tall, ugly, and dark-skinned man was called Ma Tieniu; the short, stocky man was called Wang Mazi.

Ma Tieniu was cursing at Wang Mazi, "What kind of crazy road did you lead us on? Why is it so difficult to walk on? Is this even the right road?"

Wang Mazi scratched his head and asked doubtfully, "This should be the road. I remember it being this road when I scouted it out earlier. No rush, just keep going downhill and you'll get there. Hey, look, there's a slope over there."

"Yes, that's the slope!" Wang Mazi exclaimed excitedly. "Yes, yes, that's the slope. We'll get there if we walk down it. Let's go, let's go!"

Ma Tieniu said angrily, "If it weren't for that, I would have broken your legs." After saying that, he flicked Wang Mazi on the head.

Helpless, Ma Tieniu followed Wang Mazi with difficulty, trudging through half-meter-high grass along this barely-there path towards the slope ahead. Suddenly, Wang Mazi stumbled, tripping over a rock. His foot slipped, and he started to tumble down the grass. Ma Tieniu, anxious to catch him, did so, but unexpectedly, despite his short stature, Wang Mazi was incredibly heavy, pulling Ma Tieniu down with him. The two of them tumbled and rolled far down the slope, just outside the back of the mountain.

The two of them struggled to their feet, covered in bruises and scratches from the grass on their faces.

Ma Tieniu angrily cursed, "You, you bastard, how did you lead the way?"

Wang Mazi chuckled ingratiatingly, "Hehehe, it's good that you're out, it's good that you're out!" He looked around nervously, actually having no idea where he was going and had just led the way randomly. Then, he looked at a house not far ahead with delight and pointed at it, saying, "Brother Tie Niu, that's Chen Niangzi's house. Hey, she's a woman with a child, she'll be easy to rob. Let's go quickly."

Ma Tieniu glared at him, then thought, "Never mind, let's get down to business." The two of them sneaked over to Aunt Liu's house.

The two men crept over quietly, slowly approaching the house and reaching the edge of the vegetable garden. Ma Tieniu, being too tall, squatted down so Wang Mazi could check on him. Wang Mazi reached out to hold onto the fence at the edge of the garden, peering into the house to estimate the situation inside. Unexpectedly, due to his excessive weight, the fence couldn't support him and began to collapse. "Couldn't you be a little gentler!" Ma Tieniu muttered under his breath.

Wang Mazi, in his haste, finally managed to regain his footing, but in doing so, he trampled through the fence. Just then, the door to the house creaked open, and Aunt Liu emerged from the yard, just as Wang Mazi saw her. He quickly ducked, thinking to himself, "This woman doesn't seem like Madam Chen. She's a bit older. It can't be Madam Chen, can it? I heard Madam Chen is only in her early twenties, with a five or six-year-old child. This one looks to be in her thirties."

Wang Mazi suddenly remembered that this must be Aunt Liu. Right, he bought peanuts from her. If he went around the next bend, that must be Chen Niangzi's house. Now it all made sense. Wang Mazi said to Ma Tieniu ingratiatingly, "Brother, hehe, this isn't Chen Niangzi's house. Chen Niangzi's house is just around the next bend. Her house is right behind here."

Ma Tieniu's eyes widened in anger, and he couldn't help but reach out and punch Wang Mazi on the head again, saying, "If you mess this up again, I'll beat you to death when we get back." Wang Mazi rubbed his head, chuckled, and wasn't angry. The two quietly left Aunt Liu's house, rounded a bend, and headed towards Chen Wenfang's house.

Inside the house, Aunt Liu said to Uncle Liu Hai, "Dad, should we send the glutinous rice over to Fang'er?"

Uncle Liu said, "Go this afternoon, later. When I went to the vegetable garden to pick vegetables just now, I found a section of the fence that had been pushed aside and trampled down. I don't know which bastard did it. I'll go cut some thorns and fix it first, so that no one can steal our vegetables." Aunt Liu nodded.

Chen Wenfang thought that Wang Erniu would be back soon, so she didn't close the courtyard gate and sat in the inner room making a padded jacket. So, not long after, Ma Tieniu and Wang Mazi arrived at Chen Wenfang's house and easily entered the inner room without even drawing their knives. They were not good-for-nothings like Wang Ximao.

Chen Wenfang was startled by the two people who suddenly barged in and stood up, asking, "Who are you? What do you want?"

Wang Mazi looked at the beautiful and charming Chen Wenfang with a lustful glint in his eyes and said lecherously, "We've come to find you." Chen Wenfang was startled. "What do you want? I... I have a lot of food in my room. Do you want it? You can have it all. Just don't hurt me, okay?"

Without saying a word, Ma Tieniu demanded, "Where's the money? Take it out!"

Chen Wenfang hurriedly rummaged through the cabinet next to her, took out a bundle of clothes, opened it, and then took out a money bag containing about thirty taels of loose silver, which she had cut from a fifty-tael coin last time. Chen Wenfang handed it to Ma Tieniu with both hands and said, "This is all my savings. I'm giving it all to you. Please don't hurt me, please?"

Ma Tieniu hated women's constant crying and whining. He was completely unmoved by women, his only thought was making money. Ma Tieniu picked up the silver and weighed it in his hand; it was nearly thirty taels of loose silver. Considering Chen Wenfang's earning speed, this wasn't too bad, so he accepted it with satisfaction. He then asked, "Where's the grain? Take me there!" Chen Wenfang led him shakily to the kitchen, constantly telling herself, "Don't panic, don't panic, stay calm..." Ma Tieniu, however, told Wang Mazi to stay in the inner room and search for anything valuable.

Chen Wenfang led Wang Jinniu to the kitchen, opened the cupboard, and found rice jars and other items. Ma Tieniu looked around; the room was full of rice and grains. "Damn, there's too much! I can't carry it all!" he thought. Reaching out, he grabbed a bag of flour, pulled out a knife, and threatened Chen Wenfang, saying, "Come on, let's go back." He then returned to the inner room. Meanwhile, Wang Mazi was rummaging through drawers and cupboards, searching everywhere.