Travel to the mountains and make a fortune in silence

"The person you brought back? Do you know them? Or are they a relative from your maternal family?" Zhou asked several questions in quick succession.

"Uh! Grandma, let's go into the yard first. I bought a lot of things today. Let's unload them first, and I'll tell you about the rest later tonight!" Wang Qing'er was at a loss for words when Zhou asked her questions. She decided to wait until the family was all gathered in the evening before explaining. She didn't want to explain to everyone one by one; that would be too tiring.

"Alright, alright, we'll talk about it tonight." Wang Qing'er took Zhou's arm and walked into the courtyard.

"Mu, Mu Yan? My Yan'er?" Zhou suddenly stopped, her body trembling slightly, and called out to the courtyard, her voice choked with sobs.

"Grandma, Grandma, what's wrong?" Wang Qing'er called out to Zhou Shi with a bewildered and worried expression.

"Qing'er, I see my Yan'er, my little daughter." Zhou Shi said, pointing to the courtyard, her voice trembling as she spoke, her hands and body shaking uncontrollably.

"Grandma, Grandma, what Yan'er? What daughter? Are you sure you're not mistaken?" Wang Qing'er had never heard of the Mu family having a daughter; they only had one son, her father-in-law.

“No, no, how could I be wrong? She, she’s sitting right there, right in the yard.” Zhou pointed to Aunt Wu sitting in the yard.

"Aunt Wu? Grandma, you said Aunt Wu is your aunt?" Mu Nan suddenly came up from behind and asked Zhou Shi.

Zhou was having trouble lifting her feet, so Mu Nan and Wang Qing'er helped her walk into the courtyard, calling out as they went, "Mu Yan, my Yan'er."

Zhou cried and shouted, tears streaming down her face.

At this moment, Aunt Wu in the courtyard vaguely heard someone calling her. At first, she thought she was hallucinating, but it became clearer and clearer, so she looked in the direction of the sound.

"Mu Yan, Yan'er, my little girl."

Wu's mother trembled. "Mother? It really is Mother!" Wu's mother also saw the old lady walking towards her. She recognized the old lady as her mother at a glance. She struggled to get up, but her already weak body became even weaker due to her emotional state. She tried several times but could not get up. She could only call to her daughter beside her, "Han'er, hurry, help me up."

The eldest daughter, Wu Zihan, and her younger siblings were also completely bewildered, not knowing what was wrong with their mother, and stood there frozen in shock.

"Cough cough... Han'er, quickly help me up." When Wu's mother heard that her daughter was not moving, she became anxious and started coughing incessantly.

Hearing her mother's urging, the girl named Han'er finally reacted and hurriedly helped her mother up, asking anxiously, "Mother, what's wrong?"

"Yan'er, my little girl."

"Mother, it's me, Yan'er, waaaaaah..."

"Wow wow wow..."

The mother and daughter finally embraced and wept bitterly. It had taken them both a lot of effort to walk such a short distance together.

Wang Qing'er had no idea what was going on. How did buying a few people turn into a large-scale family reunion?

She looked at Mu Nan with a blank expression. Mu Nan walked to her side and whispered in her ear, "I'll tell you later."

Just then, Old Man Mu, who was rushing home in a hurry, saw his mother holding a woman and wailing loudly when he got to the yard. He asked his eldest son anxiously, "Mu Nan, what's wrong with your grandma?"

"Dad, we've found Auntie!"

"Little Aunt? Yan'er?" Old Man Mu hurriedly walked to the two people he was holding, carefully examining the woman in front of him, and tentatively called out, "Mu Yan? Yan'er?"

Mu Yan slowly raised her head to look at her father, "Big Brother?"

"Hey, I'm the eldest brother." Old Man Mu recognized his sister at a glance. Although Mu Yan's face was pale and sickly, her features still resembled Zhou Shi.

Old Man Mu's eyes also reddened with emotion. Seeing his sister in that state, he felt heartbroken and secretly turned away to wipe his tears.

Wang Qing'er then took a closer look at Mu Yan and her children, and indeed, they all resembled their grandmother in some ways.

She hurried over to fetch a chair and helped Zhou Shi sit down, saying, "Grandma, Aunt, please sit down and talk."

Mu Nan also brought a chair for Old Man Mu to sit down.

Madam Zhou gently stroked Mu Yan's sallow face and said with heartache, "Yan'er, my child, how much suffering have you endured in these past twenty-odd years? It's all my fault for not watching over you properly, which is why you got lost." As Madam Zhou spoke, tears streamed down her face again.

“Mother, Yan’er has never suffered. She has only become a little haggard in recent years due to illness. She has always lived a good life before,” Mu Yan hurriedly comforted her, but what she said was also true.

"Mother, eldest brother, how about second sister? Is she alright?"

Wang Qing'er, who was standing to the side listening to their conversation, looked completely bewildered. "Second Sister? Does that mean Grandma has another daughter? How come I've never heard anyone mention her? How many things in this family are I unaware of?"

When Zhou Shi and Old Man Mu heard their youngest daughter ask about her second sister, their expressions immediately turned sour. Zhou Shi said in a cold tone, "She's fine, she lives in town."

The Zhou family had three children. The eldest was Old Man Mu, and the second was a daughter named Mu Lian. Back then, her husband's family also fled to Nan'ao Town and settled down there. They ran a food business and lived a good life.

When her family was doing well, they used to visit each other often. But later, her father fell ill and her business suffered losses, so her husband's family stopped letting her visit her parents' home as often.

At first, he would often secretly take some money back to subsidize the Mu family, but later, for some reason, he stopped coming back even during holidays. He came back once when Master Mu died, and never came back again.

Old Man Mu knew that Zhou both missed her daughter and resented her, and at the same time, she was worried that her younger sister would be bullied by her husband's family without the support of her maternal family.

Mu Nan secretly visited her a few times and was relieved to learn that her sister was doing well.

The third child is Mu Yan. Mu Yan was kidnapped by abductors at the Lantern Festival when she was eleven years old. After several transfers, she was taken to Wuyang County and sold to the Wu family as a child bride.

Fortunately, the Wu family treated her well and she was never abused. After she grew up, her husband, Hunter Wu, took great care of her. She lived a good life for nearly 20 years until Hunter Wu broke his leg and passed away. Only in the last two years did she suffer some hardship.

The mother and her children gathered around and talked, recounting in detail how they met Mu Nan and her husband in the county town, how they came back with them, and the changes in the Wu family.

When the topic turned to Master Mu and Mu Yan's deceased husband, the mother and daughter broke down in tears again.