After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

Kill them while they're asleep?

It's too cheap; you should experience what it means to be separated by life and death.

They sold off the people they cared about, partly for revenge, and partly to get close to human traffickers and find out Yong'an's whereabouts from them.

Lu Zhiyuan: "You haven't found your Yong'an?"

"He's dead!" The old woman laughed, looking up at the sky. "He fell ill the day after he was taken away by the slave traders. He was too young, and they didn't want to treat him; they just wanted to sell him. What buyer would dare to buy a sickly child? They just dragged it out, day after day, until my Yong'an stopped breathing."

In the eyes of human traffickers, people were no different from goods; the living had some value, while the dead were simply discarded. She found her child in a dry well. He was mangled beyond recognition by the snakes, insects, and rodents that inhabited the well, and could only be identified by the blanket covering him and the red string she had woven herself on his wrist. On the red string was a small flower basket made of peach pits, carved by her husband before his birth.

There's a folk belief that children under five are more susceptible to evil spirits, especially those under one year old. Peach trees are believed to ward off evil, and items made from peach pits are thought to protect children.

My husband collected a bunch of peach pits, carefully selected one after much deliberation, and finally chose that one.

He was born into love, the most cherished treasure of his grandparents, maternal grandparents, and parents. His name was Yong'an. He should have grown up peacefully and happily, but instead, he lay alone in a dry well, bitten by snakes, bitten by insects, and eaten by ants.

The old woman squatted in the dry well and wailed until her tears dried up. For the next few decades, she never shed another tear.

The old woman straightened her clothes and looked at Lu Zhiyuan: "I am guilty, but I have never harmed an innocent person. Those I kidnapped, sold, and hurt were all my enemies who had hurt me in the past."

Firefly: "Nonsense! How old are you and how old is he? How could a little kid like him be your enemy?"

The old woman, her eyes red, said fiercely, "Haven't you heard of the saying 'the son pays for the father's debts'? He isn't, but his parents are. I'm not that smart, not that capable. I can only search one by one. If I search too late, I can only search their descendants."

After saying that, she snorted coldly and looked at the child: "The person he hates the most shouldn't be me! I do want revenge, but if it weren't for their families, how could an old woman like me, who can't even kill a chicken, possibly take them away? You people seem smart, but why don't you use your brains to think about this? The town is only so big. If their families really wanted to find them, how could they not find them?"

One sentence left everyone present stunned.

The old woman has always lived in town. The town is only so big; if you really want to find her, you won't be unable to.

There's only one truth: it's not that we can't find it, but that we didn't look for it at all, or rather, we didn't look for it with enough effort.

The mayor's nephew gently nudged the mayor and asked in a low but unusually clear voice, "Uncle, have you looked for him?"

Feeling guilty, the town mayor turned his head away.

Looking at the mayor's expression, the old woman snorted again: "He did look for her, but it wasn't out of brotherly/sisterly affection or uncle-nephew affection. He looked for his sister because he originally wanted to use her as a favor. You know that fat butcher in town, right? The one whose wives died several times in a row. The mayor wanted to get involved in his pork business. The fat butcher is a scoundrel, unyielding and stubborn, so he thought of his sister, hoping to use marriage to gain benefits from the fat butcher."

The old woman sold the mayor's sister to a slave trader, who then assigned her to another buyer. The buyer was none other than the fat butcher. When the mayor went to the butcher's house, he discovered his sister's whereabouts; she even pleaded for help through the window, but he chose not to help. He used this as leverage to get what he wanted from the butcher.

"Shut up, I don't know anything about what you're saying, I don't know anything at all."

"Don't know?" The old woman's gaze was deep and unfathomable. "The fat butcher is just old, not dead! Your sister, the sister you claim to love the most, was beaten to death by him. I did it on purpose, deliberately had the slave trader sell her to the fat butcher. I just wanted to see if someone as vicious and heartless as you would sacrifice your interests to save your sister, or sacrifice your sister for your interests. Sure enough, you didn't disappoint me."

"Shut up! I told you to shut up!"

“You’re afraid. You’re afraid they’ll find out what kind of person you are.” The old woman spat on the ground. “You’re jealous of your brother, jealous of your cousins. You wish their children would disappear, you wish them suffering. You’re the most useless one in your family. You’re worried your father will pass the town mayor’s position to them. You’re hypocritical, selfish, and vicious. You’re the one who deserves to die the most in the world.”

"Shut up!" The mayor picked up something and slapped it at the old woman.

It all happened so fast, there was no time to stop it. By the time everyone reacted, the old woman was covered in blood, and the mayor was holding a blood-stained stone. The old woman was laughing, laughing at the mayor who had reached the end of his rope.

Committing a crime in full view of everyone and beating someone to death, even if he is the town mayor, he will be arrested and imprisoned.

He was too old to serve in the army, so he faced only two fates: execution in the autumn or exile to the border. In the end, he would end his life in prison, just like those he had harmed.

The old woman passed away with a smile. In her final moments, she stretched her hand out into the air. She may have seen her family, her loving parents and in-laws, her husband who grew up with her as a childhood sweetheart, and her beloved Yong'an.

To those children, she was a villain; to her family, she was a pitiful person who had suffered greatly. She deserved to die, but who drove her down this path of no return?

The story begins with an old woman and her child staging an accident to extort money from them. It ends with the old woman's violent death, the town mayor being taken to the county government, and a collective sigh of pity from the onlookers.

The carriage set off, continuing its journey south, passing through the village where the boy lived.

As the old woman said, the child's disappearance was not an accident, but a carefully planned scheme by his father and grandmother. The child's mother was seriously ill and needed medication year-round. Her in-laws considered her a burden, but were also concerned about their reputation and did not want to divorce her. In addition to the child's mother, the child was also seen as a burden by them.

A matchmaker introduced the child's father to a potential wife, awaiting only the death of his ailing wife. However, the matchmaker had a condition: she would accept a second wife, but not a stepmother, explaining that a child that young would be difficult to raise. She wanted a son, and they could have one after the marriage.

The child's father and grandmother conspired to sell him while he was in town buying medicine for his mother.

The child was lost, and it happened while he was buying medicine for himself. The child's mother was filled with remorse and self-blame, and left two days later. The child's father and grandmother never even considered looking for him; they knew better than anyone where he had gone.

The children's mother was still in mourning when they rushed to marry the new bride. When Lu Zhiyuan arrived with her disabled child, she found the family enjoying a happy time together. The child's father didn't recognize her at all. The grandmother, however, did recognize her but pretended not to and slammed the door shut.

The child didn't cry when he was abducted, he didn't cry when he was maimed, and he didn't cry when he was taken out to stage accidents and beg. But now he cried, he cried sobbing.

His mother was gone, his home was gone, and everything he had hoped for was gone.

The world is vast, yet he had nowhere to go.