Refusing to marry a widower, I went on a crazy spree of sending my children to the army.

Qiao Runming said, trembling, "Dad was actually planning to end his own life. If your grandma had just held on for two more minutes, Dad would have gone to find your great-grandfather."

Qiao Manman: "......"

She overestimated her father.

Pulling herself out of her thoughts, Qiao Manman looked at the country road in front of her, took a deep breath, and walked to the brigade headquarters under the blazing sun.

Just as Captain Wang Defa finished calling everyone to get to work, he saw Qiao Manman standing at the door and quickly reached out to turn off the loudspeaker.

Smiling, she gestured for him to sit down: "Manman, how is your father? When will he be back?"

Qiao Manman looked worried: "I managed to save my leg, but I also lost half my life. The doctor said it will take more than a month to heal the flesh on my leg."

There are still bones, so I can't walk for at least three months. Even if it heals in the future, I won't be able to do heavy work.

All I can say is that my dad still has his legs; he can limp out for a stroll.

Wang Defa hissed: "It's that serious!"

Qiao Manman gave him a resentful look: "Uncle, that's a rock! Such a big rock rolled down the mountain and hit my dad's leg!"

"Have they found out the cause of the accident at the quarry yet? How did that one rock just roll down out of nowhere? And it hit my dad's leg!"

Wang Defa's expression was somewhat stiff: "As soon as your Uncle Yuan Fang came back, he went to investigate, but things were chaotic at the time, and the investigation has not yet yielded any results."

Qiao Manman hummed in agreement, unsurprised. She then asked, "What about the medical expenses?"

Mentioning this made Wang Defa even more embarrassed.

"Director Sun said that although your father's injury was work-related, he still bears some responsibility."

After all, that mountain is quite high; if your father had reacted quickly, he could have easily avoided it. That's why we only agreed to reimburse a portion of the medical expenses.

Qiao Manman laughed in anger, thinking to herself, "What kind of scumbag is he? You think you can just hide from him like that? Even if you want to shirk responsibility, you have to come up with a reasonable excuse!"

Qiao Manman took a deep breath: "Okay, I hope Captain Uncle can mediate and get half of the medical expenses as soon as possible!"

Seeing her so calm, Wang Defa felt somewhat ashamed.

Little did they know, Qiao Manman was brewing a storm in her heart, determined to find out what kind of person this Director Sun was.

"Uncle Captain, I've come back this time to get a letter of introduction. Without it, it's inconvenient for me to do anything in the city."

Even on the way back, I had to pay someone to give me a ticket, otherwise...

Wang Defa patted his forehead: "Look at my memory! When Lu Zhiqing came back, he told me to ask someone to send you a letter of introduction, but the team was busy and I didn't have time."

Actually, the Qiao family didn't take it seriously. He had mentioned it twice, but there was still no response from them.

As for the other members of the production team, who are not related to them, who would be willing to spend money and time to do this thankless task?

That was just a desperate attempt to save face. Fortunately, Qiao Manman didn't mind, took the letter of introduction, and left.

When Qiao Manman arrived at Old Qiao's house and saw that the door was closed, she frowned.

No other reason than that she didn't have the key.

Isn't it ridiculous? The original owner lived in this courtyard for eighteen years, helping several branches of the Qiao family with laundry and cooking, and yet he didn't even have a key. What a hellish joke!

But it just so happened to Qiao Manman.

The key point is that there are usually people at the Qiao family's old residence.

The original owner's fourth aunt was a pampered person who usually didn't work and stayed at home taking care of the old lady's darling—Qiao Bao'er, the youngest grandson of the Qiao family.

And then there's Qiao Zhenzhen, who goes back to the Qiao family home every few days to be treated like a pampered young lady. She's waited on hand and foot, having everyone wait on her hand and foot; she's living a very comfortable life.

When Qiao Manman returned, she ran into Aunt Guilan, which meant that the news of her return had already spread far and wide.

The Qiao family's gate was tightly shut. Ha, it's obvious that Old Madam Qiao was trying to intimidate her.

Given the original owner's personality, she would probably have run to the fields and cried and apologized.

But who is she? A useless 21st-century girl who chooses to sneak in and pick locks!

Qiao Manman took a running start and jumped over the wall, then slowly climbed down, almost squatting down.

Fortunately, there was some firewood in the corner to cushion her fall, but she didn't expect that the firewood would roll everywhere when she stepped on it.

Ignoring the mess in the yard, Qiao Manman went straight to the west wing where the family of three lived.

There was no lock on the door. After all, it was common knowledge that the third family was poor, and even if a thief came, he would have to cry and shed a few bitter tears.

However, Qiao Manman was still furious after pushing him away.

Everything in the room that was presentable was gone, leaving only large, bulky items like cabinets and kangqin (a type of heated brick bed).

Qiao Manman closed her eyes and took out her graduation certificate from a hidden compartment at the bottom of the cabinet, storing it in her spatial storage.

He then rummaged through the pile of stationery in the system space and found a paperclip, straightened it, and used it to pick the lock.

Let's find out who stole the few belongings the third family had.

After looking around, it was discovered that, except for Old Mrs. Qiao's house which lacked the three-room items, the other rooms all had some.

Qiao Manman chuckled and decided to be magnanimous, selling her own junk to the other party for two yuan per piece.

After walking around the area, her pockets were bulging. Qiao Manman climbed over the wall, satisfied, and greeted the children from her team when she ran into them.

"Where are you going, Little Fatty? Don't go near the lake! Uncle Tiger drowned there a couple of days ago!"

Zhao Xiaopang shuddered and asked Qiao Manman, "Sister Manman, where are you going?"

"Go back to the city. My parents are in the hospital and no one is taking care of them. I have to go back and help them as soon as possible."

Zhao Xiaopang wiped his nose with the back of his hand, not understanding why Qiao Manman was saying all this to him. He watched her walk away, then ran off to find his parents.

Zhao Xiaopang's mother was quite surprised: "Didn't you go to the lake to catch fish?"

"Sister Manman said that Uncle Dahu drowned over there, and I'm scared!"

"That's just Zhao Dahu's bad luck!"

Li Maihua didn't take it seriously: "Our little chubby is very lucky. He was just catching some small fish in the puddle. Nothing bad will happen. Manman is such a bad talker."

After complaining, she realized, "Wait a minute, everyone in the Qiao family is at work today. Even that pampered Zhao Xue is carrying her three-and-a-half-year-old son and pretending to be busy. This is... on purpose!"

Li Maihua immediately squatted down and asked Zhao Xiaopang, "What else did Qiao Manman say?"

Zhao Xiaopang thought for a moment and said, "Sister Manman said that her parents have no one to take care of them, so she has to go back and beg for food for them!"

If Qiao Manman knew that Zhao Xiaopang would talk such nonsense, she would definitely give him two White Rabbit milk candies as encouragement.

Upon hearing that Qiao Manman had fallen so low as to beg, Li Maihua was shocked and immediately began to complain to her friends about the Qiao family's misdeeds.

The news spread like wildfire, and Grandma Qiao's remarkable achievements quickly spread throughout Qingshan Brigade.

Everyone looked at the Qiao family with disdain, but the Qiao family continued to act arrogantly by the field ridge.

They figured that since Qiao Manman had neither money nor tickets, she would definitely come over and apologize to them while crying.

When the time comes, we'll make that little bitch kneel down before them!

As a result, they waited and waited, until it got dark, but Qiao Manman still didn't come.

Old Mrs. Qiao immediately started smearing Qiao Manman: "You little brat, I wonder which man you've been sleeping in your arms all night."