Reincarnation and Rebirth

Su Yang's mother looked to be about sixty years old, with a full head of white hair. Her little grandson, Su Hao, stood trembling beside his grandmother, his eyes filled with fear and panic.

“Don’t worry, my son wouldn’t do such a thing. There must be a reason. When he comes back, I’ll have him deliver the money to each of you door to door.”

“Mrs. Wu, you make it sound so easy. That’s not just a few coins, it’s hundreds of coins! The end of the year is approaching, and we need money too. You can’t do this to us.”

They were from the same village, and faced with orphans and widows, they still retained a sliver of reason.

The moment Su Wan'er saw Su Yang's son, Su Hao, she remembered that Su Yang was a great hero in his previous life. When the Zi Yan Kingdom invaded Meizhou, he led a group of heroes who had gathered from who-knows-where to defend the city gates, which gave these refugees a chance to escape Meizhou.

Su Yang also died in that battle, and his son, Su Hao, was later raised by one of Xiao Yunting's deputy generals.

Thinking about this, Su Wan'er felt that Su Yang's departure could not possibly be as these villagers thought, that he had run away with the money.

Just from the fact that he only charged each person two coins as a referral fee after introducing the jobs, you can tell he's not a bad person. That amount of money probably wouldn't even be enough to bribe the stewards of those employers.

But now, the villagers were so desperate that they no longer cared about his previous kindness, especially Old Lady Su, who was jumping up and down and cursing incessantly.

"What a despicable bastard! He caused the deaths of his own father and wife. What else wouldn't he do?"

Wu swayed and almost fell.

"Old Mrs. Su, my son has done nothing to wrong you, so why are you so vicious?"

"Pah, vicious? Isn't it vicious that he ran off with my son's hard-earned money? Let me tell you, if you don't hand over the money today, don't blame us for being impolite." As she spoke, her eyes darted around Su Yang's yard.

After hearing what Grandma Su said, someone behind her couldn't bear it and suggested, "Why don't we wait a little longer?"

"Wait my ass," Old Lady Su spat. "If we wait any longer, this old man and the young man might run away too. Wu, today you either hand over the silver or you pay with grain."

Panic crossed Wu's face. She clutched the doorframe tightly and pleaded, "Please, I'm an old woman with poor health, and Hao'er is also frail and needs to take medicine all year round. We really don't have any extra money. As you know, we only have two acres of poor land. After paying taxes, what's left is just enough for the three of us to eat about 70% full. If you take it away, Hao'er and I definitely won't survive this winter."

Some people in the crowd felt compassion.

"Ha, your son took so much money, do you think you'd go hungry or thirsty? Enough nonsense. If you want to eat and drink, do you think my whole family will starve?"

These words really resonated with everyone; these days, nobody has it easy.

Su Hao suddenly cried out, "My father wouldn't embezzle your money, my father wouldn't!"

"Pah!" Old Mrs. Su spat a mouthful of phlegm at the child and said viciously, "Your father can't do it? Where is he? Your father must have taken the money and gone off to enjoy his life. He doesn't want you, this burden."

Upon hearing this, Su Hao stepped out from behind Wu Shi and shoved the old lady Su.

Old Mrs. Su refused to comply and directly picked up Su Hao, who was as thin as a chick, and threw him out.

"Hao'er..." Madam Wu was shocked and rushed over to pick up her grandson.

Bright red blood seeped from Su Hao's forehead.

Grandma Su was stunned for a moment, then said, "He started it, it has nothing to do with me. Who knew he was so useless."

"He's only seven years old, Zhou, how could you do this?" Old Mrs. Su's surname was Zhou.

"I just gave him a light push, who knew he would be so useless?" Old Mrs. Su pouted and raised her foot to rush into the house.

"What are you doing? Stop right there..." Wu got up and tried to stop her.

“Since you have no money, I can’t go back empty-handed. I said, if you don’t have money, you can pay with grain.” After saying that, she rushed into the kitchen. When she came out, she was carrying a large bag of flour, probably weighing fifty or sixty pounds, and also holding a jar of lard. Su Wan’er really admired this old lady. At her age, she could still carry so much. It seemed that when she said she couldn’t do anything at home before, she was just pretending.

Although the villagers sympathized with Su Yang's family, they hesitated when they saw Old Lady Su carrying away a bag of flour.

“My sons Lu and Cai are both working, so this isn’t enough. Don’t blame this old woman.” After saying that, she glared at Su Wan’er and said, “You brat, hurry up and catch it for me. Don’t you have any sense?”

Su Wan'er glanced at Su Hao, who was still on the ground, and reluctantly took the things.

Then a second person went in, searched around, and came out with three chickens.

Wu was utterly desperate. She sat on the ground, crying and pleading, "Fellow villagers, please don't do this! I beg you, you're not giving our family a way to survive! Please..."

"You're not allowed to steal our food, give it back to me..." Su Hao struggled to get up from the ground and tried to snatch the old hen, but the man easily dodged him.

He rushed towards Su Wan'er again, trying to snatch the grain.

However, they were stopped halfway by Old Lady Su, who said, "You little bastard, this is what we deserve."

"This is my family's grain."

“Your father ran off with our wages, so consider this compensation.”

"No..." Little Su Hao opened his mouth, about to bite the arm that Grandma Su was holding, but Grandma Su kicked him away with lightning speed. The little child fell to the ground like a kite with a broken string.

“Zhou, you, you…” Wu pointed at Old Madam Su, trembling and unable to speak.

Grandma Su looked at him with disdain and said, "If you have to blame someone, blame your son."

Su Wan'er really wanted to slap Old Madam Su at this moment, but she couldn't. Firstly, it was a fact that Su Yang hadn't paid them their wages. Secondly, if she really did slap her today, the Su family would make her miserable, and then her subsequent plans would be impossible to carry out.

She tugged at Grandma Su's sleeve, "Grandma, let's go, I can't carry it anymore."

Grandma Su then glared at the two people on the ground before turning and leaving.

Seeing this, the villagers began to worry that they would end up with nothing, so they all rushed into Su Yang's yard. Some, unable to bear it any longer, sighed and left; their family wouldn't let an old man and a child starve to death for a few hundred coins—that would be a terrible thing to do.

Su Hao remembered something, but Wu Shi held him down tightly. "Hao'er, no, you're still young and bleeding. Let them take it. Grandma definitely won't let you starve to death. Be good."

Finally, under the unmoved gaze of the two men, the villagers left with their belongings.

Wu struggled to her feet and walked into the courtyard, which was even cleaner than after the bandits had looted it.

The vegetable garden in the backyard was now just a mess of rotten vegetable leaves. The pig that was supposed to be kept for the New Year was gone, and the dozen or so chickens that were kept were also gone, leaving only chicken feathers on the ground.

In the barn, all the vegetables meant for winter were gone, not a single grain remained, and the kitchen was spotless, as if it had been washed clean; not even a grain of salt could be found.

Looking inside the house, all the usable tables, chairs, benches, and even farm tools were gone. If it weren't for the fact that the family used a kang (heated brick bed) and the bedding on it was tattered and worn, they probably wouldn't have been able to save even these things.

"Grandma, what do we do?" Su Hao staggered to Wu Shi's side, his eyes filled with despair. "Did Dad really run away? Does he not want us anymore?"

Mrs. Wu hugged her grandson tightly, tears streaming down her face. "No, no, Hao'er, are you hungry? Grandma has half a pancake here, have some first." Luckily, they were eating just now, and Mrs. Wu heard the noise and put the pancake in her bosom. Otherwise, there wouldn't even be this little bit left.

"Grandma, I'm not hungry, I want to eat milk."

"Good boy, I'm not hungry..." Just as I was giving in, a voice rang out in the courtyard, "Su Yang's mother, are you there?"

Wu walked out shakily, thinking that they were coming to ask for money again. Just as she was about to speak, she saw that it was the village chief.

"Village chief, you've arrived?"