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"Let her come up, and you too, big sister," Lin Yuan lifted the carriage curtain, calling out to Lin Wei. Turning her head, she saw several other children looking at her with eager eyes. Lin Yuan’s heart softened, and she also waved them over.

The children had never ridden in a carriage before, and seeing Lin Yuan’s approval, they all jumped aboard in a flurry. The girls entered the carriage, while the boys, who loved a bit of adventure, sat beside Xia Zheng on the shafts.

Surrounded by a bunch of little boys, Xia Zheng let out an exasperated smile and slowly started walking the horses forward, while cracking the whip leisurely.

Lin Yi leaned against the corner with his arms folded, a rare schadenfreude expression crossing his face.

The carriage’s four bells jingled, combining with the children’s joyous laughter; the sound reached the ears of some, bringing about a series of silent curses.

Inside the old house, Lady Yang was stooped over cooking in the kitchen, aware of today’s warm pot event at her second son’s house. But it wasn’t her second son who had informed her; she had learned about it while fetching firewood, from the mouths of others.

As Lady Yang threw another piece of wood into the stove, she wiped away a tear that had appeared at the corner of her eye without her realizing it and sighed with regret.

In the side room, Lady Ma had just changed Lin Yongle into a clean set of clothes, picking up the urine-soaked pants and tossing them into the basin in the courtyard, already accumulating three or four pairs.

Since they hadn’t been washed yet, only soaked, they gave off a faint and nauseating stench.

Li Feng’e sat in the courtyard holding her twin sons, the stench giving her a headache.

She shot Lady Ma a disdainful look and hummed sarcastically, "Look at this, sister-in-law, it’s not even noon, and Yong Le has already changed pants four times.

He’s even more prolific than my Yong Xi and Yong He!

Just look at my Yong Xi and Yong He, only two years old and they already know to squat when they need to go. "

The implication was clear: Lin Yongle was worse off than a two-year-old.

Lady Ma, already heartbroken over her son, felt even more suffocated when she heard the festivities at Lin Yuan’s warm pot being prepared. And now, hearing Li Feng’e’s words, she was fuming with rage.

"Quit your snide remarks! If your son were crippled too, he’d be changing seven or eight pairs of pants!"

Lady Ma scooped up a ladle of cold water and deliberately added it to the basin. The clear water spilled out, splashing quite a bit, some of which landed on Li Feng’e sitting beside it and also on the faces of the two little ones.

The toddlers thought it was raining and, looking up at the sky, said, "Rain, rain," while dipping their fingers into the droplets and sticking them into their mouths.

Li Feng’e was thoroughly disgusted by this—those droplets were mixed with Lin Yongle’s urine!

"Don’t eat that! Spit it out!" With a swift motion, she knocked her sons’ hands away and rushed up to Lady Ma, kicking over the basin filled with the soiled clothes in a fit of rage.

"Ma Daling, you shameless woman, where do you think you’re throwing your son’s urine? You’re upset that your son has no prospects and that he broke his leg, and now you’re cursing my sons? Believe me, I’ll take a stick right now and break his other leg too!"

Ever since her younger son got hurt, Lady Ma had been struggling.

She was distraught during the day looking after her son and even more troubled at night worrying about his future.

Li Feng’e’s behavior now sparked all the pent-up frustrations of recent days, and Lady Ma directed all her anguish towards her.

Lady Ma tossed aside the ladle she was holding and grabbed Li Feng’e’s hair, shaking it wildly, while continuing to hurl insults, "You little hussy! Dare to harm my son’s leg? I’ll throw both of your brats into the pigpen to be trampled!"

Li Feng’e, her hair painfully yanked, screamed and retaliated by grabbing Lady Ma’s hair even more fiercely, "Your own son is crippled and you’re jealous of others’ well-being!

Ma Daling, you’re a scourge! Selling your children!

It serves you right that your son turned into a cripple and an idiot, to be abused by those men in the jail! "

"You’re the one who’s been..." Lady Ma suddenly froze, her grip on Li Feng’e’s hair involuntarily loosening as if oblivious to the fact that Li Feng’e was still clutching her own hair tightly. She looked up, bewildered, and asked, "What, what did you just say?"