"Everything in this room is mine, and you’re not allowed to move it!" Bai Xuejiao jumped down from the bed, and started fighting with An Ping over the items, all the while calling out to Bai Xuemei, "Then you come over here fast—they’re bullying me."
Bai Xuemei heard the noise in the room and rushed over in a panic.
Upon entering the chaotic room, she immediately began to reprimand An Ping, "An Ping, what exactly are you trying to do? You’ve cleared out everything from An Hao’s room, and now you’re trying to take Yanjiao’s things too."
"It’s not stealing. Everything in this room was left behind by my grandma, and since my sister needs things for the other place, it’s only natural to move my grandma’s things back," An Ping said, defending himself confidently.
"No, you can’t move them! You are not allowed to take anything from this room," she was, after all, a member of this house and the mistress within it—how could she allow others to bully her to this extent?
If she couldn’t even protect her own daughter, how could she face being a mother?
So, in the room, they exchanged heated words and traded punches—everything just exploded into chaos.
After applying Red Flower Oil and resting for a while, An Hao felt much better in her feet.
Unable to go out and work, she took a rag and wiped down everything An Ping had moved into the room.
Tian Niu directed several colleagues to put these items back in place, and Liu Xiaolian arrived, out of breath.
Seeing An Hao picking wild vegetables on the bed, he didn’t say a word, walked up to her, grabbed her arm, and attempted to carry her off.
"Hey hey hey, Liu Xiaolian, what are you doing taking me somewhere?"
"Sister An Ping, stop picking and come quick, An Ping and Bai Xuemei have started fighting."
"What? Lead the way!"
Liu Xiaolian carried An Hao on his sweat-drenched back to the scene where, by then, the yard was already packed with people.
The fight was over, and Bai Xuemei, with disheveled hair, was sitting in the middle of the yard, sobbing loudly, "Life has become unbearable, my daughter and I are being bullied to death."
Bai Xuemei cried, and Bai Yanjiao cried along with her, while An Shuchao, limping on one leg, was there too, unable to stand up no matter who tried to pull him.
When Bai Xuemei saw An Hao return, she wept even more bitterly. She approached and took An Hao’s hand, her face the picture of misery, "An Hao, I beg you, let us have a few days of peace, the torment is too much for us to bear. If you truly don’t want us mother and daughter to stay in the An Family, then I’ll go divorce Old An right now, is that ok?"
Her words had an immediate effect, drawing the villagers’ gazes to An Hao, standing in the center of the yard.
Whispers sprang up all around.
Some were sympathetic, but others were not.
"An Hao’s starting trouble again? That girl sure is tough, look at how she’s pushing her stepmom!"
"Stepmothers have it tough!"
"But you know, it might not be exactly as it seems!"
"An Hao isn’t a bad kid, I don’t believe she’d do such a thing."
"People say stepmothers have it rough. And it’s no picnic being a child without a mother either! You all notice Bai Xue crying, but who knows how much suffering An Hao holds inside?"
An Hao gazed coldly at Bai Xuemei, evidently, this tactic was her tried and true method.
Wasn’t she just playing the victim and slinging mud at An Hao in front of the villagers?
On another day, An Hao might have played along with her act, but today, she had no such inclination.
Throwing off Bai Xuemei’s hand, she said, "You don’t have to put on an act of pity in front of the villagers. Even if the sky falls down today, I will move these things out! If you’re set on stopping me, no matter, I can bring over the village party secretary, I can call the cops, and there’s Li Wangfu, Yang Erdan, Engineer Qin—let’s all sit down together and talk about who’s really the one being bullied!! And why, exactly, my feet are swollen !"