CHAPTER 42: CHAPTER 42: ZHENG XIANGHONG IS BEATEN (ENTERS V TOMORROW)

The young woman’s eyes lit up and she asked Xia Xiao, "Where is your home?"

Xia Xiao hesitated, troubled, "Auntie, I can’t say that, otherwise if someone catches me, I’ll just deliver it to your house."

"Okay, my home is just here, you can come here to find me." The young woman pointed to a door three meters away.

Xia Xiao nodded and then left.

About ten minutes later, Xia Xiao, carrying a pheasant, knocked on the young woman’s door. As soon as the young woman opened the door, she looked outside and whispered, "Come in."

Xia Xiao saw the baby clothes drying and guessed correctly—the woman must be in confinement and, besides the woman, there was also a little girl around two years old and a baby at home with no one to care for them.

Could it be that the woman had given birth to a daughter and was disdained by her in-laws? Xia Xiao wondered to himself.

"Lad, what’s your name?" the woman asked.

"My name is Shitou," Xia Xiao blurted out a name, and then he heard Shitou’s laughter nearby.

Xia Xiao ignored Shitou, focusing on conversing with the woman, not wanting his disguise to be exposed.

"Shitou, how much are you selling these two pheasants for?" the woman asked, eagerly eyeing the two pheasants in Xia Xiao’s cage.

"Auntie can decide the price," Xia Xiao also wanted to test the young woman.

"I only have coupons, auntie can exchange them with food coupons, cloth tickets, and oil tickets, is that okay?" the young woman said.

Xia Xiao hesitated for a moment, then nodded. The woman quickly handed Xia Xiao two food coupons, one cloth ticket, and one oil ticket.

They were even nationally accepted? Xia Xiao paused, feeling today was quite profitable.

"If you have more pheasants, you can bring them to auntie," the woman said.

"Thank you, auntie," Xia Xiao nodded and then left.

The smooth transaction left Xia Xiao feeling elated, although curious about the woman’s identity, he wasn’t going to dig too deep. They were just engaged in a brief transaction; there was no need to understand everything so clearly.

Back at the production team, Xia Xiao ran into Dong Meihua, "Xia Xiao, where have you been? Sister Xuehua was looking for you, and something big happened today."

Seeing Dong Meihua’s secretive demeanor, Xia Xiao asked, "What happened?"

"Zheng Xianghong was beaten by her mother-in-law."

Xia Xiao was surprised, "Why?"

"What else could it be for? It’s said that Gao Yongfang’s man introduced a match to Gao Jiazhi, a teacher with a wealthy family, and Zheng Xianghong pushed against it, which angered Old Lady Gao."

Xia Xiao frowned. Could it be that Old Lady Gao also agreed to Gao Jiazhi marrying into the family?

"Aren’t you close with Zheng Xianghong? You should go see her, she should be at home now."

As soon as Dong Meihua finished speaking, Xia Xiao thanked her and headed towards the Gao family.

Upon arriving at the Gao family, Zheng Xianghong was seen crying, Gao Jiazhi was raging, and although Gao Guoqiang was nowhere to be seen, Gao Jiaxing also had a face full of anger.

Xia Xiao immediately felt that her presence was inappropriate, but since everyone was looking at her, she neither felt right about advancing nor retreating, so she greeted them immediately, "Auntie, you should go apply some medicine first."

Xia Xiao was startled by the sight of Zheng Xianghong’s face and thought to herself how ruthless Old Lady Gao was, aiming specifically at the face.

"Mom, go put on some medicine," Gao Jiaxing said.

Zheng Xianghong nodded towards Xia Xiao, wiped her tears, and said, "Sorry you had to see this."

Xia Xiao replied, "Every family has its own difficult sutra to chant. Auntie, better tend to your injuries first."

"How is it not a joke? The whole production team knows about it by now," Gao Jiazhi said loudly, extremely furious.

"Mom, are you stupid? If she wants to hit you, you just let her? Where did your usual loud voice go when you scold us?" Gao Jiaxing frowned as he looked at Zheng Xianghong.

"She is your grandma, your dad’s mom, what could I do? If something bad happened to her, could I still live my life?" Zheng Xianghong said, "Back then, I refused to hit her, she fainted, the whole village blamed me. Now that she is so old, I’ll just suffer a little as long as your dad treats me well."

"Jiaxing, watch the house. I’ll go to the city to ask Gao Yongfang how the matter got to Li Shengmei, that trouble-making gossip. I really want to beat her up." Gao Jiazhi was very hot-tempered at this point. If the He family brothers were home, Gao Jiazhi would have thought about starting a fight with them.

When Xia Xiao heard this, she realized Li Shengmei was the instigator.

"Li Shengmei has gone too far, and even your maternal uncle protects her," Zheng Xianghong felt deeply upset. It wasn’t the first or second time, but Li Shengmei had people protecting her, and even the Gao family believed that she had stolen Li Shengmei’s marriage fate and sided with Li Shengmei.

Everyone pitied Li Shengmei, turning Zheng Xianghong into the person who stole Li Shengmei’s marital fate. Zheng Xianghong felt wronged, but making a fuss didn’t benefit her, and thinking about her annoying family only worsened her mood.

Soon Gao Guoqiang also returned and saw Xia Xiao there, his expression slightly unnatural. Xia Xiao applied medicine to Zheng Xianghong’s wounds and then left the Gao family.

Gao Jiaxing got up and headed outside, Gao Guoqiang, and Zheng Xianghong quickly asked, "Jiaxing, where are you going?"

"I’m going to ask Grandma if she really sees me as her grandson"

"Don’t go, Jiaxing," Zheng Xianghong hurriedly stopped him.

"Come back," Gao Guoqiang also shouted.

"Dad, if you can’t get along with mom anymore, then just divorce her. I’ll take care of my mom," Gao Jiaxing said.

Gao Guoqiang’s face darkened, "What are you talking about? Does that make any sense?"

"I just think, mom has been married to you for so many years and she is still being bullied by Grandma in front of so many people in the production team. You’re the team leader, mom is the team leader’s wife. It doesn’t reflect well on you if mom is humiliated. And Li Shengmei, constantly targeting mom like this, but you and Uncle He protect her, letting her get out of line, stirring up trouble with Grandma to hassle mom."

"Who’s protecting her? Don’t talk nonsense," Gao Guoqiang said.

"If you weren’t protecting her, over these years when she was targeting mom, did you ever say anything, ever warn her? When she talks to you, you respond, even chat with her, why show her any goodwill?"

Gao Jiaxing frowned darkly; usually, he wouldn’t meddle in adults’ affairs, but this was too much. Sometimes Gao Jiaxing felt frustrated with Zheng Xianghong, but she was his mother, and seeing her bullied, he couldn’t stand it.

But he couldn’t take it out on Old Lady Gao or Li Shengmei, yet he still blamed Gao Guoqiang for his mother being consistently bullied by these two.

"She’s the women’s director," Gao Guoqiang sighed, turning to Gao Jiaxing, "Enough, don’t say anymore, I understand. I’ll talk to He Hongjun at the He family. Grandma is old; it’s not right to hold grudges against her, alas."