After giving a formal statement at the police station and signing a stack of documents.
Tian Jing intended to treat the villagers and Ouyang Meihua to a meal.
The villagers refused.
"Team Leader Tian, it's already dark. Our families will worry. We should head back quickly."
Tian Jing said apologetically, "I'm really sorry for causing you trouble due to our family's personal matters."
"In that case, I'll specially cultivate some vegetable seedlings for you to give to your relatives and friends."
The villagers grinned, "That would be wonderful, thank you, Team Leader Tian."
Every family had relatives and friends who envied the various seedlings from Ku Shan Village. Some would ask directly, while others were more subtle.
They themselves didn't have any extra, so how could they provide seedlings to their relatives and friends?
For this very reason, they had been criticized by their relatives and friends, especially their fathers-in-law and brothers-in-law.
Now, they could finally explain.
As they exited the police station, Tian Jing saw her car waiting at the entrance.
Li Zhengguo, who was waiting by the entrance, rushed forward when he saw his wife emerge. "Are you alright?"
"Yo~" Ouyang Meihua's loud voice, now freed from Ku Shan Village, was finally unleashed.
"Village Head Li, are we just air to you?"
"Pfft."
"Hahaha."
The villagers joined in with good-natured laughter.
Tian Jing playfully glared at her husband. As the one who reported the incident, and not a false report, what could possibly be wrong?
Li Zhengguo put an arm around his wife's shoulders. "I've never heard of air that can talk. Honey, let's go see the children."
"Comrade Ouyang Meihua, please escort the villagers safely back to Ku Shan Village."
Ouyang Meihua disagreed, "No way, I want to see my son too."
Li Zhengguo didn't look back. "You never came when you were free before. Now that there's something going on, you suddenly want to see them? Go back quickly, Eldest Brother is waiting anxiously at home."
Watching the small car start to move, Ouyang Meihua stomped her foot, knowing that he used Li Liguo to control her.
...
Li Mu was startled by the sudden arrival of her youngest son and his wife. "What happened?"
"Nothing major."
Tian Jing did not hide anything and told her mother-in-law about the despicable and childish actions of those two young people.
Li Mu, in anger, cursed them.
"Serves them right! To leave a good life and stir up trouble, ending up at the police station. They've truly disgraced their parents."
"Mom, we haven't eaten yet."
Li Zhengguo's words brought Li Mu back to her senses. "Right, right, I'll go cook some noodles for you. You stay and chat with Lili and the others."
Li Weili, who was already in the fourth grade, turned her head away. "I'm already 11 years old, I'm not a little kid anymore."
Fourteen-year-old Li Weibo leaped onto his father's back. "I'm only in the first grade."
"Nonsense, Second Brother, you're in the first year of junior high."
Li Weili stomped her foot. "Get down quickly, let Dad carry little brother."
Eight-year-old Li Weixin was a little timid. Li Zhengguo looked at him with concern and pulled his youngest son into his arms.
"Ranran, Dad told you a long time ago that because of family planning, we told people you were adopted."
"You really weren't adopted. Your brothers and sisters heard your cries when you were born and saw your wrinkly little face right after birth."
"Your sister didn't understand when she was little, but as she grew up, she understood and protected you, didn't she?"
Li Weixin's eyes welled up with tears. "Then why don't I look like my brothers and sisters? Why don't I look like anyone in the family? And my nickname is different too."
"You're so stupid!"
Li Weili pointed at her brother in their father's arms. "Mom and Dad love you the most. We don't have individual nicknames, only you do. I'm jealous! You're still thinking nonsense, you're so dumb."
Li Weixin nodded. "That's right, I'm not as smart as my brothers and sisters."
Li Weili was defeated. She leaned back on the bed behind her. "Your brain isn't stupid, it's stubborn. No, you've learned too much of your great-grandfather's eight-legged essays, you've become an old fossil."
Tian Jing took her youngest son. "Let Mom tell you the real reason. Hao Hao, Xiao Bo, come to your room with Mom."
They entered the west room and closed the door.
Tian Jing asked her two sons to demonstrate their differences.
Li Weihao and Li Weibo, the brothers, each lifted a bed.
Seeing his two older brothers' immense strength, Li Weixin turned to his mother. "Mom, I, I think I have it too."
"Yes, you do."
Tian Jing nodded. "You don't have a strength-type special ability, but because you have a wood-element special ability, it's causing this great strength."
"Special ability is..."
"In order to prevent the villagers from discovering that you were an extra birth, when you were in my womb, I used my special ability to nurture you and change your appearance."
"This might also be why you inherited not just the ordinary great strength like your two older brothers, but a special ability with an attribute like Mom's."
"And Mom didn't let you practice because there were many things to conceal."
"It's because Mom has it that you inherited it, but Lili didn't, so I didn't bring her to listen to this matter."
"She just needs to be an ordinary little girl. With you three brothers protecting her, her life will be happy until old age."
Li Weixin buried his face in his mother's neck. "Mom, I'm sorry."
Tian Jing stroked the back of her youngest son's head. "I know, you're sensitive because the villagers always said you were adopted."
"I just didn't expect it to develop into low self-esteem, and I feel guilty too. Mom should apologize to you as well."
Li Weixin looked up, blinking away tears. "It's okay, thank you, Dad and Mom, and my brothers and sisters, for your tolerance."
Tian Jing raised her hand and wiped away her youngest son's tears. "Good boy, from now on, our family won't speak such polite words."
"Mmm-hmm."
Outside the door, Li Zhengguo picked up his daughter, who was wiping tears non-stop, and quietly walked back to the east room.
"Do you have any resentment?"
"No."
Li Weili shook her head. "I always knew my eldest and second brothers were a bit different. They were always so mysterious."
"Sometimes they'd whisper together with Brother Yanyan. I thought they were looking down on me for being a girl, but it turns out that wasn't it."
"Just now, I also thought Mom was avoiding me, the girl, but that wasn't it either."
"I used to say my little brother was emotionally fragile, but my own heart isn't strong either."
Li Zhengguo took out a handkerchief and wiped his daughter's tears. "It's Dad's fault. You completely inherited from Dad. If you had inherited from your Mom, you would be different too."
"It's not your fault!"
Li Weili rested her head on her father's shoulder. "Mom said that as long as I'm a happy and ordinary little girl, and her tone was filled with love."
"Before, when I was young and ignorant, I competed for your affection. After starting school, I still didn't quite understand."
"In the last two years, since I started third grade, I've gradually noticed two extremes among my female classmates."
"One group was not valued, and the other was overly doted upon."
"From their words, I realized they all preferred the times when they were young and ignorant, around six or seven years old."
"Those who were not valued were happy doing chores when they were young and ignorant."
"Those who were overly doted upon were only spoiled by their parents when they were young and ignorant, unaware of the pressure of their parents' expectations, and were even happier."
"I'm different from them. I was happy when I was young and ignorant, and I'm still happy now that I'm grown up."
"Because you never put pressure on me, nor did you ask me to do chores. Sometimes, my brothers had to do things, but I didn't."
"I still remember when I was little, I used to cry and wouldn't stop until I got my way. Not only you and Mom patiently reasoned with me, but Grandma and Great-Grandma also patiently reasoned with me."
"If we couldn't convince you, you would endure my incessant crying. You never hit me, nor did you ever scold me."
"I am so happy. I am the happiest girl in the world."