She Only Cares About Cultivation

...

An Yi didn’t want to say anything unnecessary, just as the preschool teachers were arriving too, after An’an ate half of the vegetable dumpling, she sent her over.

Zhang Li, with her head down, mechanically fed her child without knowing what she was thinking about. She didn’t disturb her and returned to her desk to prepare for today’s class.

At 8 o’clock when the class bell rang, after feeding the little guy half a vegetable dumpling, Zhang Li carried her to the daycare, stayed there for about ten minutes, and returned with an apologetic look.

"I fed him millet porridge before coming, An’an drank a little too."

In fact, the so-called millet porridge was just a bit of millet added to water, even when cooked as refined grain, some chopped wild vegetables were added to make the soup appear less thick, barely counting as millet porridge.

Then, she gulped down half a cup of water from a tea mug and walked over to An Yi, bowing deeply.

"Teacher An, thank you, my child has only had his fill of water from last night till now. You could guess the situation at my home without me even saying much. I won’t bother you with it, I understand what you said, but some things can’t just be handled by me alone. My husband listens to his mom implicitly, and my sisters-in-law are sharp and harsh beyond measure. Many things can’t be done or said because there are too many considerations."

Zhang Li is clearly several years younger than her, but looks four or five years older, a twenty-something tormented into looking like someone in their thirties.

Not only is her spirit languishing, but there is also despair and helplessness towards life in her gaze. She has envied An Yi more than once, even thought that if something happened to her back then, it would have been good to die, freeing her from hustling for so many mouths.

Of course, she knows An Yi can’t always help her, today was just coincidental, but she is sincerely thankful from the bottom of her heart.

An Yi looked at her, sighed, and said nothing more because there were too many families like hers; several children in the class were from families such as hers.

Their eating here is slightly better; those who go home for meals often come from not-so-well-off backgrounds, and going home for lunch, then rushing back, is almost exhausting.

They were all half-grown boys, almost all the children attending the class were little boys, there were only two or three girls.

Over at the preschool, besides her own daughter, it’s all boys.

The era of favoring boys over girls was ubiquitous in Hua Country, ingrained in the bones of the nationals, not something that could be easily changed.

Helping Zhang Li was because they were in the same office, with such young children, others also are pitiful but could she help them all?

Thought the old lady wouldn’t come again today, but during the first class, the door witnessed the shouting and cursing of the old hag from the Qian Family, once more.

An Yi flung a silence charm, and the world fell silent, the old lady opened her mouth but no sound came out, panic struck her, making her trip and fall, fleeing in disarray.

An Yi realized that dealing with such people, there’s no need for politeness, let her come a few more times, after realizing this place is her restricted zone, she would behave.

Indeed, once or twice she didn’t believe, but after coming the third time, An Yi with her hands behind her back said provocatively.

"If you don’t want to be mute your whole life, get away quickly. I won’t give you the child; if you dare, come and snatch him. But today is my last time giving you this chance, next time I see you, it won’t be about just an hour or two, it will be permanent. I will make you unable to speak forever; you can’t write, nor talk, how will you live your future days, huh?"

She scrambled away screaming, pointing at An Yi, cursing, calling her a witch, a monster, shouting to capture her, saying she’s inhuman, a ghost, wielding spells...

But, does anyone believe it?

Even if what she said was true, does anyone believe it?

Instead, no one believed her, saying she was cursed by her first granddaughter, telling her to stay away from An’an, or else her Qian Family would face misfortune.

Though it’s not the time for superstitions now, privately there would still be discussions. Originally what the old lady said was true, but as they talked the narrative changed, becoming Old Mrs. Qian’s fault, and eventually, even she began to wonder if her mental state was deteriorating.