Tao Yin could see the steam coming out of the chimney from afar. As expected, when he opened the door, he saw Li Lan stuffing firewood into the stove. She only stood up when she saw Tao Yin return.

She took Tao Yin's hand and brought him to the table. Then, she carefully checked the gauze again.

"Does your head still hurt?"

Tao Yin shook his head.

"You scared me to death. You fainted without saying a word. When you woke up this morning, you didn't even rest properly. I heard from Aunt Li next door that you went to pluck sweet potatoes in the morning. You should just stay at home and study. Your father and I don't expect you to work in the fields."

Li Lan had studied before. Due to her education environment, she firmly believed that studying was the only way out. Back then, her family's conditions didn't allow for it. When it was her turn, even if she had to sell everything she had, she would still send her daughter to university. Thus, she attached great importance to Tao Yin's studies.

"When I came back, Ning Lang said that the bookstore in the city released a new batch of textbooks. I don't know much about these. When you have time, go ask them what books they are looking for. We'll go to the city and buy them ourselves."

Tao Yin frowned when he heard Ning Lang's name.

"What's wrong? Did you quarrel with Ning Lang?"

"No, Mom. Don't mention Ning Lang to me in the future. I'm not close to him."

Li Lan smiled. She was already an 18-year-old girl. As a mother, she often thought in that direction. She sat down on a stool and said, "What's wrong? Weren't you quite interested in him before? Why are you suddenly not close to him?"

"It's not that I'm interested in him. I just think that he's very knowledgeable. I admire him." Tao Yin began to sell her words to her own mother.

"But I realized that Teacher Lu is much more knowledgeable than him. Although he doesn't talk much, he's a very nice person."

Li Lan nodded in agreement. Lu Xing was a good kid. Even she had to give him a thumbs up when she saw him. She could only blame the unstable political situation in those years. The disciples of the great courtyard were confiscated and sent to the mountains. Anyone would sigh and say it was a pity.

"Are you saying that Ning Lang's character isn't good?"

Tao Yin didn't hide anything. In order to prevent Li Lan from implicating her in Ning Lang's matters in the future, she simply told him everything.

"Mom, I think there's something wrong between Cuixiang and Miss Ning. I think she has a good impression of Miss Ning. Today, I saw Cuixiang sneakily go to the educated youth with a small pile of sweet potatoes."

Li Lan's face turned solemn. "Just keep this matter to yourself. Don't tell anyone. In the future, stay away from those two."

Li Lan didn't doubt his daughter's words at all. In an instant, his impression of He Cuixiang and Ning Lang dropped significantly.

She wasn't old-fashioned. She didn't think that He Cuixiang and Ning Lang shouldn't interact with each other because of their differences. However, as her daughter's good friend, the fact that He Cuixiang stole someone else's man was really disgusting. And that Ning Lang, who usually looked like a decent person, had the potential to be Chen Shimei.

However, no matter how Li Lan looked at it, she didn't think that He Cuixiang was better than her daughter in any way. The only advantage she had was that she was a little stronger and could do farm work. However, all the women in the village who worked in the fields were like this.

"Miss Ning is usually too high-profile. It's normal for girls to like her." Tao Yin silently stabbed Ning Lang in the back.

Li Lan felt disgusted as if she had eaten a fly. Then, she thought of Ning Lang. If he was placed next to her daughter, wouldn't that be like burying her own daughter?

"That's not just high-profile. She's attracting bees and butterflies!"

Li Lan didn't want to be too vulgar in front of her daughter, so she cursed a few times in her heart. Then, she turned to Tao Yin and asked softly, "Then, are you really not going to interact with Ning Lang anymore?" Back then, she threw herself at him. How could she just let him go like that?

"Mom, I'm going to college. What's the point of interacting with someone like him? It's a waste of time."

He hit the nail on the head and pointed out that Ning Lang's remaining value was almost negative. This made Li Lan feel a lot more at ease.

She patted the back of her daughter's hand.

"Mom buried two sweet potatoes for you. They should be cooked by now. Hurry up and eat them. Be careful not to burn yourself."

The skin of the sweet potato was roasted until it was golden brown. She gently rubbed it with her fingers, revealing the mellow fragrance of the sweet potato inside. Tao Yin peeled one for Li Lan, blew on her scalded fingers, and lowered her head to open her own sweet potato.

The mother and daughter each ate a sweet potato happily. At this time, Chen Guihua walked into the living room with a hoe on her shoulder and half a bag of sweet potatoes behind her.

As soon as she pushed the door open, she smelled the fragrance before she saw anyone. Chen Guihua ate pork bone soup with noodles in the morning. The bones were brought to her by her younger daughter.

She had been working all morning and was hungry.

As soon as she smelled the fragrance, she immediately threw away the things in her hand and rushed over. She didn't look like a six-year-old girl at all.

She saw her third daughter-in-law eating roasted sweet potatoes with the granddaughter she didn't like. The plates were empty.

Chen Guihua still cared about her face in front of Li Lan. Since they had already separated from the family, she didn't go to her third daughter-in-law's kitchen. Instead, she turned around and went into her own room.

Li Lan thoughtfully looked at Chen Guihua's back as she left in a hurry. She asked Tao Yin how she ate lunch.

"I steamed some sweet potatoes, fried some rattan, and boiled some eggs for Dad. But Dad couldn't bear to eat the eggs and left them all for me." Tao Yin told her everything without mentioning the part about Lu Xing.

Before Li Lan could say anything, she saw Chen Guihua angrily running out of her small kitchen and going straight to Tao Yin.

"Did you not boil the pot at noon?" Chen Guihua asked.

Tao Yin smiled sweetly at her: "Grandma, I boiled it. There are sweet potatoes and boiled eggs."

"Where did you put it? Why didn't I see it?" Chen Guihua opened her eyes wide.

"I sent it to my dad's field. He even said that the sweet potatoes we planted this year were very delicious."

Chen Guihua woke up from her shock and became angry.

"What? You didn't leave any for me?"

Tao Yin looked at her grandmother, whose face was flushed red, in surprise. Feeling wronged, she said, "Grandma, did you ask me to leave some for you? No, why didn't you say so earlier? I only cooked for my dad. I haven't eaten lunch yet."

"You bastard!"

Before Chen Guihua could say the word "brat", she was glared at by Li Lan, who was standing beside Tao Yin.

"Go inside and wait." After driving her daughter away, Li Lan was not afraid of her mother-in-law at all. She put down the sweet potatoes in her hand and stood up from the stool.

"You, what are you doing? Your daughter doesn't even know to leave food for her grandmother at noon, and I can't even say a word?" Chen Guihua thought that she was the head of the family, and her waist couldn't help but stiffen a lot.

Li Lan sighed softly. "Mom, what did I ask you to do in the morning? I said that Yinyin had hit her head and that I had to trouble you to cook her more for lunch. Now that we've separated from the family, no matter how much my daughter has eaten from you, I'll return it to you when she comes back at night. In the end, not only did you not cook for yourself, but you even expect your injured granddaughter to serve you?"

Chen Guihua shouted back unwillingly: "Isn't she alive and kicking? Nothing happened to her at all!"

Tao Qingchang came back with two bags of corn cobs and saw the two women at home quarreling.

Li Lan wiped her tears and said with a sobbing voice: "Mom, that's your granddaughter. What should we do if something happened to her?"

Chen Guihua wanted to fight with Li Lan again, but her third son came back.

Tao Qingchang put down the bag, panting. He looked at his mother, who was in high spirits, and then looked at his wife, who looked tired, and asked: "What happened?"

Li Lan told the man from beginning to end, and then added: "I know, even if we are separated from the family, this granddaughter should cook for her grandma. But Yinyion is injured, right? What if something happens to her? How am I supposed to live?"

Tao Qingchang was angered by his wife's crying. He felt a little ashamed when he thought of his sick daughter bringing food to him at noon.

Chen Guihua was still poking holes in his heart.

"She's fine. Don't make a fuss. How can a country girl be so delicate?"

Tao Qingchang took out two corn cobs from the bag, washed them, and boiled them in the pot. He then poured a cup of hot water for Chen Guihua.

"Mom, I boiled two corn cobs for you. I'll bring them to you when they're cooked."

Chen Guihua beamed with joy at her son's filial piety. She glanced at Li Lan proudly, and Li Lan turned her face away.

Before Chen Guihua could finish feeling smug, Tao Qingchang added, "Mom, Yinyin is Xiao Lan and my only daughter. No matter what other people think, we just treat her like a treasure and spoil her. You're old now, so if you can tolerate it, just take care of her. If you can't, don't say too much. Yinyin is your granddaughter after all. I don't ask you to treat her as you treat Tao Jie, but I just hope that you won't order my sick daughter around. When Yinyin recovers, I'll ask her to cook a table full of dishes for you."

Chen Guihua's favoritism towards her second son's family was obvious to all, but this was the first time Tao Qingchang had said it out loud. Even if he didn't have any resentment in his heart, Chen Guihua still blushed when she heard it.

"Who wants her to cook a table full of dishes?" Chen Guihua was humiliated by her third son. She turned around and went back to her room.

"If it weren't for your daughter-in-law's inability to give birth to a son, would I be biased?" Chen Guihua cursed as she walked, as if she was afraid that Li Lan couldn't hear her.

Li Lan did hear it, but she knew what her mother-in-law was like after all these years. She couldn't be bothered to argue with her. She had married Tao Qingchang because of him. He had been good to her for so many years. He didn't even complain that she only gave birth to a daughter. Instead, he treated her and her mother well wholeheartedly. After they separated from the family last year, they lived a better life.

The husband and wife looked at each other tacitly. Tao Qingchang bent down to add two handfuls of firewood to the stove.

Tao Yin also opened the door and walked out of the room when he couldn't hear anything.

"Dad, you're back." Tao Yin leaned over and smiled at Tao Qingchang. As a father, he was very happy.

"Dad, can you pick up some good sweet potatoes for me? I promised to send some to Aunt Li's family."

After Tao Yin mentioned it, Tao Qingchang also remembered. He hurriedly asked Tao Yin to tighten the bag. He looked down at the sweet potatoes in his field carefully.

In terms of appearance, there was nothing special about them. How could they be so delicious?

Tao Qingchang suddenly had an idea. He picked up two sweet potatoes and threw them into the pot with corn. He wanted to taste them later.

Tao Qingchang's serious expression made Li Lan want to laugh. "What's wrong? You're staring at the sweet potatoes."

"You don't know, but this year's sweet potatoes are very delicious. They taste good. You should try them later."

Li Lan looked at the sweet potatoes in his hand suspiciously.

"Really? Why do I feel like there's nothing special about them?" It seemed like they were just a little fresher than last year's.

Tao Qingchang didn't know what to say. After the sweet potatoes and corn were done, he peeled one for Li Lan. Tao Yin brought the rest of the corn to Chen Guihua.

Li Lan took a few bites but didn't feel that there was anything special about the sweet potatoes. Tao Qingchang took a bite, then another, and muttered.

"Something's wrong. It doesn't taste like this."

At this time, Tao Yin came back from the other side. He clutched his chest and looked uncomfortable.

"What's wrong?" Tao Qingchang threw the sweet potato away and immediately noticed that something was wrong with his daughter.