Outside the gate, the villagers gradually left. As they left, they discussed Xie Yunhua.

They’ve never heard much about Xie Yunhua. Though today, they learned that he was a lazy character who never worked.

At 17, he never worked and only ate the best food and wore the best clothes.

The villagers searched their memories and realized that Xie Yunhua was white and fat. Meanwhile, Xie Yunjin’s quadruplets were as skinny as chickens.

The villagers used to believe Lady Ruan and thought Lu Jiao ate everything. However, now that they thought about it, Lu Jiao was already chubby when she married into the Xie family.

She was fattened up by her own parents. Xie Yunhua however, was the only chubby and pale one in the entire Xie family.

Plus, all this information was exposed by the quadruplets. The children were so little and there was no way they would lie. So, the conclusion was, Xie Yunhua was a lazy and greedy man.

After everyone left, Lu Jiao got some water for the quadruplets to wash their faces with.

The four little ones did well today. Lu Jiao was satisfied.

The Fourth Born happily crowded Lu Jiao and asked for praise.

“Mommy, was my acting convincing?”

Lu Jiao giggled and pinched his nose, “Convincing. It was so convincing. But, who asked you to do all that?”

The Second, Third, and Fourth Born all looked over to the First Born. The First Born sneered and left.

Lu Jiao watched him go and thought of Xie Yunjin. So this father and son pair were sly and tactful.

The memories of Lady Ruan made Lu Jiao pity Xie Yunjin. How did he end up with such a mother?

Could it be that they weren’t biologically related? Or else why would a mother treat her own son this way?

Just then, Lady Tian and Lu Gui walked over and worriedly stared at the three kids, “Are you guys okay?”

Lu Jiao shook her head, “It’s fine. They’re very clever.”

Since it was late, Lu Jiao thought it was time to cook dinner.

She went into the kitchen, took out some deer and rabbit meat from her space, then came out. She asked Lu Gui, “Lu Gui, help me kill the deer. We’ll eat deer and rabbit for dinner.”

Lu Gui’s eyes brightened at the mention of meat. He nodded, “Sis, I will help you right away.”

Lady Tian went to help Lu Gui with the animals.

Lu Jiao brought the three kids to the living room so they could organize the gifts Yunjin’s classmates brought. When she reached the room, she heard Xie Yunjin’s cold voice.

“Was everything you said true? Your fourth uncle ate eggs, candy, and cake at home but didn’t give you anything? Your grandma made you dig worms for the chickens and refused to feed you unless you complied?”

The First Born responded properly, “You never asked us about the fourth uncle. You’ve only ever asked if our mom hit us or stole our food. You never asked us about uncle specifically. Plus, grandma told us not to say anything about the fourth uncle. She told us if we said anything, we wouldn’t get food.”

His son’s words made Xie Yunjin’s handsome face lose color.

He always thought his boys were skinny because the original host stole the children’s food. Now, he realized it was because of his own mother’s ruthlessness.

To make sure his children had enough to eat, he often brought money home.

However, every time he went home, his mother would tell him that the children were skinny because Lu Jiao stole their food.

Only now did he find out that all the silver he brought home was fed to his fourth brother. It was no wonder he ended up chubby and bright-skinned.

Xie Yunjin felt like he’s been living like a blind man. He focused all his negative energy on Lu Jiao and overlooked so many other aspects and details in his life – such as why his children were so skinny yet his brother was so chubby.

Since he studied in the county, he only got one day off a month and never fully saw through the situation. On top of normal school work, he also made some friends with classmates and would travel with them to other cities in order to study more knowledge. When he took those trips, he would leave home two to three months at a time.

Those thoughts pained Xie Yunjin. Only now did he realize that he had contributed to his children’s suffering.

“It’s all my fault. I can’t believe I never noticed.”

Outside the bedroom, Lu Jiao organized the pile of gifts. She discovered that everything Xie Yunjin’s classmates brought was beneficial. There was a lot of food such as cake, candy, and tea. There were also textile and medicinal ingredients.

The medicinal ingredients were of high quality, such as ginseng, fallopia, apiaceae, and red sage.

Lu Jiao took all the medicine to the bedroom, “The gifts your classmates gave you are very expensive. Other than all the food, these medicinal ingredients are worth quite some money.”

Xie Yunjin looked up at Lu Jiao. The sight of her face made him frown so deeply that the atmosphere turned horrifying.

It took him a moment to remember that she was no longer the woman she used to be. That thought relaxed him a little.

He glanced at the medicine and said mindlessly, “My classmate Han likely brought those. Don’t mind it. He doesn’t lack money.”

Lu Jiao understood right away that classmate Han was from a wealthy family and he had a close relationship with Xie Yunjin.

Lu Jiao searched her memories. When she read the novel, there was one character known as classmate Han. Sadly, she never read this novel too carefully and it focused on the protagonists. Xie Yunjin was the antagonist and not that many details were written about him.

Xie Yunjin looked at Lu Jiao and said, “Come over here.”

Lu Jiao raised an eyebrow. Thinking that maybe he needed water, she walked over to him, worried.

“Do you need some water?”

Xie Yunjin shook his head and then fetched something from under the pillow to give to Lu Jiao.

Lu Jiao took it over. Ah, it looked to be a bandars note.

She carefully checked out the amount and found it to be 150 taels of silver.

She was shocked, “Where did you get so much money?”

Xie Yunjin explained to Lu Jiao, “Three years ago, I partnered with classmate Han and opened up a bookstore across from our school in the county. This is my share of the profit. We go over our books once every six months. That’s when he pays me my half. This note was brought by him today.”

He actually has always kept some money with classmate Han. He knew there might come a day where he’d need it.

Classmate Han didn’t know Xie Yunjin was wounded by a horse carriage and therefore, didn’t know to come to visit with his money.

When he received the news, he immediately showed up with the money.

Originally, he brought 500 taels of silver. However, Xie Yunjin only took 150. He decided to keep the rest with classmate Han.