After arranging the herbs, Haitang and Grandpa Tong sat down to rest, sipping tea while looking out at the wide courtyard filled with herbs.

    "Grandfather, why did you choose to settle in this village?" Haitang asked.

    Originally, Grandpa Tong was a wandering herb gatherer without a permanent home. When Haitang was a child, he had taken her along to gather herbs in various places, teaching her to read, recognize herbs, and understand their properties and dangers before finally settling in this village.

    "This is your home," Grandpa Tong replied.

    "Grandfather, you’re wrong. My home used to be with you. Now, my home is also with my husband. Wherever you and my husband are, that's my home," Haitang said.

    "You still don’t understand," Grandpa Tong said, holding back something he couldn't say out loud, but Haitang understood what it was.

    "Grandfather, the past is the past. The present is the present. I used to ask about my birth parents every night, but now my questions have changed. I ask myself how I can keep you healthy, how I can make my husband's home prosperous, and how I can ensure the well-being of everyone around me. That's the present," Haitang said.

    Haitang didn't claim to be enlightened but wanted to convey that Grandpa Tong and her husband's family were the most important people to her now.

    "Sigh! In the past, your mother lived in the city. I thought she would come to visit you, so I settled here. I can live anywhere, but I didn't expect she would never come back to see you. Besides, this was also my mother's home," Grandpa Tong explained.

    For Grandpa Tong, he could freely gather herbs from different places because he had no family left. But since taking care of Haitang, he chose to live here partly for her and partly because his old age prevented him from traveling as he did in his youth. He chose his mother's hometown as the final place to spend his life.

    For Haitang, this village was neither wholly good nor entirely bad.

    The downside of this village was the selfishness of its residents, but every village had such people. It was just that this village had a few more of them.

    Additionally, the villagers often gossiped without distinguishing right from wrong, but just as one couldn't stop the sun from rising, one couldn't stop people from gossiping. It was something she had to accept.

    At least this village had given her something good: her husband, Qian Tai. So, she dismissed the idea of moving away.

    Haitang stayed at Grandpa Tong's house for a while before going in to cook dinner for him. Once she had finished, she returned to her husband's home.

    The sky had turned completely dark. After finishing their personal chores, everyone went to their respective rooms to rest.

    Seeing Qian Tai with wet hair from washing it, Haitang, being a good wife, gently dried his hair with a clean cloth. As she did so, she recounted the story of the three shameless women who had visited earlier.

    "Dealing with household matters has been tough on you. My mother isn’t one to engage in verbal sparring with those people," Qian Tai said, knowing his mother well. She wasn't someone who could easily argue with others.

    "Don't worry, dear. If they come to trouble Mother again, I'll handle it myself," Haitang assured him.

    "I'll leave it to you," Qian Tai said.

    After drying his hair, it was time for bed.

    Qian Tai pondered the thought of having children. Now that they had money, having a child wouldn’t be too burdensome. However, the unfinished state of their home weighed on his mind. For the sake of their future child, everything needed to be in order. He decided they should wait until their living conditions were more settled.

    Haitang, unaware of Qian Tai’s thoughts, felt everything was ready. Tonight could be their true wedding night, and she couldn’t help but feel excited. She turned to sleep on the inside of the bed.

    Seeing this, Qian Tai said nothing, extinguished the candle, and lay down. Soon, his steady breathing indicated he had fallen into a blissful sleep.

    Feeling his steady breaths, Haitang looked at her husband in the dark and thought positively. He might be exhausted from the past few days. Though slightly irritated, she forced herself to sleep with only a slight tinge of resentment.

    "Arghhhhhhh!!!!!"

    A scream from outside jolted everyone in the house awake. Qian Tai and Haitang quickly dressed and lit a candle to see what was happening outside.

    "Third and Fourth, light candles around the house and follow me. Second, come with me. Wife, stay with Father and Mother," Qian Tai, as the head of the household, gave precise orders.

    Everyone quickly followed his instructions.

    When Qian Tai stepped outside, he saw two men writhing in pain, their feet caught in the traps Haitang had asked him to set earlier in the afternoon.

    "Husband, I need your help with something," Haitang had said.

    "Help? With what?"

    "Please sharpen some bamboo sticks into spikes and set traps around the fence," Haitang requested.

    "Traps?" Qian Tai didn’t understand.

    "Now that the whole village knows we have a large sum of money, our house could become a target for thieves. It’s better to prevent trouble than to fix it later. The safety of our family is not something we can be complacent about."

    "Alright, I’ll set traps around the house."

    Luckily, his wife had thought ahead that afternoon. Otherwise, it would have been them crying out in pain now.

    Looking at the two thieves, it was clear they were just local good-for-nothings from the village.

    The traps had pierced their legs but didn't seem life-threatening. Qian Tai pondered for a moment before ordering Qian San and Qian Xi to run and fetch the head of the village.

    The loud yelling from the twin boys drew not only the village head, his wife, and their son but also other villagers curious to see what was happening.

    When they saw the state of the village ruffians, they were at a loss for words.

    “What happened here?” the village head asked.

    “My family and I were asleep. We woke up to their screams and found them in this condition,” Qian Tai explained succinctly.

    “Village head, you must help me! They’ve injured me, and they must pay for it!” one of the thieves, lacking self-awareness, demanded justice.

    “The bamboo sticks in our yard were just lying there. Your feet found their way onto them. How dare you ask us to compensate you?” Haitang emerged from the house with her parents-in-law.

    “Da Geng, what are you doing here?” the village head asked.

    The man named Da Geng, with shifty eyes, looked around, unable to admit that he had come to extort money. He finally came up with a flimsy excuse.

    “The cat I was chasing jumped into this yard, so I followed it to catch it.”

    His excuse made everyone look at him with disdain. Did Da Geng think the villagers were fools or idiots?

    Chasing a cat?

    If that were a valid reason to enter someone’s home at night, the world would be full of cat owners.

    “What nonsense are you spouting?” Even the village head felt irritated by this absurd explanation.

    “Village head, please don’t ask questions now. Help me first,” Da Geng pleaded, feeling the unbearable pain.

    “Yes, yes, village head. We’re injured; that’s the truth,” the other man, Da Geng’s accomplice, chimed in.

    “Go get a stretcher and take them to Elder Tong. The city’s doctor’s office is closed at this hour,” the village head ordered.

    Elder Tong, Haitang’s grandfather, was well-versed in herbs and could treat minor injuries, earning him the title of village healer.

    “Wait, Village head. You need to tell me how you’re going to punish them first,” Haitang insisted, not allowing the injured men to be taken away without a resolution.

    “Qian daughter-in-law, don’t get too full of yourself. I am still the village head. I said to take the injured men for treatment first. We’ll discuss the rest later. Do you dare to defy me?” The village head, already annoyed with Haitang for previously embarrassing his wife, spoke harshly.

    “I’m not defying you. I’m asking how you plan to punish them,” Haitang reiterated.

    “I’m telling you to treat them first,” the village head snapped back.

    “If you treat them first, the evidence will disappear. You need to specify the punishment before they are treated,” Haitang insisted.

    “After they are treated, they will kneel at the village ancestral shrine for ten days,” the village head replied, reluctantly.

    The village head’s response was perfunctory, as Da Geng was his man, and he already harbored resentment towards the Qian family.

    “Village head, you're making this too easy. They broke into my house intending to harm and steal, and you only make them kneel? Do you think such a lenient punishment is appropriate for a village head?” Haitang's anger at the village head's bias was evident.

    “Don’t speak recklessly. Didn't Da Geng say he entered to catch a cat? The village head punished him for entering at night. You have no proof he came to steal, so don’t make baseless accusations,” the village head’s wife interjected.

    The Qian family was furious but unsure how to contend with the village head. In this village, everyone had to obey the village head if they wanted to avoid trouble.

    “Village head, aren’t you afraid I’ll take this to the authorities?” Haitang gritted her teeth.

    “Go ahead and try. I’ll see who stands as a witness for you. Take them away!” the village head declared.

    With the village head’s command, the men who had come with him carried the injured thieves away.

    The Qian family glared at the village head with resentment, including Haitang, but she couldn’t stop her grandfather from treating them, as she didn’t want to trouble him.

    Once everyone else had left, the Qian family gathered in the main hall.

    Bang!

    “This is too much!” Qian Zhou slammed the table in frustration.

    “What are we going to do? If it happened once, it will surely happen again,” Zhushi, though angry, was more worried.

    “Father, Mother, don’t worry. I’ll handle this,” Qian Tai reassured them.

    “That’s right. You don’t need to worry. I’ll make sure those responsible are punished so the villagers will know not to follow their example,” Haitang said with a steely resolve.

    Seeing Haitang’s determination, the elder Qians refrained from saying anything more. Zhushi, who wasn’t in the best of health and had been woken up in the middle of the night, was helped back to her room by Haitang.

    “Wife, what are you going to do?” Qian Tai asked.

    “Tomorrow we’ll go to the city to file a complaint.”

    “But we don’t have proof they came to steal,” Qian Tai voiced his concern.

    “They also don’t have proof they entered because of a cat.”

    Haitang said no more and lay down. They would have to wait until tomorrow.

    Early the next morning, Qian Tai took Haitang, who carried two catties of dried goji berries, and headed to the city, going straight to the governor’s mansion.

    “I’m here to see the governor’s wife,” Haitang announced.

    The guards at the gate recognized Haitang and went to inform the steward.

    The last time Haitang visited, the second wife and the eldest daughter of the mansion had been punished by the governor. They were deprived of their monthly allowance for three months and confined to copying moral precepts a hundred times. Until they finished, they were not allowed to leave their rooms. Additionally, the first wife, who held a grudge, had not been kind to them. As a result, they were still suffering in their quarters.

    The steward, unsure of Haitang's intentions in seeking the primary wife, went to meet her before informing the lady of the house.

    “What business do you have here?”

    “We have dried goji berries that would pair well with the herbal drink made from barrenwort. If you don’t believe me, you can ask the doctor first.”

    “If that's the case, I’ll ask the doctor. If he says it’s good, I’ll buy it. No need to trouble the lady.”

    “You misunderstand, Steward. I need to discuss a small matter with the lady herself.”

    Seeing that Haitang was determined to speak with his mistress, the steward couldn’t make a decision on his own and went to inform the primary wife of the governor immediately.

    Since obtaining the barrenwort, the health of her son had improved significantly, which had made the primary wife very happy. Upon hearing that the person who had sold the barrenwort wanted to speak with her, she was slightly apprehensive, fearing they might be overly demanding.

    However, given her status as the governor’s wife, she felt there was nothing to fear.