The An family never bullied others, but they wouldn't let themselves be bullied either!
So this time, they decided to fight back fiercely and stand up for Su'er!
Two years ago, during Su'er's wedding banquet, he had already disliked the Li family. This time, no matter what, they couldn't lose to such shameless people.
As soon as An's father and Li's father saw each other, their faces darkened, and they immediately started yelling, neither willing to back down.
"Look at your lazy son! Always slacking off in his wife's house…"
Li's father cursed while trying to grab An's father's hair.
"Pah! A disgusting old man like you—no one would even want you!"
An's father, who seemed to have experience fighting loud, unreasonable people, dodged swiftly. Li's father missed and stumbled, only for An's father to grab his hair and pull hard, making him cry out in pain.
"Su'er, why are you standing there? Come help your dad hold him down!"
An's father called for his son to help pin down Li's father so he could beat him up more easily.
An Su'er hesitated—he still had a bit of fear because of past trauma. He was scared of Li's father.
Seeing his son's frightened look, An's father immediately realized that the old bully must've often verbally abused his son. This only made him angrier. He pushed Li's father's head toward the ground and kicked his butt a few times, beating him until he couldn't even fight back.
"That's for being disrespectful to elders!"
"That's for bullying the younger generation!"
"That's for insulting my son!"
"Take this!"
By the end, Li's father looked like a fish out of water, his clothes messy, lying flat on the ground, groaning nonsense with no energy to move.
Rain poured in the courtyard, like it was cheering for An Ru's battle.
As for An Ru, no one knew how she had such strength. Li He had tried to help her daughter Li San hold down An Ru, but Li San was already pinned in the mud, unable to move. She flopped around like a fish out of water, splashing muddy water everywhere, even staining An Ru's pants.
Since Li San was no help, Li He had to fight alone.
She was just about to attack when An Ru punched her square in the back!
Li He stumbled several steps forward before she could stop herself.
Trying to fight back, she swung her fist at An Ru, only for An Ru to dodge skillfully. The punch hit Li San instead, who cried out in pain.
Anyone who didn't know would think Li He and An Ru were both ganging up on Li San…
Seeing that his wife was almost done with her battle, An's father looked around the house.
That's when he saw a flirtatious-looking man standing awkwardly inside and quickly figured out what was going on.
It seemed Li San had beaten his son because of this man from a brothel.
Liu Tao, the man from the brothel, had just witnessed An's father's strength and didn't dare step forward.
When An's father walked toward him with a fierce expression, Liu Tao backed away in fear.
Li's father had just barely managed to sit up on the ground and didn't care that An's father was walking toward Liu Tao.
Even though his daughter had told him a few days ago that Liu Tao was pregnant and they needed to marry him quickly, he still thought his own well-being mattered more.
After all, any son-in-law was just extra labor for the family. He didn't care enough to defend Liu Tao.
An's father didn't plan to hurt Liu Tao, just asked him coldly:
"What's your name? How old are you? Where are you from?"
Liu Tao answered honestly, and An's father started thinking about how to take care of his own son.
Given the Li family's nasty attitude, leaving Su'er here would only lead to more suffering.
It was better to bring him home now and let him live with the An family again.
Oh, and he had to take his grandson with them too!
The Li family didn't care about boys—they wouldn't love his grandson anyway.
An Ru, after that satisfying fight, had her rain hat tilted to the side.
The rain was slowing down, and the muddy courtyard stopped rising.
The Li family's mother and daughter were both beaten badly, shivering in pain and cold, now slightly afraid of An Ru.
An Ru ignored them and told her son to follow her.
"Su'er, pack your things. You're coming home with us."
There were plenty of good girls in their village who still had feelings for Su'er. Why should he stay here and be bullied?
If he wanted to remarry, she would support him.
If not, they had savings—they could support Su'er and their grandson just fine.
An's father went to help his son pack.
But in the end, all Su'er had at the Li house was a tiny bundle.
Li San, her face swollen and bruised, saw Su'er packing without hesitation. Rage rose in her heart. How dare he really leave?
She yelled with a lisp through swollen lips:
"If you leave, don't you ever come back!"
But no one answered her.
Li's father had recovered a bit and shouted:
"If you've got guts, take your son with you!"
An's father glared at him with fury, making Li's father shut his mouth quickly.
In the end, An Ru, An's father, Su'er, and their grandson Li Nuo—all four left the Li family together.
After they left, Li He and Li San started cursing again while struggling to get up from the ground.
Later, Liu Tao, the man from the brothel, became the Li family's new son-in-law.
At first, Li's father still thought people from brothels were unclean. But when Li San told him that Liu Tao had been a clean performer and was pregnant with a daughter, he finally stopped complaining.
But what they didn't know… was that Liu Tao was still hiding a secret.
…
Two months later—
…
Jewel's restaurant, Yanxi Tavern, had been doing great for several months. This three-story building brought in 40–50 taels of silver profit almost daily.
She made a decent amount of money.
In just over two months, even without selling health products from her space, she had saved about 4,000 taels.
According to her usual habits, now was a great time to explore new business opportunities.
After thinking it over, Jewel set her sights on the tea industry.
In her past life, her mother's family had made a fortune from tea and had a complete production chain.
She had grown up surrounded by it and had even developed her own method for processing tea leaves.
Now with this key skill, she was ready to shine.
After careful planning, Jewel used part of the money earned from the tavern to buy a large abandoned tea plantation just outside Zhong'an Town.
Although there were no tea trees, everything else was intact.
The whole plantation covered 40 mu (around 6.5 acres). At 7 taels per mu, she paid only 300 taels for the land. She was very pleased.
To keep things running well, she put up notices around the town and her tavern, hiring workers for the tea garden—both men and women welcome.
It had already been two months since An Su'er left the Li family.
A lot had happened in that time.
An Su'er was no longer their son-in-law.
After settling in with the An family, he told his parents that he didn't want to live with the Li family anymore.
An Ru and An's father fully supported his choice and were relieved and happy with his decision.