Mrs. Xue grabbed some food from the kitchen and asked Xue Feng to deliver it to the Lin Family.
Carrying a few steamed buns, Xue Feng entered the Lin Family's house, calling out as soon as he entered, "Auntie, are you home?"
Hearing the voice, Wang Cuihua quickly came out and smiled upon seeing Xue Feng: "Yes, come in quickly."
Holding the steamed buns, Xue Feng entered the room: "My mother just steamed some buns, she asked me to bring some over."
Wang Cuihua took the buns and added some of her own pancakes to the basket: "Your mother's steamed buns are delicious, Anning and An Ping love them the most."
After delivering the items, Xue Feng didn't stay long and left with the basket.
He had just reached the doorstep when he ran into Lin Anping entering.
Lin Anping's complexion looked somewhat off, and Xue Feng, worried that he might have been bullied outside, asked, "What happened to you? You look like you could tether a donkey with that pout."
With concerns weighing on his heart, Lin Anping, upon being asked by Xue Feng, spilled everything.
"I'm just angry. I just went out and heard some people talking about my eldest sister. They said she's causing trouble again at the Su family, insisting on splitting the family, and even fought with Li Mei and Wang Min over it."
Upon hearing this, Xue Feng became especially worried about Lin Anjie: "How's your sister doing? Did she suffer any losses?"
Lin Anping gestured, "No…"
But just as he uttered the word, Lin Anping's younger cousin Lin An Yi rushed over: "Brother, brother, it's bad, the Su's hit our sister."
"What?"
Upon hearing this, Lin Anping's brows furrowed deeply, and he grabbed a pole from the corner of the wall and headed out: "Let's go and see."
Inside the house, Wang Cuihua and Anning also heard the commotion.
The two of them came out just in time to see Lin Anping carrying a pole and heading out, frightening Wang Cuihua who quickly caught up with Anning.
"An Ping, An Ping, what are you doing?"
An Yi, carrying a fire poker he found somewhere, followed them: "Second Aunt, the Su's hit my sister, and we're going to support her."
"Is this what you call support? You two are going to fight."
Wang Cuihua, seeing the way An Ping and An Yi looked, was even more frantic.
She grabbed Xue Feng who was following them: "Xue Feng, help your aunt watch these two, don't let them cause any trouble."
Xue Feng was also quite worried about Lin Anjie and agreed without a second thought.
Anning tugged at Wang Cuihua's clothes: "Mom, I'll go follow An Ping, you hurry to the field and call my dad back."
Wang Cuihua agreed and ran towards the fields.
Anning followed Lin Anping, and several people went to the Su family with a great deal of momentum.
Not far from the Su family, when they saw many people gathered outside the Su house, Anning knew the issue was not yet resolved.
As they approached, they heard the crowd discussing.
"Su Zhiqiang really can be ruthless, how could he hit An Jie when she's so pretty."
"If he didn't hit her, what then? She's been causing division in the family not even a year after marrying in, who can tolerate such a woman."
"What's wrong with causing a split? Those two sisters-in-law of An Jie aren't easy to deal with either; a whole family of troublesome people, anyone would want to split."
"In my opinion, it's better to be split. Not to mention the Su family, even our country has divided fields among households."
The onlookers expressed their opinions one after another.
Xue Feng became even more anxious when he heard that Su Zhiqiang had beaten Lin Anjie, feeling extremely heartbroken. He particularly regretted not insisting on eloping with Lin Anjie back then, which left her to suffer in the Su family.
Anning also frowned upon hearing this.
Initially, when Lin Anjie insisted on marrying Su Zhiqiang, Anning thought that although Su Zhiqiang didn't seem very good, at least he should have a decent heart and be somewhat clever.
But she never expected Su Zhiqiang to be the type of man who would beat his wife.
Anning was even more puzzled, why did Lin Anjie insist on marrying a person like Su Zhiqiang?
Was it just because Su Zhiqiang had the potential to make a lot of money?
Anning felt that in this era, as long as someone is a bit clever and daring, they could make a fortune. Lin Anjie had such opportunities; she could have ventured on her own, made big money, and then choose any man she wanted. Why hang on a crooked branch like Su Zhiqiang?
Anning even thought that Xue Feng was much better than Su Zhiqiang.
Anning had many thoughts in an instant, and as she walked a few steps further, she heard Lin Anjie's crying.
Following Lin Anping and Lin Anli, she separated from the crowd and entered the Su family's courtyard. As soon as she entered, she saw Lin Anjie, with her hair disheveled, sitting in the courtyard crying bitterly. Meanwhile, Li Mei and Wang Hexing stood by, gloating and snickering.
Seeing this scene, Anning's impression of Su Zhiqiang worsened even more.
Upon seeing Lin Anjie crying with tears and snot, Lin Anping was instantly furious.
He grabbed a carrying pole and shouted, "Su! What did you say when you married my sister? It hasn't been long since she came here, and you are already hitting her..."
Lin Anli was also furious, "Does the Su family think our Lin family has no one? How can you bully people like this?"
Seeing her brothers from her maternal home made Lin Anjie cry even harder.
"I can't live like this anymore, Su Zhiqiang you bastard, you just bully me like this, I..."
Anning felt somewhat suffocated, but she couldn't help but go over to help Lin Anjie up first.
She felt that no matter how tough the situation was, one shouldn't throw a tantrum in the landlord's house and make others laugh at them.
But with all her good intentions, Lin Anjie was unappreciative.
She stood up abruptly, pushing Anning away and wiped her tears, "You came to gloat too, didn't you? You don't have good intentions either, you..."
Anning wasn't annoyed, she just slightly frowned, "Why would I gloat? You're my sister, how could your misfortune benefit me?"
Xue Feng was originally very concerned about Lin Anjie, but being a man and considering she was a married woman, he felt it was inappropriate to help her up. Seeing Anning help Lin Anjie, Xue Feng was relieved. He had planned to get closer to check if Lin Anjie was injured, but he did not expect to hear such accusations from An Jie.
Even though Anning was well-meaning, Lin Anjie didn't appreciate it and acted unreasonable towards Anning, which made Xue Feng feel uncomfortable.
Xue Feng hadn't interacted much with Anning before, but they had become somewhat closer over the past few months.
Recently, Anning often helped Xue Feng with his studies, and as they frequently met at school, Xue Feng had come to know her quite well.
He knew that Anning was a very gentle and polite person, with a very good temper. During all this time at school, Xue Feng had never seen Anning argue with any classmate.
Anning was also very kind-hearted, always helping classmates, explaining things patiently, no matter how slow a classmate was, she never showed impatience.
Such a kind and gentle person was accused by Lin Anjie for no reason, even Xue Feng, who cared for Lin Anjie, couldn't ignore his conscience and think Lin Anjie was right.
He felt somewhat guilty towards Anning, and seeing Lin Anjie in her disheveled and fierce state, Xue Feng was afraid Lin Anjie would hit Anning, so he moved even closer, thinking he could block any hits if Lin Anjie tried to strike.
Xue Feng never expected that Lin Anjie would be further provoked seeing him.
Seeing Xue Feng worry about Anning filled Lin Anjie with anger and resentment.
She took a deep breath to suppress her complicated emotions, but then she saw Su Zhiqiang looking concerned at Anning and her anger surged again.
Lin Anjie reached out to grab Anning, wanting to separate her from Su Zhiqiang, not wanting the two to have any contact at all.
Unfortunately, her hostile expression and gesture led both Xue Feng and Su Zhiqiang to think she was about to hit Anning.