Chapter 481: You...Survived?

"Achoo!"

Han Ruochen sneezed two times before she could stabilise herself. Clutching the edge of her boat, she held on tight to the handles on the side of the stairs.

"Are you alright?" Tong Zhaodi reached out a hand for Han Ruochen to take when she saw that the latter was having trouble stabilising herself. "What happened?"

With a sniff, Han Ruochen jumped on the dock and shrugged. "I don’t know. Probably someone is trying to scheme against me." She gazed around the dock and noticed the additional boats that had joined hers after a month of her disappearance, and she also noticed the shocked gazes that were aimed at her. Clearly, many of the fishermen could not believe that she had returned after going to the Devil’s Teeth.

"They all seem quite impressed." Tong Zhaodi commented as she, too, came down the boat. She glanced around at the dock and noticed the many gazes that were looking at her and Han Ruochen. This was the first time she was being given so much attention, and Tong Zhaodi had no idea where to put her hands or feet.

"Let’s go." Han Ruochen ignored the many gazes that were aimed at the two of them and walked past the many fishermen, who were obviously waiting to question her.

Tong Zhaodi was stunned when she saw Han Ruochen walking away without even looking at the men who seemed to be waiting for her. However, she was used to following whatever Han Ruochen said to her. She immediately chased after Han Ruochen, wondering what the woman was planning on doing.

But honestly, Han Ruochen had no plans at all. She was just in a hurry to go and check up on her family since she had been gone for a month. Even though she knew that everything should be fine, Han Ruochen was still worried. After all, she could never underestimate Han Ziyan and her mother ever again.

"Are you going back home?" When Tong Zhaodi saw that Han Ruochen was heading toward her home, she was a bit envious. She would never understand the feeling of wanting to go back home. Instead, every time she had to go back home, she would think of every dreadful thing that had happened to her at the Tong family house.

"Yes. I need to check up on everyone." She had been missing from action for a while, and Han Ruochen was worried that someone might take advantage of her absence. "I will settle your wages once I have sold the seafood. Can you wait till then?" She wanted to hand the money over to Tong Zhaodi right away, but she did not have much money at hand at the moment. She needed to withdraw some money from the bank first. "But if you don’t mind, then I can send you your wages online."

Tong Zhaodi, however, shook her head and replied, "There is no need, Sister Ruochen. I don’t even have a bank account."

Because her mother was worried that her daughters would grow out of her control, she had never handed them their household registration book. So how could she open a bank account without her household registration? Cash was her only option.

Han Ruochen was not surprised. She nodded in understanding before saying, "Alright, then I will pay you tomorrow. If your mother has something to say, then you can ask her to come and meet me. I will explain everything to her."

"That won’t be necessary." Tong Zhaodi flushed red with shame. She knew that it would indeed be necessary.

Though Han Ruochen knew that it was indeed not the case, she still nodded before taking her leave. However, she had just arrived at the front of her house when she noticed the big lock hanging in front of the door like a door guard.

Han Ruochen: "..." What happened? And where was everyone? Why were the doors locked?

"Ruochen, you are back?" Aunt Wang, who came to dump the dirty water outside her courtyard, saw Han Ruochen standing in front of her house with a dubious and confused look on her face and said to her, "Your family is at the hospital."

"At the hospital?" Alarm bells started to ring in Han Ruochen’s head, but she still held herself back. Maybe she was thinking too much? Maybe everyone went to see her father, who was still recovering from his injuries? But even though she kept trying to calm herself down, her heart continued to thud violently in her chest. "Did they all go to check up on my dad?"

"Your dad? Oh no. It’s Ah Hong. He ran into an accident a few days ago—"

Aunt Wang was still speaking when Han Ruochen ran past her at top speed. She was so quick that Aunt Wang did not even have the time to tell her what actually happened. By the time Aunt Wang realised what was happening, she was simply speechless. She peered down at the street and saw Han Ruochen running as fast as her feet could take her and pursed her lips in silence.

"Mom, what happened?" When Aunt Wang’s daughter-in-law saw that her mother-in-law was standing outside with a dumbfounded look on her face, she hurried outside. She was home alone with her mother-in-law; if something happened to her, she was worried that her husband would blame her.

"It’s Han Ruochen. I just told her that her family was at the hospital, and she ran past me without listening to what I had to say to her."

Daughter-in-law Wang: "..."

She was simply speechless.

Exasperatedly, she said to her mother-in-law, "Mom, of course, Sister Ruochen would run to the county. You should have first told her that the matter was nothing serious and then broken the news to her. The way you framed your sentence was as if you were going to tell her that someone was gravely injured in her family."

Aunt Wang turned a little embarrassed when she heard her daughter-in-law’s words. She said to her in an aggrieved tone, "I didn’t mean to startle her...I was going to tell her that it was a small matter."

Her daughter-in-law simply shook her head and sighed. "Just apologise to her when you meet with her next time. Tell her that you did not mean it."

Though Aunt Han was a stubborn woman, she also knew when to bow. She nodded and agreed, "Alright."