As soon as Granny Fan heard this, how could she not get angry: “Never seen someone like you with no conscience. Back when you moved out of the Wang family, I even spoke up for you and put in effort.”
“Helped me?”
Not a single word of this did Yu Tingwan believe.
“For the gratitude others gave me help, I’ve remembered it in my heart. But what kind of thoughts you had, you think I don’t know?”
“You don’t get along with Aunt, and can’t bear to see her doing well, so you were just wishing for us to tear into each other.”
If she got along harmoniously with Wang-shi, then this Granny Fan would still treat her like a thorn in the eye, a spike in the flesh.
Yu Tingwan pulled at the corner of her lips.
She could be considered an easygoing person, not one to fuss. But if she really got riled up, someone says one sentence, she could fire back ten.
“Fool Girl back then suffered hardship, couldn’t take the stimulation, that’s why she became silly.”
“If I remember right, before something happened to her, quite a few people were thinking of proposing marriage. You even went to her house to play matchmaker for those two nephews.”
“Her mother scolded you for having a rotten mind and drove you out.”
“You’ve been feeling unhappy about that for a long time, haven’t you?”
“The mother and daughter depended on each other to survive, life was already hard. Not asking you to empathize, but you could at least act like a decent person! Sprinkling salt on other people’s wounds—does that make you feel capable?”
“Fool Girl’s mind isn’t whole, and those people thought she was easy to deceive and acted filthy and shameless, not even human. You, talking gossip behind people’s backs, aren’t you the same?”
After throwing out those few lines, she didn’t even look at Granny Fan’s blackened face, just planned to go back.
Those women looked at each other, truly scared stiff by her fierce appearance.
Yet they just so happened to feel… what Yu Tingwan said was quite right.
After all, Granny Fan speaking with selfish motives was indeed hard to listen to.
At this moment, Yu Tingwan stopped walking again.
Just when the women thought she hadn’t vented enough, Yu Tingwan took a deep breath, raised her mushroom, and calmly asked whether it was poisonous.
After getting a clear answer, Yu Tingwan returned to the old house, boiled some hot water to soak her frostbitten hands, and carefully applied ointment.
She’d been diligent with applying it these days, and the frostbite had improved a lot—there was no more pus.
Yu Tingwan had already gotten used to the countryside habit of not eating lunch. These past few days, she’d been extremely sleepy, sleeping a lot, like she was desperate to make up for all the missed rest from the past few years.
She lay on the couch and wrapped herself tightly with the blanket.
When she had money in the future, she would definitely buy a thick cotton quilt.
One… as thick as the one Wei Shen used today! Then she wouldn’t be woken up in the middle of the night from the cold.
The second branch of the Wei family was poor, but they were really generous to this son. If her parents were still around, they would definitely also…
Yu Tingwan exhaled a deep breath.
She still had to think of a way to earn money.
Thinking and thinking, the girl’s breathing became steady, and at some point, she had fallen into deep sleep.
Yu Tingwan was woken up by the smell from next door — by now, it was near dusk.
She took a deep breath.
It was the smell of stewed chicken. The fragrance dominated the air arrogantly, twining around the tip of the nose.
Hui-niang’s cooking skills were good. Previously, when the lizheng’s [里正, village head or administrative leader in a rural community] grandson got married, she was invited to handle the banquet, and she even earned a few coins for it — this should have been a source of income.
But this place was poor and bitter. Very few would spend money to hire a cook.
Though the two branches of the Wei family had separated before, in the end, they had not divided the household.
Even the money earned — as soon as it touched Hui-niang’s hands before it warmed up — it would be taken away by that old qianpo [虔婆, derogatory term for a superstitious or naggy old woman, here referring to Old Lady Wei].
Let alone meat dishes — even plain vegetarian food, through her cooking, would taste especially delicious.
Yu Tingwan was almost forgetting how long it had been since she last ate meat.
The steamed buns Aunt Wu gave had already been eaten up.
Yu Tingwan washed the wild vegetables and tossed them into the broken pot together with mushrooms to boil.
Without oil, salt, and other seasonings, the taste naturally couldn’t be good. Fortunately, she wasn’t picky.
The Wei family was stewing chicken.
Yu Tingwan ate wild vegetables and mushrooms.
The next day, the Wei family cooked fish.
Yu Tingwan ate wild vegetables and mushrooms.
On the third day, the lizheng’s family picked an auspicious time and slaughtered the pig they had bought from Butcher Wu.
Half the village ran over to watch the pig being slaughtered. Those with money even prepared to buy some pork — the fatter, the better — so that their bellies would have some oil.
Hui-niang was also queuing at the lizheng’s house.
The family had to use money sparingly, but she just didn’t want to wrong Erlang [二郎, literally “Second Son”; a common way to refer to the second eldest son affectionately or formally] when it came to meals.
She went late, and the good fatty meat had already been picked clean.
Hui-niang pinched the copper coins in her hand, and her gaze, uncontrollably, fell upon the pig intestines thrown in the corner, meant to be chopped up and fed to chickens.
Nowadays, very few people ate pig intestines — first, because they were hard to clean; second, for fear of bad luck; and third, because the taste after cooking was truly hard to swallow.
Yu Tingwan, having nothing to do, also went to join the excitement.
She had no money to buy meat, but she had her own purpose.
Li Lian was cleaning up the bloodstains in the courtyard. Yu Tingwan walked over.
“Mother-in-law.”
Li Lian saw her and instantly had a bad feeling.
Sure enough.
Yu Tingwan spoke faintly: “It’s already been two days.”
Li Lian: ……
Why are you rushing!!!
Yu Tingwan was very melancholy: “I really am in a hurry.”
Li Lian: ……
She could tell.
She found it both funny and irritating.
“You…”
Just as she was about to tease her, her voice was drowned out by a sharp and sour voice in front.
“Isn’t this little sister-in-law? And you still have money to buy meat, huh?”
A sharp-mouthed, monkey-cheeked woman blocked Hui-niang’s path, her condescending manner fully showing her superiority.
Her voice was loud, not the slightest bit restrained.
“Look at what you and your husband are doing! Insisting on treating Erlang’s illness, and even snatched mother’s coin purse!”
“These past few days, mother has been so angry at you two she can’t eat, and she’s gotten all thin. And you two? You’re out here eating fragrant and drinking spicy!”
Yu Tingwan: ……
She felt Old Lady Wei was very healthy.
She came to Hui-niang’s door every day to point at the mulberry tree and curse the locust tree [idiom: to scold someone indirectly; veiled insults]!
She even disturbed her peace!
Hui-niang had been suppressed by Zhuang Mei for years and had long gotten used to it. She was lacking confidence: “Elder sister-in-law, don’t pin these crimes on me and my husband. What do you mean by mother’s money? That money was originally supposed to belong to our second branch.”
“What do you mean your second branch’s money! The Wei family hasn’t even split the household!”
Hui-niang didn’t dare look at Zhuang Mei’s face, and said in a low voice: “The two families haven’t officially split, but back then, you all said the house was too crowded and drove us out. All these years, we’ve been living apart.”
How to divide the house? How to divide the land? …Those things needed written contracts.
Old Lady Wei was biased, lived with the eldest branch, and couldn’t bear to divide these things out. Not to mention the eldest son Wei Shoucai had a sweet mouth, was lazy with work, while Wei Shouzhong was honest and diligent, only knew how to bury his head and work hard.
Every year during spring plowing, the land planted by the eldest branch’s sons didn’t exceed what Wei Shouzhong managed alone.
The Wei family needed this kind of labor.
All these years, when the harvest was converted to money, Old Lady Wei held it tightly in her hands, secretly supplementing the eldest branch. What the second branch received was only some grain from the fields.
The grain wasn’t too heavily withheld — after all, even a rabbit will bite when it’s anxious.
As a result, the eldest branch got all the advantages, and Zhuang Mei lived quite comfortably.
But!! The second branch actually dared to resist.
Seeing that she dared talk back, Zhuang Mei couldn’t help but burst with anger.
“Amazing now, huh! Your son’s back, your spine’s straight, and now you even dare to talk back!”
Hui-niang pressed her lips together, lowered her head to deliberately avoid her, and lifted her foot to leave.
Would Zhuang Mei let her get her way?
She directly reached out and shoved her: “Did I say you could leave?!”
“So what if Wei Shen came back? What are you feeling proud about? That little beast can get up and stand up for you?”