“Eldest brother, that’s Xiaobao’s medicine. Xiaobao is still under observation. What if he runs a high fever again tonight and there’s no medicine?”
She had gone to enormous trouble to ease things with her eldest sister-in-law and Xiaobao, she couldn’t throw all that effort away.
Besides, the eldest brother had a family of his own, a wife and child, and yet he still put her first in everything. Whatever good thing was in his room, whatever single coin he had, he could hardly wait to hand it over to her.
No wonder her eldest sister-in-law and Xiaobao disliked her so much and were full of resentment toward her.
If it were her, saddled with a sister-obsessed man, she’d probably have come at him with a knife.
At the thought, she decided to give the eldest brother a talking-to.
“Eldest brother, you’re a man with a family now. As a man, you should put your own little household first, and look after your wife and Xiaobao more. On my side I still have Dad and Mom, and third and fourth brother to watch over me. It’s fine.”
“But, but…” The eldest brother wanted to say more, and Shen Jiaqi sighed. “As it stands, I’ve only caught a chill, and Xiaobao is still running a fever. If you take his life-saving medicine and give it to me, I couldn’t swallow it.”
“Then… then what will you do… No, I… I, I, I’ll go get money from your sister-in-law…”
Hah, this eldest brother really was a block of elm wood.
Shen Jiaqi said irritably, “Eldest brother, it’s nothing much. A mere chill, I’ll drink a bowl of ginger soup and be fine…”
Ginger…
That keyword flung open the floodgates of her memory in an instant.
The original text had mentioned that after Jiang Shiyan jumped into the water to save her, he caught a chill.
To make him ginger soup, Ye Zhaozhao went up the mountain in the middle of the night to dig wild ginger, and as a result… her lucky-koi constitution kicked in, and she caught a big fat fish by the stream.
Now, the one who jumped in to save her wasn’t Jiang Shiyan, and Ye Zhaozhao wouldn’t be going up the mountain at midnight, so didn’t that mean that patch of wild ginger and that big fish were both hers?
At the thought, Shen Jiaqi was like she’d had a shot of chicken blood. Her head no longer ached, her eyes no longer blurred, her body even seemed to grow hot, full of drive.
Whatever happened, tonight she had to go up the back mountain herself and take a look.
After all, that fish wouldn’t wait for anyone, miss this village and there’d be no such shop…
Back home, the food had just been cooked and set on the table.
Qiao Huilan and Peng Zhaodi were bustling about in the kitchen.
“When there’s work to do you’re nowhere to be seen, and the moment it’s time to eat every one of you knows to come home. Trying to work me to death on purpose…”
With the children out of the house, Shen Laogui took most of his wife’s fury.
He was good-tempered, always in one ear and out the other, cheerful all day long.
“All right, stop scolding. Haven’t the children come back?”
“Quick, everyone wash your hands and eat!”
The brothers moved a stool over for Shen Jiaqi, fetched water for her to wash her hands, and even brought her a clean hand towel, as if waiting on an ancestor.
Shen Jiaqi knew her brothers doted on her, but she didn’t expect doting to this degree, they were about to wait on her into uselessness.
“Brothers, from now on I’ll do these things myself. Don’t bother, it’s rather embarrassing.”
“Little sister, we’re glad to look after you. What kind of talk is that? Is there something your brothers haven’t done well? We’ll change, won’t that do?” The third brother was so agitated his eyes bulged.
“You do it all very well, it’s just… I’m eighteen already, I should be independent.”
“This…” They all looked at one another. They were used to taking care of their sister, and suddenly not being needed left their hearts feeling rather empty.
Just then Shen Laogui knocked out his pipe. “Enough. Won’t you even listen to your little sister? What’s the family rule in our house, when little sister speaks, you obey!”
“Stop standing here making your little sister unhappy…”
“Hurry up, go and help your mother.”
Now that their father had spoken, they reluctantly put things down and went into the kitchen to bring out the dishes and bowls.
Looking at the thin, watery meal on the table, Shen Jiaqi’s face turned the color of vegetables.
In one basin of clear water floated a scattering of rice grains mixed with a few millet grains, this was tonight’s staple, millet porridge.
In the bowls beside it there was sun-dried kohlrabi, spicy pickled radish, sour bamboo shoots, and a plate of vinegar-fried cucumber.
There were, however, two boiled eggs, both of them placed in Shen Jiaqi’s bowl.
Looking at this meal, Shen Jiaqi felt very bad indeed.
A whole household with old and young, several able laborers, and a pregnant woman besides, and they ate this every day?
No wonder the second sister-in-law had a miscarriage from malnutrition.
Thin porridge with a few pickles day after day, not a speck of oil in it, it would be a wonder if it nourished anyone.
By right, her father and four brothers were all the backbone of the brigade’s labor and earned plenty of work points every day, life shouldn’t be like this.
It was only because of the original owner’s love-brained folly, giving everything in the house to Jiang Shiyan, that the whole family had to eat chaff and swallow greens.
Even the sick Xiaobao could only drink this millet porridge as thin as clear water.
Xiaobao sat beside her, staring at the egg in that bowl, swallowing again and again, glistening drool running down the corner of his mouth and dripping onto the table.
“Here you go.” Shen Jiaqi picked up one egg and put it in Xiaobao’s bowl.
Xiaobao was so frightened his face went pale, and he pushed it back in a panic. “Xiaobao won’t eat it, Auntie eat it! All the eggs in the house belong to Auntie, Xiaobao isn’t worthy of eating eggs…”
Some scattered scenes suddenly flashed through Shen Jiaqi’s mind.
Xiaobao had secretly eaten one of the original owner’s boiled eggs, and the original owner had given him a beating right there.
And she’d pinched him and told him he wasn’t worthy of eating eggs…
She could raise a hand against a child that small. What a sin…
Shen Jiaqi, such a kind-hearted twenty-first-century girl, how had she transmigrated into the body of a vicious woman?
Other people transmigrate into books and eat well and drink spicy and enjoy endless good fortune, while she spent all day long wiping the original owner’s backside!
Seeing how cruelly the original owner had treated Xiaobao and what a huge psychological shadow it had cast on the child, Shen Jiaqi nearly fainted.
She pulled her emotions together and apologized to him sincerely. “Xiaobao, I’m sorry. Auntie was wrong before. I take those words back. Go ahead and eat, it’s all right.”
Xiaobao blinked a pair of big watery eyes and looked her over curiously.
What was wrong with Auntie, was she apologizing?
Auntie had told him with smiles before that she wouldn’t hit him, and then she’d forgotten the moment she turned around, and had hit him even harder than before.
Xiaobao ducked his neck and shook his head, regarding the egg as a flood or a fierce beast. “Auntie, Xiaobao doesn’t do any work, he isn’t worthy of eating good things…”
Shen Jiaqi stamped her foot in anger. “Which turtle-spawn said that, teaching a child such things…”
Xiaobao looked up weakly and glanced at her.
Shen Jiaqi turned her hand and pointed at herself, astonished. “Me?”
He nodded, shrinking back.
Shen Jiaqi pressed a hand to her chest. Original owner, oh original owner, what other surprises do you have that I don’t know about?
She forced her anger down and squeezed out a kindly smile.
“Xiaobao, you can eat eggs, you are worthy of eating eggs. No, our Xiaobao is worthy of the best things in the world…”
“Before… what Auntie said before was all nonsense, don’t take it to heart at all.”
As she spoke she peeled the shell for him and forced the egg into the little fellow’s mouth.
“Eat!”
Xiaobao’s eyes went wide with fright, and only after a long moment, once he was sure Shen Jiaqi wasn’t angry, did his little mouth take a hard bite. The little look of satisfaction on his face was beyond describing.
He was eating happily when Qiao Huilan shouted furiously, “Xiaobao, how dare you, stealing your auntie’s egg!”