Xiaobao’s mouth was stuffed absolutely full, exactly like a cute little pufferfish.
Startled all of a sudden, he hurriedly swallowed it in one gulp and nearly choked himself to death.
Shen Jiaqi quickly patted his back. “It’s not like that, Mom, look how you’ve frightened Xiaobao…”
“Cough cough cough… it’s not like that, Grandma…” He explained indistinctly too.
Sure enough… Auntie hadn’t meant well when she let him eat the egg. Now he was going to get a beating.
Xiaobao’s tears fell from the unfairness of it.
Peng Zhaodi, who had come at the noise, saw the egg in his hand and went pale with fright.
“Xiaobao, what are you doing? How many times has Mom told you not to steal your auntie’s things?”
She reached out to smack Xiaobao’s bottom, but was stopped by Shen Jiaqi.
Shen Jiaqi stood up, shielding Xiaobao behind her as she went. “Sister-in-law, you’ve misunderstood. Xiaobao didn’t steal it, I peeled it for him.”
“What?” Peng Zhaodi froze where she stood.
Shen Jiaqi nodded. “Xiaobao is at the age where his body is growing. Besides, he’s still sick, how will he manage without nutrition?”
Peng Zhaodi’s face was full of disbelief.
In the past, anything that belonged to her little sister-in-law would never come back out of her mouth.
And today she’d shown great mercy and given Xiaobao an egg?
She looked at Shen Jiaqi with a complicated gaze. What exactly was she selling out of that gourd of hers?
At her words, Qiao Huilan ached for her. “My Qiqi is just too kind. She hasn’t got enough to build herself up and she gives her egg to someone else…”
Shen Jiaqi pointed at the one in her bowl. “Mom, isn’t there still one here?”
Qiao Huilan said irritably, “One of those eggs was for you to eat and one was to rub your ankle with. Only by rubbing it will it heal faster…”
In these famine years, many people didn’t have enough to eat and were hungry enough to go up the mountain and gnaw bark.
Yet her family was so extravagant as to boil two eggs for her, and one of them was to move the blood and disperse the bruising, it was sheer waste of good things.
Her family’s unrelenting indulgence and doting was not being good to her, it was propping her over a fire to roast.
For a family to be harmonious, the bowl of water had to be held level, or in time trouble would surely come of it.
It seemed the Shen family’s household ways needed some straightening out.
Taking advantage of this business, Shen Jiaqi told the whole family to stop bustling about and come sit down first, she had something to say.
Everyone who had been busy put down what was in their hands and sat in their own places.
The big round table was immediately packed full, missing only the pregnant second sister-in-law, Yang Xiuli.
“Where’s second sister-in-law?” Shen Jiaqi asked.
The second brother’s face fell at once, and his fingers curled one by one into a fist.
Qiao Huilan snorted coldly. “Qiqi, have you forgotten? Your second sister-in-law has gone back to her parents’ home…”
Only then did Shen Jiaqi remember. A few days ago the second sister-in-law had secretly taken things from the house to help out her parents’ family, and after Qiao Huilan found out she said a few harsh words.
The second sister-in-law couldn’t bear it and grumbled a few words to the second brother, saying why was it that Shen Jiaqi could take money and rice to throw at a pretty boy, while she, carrying a Shen family seed in her belly, took a few things to help her parents’ family and got dressed down by their mother like this.
The second brother couldn’t bear it either and traded a couple of angry words with her, and that very night the second sister-in-law packed her things and went back to her parents.
It had been two or three days now, and neither of them would bow their head, the standoff continued.
Shen Jiaqi remembered that in the original book, the second sister-in-law suffered a great deal on this trip home, and afterward she miscarried from malnutrition.
Not long after the miscarriage, Ye Zhaozhao stirred her up in secret, she turned completely dark, and she came home demanding a divorce.
After the divorce she married Ye Zhaozhao’s widowed cousin, and the two of them together tripped up the Shen family plenty of times.
The second brother’s death from illness seemed to have something to do with that widower too.
Thinking of the second brother’s tragic ending made Shen Jiaqi unable to sit still.
“Second brother, tomorrow you’d better go fetch second sister-in-law back. She’s still pregnant.”
Shen Jian’an had in fact stopped being angry long ago, and was rather worried about his wife, it was only for face’s sake that he wouldn’t bow his head.
Now that his little sister had spoken, he naturally took the chance to come down off his high horse. “All right, I’ll do as little sister says. I’ll go fetch her tomorrow after work.”
Qiao Huilan reached out and poked the second son on the forehead. “You useless thing. Your wife’s about to sit on your head and relieve herself, and you’re still trotting after her.”
“If you ask me, fetch her for what? Her parents’ home is a dragon’s pool and a tiger’s den. Do you think she went back there to enjoy herself? It’ll be good if she isn’t ground down.”
“In no more than a couple of days she’ll come slinking back.”
That said, just in case, Shen Jiaqi felt it was still better to fetch her back sooner.
Shen Jiaqi secretly gave the second brother a look, telling him not to say anything to their mother and to go fetch his wife on the quiet.
The second son nodded in understanding, and his heart felt warm.
His wife loved to compare herself to his little sister at every turn and had grumbled about her plenty behind her back, and the two of them had always been at odds, he didn’t expect that his little sister wouldn’t hold the old grudge. She really was too kind…
From now on, he had to be twice as good to his little sister!
Seeing that everyone was gathered and looking at her eagerly, Shen Jiaqi didn’t delay any longer, and cleared her throat. “Today, let’s hold a short family meeting.”
“Since second sister-in-law isn’t here, I’ll trouble second brother to pass the subject of the meeting on to her.”
Seeing how serious she was, this bearing really did look somewhat like a brigade leader’s.
Everyone sat up straight and listened carefully with pricked ears.
They were only puzzled: since when had their old Shen family ever held a family meeting?
Really a novelty… and none of them knew what little sister was going to say.
“Well… Dad, Mom, brothers, sister-in-law, and Xiaobao, first of all, I want to say sorry to you all here!”
She rose slowly and bowed to them.
This move dumbfounded them all outright.
“Daughter, do you have a fever, has it muddled your head? Everything’s fine, so why are you apologizing?” Qiao Huilan reached out to feel her forehead, and she dodged it.
“Mom, I don’t have a fever. It’s just that after this brush with death, I suddenly saw everything clearly.”
They had all tacitly avoided mentioning the river business just now, afraid of poking at her sore spot.
They didn’t expect her to bring it up herself, and looking perfectly fine about it too.
It seemed she wasn’t as fragile as they’d imagined.
Shen Jiaqi’s nose stung, and she went on, “The old me was spoiled and willful. I did plenty of hurtful things and said plenty of ugly words, and I ask you all not to take them to heart.”
“From today on, I, Shen Jiaqi, have made up my mind to become a new person. I promise I’ll never be stupid or muddle-headed again, and not only that, I’ll make it up to you all as much as I can!”
It was quite a grand and stirring speech, but before her there was dead silence.
After a long moment, no one knew who started it, but everyone began to humor her in unison.
“Ah, yes, yes, yes, whatever Qiqi says is right.” Qiao Huilan voiced her agreement. It was enough that her daughter had such a heart, as for anything else, she dared not hope for it.
The brothers followed along and applauded her, calling out “good,” but without the slightest sincerity, clearly just coaxing her into a good mood.
Shen Jiaqi frowned and said in mock anger, “I’m serious.”
Peng Zhaodi glanced at her. What she said sounded better than what she did. Who didn’t know that Shen Jiaqi’s words were like passing wind, everything a three-minute enthusiasm.
Only Shen Laogui didn’t take her for joking. Puffing away on his pipe, meeting Shen Jiaqi’s firm gaze, his heart was full of comfort. His precious daughter had finally grown sensible…
Shen Jiaqi looked at everyone’s expressions and knew it would be hard to make them believe her any time soon, so let time prove it!
With the apology part over, Shen Jiaqi finally got to the main point.