Liu Shiting glanced at the silent Ye Qisheng, his brow slightly furrowed, and said in a calm tone, “Miss Ye is a guest. Chores around the house shouldn’t fall on her anyway, and besides, why are you bickering with someone who’s injured?”
“I…!!”
Never expecting her older brother to side with an outsider, Liu Yuexia was choked with anger, then protested unhappily, “I see her full of life and in high spirits! Where does she look like an injured person?!”
“Didn’t you see she still has gauze wrapped around her face? Does she really need to be on her last breath to count?”
“An injured face isn’t having missing limbs! She’s freeloading in our house, and she can’t even help out with a little work?! Mother is working hard alone in the kitchen, and you don’t even know how to feel sorry for her—do you even have the right to call yourself a son?!”
Liu Yuexia had been the first to return home. Originally planning to wash away the sweat and stench of the day before coming out to enjoy dinner, the moment she stepped into her room, she saw Ye Qisheng fast asleep on her newly made wooden bed. Instantly seeing red and blinded by rage, she threw all caution to the wind, rushed over, and dragged Ye Qisheng straight to the floor.
While the siblings were arguing, Mother Fan heard the commotion outside from the kitchen, walked out carrying a bowl of wild vegetable buns, and shouted coldly, “Ranting and raving the moment you get back, what are you doing?!”
The moment Liu Yuexia saw her mother, it was as if she had found her savior. She immediately rushed over, clung to Mother Fan unyieldingly, and complained, “Mom, you have to judge this fairly for me! I just came back and saw you working so hard cooking in the kitchen. I was planning to drop my things in my room and come help you out, but I found this woman hiding in the room sleeping instead! I felt bad that you were handling the whole family’s dinner by yourself, so out of frustration I said a few words to her. Not only did she push me, she almost made me fall! And big brother is still defending her!”
Hearing her daughter’s thoughtful words, Mother Fan was deeply gratified, and her unfavorable impression of Ye Qisheng worsened. She glared unhappily at Liu Shiting and scolded, “Shiting, your sister didn’t say anything wrong! How could you damage family harmony for the sake of an ill-mannered freeloader?!”
Although Mother Fan’s words were aimed at Liu Shiting, every barb was loaded and directly attacked Ye Qisheng.
Ye Qisheng could no longer remain silent and said firmly, “Mother Fan, I didn’t get enough rest last night and was too sleepy, so I went to catch up on some sleep for a moment! If I had known you were busy in the kitchen, I definitely would have been willing to help!”
“Oh, please! Everything you say sounds sweeter than singing, who’s going to believe that?” Liu Yuexia leaned against Mother Fan’s arm, sneering in disdain.
Ye Qisheng frowned and was about to say something when Liu Chengshi walked over from not far away to smooth things over, softly persuading, “Alright, let’s all say a little less. It’s not that big of a deal—making such a fuss, what would the neighbors think if they heard?”
Liu Chengshi directed those last two sentences toward Liu Yuexia.
How could he not know what kind of personality this younger sister had?
It was crystal clear that she was unhappy about Ye Qisheng taking her room and sharing the family’s food rations, so she was deliberately ganging up with their mother to squeeze Ye Qisheng out!
Sighing inwardly, Liu Chengshi turned his gaze to Ye Qisheng and apologized, “Miss Ye, my sister is young and has been spoiled rotten by our mother since childhood. If there was any offense just now, please be magnanimous and don’t take it to heart.”
Ye Qisheng sized up Liu Chengshi, sensing instinctively that the kindness on this man’s face wasn’t fake, so she shook her head lightly, “I won’t. Thank you.”
Mother Fan was petty and calculating to the core, and her daughter had inherited every bit of it, yet the two sons she gave birth to turned out quite decent.
Liu Yuexia immediately became unhappy and wanted to retort, but was stopped by a single look from her second brother. Finally, she gave a fierce stamp of her foot, turned on her heel, and retreated into her room, not reappearing until dinner was served on the table.
The sun was scorching during the day, but it grew much cooler after sunset. Every household in the village would place their dining tables in the courtyard to enjoy dinner while catching the cool breeze, and the Liu family was no exception.
Ye Qisheng glanced over from afar: wild vegetable buns, corn steamed bread, and thin flour soup—once again, food that left her completely devoid of appetite.
Yet she knew that even such meager fare, in this impoverished and barren countryside between seasons, was already considered quite good. How many people in the village still couldn’t afford to eat at all? Only the village chief’s family could maintain such a sight.
Ye Qisheng rubbed her once again flattened stomach; the fruit she’d eaten at noon had long since digested, and she had no other choices now, so she might as well make do.
Just as she was about to walk over, Mother Fan popped out from nowhere, blocked her path squarely, and ordered imperiously, “The weeds in the backyard have grown tall. Go uproot them.”
Ye Qisheng was stunned and instinctively replied, “But I haven’t eaten yet.”
She felt bad about freeloading and was more than happy to do whatever chores were within her power, but dinner was being served right now—at least let her fill her stomach first, wouldn’t you?
Mother Fan, however, let out a cold snort, “Eat what? You didn’t do any work today and just slept. Our family’s food rations are already scarce, and they’re only reserved for those who work.”
Those few words left Ye Qisheng speechless.
“Work briskly. You aren’t allowed to eat until you’ve finished weeding.”
Dropping those words, Mother Fan turned and walked to the center of the courtyard, where the second daughter-in-law, Zhou Fenling, had already laid out the bowls and chopsticks, calling for the men still inside the house to come out for dinner.
When Liu Shiting walked over after washing his hands, Mother Fan and the others had already taken their seats, leaving only the head seat empty—evidently reserved for him as the head of the household.
Not seeing a trace of Ye Qisheng, he asked casually, “Mom, where is Miss Ye?”
Mother Fan was chatting with Liu Yuexia. The moment Ye Qisheng was brought up, the smile on her face faded for the most part, and she turned down the corners of her mouth, saying, “She’s already eaten.”
That lie was not cleverly told, and Liu Shiting wasn’t a fool. They had just been arguing about Ye Qisheng not helping with dinner a moment ago—how could she have already eaten in this short span of time?
He immediately knitted his brows in disapproval, “Mom, don’t be like this! Miss Ye drifted to our place, completely helpless and alone—she’s already pitiful enough! Furthermore, she’s someone Dr. Xu entrusted us to take care of. No matter how much you dislike her, we cannot fail Dr. Xu’s trust.”
Mother Fan hated hearing words like that. With a loud *clack*, she slammed down her bowls and chopsticks, shouted in a deep voice, “What about me?! We have no blood ties to her whatsoever; allowing her to stay temporarily at our house has already given Dr. Xu plenty of face. Don’t tell me we’re supposed to serve her fine food and drinks too?!”
Liu Yuexia was just dying for someone to stir up trouble and happily fanned the flames on the side, “Exactly! Why should the food rations we worked so hard to grow be shared with an outsider?! We don’t even have enough for ourselves!”
“That still doesn’t mean we should let her starve, right?” Liu Shiting’s face showed disapproval.
“So what if she does? If we don’t let her go hungry, are we supposed to starve instead?”
Seeing that Liu Shiting still wanted to say something, Mother Fan waved her hand impatiently, “Enough! I know what you want to say. You’re getting more and more opinionated these days—you won’t even listen to your own mother’s words anymore!”
Liu Chengshi sat right next to his older brother’s seat and wanted to help persuade a few words, but after being glared at by Zhou Fenling, he frowned and ultimately stayed silent.
The atmosphere lapsed into a stalemate.
Liu Shiting and Mother Fan stared at each other for a moment. Seeing that his old mother had no intention of backing down whatsoever, he withdrew his gaze, picked up his bowl of porridge without a word, added two vegetable buns and a few slices of pickled cucumber inside, and carried the whole lot back to the backyard.
Knowing that her son was going to deliver food to Ye Qisheng, Mother Fan flew into a rage, slamming chopsticks and patting the table, wailing and cursing for quite a while. Only after Liu Yuexia and Zhou Fenling put on a show of persuading her for a long time did the old lady finally quiet down.
In the backyard, Ye Qisheng was propping up an iron hoe, staring dumbfounded at a massive patch of half-man-high weeds.
She had thought the Liu family’s front yard wasn’t particularly large, and assumed the backyard would be of similar size, meaning she could knock it out in half an hour or so.
As it turned out, Mother Fan was much more ruthless than she had imagined. A vegetable plot this large was easily two to three hundred square meters; if she really had to clear all of this with her current starving, weak body, she’d probably work herself to death before finishing.
This was clearly not wanting her to eat!
Just as she was feeling discouraged, a reasonably gentle voice suddenly sounded from behind, “Stop working for a moment, come eat.”
Ye Qisheng was startled, turned around, and saw Liu Shiting standing not far away holding a bowl of porridge.
The moment she saw food, her eyes lit up brightly. Dragging the iron hoe, she hurriedly shuffled over and asked pleasantly surprised, “Is this really for me?”
“Mn, eat up.”
The chipped large porcelain bowl was handed toward her. Without standing on ceremony, Ye Qisheng immediately took the bowl and chopsticks, picked up a vegetable bun, and took a fierce bite.
*Ugh… This is so awful…*
This was even worse than the pickled cucumber she’d eaten during the day. It was dry and astringent; forget about oil, there wasn’t even a trace of salt. Was this supposed to be pig feed or something?!
Ye Qisheng’s face turned green. The food was stuck in her throat, and right in front of Liu Shiting, she could neither swallow it nor spit it out. For a moment, her face shifted through shades of red, white, and blue—quite the spectacle.