“Girl Yun is right. The wounds on the child can’t be faked. If we let them raise the children, there won’t be any way out alive.”
“Their father is gone, their mother ran away, and this family can’t be relied upon. How are the three children going to live?” The onlookers gossiped and discussed among themselves, while someone had already gone to fetch the Village Chief. Liu Family Village wasn’t large, and the old Village Chief was also the local magistrate.
Seeing the Village Chief approach, Shen Danyun hurried forward and said, “Grandpa Village Chief, you’re finally here.”
“Girl Yun, what are you all doing here?” the Village Chief asked.
“Grandpa Village Chief, please uphold justice for us! The Liu family has nearly beaten us to death. I beg you to make the decisions and kick them out of my house.”
As she spoke, Shen Danyun lifted Shen Wentao’s shirt, exposing his bruised, battered, and wound-covered back. Seeing that the child’s fair and tender back had been beaten so badly that not a single patch of healthy skin remained, the old Village Chief was instantly furious.
“I originally thought you would remember Chengzhi’s kindness and take care of the three children after moving in. I never expected you to be this vicious, beating a child to within an inch of his life! Has your conscience been eaten by dogs?!”
“I say, Village Chief, whose child isn’t mischievous and disobedient? When parents beat their children, isn’t it just to educate them? How can you call that vicious?” Mrs. Liu-Chen whined in a shrill, piercing voice.
“Whose family uses such brutal methods to educate a child? Go look at your own grandson and see if he has any wounds! Do you take everyone else for a fool?” the old Village Chief bellowed in anger.
“Village Chief, please don’t lower yourself to the level of an ignorant, long-haired woman who doesn’t know her boundaries when disciplining children. Why are you just standing there? Hurry up and apologize to the three children!” Seeing the Village Chief’s fury, Old Man Liu gave Mrs. Liu-Chen a sharp look.
Mrs. Liu-Chen caught on instantly. Highly reluctant and resentful, she stepped forward and said, “Children, it’s all Grandma’s fault. Grandma shouldn’t have beaten you. Please forgive Grandma, I won’t ever beat you again.”
“Your Liu family has absolutely nothing to do with us. Do you have Alzheimer’s or are you mentally unstable? My father drew a clear line between us long ago. I don’t accept your apology either, so get the hell out,” Shen Danyun said coldly.
“You…” Mrs. Liu-Chen was completely choked up. She never expected this little wretch to be entirely immune to both soft and hard tactics. She bitterly regretted not getting rid of her sooner—who could have guessed a simpleton could cause such a massive uproar?
“Why waste so much breath? Go pack your things and move out immediately!” the Village Chief barked.
Seeing the situation, Old Man Liu knew that staying any longer would yield no benefit. For now, they could only go inside to pack their things and find a way to move back in later.
“I’m not moving! This is my house, I want to live here! Throw those three wretches out for me!” Liu Xiaobao suddenly threw himself onto the ground, throwing a tantrum and roaring.
Liu Xiaobao’s mother, Yan Jinhua, quickly chimed in, “Village Chief, look, the child is still small and doesn’t know any better. How about letting him stay for just two more days? I’ll move out as soon as I coax him into it, alright?”
Shen Danyun could guess exactly what kind of devious plot this woman was hatching with her bare toes. Narrowing her eyes slightly, she said, “If you want to stay, that’s fine. It’s twenty taels of silver a day. You can stay for as many days as you want, just hand over the silver.”
“Why don’t you just go rob a bank?! Twenty taels of silver a day? I think you’ve gone mad from obsessing over money!” Yan Jinhua gnashed her teeth in fury. She had originally planned to stall for a few days, confident that once the heat blew over, she would find a way to stay. She hadn’t expected this little wench to open her mouth so wide, demanding twenty taels of silver a day.
Shen Danyun replied, “Forget about you living here for free for so long before. If you want to keep freeloading and refusing to leave, you have to pay this price to stay in my house. If you don’t have the money, then get lost.”
By this time, the Village Chief had caught on as well. He shouted, “What kind of nonsense are you trying to pull now? Hurry up, pack your things, and get out, unless you want me to have people throw you out!”
Seeing that she could no longer pull off her scheme, Yan Jinhua had no choice but to grab Liu Xiaobao, dragging and pulling the kicking and screaming boy outside.
Once the Liu family had completely left the Shen residence, the old Village Chief finally relaxed and said, “Girl Yun, can you manage taking care of your younger brother and sister all by yourself? Fellow villagers, let’s see if we can pool together some grain for the three children.”
“We’ll do whatever you say, Village Chief. Just give us a number and we’ll go gather it.” Even though the villagers themselves barely had enough to eat due to the drought, they were more than willing to pool grain for the Shen children.
Shen Chengzhi had helped the villagers immensely in the past. Everyone remembered his kindness and couldn’t bear to see his children starve to death.
“I appreciate everyone’s kindness, but there’s no need for the food. Our house still has some grain left, and I can go up the mountain to dig up wild vegetables myself. We won’t starve, so please don’t worry.”
With the consecutive years of drought, life was hard for everyone in the village. Shen Danyun didn’t want to place a burden on others. Besides, with her magical spatial dimension, she could live very comfortably; she just needed to find excuses to bring things out from it.
“In that case, everyone should disperse. It’s getting late. Girl Yun, if you need anything, just tell Grandpa. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”
The old Village Chief sighed. If it weren’t for the continuous drought, life wouldn’t be this miserable, leaving him unable to fully care for even three children.
“Don’t worry, Grandpa. If anything happens, I will definitely come find you,” Shen Danyun agreed with a smile.
After the crowd left, Wang Xiaoyan pulled Shen Danyun to the side, took out one hundred taels of silver, and handed it to her, saying, “Here is one hundred taels of silver. Take it to buy some grain to eat, and take good care of your brother and sister. Once your auntie earns more money, I’ll bring you more.”
“Auntie, there’s no need. It’s not safe for me to hold onto so much silver anyway. It wasn’t easy for you to earn this money, so keep it for little brother Tudou. Send him to school when he grows up,” Shen Danyun said, pushing the silver back.
“Yun’er, this is just a small token from your uncle and me, so please accept it. If it weren’t for your father, your uncle wouldn’t even be here today. We absolutely won’t let you kids starve,” Wang Xiaoyan insisted, forcing the silver back into Shen Danyun’s hands.
Shen Danyun could feel Wang Xiaoyan’s deep sense of guilt and knew she was trying to make amends. For a moment, the silver became a hot potato—it felt wrong to accept it, yet equally wrong to refuse it.
With a twitch of her brow, an idea struck her. She asked, “Auntie, what kind of business do you do in town?”
“Your uncle and I just set up a stall to sell steamed buns and mantou,” Wang Xiaoyan replied.
“Do you rent a proper shop?” Shen Danyun inquired.
“Where would we get the money to rent a shop? We just set up a temporary stall on the street,” Wang Xiaoyan said, looking a bit embarrassed.
“If that’s the case, you should take this silver to rent a shop. That way, you won’t have to worry about the sun or the rain, and your business will be more stable,” Shen Danyun suggested.
“Your uncle and I wanted to rent a shop too, but the silver just isn’t available right now. We’ll talk about it after we save up enough. You keep this silver; we can’t let you go hungry,” Wang Xiaoyan refused.
“Auntie, I won’t let my brother and sister starve. How about this: consider this silver as our investment shares. In the future, once you and Uncle make a profit, you can give us a dividend. That way, we can have a steady income too, right?” Shen Danyun said earnestly.
“If you really want to buy shares, that works too. The three of you should come to town with us. Once we rent the shop, you can live right inside it. That way, I won’t have to worry about you all the time,” Wang Xiaoyan offered.
“Auntie, trust me. If we truly run out of food, we will definitely go to town to find you. For now, I don’t want to leave home just yet. We still have to wait for our mother to come back.”
Shen Danyun had no desire to live with anyone else. She harbored far too many secrets; if she were ever exposed, she really would be labeled an evil spirit and burned at the stake.