The next day, Xiaonuan chopped firewood for another full day, not carrying a bundle back down the mountain until after dark.
Upon returning home, she placed the bundle she had carried back against the base of the wall where she had stacked it the day before. Then, going inside, she took out some firewood from her spatial dimension, lit the fire, and began heating the kang.
After burning the fire for a long time, when she finally stopped, she took out a potato, buried it in the warm ashes, and sat quietly waiting for it to cookthis was to be her dinner.
After waiting about half an hour, she used a stick to brush away the ashes, revealing a potato roasted to a golden brown. Quickly pinching it with her thumb and forefinger, she found it was soft, meaning it was fully cooked. She picked it up immediately, but because it burned her fingers, she quickly tossed it away. Catching it with her other hand, she tossed it again, then caught it with the first hand. She juggled the potato back and forth between her hands, feeling quite happy.
After juggling it for a bit, the potato was finally cool enough not to burn her hands. She gently scraped the surface and, without even peeling it, ate it straight along with the skin.
After finishing, she entered her spatial dimension, scooped up a few mouthfuls of stream water to drink, and quickly came back out. She quietly hopped up onto the kang, placed a wooden board in the corner against the wall, sat down on the board, and sat motionless leaning against the wall.
The night wind whipped against the tattered paper windows with a rustling rattle, and the indoor temperature was dropping rapidly. But because the brick kang had been heated extremely thoroughly, she didn’t feel very cold.
Just as she was sitting there, drifting half-asleep, she suddenly heard some commotion at the courtyard gate. After listening closely for a moment, she confirmed that someone had entered the courtyard and was heading straight toward the firewood by the wall.
Instantly snapping to full alertness, she jumped down to the floor, grabbed a large tree branch she had prepared in advance, pushed open the outer room door, and rushed right out.
Just in time, she caught sight of two figures busy by the wall, with a handcart parked nearby. The two figures were trying to lift her bundle of firewood onto the handcart. But because the bundle was far too large and heavy, they failed on their first attempt. On the second try, they lifted it again, putting their all into hoisting it onto the cart, finally managing to get the firewood loaded. Just as they were about to push it away and leave, Xiaonuan charged out wielding her large tree branch.
Without asking who they were or why they had come to steal her firewood, she simply raised the branch in her hand and began thrashing them mercilessly across the head and face.
The branch struck the two figures heavily. “Aiyamama! Aiyamama…” one of them immediately screamed out loudit turned out to be a woman!
The moment she heard the thief’s voice, Xiaonuan knew her guess had indeed been correct. In an instant, old grievances and new hatred rushed to her heart, and she swung her large tree branch even more frantically, beating the two of them fiercely.
The woman kept screaming, “Aiyamama, you’re beating me to death!”, yelling and running around the courtyard in a panic. The man initially stayed silent, several times trying to grab the handles of the handcart to make a hasty escape, but under Xiaonuan’s wild and ferocious thrashing, he was forced to let go every single time.
Finally, unable to bear the beating any longer, the man shouted out at the top of his lungs: “Xiaonuan, stop! I’m your second uncle.”
As it turned out, after Old Madam Xia had her eldest grandson write the severance agreement yesterday, Xia Shitou had originally assumed Xiaonuan would surely beg him to keep taking her in since she had nowhere else to go. But to his surprise, Xiaonuan tucked the severance agreement into her bosom, hoisted her half-bag of potatoes, and left right along with the village head without looking back even once.
By the afternoon, there was still no sign of Xiaonuan coming back to plead for mercy. Meanwhile, the family’s chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs went un-fed on schedule all day, and no one went up the mountain to chop the day’s firewood. Within just a single day, Du Dingxiang was already complaining bitterly. She hurriedly sent Xiaoju out to find out where Xiaonuan had gone.
After visiting the village head’s house, Xiaoju quickly returned to tell her that Xiaonuan had moved into Grandma Li’s old house at the western end of the village.
Therefore, after nightfall, Du Dingxiang led her eldest son, Xiaolong, to Xiaonuan’s new residence. Her original plan was to play ghost tricks to terrify Xiaonuan, scaring her into not daring to stay there so that she would be forced to crawl back and beg them to take her in the next day. That way, Xiaonuan would have no choice but to continue serving them like an ox or a horse, obeying their every command and enduring their abuse without ever daring to utter a single word of complaint.
However, after arriving at Xiaonuan’s house and standing outside the window listening for a long time, they didn’t hear any movement from inside. Peering closely through the window, they couldn’t see Xiaonuan anywhere either.
Du Dingxiang concluded that Xiaonuan surely hadn’t dared to stay there and must have gone off to sleep somewhere else. Feeling reassured by this thought, she figured Xiaonuan couldn’t possibly stay away foreverat most, in two or three days, Xiaonuan would definitely have to come back and beg them.
Pleasantly satisfied with this comforting thought, she turned to leave, at which point she discovered the firewood Xiaonuan had stacked by the wall. Her heart instantly bloomed with joy, and she hurried back home to tell Xia Shitou about the piles of firewood in Xiaonuan’s courtyard.
The couple hit it off immediately. In the dead of night, they pushed their own handcart over and carted all of Xiaonuan’s firewood back to their own house, leaving not a single stick behind for her.
After pushing the firewood back home, the couple finally managed to heat up their kang once more. Lying on the warm brick bed, the two of them decided that until Xiaonuan came back to beg for mercy, they would come over and steal her firewood every single night.
Tonight, just as dusk fell, Du Dingxiang had urged Xia Shitou to hurry and grab the handcart so they could go steal Xiaonuan’s firewood, not wanting to go too late because she still needed to burn the wood for a while to warm up the kang.
Yet Du Dingxiang never imagined in a million years that Xiaonuan had actually been home last night, just sleeping inside her spatial dimension. Discovering that her firewood was missing this morning, Xiaonuan had guessed right away that they must have stolen it. Therefore, tonight she hadn’t entered her spatial dimension, choosing instead to sit by the edge of the kang and wait for Du Dingxiang. To her surprise, she caught them with complete easeand gave them a beating.
Even though Xia Shitou kept shouting, “I am your second uncle!”, Xiaonuan neither spoke nor stopped her hands, continuing to swing her large tree branch and chase them all over the courtyard, beating them relentlessly.
At last, the neighbor from the eastern courtyard heard the commotion and hurried out.
The neighbor living right next to Xiaonuan was surnamed Xu, given name Xu Wenbin. Xu Wenbin’s wife was named Yang Manzhu; the couple had two sons and a daughter, making a family of five. Both Xu Wenbin and his wife were extremely kind and honest people.
The afternoon Xiaonuan moved into Grandma Li’s house, the village head had visited the Xu family, recounted everything that happened at the Xia household from beginning to end, and asked them to look after Xiaonuan a little bit. Warm-hearted folks as they were, Xu Wenbin and his wife readily agreed upon hearing the village head’s words, vowing to take care of Xiaonuan as best as they could.
Just as night fell, hearing shouting coming from Xiaonuan’s courtyard, Xu Wenbin hurried out, stood in his yard to listen, and recognized Xia Shitou’s voice. He immediately told his children to go find the village head right away while he and his wife rushed over themselves.
It wasn’t until Xu Wenbin and his wife entered the courtyard, assessed the situation, and grabbed hold of Xiaonuan that Xia Shitou and Du Dingxiang finally got a chance to stop and catch their breath, gasping heavily.
Xu Shitou and Du Dingxiang began hurling vicious curses at Xiaonuan, screaming that she was beating her elders, committing treason and rebellion, and behaving worse than a beast.
Xiaonuan didn’t stay silent; with a sharp tongue, she loudly demanded to know why the two of them had stolen her firewood. Were they trying to freeze her to death? They were calling her inhuman now, but as elders, their own behavior was hardly human either.
While the chaos was at its peak, the village head strode in quickly, followed closely by Xu Wenbin’s eldest son, Xushan.