The family had just been robbed, and the food they were eating had all been borrowed from outside. If they were already full, wouldn’t that be the same as telling everyone that they were the ones who had stolen the food?
“Mom, don’t worry! My sister and I are super good at this!” Lu Siyuan clenched his little fists and promised.
Su Yuanyuan’s heart practically melted from how adorable they were. She reached out and ruffled both their heads.
Bang, bang.
The door was knocked twice.
“Third son’s wife, even if you’re not in good health, you still have to come out and work. At least help the family a little. Can’t you see how messy the house is? You three sure know how to hide away and enjoy yourselves.”
It was her sister-in-law, Wang Chunhua.
Su Yuanyuan gave the two children a meaningful look and coughed before answering, “I know.”
The three of them came out of the room.
Wang Chunhua immediately rolled her eyes and tossed a broom to Su Yuanyuan.
“All you do all day is sleep. Hurry up and sweep the courtyard clean. And you two, go scrub the stone trough. We have to grind cornmeal later.”
Wang Chunhua led the two children over to the stone mill.
Su Yuanyuan held the broom and glanced toward the children before slowly starting to sweep.
The ground was covered with things that the eldest and second eldest children’s kids had thrown around. They even picked up rotten vegetable leaves from the fields to play with and then tossed them into the courtyard, leaving the whole place filthy.
Su Yuanyuan deliberately swept a little over here, then left some dirt behind, before sweeping a little over there.
It looked like she was working hard for a long time, but in reality, she hadn’t accomplished anything.
The two children, meanwhile, were acting like seasoned little performers.
They had three-year-old children scrub the stone mill, and even made them carry the water.
Lu Siyuan and Lu Mingzhu pretended to struggle as they filled the bucket with water. They glanced toward their eldest aunt, then plopped themselves down on the ground.
“Auntie, could you help us carry the water back?” Lu Mingzhu asked pitifully.
“What are you doing? Trying to die? Can’t the two of you carry it together? It’s only a few steps! Can’t you even do something this simple?”
Wang Chunhua cursed as she walked over.
Lu Siyuan stood up and shielded his sister behind him, brushing the dirt off his clothes.
“But we didn’t eat today. We’re so hungry, Auntie. My sister and I don’t have any strength left to work.”
He and Lu Mingzhu were naturally skinny to begin with, and now that they were putting on pitiful expressions, they looked quite convincing.
“That’s right, Auntie. If you could give my sister and me another corn cake, we’d have some strength to work.”
Lu Mingzhu licked her dry lips.
“And the stone mill is so tall. When we’re washing it, my brother and I have to stand on the stone blocks just to reach it. If our stomachs aren’t full, where are we supposed to get the strength? Auntie, just give us one bite. As long as we have something to eat, we’ll work hard!”
Su Yuanyuan, watching from the side, was completely stunned.
These two little ones are way too good at acting! They sound exactly like the real thing!
Wang Chunhua was trembling with anger.
What hunger and no strength? Wasn’t she simply asking for food?
This whole family was full of debt collectors! A sickly mother and two cunning little burdens!
“Go, go, go! Who in this family isn’t working without having eaten their fill? Are you the only two who are hungry? Hurry up and wash the stone mill. Stop talking nonsense. If you don’t finish in time for today’s meal, I’ll beat you!”
Wang Chunhua shoved Lu Siyuan.
Seeing the two little debt collectors made her irritated.
If it weren’t for them, all the allowance her younger brother-in-law sent home could have belonged to her family.
How had those two not died from illness the previous year? They were really lucky, somehow managing to survive!
Lu Siyuan lost his footing and fell hard onto his butt.
Seeing her brother being bullied, Lu Mingzhu grabbed a handful of mud from the ground and threw it at Wang Chunhua.
“You bad woman! Don’t you dare bully my brother! We always get the least food in this house, and you still have the nerve to complain that we don’t work?”
Although Lu Mingzhu wasn’t as steady as her brother, she had quite a sharp tongue. It was just that her mother had always told her not to argue with others, so she rarely talked back.
Lu Siyuan was angry too.
If Mom hadn’t taken them into the space today to eat something else, where would they have gotten the strength to work?
The stone mill was the hardest thing to clean, yet every time, their eldest and second eldest aunts pushed all the difficult jobs onto them.
In the end, they were exhausted and didn’t even get a bowl of food.
“Ow! You little bastard! My pants!”
Before Wang Chunhua could gather herself enough to curse, Lu Siyuan beat her to it.
“Today, the three of us only got one corn cake! You pretend to give the two older brothers half a cake each, but secretly hide an entire extra cake for them! Isn’t it supposed to be ‘the more you work, the more you get’? Then let them do the work!”
Lu Siyuan understood the adults’ favoritism much better than most children.
But Mom was right. She was in poor health, and most of the family’s money was controlled by Grandpa and Grandma. They could only endure it.
Now Mom had lots of food and a big house. They no longer had to worry about going hungry.
They didn’t want to be bullied anymore!
In the past, whenever the family told Su Yuanyuan and the two children to do something, they didn’t even dare to utter a word.
But today, they actually dared to talk back.
This was outrageous!
Wang Chunhua was stunned by his words.
Li Hua, who had been weaving a bamboo basket beneath the eaves, heard what was happening and cursed. She grabbed a broom and came over.
“You little brats! Who do you think you’re yelling at? You ungrateful little debt collectors! Without a single bite of food from this family, would the three of you even be alive?”
The mother-in-law lost her temper first, and Wang Chunhua chimed in with her hands on her hips.
“Exactly! You have a mother who’s too sick to work and who knows how many years she has left to live. Without us raising you, would you two have grown up? Your hair hasn’t even fully grown and you’ve already forgotten everything we’ve done for you! Who taught you this? You don’t work and still want free food? Shameless!”
Every word Wang Chunhua said was indirectly accusing Su Yuanyuan of teaching the children to behave this way.
Lu Mingzhu’s little face turned bright red with anger. She grabbed handfuls of mud from the ground and hurled them at the two women while shouting.
“You’re the shameless ones! Dad’s wages were sent home for us in the first place! If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have gone without food! You took Dad’s wages and still won’t give us anything to eat! You’re the debt collectors! You’re bandits!”
Li Hua and Wang Chunhua were covered in mud and were so furious that they practically had smoke coming out of their heads.
“I’m going to kill you! Just wait until I beat a layer of skin off you today! We’ve raised you and this is how you repay us? You ungrateful little ingrates!”
One woman grabbed a vine switch while the other picked up a broom. They were about to catch the two children and beat them.
The performance had gone on long enough.
Seeing that the children were about to be beaten, Su Yuanyuan stepped forward with her broom and blocked the two women.
“Fine, fine! I see you’ve grown wings now. Today I’ll show the three of you exactly who’s in charge!”
Wang Chunhua and Li Hua had no intention of stopping. They even intended to beat Su Yuanyuan along with the children.
Su Yuanyuan naturally stopped holding back.
With quick reflexes, she swung the broom twice into their waists. The flesh there was softest, making it especially painful when struck. She also hit their thighs and arms.
Su Yuanyuan’s movements were fast, and she secretly put considerable force behind them.
It didn’t look like she was using much strength, but the blows were viciously powerful, making Wang Chunhua and Li Hua howl.
After quite a while, neither woman had managed to touch Su Yuanyuan even once, while they themselves had taken plenty of hits.
Lu Siyuan and Lu Mingzhu stared in amazement.
Mom is so amazing!
The two children weren’t about to just stand there watching. They exchanged a sly glance, then plopped themselves onto the ground and began bawling at the top of their lungs.
Children naturally had loud voices, and when they really wailed, their cries were much louder than the shrieks of Li Hua and Wang Chunhua.
“We’re so pitiful! Dad went off to join the army, and everyone in the family bullies us! Mom is sick, and we can’t help the family much, but Dad sends eighty yuan home for us every month.”
Lu Siyuan sobbed between hiccups while Lu Mingzhu hugged her brother and cried along with him.
The two children were naturally adorable, and because they had gone hungry for years, they were extremely thin. Their malnourishment had also left their hair dry and yellow.
Now that they were crying while saying these things, they looked absolutely pitiful.
“Grandpa and Grandma take the money, and that’s one thing, but they won’t even let us eat until we’re full. We’re hungry every day. When Mom gets sick and needs money for medicine, they won’t give her any either. Today they only gave Mom and us one corn cake to share. We weren’t full, and they still made us wash the stone mill.”
Seeing that her brother’s voice was getting hoarse from crying, Lu Mingzhu secretly glanced at Li Hua and her eldest aunt before continuing to wail.
“Grandma didn’t even keep the money safe and got it stolen, and then she blamed us! We barely ate anything and didn’t have the strength to work, but they still wanted to beat us! If everyone hates us so much, then why don’t you give us all of Dad’s wages? We’ll move out and live somewhere else!”