After Ye Xiaohua walked inside and out of the two dilapidated, wind-leaking thatched cottages, she was completely certain that her cowardly, cheap mother had indeed run away.
Not only had she run away, but she had also taken everything of value belonging to herself and the household that could be exchanged for any money.
Their father was dead, their mother had fled, and from now on, this home was left with only the two siblings.
Xiaodou was still young after all. With his parents gone, it felt as though the sky had collapsed. He was currently crying so hard that he was gasping for breath, and as he cried, an discordant rumbling sound echoed from his stomach.
He was hungry, and she was hungry too.
Looking at the pitiful Xiaodou, Ye Xiaohua inwardly cursed that cheap mother for being so irresponsible. “I’ll go make food.”
Xiaodou nodded, but as Ye Xiaohua turned around to head to the kitchen, he tightly grabbed the front of her clothes, which had a large hole torn in them, as if she would vanish the moment he let go.
“Sister? You won’t abandon me, right?” After hesitating again and again, Xiaodou finally asked the question weighing on his heart.
Ye Xiaohua gently stroked his head. His sensitivity and fear made her feel quite uncomfortable. She softened her voice as much as possible. “No, from now on, it’s just the two of us.”
Xiaodou nodded heavily, but no matter what, his hand refused to let go of Ye Xiaohua. Having no choice, Ye Xiaohua could only drag him along with her to prepare something to eat.
In the narrow, dark kitchen, a foul odor drifted through the air. Dirty pots and bowls were piled up on the stove. The water soaking them had already changed color, emitting waves of sour stench. However, this was not the most headache-inducing part.
The real trouble was that the rice jar and the flour jar in the house were completely empty. That damned cheap mother had left them without even a single grain of rice.
Even a fierce tiger does not devour its cubs; she was trying to starve the two of them to death.
After searching through every single nook and cranny of the kitchen, Ye Xiaohua only found half a potato left over from the morning. Given its size and her current level of hunger, she could eat eight or ten of them in one go without even feeling full.
Ye Xiaohua originally thought about starving for another meal herself, intending to wait until dawn when her strength recovered a bit before finding a way to get food. However, Xiaodou insisted that the two of them eat together. In this way, the siblings shared the potato bite by bite, washing it down with water, counting it as their dinner.
The musty and greasy smell emanating from the dilapidated blanket made it somewhat difficult for Ye Xiaohua to sleep, though Xiaodou slept very soundly while holding her hand.
Madam Li, as a mother, truly did not know how to live a proper life. She was lazy and fond of eating, reducing a perfectly good home to this state and leaving a mountain of messes for her to clean up. However, Ye Xiaohua knew that compared to this, the battle tomorrow would be the truly hard one.
She had kicked Ye Teng, and given his tyrannical disposition, he would absolutely not let the matter drop. Even if he did not come, his grandmother, who spoiled her grandson as if he were her own life, would definitely come to settle the score.
The next day, Ye Xiaohua was awakened by the clamor outside the house.
“Oh, it’s simply dreadful! My poor, ill-fated children! How could they end up with a mother as cruel-hearted as Madam Li, abandoning these two little ones and just running away like this? What sin did our Ye family commit?”
With such a familiar voice, how could Ye Xiaohua not know that this was their grandmother? At this moment, she was crying heartrendingly, her words sounding as though she deeply cherished them, making her seem like a completely different person from the cruel old woman who had threatened to beat her to death yesterday.
Old Madam Ye’s tearful clamor was entirely fearless because she was not worried about being exposed at all. After all, Ye Xiaohua was a fool, and Xiaodou was young; his words carried no weight whatsoever.
She was putting on this show entirely for the villagers to see. Originally, when she first heard the news that Madam Li had run away, she was furious, cursing the Li family eighteen generations up.
It was her eldest grandson whose brain was sharp. With Madam Li gone, they could logically and rightfully seize the house belonging to the second branch of the family.
The eldest grandson’s marriage was on the verge of being settled, and the courtyard of the eldest branch was not large, unable to accommodate so many people. In the future, once children were born, it would be even more crowded.
Although the house of the second branch was not in good condition, spending a little money to build a courtyard wall and refurbish the roof would still be cheaper than buying a new piece of land.
“Old sister-in-law, it’s early in the morning, what exactly is going on? Who ran away?”
Old Madam Ye wailed and cried all along the way, drawing many early risers over to watch the excitement. The village was small; shouting from the east side could be heard by people on the west side. Old Madam Ye’s voice was loud, making it difficult for anyone not to know.
Old Madam Ye pulled the hand of a woman who had stepped forward to comfort her, crying with snot and tears about how wonderfully she had treated Madam Li, only for that ungrateful woman to abandon the children and go enjoy herself.
Yesterday, Ye Xiaohua really could not bear having that dirty blanket over her, so she had not taken off her clothes at all. Although her clothes were not much cleaner, they were at least cleaner than the blanket, so she directly rolled out of bed.
She gently patted the sleeping Xiaodou awake. She guessed that the dilapidated wooden door would not be able to hold back Old Madam Ye.
“Aside from everything else, my heart just aches for Hua’er and Xiaodou. One is foolish and the other is small, how are they going to live their lives in the future? Their mother is cruel, but as their grandmother, I cannot bear to see them suffer.” Speaking to the point of emotion, Old Madam Ye even sniffled, then spat a thick glob of phlegm onto the empty ground beside her.
The hypocritical crying drifted into the room through the broken window. Just as Ye Xiaohua finished putting on her shoes, which exposed her toes, the door was pushed open from the outside.
Old Madam Ye saw that the siblings were awake. In particular, Ye Xiaohua lacked the fierce aura she had yesterday and looked much calmer, resembling the usual state where she could be casually beaten and scolded. Only then did she wipe away her tears and speak, “Hua’er, Dou’er, don’t be afraid. Grandma is here. Your mother doesn’t want you, but Grandma wants you. Come, follow Grandma home.”
Seeing Old Madam Ye’s hand about to reach them, Xiaodou was so scared that he hurriedly shrank behind Ye Xiaohua, shaking his head desperately. “I won’t go, I want to live with my sister.”
As long as Ye Xiaohua did not have a cleaver in her hand, Old Madam Ye did not take her seriously. In her view, as long as she managed this little one now, the house would be theirs.
“Tsk… you child, what kind of nonsense are you talking? You know your sister is a fool. She can’t even take care of herself, how can she take care of you? Be good, Grandma’s house has egg custard, a great big bowl of it.”
The villagers, unaware of the actual situation, also felt that the two children would only have a way to survive if they went back with Old Madam Ye. They even helped Old Madam Ye persuade them, “Xiaodou, go back with your grandma. That foolish sister of yours cannot keep you alive.”
A sneer flashed across the half of Ye Xiaohua’s cheek that was covered by her disheveled hair. Since everyone thought she, a fool, was useless, then she would let them experience the power of a fool—especially her “dear” grandmother.
Ye Xiaohua brushed back her hair, revealing the terrifying, scabbed scar on her forehead. Looking at Old Madam Ye with a carefree expression, she said, “Grandma, I want to eat egg custard. I’ll go back with you. But you and eldest cousin shouldn’t beat me anymore. The beating from yesterday still hurts.”
As she expected, the surrounding people were all startled. She watched with satisfaction as everyone gasped, their expressions filled with disbelief, and some faint-hearted women even covered their eyes.
How could Old Madam Ye have expected that the image of a good grandmother she had painstakingly built would be ruined by a single sentence from a fool? “What nonsense! When did I ever beat you?”