Old Madam Ye’s wailing and shouting quickly reached her ears right after. “It’s all my fault! I came a step too late. How could a foolish girl be allowed to take Xiaodou into the mountain? It’s already so late; they probably won’t be coming back.
If I hadn’t spent the whole day settling scores with that damned Old Madam Wang, my two children wouldn’t have been eaten!”
Old Madam Ye’s certain tone made it sound as though she had witnessed it with her own eyes. Yet even though Ye Xiaohua was already at the entrance, she had not heard the old woman utter a single word about leading people up the mountain to search for them.
Evidently, it was another act of a cat crying over a mouse—shedding crocodile tears.
“Mother, it’s all fate. You can’t be blamed for this. If that foolish girl had just come back to our house with you this morning, she wouldn’t have…”
This voice… wasn’t it her Eldest Aunt, Qin Xiulian?
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had teamed up to present a united front; they clearly came with ill intentions.
Ye Xiaohua wasn’t afraid at all. If one came, she would beat one; if two came, she would thrash a pair. She figured these two were targeting their small, broken house. Previously, Old Madam Ye had already dropped hints about wanting their mother and the children to vacate the place.
Now that Madam Li was gone, wasn’t the old woman simply hoping that something would happen to her and Xiaodou so she could rightfully and legitimately seize the house?
Given what happened this morning, although Guan Qiu had saved some face for Old Madam Ye, he had hoped she would treat the siblings somewhat better. However, at this moment, he still couldn’t help but interject, “Aunt, it’s a bit too early to say the two of them have been eaten, isn’t it? Perhaps they just lost their way? Crying here is far less useful than going up the mountain to look for them.”
“Look for them?” Qin Xiulian pinched the handkerchief in her hand tightly. “Brother Seventh, the back mountain is so vast, and wild beasts frequently roam there. If the people going in to search for them also encounter trouble, who will bear the responsibility?”
“Besides, the way you say it makes it sound as if we don’t care about the siblings at all. If we didn’t care, would we have come all the way over first thing in the morning to pick them up?”
When Old Madam Ye returned home, she had related the entire sequence of events to Qin Xiulian. Qin Xiulian felt that failing to smoothly sell Xiaodou and acquire the house wasn’t anyone else’s fault but this meddlesome Guan Qiu’s. Consequently, her words at this moment were thoroughly laced with thorns.
“Our Xiaohua is foolish and listens to anyone’s words, unable to distinguish between insiders and outsiders. Who knows if someone has been whispering bad things into her ear. Sigh… my poor, ill-fated children, why can’t they ever meet a good person?”
Qin Xiulian wasn’t like Old Madam Ye, who only knew how to wail. This speech of hers, delivered amidst tears, successfully dragged Guan Qiu into the muddy waters.
If Ye Xiaohua hadn’t been worried that Guan Qiu wouldn’t be able to handle it and would have his reputation blackened by Qin Xiulian twisting black into white, she would have liked to listen a bit longer. This Eldest Aunt was no ordinary character; she would inevitably have to deal with her in the future, so understanding her more would prevent losing out.
However, even though the siblings had already entered the courtyard and were right before the doorstep, absolutely no one noticed them. Having no choice, Ye Xiaohua could only squeeze behind the crowd to continue listening.
Guan Qiu was already choked into silence, only managing to talk back after a long while, “Eldest Sister-in-law Ye, the way you speak… how… how have I become a bad person? Besides, they are just two children, what kind of designs could I possibly have on them?”
Qin Xiulian rolled her eyes. “I was just speaking casually, I didn’t say it was you. Brother Seventh, don’t overthink it. If your heart truly aches for those two children and you think they’re fine, why don’t you go look for them yourself? If you really find them, you’ll be the great benefactor of our Ye family.”
Qin Xiulian deliberately used words to provoke Guan Qiu. After all, even the fierce and sturdy men dared not go up the mountain late at night. As he was a frail scholar, Qin Xiulian was absolutely certain he wouldn’t dare go.
They weren’t his own kids, so why risk his life to that extent?
Since the immediate family members themselves showed no intention of searching, the other villagers naturally wouldn’t stick their necks out either. Instead, they all looked toward Guan Qiu with expressions of watching a show.
Guan Qiu did not hesitate and immediately nodded. Looking at the attitude of the surrounding people, he knew he could only go alone. “Fine, then I will go search for them right now.”
But just as Guan Qiu squeezed out of the crowd, he halted his steps. Not understanding why, Qin Xiulian saw him stop and thought he had regretted his decision, so she began to speak sarcastically, “Brother Seventh, why aren’t you going? If you’re afraid of fierce beasts in the back mountain, just take a knife to defend yourself.”
Guan Qiu ignored Qin Xiulian’s clamoring behind him, treating her merely as someone’s unleashed mad dog that had run out to bite people. He didn’t continue walking because he saw Ye Xiaohua, carrying the back basket and holding her brother’s hand, smiling at him.
That suspended heart of his completely settled back into his stomach. A foolish girl had a fool’s luck; how could she enter a wolf’s belly so easily?
Ye Xiaohua tilted her head up, her eyes as dark as graphite filled with innocence and confusion. “Seventh Uncle, why are you here again? Hehehe, did you bring me buns again? We haven’t even finished the ones you gave us this morning.”
Ye Xiaohua purposely let everyone present hear that the people shouting about caring for her hadn’t given the siblings a single bite to eat, whereas the outsider Qin Xiulian spoke of was the one bringing them food.
She didn’t expect everyone to understand, but having one or two catch on was enough. They couldn’t all be fools, after all.
This… was the foolish girl’s voice?
Qin Xiulian’s face changed drastically, and Old Madam Ye stopped her wailing as well, forcefully pushing her way through the crowd. Upon seeing the siblings, she gasped in astonishment, “You… you… you weren’t eaten?”
Xiaodou shrank behind Ye Xiaohua. Over the course of this single day, he had finally witnessed his foolish sister’s capability, and at this moment, he very peacefully enjoyed his sister’s protection.
Ye Xiaohua just stood there calmly, needing to say nothing. The water she brought had long been finished, leaving her parched at this moment, and she didn’t want to waste words either.
Qin Xiulian wanted to continue playing the role of an affectionate Eldest Aunt. She rushed over at this moment, intending to hug Ye Xiaohua for a tearful reunion, but the back basket on Ye Xiaohua’s back was truly too much in the way.
She glanced at the back basket with disdain, examining the contents inside by the light of the torches.
Although Ye Xiaohua had kept the Siberian crabapples and the mantis egg cases separate, walking all the way down the mountain had caused a small portion of them to jostle across the boundary, mixing together.
Qin Xiulian snatched up a handful of mantis egg cases, which were mixed with a few red Siberian crabapples. “Foolish girl, you really are a half-wit. After making a trip to the back mountain, you should at least bring something useful back! Instead, you picked a bunch of inedible things. Last time Qiao Er ate this fruit, he even got poisoned.”
Qin Xiulian looked at the things in her hand with contempt. Originally, after hearing the old lady mention how the girl’s talkback had been so precise, she had felt it was a bit strange. But looking at the items she brought back, Qin Xiulian felt she had truly overthought it.
Perhaps it was just a coincidence; it was the old woman herself who was stupid. This morning, she had explicitly told her to wait until she finished brewing the medicine for Teng’er before coming together, yet the old lady insisted on not listening, which was why she suffered such a huge loss.
The matter of Qiao Er getting poisoned was known to everyone in the village, and he had claimed with absolute certainty that it was from eating Siberian crabapples. Ye Xiaohua also knew about this, but she was entirely certain that Siberian crabapples were not poisonous. Qiao Er was gluttonous; perhaps he had eaten something he shouldn’t have instead.
“What is this again? Is it edible? My foolish girl, you really worry me to death.” Qin Xiulian held up a mantis egg case, examining it closely against the torchlight.
Ye Xiaohua knew that this Eldest Aunt of hers was formidable in every aspect, but she was afraid of bugs—terrified of all insects.