Qin Xiulian rarely went into the mountains. Although she had grown up in the countryside, she had never seen mantis egg cases before. Intrigued, she put the egg case under her nose and sniffed it; it was neither fragrant nor smelly.
“Look at you, bringing back a bunch of inedible things and making us adults worry. What am I supposed to say about you? Without an adult watching over the house, who knows what kind of trouble you might cause next? You were lucky to come back this time, but there’s no guaranteeing next time.”
Qin Xiulian fiddled with the mantis egg case in her hand, putting on the air of a well-meaning teacher. “It’s fine if you mess around blindly by yourself, but don’t involve Little Douzi.”
Qin Xiulian glanced into Ye Xiaohua’s basket, which was completely filled with these unknown things. “And you brought back such a huge pile.”
“Great Aunt, this thing is a treasure. It’s a mantis egg case!”
“What kind of thing? A treasure?” Qin Xiulian sneered. The next moment, she reacted. “A mantis egg case? Isn’t that… ah… oh mother…”
Ye Xiaohua stood there calmly, enjoying the sight of Qin Xiulian losing her composure. The mantis egg case she had been holding just moments ago was thrown far away by her. Her whole body looked as if she had seen a ghost, and her face was whiter than if she had applied powder.
“You… you… why didn’t you say so earlier?” Qin Xiulian’s voice cracked with fear. Thinking about how she had just held it in her hand and placed it under her nose made goosebumps break out all over her body, feeling as if something were crawling all over her.
Qin Xiulian hugged her shoulders, but remembering that these hands had also touched that disgusting thing just now, she let go again.
Old Madam Ye glared at her daughter-in-law, thinking she was being far too delicate. Rural women would dare to catch mice with their bare hands, let alone mantis egg cases that wouldn’t even bite.
Thinking about the embarrassment she had suffered and the anger she had endured here this morning, the gaze she directed at Ye Xiaohua became increasingly vicious. “You dead girl, treating a bunch of useless things as treasure. I think you’re looking for a beating. It’s fine if your own life is cheap, but you had to harm Little Douzi too. If something happened to him, how would I live? If I don’t beat you, you really won’t learn your lesson.”
Old Madam Ye raised her hand to strike. With so many people present, she definitely couldn’t be allowed to hit her. Qin Xiulian suppressed the urge to kill Ye Xiaohua, feeling that she shouldn’t let someone else claim the credit for being the good person.
Before anyone else could stop her, she shielded Ye Xiaohua from Old Madam Ye, pleading kindly for Ye Xiaohua while giving Old Madam Ye a meaningful look. “Mother, don’t be angry. The children are fine, it’s good that they’re back. Those who know will see that you love them dearly, but those who don’t might say that you, their grandmother, are malicious.”
The “others” Qin Xiulian mentioned weren’t explicitly named, but everyone present knew she was referring to Guan Qiu. Guan Qiu was also depressed; as a grown man, it wasn’t appropriate for him to bicker with these women, but hearing this really infuriated him.
Ye Xiaohua wasn’t surprised at all that Qin Xiulian stepped in. It wasn’t as if this kind of thing hadn’t happened before. She indeed never beat her personally, but she would instigate Old Madam Ye and Great Uncle to beat her. In short, she always got to play the good person.
Old Madam Ye truly wanted to give Ye Xiaohua a good beating to vent her anger, but after calming down, she also felt it wasn’t good to do it in front of these people.
She was just a foolish girl; was there any fear of not having an opportunity to teach her a lesson in the future?
“Xiulian, Mother is also at her wit’s end. I see it clearly now. If we let this foolish girl keep taking care of Little Douzi, who knows when both of their lives will be lost. This morning, I wanted to take them back, but someone just had to stop me, as if I, their biological grandmother, wanted to harm them. This time won’t do. No matter what, I am taking them back.”
“Mother, the two of us are thinking exactly the same thing. The two children are also quite pitiful. I am their Great Aunt, so how could I watch them walk towards a dead end? In the future, as long as I have a bite to eat, they will have theirs.”
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law sang a duet, bouncing off each other’s words, while Ye Xiaohua watched coldly from the sidelines the entire time. However, she guessed that the person who regretted things the most right now must be Guan Qiu!
This morning, he had saved some face for Old Madam Ye, but not even a day had passed before they seized the opportunity to aggressively mock and squeeze him out.
Therefore, leaving a way out for future encounters does not apply to shameless, wicked people.
Ye Xiaohua secretly glanced at Guan Qiu. He was not suited for dealing with women; to handle these malicious people, she had to take action herself.
As for the onlookers, after what happened this morning, they didn’t dare to persuade Ye Xiaohua at this moment. After all, if something really happened, no one dared to take responsibility, so they honestly shut their mouths and watched the drama unfold from the side.
“Xiaohua, let’s go?” After what just happened, Qin Xiulian no longer suspected that Ye Xiaohua had any trick up her sleeve. If her head were truly working well, now that she couldn’t even afford to eat, would she bring back a bunch of this stuff?
Therefore, she had really overthought it. The girl was a complete fool, and isn’t a fool easy to fool?
Unexpectedly, Ye Xiaohua shook her head. “Uncle Sun is fierce.”
She suddenly blurted out this sentence, and everyone laughed, feeling that this foolish girl spoke without head or tail. Qin Xiulian was talking about taking her home, yet she brought up someone else.
However, no one noticed that Qin Xiulian’s expression changed repeatedly. It was only because she lowered her head that the night concealed her guilt.
She let out a couple of dry laughs. “Foolish girl, we are talking about your business. Why bring up Uncle Sun? Where is there an Uncle Sun? You really are a fool.”
Ye Xiaohua raised her head, still wearing that innocent and ignorant smile. She was clearly just a young girl who knew nothing of the world, but in Qin Xiulian’s eyes, she was more terrifying than a malicious ghost from hell.
“Uncle Sun is…”
“Alright, alright, you child. I meant well and wanted to raise you, but looking at you, it seems you’re unwilling to go. Fine, consider my kindness wasted. I can’t manage this anymore. Mother, let’s go. This foolish girl has a mind of her own.”
Everyone else was completely confused listening to their conversation. What Uncle Sun? There wasn’t even anyone surnamed Sun in the village, so where did an Uncle Sun come from?
Old Madam Ye was still waiting for her daughter-in-law to settle the matter, but instead, she was the one backing down first. She naturally didn’t take a fool’s words to heart either, only feeling that her previous crying and making a scene had been a waste of effort.
But since Ye Xiaohua refused to leave, they really didn’t dare to take her away by force in front of so many people. Furthermore, there was the troublesome Guan Qiu present. It had nothing to do with him, so why did he always rush over whenever there was any sign of trouble here?
Old Madam Ye looked at Qin Xiulian crossly. Before she herself had even backed down, her daughter-in-law had already dropped the matter first. She felt her authority was being challenged, so she stood there with no intention of leaving.
Qin Xiulian had something on her mind, a very big matter, like a sharp thorn stuck in her throat. She had to go back and think of a way carefully.
How did she not manage to drown her last time? She had clearly thrown her into the water and watched her sink, yet she unexpectedly came back to life later.
Although the dead girl was a fool, who knew when she might blurt out a fatal sentence.
Ye Xiaohua could not be allowed to stay.