When Madam Xu returned home, she headed straight to the old lady’s room, intending to incite the old lady and old master to go up the mountain and demand the bowl back from Jin Yao’s family.
Unexpectedly, as soon as she stepped inside, she met the old lady’s gloomy gaze.
“Madam Xu, the sun has already set. Why aren’t you making dinner? Where have you been? Are you trying to starve this entire family to death?”
The old lady’s voice was as cold as ice, her eyes scrutinizing Madam Xu with suspicion.
That look clearly signaled she suspected Madam Xu had gone out to fool around with another man.
Madam Xu froze. Who had she been running around for all this time?
It wasn’t as if the old hag was missing hands or feet—why couldn’t she cook herself?
Madam Xu found the old hag increasingly repulsive by the day. Ever since Madam Liu was driven out, the duty of making dinner had fallen on her. When Madam Liu cooked so terribly in the past, the old hag hadn’t uttered a single word of complaint. Now that she cooked such fragrant meals, the old hag still nitpicked every single day.
*Why hasn’t she just dropped dead yet?*
If all the family’s money weren’t held tightly in this old hag’s hands, Madam Xu wouldn’t bother kissing up to her at all. She was only doing it so the old hag would pass everything in the family down to her Haohao.
“Mother, didn’t you tell me to go check on Second Brother’s family to see if they had settled in on the mountain?” Madam Xu lowered her eyelids to conceal the malice in her eyes, putting on a aggrieved tone.
The old lady’s expression softened slightly, her gaze locking onto her sharply. “You went over there? What did you see?”
Madam Xu gnashed her teeth as she recounted everything she had witnessed earlier.
Listening to her, the old lady stared in astonishment. “What? That broken bowl is actually that miraculous?”
Madam Xu chimed in hurriedly, “Exactly, Mother! Just think—if that little girl hadn’t taken the bowl away back then, we wouldn’t have to cook every day or waste our food now. We could just ask that divine bowl for whatever we want to eat!”
“Besides, I smelled a rich meat fragrance. What they prayed for was definitely stewed meat. Mother, think about how long it’s been since our Haohao last ate meat!”
“Yes, it really has been a long time since our family ate meat. Madam Xu, go to them tomorrow morning and demand that bowl back. Just say I said so—say I forgot before, but that bowl was part of my dowry from my parents’ house, so they must return it to me,” the old lady instructed in a heavy voice.
*The old hag sure knows how to play the saint. She won’t step up herself and makes me do the asking instead. What if I get beaten up?* Madam Xu cursed furiously in her heart.
“What if Mother’s prestige doesn’t work and they refuse to give it up?” Suppressing the disgust in her chest, she asked in a flat tone.
The old lady glared at her fiercely. “Can’t you use your brain and think of a way?”
Old Man Jin, who had been sitting quietly on the edge of the *kang* smoking dry tobacco, remained silent throughout. Listening to the conversation between Madam Xu and the old lady, a flicker of doubt crossed his mind again. That broken bowl Jinjin had taken that day had looked somewhat familiar to him, but he couldn’t recall where he had seen it before.
Madam Xu ground her back teeth, gritted out a heavy nod, said she understood, and turned to walk out.
The moment she shut the door, a sinister gleam flashed in her eyes.
She had to send this old hag off as early as possible. Otherwise, if she ever failed to obey her wishes, the old hag would treat her just as she had treated Madam Liu and Jinjin.
This old hag was truly poisonous. Just because she looked down on Second Brother’s family for giving birth to a girl, she had dared to poison a child only a few years old to get rid of her. Let alone a daughter-in-law married into the family like herself—in her eyes, she would always be an outsider!
…
The next morning, when Jinjin woke up, she was once again that carefree, happy little girl.
For breakfast today, Liu Dujuan reheated the wild vegetable porridge she had cooked the previous night, serving one bowl to each person.
Having eaten so much meat last night and suffered through that midnight turmoil, Jinjin had no appetite and didn’t feel hungry at all.
Shaking her little head, she asked in a sweet, milky voice, “Mother, my tummy isn’t hungry. Can I skip breakfast?”
Remembering how Jinjin had suffered from an upset stomach last night, Liu Dujuan figured it was fine if she didn’t want to eat.
“Alright, then you don’t have to eat breakfast. Come drink half a bowl of warm water to warm your stomach, and you can eat at noon.”
Liu Dujuan poured most of the porridge from Jinjin’s bowl into Jin Yao’s, poured the rest into her own, washed the empty bowl, and poured half a bowl of warm boiled water from a nearby wooden basin, bringing it over to her.
“Thank you, Mother!”
Jinjin looked up and thanked her mother crisp and clear. After obediently finishing the warm water, she cradled her broken bowl and skipped merrily over to a patch of grass nearby to watch when the big ant inside the anthill would crawl out.
She had discovered this anthill yesterday afternoon and found it fascinating to see a large ant coming out to carry things.
Hearing her parents talking, Jinjin turned her head and saw them standing at the door of the wooden cabin, discussing something.
Huh? Father changed into new clothes?
Clasping her broken bowl, she quickly ran over.
“Father, where are you going? Can you take Jinjin with you?”
“I can’t take my precious baby. Father has to go to town this morning to run some errands. You and Mother stay home obediently and wait for Father, okay? Remember not to go down the mountain into the village. Father will take you hunting this afternoon, how about that?” Jin Yao stroked Jinjin’s head, instructing her gently.
Hearing that her father would take her hunting, Jinjin’s eyes instantly lit up, and she nodded obediently.
“Mm-hmm! Jinjin won’t go down the mountain. Jinjin and Little White will dig up medicinal herbs for Mother to dry and sell for money!”
Yesterday, her mother had mentioned that the herbs she pulled out earlier were set out to dry, and once dried, they could be sold in town for money.
Hearing that she could also do something for the family, Jinjin had declared she would dig up herbs every day for her mother to dry, so that selling them would bring in money to buy rice and meat.
For this purpose, her father had even woven a small basket for her out of soft willow branches and carved a small wooden trowel using a cleaver so she could dig up wild vegetables.
“Alright, go on then!” Jin Yao chuckled, feeling a pang of tenderness in his heart—his daughter was growing more sensible by the day.
Holding her broken bowl and carrying her little basket on her back, Jinjin bade farewell to her parents and skipped away to find Little White.
Watching Jinjin’s departing figure, Liu Dujuan asked softly, “Jinjin took that bowl with her. Should I go get it back?”
Jin Yao shook his head. “No need. Jinjin is very clever; she knows how important that bowl is and won’t give it to anyone else. Besides, no one comes up this mountain anyway. Just keep an eye out for her, and I’ll be back by noon. Don’t worry, the goods should sell easily. I’ll buy some rice and flour on my way back.”
Liu Dujuan agreed softly, “Alright. Remember to buy a few catties of lard.”
“Mm!” Jin Yao acknowledged, turning around to walk down the mountain toward the village.
After playing with Little White for a short while, Jinjin began wandering around the mountain slope to pull up medicinal herbs.
“Little White, do you know where there’s lots of green grass? I want to dig up medicinal herbs for Mother to dry and sell for money,” Jinjin asked Little White after pulling up a few, seeing that there were no more herbs nearby.
“I know! This one will lead the way for you!” Little White was all too familiar with this mountain.
Whenever Jinjin walked a bit and saw green grass, she would squat down, hold it up, and ask Liuliu what it was. Liuliu would tell her its name, and if it was a medicinal herb, Jinjin would use the wooden hoe her father made to dig it up and place it in her small basket.
Without realizing it, they moved through several spots and wandered quite a distance, ending up on the northern slope north of the village.
The northern slope faced the sun, so grass grew abundantly here. Seeing far more medicinal herbs here than on the other side, Jinjin cried out in delight.
“Little White, you’re amazing! There are so many herbs here!”
Hearing Jinjin praise it, Little White rolled around happily on the ground.
“Hehe! Jinjin is happy, so this one is happy too!”
Meanwhile, in a patch of woods at the foot of the northern mountain, Madam Xu was staring with burning eyes at Jinjin, who was sticking her bottom in the air while digging up wild plants on the slope—and at the broken bowl sitting right beside her.
Due to the distance, she hadn’t noticed the small white snake that had been following Jinjin all along.