Jin Shi nodded. “Yeah, I twisted it. It hurts like crazy! Dad, Mom, help me back to the kang to lie down for a bit!”
“You jinx, Mrs. Xu! Go beg that bowl for us right now! If you can’t beg some braised pork today, I’ll stew you and eat you instead! Look at how you made the eldest son twist his waist!”
The old woman cursed Mrs. Xu fiercely over her shoulder with a hideous expression as she helped Jin Shi walk into the house.
Mrs. Xu silently hugged the broken bowl, watching Jin Shi drag himself inside while clutching his waist, feeling a faint sliver of guilt in her heart.
However, the moment she heard the old woman’s tirade, that tiny bit of guilt vanished without a trace. Gritting her teeth, she gnashed her molars and cursed back in her mind: *You old hag! Curse at me again, and I’ll stew you one of these days!*
The old man and the others had not closed the main gate when they came inside. At this moment, several people lingered outside the gate, poking their heads in to see what was happening in the courtyard. Earlier, they had seen Jin Shi and his father moving that large stone from the entrance into the yard. What were they up to?
When Mrs. Xu turned around and saw people prying, she hid the bowl behind the large stone and walked over to close the front gate. Seeing the curiosity in the onlookers’ eyes, she raised her voice and barked, “What are you looking at? Mind your own damn business and go home!”
After shouting, she slammed the gate shut with a loud thud.
Watching the closed gate, the onlookers cursed softly under their breath, “Crazy woman! How did Jin Shi end up marrying such a creature?”
“Ah, let’s go, let’s go. What bad luck!”
Just as the crowd turned to leave, someone spotted Jin Yao approaching from down the road with Jinjin in his arms. In an instant, no one wanted to leave anymore. They merely stepped back a bit, eager to watch the show unfold.
They felt certain something must have happened in the Jin family; otherwise, why would they move the huge stone at their front entrance?
According to the older generation, placing a large stone at the front entrance served to guard the household and ward off disasters. If a stone that had guarded the door for years was thrown away or moved, misfortune would surely befall the family.
Although this was just a saying passed down by the elders, no family had ever put it to the test.
They had heard that Jin Yao was kicked out of the Jin family a while back, so everyone was immensely curious about what on earth had gone wrong in their house.
In the courtyard, after watching the old couple support Jin Shi into the house, Mrs. Xu looked over at Haohao, who was standing nearby, staring intently at the bowl in her hands.
“Watch closely. Mother is going to beg a big bowl of meat for you to eat.”
“Okay! Mother, Haohao is hungry!”
Hearing Mrs. Xu mention meat, Haohao felt his stomach growling even harder.
Mrs. Xu mimicked Jinjin’s posture from last night, sitting atop the big stone, holding the bowl with both hands, and muttering continuously under her breath, requesting braised pork.
After muttering, she slowly looked down—only to find the bowl completely empty.
Mrs. Xu ground her teeth and tried several different postures, but the meat still did not appear.
“Mother, where’s the meat?”
Panicking from hunger, Haohao asked anxiously.
The old woman came out of the house following the old man, muttering curses as she walked.
“You jinx, Mrs. Xu! Drop that broken bowl this instant and go fetch Doctor Qiao to check on Eldest Son’s waist! You wretched nuisance, this is all your fault!”
Seeing Mrs. Xu still sitting there muttering while clutching that broken bowl, the old woman grew furious. Placing her hands on her hips, she unleashed a barrage of curses at Mrs. Xu.
The old man had a gloomy expression, staring grimly at Mrs. Xu. Eldest Son’s waist injury was quite severe; he was still in excruciating pain lying down right now.
“Shh! Mom, don’t disturb me!”
Hearing the old woman curse, Mrs. Xu rolled her eyes internally. Jin Shi was a good-for-nothing useless fool whose waist wasn’t great to begin with. Every time she was just getting into the mood, he would go limp. What a useless lump—to twist his waist just by moving a stone!
Not wanting to listen to the old woman squawking there, Mrs. Xu’s eyes suddenly lit up as a new idea struck her.
She set the bowl on the big stone, fell to her knees, and began kowtowing to the broken bowl.
“O Divine Bowl, Divine Bowl! My family is currently so poor we don’t even have a single grain of rice, and my child is crying from hunger. I beg you to bestow a little food upon us—if there’s no meat, even steamed buns will do!”
Mrs. Xu thought to herself: As long as there are steamed buns, can meat be far behind?
Seeing her kneel down to beg the bowl, the old woman shut her mouth, deciding to watch whether she could actually beg any food out of it.
However, even after Mrs. Xu kowtowed three times, no food appeared.
“You stupid fool, Mrs. Xu! It’s just a broken bowl! You obviously just didn’t want to cook and made up a nonsensical lie! See if I don’t beat you to death today!” Realizing she had been played, the old woman rolled up her sleeves in a rage and charged toward Mrs. Xu.
How could Mrs. Xu wait around to get beaten? She quickly reached out to grab the broken bowl and prepared to stand up and dodge.
Right at that moment, the main gate that Mrs. Xu had just closed was kicked open with a loud thud!
The old woman, the old man, and Mrs. Xu all hurriedly looked toward the entrance. Rolling up her sleeves further, the old woman was ready to hurl insults, but in the next second, her expression froze.
There stood Jin Yao, holding Jinjin in his arms as he strode in with furious momentum.
Mrs. Xu was still kneeling on the ground, holding the broken bowl in her hands. When she saw Jinjin, her expression turned as if she had seen a ghost. Forgetting to stand up and unable to speak, she stared fixedly at Jinjin.
Something wasn’t right. This little wench was very wrong—why wouldn’t she die?
Back then, she had watched with her own eyes as Jinjin tumbled down the hillside before hurriedly running into the forest.
“What are you here for?”
The old woman glared fiercely at Mrs. Xu with a darkened face, then turned to Jin Yao and asked in a cold voice.
Jin Yao carried Jinjin inside and immediately saw Mrs. Xu kneeling in front of a large stone, holding Jinjin’s bowl in her hands.
Hearing the old woman’s words, a faint sting went through his heart.
Were these words a mother should say to her son?
As soon as Jinjin entered the gate, she saw Mrs. Xu holding her bowl. Pointing at her, she called out urgently, “Daddy, my bowl is over there! It’s that bad woman who stole my bowl and made me roll down the hillside!”
Carrying Jinjin, Jin Yao walked straight toward Mrs. Xu, completely ignoring the old woman.
Seeing Jin Yao approaching, Mrs. Xu was terrified. Holding the broken bowl, she scrambled up and hid behind the old woman, shouting belligerently at Jin Yao:
“Don’t listen to this little brat’s nonsense! I picked this broken bowl up off the grass outside! Who says it’s yours?”
Jin Yao stared at her heavily, gritting his teeth in a cold voice, “Do you take me for blind? Would I not recognize my own family’s belongings? That’s the bowl our Jinjin holds in her arms every day.”
“She was still carrying it this morning when she went to the hillside to dig for wild vegetables. When she came back just now covered in grass debris, she cried and said her eldest aunt stole her bowl and caused her to roll down the hillside.”
“It’s fortunate that Jinjin was lucky enough to fall into a pile of leaves, or she would have lost her life! I ask you, Eldest Sister-in-law, is this something a human being would do?”
“In the blink of an eye, how did it suddenly become something you picked up on the grass? If you picked it up out there, why don’t you go out and pick another one up for me?!”
After cursing in anger, Jin Yao carried Jinjin around the old woman to snatch the bowl from Mrs. Xu’s hands.
Panicked, Mrs. Xu pulled the old woman in front of her to block Jin Yao.
At that moment, as the old man watched Jin Yao go to grab the bowl, a similar scene suddenly flashed across his mind.
He stared blankly at Jin Yao and urgently shouted, “Don’t give him that bowl!”