Before Second Brother Li’s taunt had even faded, a loud, jarring crash echoed from the kitchen!
Shen Qing loosened her grip just enough for the iron pot to slide off the edge of the stove, hanging precariously half over the earthen rim.
Most of the soup spilled out, leaving vegetable scraps and muddy broth splattered all over the stove top.
She was not the least bit flustered. She even secretly curled her lips into a smile. “Oh dear! The pot slipped!”
Li Xiuqin rushed in at the sound. Seeing the mess of spilled soup everywhere, her temper flared straight to the top of her head.
“Shen Qing! What have you done? You have wasted a whole pot of wild vegetables!”
Shen Qing pretended to step back in alarm, but her eyes glinted with the mischief of a prank well pulled.
Putting on a timid, meek voice, she pushed back all sweetly. “I am truly so sorry. It was just slippery and I could not hold on. It slipped right out of my hands.”
“But it is no great loss anyway. These coarse weeds are not nearly good enough for people of our standing!”
Her words sounded like an apology, but every line made it plain. She had no intention of cooking for the entire family.
Li Wenbo frowned deeply, pulling rank as the head of the household.
“It is just a little spilled food. Clean it up and get back to cooking. We are all waiting to eat.”
Shen Qing tilted her head, a teasing smile playing at the corner of her mouth, and spoke unhurriedly.
“Sorry, but I never agreed to make dinner for everyone.”
“I told you before. From now on, I will earn work points just as much as Li Jianfeng does.”
“I will trade my own rations for what I need. Why should I be the one slaving over meals for the whole household every single day?”
Third Brother Li, Li Jianfeng, turned red in the face. “You are a daughter of this family! You eat our food and live under our roof. Cooking is the least you can do!”
“The least I can do?”
Shen Qing raised an eyebrow and set a wooden ladle down on the edge of the stove. It rolled away with another clatter, deliberate and unmistakable.
“I was sent away to the countryside and stuck here for years. When I finally went home, you turned your backs on me and sent me right back.”
“Back then, when you were favoring Li Mengyao and casting me aside, you never once called me a daughter of the Li family.”
“Now that you need someone to do your work, suddenly I am family again?”
She nudged the scattered vegetables with her foot, words playful yet sharp, laying bare their scheme.
“I let the pot slip today because I refuse to be taken advantage of any longer.”
“From now on, I will only cook for myself. Everyone else can fend for themselves!”
Li Xiuqin trembled with rage, pointing at the wreckage. “You did this on purpose! You deliberately ruined dinner just so you would not have to work!”
Shen Qing nodded openly, a look of quiet resolve in her eyes. She made no attempt to hide it.
“That is exactly right. So do not count on me to feed you from now on.”
With that, she pushed past Third Brother Li and walked back to her room.
Second Brother Li glared at her retreating figure. “Do not be so ungrateful…”
Eldest Brother Li said nothing, his gaze heavy. But the dark look in his eyes betrayed his true feelings.
In the end, Li Xiuqin was left to prepare dinner, grumbling and cursing all the while.
From his vantage point behind the crack in the cattle shed door, Fu Yunzheng had seen everything.
That look of sorrow and regret she had given him earlier was so different from the girl who had just deliberately dropped a pot and defied them all with such clever mischief.
Beneath that soft, gentle exterior lay a sharp mind and a spirited heart. She had outmaneuvered them openly, refusing to let anyone take advantage of her.
It reminded him of the day she had pretended to be hopelessly in love with that Zhao Renjie, only to turn the tables and get money out of him instead.
A faint smile touched Fu Yunzheng’s lips as he whispered to himself.
“She is becoming more interesting by the moment.”
“Cough, cough, who is interesting? Cough.”
Yunqiong lay on a bed inside the shed, an old man with white hair and a pale face, wracked with coughing.
Fu Yunzheng poured him a cup of water. “Drink this.”
Yunqiong drank it all in one go. “You have not answered me. Who is it?”
Fu Yunzheng set the cup down. “No one.”
He stepped back outside. Yunqiong sighed, watching him pick up a spade and begin shoveling dung.
“If only back then… ah…”
Shen Qing went to the supply and marketing cooperative and exchanged her grain ration coupons for cloth coupons.
She cut a piece of cloth and strung it up to separate her space from the rest of the Li family’s.
She also bought seeds, sprinkling them straight into the fertile soil of her private plot. Only then did she head out to earn her work points.
The sun blazed overhead. The villagers toiled in the fields, dripping with sweat, while the Li family had barely finished a fraction of their assigned plot.
Slow and lazy, they moved at a snail’s pace.
Li Jianfeng threw down his hoe the moment he saw her. “What took you so long?”
“Do you even care about earning points? Or do you just intend to eat without working?”
Shen Qing picked up a stick and began marking out equal portions based on how much each person had actually cleared.
“Each of you has done barely three square meters. I will do the same and no more.”
She took up her hoe and finished her section in moments. Dropping it, she looked him square in the eye. “There. Exactly the same amount as you.”
Li Jianfeng’s ears burned bright red. He gripped his hoe handle until his knuckles turned white, exposed and humiliated before the whole village.
“What nonsense! We have been working all morning. There is far more than that!”
He strode forward, pointing at the weeds still thick in his rows, trying to salvage his pride.
But the neighbors had seen it all. They began to whisper and exchange glances.
“The Li family have always been shirkers. Sat down to rest three times already and left half the weeds standing.”
“And Shen Qing just got here and finished straight away. Fastest worker out here by far.”
Stung by the murmurs, Li Jianfeng raised his hoe and brought it crashing down toward the earth beside her feet, intending to frighten her.
Without even looking up, Shen Qing stepped lightly aside. With a subtle shift of her foot, he stumbled, nearly falling face first into the dirt.
“Li Jianfeng, we agreed I would earn no more than my due. I have done my fair share, fair and square. Why should you be allowed to laze about while I am made to hurry?”
She folded her arms, eyes dancing with amusement, unapologetic and unbowed.
Li Xiuqin saw her son losing the argument and rushed over, hands on hips.
“You only worked a few minutes! You are bringing shame on this family. You are the lazy one!”
“Shame?” Shen Qing smiled, unimpressed.
“Points are earned by what you do. I have done my part. How does that shame anyone? It is you lot dragging your feet like tortoises that everyone is laughing at!”
Li Wenbo’s face darkened and pulled Li Xiuqin back. He dared not cause a scene with the whole village watching.
Just then, Shen Ru arrived with food for Shen Qing.
A dark glint came into Eldest Brother Li’s eyes. He looked at Shen Qing, then at Shen Ru, and a slow, cunning smile crept across his face. He had found his way to get back at her.