“Mother, Mother…”
Seeing Cheng Qian desperately pleading with her, Ye Manshu snorted coldly.
“If you stop disobeying me and work properly, there will naturally still be a place for you in this family.”
Having no other choice, Cheng Qian settled for begging to be untied.
He truly didn’t dare provoke Ye Manshu too much anymore. Today, he had clearly sensed genuine hostility from his mother, so it was better to behave for now.
After successfully intimidating Cheng Qian, Ye Manshu felt greatly satisfied.
“Mother-in-law, the meal is ready.”
Madam Yang entered cautiously, speaking softly, afraid Ye Manshu’s anger might turn toward her.
“I’m starving. Let’s eat.”
When Ye Manshu entered the main hall and saw the food on the table, she frowned slightly.
“That’s it?”
On the table sat a plate of wild vegetables, a bowl of something dark and murky that was probably soybean paste, several green onions, a plate of dark brown steamed buns, a small bowl of steamed egg custard, one bowl of rice, and a large bowl of…
What was that?
Madam Yang found her reaction strange and asked quietly,
“Mother-in-law, what’s wrong?”
Wasn’t this their usual food every day?
Well, not exactly every day. At least the field frogs weren’t an everyday dish.
“Nothing.”
Ye Manshu sat down and looked carefully at the large bowl. Searching through the original owner’s memories, she identified it as boiled field frogs.
The frogs had been cleaned, chopped into pieces, and simply boiled in plain water.
Cheng Kang’s greatest talent was catching food—fish and shrimp from rivers, wild chickens and rabbits from the mountains, frogs and grasshoppers from the fields…
Basically, if it was edible, he would catch it. And his stomach was astonishingly strong; he could eat almost anything, cooked or raw, without issue.
No wonder he was built like a bear while everyone else in the family looked underfed.
In her previous life, Ye Manshu had eaten frog porridge before, so she wasn’t opposed to frogs themselves.
Out of habit, Madam Yang placed the small bowl of steamed egg custard and the rice in front of Cheng Qian.
The corners of Cheng Qian’s lips curled upward.
His mother still cared about him after all. Look—even after hitting him, she still gave him the only good food in the house.
He had never been able to stomach wild vegetables or coarse buns, and he absolutely refused to touch things like frogs or grasshoppers.
Every time he returned home, Ye Manshu would specially prepare egg custard and white rice just for him.
“Hold it!”
Ye Manshu stopped Madam Yang.
“Who said that was for him? Put it here.”
Madam Yang’s hand trembled slightly. She didn’t dare disobey, but inwardly she finally understood: the youngest brother had truly fallen out of favor with Mother-in-law. From now on, nobody needed to tiptoe around him anymore.
“Mother! I’m starving!”
Cheng Qian clutched his injured head.
“Besides, I’m seriously hurt!”
“I’m injured too, aren’t I? As the mother, I haven’t even eaten the good food, yet you think you should? Truly unfilial. In that case, don’t eat at all. Boss, Second Son, drag him outside.”
Cheng Yuan and Cheng Kang moved immediately, one grabbing each side of Cheng Qian before tossing his wailing body into the courtyard. They even thoughtfully tied him up again.
“We can’t let you run away, or Mother will get angry again.”
“You—you people…”
Cheng Qian trembled with rage.
Cheng Kang, meanwhile, was in an excellent mood. He happily dipped the boiled frogs into soybean paste and devoured more than half the bowl.
Cheng Yuan snatched a smaller portion for himself and even shared a few pieces with Madam Yang. Little Cheng Yunfan grabbed two pieces on his own.
Da Ya, Er Ya, and Sun Shi didn’t dare touch anything.
Ye Manshu herself only ate one piece before losing her appetite completely. This tasted nothing like the frog porridge she remembered.
It was overwhelmingly fishy and gamey.
Without proper seasonings, the smell was awful.
In modern times, dishes like frog porridge or stir-fried frog always used plenty of spices to remove the unpleasant odor.
When Cheng Kang reached for another piece, Ye Manshu smacked his hand with her chopsticks.
“No more.”
Cheng Kang misunderstood immediately and grinned.
“Alright, I won’t eat anymore. Mother, you eat!”
Ye Manshu pushed the bowl toward Sun Shi instead. She also handed her the rice and egg custard.
“Second Son’s wife, you eat the rice and egg custard.”
Sun Shi froze.
“Mother, you should eat it.”
Ye Manshu glared at her.
“If I tell you to eat, then eat. If my grandson goes hungry, I’ll beat you to death!”
“Thank you, Mother.”
No matter her reason, Sun Shi felt deeply grateful.
Nobody found it particularly strange. When the women in the family became pregnant, the original owner would occasionally allow them to eat eggs too, always claiming it was for the grandson’s health.
Ye Manshu pretended not to notice Sun Shi quietly sharing some of the food with her two daughters.
Little Cheng Yunfan watched with wide eyes and finally gathered enough courage to speak.
“Grandma, I want rice and egg custard too!”
Earlier, he had been frightened by Ye Manshu, but now that he had calmed down, he remembered that Grandma had always favored him before. Cheng Qian used to share some egg custard with him too, so his courage returned slightly.
Ye Manshu showed him no kindness.
At only three years old, the original owner had already spoiled him badly. He barked orders at his two older sisters and even hit them sometimes.
“Eat my ass. I didn’t even get to eat it myself. When your grandma was almost dying, you didn’t care at all—you just cried for candy. Unfilial grandson!”
“Waaah!”
Cheng Yunfan burst into tears.
Madam Yang’s heart ached. She quickly comforted him.
“Fan-ge, don’t cry. Your second aunt is pregnant now, so she needs extra nourishment.”
Cheng Yunfan looked deeply wronged.
Cheng Yuan immediately understood.
Mother was still angry because when she nearly died, Cheng Yunfan hadn’t shown any concern and had only cried for sweets.
Seeing Ye Manshu’s brows begin to furrow at the crying, Cheng Yuan hurriedly glared at his son.
“If you want to cry, go cry outside.”
Cheng Yunfan was genuinely afraid of his father and immediately quieted down, only sniffling softly.
“Ah Yuan, don’t scare the child.”
Madam Yang wiped his tears and handed him a steamed bun and a green onion.
“Good boy, go eat outside.”
Anything to stop Mother-in-law from finding another excuse to beat someone.
Ye Manshu had actually intended to discipline the brat properly, but seeing the eldest couple acting sensibly, her anger eased somewhat.
She picked up a bun and took a bite.
Eh—not bad.
It was a leavened mixed-flour bun made from wheat flour and bean flour. Surprisingly edible.
Green onions dipped in soybean paste were tolerable too. The wild vegetables were slightly bitter, but refreshingly so. In modern times, people paid high prices for these wild greens, yet here they were common peasant food.
Perfect timing too. She was full of irritation, and eating bitter greens under this blazing autumn heat felt like it cooled her down.
After eating her fill, Ye Manshu reflected on one undeniable fact:
The family was poor.
She had searched everywhere and found less than one tael of silver in total.
How could that possibly support a comfortable life?
Eating coarse buns and wild vegetables once in a while felt novel enough—after all, she had eaten too much rich food in her previous life—but if she had to eat this every single day, she’d turn green herself.
No wonder everyone in the family except Cheng Kang was skinny.
Cheng Qian didn’t count. He was still growing, and thinness at that age was normal. Besides, he had never lacked nutrition.
As for Cheng Kang, he was simply gifted—the kind of person who built muscle no matter what he ate.
If she wanted to make money, she currently had no skills besides medicine.
Modern Western medicine wouldn’t be very useful here without pharmaceuticals.
Traditional Chinese medicine, however, was common.
But being a female doctor in this era was difficult.
There were female physicians, but they were usually employed by wealthy families to treat women in the inner household, and their status was not particularly high.
Unless one came from a family of hereditary physicians.
Besides, if she suddenly claimed she knew medicine, nobody would believe her anyway.
Thinking of Doctor Li, Ye Manshu slowly smiled.
Then she would start with this village doctor.
Taking several eggs with her, Ye Manshu headed directly to Doctor Li’s house. Before leaving, she instructed Cheng Yuan and Cheng Kang to take Cheng Qian to work in the fields.
When she arrived, Doctor Li’s wife, Madam Zhao, sneered coldly.
“What are you here for? Bringing medical fees?”
Ye Manshu replied,
“Aunt-in-law, I need to speak with Uncle.”
Madam Zhao blocked the doorway.
“Every time you come for treatment, you never pay properly. Pay what you owe first.”
“Really? I remember my eldest son paid already.”
In the original owner’s memories, Cheng Yuan always asked her for money to cover medical fees.
And whenever she had money, she gave it to him.
Madam Zhao scoffed.
“Paid with what? A few eggs and the occasional copper coin? Over the years, you’ve owed at least several hundred copper coins.”
Ye Manshu recalled that Madam Zhao always demanded payment whenever she saw the original owner, while the original owner insisted she had already paid and accused Madam Zhao of trying to extort her.
Madam Zhao always said the same thing, but the original owner never believed her.
Now that she thought about it carefully…
Could Cheng Yuan actually have been skimming money all along?