Tang Yifang immediately flew into a rage. “Didn’t I already say it? No feeding them! Girl, what’s gotten into you today, insisting on going against your own mother?”
“Mother!” Qiao Xihe frowned. “They’re still children. If you keep starving them like this, something bad will happen!”
“Girl, what exactly is wrong with you?” Tang Yifang walked over and felt her forehead. “No fever. Then why are you talking nonsense? These four little wretches, whether they live or die, what does that have to do with us?”
Qiao Xihe gently pushed her hand away, a flash of disgust in her eyes.
Tang Yifang was a thoroughly wicked person, it was she who had raised the original owner into that vicious state.
But as it happened, she was the original owner’s birth mother, related by blood to the body Qiao Xihe was in now, and she had always treated the original owner reasonably well.
But no matter what, from now on Qiao Xihe wouldn’t let her abuse the four children again.
They were the protagonist group, after all. Could going against the protagonists ever end well?
“Enough talk, Mother, let’s eat.”
As Qiao Xihe spoke, she waved to the four children huddled in the corner. “Come, come eat.”
Shen Wanjin and Shen Wanyin looked at the steaming porridge, longing showing in their eyes.
Shen Wanmu couldn’t help swallowing too.
Shen Wanzhou’s eyes flickered.
Qiao Xihe remembered that her current pursuit target was Shen Wanyin, so she smiled and said to her, “Little Yin’er, don’t you want some porridge? There’s also cooked cabbage and potatoes, I cooked them until they’re really soft, nice and mushy, really tasty.”
Shen Wanyin couldn’t stop herself and took two steps forward, but Shen Wanzhou grabbed her.
Qiao Xihe helplessly set down the bowl in her hand, then walked over in a few big strides and simply picked Shen Wanyin up.
“What are you doing!” Shen Wanmu panicked.
“Carrying little Yin’er to eat, of course. She wants to.”
Qiao Xihe ignored the suspicious looks from the other three children, carried Shen Wanyin to a chair and sat her down properly, then placed a bowl of porridge in front of her.
Then she looked at the remaining three children. “What, do you want me to carry each of you over one by one? Hurry and eat, or it’ll get cold soon.”
“Hmph!” Tang Yifang’s face darkened. “Fine, don’t eat then! You little wretches, thinking you’re something now, huh?”
“Mother!” Qiao Xihe’s fingers tightened. “Can you just not talk for a bit?”
Seeing Shen Wanyin sitting safely on the chair, her eyes fixed on the porridge and unable to look away, Shen Wanzhou pressed his lips together and led his younger siblings over.
No matter what, they urgently needed a hot meal right now.
The bit of bun they’d eaten earlier could only barely stave off the hunger.
The four little ones sat in a row at the table, and the sight nearly melted Qiao Xihe’s heart.
Such adorable children, how could anyone bear to abuse them?
She ladled a bowl of porridge for each of them and said, “Eat quickly, and go rest once you’re done.”
The two little sisters couldn’t use chopsticks yet, so she got them small spoons.
The three younger ones all looked to Shen Wanzhou, and only after seeing him nod did they start gulping down the porridge in big mouthfuls.
Watching this, Qiao Xihe thought to herself that it really was just as the book described, when these three younger siblings were small, they listened to Shen Wanzhou very well.
But once they grew up, they often went against him, nearly driving him half to death with anger.
He wouldn’t let Shen Wanmu associate with those people in the martial world, and Shen Wanmu simply wouldn’t listen.
She wouldn’t let Shen Wanjin be with the Third Prince, and Shen Wanjin snuck off in the middle of the night to see the Third Prince anyway.
He wouldn’t let Shen Wanyin go to the battlefield, and she insisted on going anyway.
In fact, Shen Wanzhou was only trying to protect them, not wanting them to get hurt.
Being the eldest brother was no easy job for him.
Shen Wanzhou was drinking his porridge with his head down when he suddenly felt someone watching him. He looked up and saw Qiao Xihe looking at him with an extremely complicated expression.
Shen Wanzhou: “…” Surely she wasn’t planning to stop him from eating?
Without another word, Shen Wanzhou downed the rest of the porridge in two big gulps.
Qiao Xihe was speechless. What was going through this kid’s head?
She put some cabbage into Shen Wanzhou’s bowl and said, “Don’t just drink porridge, eat some cabbage too.”
Shen Wanzhou stared at the cabbage for a moment, then ate it anyway.
Even though he disliked Qiao Xihe, there was no need to pick a fight with food right now.
Watching the four children wolf down their food, Tang Yifang felt a pang of distress.
“There’s hardly any food left in this house as it is. If they eat this much, what are the two of us supposed to do later?” she asked angrily. “That dead husband of theirs won’t come home, and we don’t have much money left either!”
“Mother! Just eat your food. I’ll figure something out tomorrow,” Qiao Xihe said impatiently.
She was a modern person, surely she wasn’t going to starve to death in ancient times?
“What could you possibly figure out?”
“Can you just be quiet and let me eat in peace?”
Tang Yifang wanted to say more, but after thinking it over, she kept her mouth shut.
No matter what, that was still her daughter, and she didn’t want to strain the relationship with her own daughter.
It was just that the sight of these children irritated her. She drank two bowls of porridge and left.
Qiao Xihe also had no intention of trying to reason with Tang Yifang right now, after all, turning a wicked person good wasn’t ever that easy.
Although the children were still young, they had been starved so badly that in the end, the porridge pot and the vegetable bowl were both completely empty.
Shen Wanyin was still licking her bowl reluctantly.
Qiao Xihe laughed. “Stop licking it, I’ll make more for you tomorrow.”
Hearing the wicked stepsister’s voice, the four children, who had just relaxed after eating their fill, tensed up again.
Had they eaten too much just now? Was this wicked stepsister about to hit them again?
Seeing the fear in the children’s eyes, Qiao Xihe’s smile gradually turned bitter.
It seemed winning over these little beans wasn’t going to happen with just one or two meals.
“Go get some sleep,” Qiao Xihe said. “I’ll wash the dishes.”
The children quickly jumped down from their chairs. Shen Wanzhou lifted the short-legged Shen Wanyin down, his gaze still lingering on Qiao Xihe.
Qiao Xihe pretended not to notice and cleared the dishes.
She had just scooped up some water and was about to start washing when she saw Shen Wanzhou walk in.
“Why aren’t you asleep yet?” Qiao Xihe asked.
“I’ll wash them,” Shen Wanzhou said, rolling up his sleeves as he spoke.
In fact, his clothes had already grown too small, his sleeves and pant legs were a good deal too short.
Shen Wanzhou didn’t wait for her to respond, walked over, picked up a bowl, and started washing.
He was apparently used to doing this kind of work, because he looked quite practiced at it.
“I’ve helped you wash the dishes, so if you’re angry about something, don’t take it out on my little brother and sisters,” Shen Wanzhou said quietly. “Take it out on me instead.”
“What would I even be angry about?” Qiao Xihe said, torn between laughing and crying.
So that was it, she’d been wondering why the most wary one of them all, the eldest brother, would come help her wash dishes. It wasn’t that his opinion of her had actually changed at all. He was just afraid she’d lose her temper at his siblings again!