“Yeah,” Qiao Xihe said with a smile. “We’re almost out of rice and flour at home, I’m going to buy some. Do you want to come with me?”
Shen Wanmu looked at Shen Wanzhou, as if asking for his opinion.
Shen Wanzhou nodded silently, and Qiao Xihe happily headed out the door.
Since the two brothers were going, the two sisters would obviously tag along too, they weren’t about to stay home alone with the stepmother.
And so Qiao Xihe set off with the whole protagonist group in tow, quite the procession.
Based on the original owner’s memories, Qiao Xihe worked out that the money Tang Yifang had given her would buy about two catties of rice and two catties of flour.
To be honest, that wouldn’t last very long.
She’d still need to head up the mountain again tomorrow to keep foraging.
As the saying goes, enemies are bound to cross paths [1]enemies are bound to cross paths (yuan jia lu zhai, 冤家路窄) Idiom, fate keeps putting you face to face with someone you clash with jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3389178_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3389178_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, Qiao Xihe had just reached the big willow tree at the village entrance when she spotted Wang Qiucui, standing there chatting with a few other women.
Chattering away noisily, quite the lively scene.
Just then, Wang Qiucui spotted Qiao Xihe too, and immediately remembered the sight of herself being chased all over the courtyard, flinching instinctively.
Qiao Xihe gave her a chillingly cold smile.
Wang Qiucui came back to her senses, seething with resentment inside.
Why should she be afraid of some teenage girl? This morning she’d just been caught off guard, that’s all.
But now there were several women here who were on good terms with her, why should she fear Qiao Xihe?
Thinking this, she sneered and called out loudly, “Well, well, and who might this be, the Shen family’s stepdaughter. What, taking your little brothers and sisters somewhere?”
“What’s it to you?” Qiao Xihe shot back, not bothering to be polite.
“Oh ho ho, look at this, is this how you talk to your elders? Well, no surprise really, no father, tagging along after your mother into a remarriage, an extra mouth to feed—ah!”
Before she could finish, Qiao Xihe had already bent down, picked up a stone, and thrown it without mercy, hitting her square on the forehead.
The stone was small, so Wang Qiucui wasn’t seriously hurt, but it stung like hell.
Furious, she shouted, “Am I wrong? Fine, you’re an extra mouth, but on top of that you abuse the Shen family’s own children, you and your mother are both heartless things!”
At this, the other women all chimed in agreement, their looks toward Qiao Xihe growing hostile.
Qiao Xihe couldn’t help silently cursing the original owner in her head.
The sins the original owner had committed, now she was the one who had to clean up the mess.
But what she didn’t expect was that Shen Wanyin would suddenly speak up loudly. “My sister… she’s really good to us now! She makes us food, and she blows on my knee when it hurts…”
Her voice trailed off smaller and smaller as she spoke, after all, she was still just a little bean, and it had already taken quite a lot of courage just to say this much.
Once she finished, she quickly grabbed onto Shen Wanzhou’s sleeve, her face flushed red.
Shen Wanzhou looked at her deeply.
Qiao Xihe’s heart filled with warmth.
Little Yin’er had actually started speaking up for her!
It looked like her pursuit was about to succeed!
“Oh, little one, you’ve been fooled by her!” Wang Qiucui sneered. “You really think she’s being good to you? Let me tell you something, maybe she’s just trying to lower your guard so she can turn around and sell you off!”
Except for Shen Wanzhou, the other three children’s little faces immediately went pale with fear.
They didn’t want to be sold! They still had to stay home and wait for their father to come back!
“Wang Qiucui, seems like I’ll have to tear that rotten mouth of yours apart before you come to your senses!”
Qiao Xihe said, already rolling up her sleeves and charging forward.
Wang Qiucui instantly remembered the miserable state she’d been in at noon, screaming from the beating, and for a moment didn’t dare fight back against Qiao Xihe. She was chased around again, and finally tripped over a large rock by accident, falling flat on her face.
“Hahaha…” Two of the women couldn’t help bursting out laughing.
“The Xu family, scared of a little girl, aren’t you embarrassed?”
Someone who was on decent terms with Wang Qiucui hurried over to help her up.
Wang Qiucui, her face covered in dirt, silently cursed the two women who’d laughed at her.
Did they really not know how fierce this Qiao Xihe girl was?
Seeing that Wang Qiucui had already brought this on herself, Qiao Xihe didn’t bother fighting her any further.
Just then, Shen Wanzhou suddenly spoke up flatly: “I know you hold a grudge against my sister, just because she exposed your lies, is that really worth all this? My sister’s still just a child too!”
Qiao Xihe was stunned.
Shen Wanzhou… called her “sister”?
“You, what nonsense are you talking! What lies did I tell!” Wang Qiucui said, a note of guilt creeping into her voice.
No one but Auntie Liu knew about what had happened at the Shen house today.
“You really want me to say it? Fine, I’ll say it then, your Xiongzi secretly ate your own sugar, then pinned the blame on my little sister, and you came to our house trying to extort money out of us, only to get beaten badly by my sister. What, did you already forget something that only happened this noon?”
“Exactly! You got beaten so bad!” Shen Wanmu chimed in.
The way the other women looked at Wang Qiucui changed, some of them with a hint of contempt.
“You! You’ve all had your brains addled, taking her side…”
Shen Wanzhou didn’t bother responding to her anymore, and instead said to Qiao Xihe, “Sister, let’s go.”
Qiao Xihe nodded immediately and led her siblings away.
Back under the willow tree, Wang Qiucui spat toward their retreating backs. “Pah! What’s so great about her? All she can do is fool a bunch of kids! Let me tell you, Qiao Xihe and her mother are definitely up to no good! Think about it, how did they treat those Shen kids before?”
At this, the other women all recalled the miserable state those four children had been in before, and their expressions turned uneasy.
“Then why are those four children suddenly so close with Qiao Xihe now? Even speaking up for her?”
“Could it be that Qiao Xihe’s hitting them again, forcing them to do this?”
“What are you talking about? Let me tell you, Qiao Xihe’s deliberately currying favor with them right now just so she can sell them off! Don’t you know? There’s been human traffickers showing up in the villages next to ours recently, specifically targeting kids to kidnap!”
“Huh? Really?”
“Would I lie to you? Just a few days ago, over in Wu family village, a household so poor they couldn’t scrape by sold off their own daughter, got ten taels of silver for her!”
“Ten taels, that much!”
“What else could they do, not sell their own kid?”
“That’s just not right! I need to go warn my own little brats when I get back not to run around loose these next few days! Don’t let any trafficker snatch them!”
“That’s right, and if those traffickers can’t buy a kid outright, they’ll lure them away with candy!”
Just then, Auntie Liu happened to walk over, and hearing all this, her face went ghostly pale.
“Surely Qiao Xihe wouldn’t really sell off her own brothers and sisters?” Auntie Liu said, uneasy.
“Why not? They’re not even really her siblings! You don’t know how wicked she and her mother are?”
Auntie Liu stamped her foot anxiously. There was no way she could just stand by and watch those poor children fall into Qiao Xihe’s hands!
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