After feeding the speckled chickens and the baby mice, Su Yue helped Su Xing wash up. Then she took three packs of fresh-date red date biscuits as a housewarming gift for Song Zhizhi’s family.
The two sisters headed over to Song Zhizhi’s house.
As soon as they stepped outside, they saw Aunt Yang standing at Song Zhizhi’s doorway.
“Oh my, are you the new neighbors? Just call me Aunt Yang. So, what are you cooking today?”
Song Zhizhi looked visibly annoyed. She clearly disliked Aunt Yang’s nosy behavior.
“We’ve just moved in and haven’t finished unpacking yet, so we won’t be inviting you in.”
“That’s all right. We’re all neighbors here—why worry about whether the place is tidy or not?”
As she spoke, Aunt Yang swayed her hips and tried to squeeze into the house for a look around.
Shameless.
When Su Yue and Su Xing had become orphans and fallen on hard times, Aunt Yang had never lifted a finger to help. Instead, she had constantly tried to get her hands on whatever little the sisters had left.
And now she had the nerve to call them “one big family.”
“Aunt Yang, you’re here too!”
Su Yue walked up warmly.
To deal with someone like this, you had to fight fire with fire.
The moment Aunt Yang saw the two sisters, her face fell and she gave a half-hearted grunt.
Su Yue stepped forward and took Aunt Yang’s hand.
“Auntie, I heard you found something valuable while scavenging these past few days. Let me see it! Where did you find it?”
Of course, Su Yue had no idea whether Aunt Yang had found anything at all.
But to Aunt Yang, everything was a treasure. Even if she picked up a rock, she’d think it was precious.
“Oh, what valuable thing? Nonsense!”
Aunt Yang discreetly pulled her hand away, but Su Yue casually grabbed it again.
Trying to shake me off?
Today I’ll show you just how annoying you are.
Still, Aunt Yang was always poking into other people’s business. Su Yue needed to think of a way to get rid of her for good.
Otherwise, sooner or later, Aunt Yang would discover the animals they were raising and the crops they were growing.
Nothing would be convenient—or safe—with her around.
“Huh? But I heard Aunt Zhao telling people about it. Though I don’t think you’re the sort of person she’d described.”
Aunt Zhao was Zhao Qing’s aunt, who lived diagonally across from Aunt Yang. The two women spent their days gossiping about everyone else and speculating about what people had found while scavenging. They were a notorious pair of busybodies.
The moment Aunt Yang heard this, her triangular eyes widened with anger, and her voice rose several notches.
“What?! That big-mouthed woman! Don’t listen to her nonsense!”
“Of course I won’t.”
Fuming with rage, Aunt Yang stormed off in the direction of Aunt Zhao’s house to confront her.
“My goodness, who was that? She tried to walk right into my house!”
Song Zhizhi came over and took Su Yue’s hand before crouching down to pinch Su Xing’s cheek.
“Wow! Is this your little sister? Call me big sister!”
Su Xing timidly hid behind Su Yue.
Oh no. The thing I was worried about really happened.
Having been left alone at home for years, Su Xing wasn’t used to socializing with others and was wary of strangers.
That wouldn’t do.
“Xingxing, this is my good friend and our new neighbor. She’ll be your big sister from now on too.”
Su Xing nodded and softly said, “Big sister.”
“It’s okay, it’s okay. She’s just a child. She’ll warm up once she gets to know me.”
“Come on, the food’s ready. We’ve been waiting for you two.”
Under Song Zhizhi’s enthusiastic welcome, the sisters entered the house.
The home consisted of three rooms and a small courtyard.
One room served as the main hall, kitchen, and living room.
Another was the bedroom shared by Song Zhizhi and Xu Chunwan.
The third belonged to Song Taotao.
The place was simple. Aside from the old furniture they had brought with them, there was nothing new.
Yet every member of the Song family wore a contented smile.
A corner was missing from the old wooden table. On it sat five bowls of biscuit porridge, with a plate of stir-fried mulberry leaves in the center.
This was already the best meal the Song family could offer their guests.
Su Yue took out the three packs of fresh red date biscuits and handed them to Song Zhizhi.
“Aunt Xu, congratulations on your move. Now that Zhizhi is here, my sister and I will have company. This is a small gift I’ve prepared—please accept it.”
Xu Chunwan was astonished by the three packs of biscuits.
She thought to herself that Su Yue was truly sincere.
During the house repairs, Su Yue had been helping nonstop. She had even provided meals for Wang Liuning.
And now she was bringing a gift as well. How could they accept it?
Both Xu Chunwan and Song Zhizhi firmly refused.
Even though they desperately wanted to keep it.
These were three packs of fresh-date biscuits—an incredibly precious resource.
They could make three whole pots of thick porridge.
“Aunt Xu, please don’t stand on ceremony. In the future, when Zhizhi and I go scavenging, I’ll need your help looking after Xingxing.”
Xu Chunwan readily agreed.
She already loved children, and when Song Zhizhi went out scavenging, she and Song Taotao often felt bored at home.
Having another soft, sweet little girl around would bring more life and laughter to the house.
And so the housewarming celebration passed joyfully.
Inside the house, Su Yue and the others were all smiles.
Out on the street, Aunt Yang and Aunt Zhao were arguing fiercely.
“You old hag! I’ll teach you to spread rumors!”
“Pah! Everyone knows what kind of person you are! I, Yang Su, stand by my words!”
Song Zhizhi’s house didn’t have soundproof insulation, so their shouting drifted inside. Song Zhizhi’s eyes lit up.
“Come on, let’s go watch!”
She grabbed Su Yue and dragged her outside.
Peeking from the doorway, they saw Aunt Yang and Aunt Zhao yanking each other’s hair while hurling insults.
“Wow, they’re just like shrews.”
Su Yue commented.
“What do you mean ‘like’? They are shrews.”
Song Zhizhi agreed.
The fight only became more dramatic.
Some spectators—either troublemakers or people the two women had offended before—gathered around and egged them on.
Meanwhile, their family members tried to separate them while arguing with one another.
“Yang Su, didn’t you say her son belonged to Old Wang next door? Was that true?”
“Really? I heard he was the child of that old bachelor from the back street!”
Not to be outdone, Aunt Zhao shouted back.
“Back then, she was rolling around in the grass with Liu Si behind the weed fields! She even stole Liu Si’s wife’s detector and sold it!”
“You—I’ll tear your mouth apart!”
“Yang Su! Is she telling the truth?!”
Even Aunt Yang’s husband stopped trying to break up the fight and pointed at her accusingly.
Aunt Yang was too consumed by rage to answer.
The two women clawed at each other, soon escalating to pulling clothes, punching, and kicking, as if they had become mortal enemies.
Before long, their family members went back home to grab brooms and joined the fight.
The whole street descended into chaos.
“Hahaha! Let’s see how they go around making trouble for other people after this.”
More and more people gathered to watch.
Aunt Yang and Aunt Zhao were genuinely unpopular and had offended plenty of people. Despite the growing crowd, not a single person stepped forward to stop the fight.
Su Yue and Song Zhizhi simply brought out small stools and sat down to watch.
Although the brawl was fierce—worthy of being called the “Second District War”—it still wasn’t enough.
It would be even better if Aunt Yang could be driven away from living next door altogether.