“Hey! Aren’t you eating?” Seeing Shen Yiyi still not picking up her chopsticks, Hutou, who had already finished his own portion, reached out. “I want it! Give it to me!”
“You little brat, do I owe you a bite of food?” Hu Sicai scolded, slapping Hutou’s head with his left hand, which was missing a pinky finger.
Niu Shi pulled her son close, glaring sideways at Hu Sicai.
Watching Hutou, who was about to open his mouth and wail again, Shen Yiyi hesitantly asked, “Do you really want to eat it?”
“Yes!” Hutou widened his eyes. Without waiting for Shen Yiyi to nod, he leaned over and snatched the bowl, burying his face in it as he slurped loudly.
Just as Hu Sicai was about to lose his temper, Niu Shi spoke first: “Yuan Jie’er is giving her meat to her little brother! Oh, how she dotes on him! After all, they’re flesh and blood!”
“…Mm, if he wants it, let him have it,” Shen Yiyi replied.
She silently took a bite of the pancake—
What is this!
So hard! So bitter!
Then, Shen Yiyi choked.
Coughing violently, she desperately swallowed the coarse lump stuck in her throat with her saliva.
Shen Yiyi pounded her chest to catch her breath. Through teary eyes, she saw—
Hu Sicai picking his teeth with chopsticks;
Niu Shi sneezing, spraying bits of food from her mouth into Hutou’s soup bowl;
And Hutou, adding his own ingredients—his runny nose was about to drip into the bowl…
“Oh, oh, oh, delicious, right? Slow down, child! When your uncle has money, your aunt will cook this for you every day!”
…What misunderstanding do you have about your own cooking?
Hu Sicai examined Shen Yiyi, who was coughing until her face turned red. Seeing that although she seemed dull, there was nothing visibly wrong with her, he finally let it go.
Then, following Niu Shi’s smug lead, he rambled on with nonsense like “relatives should help each other” and “when Hutou makes something of himself in the future, he won’t forget his own sister.”
Meanwhile, Da Ya, ignored by everyone, first stole glances at the adults’ expressions, then looked enviously at Hutou, before finally lowering her head and quietly sipping her own bowl of soup, which contained only a few scraps.
Xilin Village was only about ten li from Anyang County, but it had rained lightly all day yesterday, leaving the roads quite muddy.
Hu Sicai had a small bundle tied to his chest and carried a large bamboo basket on his back—this was Shen Yiyi’s exclusive ride.
Shen Yiyi knew her place and obediently crouched inside the basket.
Da Ya carried a rather large bundle and followed silently.
Hutou was led by Niu Shi, sometimes walking, sometimes being carried.
The group walked and rested intermittently. By the time they entered the county town, it was already past noon.
“I want to eat this!”
“Eat, eat, eat, always wanting to eat! Even if I had a mountain of gold, you’d waste it all!”
Hutou, who had been hungry for a while, couldn’t resist when he saw the food stalls lining the streets and smelled the enticing aromas wafting from them.
Niu Shi swallowed her saliva and discussed it with Hu Sicai. They decided not to waste money and headed straight for the Shen Mansion.
Wouldn’t the young lady’s family be offered a meal when they visited?
Shen Yiyi, who had only forced herself to eat half a wild vegetable pancake in the morning, was also hungry. But she paid no attention to that. From the moment she entered the gates of Anyang County, she had been wide-eyed, carefully observing this unfamiliar world.
The shop signs and plaques along the street were mostly written in traditional Chinese characters using regular or clerical script—a huge relief for her. Thank goodness for calligraphy class! She could read and write most commonly used traditional characters, so at least she wouldn’t be completely illiterate.
The streets weren’t particularly dirty or chaotic, and the passersby looked calm and peaceful. Hmm, that probably meant it was a time of peace?
It wasn’t uncommon to see women setting up stalls or strolling around. That was a good sign—likely a dynasty with less strict restrictions on women.
The poor, like Hu Sicai and his family, wore patched coarse cloth short jackets. Among the wealthier-looking people, men wore round-collared robes or crossed-collar garments fastened to the right, while women dressed in short jackets over skirts, their hair styled in buns adorned with hairpins.
This was where Shen Yiyi’s knowledge fell short. Based on the unreliable costumes from historical dramas, she guessed it might be the Tang or Song dynasty.
Amid Hutou’s wailing, the group walked for about the time it takes an incense stick to burn.
Gradually, the vendors along the stone-paved road disappeared, and even the shops grew sparse. Turning into a narrow alley, they found few pedestrians, with high blue-brick walls lining both sides. Shen Yiyi guessed this must be the upscale residential district of the county town.
Hu Sicai approached a small gate and knocked for a long time before someone finally responded, “Coming, coming!”
The gate opened just a crack, and a boy who looked about fifteen or sixteen peeked out, asking, “What’s the matter?”
Hu Sicai beamed. “Young man, we’re here to claim kinship at the Shen Mansion!”
“Claim kinship?” The boy stepped out in surprise, his small beady eyes scanning the group.
They weren’t exactly dressed in rags, but their clothes were visibly patched, and their shoes and trouser legs were caked in mud.
The little boy, still sniffling, had a long trail of snot dangling from his nose. He first sniffed it back, then stuck out his tongue to lick it—
The boy quickly averted his gaze, focusing instead on the girl who was stretching her legs after climbing out of the large backpack. She was the only one dressed decently. Hmm, and she looked good too—fair and delicate, clearly not from the same family as the other four.
Feeling he had a grasp of the situation, the beady-eyed boy picked his teeth lazily and asked, “Whose relatives are you?”
“Master Shen’s!” Hu Sicai straightened his back proudly.
“…This is Master Shen’s residence. I’m asking who you’re looking for?” The beady-eyed boy figured the country bumpkin across from him hadn’t understood.
“We’re looking for Master Shen!” Hu Sicai pushed Shen Yiyi forward. “This is Master Shen’s daughter, and I’m her paternal uncle, her mother’s own brother!”
Shen Yiyi, whose legs were still numb, stumbled forward and looked up with an awkward smile.
The beady-eyed boy’s gaze met Shen Yiyi’s, and in an instant, the toothpick in his mouth fell out.
“Bang!”
Watching in disbelief as the boy ran back inside without a word, the small gate slamming shut behind him, Hu Sicai and Niu Shi were dumbfounded.
“Dad!”
“Dad! Dad, something’s wrong, Dad—”
“Bah! Your old man is just fine!” Cao Mo, the steward of the Shen residence, had just finished his late lunch and brewed a pot of strong tea when his son, Cao Jinbao, burst in. He scolded irritably, “What’s all the fuss? You’re a grown man now, stop making such a racket!”
“Dad, something’s happened!”
Cao Mo glared. “Stop shouting nonsense!”
“Don’t hit me! Wait, Dad, someone’s here claiming kinship—they say she’s also the master’s daughter!”
“What!”
Cao Mo fumbled at the side gate for a long time, but the door was of excellent quality, and the gap in the middle was too narrow to see anything clearly.
Cao Jinbao tugged at his sleeve, pointing to a crack on the threshold below.
Cao Mo crouched down, feeling the neatly cut gap, then shot Cao Jinbao a sharp glare before leaning in for a closer look.
When he stood up and stepped back a few paces, Cao Jinbao fawningly brushed the dust off his clothes and asked in a hushed voice, “Father, is it real?”
Cao Mo gave him an annoyed look. “How should I know!”
“What do we do now?”
“Come, let’s go to the study to find the Master.”
The two hurried along, passing by the outer rooms where they spotted someone peering near the corridor entrance. Cao Mo’s face darkened. “Who’s there?”
The figure vanished instantly.
Cao Mo turned to warn him, “We must report this quietly to the Master. Whatever you do, don’t let the Furen’s side find out first! And remember, the outer rooms are all occupied by outsiders now—keep a tight watch on the gates.”
“Yes! I still need your constant reminders, Father. I hadn’t thought it through.”
“The Master just received an invitation from Second Master Liu and went out.”
Cao Mo hadn’t expected to miss the Master by a hair, nor to run headlong into Nanny Tong from Madam Wu’s side in the study.
Nanny Tong was taking advantage of the Master’s absence to inventory the furnishings that needed to be moved from the study. When Cao Mo arrived, she didn’t even look up, answering him offhandedly.
Cao Mo chuckled awkwardly, making excuses about some minor household matter, and tried to slip away.
Unfortunately, Cao Jinbao’s nerves were far too weak. Faced with Madam Wu’s trusted confidante, he grew so tense he started walking with both legs moving in sync.
As a servant snickered, Nanny Tong also looked up at Cao Jinbao and teased, “What’s with the funny face, boy? Did you do something wrong? So guilty you’ve forgotten how to walk?”
Hearing this, Cao Mo thought, This is bad.
Sure enough, his useless, foolish son widened his tiny Green Bean Eyes in panic until they were as big as soybeans, stammering for a long while without managing a complete sentence.
“Hold on a moment,” Nanny Tong said, taking in the scene. She hadn’t paid much attention before, but now she could tell something was off and immediately stopped Cao Mo from trying to brush it aside.
“You, come here!” She grabbed Cao Jinbao and interrogated him until everything was laid bare.
“Sister Tong, over here!” Seeing Nanny Tong struggling by the door panel, Cao Mo quickly whispered directions and even pulled out a handkerchief to spread on the ground.
Nanny Tong, stout in build, hesitated briefly but didn’t care about getting dirty. With effort, she lay flat on the ground and peered outside.
After waiting nearly the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Hu Sicai’s back was already aching from standing straight. He rubbed his hands, pacing in circles outside the side gate, occasionally touching the letter in his chest and glancing back at the tightly shut door.
Niu Shi and the children sat leaning against the wall opposite the gate, their faces full of anxiety. She stared at the small door, now raising her voice to ask, “Husband, what’s going on?” and now muttering curses under her breath about Da Ya not holding her brother properly. Though no one responded, she kept muttering without pause.
Faced with her mother’s inexplicable scolding, Da Ya, long accustomed to it, remained silent as ever. She adjusted Hutou, who was dozing off with his head nodding on her lap, and only observed everyone from the corner of her lowered eyes.
Suddenly meeting Shen Yiyi’s gaze, she instantly looked away and buried her head deeply.
Am I that frightening? But now wasn’t the time to dwell on a little girl’s psychological issues. Watching the restless Hu Sicai and Niu Shi, Shen Yiyi felt utterly helpless.
Being directly driven away without even getting through the gate was the worst and most likely outcome she had anticipated.
The problem was that this couple’s expectations were far too high, so she had long been mentally prepared to bear the brunt of their anger.
Especially Niu Shi, this aunt-in-law was shallow and materialistic, her petty schemes so transparent they could practically be heard from the village entrance—frighteningly straightforward. Life after returning home was going to be quite difficult.
“Creak—”
The side gate moved, and out came the same Green Bean Eyes.
Niu Shi sprang to her feet, hurried forward a couple of steps, then stopped, but craned her neck as far as it would go.
This time, Hu Sicai stepped forward with an apologetic smile. In a back-and-forth exchange, he explained the matter of the original host’s mother, finally handing over the letter from his chest.
Shen Yiyi pricked up her ears and caught the gist of it. She had initially wondered why the young man was speaking so loudly, but upon seeing the shadow on the ground through the half-open door, she understood.
With a “wait here,” the small gate closed once more.