RFGCF 05

Chapter – 05

Great-Aunt Qin

Old Mrs. Ye’s wailing cries immediately reached her ears. “It’s all my fault! I came too late. How could I let a silly girl take Little Bean into the mountains? It’s so late now—they’re probably never coming back.

If I hadn’t spent the whole day settling scores with that damned Old Woman Wang, my two grandchildren wouldn’t have been eaten!”

Old Mrs. Ye’s tone was so certain, as if she’d witnessed it with her own eyes. Yet even when Ye Xiaohua reached the doorstep, she never once said a word about taking people up the mountain to search.

Clearly, this was another act of crocodile tears.

“Mother, it’s fate. You can’t blame yourself for this. If that silly girl had gone back to our house with you this morning, she wouldn’t have…”

That voice… wasn’t that her Great-Aunt Qin Xiulian?

Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law working together—they were clearly up to no good.

Ye Xiaohua wasn’t afraid. If one came, she’d fight one; if two came, she’d take on a pair. She was certain these two were after their little ramshackle house. Old Mrs. Ye had already hinted before that she wanted them to vacate the place.

Now that Li had passed away, of course she was hoping that she and Little Bean would meet with an accident so she could rightfully seize the house.

With the morning’s incident in mind, Guan Qiu had held back for Old Mrs. Ye’s sake, hoping she would show at least a little kindness to the siblings. But now he couldn’t help but interrupt. “Auntie, isn’t it too early to say they’ve been eaten? Maybe they just got lost? Crying here won’t help—you should go search the mountain instead.”

“Search?” Qin Xiulian twisted the handkerchief in her hands. “Seventh Uncle, the back mountain is huge, and wild beasts often appear there. If something happens to the people who go looking for them, who’s going to take responsibility?”

“And what, are you implying we don’t care about those two kids? If we didn’t care, would we have come all the way over first thing this morning to pick them up?”

Old Mrs. Ye had already told Qin Xiulian everything that happened when she got home. Qin Xiulian felt that the failure to successfully sell Little Bean and seize the house wasn’t anyone’s fault but that meddlesome Guan Qiu’s, so her words were laced with thorns.

“Our Xiaohua is simple-minded—she listens to anyone and can’t tell who’s family and who’s not. Who knows if someone’s been whispering bad things in her ear? Ah… my poor child, why can’t she ever meet good people?”

Unlike Old Mrs. Ye, who could only cry, Qin Xiulian’s tearful tirade successfully dragged Guan Qiu into the mud.

Ye Xiaohua, standing outside the yard gate, would have listened longer—this Great-Aunt was no ordinary woman, and she’d have to deal with her often in the future, so understanding her better would help avoid losses—if she weren’t worried that Guan Qiu couldn’t handle being twisted around by Qin Xiulian.

But the two siblings had already entered the yard and were nearly at the doorstep, yet no one noticed them. Helpless, Ye Xiaohua could only squeeze in behind the crowd and keep listening.

Guan Qiu was already at a loss for words, and it took him a long moment to retort. “Sister-in-law Ye, how can you say that? How… how am I the bad guy here? Besides, they’re just two children—what possible designs could I have on them?”

Qin Xiulian rolled her eyes. “I was just saying—I didn’t name you specifically, Seventh Uncle. Don’t read too much into it. If you really care about those kids and think they’re fine, why don’t you go look for them? If you actually find them, you’ll be the Ye family’s savior.”

Qin Xiulian deliberately provoked Guan Qiu. After all, even the toughest men wouldn’t dare go up the mountain at night. A weak scholar like him—she was certain he wouldn’t dare.

They weren’t his own kids. Why would he risk his life for them?

Since even the family members weren’t going, naturally no one else would stick their neck out. They all turned to look at Guan Qiu, clearly enjoying the spectacle.

Without hesitation, Guan Qiu nodded. Glancing at the attitudes of those around him, he knew he would have to go alone. “Alright, I’ll go look for them now.”

But just as he pushed through the crowd, he stopped in his tracks. Qin Xiulian, not understanding why, saw him stop and assumed he’d changed his mind, so she started with the sarcasm. “Seventh Uncle, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you going? If you’re afraid of wild beasts in the back mountain, take a knife for protection.”

Guan Qiu ignored Qin Xiulian’s taunts from behind, treating them like nothing more than a rabid dog that had slipped its leash and was barking wildly. He didn’t keep walking because he saw Ye Xiaohua—carrying her bamboo basket on her back, holding her little brother’s hand—smiling at him.

His anxious heart finally settled back into his chest. The silly girl had her own luck—it wasn’t so easy for her to end up in a wolf’s belly.

Ye Xiaohua looked up, her ink-black eyes filled with innocence and confusion. “Seventh Uncle, why are you here again? Hehe, did you bring us more steamed buns? We haven’t even finished the ones you gave us this morning.”

Ye Xiaohua made sure everyone present heard that the very people who claimed to care about them hadn’t given them a single bite to eat, while the “outsider” Qin Xiulian talked about was the one bringing them food.

She didn’t expect everyone to understand—just one or two would be enough. Surely not everyone was a fool.

That’s… the silly girl’s voice?

Qin Xiulian’s expression changed dramatically. Old Mrs. Ye also stopped crying and forcefully pushed through the crowd. When she saw the two siblings, she gasped in shock. “You… you… you weren’t eaten?”

Little Bean shrank behind Ye Xiaohua. In just one day, he’d seen how formidable his silly sister could be, and right now he felt safe under her protection.

Ye Xiaohua stood there calmly, saying nothing. The water she’d brought was long gone, and her throat was dry—she didn’t feel like wasting words.

Qin Xiulian, wanting to continue playing the role of the loving great-aunt, rushed over, ready to embrace Ye Xiaohua in a tearful reunion. But the bamboo basket on Xiaohua’s back was too much in the way.

She looked at the basket disdainfully and, by the light of the torches, examined what was inside.

Although Ye Xiaohua had separated the hawthorn berries from the mantis egg sacs, the jostling along the way down the mountain had caused a small portion to mix together.

Qin Xiulian grabbed a handful of mantis eggs, which had a few red hawthorn berries mixed in. “Silly girl, you really are a fool. You went all the way up the back mountain and couldn’t even bring back anything useful! You picked a bunch of inedible stuff. Last time Qiao Er ate these berries and got poisoned.”

Qin Xiulian looked at the things in her hand with disgust. Earlier, when the old lady had told her about how the girl’s retorts were strangely apt, she’d thought something was off. But now, seeing what she’d brought back, Qin Xiulian felt she’d overthought it.

It must have been a coincidence. The old woman was just stupid—she’d told her that morning to wait so they could come together after she’d finished decocting Teng’er’s medicine, but she wouldn’t listen. No wonder she’d ended up losing face.

Everyone in the village knew about Qiao Er getting poisoned, and he’d insisted it was from eating hawthorn berries. Ye Xiaohua knew this too, but she was certain the berries weren’t poisonous. Qiao Er was just greedy—he might have eaten something else he shouldn’t have.

“What’s this? Can you eat it? My silly girl, you’re really worrying me to death.” Qin Xiulian held up a mantis egg sac to the torchlight for a closer look.

Ye Xiaohua knew her Great-Aunt was good at many things, but she was afraid of bugs—all bugs.