RFGCF 07

Chapter – 07

A Shady Affair

“Mother, let’s go. Teng’er is injured and still needs his medicine.” Qin Shi was feeling guilty, terrified that the damned foolish girl might blurt out something else she shouldn’t. Fortunately, she had studied her mother-in-law thoroughly and knew exactly what she cared about most.

Old Mrs. Ye truly didn’t want to leave. She had come twice now, and both times she’d gone back empty-handed. The two of them were supposed to be sharp-witted women, yet they couldn’t even fool a simpleton—wasn’t that a joke?

Still, the moment she thought of her eldest grandson not having taken his medicine yet, her heart ached with worry. She shot a vicious sideways glare at Ye Xiaohua and thought to herself: *You can run, but you can’t hide. There’s no way I can’t handle a foolish girl.*

As she walked away, Old Mrs. Ye remained puzzled. Her eldest daughter-in-law had changed her mind far too quickly. On the way back, she asked, “Xiulian, why did you change your mind all of a sudden? If we’d held out a little longer, the foolish girl might have come with us.”

What Qin Xiulian feared most was exactly that—the foolish girl coming back with her. Before, she would have been more than happy to take her along, but not this time. The fool had witnessed her in the act of secretly meeting with her distant cousin from her mother’s family. At the time, terrified of being exposed, she’d had her cousin throw the girl into the pond. Unfortunately, the wretch had survived.

She hadn’t made a move since, mostly because the fool seemed to have forgotten the whole thing. Better to let sleeping dogs lie. But now, out of the blue, she’d brought it up again. If she had been allowed to keep talking, the truth would have come out.

The real reason she’d changed her mind about taking the girl back was her fear of that loose mouth of hers—what nonsense she might spout in front of Old Mrs. Ye.

Of course, she couldn’t tell Old Mrs. Ye any of this. Qin Xiulian’s mind worked fast, and in an instant she’d come up with an excuse. “Mother, I wanted to bring her back too, but with so many people watching, if we’d pushed too hard, everyone would have thought we were bullying two helpless children again.”

“But the house—”

“Of course we still want the house. But when Li Shi left, she took everything edible and sellable from the house. Those two kids don’t know a thing about managing on their own. Even with Old Seventh Guan helping them out, he’s not exactly well-off—his own household is barely scraping by. I heard today that his wife has even been quarreling with him. He’s not a saint; he can’t just abandon his own wife and children for two kids he’s not even related to, can he?”

Seeing Old Mrs. Ye nod, Qin Xiulian continued, “Once Old Seventh Guan stops meddling, those two won’t last long. When they’re starving and come to us on their own, no one will have anything to say about it.”

Old Mrs. Ye thought her eldest daughter-in-law’s reasoning was sound. If they’d brought them back today, they’d surely have been subjected to people’s gossip and finger-pointing. Her daughter-in-law was truly thoughtful.

Though convinced, Old Mrs. Ye still put on the airs of an elder. “Hmph, even so, you should have discussed it with me first. After all, I’m still the head of this household.”

Behind her, Qin Xiulian rolled her eyes and silently cursed the old hag—already half-senile and still thinking she ran things.

“Yes, yes, everyone in this village knows you’re the backbone of the Ye family. It just came to me suddenly. And really, it’s all Old Seventh Guan’s fault. If he hadn’t stuck his nose in where it doesn’t belong, a simple fool wouldn’t have so many ideas. I bet he’s the one pulling the strings behind the scenes.”

With her silver tongue, Qin Xiulian managed to placate Old Mrs. Ye. But her heart was uneasy—who knew when Ye Xiaohua might spill her secret?

After the two women left, most of the crowd dispersed. Before they went, quite a few people reminded Ye Xiaohua to stay away from the back mountain in the future.

Ye Xiaohua listened to what people said with half an ear, but she noticed Guan Qiu’s grim expression, the helplessness on his face even heavier than before.

Guan Qiu crouched down to Ye Xiaohua’s height, patted her shoulder, glanced at the things in her basket, and sighed. “Xiaohua, none of this stuff is edible. Don’t go gathering it anymore. If you’re hungry, just come to Seventh Uncle’s house.”

Whether facing Qin Xiulian or the villagers, Ye Xiaohua hadn’t lied. She’d told them the things in her basket were treasures—they just didn’t believe a fool’s words.

“Seventh Uncle, this stuff really is treasure.”

“Treasure… hah,” Guan Qiu gave a bitter laugh. “Fine, if you say it’s treasure, then it’s treasure. It’s getting late, you two should get to bed early. Come to Seventh Uncle’s house for breakfast tomorrow morning.”

Ye Xiaohua appreciated Guan Qiu’s kindness, but she had no intention of going to his house tomorrow. She had something important to do.

She was going to town.

The next day, Ye Xiaohua got up very early. Yanghe Village was more than ten li of mountain road from Qingshan Town—if she didn’t leave early, it would be midday by the time she got there.

With no breakfast in her stomach, she was feeling a bit weak. And then there was Xiaodouzi with his short little legs. Fortunately, the mantis eggs looked bulky but weren’t all that heavy—half a basket was only about two or three jin. She’d weighed it at home.

The siblings walked and rested along the way, finally making it to town. It was called a town, but it wasn’t very big—not even as large as a decent-sized village in better times. Just two rows of shops, so short you could see from one end to the other. She’d heard that Shiliang Town fifty li away was quite prosperous, but that was a bit far.

Though it seemed tiny to Ye Xiaohua, Xiaodouzi, visiting for the first time, was absolutely thrilled—so excited he forgot he hadn’t eaten breakfast yet.

But no matter how much he forgot, the moment he caught the smell of freshly steamed meat buns from the steamer baskets by the roadside, the little guy’s stomach started growling in protest.

The little fellow stared longingly at the buns, licked his lips, then looked at Ye Xiaohua. “Sis, let’s go.”

Even she was hungry herself, but first things first—they needed to sell the mantis eggs at the herbal medicine shop and get some money.

When they arrived at the shop, they happened to run into Jin Dashan from their village at the entrance. He was taken aback at the sight of the two siblings. He wasn’t one to gossip, but the Ye family affairs had stirred up such a commotion over the past couple of days that it was impossible not to know about them.

He’d heard that the foolish girl had taken her little brother to the back mountain yesterday, and now here she was again today. If he hadn’t seen them, that would be one thing, but since he had, he couldn’t just ignore them. “Foolish girl, what are you doing here? There are so many people around—if you lose your little brother, your grandmother will skin you alive! Don’t wander off. Wait here—I’ll take you home later. Xiaodouzi, you hear me?”

Jin Dashan meant well. He had errands to run and couldn’t very well drag them along, so he figured he’d come back for them. As he turned away, he muttered to himself, “Ah… heaven’s not fair. A fool can’t even take care of herself, and she’s dragging a little one around too. Tsk tsk…”

Little did he know, his words had been overheard by Zhou Er, a shop assistant who’d just returned from delivering medicine. At first, he didn’t pay it much mind—just glanced at Ye Xiaohua standing at the shop entrance.

But then, to his surprise, this foolish girl actually walked into the medicine shop and said she wanted to sell something.