Jin Shanyao thought it over, then spoke with a stern face. "The first and second branches of the Meng family bullied you, and you were right to fight back. But you shouldn't have dragged yourselves down with them, so I have to punish you."
When Meng Anci and Meng Anzhi heard that, they instinctively stood up straight and looked at Jin Shanyao in unison.
Jin Shanyao was at a loss. How was a tree supposed to know what human cubs were afraid of?
I've got it...
A smug glint flashed in her eyes. She cleared her throat and said with feigned severity, "Meng Anzhi, Meng Anci, you poisoned people. Not only did you want them dead, you wanted to die with them. I've decided to punish you by sending you to school."
Huh...? Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci thought they were hearing things and stood frozen like wooden chickens. Seeing their expressions, Jin Shanyao gave a little inward snort.
A young tree wouldn't grow straight without pruning, and a person would get unruly without discipline.
Didn't you say you didn't want to study? Hmph... I'll make you study until you submit. Let's see if you dare poison anyone again.
Jin Shanyao squared her shoulders. "Stay in the house and behave. I'll go boil some meat for you. Once you've had your fill, I'll take you to school." With that, she strode out.
Then she hid by the door to sneak a look at the children's reactions.
They were staring at each other, tears in their eyes, looking so aggrieved they were about to cry. Jin Shanyao was satisfied. It seemed raising children wasn't all that hard.
Inside, Meng Anzhi's little heart was as sweet as if it had been coated in honey. No one in the village sent girls to study, yet her aunt was going to send her to school.
Meng Anci sniffled. "Sis, do you think Auntie's angry?"
Meng Anzhi patted his arm. "Are you silly? She's gone to boil meat for us. How could she be angry? Besides, who sends children to school when they're angry?
"Auntie was praising us."
Meng Anci looked thoughtful. "Auntie doesn't smile when she praises people. It's kind of scary."
"Mother once said everyone has a different personality. Maybe Auntie just doesn't like to smile when she praises people." She looked at Meng Anci's forehead. "Does your head still hurt?"
Meng Anci shook his head. "It stopped hurting after Auntie put medicine on it."
"Really? Is it that amazing?" Meng Anzhi bent her head to look. Sure enough, beneath the golden powder, the wound had stopped bleeding. "It really is amazing. I want to learn medicine too someday."
Her spirits fell, and her eyes reddened. "If Auntie had come earlier, or if I knew medicine, would Mother still be alive? And the villagers wouldn't have bullied us either."
Meng Anci took her hand. "Sis, do you remember the villagers who cursed at us?"
Meng Anzhi nodded hard. "I remember. There was Matchmaker Gao, Auntie Yu, and..."
Meng Anci pressed down on her hand, glanced outside the courtyard, and whispered something in her ear. Meng Anzhi's eyes went round with shock.
At the kitchen door, the cat and dog hung their heads in silence.
Jin Shanyao bent down and shoved wood into the stove. Seeing that it was burning slowly, she fanned it twice.
"I know you've only just come to another world and don't feel much attachment to this place, but you can't just stand by and watch them get beaten. If anything happens to them, we can forget about repaying the debt. We might as well pack up and go back to the primeval forest."
Jin Shanyao had wanted to scold them more harshly, but in the end she couldn't bear to. After all, they had been with her since they were born.
"This may not be our home, but we'll be living here for more than ten years, maybe even longer. I hope you can adjust as soon as possible."
Jin Shanyao knew she hadn't thought things through herself, so she couldn't be too hard on them.
Forget it. We'll learn from this setback. From now on, I'll take the two children wherever I go.
The hot water bubbled around the meat in the pot. Jin Shanyao drew her thoughts back and sniffed the air. It smelled quite good.
There had been two pig legs. Diao Siniang had stolen one that morning and taken it home to stew with deadly mushrooms. This one had been meant as a gift for the children's teacher, but now she could only cut off a piece to stave off their hunger.
Jin Shanyao thought she would go up the mountain tomorrow and hunt a silly roe deer. She had heard its meat tasted better than wild boar, so the teacher ought to like it.
The meat had just finished boiling when someone knocked on the courtyard gate.
As she wiped her hands, Jin Shanyao called into the house, "Anzhi, Anci, there's meat in the kitchen. Go and eat." Then she walked to the gate and smiled. "What brings you here, Village Head?"
The village head was a wizened old man, his gaunt face starved down to the bone. He hesitated before saying, "Auntie Meng, I heard from Diao Siniang that the two children picked the mushrooms."
Jin Shanyao's smile froze. "What do you mean by that, Village Head? How old are those two children? They don't know poisonous mushrooms, but doesn't Diao Siniang know them either?
"So the family gets poisoned, and you put the blame on two children?"
The village head hastily waved his hands. "That's not what I meant." He brought out two mushrooms from behind his back. "What would four- or five-year-old children know about mushrooms? I went out and picked two today on purpose."
He held a honey mushroom and a deadly mushroom out to Jin Shanyao. "These two mushrooms look very similar. Most people can't tell them apart, especially when they haven't fully grown."
He explained them in meticulous detail. Jin Shanyao watched him the whole time without saying a word.
If there had been even one honey mushroom among those Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci had picked, she would have had reason to knock the old man's teeth out. Ridiculously enough, the two children had been bent on poisoning everyone in the Meng family, and every mushroom they picked was deadly.
The village head probably hadn't come to talk about mushrooms, but to warn her. After all, who would believe that four- or five-year-old children would poison their own family to death?
Jin Shanyao smiled. "You really do know more, Village Head. Now that you've explained it, I can see these mushrooms are different."
The village head smiled and nodded. "Auntie Meng, you're a capable woman, unlike us who scrape a living from the soil. Our Little River Village is only as big as a palm. We see each other wherever we turn.
"The old Meng family has behaved outrageously. Everyone knows it.
"But... we're all neighbors here. What we want is to live in peace. If someone really dies and the authorities hear about it, it won't be something the village can hush up."
Jin Shanyao kept smiling as she nodded. "Thank you for taking the trouble, Village Head."
The village head waved a hand. "When you get old, all you want is peace... I only thought of it on the spur of the moment and came over to make sure they didn't pick poisonous mushrooms again and harm someone else by mistake."
Only after the village head left did the two little ones dare show their faces. They stared at Jin Shanyao without blinking. Their aunt knew many kinds of mushrooms, so why had she listened to the village head's explanation?
They didn't understand... but they had a vague feeling it had something to do with the poisoning.
After the meal, Jin Shanyao lay under the eaves, idly waving a palm-leaf fan. Out in the courtyard, Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci were chasing the cat all over the place.
Meng Anci was panting with exhaustion, yet he hadn't managed to touch a single cat hair. "Auntie, weren't you going to teach us martial arts?"
Jin Shanyao waved her fan and gave a soft hum. "Chasing the cat is martial arts training."
Meng Anzhi fell to the ground with a thud. The wildcat stepped on her back and leaped over her, making her flail her arms and legs in anger. "Xiaoli, you're so mean! Just wait till I catch you. You'll get what's coming to you!"
The wildcat merely gave her a cool glance, then raised its head and strolled leisurely along. The little cubs wanted to catch it? Dream on.
Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci stumbled around the courtyard for half an hour before they finally put down their banners and drums. Jin Shanyao warmed a large pot of water for them and gave them a basin each. Each carrying a change of clothes, they went to bathe.
Jin Shanyao stood in the courtyard with her eyes closed and released her Divine Sense to communicate with the village's plants and trees. When it passed over the Meng family's first branch, a conversation reached her ears.
"Husband, I really had my eyes opened when I went to White Head Mountain today. There are more wild fruits and mushrooms up there than you can count."
"You've got the nerve to mention mushrooms? If Tietou hadn't eaten first, we'd all be going to see the King of Hell by now."
Diao Siniang protested, "How was I supposed to know those two little brats picked deadly mushrooms? They looked just like honey mushrooms to me."
"All right, hurry up and drink your medicine." The voice paused for a moment, then spoke again. "Is White Head Mountain really as good as you say?"
"Of course. What skill does Jin Shanyao have at hunting? It's only because there's so much game on the mountain. The flood only reached the foot of the mountain, so the plants up there weren't affected at all. We can find an old hunter to lead us and hunt a wild boar too. We can make a lot of money selling it to the villagers."
Jin Shanyao couldn't be bothered to listen and continued expanding the range of her Divine Sense.
As it passed Matchmaker Gao's house, she heard her say through gritted teeth, "Wen Jingshu was no good, and her younger sister is no better. She looks like a demon seductress, not a respectable woman at all."
Jin Shanyao was puzzled. Like a demon seductress? Could it be that I haven't done a good enough job pretending to be human?