People pointed fingers at Diao Siniang, making her face turn ashen one moment and pale the next. She had just reached for Meng Anci to pull him up when he slipped around her and darted behind Jin Shanyao.
Diao Siniang shot him a vicious glare. "You ungrateful wretch, I'll deal with you after we finish moving." With that, she hoisted the bundle onto her shoulder and headed outside, only for an arm to bar her way.
"Put that down."
Diao Siniang hitched the bundle higher on her shoulder and sneered. "Little sister, you should know your place. Your sister married into our Meng family, so she belongs to us.
"Never mind that she's dead. Even if she were alive, she'd still have to watch our faces to get by. You're an outsider here to sponge off us, and you think you're somebody?
"You want me to put this down? I'm taking things from my own home. Who are you to point fingers at me? Let out one more fart and see if I don't slap you across the face!"
Smack... A fair, slender hand landed a swift, precise, and merciless slap on Diao Siniang's face.
Diao Siniang's ears rang, and when she opened her mouth, a tooth fell out. Covering half her face, she stared at Jin Shanyao in disbelief. Who... who did she think she was, daring to hit her?
Jin Shanyao was a tree that had spent years huddled in a hole. Though she had taken human form, she was clumsy with words and had never argued with a "person" before. She couldn't get a word in.
Thanks to Diao Siniang's reminder, she realized she now had hands and feet and didn't have to stand there listening to abuse. Jin Shanyao gave Diao Siniang a grateful smile.
But to Diao Siniang, that smile was pure provocation. Her temper flared. "You little whore living under someone else's roof, I'll tear you apart..."
Before she could finish, Jin Shanyao slapped her again with the back of her hand, knocking her straight to the ground. The bundle and kang mat she carried fell with her.
Seeing this, Meng Anci hurriedly dragged the kang mat to Jin Shanyao's feet, planted his hands on his hips... and glared fiercely at Diao Siniang. The sight made Old Woman Li from next door blush.
When Meng Anzhi saw her brother dragging the kang mat away, she stealthily pulled the bundle beside her eldest aunt over to herself, then edged it behind Jin Shanyao bit by bit.
Meng Hongde dropped the clothes in his arms and cursed. "Damn you, you dare hit someone in my Meng family's home? Tired of living?" With that, he stepped forward and threw a punch at Jin Shanyao.
Like a little firecracker, Meng Anci charged forward, intent on biting a chunk of flesh out of him.
But before he knew it, his aunt had kicked his eldest uncle several meters through the air. His uncle's body slammed hard against the wall. Meng Anci stared at Jin Shanyao in shock.
I've sharpened my teeth... and you're making me bite air????
A shattering pain shot through Meng Hongde's breastbone. He pointed at Jin Shanyao.
"You... you've gone too far! This house belongs to the Meng family. You've taken over the magpie's nest like a cuckoo and won't let go. Just you wait. I won't let this go."
With that, he clutched his chest and struggled to his feet, pulled Diao Siniang up, and left the courtyard in a sorry state.
After the eldest branch of the Meng family left, Old Woman Li stepped forward to advise her. "Girl, I know you're a good person, but you're still young, after all. Raising two children on your own won't sound good when word gets out."
Others chimed in. "That's right. You need to think about yourself too. Your sister is dead, so this house and the fields should go to the Meng clan. What business does someone from her birth family have holding on to them?"
"And these two children-you'll pour your heart and soul into raising them, only for them to return to their ancestral clan one day and leave you with nothing. Is that worth it?"
"Exactly. Auntie Meng, you mustn't be foolish. The children's parents have passed away, so their clan should raise them. Your relationship with them isn't quite as close, after all."
Everyone talked at once, making Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci's hearts race. These villagers meant no good. They knew full well that the eldest and second branches were no good, yet they still wanted to send the children back.
Nervously, Meng Anzhi reached for Jin Shanyao's hand and said in a soft, aggrieved voice, "Auntie, you're the only family I have left. Before Mother died, she told us to stay with you."
Meng Anci's eyes darted around, and he fiercely wiped away his tears.
"Auntie, you should go. My eldest and second uncles don't treat us well, but the villagers can't just stand by and watch us die. My sister and I can grow up eating from a hundred families' tables."
The moment the villagers heard he intended to eat from a hundred families' tables, they fell silent in fright. Those who had just been urging Jin Shanyao to hand the children over fled faster than anyone, leaving only Old Woman Li gazing at the three of them with pity.
She sighed and returned to the courtyard next door with her hands clasped behind her back, thinking that Jin Shanyao was still young and didn't know how hard it was for an unmarried woman to live with two children.
There would be times when she'd cry...
Nothing remained in the courtyard but a terrible mess.
Jin Shanyao crouched down and wiped the tears from the two children's faces. "Don't cry. Auntie won't leave."
Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci nodded firmly.
Meng Anzhi said, "Auntie, don't believe what they said. We won't leave you when we grow up either."
"Right... we'll be together forever." Meng Anci's little face was solemn, his small fists clenched, and his eyes held a soft, childlike fierceness.
Before her benefactor died, she had asked Jin Shanyao to teach the two children to read and write and learn some skills. Jin Shanyao hadn't known what skills were, but after the trouble with the Meng family's eldest branch, she suddenly understood.
Skills were the law of survival in the jungle: being able to catch prey and snatch food from one's companions.
The two children were still young. When they ran into problems in the future, they couldn't always solve them by throwing tantrums and rolling around on the ground as they had today. Jin Shanyao made a decision.
"How about I teach you martial arts?"
The two little ones' eyes lit up. "The kind where you can send Eldest Uncle flying with one kick?"
"Yes, even better than kicking him away. You'll be able to beat him until he's crawling around looking for his teeth."
Meng Anci was the first to react. He said excitedly, "I want to learn! I want to learn!"
Meng Anzhi said, "I want to learn too! I want to learn too!"
Seeing the two children smile again, Jin Shanyao felt some of the gloom in her heart lift.
She reached out and carefully smoothed their rumpled collars, then smiled gently. "All right, we'll start practicing martial arts tomorrow."
Meng Anci's big eyes were full of questions. "Why not now?"
"Because we have to tidy the house." Jin Shanyao looked at the mess, her head aching.
She shouldn't have let those two leave earlier. She regretted it.
Humans really were cunning.
Jin Shanyao and the two little ones worked hard to tidy the house. Even the cats and dogs helped. By the time they finished, the two little ones were exhausted.
They lay on either side of Jin Shanyao, holding her arms and snuggling close against her. The room where their mother had once been was now empty.
Jin Shanyao had never been this close to humans.
She couldn't help feeling surprised and curious. Human young were soft and squishy.
Plop. A tear landed on her arm. Jin Shanyao turned to look and saw Meng Anzhi burying her little head in her arm, silently weeping.
Jin Shanyao said nothing and stared blankly at the roof.
Taishang Laojun had once said that the answer to every problem could be found in books. There had to be an answer in books for raising children too.
She would go to the county town another day and buy a few books. She couldn't go wrong raising them by the book. She really was so clever...
Grrr... Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci clutched their stomachs at the same time. They hadn't eaten a bite since morning, but they had endured their hunger, afraid to tell their aunt.
They were afraid their aunt would think they ate too much and were hard to raise.
Their mother had been bedridden on the kang, and the family had long since run out of grain. They had relied entirely on the wild vegetables they dug up to stave off hunger.
But they were too young and frightened to venture into the mountains, so they only wandered around the village. Even then, the wild vegetables they dug up would be snatched away by their eldest uncle's son and daughter.
Only after their aunt arrived had life become a little easier. Thinking of their dead mother, Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci grew downcast.
As if she had remembered something, Jin Shanyao sprang up and headed outside.
Startled, Meng Anci hurriedly called out, "Auntie, where are you going?"
"To make you something to eat."
Jin Shanyao was a tree and didn't need to eat. She only had to stand in the courtyard to absorb the essence of the sun and moon. But human young couldn't do that. They had to eat to survive.
Damn it, she had forgotten all about that.
Jin Shanyao strode into the kitchen and looked around. There was nothing there. The rice jar was empty, and so was the vegetable basket. Only the water jar was full.
Two duck eggs sat in a bowl on the stove. They were wild duck eggs Dahuang had just taken from the riverside.
Boiled duck eggs... She had seen her benefactor make them before. She got straight to work, but after stuffing soft grass into the stove opening, she found herself at a loss with the fire starter in her hand.
She was a tree, naturally afraid of fire... Especially when others of her kind had been hacked to pieces and laid in front of the stove to be burned as firewood. The sight pained her deeply.
As she hesitated, a small figure walked in. Meng Anzhi was holding Meng Anci's hand. "Auntie, do you not know how to light a fire?"
Jin Shanyao held the fire starter and looked at her...
Meng Anzhi shook her head.
Auntie was very strange. When she came to their home, her clothes were ragged, and even her hair was scorched black. Mother had said Auntie had come as a refugee.
She usually did no work and rarely ate, except for drinking water. Most of the time, she stood barefoot in the yard, basking in the sun.
The villagers all said there was something wrong with Auntie's head.