After Wang Guihua left, Jin Shanyao carried the meat to the main room. The two children followed happily behind, holding the bowls and chopsticks.
Once they were seated, Jin Shanyao picked out a chicken leg for each of them. She sat there watching the two little tots with nothing for herself, and when she saw that they weren't eating, she asked in puzzlement,
"Why aren't you eating? Is it undercooked?"
Meng Anzhi felt miserable. Just like their mother, their aunt had chosen to go hungry so they could eat their fill.
Their mother was already gone; they couldn't lose their aunt too. Meng Anzhi picked up her chicken leg and held it to Jin Shanyao's mouth. "Auntie, eat."
Meng Anci held his chicken leg to Jin Shanyao's mouth too, his eyes shining. "Auntie, eat."
When in Rome, do as the Romans do... she understood that... Otherwise, if someone asked, she couldn't very well shout, "I'm a tree spirit, I'm a tree spirit..."
Using the little tots' hands to hold the chicken legs, Jin Shanyao lowered her head and took a bite from each.
Mm... she had to admit, Wang Guihua was quite a good cook.
Seeing her eat, Meng Anzhi's eyes lit up. Thankfully, Auntie was different from their mother. Otherwise, she really wouldn't have known how to persuade her.
The little girl seemed to have solved a problem as big as the sky. She happily clutched her chicken leg and gnawed away. Their little faces grew greasy as they ate, their eyes full of happiness. They hadn't eaten so heartily in a long time.
The children had small appetites, and one chicken leg was almost enough to fill them. After they'd had a couple more bites of rabbit, Jin Shanyao wouldn't let them eat any more, lest their stomachs feel uncomfortable.
Wang Guihua carried the bowl home, sniffing from time to time. The smell of meat in the air made her swallow repeatedly.
She really had no other choice today. The children at home had been wailing with hunger, so she'd had to steel herself and return to her parents' home.
The village where her parents lived had also been hit by disaster, and they had no food to spare. Her sister-in-law had given her a vicious scolding and sent her away with just two black lotus roots.
When she returned carrying her basket, she learned that her husband and his elder brother had left, and no one knew where they'd gone.
Wang Guihua had been worrying about where to find dinner when Matchmaker Gao came to tell her that Jin Shanyao had gotten some food hunting today. She'd come over hoping to try her luck.
She hadn't expected to be given a whole bowl of hot meat. She couldn't have been happier.
Only a wall separated the Meng Household's first and second branches. Wang Guihua didn't dare make a fuss. She covered the bowl of meat with her clothes and sneaked into the courtyard, but just as she was closing the gate...
A suspicious voice came from next door. "What are you holding there?"
Wang Guihua went rigid. She turned back and stammered, "Nothing. My stomach just hurts. If there's nothing else, Sister-in-law, I'll go back inside."
"Stop." Diao Siniang stepped through a gap in the earthen wall into the second branch's courtyard. The smell of meat drifted into her nose. Her gaze sharpened, and she reached for Wang Guihua's arm.
Wang Guihua didn't dare wrestle with her while holding the meat. After dodging twice, she had the hem of her clothes flipped up by Diao Siniang, exposing the bowl packed full of meat. Its aroma rode the wind into Diao Siniang's nose.
She stared at the meat, swallowing over and over. "Second Brother's wife, where did this meat come from?"
Wang Guihua didn't want to say that she'd worked as Jin Shanyao's cook and laborer for a bite to eat.
But she couldn't come up with a single plausible explanation on the spot. Her face turned red, then white, and in the end she could only stiffen her neck and stammer a reply.
"M-my family gave it to me."
Diao Siniang scoffed inwardly. Her family was dirt poor; as if they had meat to give her.
"Second Brother's wife, you stole this meat, didn't you?" As she spoke, she reached for it.
The children at home were still waiting to eat, so of course Wang Guihua wouldn't give it to her. "It wasn't stolen. Give me back the meat."
Diao Siniang's eyebrows shot up. "If you didn't steal it, where did it come from? Don't tell me Jin Shanyao gave it to you?
"You'd better think carefully. Jin Shanyao is a swindler. If you dare get close to her, when the land and property return to the Meng Household, I won't give you so much as a clod of dirt."
Diao Siniang jerked her arm free, jolting meat out of the bowl. It rolled across the ground several times and became covered in dirt. Wang Guihua stared at it, heart aching.
"Sister-in-law, what are you doing? I swallowed my anger and brought back a bowl of meat just so the children could have a full meal. Give me back the bowl."
"No. If you don't tell me the truth, I won't give you the meat." The brothers Meng Hongde and Meng Hongyi had gone to the neighboring village to ask about Jin Shanyao's background.
She couldn't let Second Brother's wife ruin the plan. As the two struggled over the bowl, it fell to the ground, spilling meat everywhere.
Wang Guihua was furious and heartsick. She crouched down and picked the meat back into the bowl piece by piece. Diao Siniang was heartsick too, but more than that, she felt vindicated. If she couldn't have any, Second Brother's family could forget about eating it too.
Meanwhile, Jin Shanyao and the two little tots sat on the kang, each holding a book.
Meng Anzhi had the Compendium of Herbs in her arms, while Meng Anci had the Illustrated Guide to the Predation of a Hundred Beasts. Neither of them could read at all, so they just flipped through the pictures.
Jin Shanyao held the Record of Admonishing Evil, studying it word by word and sentence by sentence. She had lost both verbal battles she'd fought. This couldn't go on; she had to improve her fighting power.
Pointing to a line in the book, she practiced it over and over. "Which damned bastard dared steal my chicken? I curse you to choke to death on water, fall to your death while walking, bear sons without assholes and daughters without butt holes.
"Which damned bastard dared steal my chicken? I curse you to choke to death on water, fall to your death while walking, bear sons without assholes and daughters without butt holes."
Meng Anci stopped at a picture of a tiger hunting and imitated it. "Awooo..." Then he turned to Jin Shanyao. "Auntie, you shouldn't have grabbed Second Aunt's hand today."
Jin Shanyao's mouth and throat were dry from talking. She picked up the bowl of water on the kang and took a sip, then looked at him in puzzlement.
Meng Anci frowned slightly and said in his childish voice, "You should have held the basin down." He pressed his little hand on the book. "Like this. Then use your other hand to slap her hard across the face.
"That way, you could have protected the meat and hit her too."
Jin Shanyao listened intently. "You're right, Anci. My moves were too complicated today."
Meng Anci nodded... It was good that Auntie had taken it to heart.
"After every fight from now on, we should sit down together and discuss what needs improving and what needs strengthening, so we don't keep losing."
With that, he went back to looking at the animals hunting in his book. He'd noticed that when carnivores killed their prey, they did it without making a sound.
Meng Anzhi pinched a page and spoke hesitantly. "Auntie, I learned how Second Aunt cooks. We won't need her to do it next time, and we can save a bowl of meat."
Jin Shanyao smiled mysteriously. "A fox in the mountains never meets an opponent head-on. The first and second branches always gang up to bully you, so we'll make them dogs that bite each other.
"Look, the second branch is greedy for meat, and the first is greedy for wealth. All we need is a bowl of meat as bait, and we can make the meat-loving one work for us while making the wealth-loving one suspicious and distrustful.
"All we have to do is watch. Wouldn't that save us effort?"
Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci exchanged a glance. That made sense...
"Read your books. When Auntie has money, I'll send you to a private school."
Private school... How much would that cost? Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci's eyes went round with shock. Auntie had come here fleeing disaster. Where would she get the money to send them to a private school?
"No, no... Auntie, we won't go to a private school."
Although Meng Anci was young, he was extremely clever. He wanted to study, but he knew the family had no money. Clutching the corner of his clothes, he said something he didn't mean. "Auntie, we don't like studying. We won't go to a private school."
Jin Shanyao wondered, Is private school that frightening? Look how scared the two children are. They don't even dare look me in the eye. But refusing to study wouldn't do. She was here to repay a debt of gratitude.
She couldn't let the two children hold up her path to ascension.