TCFSRMR |Chapter 9

“Ah?” Yin Zhaodi froze for a moment, and subconsciously turned back, but she did not see Shi Guoping’s shadow. In an instant, she understood that Shi Guoan was saying this for her to hear, and from his tone, he was obviously unhappy.

At this point, not only Yin Zhaodi, but Wang Xiuju also felt somewhat awkward.

“Um, eldest brother, I don’t mean anything else.” Yin Zhaodi said awkwardly, unable to understand why Shi Guoan, who had always been so straightforward in his work, was being so contrary today?

After all, which child in the family had not been beaten up since they were little?

Didn’t Shi Dahai just make a couple of jokes? Was it really enough to make things blow up to the point of turning against each other?

Shi Guoan did not take up her words, turned around, and strode back into the courtyard.

The smile on Yin Zhaodi’s face became even harder to hold, and she went with a smile to look at Wang Xiuju, who had already stiffened.

Wang Xiuju felt even more that this was pointless, and under a bit of embarrassment, she snorted:

“Tsk tsk, those who know would know this is just a little girl, those who don’t would think she was some young miss from a wealthy family.”

“Sister-in-law…” Yin Zhaodi hurriedly put on a smiling face, but Wang Xiuju did not give Yin Zhaodi a good look, turned around, and went back to her own home.

Left behind, Yin Zhaodi felt somewhat uncomfortable for a while.

Clearly she had meant well, so how had she ended up being the one blamed on both sides?

But she also understood that in the past few years without Shi Ying, Eldest Brother and Eldest Sister-in-law had truly lived a hard life, and in the end she swallowed back that little bit of grievance.

After thinking about it, she went back into the room again and from under the bottom of the bundle cloth dug out a piece of blue foreign cloth that she had not bear to use during the Spring Festival, and took it to the main room.

Just as she entered, she happened to run into her mother-in-law, who had put seven or eight eggs into a bamboo basket and was walking out:

“Mom, what are you taking so many eggs for?”

“Today is a joyous day. I’m going to make the children some sweet soup, and then give each of them a poached egg.” Old Madam Shi said with a smile.

“Isn’t that too many? If they all eat them, then the family…” Yin Zhaodi subconsciously wanted to object,

These past few days it had been hot, and the chickens at home were laying fewer eggs. They had not even saved up a few, and they still had to keep them to exchange for salt. At the very least, they should be left for the men working at home to eat, shouldn’t they?

But thinking that Shi Ying had just come back, and that the old lady was feeling sorry for her granddaughter, the words at the tip of her tongue turned a corner again:

“Otherwise, just beat them up and stir them loose. Two or three eggs can make a whole pot. It’s enough for each person to drink a little. These are eggs after all, and it’s not a festival, not New Year’s, not a birthday either, so how can you just eat to your heart’s content?”

“Isn’t it because I’m happy today? Just a few eggs, and let the kids have something tasty.” The old lady did not listen to her either, and still carried the eggs into the kitchen.

Yin Zhaodi could not say anything more either, and casually took out that piece of blue foreign cloth and held Shi Ying over to measure it against her body:

“I saw that the clothes on Yingying’s body were in a terrible state, so I found this piece of cloth in the room. It’s just right for making Yingying a new outfit.”

“Thank you, Auntie.” Shi Ying thanked her obediently.

“Oh my, look at our Yingying. It’s one thing that this little face of hers is so neatly pretty, but her little mouth is really sweet too.” There was a bit of envy in Yin Zhaodi’s expression.

Her mother-in-law had been pretty when she was young, and her womb was also strong. As soon as she entered the family, she gave birth to three sons in a row. Aside from the eldest, Shi Guoan, who was especially outstanding in appearance, the second and third were both more like their father, Shi Zongyi.

As for Yin Zhaodi’s own daughters, the youngest, Shi Jie, still had some traces of her mother-in-law’s looks when she was young, while the eldest, Shi Ting, simply took after the parts of her and Shi Guoping that looked the worst.

On the other hand, the two children from Eldest Brother and Eldest Sister-in-law were all real standouts, truly good-looking top to bottom.

And then there was this personality. Such a small child, and she already knew how to say thank you. How was that anything like the two at her own house, who even now, after growing up this much, still remembered the pain and forgot the beating. In everyday life they were also clumsy-tongued and awkward, not even able to say a pretty word.

“…I was even thinking that since the girl was dressed so shabbily, she must have suffered outside, but now it looks like the people who took care of our Yingying were still very good, and also quite good at raising children…”

While she was praising nonstop, Shi Ying suddenly let out a small “ah.”

It was just that when Yin Zhaodi was talking, she had not paid attention and touched the area around Shi Ying’s elbow. Hearing her cry out in pain, she quickly let go:

“Did Auntie use too much force?”

“No.” Shi Ying shook her head and said softly, “It’s just that I bumped this arm before…”

Hearing her say that, Miao Xiuxiu grew worried and hurriedly crouched down, carefully rolling up Shi Ying’s sleeve cuff, and the next moment she cried out.

Most of the people who had come by to have a look at the excitement at home had already left. Just then Shi Guoan came in from outside carrying a large strip of pork. Hearing Miao Xiuxiu’s scream, the pork in his hand nearly fell to the ground.

He quickly stepped into the room, and just happened to see the scene of Miao Xiuxiu crying nonstop at Shi Ying’s arm. When he came close, and saw the little arm Miao Xiuxiu was holding up in her hand, Shi Guoan immediately clenched his fist.

On Shi Ying’s elbow there was a patch of bruised, mottled abrasions, and even more horrifying than the bruised, mottled abrasion was the old wounds interlaced with new ones.

The air in the room instantly became somewhat still.

Tears had already started falling from Miao Xiuxiu’s eyes. Earlier she had just been too happy, and on top of that the neighbors had been coming and going at home, so there had been no chance to ask Shi Ying how these past few years had gone.

Fortunately, when talking to Shi Ying, the little girl was quite articulate, so like Yin Zhaodi, she thought that the family who had adopted Shi Ying was probably just a bit poor, but truly attentive to the child, otherwise they would not have taught her so well.

She never dreamed that on just this one arm, there would be so many old injuries.

“It already… doesn’t hurt.” Seeing Miao Xiuxiu and Shi Guoan both with reddened eyes, Shi Ying felt somewhat uncomfortable.

After entering this body, Shi Ying naturally also inherited some of the original owner’s memories.

When little Shi Ying had just been brought back, Qiu Guihua did indeed count as loving her. It did not matter whether it was making new clothes or having something tasty, she would always think of her.

It was just that period was too short. Once she became pregnant with Niu Xiaobao, the couple started to find the original owner unpleasant no matter what.

Beating and scolding her was a daily occurrence, and they also piled on many chores. They did not treat her as their own child at all, and simply used the original owner directly as if she were a servant.

This body, like Shi Ying’s body in her previous life, had a constitution that easily left scars. Although ever since Shi Ying came over, relying on an adult soul and with the system protecting her from the side, she had not been beaten again, those old scars had only faded a little, and still looked terrifying.

Miao Xiuxiu put down the sleeve on this side, then went to roll up the other side too, and it did not look any better than that arm.

Shi Guoan had already run off to get the ointment, and picked Shi Ying up to sit on his lap. While gently applying it for her, he said in a hoarse voice to comfort her:

“Be good, don’t be afraid, it doesn’t hurt…”

His own hand applying the medicine was shaking nonstop.

The atmosphere was too heavy, and Shi Ying subconsciously shrank back a little. Inadvertently, she happened to see a little bit of moisture at the corner of Shi Guoan’s eye.

“I said this matter was not right from the start, didn’t I? You say back then we searched like mad, and who in the ten miles and eight villages didn’t know it? How could our Yingying have ended up running to Xiwa Village?” Yin Zhaodi suddenly slapped her thigh.

At the time, they had determined that Shi Ying had fallen into the river and been washed away, and the whole family had searched along the river course for more than a hundred li. As for Shi Guoan and Miao Xiuxiu, the husband and wife, they even followed the riverbank all the way to the river mouth. When they came back, the two of them looked no different from beggars pulling a pole and begging for food.

If Xiwa Village had been along the direction of the river course, that would have been one thing, but it wasn’t. Xiwa Village was instead upstream of the river. Shi Ying could not have floated there no matter how she floated.

“I think the pork doesn’t need to be sent to Xiwa Village for now. We should at least figure out what happened first!”

Just a little while ago, Yin Zhaodi had heard Shi Guoan discussing with Shi Zongyi that they should first go cut some pork, buy some eggs, and make a trip to Xiwa Village.

After all, they had lost a daughter back then, so they understood best the feeling of a child suddenly disappearing. As for repaying the benefactor, that could be talked about later. No matter what, they should first go and say something to them.

In just that short amount of time, Shi Guoan had gone and brought the meat back, and it was such a large piece too. If not for the injuries on Shi Ying’s body, Yin Zhaodi had a premonition that Shi Guoan very likely would have spent the rest of his life working like an ox and a horse for that family in Xiwa Village.

Without Yin Zhaodi saying anything, the matter of going to Xiwa Village overnight was naturally temporarily put aside first.

Shi Ying had been delicate and pretty like a porcelain doll since she was little, so it was simply impossible to imagine how heartless someone would have to be to treat a child like this. A person like that, and you say he rescued the child and silently remained a great kind person for so many years?

“Be good, Yingying. Do you still remember how you got to Xiwa Village back then?”

Shi Ying hesitated for a moment. The original owner’s memories were also somewhat blurry. But what was certain was that back then she had not fallen into the river. Instead, she had slept for a while, and when she opened her eyes, she was already in Niu Erzhu’s house.

“Didn’t fall into the river?”

Shi Guoan was stunned for a moment. Just as he was about to say something, a woman’s voice came from outside:

“Guoan, is Brother Guoan at home?”

Shi Guoan handed Shi Ying over to Miao Xiuxiu and leaned his head out to look outside. It was a woman with a pointed chin, holding a bamboo serving tray. In the tray were more than ten juicy peaches and wild apricots that were obviously just picked.

“Sister-in-law?” Shi Guoan’s expression was clearly somewhat surprised.

Yin Zhaodi, who also came out behind him, was a bit pleasantly surprised.

The person who had come was actually Liang Cuiping, Shi Dahai’s wife.

Liang Cuiping’s maternal family was from the same village, Ten-Mile Village. The Liang family was a major surname in Ten-Mile Village, and nearly the entire street behind it was surnamed Liang.

Having dealt with her for many years, Yin Zhaodi also knew that Liang Cuiping was the kind of person who would never do anything without profit, and she was not just any ordinary shrew either. Relying on the fact that her maternal family was from the same village and that she had given birth to three sons, she had often shown off her superiority in front of Yin Zhaodi. In addition, because the two families had some old grievances, whenever Liang Cuiping met Yin Zhaodi, she would occasionally point at the mulberry tree while scolding the locust, and say a few sarcastic things.

Just when she first heard her voice, Yin Zhaodi had thought Liang Cuiping had come to vent anger for Shi Dahai.

Unexpectedly, this fierce and domineering woman had actually brought peaches and yellow apricots over.

“I came back late, and only just heard that your family’s Yingying had been found. Just happened to have a few fruits on the tree at home that ripened, so I brought them over for the child to sweeten her mouth…”

She did not mention a single word about Shi Guoan and Shi Dahai’s unpleasantness.

As she spoke, she even walked straight into the room and over to Shi Ying:

“Oh my, so this is Yingying, then? Yingying, you really suffered these past few years…”

Earlier, from just hearing her voice, Shi Ying had not felt anything much, but when she saw the mole on Liang Cuiping’s nose wing, she froze for a moment. The next instant, she even raised her hand and directly knocked over the serving tray Liang Cuiping had handed over.

Caught off guard, Liang Cuiping’s tray tilted, and the apricots and peaches inside immediately rolled all over the floor. Her expression at once turned somewhat unpleasant.

“Hey, what is this child doing…” Yin Zhaodi was following behind. Seeing this, she immediately grew anxious, “Your aunt is caring about you, so why are you losing your temper?”

Shi Ying also froze for a moment.

That reaction just now was clearly some lingering emotion from little Shi Ying. It was also under the influence of those emotions that Shi Ying vaguely remembered that before the original owner woke up in Niu Erzhu’s house, the last person she saw in the village was not precisely this separated-branch aunt, Liang Cuiping?

At that time, it was Liang Cuiping who said she would give the original owner candy, and that there would even be an extra piece for her to take to her brother. Only then did little Shi Ying obediently sit waiting by the reed marsh, but she waited too long and fell asleep. When she woke up, she was already in Niu Erzhu’s house.

The original owner was too young, or maybe she did not understand what exactly had happened. But in an instant Shi Ying was certain that the original owner’s disappearance was probably inseparable from this separated-branch aunt, Liang Cuiping.

The next moment Shi Ying shouted directly:

“Take it away, I won’t eat your things…”

That fearful look obviously made Shi Guoan and Miao Xiuxiu notice that something was wrong.

As for Yin Zhaodi, she was still urging Shi Ying to apologize to Liang Cuiping:

“This child, hurry up and tell your aunt you’re sorry… Yingying, you really need to change this temper. You can’t act like this toward an elder, otherwise people will say we have no manners…”

Liang Cuiping forced out a smile:

“It’s all right, it’s all right, the child is still little, mostly just shy around strangers… All right, you all stay busy, I’m leaving first.”

Saying that, she turned and left, and actually even forgot to take the serving tray with her.