The seven sisters hid in the west wing secretly eating the eggs brought back by the You Jin did not know that doom quietly arriving. Each one of them had happily watch their elder sister quietly pass in a leaf-wrapped package from outside the window.
Once You Yin retrieved the eggs that the You Jin passed in, You Jin went back to the main entrance of the yard and openly returned to the west wing from outside. The several younger sisters have been staring at the green package on the Kang table for a long time. When they heard the door push, they all looked at the You Jin who came in: "Sister!"
You Jin also got on the kang and carefully opened the straw rope wrapping with eggs under the watch of her six younger sisters. Fortunately, before she entered the house the mind becomes intelligent at the approach of happiness. She hid the eggs under a low bush outside the west room and then came back, otherwise, if it was found by the old biddy, old Mrs. Chen, not being able to eat the eggs was a trivial matter. They would have suffered a loss from getting a beating.
Mrs. Su sat on the side, observing her daughter open the leaves. There were actually eight chicken eggs and nearly ten bird eggs. She couldn't help but wonder with a bit of anxiety: "Jin-er, it can't be that you entered deep into the mountains? How did you find this many wild eggs?"
As many wild eggs? "So many people come and go at the foot of the mountain every day, so how can there be so many eggs? Daughter must have gone deep into the mountains.
Mrs. Su knew that You Jin usually goes up the mountain to find some egg and game to nourish the sisters. Mrs. Su also knew, what kind of life the children she birthed has in this seemingly bright and affluent Yue Family. On top of that, how her husband dislike her several daughters. So she also turned a blind eye and helped to hide from Yue Chang Lu with her eyes closed. (T/N: In raw, it said Mrs. Su instead of You Jin. Must be a typo?)
"No, I just reached the edge of the deep mountain, never went in." Young Jin divided one chicken egg and one bird egg to each younger sister. She assigned an egg and two bird eggs to Mrs. Su. She smilingly answered, "Mother, quickly eat, while it's still warm. "
Seeing that elder sister said it was okay to eat, the several sisters took an egg and knocked it on the table to crack. And then they put the peeled eggshells into the leaves that originally wrapped the eggs. Eggshells will be secretly taken out and thrown away later on.
Little Ninth, whose fever has already withdrawn, nibbled the fragrant wild eggs: "It's so yummy!" But eggs were only so big, so it was finished in a moment. Little Ninth smacked her lips as she watched each of her several elder sisters savored theirs. She felt her saliva drooled out again. She really wanted to eat one more!
Mrs. Su saw Little Ninth's greedy appearance and wanted to stuff her remaining half of the egg in her hand into Little Ninth's hands, but was stopped by You Jin before she could: "Mother, you are pregnant now. You need more nourishment. I'll just give my share to Little Ninth."
Saying this, she put her remaining half of the egg in her hand into Little Ninth's hand: "Eat ba."
"Thank you, Third Sister!" Little Ninth raised the egg that was given by You Jin and ate it in a small bite. She mumbled to herself, "It'll be great if we can eat an egg every day!"
In front of You Jin, was the first branch's and third branch's, You Ting and You He. That's why You Jin was third in the family.
Hearing Little Ninth's unmistakable desire in childlike words, the smile on Mrs. Su's face gradually dimmed, and then she sighed a little: "Blame my incapability as a mother, can't have a son and caused you to suffer together with me."
Seeing Mrs. Su's self-blame, You Jin stuffed the small bite of eggs into her mouth and finished eating, and then said, "Not blaming Mother. If Little Ninth wants to eat eggs, I will regularly scavenge later. I can definitely find it. Cuifeng Mountain is so big, so birds and wild games aren't lacking."
She turned her head, lowered her voice, and said to Little Ninth: "But Little Ninth must remember that you can't tell others that you have eaten eggs, not even Father. Otherwise, there will be no more eggs! "
Hearing Elder Sister saying this, Little Ninth nodded her head seriously: "En! I won't tell anyone!"
The several young sisters have been educated from the first time they ate the baked eggs You Jin brought back to not tell others that they secretly eat stuff. The sisters engraved it to their memory. Although the family was better than others as they (the family) have meat twice a month, they (the sisters) can't eat a piece of meat even once. Once they heard elder sister say no eggs and chicken legs to eat if others found out. The sisters were all tight-lipped, not telling anyone.
Seeing how her daughters were so cautious toward her husband and parents-in-law, Mrs. Su's can't help but worry. No matter what, they were all one family? In the long run, will her daughters be distant with the family?
Mrs. Su's slightly worried appearance fell into You Jin's eyes, and she said to her: "Mother, it's not daughter being unfilial. The family is much better than the people in the village but look at us. Little Seventh's clothes were what I wore previously. And I picked up what Eldest Sister didn't want. How many years have you patched them up? Then look at Eldest Uncle's and Third Uncle's children, which one has patches? "
The elder sister You Jin mentioned was First Branch's You Ting. First Branch was favored because Mrs. Chen was the niece of old Mrs. Chen. In addition to that, there were two brothers who were studying in the county academy. The old man was also biased with no limit. Today, You Ting was wearing fine cotton clothes. Unlike their family, who were still wearing shabby rough cotton and burlap clothes.
Actually, how could Mrs. Su not know her in-laws' favoritism? It's just that she has been docile since she was a child, and has been filial piety for more than ten years since she was married to the family. When facing the biased in-laws, aggressive sister-in-law, and frequently abusive husband, what can she, a woman with no strong maternal family and no one to rely on do? She can only self-hypnosis (T/N: a.k.a lie to herself).
Thinking of these troublesome matters at home, Mrs. Su couldn't swallow her food, and put the two uneaten bird eggs back on the table: "Give it to Little Fifth and Little sixth."
Although the twins, Little Fifth and Little Sixth weren't eight years old yet, they were very sensible. When they saw Mrs. Su giving them eggs, they shook their heads together: "For Mother. There is a younger brother in the mother's belly. Eat!"
Seeing the two daughters being so sensible, Mrs. Su's heart was relieved a lot. She rubbed the heads of the two girls with a smile, and slowly ate all the remaining eggs under the urging of her daughters.
Once everyone finished eating, You Jin gathered the eggshells together, tightened the leaves with the straw rope, and threw the eggshells out of the window. She then swaggered out of the house from the main entrance.
Before anyone noticed, Youjin threw the eggshell together with the leaves into the Cuifeng River. After watching the eggshell drift with the water until it disappeared, You jin clapped her hands and went home. In front of the villagers, she trapped old Mrs. Chens, and still kept the eggs, You Jin was in a very good mood at the moment. She hummed a little song and skipped back home.
***
You Jin's good mood didn't get to last overnight. At dinner, old Mrs. Chen who had always firmly grasped the power to assign the meal was absent. She grunted in the bed without even eating dinner, and her mouth kept on nagging: "The family ruining, money-wasting things ... really are the calamity stars of our old Yue family! "
The two brothers who worked in the town every day did not know what happened. After eating and hearing that their old mother was sick, they went to the main room to see old Mrs. Chen. Yue Chang Lu caught his old mother saying something about "money-wasting things" and can make some guess in his heart. It must be that those money-wasting things in his branch made Mother angry again. He sat straight on the long stool beside the Kang, with a very ugly expression on his face.
"Mother ah! Where are you uncomfortable? Tell your sons! Son can go to call for the doctor ah!" The eldest, Yue Chang Fu sitting on the edge of Kang, had full of anxiety in his voice and an appearance of wishing it was him who has fallen ill instead.
Yue Chang Lu heard his elder brother spoke like this and stood up immediately: "I'm going to invite Dr. Ma!"
Seeing the fire blazed enough, old Mrs. Chen's eyes quickly signaled to Mrs. Chen who stood by the side to respond. Mrs. Chen tacitly understood, and quickly stopped Yue Chang Lu: "Second Brother-'in-law, wait a minute. Truthfully, the mother isn't sick, but rather she was angered by your family 's You Jin!"
Seeing that the two brothers looked over, Mrs. Chen told the two of them what happened in the afternoon today: "It's like this. Today Mother got blinded, counted the eggs wrongly, and then asked You Jin whether she took the egg. It wasn't a big deal initially. However, don't know who You Jin takes after. Her temper was so big, she even asked someone to invite Lizheng over. What's more, clashed with mother. Mother got angered!"
After listening to Mrs. Chen's words, Yue Chang Lu's face turned black as if it could drip out ink: "I'm going to bring that money-wasting thing over to apologize to Mother!"
With this, he flung the (door?) cloth and stormed out toward the west wing.
After washing the feet of several younger sisters, You Jin took them to chat on the Kang, but was disrupted by Yue Chang Lu who kicked the door of the room and broke the warm atmosphere. "You money-wasting thing eat and wear Yue Family's, and still dare to make your grandmother sick from anger!"
Yue Chang Lu, who was full of anger, slapped You Jin's head directly, "This Father will beat you to death today!"
Earlier when eating dinner, You Jin felt something was slightly out of place. She thought that this matter had passed and never expected that old Mrs. Chen had left a backup plan to let Yue Chang Lu deal with her. It can really be said that she had put a lot of effort. The face tilted to the side after Yue Chang Lu's slap. A red and swollen slap mark appeared on the thin face. You Jin put her tongue on the beaten side of the cheek and knew that without five days, the swelling can't disappear.
After appeasing a few sisters, she got off the Kang, slipped on her shoe: "Father, whether you want to scold or beat, let's go outside. Don't scare Mother and sisters." Then she walked out with her waist upright. Yue Chang Lu saw her composed manner, the displeasure in his heart was at its extreme. Once he walked out the west wing door, he kicked on You Jin: "I let you, lowly girl, dare to steal eggs, dare to call Lizheng!"
After being kicked to the ground, You Jin reacted quickly. Although Yue Chang Lu's movements had not stopped, You Jin nimbly dodged several heavy attacks Even though she was beaten a few times, she had avoided the internal injury-causing attacks. It was fine to have flesh pain for two or three days.
Hearing the noises outside, Mrs. Su hurried out of the room. Taking advantage of Yue Chang Lu's hand stopping, she stepped in front You Jin: "Family head, if you want to hit, hit me. You Jin is still small!"
You Jin saw that Mrs. Su protected her regardless of her almost five months belly. Her heart was slightly warm. She had no father or mother in her previous life, just a distant uncle. He had a distant polite manner. Although Mrs. Su was weak, she really loves her and her many sisters, so she has to take care of them because of this.
Seeing her blocking him, Yue Chang Lu angrily spat: "Pah! Don't think I'm afraid of you because you have a big belly. If you don't give birth to a son, see if this father beat you to death or not!"
Then he went to the main room angrily, leaving only Mrs. Su's tears and dusty You Jin behind.
Seeing her covering her face and sobbing, You Jin said lightly: "What's the use of crying? Does Mother really want to live like this for a lifetime?" Then she urged Mrs. Su to return to the room.
This was not the first time that You Jin told Mrs. Su this. Ever since the birth of Little Fifth and Little Sixth and the fist time she got beaten by Yue Chang Lu during her one-month post-natal rest, the three years old, You Jin spoke to her like this when no one was around. It had shocked her.
"What else can I do ..." Faintly sighing, Mrs. Su mourned. That's right, She was someone who wasn't cared for by her maternal family nor loved by her in-law's family. With such a poor identity, where can she go after leaving Yue Family? It was one thing to suffer at Yue's family, but at least it could let her daughters grow up well, right? Ugh...