Pei Wenbo stopped crying as soon as he heard he was going to get boiled eggs to eat.
Si Ya felt somewhat resentful, surely Grandmother was going to secretly cook eggs for Brother Erlang again!
Lady Fang didn't care about the eggs, she only wanted to stop her impulsive eldest daughter, she suddenly broke down, she couldn't take it, she was afraid her daughter would seek an end to her life. Weeping, she clung to her, "Qinqin! Please don't... Mother begs you!"
Lady Zhu managed to pacify Pei Wenbo and then persuaded Lady Chen, "Today, you clean the pot!" That was the only way to get a chance to boil eggs for Er Lang.
Lady Chen did not refuse.
Madam Fang and the others hadn't finished their meal yet.
Pei Qin looked at Lady Fang and sat down with pursed lips.
Lady Fang handed her a bowl of corn paste and gave her a Wowotou.
Si Ya pouted, thinking that only the eldest sister was the biological child of Father and Mother, and Mother only cared about her!
San Ya, observing Old Pei and the others, set aside her face filled with worry and fear, and hurried Si Ya and Pei Wendong to finish their meal quickly.
Pei Qin swallowed the Wowotou, washed it down with corn paste, put down her bowl, and got up.
"You act like a lord who has finished his meal and walks away!" Lady Zhu said, scolding her.
Lady Fang cleaned up the bowls and chopsticks, ready to wash the pot.
"We don't need you here, get out!" Lady Zhu said with a dark face and daggers in her slanted eyes.
Lady Fang put down the bowls and chopsticks and took Pei Wendong and the others out.
It was already dark, and the moon shone on the ground, bright and clear.
In the main room, Old Pei hadn't lit the lamp; instead, he sat by a large winnowing basket under the moonlight, shelling corn.
Thinking it over, Lady Fang did not instruct Pei Qin to do anything but told her to go back to her room to rest and go to bed early, and summoned San Ya and Si Ya into the main room to shell corn.
"If you're going to shell corn cobs, go do it in the kitchen!" Pei Qin raised an eyebrow.
In the kitchen, Lady Zhu took two eggs, and Lady Chen was cleaning the pot, ready to boil the eggs. Pei Wenbo was also sitting on a little stool, waiting to eat pigeon meat, while lamenting that the pigeon meat was gone, leaving only bones.
Hearing Pei Qin's not-so-quiet voice, Lady Zhu hurriedly shouted, "Go to bed! You don't have to shell corn anymore! Everyone, go to sleep!"
Hearing her unfriendly tone, Lady Fang said nothing, took her siblings, and went back to their room to sleep.
The women's rooms were in the west wing. Lady Fang shared a room with her youngest son, Pei Wendong, and Pei Qin shared another room with her three sisters.
In the room, they were not allowed to light a lamp, as there wasn't much oil for lamps at home, and what little there was had to be saved for Pei Wenli's studies when he returned.
In the darkness, Pei Qin took off her outer shirt and lay down on the hard mat. She felt the rough blanket without pulling it over, placed her hands under her head, crossed her legs, and couldn't help but curse the cruel world in her mind. Could it be that she had lived so freely in her past life that she had drawn envy and someone cursed her to end up in this wretched place?
If she had to be transported through time, why couldn't it have been to a decent family? Even if she were a village girl, at least with parents and not in such a dysfunctional family!
Could she pray to the heavens for another chance to transport to a different life?
Of course, the answer was no.
But Pei Qin was not willing to live like this. Not to mention the Wowotou and corn paste that she initially found somewhat tasty, she couldn't keep eating them forever—she was a carnivore! She needed meat in every meal to maintain her strength!
And then there were the people in this family, not one of whom was easy to get along with, and she had no desire to train each of them.
After much thought, Pei Qin still felt that she couldn't stay with the Pei family. Not to mention that they wanted to marry her off to Qian Dog in exchange for two acres of land, life for Madam Fang and her siblings here was practically unbearable.
No way! She had to talk to Lady Fang and persuade all of them to leave this place with her! Not to mention anything else, but with her fighting skills, she could keep them from starving!