In the dilapidated farmhouse courtyard, under the crooked jujube tree.
A little girl in tattered clothing, yet with a cherubic and rosy complexion, sat silently on a cool mat, basking in the sun, her expression blank as she gazed at the jujubes on the tree.
Her eyes were large and round, very pretty, but a closer look revealed a lack of sparkle in her gaze, her expression wooden, slightly idiotic.
"I'm starving to death, is the food ready? What's there to eat?"
The yard gate creaked open, and a fat woman with a heavy waist and a flabby face strode in.
The fat on her face trembled with each step she took.
As soon as Madam Zhao entered, she saw the idiot child of the fourth room and immediately felt bad luck looming!
Having lost in gambling repeatedly today, her Silver had all vanished, and it must have been because she saw this idiot first thing in the morning and got tainted with bad luck.
Madam Zhao glanced around and the courtyard was deadly quiet, with no smoke coming from the kitchen chimney, showing that there was no one at home; otherwise, someone would have been playing with her in the yard. This costly nuisance was a treasure to the whole family.
She walked straight to the little girl, squatting down and stretching out her plump hand to painfully pinch the girl's soft cheek: "It's all your fault, you bringer of bad luck, making me lose everything!"
The little girl was stunned for a moment, slower to react than most, and then her mouth quivered, "Waah," she started crying.
"Cry, cry, cry... that's all you know! What are you crying for? Did your dad or your mom die? I lost every bit of Silver because of you and I'm not crying! Stop it!"
The little girl continued to wail loudly, her little face turning bright red, one side of her cheek swollen and very noticeable.
Seeing her still crying, Madam Zhao's face was full of annoyance. Flabby hands pinching and twisting on the little girl, she gritted her teeth and said, "Still crying, huh? I'll give you something to cry about! Damned unlucky thing! No crying, if you cry again I'll beat you to death! All you ever do is cry and eat. Shut up! Will you shut up, you damn girl, dare to cry..."
In response, the little girl's cries grew louder, and her little face swelled even redder.
Madam Zhao was afraid that her mother-in-law would come back and see.
This costly nuisance was her mother-in-law's darling. The whole family was almost unable to afford meals, yet still nourishing her with three bowls of egg custard every day.
Right, the egg custard! Could there be some warming in the pot?
She hurried into the kitchen, carried a bowl of egg custard out, and forcefully shoved a big spoonful into the little girl's wide-open mouth: "Eat! Can't you stop crying with food in your mouth? No more crying!"
A large piece of custard slid down her throat, scraping blood from the small gums with the edge of the spoon.
"Burp..."
The crying stopped abruptly.
"All you know is to eat, eat, eat, you're three years old and can't talk or walk! If I were your mother, I'd have thrown you to the wolves in the mountains by now! A costly nuisance like you, it's a waste of food to keep!"
Seeing that Xuanbao had stopped crying, Madam Zhao cradled the bowl and gobbled the egg custard, swiftly finishing it.
After eating, she even meticulously licked the bottom of the bowl clean.
There was still quite a bit of custard on the bottom of that bowl!
At this moment, an elderly woman and a girl hurried in.
It seemed they had heard Xuanbao crying.
Granny Lei's face tensed the moment she entered the courtyard and saw her precious granddaughter collapsed on the mat, her face purplish, streaked with tears. She cried out sharply and dashed over: "Madam Zhao! What have you done?"
Startled, Madam Zhao hurriedly set down the bowl, nervously smiling with guilt: "Mother, sister-in-law of the fourth son, you're back? I didn't do anything! I was just feeding Xuanbao her egg custard! Look, Xuanbao has finished it, I'm just licking the bowl clean, can't waste it."
She even flipped the bowl upside down for them to see.
Madam Liu, seeing her daughter's face turning black, panicked and hastily ran over: "Mother, why is Xuanbao's face so black?"
Granny Lei scooped up her granddaughter, her heart racing with fear, her hands trembling.
Looking down, Madam Zhao noticed for the first time Xuanbao's face was purplish, her eyes tightly shut. She got scared!
What happened? Was she dead?
She quickly defended herself: "I had nothing to do with it, I didn't do anything! I saw Xuanbao was so hungry she was crying, so I fed her some egg custard, I swear that's all I did!"
What happened to this fool?
She had only fed her some custard! She hadn't done anything, so how did it come to this?
She shouldn't die at this time!
Don't blame me!
Madam Zhao was genuinely frightened. She had only wanted to vent her frustrations after losing her Silver, never intending or daring to kill someone.
Of course, she didn't even think that pinching Xuanbao a few times could be a problem.