After sterilizing the silver needles, Zhang Xiaoying's acupuncture was both swift and precise.
The original host had suffered poverty all her life, resulting in numerous ailments; whether it was one pain or another, before her Healing Superpower had fully recovered, Zhang Xiaoying could only use her medical skills to gradually nourish her body.
She was determined to live a long and prosperous life, thoroughly enjoying it!
Once she finished the acupuncture, her headache had significantly eased, and Zhang Xiaoying took a compressed biscuit from her space and ate it.
She was well aware of the Xu Family's living conditions; without filling her stomach first, she feared that the food ration for everyone combined wouldn't be enough for just her!
After swallowing the compressed biscuit, Zhang Xiaoying felt much stronger and only then did she get up and leave the room.
Da Niu was cleaning the chicken coop in the yard, while Er Niu was sweeping the yard, and Xu Yunfei was lying comfortably on the broken lounge chair under the eaves, acting the lord of the manor.
Zhang Xiaoying's anger flared uncontrollably.
She walked over, and down came her cane.
"Ow!" Xu Yunfei yelled miserably as he rolled off the lounge chair.
Da Niu and Er Niu were both stunned to see this.
Lin quickly poked her head out of the kitchen to look.
"Don't you see your niece working? You're fifteen years old, and still lying down expecting others to serve you? Who do you think you are, the young master of some rich family? You useless lazybones!" Zhang Xiaoying berated furiously, "All you ever do is open your mouth to eat; are your hands broken, or is it your legs?"
Xu Yunfei was bewilderingly scolded.
Wasn't it always like this before?
What in the world was wrong with his mother today?
"Mother, there's usually no work for me to do; how was I to know what needed doing?" Xu Yunfei argued with a wronged expression, "Da Niu and Er Niu will belong to other families in the future. If they don't help out more at home, but instead work for others' homes after they marry, won't we be at a loss?"
At these words, Zhang Xiaoying struck another blow with her cane.
"You heartless cur! I may say those things, but you have no right; have you ever provided for them? I'm still alive; has this family come under your control? I'll beat you to death, you unfilial thing!"
Xu Yunfei wailed in agony.
Da Niu and Er Niu were dumbfounded.
They were used to hearing these things and accustomed to laboring, but it was the first time they saw their grandmother beating their Uncle Four like this. What on earth had happened?
The change in Zhang Xiaoying made everyone in the Xu Family uneasy.
Xu Changsheng returned from outside and, seeing Xu Yunfei being chased and beaten, quickly stepped in to stop Zhang Xiaoying, "Mother, Yunfei is still young; if there's an issue, let's talk about it calmly. Why are you hitting him? If you hurt him, won't you be the one feeling heartbroken?"
If it came to calling the doctor, they'd have to spend silver, and Xu Changsheng treated the silver in the public fund as his own child; anyone spending even a wen would incur his wrath. The main branch had already asked for fifty wen today, and if Uncle Four got hurt from the beating, silver wouldn't just fall from the sky!
Xu Changsheng could never have imagined that merely trying to intervene would result in the cane falling on himself!
Da Niu and Er Niu were still in shock, watching their Second Uncle and Uncle Four being chased and beaten by their grandmother, yelping in pain: Who are we, where are we, what's happening?
"Oh dear, why are you beating Changsheng all of a sudden?" Lin, who had been enjoying the spectacle, rushed out as her own husband was struck, "He didn't do anything wrong..."
Zhang Xiaoying wasn't accustomed to hitting women, so she threw down her cane and, imitating the original host, started to wail, "I can't go on like this, my life is too hard! Old man, why did you die so early? Just look at these unfilial sons of yours, how they're treating me?
"I've slaved away to raise them, never neglecting the Xu Family's descendants for a moment, and look at you—dead but not resting in peace—coming back to accuse me of being biased and unfair, telling me to be nicer to the Xu Family's people. Look how they're defying me! Oh heavens, just take my life..."
The original owner naturally had a loud voice, and was infamously unreasonable and overbearing. When Zhang Xiaoying started crying like this, the Xu Family members were all quieted, and the neighbors next door quickly shut their doors, fearing that Zhang Xiaoying might run over in a fit of rage without warning.
Xu Changsheng and Mrs. Lin had not anticipated that one day, Zhang Xiaoying would use this tactic against them.
For a moment, both were too scared to speak.
Zhang Xiaoying, pointing at them, continued to scold, "Ordinarily, I've been at the beck and call of you Second Branch, even disregarding the life and death of the First Branch for the sake of Wencong's studies. Now look, I, the old lady, am reaping what I've sown, almost dragged to the underworld by your father, and yet now you still pressure me. I might as well go join your father!!!"
Xu Changsheng's expression suddenly turned, "Mother, what are you saying? What do you mean my father..."
He abruptly stopped speaking, remembering the recent events, his heart also pounding with trepidation.
Just at that moment, Xu Qinglin returned. He put down what he was carrying and rushed over to help Zhang Xiaoying up: "Mother, what's wrong? Quickly, get up. Did you hurt yourself anywhere?"
Zhang Xiaoying took the opportunity to get up, wiping away non-existent tears, "My living is an eyesore to you, whatever I do I have to look to your faces, I know I'm old, I might as well be dead, so that one day when I can't get up, I won't be tormented to death by all of you."
"Mother, don't say such things. Any son would make sure you're fed before himself, you're my mother, taking care of you is my duty."
"Hmm, that's more like it."
Xu Qinglin supported Zhang Xiaoying into the main room, and the eldest daughter quickly picked up the walking stick and brought it inside.
"Fourth child, if you don't clean the chicken coop and yard properly today, you're not eating!" Zhang Xiaoying's voice boomed powerfully in the main room.
Xu Yunfei didn't want to work, but thinking of how Zhang Xiaoying had just carried on, he didn't dare refuse and could only resignedly grab a broom and start working.
He had never done this kind of housework before, and he swept carelessly with both anger and disgust.
The second daughter stood by, at a loss as to what to do.
"Get out of the way, what are you looking at? Don't you have legs or what?" Xu Yunfei's anger shifted to the second daughter.
The second daughter was already afraid of him, and at his shout, she immediately trembled with fear.
Zhang Xiaoying, hearing how Xu Yunfei spoke to the child, once again found it hard to suppress her anger.
"Fourth child, get in here! You grow thorns just by doing a bit of work, do you? Why are you taking out your anger on a child? If you have the guts, strike down this old lady!"
Xu Yunfei was in his rebellious phase and, hearing these words, immediately threw the broom down, "Fine, fine, fine, so now I'm just in the way, am I? I'll leave then, it's none of your business."
Having said this, Xu Yunfei ran straight out.
"Fourth child, what are you doing?" Xu Qinglin, seeing this, hurriedly tried to go after him.
In the past, when the original owner would speak loudly to Xu Yunfei, he would run away from home, and then the original owner would have to mobilize the whole family to look for him; Xu Yunfei had been spoiled in this way, always using this as a threat.
And Zhang Xiaoying, who wanted to set them straight, naturally wouldn't let Xu Qinglin go after him.
"If you dare chase after him, you might as well not come back either," Zhang Xiaoying said coolly.
"But, the fourth child..."
"If he has the ability, let him fend for himself out there."
Xu Qinglin glanced at Zhang Xiaoying, utterly unable to comprehend why her temperament had changed so drastically all of a sudden.
After thinking it over, Xu Qinglin cautiously said, "Mother, do you remember when Yunfei was five, he ran up the mountain and nearly got bitten by a wolf? If he runs toward the mountain again..."