The Country Maiden: Fields and Leisure-Chapter 154: Vegetable Porridge

Wang Yongzhu rushed out, and Old Granny Zhang naturally saw that movement. She immediately understood—the girl had agreed.

Originally, she had been steeling herself to give up the idea. Her darling daughter, how could she marry in as a son-in-law? That was for impoverished men who couldn’t find a wife to do, all of them were flawed goods; could there be any good among them?

No matter how tempting those two acres of land were, they couldn’t compare to her daughter’s lifelong happiness.

But why would her daughter agree to this?

Old Granny Zhang felt puzzled inside, but her face showed no sign of it. Pretending to be angry, she gave Wang Laozhu a glare, "You should be ashamed at your age. What kind of father talks to his daughter about marrying in as a son-in-law? See, you’ve upset her and made her run off."

Wang Laozhu really wanted to say, "Old woman, you don’t know—our daughter is so strong, if she doesn’t marry in as a son-in-law, I’m afraid she won’t be able to marry out at all."

But the words reached his lips and yet he swallowed them back down.

Silently, he got up, "Let’s think this over. I see you’re also reluctant to see our daughter marry off; might as well keep her under our eyes. We can look after her and prevent her from being bullied by others—"

Having said this, Wang Laozhu, with his aching conscience, went out.

He needed time to collect himself. Alas, for the Wang Family, for the daughter, that future son-in-law who was still unknown, you will have a hard time.

Because Wang Laozhu spoke up, the family had dinner earlier than usual that day.

It wasn’t until dinnertime that Wang Yongzhu came out from her room to eat.

On the dining table, there was just one big bowl of pickled vegetables and a basin of boiled greens with a couple of drops of oil floating on top.

Each person had a large bowl of vegetable porridge in front of them.

The amount of grain Old Granny Zhang doled out each day was limited. To make the stomachs feel fuller, Lady Jiang had grown accustomed to picking a few greens from the garden, chopping up the leaves and stems, and mixing them into the porridge, which made it look thicker.

It was Old Granny Zhang who served the porridge. Wang Laozhu’s bowl had more rice but fewer vegetable leaves, while her own and her daughter’s bowls had an equal mix of vegetables and rice. Lastly, she glanced at Laosi, hesitating for a moment before serving him a bowl similar to her own.

After serving like this, what remained in the pot was a mixture with more vegetable leaves and fewer rice grains. frёeweɓηovel_coɱ

But even so, Lady Jiang was satisfied, for she, like everyone else, received a bowl of her own.

She knew very well what this meant, and she couldn’t help but feel tears welling up, trembling hands lifting the bowl to take a sip.

The taste of the vegetable porridge wasn’t particularly good, but to Lady Jiang, it was already a luxury. This was not just a bowl of porridge; it represented her acceptance in the eyes of her mother-in-law, part of the family at last.

Ever since she had entered the Wang Family, aside from the first few months and the few days when her husband returned home, when had she ever had her own place and utensils at the table like the others?

Jinhua saw this and felt a surge of happiness, her fear of her elder aunt from earlier in the day dissipating by half. As long as her mother could eat well—or no, not even well, just enough to be equal with the rest of the family—she would be content. From now on, whatever her grandmother and aunt told her to do, she would do without complaint!

Jindou and Jinhu listened to Old Granny Zhang’s stern statement that the household would return to the old ways of eating only frugal meals, and considering the younger brother had offended grandmother and aunt, the notion of each person getting a bowl of vegetable porridge was not a surprise to either of them.

Although, because their elder aunt had earned some money selling mushrooms some days before, they had tasted meat and felt their tastes had become fastidious. The vegetable porridge, which they used to manage to eat, now seemed a bit hard to swallow.

But being older, they understood it was best for the eldest branch of the family to keep a low profile these days, to let their grandmother’s anger subside. Moreover, they were aware that the household expenses had become extraordinarily large due to their father’s injury.

Although the vegetable porridge was hard to swallow, they didn’t even furrow their brows and drank it all.

Jinpan and Jinshao might have been small, but their branch of the Wang Family had always been overlooked. Except for the special attention Wang Yongzhu received later, they hardly ever got a taste of anything good in the house before.

Thus, they were very content. As long as the food was edible and could fill their stomachs, they weren’t picky at all.

Even Jinshao hugged his bowl and slurped so eagerly he almost buried his head in it.

The only exception was Jinguan. When he was born, the days of the Wang Family had improved. Moreover, being the youngest son, Lady Lin was especially fond of him and would secretly cook him special meals now and then.

She even bought him flatbread on the sly when they went to town.

Now, looking at the vegetable porridge, with more vegetable leaves than rice, and at the center of the table, nothing but pickles or boiled greens, he really didn’t want to eat.

Looking up, seeing that everyone else was drinking, he knew he was currently disliked. If he complained again, he feared he might take a beating from his two older brothers, so he kept quiet. Taking a sip with a bowl in hand, he grimaced and only swallowed with effort.

Jindou at his side clenched his teeth and shot Jinguan a warning glance.

Jinhu kicked him under the table without showing anything on his face.

The kick almost made Jinguan lose his grip on the bowl, which nearly fell onto the table. It was only thanks to Jindou’s quick reflexes, steadying it in time, that they avoided spilling much of the soup.

All three brothers tensed up, their back hairs standing on end, anxiously looking at Old Granny Zhang sitting at the head of the table, leisurely sipping her vegetable porridge and occasionally picking up pickles for Wang Yongzhu.

They braced themselves for a scolding that seemed imminent.

Unexpectedly, Old Granny Zhang didn’t so much as lift an eyelid, but simply reminded Wang Yongzhu, "Eat up, after you finish—"

Before she could finish her sentence, the courtyard door was kicked open with a "bam," and a figure burst in, "Zhang Chuntao, you wretched woman! You’ve ruined my family, driven us to death. If I can’t live on, then neither will you—"

There was Wang Daxiu, her hair a disheveled mess, wielding a kitchen knife and charging in with a fierce momentum.

Since it wasn’t completely dark yet, they were eating their dinner outside, and the moment Wang Daxiu entered, she set her furious eyes on Old Granny Zhang sitting at the head of the table.

Her own man was lying sick in bed, not awake for more than two hours a day, her most cherished youngest son beaten half-crippled with a high fever that wouldn’t subside, babbling nonsense every day, visibly wasting away in just a few days’ time.

But the Wang Family, they’d taken her silver and, along with that bastard Li Laosi, seized her family’s fields and house while her man lay unconscious.

Upon waking and hearing this from her, her husband vomited a pool of blood on the spot and declined rapidly.

Driven to despair, a fierce determination grew in Wang Daxiu. It was the Wang Family who had brought her to this state, her husband and son were both ruined, and she was willing to risk her own life to hack down a few of the Wang Family’s brats, to accompany her husband and son in the afterlife!

So, as dusk fell, she hid the kitchen knife in her clothes and headed for the Wang Family’s home.

The Wangs generally didn’t close their doors during the day, only locking them after dinner at night. That day, for some unknown reason, someone forgot to lock it, leaving the door merely latched. Thus, Wang Daxiu was able to kick the courtyard door open with a single blow.

Not caring about anything, not even who was before her, she swung the knife at the first person she saw.

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