Fubao knew her mother was unreasonable, so she sighed.
Some things, once they happen once or twice, they’re bound to happen a third time.
Originally, when the marriage contract was set with the Liang family next door, one morning her mother got up early and discovered a small basket covered with rags outside the Liang family’s courtyard. Out of curiosity, she lifted the rag and saw several pounds of pork inside.
At that time, their family was very poor, and her mother was lazy and gluttonous. The idea of taking advantage quickly took hold, so she sneakily brought the basket back home.
Fubao felt guilty from the start, but she couldn’t resist the urge to eat meat either.
In the village, most families were poor; eating meat was an extravagance.
Latter, on the second day, her mother became addicted to taking advantage and sneakily went out again, but this time she came back empty-handed, feeling quite disappointed.
Yet another day passed, and her mother discovered another small basket outside the Liang family’s house, this time filled with chicken and duck eggs, probably weighing around ten pounds.
So, with time, her mother worked out a pattern: these baskets would arrive every other day, sometimes filled with meat, sometimes with chicken, duck, or goose eggs, sometimes with silver, and other times with golden sore medicine bought from the town, and even a few pieces of cloth for making clothes.
Fubao knew these were being secretly sent to the Liang family. Since the gifts always arrived late at night, her mother had seen the hurried figure of the giver on several occasions, hiding behind their own door. Over the course of the year, as Fubao ate the meat sent to others, her feeling of guilt grew ever deeper.
She confined herself inside her home, fearful of encountering the Liang family next door.
She had no face to see the Liang family, as her guilt was too great, especially since when she was younger, she once broke her leg on the mountain; crying for help to no avail, it was Fourth Brother Liang who carried her down the mountain.
With these thoughts in mind, Fubao sighed again.
On the kang bed, Aunt Wang muttered with a curled lip, "Dabin chose a really bad time to have a child. I was away for so long; think of how many baskets I missed! I practically handed them to the Liang family on a silver platter. Those burly brothers are really tough nuts. How many people died in the mountains from droughts and floods back then? And then how many from the plague? Their father died, and their mother was paralyzed. Hey, I think they’re nothing but a nest of jinxes. Living next to them, I feel like it brings bad luck!"
Aunt Wang nagged on and on, and Fubao frowned, then sighed silently once more.
The scent of meat drifted from the Liang family next door. Aunt Wang drooled and cursed incessantly, regretting that she had left and missed out on so many baskets, thinking that if she hadn’t left the village back then, the Liang family wouldn’t have been able to feast on meat and fish every day.
She felt as if her rightful wealth had been seized by others.
The meal that night was personally cooked by Dong Huiying. She made a dish of boiled pork slices, soy-braised autumn fish, accompanied by stir-fried seasonal vegetables, and a sour soup to cut through the greasiness.
No one knew how she did it, but even before the dishes were taken off the stove, the fragrances of the meat and vegetables already wafted for miles, making people’s mouths water.
The old lady living across the street craved it so much that she leaned on her doorway, constantly peering towards the Liang family’s side.
And chubby Dong Xinyuan, who was quite forward, and seeing as this was her first time in the Liang family’s house but also her elder sister’s in-laws’ home, what was there to be embarrassed about?