Transmigrated as A Farm Girl Making Her Family Rich

Chapter 54: Chapter 54 Caught a Cold

“Wait for it, this isn’t over yet,” the girl spat bitterly, grabbing the wooden basin of clothes she had nearly finished washing, covering the front of her body with it.

Her body was wet as she shyly rushed back home.

Ye Shuzhen saw that the other party had run off and Second Sister was still doing laundry upstream. She couldn’t bother with Second Sister doing laundry and ran home quickly with her hands crossed over her chest.

Earlier, two girls had fought fiercely by the river. Men from the village who passed by, little boys, and even old bachelors had hidden nearby to watch the spectacle, feeling quite thrilled by it, with one of the old bachelors even drooling.

Ye Shuzhen, soaking wet, rushed back and was seen by Mrs. Lai, who was observing her sons working.

“Shuzhen, did you fall while washing clothes?”

“Mom, I’m cold…”

Ye Shuzhen went back to her room, closed the door, changed her wet clothes, and though it needed washing again, she didn’t want to wash it outside. She threw the clothes into a wooden basin, her heart filled with annoyance, thinking she must punish Daya.

If it weren’t for her gossiping at the river, tarnishing their sisters’ reputations, how could she have ended up fighting someone?

Feeling very cold, Ye Shuzhen stayed in bed. Second Sister came back from laundry and she only glanced at her, feeling dizzy and wanting to sleep.

“Shuzhi, what’s wrong with your sister?” Mrs. Lai asked Ye Shuzhi, who was hanging clothes to dry.

Ye Shuzhi glanced at Ye Shuzhen’s bed and relayed the incident to her mother.

“Humph, fine! Daring to tarnish your aunt’s reputation, I’ll see if I don’t deal with her.” Mrs. Lai had initially planned to cook at noon but, feeling angry at her granddaughter, decided to punish her by making her cook.

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“Mom, what happened?” Hongji asked without looking up when he heard the noise.

Hongji’s father glanced at his mischievous old wife and continued with his work, annoyed that children would talk recklessly everywhere.

“Son, you’ve raised a fine daughter,” Mrs. Lai said with an angry face.

Upon hearing his mother’s angry words, Hongji finally looked up at her, “Mom, what are you up to again? Can you stop always targeting my kids?”

“What do you mean your old mother is always targeting your kids? Humph, no wonder she goes around bad-mouthing elders outside.”

As soon as Mrs. Lai finished speaking, Ye Shuzhi chimed in:

“Older brother, Mom is right; you can’t be biased towards your own daughter.”

Hongji spent the entire morning listening to his mother and sister berating him, very annoyed, he could only let them nag him, in one ear and out the other.

Ye Shiqi and Third Sister heard the sounds of their grandmother and aunt condemning their oldest sister from their room, almost sick of hearing it, they didn’t want to go out and be the target of their anger.

Daya, carrying a basket of pig feed with her two sisters, returned home to see no smoke rising from the kitchen and their grandmother standing in the yard, with both aunts inside the room as well. Her heart felt restless, yet she dared not make a sound.

Seeing Daya, who had irritated her in the morning, Mrs. Lai’s temper flared up again upon spotting her in the sheltered area of the yard eating sunflower seeds.

Her plump, short legs quickly took a few steps toward Daya as she aimed to slap her.

Daya, quick-witted, pulled her two sisters and said, “Run, grandma is hitting people again.”

“Dad, grandma is hitting people,” Er Ya cried out loudly.

“Grandma is hitting people! Run fast,” Wuwa also shouted.

“You unprofitable brats, don’t run! If you run, see if I don’t really hit you,” Mrs. Lai, with her plump body, chased after the children but couldn’t catch up. In her anger, she picked up a broom to chase after them.

Hongji, hearing the children’s voices, put down his tools. Seeing that the children weren’t being beaten by his mother, he just quietly watched her, knowing she would take further action. Seeing her take such a large broom to hit the kids, he hurriedly went over to grab her hand.

“Mom, the kids are small, don’t hit them like this,” Hongji said, frowning, increasingly annoyed by Mrs. Lai’s shenanigans.

“Let go, Hongji, if these unprofitable brats aren’t disciplined, they won’t listen.”

Mrs. Lai, lacking the strength of a son, tugged and tugged but couldn’t pull the broom out of her grasp.

Having just run for a while, and then worked all morning, the three sisters, Daya, were so tired that they stopped, yet they still looked at their grandmother dubiously. As soon as she moved, they would run.

“Grandma, we just came back from working, why are you hitting us again? In what way did we not obey?” Daya asked, her eyes brimming with tears, and Jinzhong felt very wronged.

“Still you say you did nothing wrong? What were you talking about with the villagers this morning when you went to wash clothes? Spreading rumors about your aunt, causing Third Aunt to get into a fight with someone. She’s now lying in bed, seems to be running a fever. If she needs to see a doctor, where will that money come from?”

Upon hearing her grandmother’s words, Shiqi finally realized that Third Aunt had gotten into a fight, which explained why she hadn’t heard from her all morning.

This stingy grandmother of hers was so reluctant to spend money on a doctor even when her own daughter was sick.

Daya tried to defend herself with a sense of grievance:

“Grandma, I didn’t speak ill of Aunt; it’s those people who are too gossipy. Seeing that the aunts had not yet come out to wash clothes, they commented on me washing clothes so early. I just said the aunts had chores at home.”

“Are you suggesting I am falsely accusing you? A young child not learning good manners,” Ye Shuzhi scolded from the room.

“Water, water,” Shuzhen muttered from the bed in the room, asking for water.

“Can’t you get up and pour it yourself?” Ye Shuzhi rolled her eyes at her sister, who had slept all night and still all morning, just like a pig.

“Water,” Shuzhen continued to call out.

The people in the courtyard heard Shuzhen calling, and everyone fell silent.

Shiqi and Siwa stood by the doorway to the room, listening to the sounds from the room next door, hearing Third Aunt’s voice, stuffed with congestion.

She had a sudden realization, if Third Uncle really fell ill, then the eldest sister would inevitably suffer a beating, as this stingy grandmother might take out her irritation on her to save money.

She didn’t want her eldest sister to be beaten, so from the space, she willed a small bowl of water into existence and spoke to Siwa beside her:

“Mmm mmm mmm”

Siwa, initially confused by Shiqi’s intentions, looked at the bowl of water in her hand with a bit of doubt, as the room’s water had just been used up when she had given Wuwa a drink.

Seeing that Siwa didn’t understand, Shiqi gestured toward the room next door.

Siwa said softly, “Does Aunt want to drink water?”

“Mmm mmm mmm,” Shiqi nodded.

Siwa, with her little short legs, walked out of the room. She was very careful not to spill the water, especially careful when crossing the threshold, and arrived at the door of the room next door.

“Aunt, water…”

Shuzhen’s face was flush, still saying she wanted water.

Not wanting to go to the kitchen to fetch water and seeing Siwa obediently bringing water over, Ye Shuzhi reached out to take the water and gave it to her sister in bed.

Seeing her in a dazed state, Ye Shuzhi impatiently lifted her from the bed, helped her drink a bowl of water, and then returned Shuzhen to the bed, where she closed her eyes and quietly fell back to sleep.

Ye Shuzhi took the bowl outside, handing it back to Siwa.

The courtyard quieted down, and Mrs. Lai, unable to free her son’s hand, told her children, “Aren’t you going to cook already? Do you expect your old mother to cook for you? Freeloaders.”

Daya cautiously led her two sisters into the kitchen to cook. As long as their grandmother didn’t hit them, what was cooking, after all?

The briefly quieted courtyard was soon interrupted by an elderly woman’s arrival. Upon seeing the scene in the courtyard, she pointed at Mrs. Lai and berated:

“Really, Mrs. Lai, everyone in the village says you are lazy, and your daughters are lazy; it really seems to be true. I’ve seen it now. Letting the little kids work in the kitchen while you wait to be fed.”