Chapter 160 Starving Soybeans

Huangdou has been in a very bad mood these past few days. Not only is she not getting enough to eat, but she also has endless chores to do every day. If she doesn't finish her chores, she gets beaten. When she doesn't have food, she's weak and has no ability to fight back. Her family is one thing, since they at least feed her. Who is this guy? She seems so easy to bully.

With joint pain and chilblains in winter, whether he can become a chef in the future is still unknown. He has nowhere to vent his anger. Where did this ugly girl come from? Why should she listen to her?

However, she was exhausted and didn't have time to argue with her. The ugly girl, thinking she was scared, happily ran off to play with some classmates.

Huangdou glanced down at the blanket and schoolbag lying on the ground, then turned away indifferently without looking to the side or changing her expression. She didn't even touch them, and carried her pig feed away. As for that ugly thing, let her go find it herself!

This is the entrance to the village; it's hard to say whether she'll be able to find it!

She wasn't afraid of retaliation. In this sweltering heat, there was no one around. Who could prove that she had handed the item over to her?

So, Huang Dou went home without any psychological burden.

Back home, she didn't rest. The two pigs were so hungry they were grunting. She quickly ran to the kitchen to start a fire and boil water. After the water boiled, she threw in the pig feed and poured in a ladle of bran and soybeans that her mother had specially saved. After the pig feed was cooked, she had to let it cool for a while before feeding it to the pigs.

After finishing all that, I still have to prepare meals for the whole family. Every day it's a fixed schedule and quantity. Even though there are five people in the family, I'm only allowed to cook for four.

Then what is she?

They wouldn't let him eat but still made him do so much work. Huang Dou was already dizzy and exhausted. Where would he get the strength to cook for his family?

Besides, with her mother not home, she couldn't cook at all; all the food was locked in the cupboard.

Huang Dou knew that there was nothing she could do by staying at home; no one would prepare a coffin for her if she died.

After finishing all that work, she felt completely exhausted, but she still forced herself to come to the big locust tree at the entrance of the village.

There are mostly elderly people here. I just saw her carrying pig feed home. How long has it been?

He came out again carrying a bamboo basket, but before they could ask him anything, Huangdou could no longer hold on and collapsed in front of them.

When she woke up again, she was still sleeping in the woodshed. You could tell how crazy the mosquitoes were in early autumn just by looking at the bites all over her body.

With one slap, five or six died: "Damn it, I haven't even eaten yet, and you have the nerve to bite me? I'll slap you all to death!"

The courtyard was noisy, and it sounded like the ugly monster's voice could be heard.

“I gave her my blanket and schoolbag and asked her to bring them back for me. How could I not have them? Call her out here. I want to ask her myself.”

"Hey, Mr. Cui, you'd better watch out for your daughter. Huang Dou only brought pig feed home today, there was no blanket or schoolbag at all, we all saw that. Such a good child, she was even planning to cut a second basket, but she just fainted right in front of us, she's unconscious, how are we supposed to wake her up?"

That's definitely Grandma Niu's voice. Grandma Niu is so powerful; she fainted right in front of them. She's definitely reliable.

Huang Dou felt weak all over. Before she fainted, she broke out in a sweat and felt nauseous and dry heaving. She suspected it was due to low blood sugar and severe malnutrition, but she had no proof.

Just as she was wondering if Li Pandi would cook her something, she heard her loud voice shouting at that ugly woman in the yard.

"What evidence do you have that my family's soybeans stole your quilt and schoolbag? Why did you bring the quilt back in the middle of summer? Won't you need it when it gets cold? Other people who go to school in the countryside don't carry their quilts back like you do. You're clearly trying to extort money from us!"

“My mattress got wet and it rotted at school, so I took it home to dry.”

"You were just saying quilt, how come it's become mattress now? Is it a quilt or a mattress?"

"Are the bedding okay? A mattress, a sheet, and a thin blanket. Do I really need to go into such detail?"

"Nonsense, you've come to my house to extort money, of course I have to ask you clearly. Even if we didn't see her, do you think my daughter would steal your things?"

At this moment, an older voice interrupted Li Pandi with a hint of impatience.

“Zhongyi’s family, you’re not Huangdou after all. Why don’t you check if Huangdou is awake? If she is, just ask her, won’t that be enough?”

Li Pandi was furious. "Look at what you're saying, sister-in-law! I know Huang Dou's character. She would never pick up other people's things, much less intentionally steal them. So what your daughter said is definitely wrong!"

The other elderly people also remembered how kind-hearted Huang Douzi helped them from time to time and spoke up for her.

Huangdou knew that lying there wouldn't do any good, so he simply used the bed for support and slowly sat up.

With a creak, the door to the woodshed opened, and everyone looked at Huang Dou. Cui Fangfang ran up to her quickly, grabbed her arm, and asked anxiously.

"Huang Dou, Huang Zhaodi, I'm asking you, where's my blanket and my books? I gave them to you as soon as I got home from school, where did you put them?"

Huang Dou frowned. "Who are you?"

It's not that Huang Dou doesn't know her; she's very arrogant. She's been in school since she was little and thinks she's a good student. She looks down on everyone, especially since she's an adopted daughter. Although she's called an adopted daughter, they secretly call her a child bride. They not only don't respect her, but they also bully her with mockery and ridicule every time they see her.

The best way to deal with someone like that is to ignore her.

So when Huang Dou asked this question, everyone was stunned, especially Cui Fangfang, who was standing in front of her, and was so angry that she laughed.

"Go ahead and pretend. You don't even know who I am? Huang Douzi, no, I should call you Huang Zhaodi, the name you hate the most. You don't know who I am? Who are you trying to fool? We live in the same village and grew up together. How could you not recognize me?"

Huang Dou forcefully shook off her arm and stared at her expressionlessly.

Why should I get to know you? To relive the times you hit me, scolded me, and scorned me? Or to show off how much grain your family has? How much savings you have? Or to hear your gossip about your uncle being cheated on? Aren't you ridiculous? Can't I just not want to know you?

"Ahhh, what did you say? Who told you that? Who told you about my uncle...?"

"Cui Fangfang, shut up and go back!"

At this moment, her mother finally couldn't bear it any longer and loudly ordered Cui Fangfang to shut up, forbidding her from saying anything more.

After being scolded and crying by her mother, Cui Fangfang ran away, while Huang Dou fearlessly looked at the village chief's wife.

“Auntie, let me make this clear to everyone: I have never seen your daughter’s things. I went to cut pig feed this morning and fed the pigs when I got home. I can barely carry 10 or 20 pounds of pig feed. Am I stupid enough to help your daughter carry her things? If you lose your things, don’t think I’m easy to bully and come to me for them. I have never seen your precious things. You worthless people have worthless lives. Touching them will shorten my lifespan. These are the words she used to say about me. Now I’m giving you a taste of your own medicine.”

The village chief's wife wanted to question Huang Dou a few more times, but Huang Dou's spiel left her red-faced and speechless.

Unable to utter a single word, she stomped her feet in anger and stormed off.

Then, seeing that her face was pale, the elderly people asked Li Pandi to make her something delicious to nourish her.

"I'm not trying to be mean, but Zhongyi's child is so young, yet she does so much work every day. How can you not feed her? To put it bluntly, even your pigs are fed. Huangdou is a person, isn't she? If you starve her like this, she'll starve to death. Who will do the work then? You will, or your two precious sons?"

Li Pandi was speechless at Huang Dou's words, but she also felt that they made a lot of sense. So after seeing the others off, she glared at Huang Dou fiercely.

"What are you standing there for? Go cook. I'll dig up some grain, steam some vegetable dumplings, and make some garlic sauce for you."

Before she could finish speaking, Huangdou refused in a dry voice: "Mom, I have no strength. My head feels heavy and I feel weak when I walk. Please give me something to eat. I'm really hungry. I even vomited bile this afternoon."

Just as Li Pandi was about to scold them, Huang Dou added, "I didn't take their things."

Li Pandi glanced at her sideways, "Of course I know you didn't take anything. Do you have time to help them carry things? There are so many people watching, what are you afraid of?"

Without pressuring her, he went back to his room to cook. Huang Dou was surprised that she didn't pursue the matter. He thought to himself that everything must be earned by oneself.

In the evening, she was usually given only a bowl of thin, watery vegetable porridge, but tonight it was unusually thick, and she was also given two vegetable dumplings.

Although I was very unhappy when I received it and I was grumbling, at least I got something for myself.

However, long-term overwork and hunger had left her stomach empty, so this little bit of food was not enough to satisfy her hunger. At the age when she was growing, after washing herself in the kitchen and lying down in her little dark room, she was hungry again.

This hunger made her restless and unable to sleep. She finally managed to stay awake until the whole family was asleep, then she carefully opened the door and ran out to the cornfield. Relying on her memory, she found the village chief's cornfield. She didn't dare to linger at the edge of the field, but deliberately crawled to the other end, fully armed, for fear of being scratched by the corn leaves.

She had just picked two ears of corn, and after peeling them open, she found they were a bit old, but hunger made her disregard everything else and start gnawing on them vigorously.

This was said by Cui Fangfang herself. Her family had more grain than they could eat. Since they couldn't finish it, surely they could share some with her?

But she never expected that she would run into a man and a woman venturing into the cornfield when she was just looking for something to eat.

And they were so aggressive, they just got right off the bat. He frowned, but held his breath and dared not make a sound, because they were less than two meters apart. If they disturbed the man, it could cause him to be impotent for life.