“This is my mother…”
Di Yelei looked hesitant and struggled.
“Your mother? Oh, I see. Should we go out and see?”
Liu Sisi understood. Di Yelei’s birth mother had died when he was born, so the current mother must be his stepmother. No wonder she was being cursed at so harshly.
“I’ll go out and have a look. If it takes too long, she might force her way in. You stay here and cook, and by the way, clean up this meat.”
Di Yelei’s eyebrows were tightly furrowed, and he seemed quite helpless. He seemed to want to say something more, but ultimately didn’t, and walked out of the kitchen.
Di Xuan, who had been playing with a fire poker over the stove, suddenly stood up and followed Di Yelei out.
On the contrary, the previously joyful Di Ying suddenly pounced into Liu Sisi’s arms, nervously whispering, “Mom, it’s Grandma who’s come. She must have come to snatch our meat. Every time Dad comes back from hunting, she comes to our door like this…”
Liu Sisi suddenly understood the key to the situation.
Well!
It turned out that there were too many freeloaders in this broken family!
No wonder, even if this family was dragging along two children, it shouldn’t be in such a state of disrepair that it could only be described as a mess. It turned out that the money they earned went into other people’s pockets, which was not surprising!
Liu Sisi’s gaze turned to the game on the ground that she was tidying up, and she immediately made a plan in her heart.
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Outside, Di Yelei opened the kitchen door and walked out. In the courtyard, Ms. Zhao was cursing enthusiastically.
Of the three sons left by the previous Ms. Fan, her least favorite was naturally Di Yelei. But somehow, this least favored third son managed to have a knack for hunting. Originally, he had married a bride with baggage, and she thought she had fulfilled her duty as a stepmother. But unexpectedly, this new wife would go up the hill to chop firewood when Di Yelei was not back from hunting. She accidentally fell from the hill, killing herself and her unborn child, and it cost a lot of silver to save her!
Every time she thought of this, her heart bled, because it was all about money! She immediately continued cursing, but then she saw the figure she always found disgusting.
“You’ve been hiding in there for so long, pretending to be dead, huh? You think that now that you’ve grown up and set up your own separate household, you don’t have to keep me as your foster mother in your heart anymore? Remember, I raised you from birth, taking care of you every step of the way from cleaning up your poop and pee…”
Ms. Zhao’s cursing was relentless, without pausing for breath, and she pointed at Di Yelei’s forehead and let out a tirade of insults.
Di Yelei stood still in the same place, not uttering a word from beginning to end.
It wasn’t until Ms. Zhao was tired of swearing that he finally spoke: “I heard you went into the mountains today? Did you catch any game? Your father said he didn’t have an appetite and just wanted to have some game soup. I know you don’t care about me, your foster mother, but he’s still your own father, after all. You wouldn’t treat yourself to delicious food while letting your own father eat leftovers, would you?”
She was putting pressure on him with filial piety! Liu Sisi, hiding behind the kitchen door, was also annoyed.
This family was barely surviving on leftovers, yet some people still free-load! And not just once or twice! No wonder the family was so poor!
However, the other party actually used filial piety to pressure him, so it’s no wonder he had no choice but to back down!
After a long silence, Di Yelei’s deep voice came, “Mom, it’s not that Yelei isn’t willing to give, but today, Yelei didn’t get much game. Sisi just got married and caught a cold, and I was planning to use this time to replenish her.”
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“Replenish? Replenish what? This shameless rat is better off being sold to a brothel, at least then you could recover the ten taels of silver for the dowry! Replenishing her, she doesn’t even know if she deserves such good fortune!”
Zhao’s mouth didn’t have any kindness, mocking and sarcastic.
“Mom, Sisi is a good person, you can’t talk about her like that.”
Di Yelei, who has always played the victim, could not stand it anymore and retorted.
“Oh, that’s great! He really forgot about his parents after getting a wife!”
This statement immediately angered Zhao, who began to play the victim, “Oh! Everyone, come and see! He got a wife and doesn’t even want his own dad anymore! How are we supposed to live with them! A tiny child, I’ve been picking up after him until now, and this is how I’m treated…”
“Enough! I’ll give it to you! Isn’t it enough that I’m giving you game?!”
Di Yelei angrily shouted, pushing open the door and walking straight into the kitchen, only to be met by Liu Sisi’s big watery eyes, causing him to freeze in place.
His lips moved, but in the end, he didn’t say anything. With large strides, he moved towards the stove, picked up the half-skinned roe deer, and turned to walk towards the doorway.
Liu Sisi didn’t call out to him. She just tightly hugged YingEr in her arms, motionless. After a short while, Di Yelei’s deep voice was heard.
“Here! Today I only hunted around nearby and got only this one roe deer. You came before I could finish skinning it. Take it and make some soup for dad!”
Accepting the roe deer, Ms. Zhao briefly looked at it. The deer weighed about 8 catties, quite fat!
“Only one? Are you trying to screw me? You only hunted one deer after entering the mountains…”
Ms. Zhao raised her voice, trying to get more out of Di Yelei. She also looked further inside, and apart from the deer skin on the ground, there was nothing left in the kitchen.
Di Yelei was also somewhat angry but dared not vent his anger on Ms. Zhao. However, his words became harsher.
“Sisi has been sick in bed, and there are two young children in the family that need attention. Even if I, Di Yelei, am more capable, I’ve only been out for four hours. How much am I able to hunt? Are you going to make me pay with my life if I can’t provide enough?”
“Watch your mouth when you talk!”
Ms. Zhao knew when to take a step back, but she wasn’t going to let Di Yelei get carried away either: “Get it straight! This game is for your father to eat! The bad guy has become me, not me who wants to eat it! I raised you from birth, is this how you repay me? Let me tell you Di Yelei, you need to have a conscience…”
After another burst of rapid-fire words, Di Yelei couldn’t even raise his head. It was only then that Ms. Zhao finally walked away victoriously, holding the fat roe deer.
Di Yelei’s face was full of frustration. He had promised to cook for Sisi to restore her health, but his moment of weakness had led him to give it away. What was he to do?