Aunt Kang was stunned after her husband slapped her.
She did not dare to say anything as her husband was furious.
An Jiuyue did not even spare Aunt Kang a glance as she spoke to the Chief, “Chief, you all should have some porridge first. The porridge is still warm. It will turn cold soon.”
She ignored the others and began starting a bonfire for them. She watched on as many fought and scrambled to have the porridge. When they were done, she gathered the earthen jar and bamboo tubes back and was ready to leave.
Someone noticed that she was about to leave and hurriedly called out to her, “Jiuyue, your porridge is too diluted. Make it thicker tomorrow.”
An Jiuyue stopped in her tracks and looked back at him.
“I’ll cook a full meal for you if you want to have a meal and not be guaranteed a next. What do you think about that?” she retorted.
“Uh.”
The man was dumbfounded by her words, and his face flushed.
“Jiuyue, what are you talking about? We didn’t say anything about cooking a full meal. It’s just that this porridge is really not enough to fill our stomachs.”
“That’s right, that’s right! There is so little porridge, but so many of us are sharing it. How can we be full?” A few men defended the person who spoke earlier.
“Jiuyue, you saved us. There’s no reason for you to starve us, right?”
An Jiuyue’s expression turned cold. She stared coldly at those shameless people and sneered.
“I never intended for you all to eat your fill. I’m only trying to keep you from starving to death.”
I’ve really treated these people too well, haven’t I? How dare they take advantage of me? Did they really think I’m easy to bully?
“How about this? I’ll stop sending plain porridge from tomorrow onwards, and you can go dig up wild vegetables and tree bark to eat. You can find food without me anyway. There may not be much on the mountain, but there will definitely be plenty of tree bark. You will definitely be able to eat your fill!”
“You—”
When those men heard her words, they almost flew into a rage.
A few other men came forward to stop them.
“Alright, alright. It’s good enough that we get to eat something. What else do you want? Without Jiuyue, all of us would’ve still been starving on the roof. We might have even been swept away by the water!”
“Jiuyue’s family has no fields or land, so they don’t have much food in the first place. It’s already a great favor that she’s giving us some plain porridge!”
Although there were some bad people in the village, there were also some kind ones. An Jiuyue saw that some people were defending her and did not say anything else. Instead, she looked at the Chief.
“Chief, you should send people out to pick up more firewood. Although the firewood may be wet, if you let it sit in the cave for a few hours, it can still be used to start a fire. It’s not safe in the mountains at night. It’s better to have a few bonfires.”
“Alright, I understand,” the Chief replied.
“Jiuyue, you should be careful when you go back. You don’t have to come tomorrow morning, just come at noon. There are so many people. There’s definitely not enough food. One meal a day is enough for all.”
He had deliberately said this out loud so that the people who despised the plain porridge An Jiuyue brought could hear it.
He really wanted to slap every single one of them. How can these cowards be so cocky? We already have food, but that didn’t stop them from complaining and nitpicking!
“One meal a day? That won’t do!”
Someone heard the Chief’s words and immediately shouted.