“9th brother, what are you doing? If you are mad you come to me. Why are you bullying a woman?” Gu Qiao blocked in front of his wife and stared angrily with angry eyes. His face flustered from anger.
Back in the days, he was the second in charge of a shop in the city of Yan. Every time he returned to the village even the patriarch was respectful to him. Look at him now! Even a young brother in the clan could walk all over him! This was all the fault of the late Mrs. Liu. If it wasn’t for her, he’d already be the number one in charge of the shop and enjoyed all the luxuries a big city has to offer by now!
“7th brother, 7th sister has gone a little over the top. Who hits a child with a sickle? That’s not teaching a child a lesson. That’s trying to kill her! You can’t listen only to her side of the story. There are more than just our two families here. 3rd aunt and 10th brother also saw the whole thing. Everybody have a pretty good idea of what happened!” After he was done talking, he tossed the sickle in front of Gu Qiao’s feet, snorted, and walked away.
Gu Qiao had finally noticed all the other clan members were looking at them with disdain and his face flustered. He dragged Mrs. Liu up from the ground and said through gritted teeth, “What had Gu Ye done this time? Even if she was at fault, you could just scold her. Look at her, she still stumbles when she walks. You could have killed her with the sickle, and in front of everybody as well. You won’t even have the chance the explain yourself. If you kill someone, you think the patriarch will still let you stay? By then even I would be dragged down by you.”
“You have no idea what that damned child did, she….” Mrs. Liu looked at the hare in 9th aunty’s hand and still felt angry and unreconciled.
“Alright! It’s just half a hare! Stop embarrassing us in front of everyone!” said Gu Qiao impatiently. Right in front of everybody, over a few bites of meat, has she not embarrassed them enough already?
Mrs. Liu got up from the ground reluctantly as she mumbled to herself, “Yeah, easy for you to say. If we do it properly, half a hare can last up to two meals. You have no idea about it at all…”
When the sun was setting, Gu Ye carried home with her half a skinned hare to prepare dinner. Mrs. Liu, not trusting her with the hair, shouted behind her, “You damned child who tried to lose all of our family fortune, don’t cook all of it all at once. Salt whatever’s left and save it for tomorrow’s meal!”
Li’jie, also heading home to prepare dinner, held Gu Ye’s hand in hers and whispered to her, “You come by my place today, I will save you a bowl of hare meat. As for this skin, my dad will tan it and my mom will make it into a vest for you. It’s very warm when you wear it under your dress during winter time.”
“I will shamelessly accept the hare skin.” From her memory, the original owner barely had any winter clothing. It was a miracle she hasn’t died from hypothermia all these years. “As for the hare meat, there is barely enough for the seven of you, so no need to save me any. We will be having braised hare tonight as well.”
“No way that frugal stepmother will let you have any. It’s been decided. You are coming over tonight….” As they were chatting away, they have already arrived in front of their houses. Li’jie re-emphasized again before she went inside her house.
Gu Ye diced the hare meat after rinsing it thoroughly. She cooked the hare meat halfway before she prepare a thick pot of meat soup. She then took out half the hare meat and braised them with radishes. In the remaining soup she added some ladybell root that she fetched from the dimension to create the “ladybell root hare soup”.1
As the stewing took longer, the hare meat was still stewing when everybody returned from the field. Mrs. Liu dashed straight to the kitchen when she walked inside the house. Learning that dinner was not yet ready, she was riled up all over again, “You have been home for almost two hours, how’s dinner still not ready? You lazy thing, did you go and take a nap?”