Chapter 3: Cooking Rice and Feeding Pigs

Zhang was beaming with excitement. “Great! With these thirty taels of silver, we can renovate our house, and Yaozu can go to a private school!”

Thirty taels of silver— it would take their farming family three years to earn that much.

At the entrance, Xiang Xinyao clenched her fists. So the original owner wasn’t the biological daughter of the Hu family. No wonder they treated her so cruelly.

It made sense now that the Hu family had never regarded her as a human being, treating her more like livestock.

And now they were even planning to marry her off to the disabled son of the head village  for that hefty bride price of thirty taels.

How nice!

How considerate!

Since that was the case, she no longer needed to worry about repaying any kindness when seeking revenge for the original owner.

As she was still in Dawai Village, she had no choice but to use the name Hu Zhaodi, which everyone in the village knew.

Once she left this village, she wouldn’t need to use the original owner’s name anymore.

“Mother, I’ll go find that little pest right now!” Hu Dashan’s voice rang out.

Xiang Xinyao quickly stepped out of the small courtyard, pretending to carry a wild rabbit, her expression one of feigned fear as she walked home.

As soon as Hu Dashan opened the door, he saw Hu Zhaodi returning and couldn’t help but scold her. “Little pest! You actually know how to come back! How come you’re not dead out there?”

Xiang Xinyao rolled her eyes internally but pretended to be submissive on the outside, shaking the wild rabbit in her hands.

“Father, I went hunting. Today I was lucky and caught a wild rabbit.”

Upon seeing the rabbit in Hu Zhaodi’s hands, Hu Dashan rushed over to grab it. “It’s getting late. Hurry up and cook the rice to feed the pigs!”

“Oh, I’ll go do that right now.” Hu Zhaodi didn’t resist. A cold glint flashed in her eyes as she headed to the dilapidated kitchen.

Hu Dashan couldn’t wait to process the wild rabbit. They had rendered some lard that morning, but aside from that, their home hadn’t seen meat in a long time.

This rabbit would be a nice treat.

Hu Zhaodi entered the kitchen and opened the rice jar. There was still some cornmeal left, so she took it all out and cooked it with wild vegetables, filling a large pot.

Once the mixture of wild vegetables and cornmeal was cooked, she took the pot to the pigpen and fed it all to the pigs.

After feeding the pigs, she returned to the kitchen to set the pot down, just as Hu Dashan entered with the processed rabbit.

With a stern expression, he asked, “Dead girl, is the rice ready?”

“It’s ready, and I fed the pigs too.”

Hu Dashan lifted the lid of the pot, only to find it empty. “Where’s the rice?”

“I took it to feed the pigs! Father, didn’t you ask me to cook rice to feed the pigs?”

Hu Dashan was seething with rage as he threw the wild rabbit at Hu Zhaodi. “I told you to cook rice for the pigs, and you actually fed the cooked rice to the pigs? What am I supposed to eat?”

Hu Zhaodi caught the rabbit, feigning innocence. “Father, cooking rice for the pigs means cooking rice and then feeding it to the pigs. There’s nothing wrong with that! I didn’t misunderstand!”

Hu Dashan grabbed a broom by the door, ready to hit Hu Zhaodi. But then he remembered he needed to marry her off; if he hurt her and have bruises, how could she get married? Reluctantly, he set the broom down.

“Go cook another pot of rice. Our family still needs to eat.”

Hu Zhaodi shrugged. “Father, we’ve used up all the cornmeal and wild vegetables. What are we supposed to cook with?”

Hu Dashan opened the rice jar and found that the remaining cornmeal was gone. He was so angry he nearly rolled his eyes back into his head.

That cornmeal would have lasted the family for three to five days if used sparingly.

“You wasteful little pest! Are you doing this on purpose? I’ve told you to cook rice to feed the pigs before, and you never fed them cooked rice!”

Hu Zhaodi pretended to be confused. “Father, you didn’t ask me to cook rice for the pigs before!”

Hu Dashan felt a tightness in his chest, panting heavily as he raised the broom again.

“I’ll beat you to death, you little pest! How dare you talk back to me? You wasteful thing, why didn’t you just die outside?”

Hu Zhaodi feigned shock. “Father, so you’ve always wanted me to die outside? Fine! I’ll do as you wish and go die out there.”

With that, Hu Zhaodi decisively turned around, clutching the processed rabbit as she ran out of the small courtyard, a smug smile on her lips.

Hu Dashan was taken aback, suddenly realizing that the rabbit he had processed was now in her hands. He hurriedly took off after her.

“Hu Zhaodi, you little pest, stop right there!”

“Father, I’m your daughter! If I’m a little pest, then you’re a big pest, and Grandma is an old pest! You want to kill me, and you think I’ll just stand here for you to hit? Do you take me for a fool?”

Hu Dashan was so furious that steam seemed to rise from his head. He chased Hu Zhaodi for quite a while, but once she disappeared into the deep mountains, he had no choice but to give up.

He really didn’t have the guts to enter those deep woods.

If Hu Zhaodi died, then the thirty taels of bride price would be out of their reach! He could only shout hoarsely from the edge of the mountains, “Zhaodi, come out! It’s dangerous in the mountains! Come out, I won’t hit you anymore!”

Hiding not far away, Hu Zhaodi revealed a cold smile. She smeared a bit of the leftover rabbit blood on her face, then stored the rabbit in her space.

She casually picked up a stick and hit it against a nearby shrub, making a loud noise while calling out, “Ah! Father, help!”

After hitting the shrub a few more times, Hu Zhaodi tossed aside the stick and ran out, yelling to Hu Dashan, “Father, run! There’s danger!”

At the sound of her voice, Hu Dashan didn’t care about Hu Zhaodi anymore. He turned and ran down the mountain.

After running for a long while, Hu Dashan finally stopped, turning back to look.

To his surprise, Hu Zhaodi was not far behind, gasping for breath as if she were on the brink of death.

This little pest could run so fast?

Hu Dashan suddenly noticed that the rabbit in Hu Zhaodi’s hands was gone. Gasping, he asked, “Where’s the rabbit? The rabbit I processed!”

Hu Zhaodi feigned terror. “It was eaten by a giant python! If it hadn’t been for that rabbit, I’d probably be inside that python’s belly right now.

Father, that giant python was huge, thicker than you! It scared me to death!”

At that moment, Hu Zhaodi’s face was pale, filled with fear, and Hu Dashan truly believed her.

Compared to the processed rabbit, this dead girl was worth thirty taels of silver; she wouldn’t die from a missed meal.

Forget it, better not to hit her!

He should take her back home; if anything happened, those thirty taels would fly away.

“Let’s go home,” Hu Dashan said, unusually good-tempered. “Why were you running, you dead girl? I’m your father; do you really think I could kill you? We’ve lost a rabbit for nothing, and now we’ll go hungry tonight.”

Hu Zhaodi smirked inwardly, her face showing a look of regret. “Father, I was scared! As long as you don’t hit me, I promise I won’t run away again.”

“Fine! As long as you behave and take good care of your brother, I won’t hit you,” Hu Dashan replied dismissively.

Hu Zhaodi smiled. “Then let’s go home.”

After running for a while, Hu Zhaodi felt she had done enough training for today. The original owner’s body was just too weak, but she knew that training had to be gradual.

However, Hu Dashan, running on an empty stomach, was now exhausted and could only force himself to walk home.