Chapter 9: The Rotten Zhang Xiufang

Back in her room, Yu Nuan picked up the warmed milk powder and began feeding Gou Wang.

While she was in the middle of feeding, Father Yu came to the door and knocked.
“Little Nuan, your mother will take care of Gou Wang tonight.”

Father Yu was worried that she wouldn’t get proper rest—after all, she had been busy all day. If she didn’t sleep well too, she’d collapse from exhaustion.

As soon as his voice sounded, Yu Nuan reacted like a startled bird.

She twisted around in a flash, turning her back to him.

“It might be hard for you two to sleep if you’re caring for Gou Wang.”

“I’ve made a bed on the floor. It’s enough.”

“Alright then. I’ll finish feeding him the sugar water and bring him over.”

After Father Yu left, she patted her pounding heart.

What if he had seen the milk bottle appear out of thin air? That would’ve been a disaster.

Once she fed Gou Wang until he was full, she brought him over to Yu Mother.

There, she saw Father Yu setting up a makeshift floor bed under the main bed frame using several square stones and a wooden plank.

A thick layer of dry straw was laid on top, with a quilt spread over it.

Crude—extremely crude!

Her motivation to earn money and build a new house surged once more.

The straw was poking out all over, and just looking at it made her skin itch.

She ran back to her room and quickly lifted her clothes for inspection.

Her waist was covered in patches of chafed, scaly skin.

Hard to imagine that in this dry summer climate, she still had layers of rough, peeling skin.

She put her clothes down and told Father Yu and Yu Mother that she was going to boil water for a bath.

She was afraid that if she didn’t say anything, Father Yu might walk in while she was bathing and get a shock.

Hearing this, Father Yu limped over, insisting on fetching water for her, but she quickly declined.

She couldn’t bear to let the elderly man tire himself out for her.

With no proper privacy, she had to bathe outdoors.

Worse yet, she didn’t have any soap or bath products.

She remembered that her childhood neighbor used to make eucalyptus oil. The leftover distilled water from the process was used by their children to bathe and wash their hair.

It was great for cleansing the skin, relieving itchiness, and reducing inflammation. She had used it a few times herself and felt amazing afterward.

She remembered seeing some eucalyptus trees behind the house last time she went gathering herbs for Father Yu.

But it was already dark now. She’d have to wait for another day to go search for them.

No soap and nothing to bathe with—she could only sigh at her misfortune.

Luckily, there was a large wooden basin; otherwise, bathing would’ve been even harder.

She carried the basin to the spring, where the kitchen wall and a nearby fence provided a bit of cover.

Still, bathing in the open like a thief, she couldn’t stretch or move freely.

The moon hung high, and the moonlight made everything as clear as daylight. There was no such thing as privacy.

A nightjar cried out somewhere in the dark, startling her as she rushed to rinse off.

The cold water hitting her skin made it sting and itch at the same time.

But even a quick rinse was better than nothing. Without it, she probably wouldn’t have been able to sleep.

After the basin ran dry, she quickly threw on her clothes.

Back in the kitchen, she picked a few sticks of firewood from the pile, intending to light a fire in her room.

Just as she reached the doorway, Father Yu handed her a bunch of dried leaves.

“There are a lot of bugs. Burn this in the room for smoke.”

Yu Nuan set the wood down and took the bundle. “Got it. You should rest now.”

Only after Father Yu shut his door did she lift the bundle to her nose and sniff.

It was dried mugwort.

The light from the fire and the scent of mugwort masked the musty smell from the roof a bit.

This season brought plenty of mosquitoes.

Maybe she had just been too tired last night to notice, but now by firelight, she could clearly see large mosquitoes crawling in through the cracks in the walls.

The mugwort smoke stung her nose, but it was better than being tormented by insects.

Even with her skin covered in scabs and peeling, who knew if the mosquitoes could even get through…

She used the fire to dry her hair.

Touching her forehead, she found the scab had hardened.

That wound medicine was truly miraculous.

She lifted her sleeve to check the two snakebite marks on her arm. They had healed up so well that they now looked no worse than mosquito bites.

She pressed them gently—no pain.

She immediately sprayed some antiseptic from her stash.

After all the fuss, she finally lay down.

Exhaustion overtook her, and she quickly fell asleep.

Her insomnia from her past life? It simply didn’t exist here.

The next morning.

She was woken by the sound of a loud argument.

Sunlight was already streaming through the broken part of the door, lighting up the fire pit from last night.

It was already midmorning!

She had slept deeply and soundly, and her whole body felt relaxed.

Sitting up, she ran a hand through her tangled hair.

The original host’s hair was long, thick, and jet-black—but fine and soft, so it fluffed up like a lion’s mane after washing.

She found a hair tie—really just a strip of cloth—and braided her hair into a loose plait.

Her hands moved slowly; she was trying to listen to the commotion outside.

“Hmph! How shameless for someone her age!
So what if Little Nuan gets married?
You still want to trick some fool into taking care of both of you until you die?
You old bats—still dreaming that she’ll take in some sucker just to raise that brat of yours?”

A shrill, mean-spirited woman’s voice cut through the morning air, each line sharper than the last.

“What the mother-in-law says is absolutely right. Uncle, we’re not trying to badmouth you,
but Little Nuan is already of age—
and now you’ve gone and popped out another mouth to feed. We just can’t afford to support you!”
Another woman quickly chimed in.

“You… You all get out! Get out!!”
Father Yu’s voice shook with anger.

Then came the sounds of shoving—and a baby crying.

“Dad! Mom~~”
Yu Nuan opened her door and stepped outside.

She immediately saw five or six people gathered in the courtyard.

Gou Wang was crying in Yu Mother’s arms, his face turning purple from the effort.

Yu Nuan gave a quick glance at the group, then silently took the baby from Yu Mother’s arms and turned to walk back inside.

“Hey, hey! Little Nuan, don’t go!”

Ignoring the shouts behind her, she quickened her pace.

Back in her room, she pulled out the warmed milk bottle from her space and held it to Gou Wang’s lips.

Gou Wang pounced on it like a starving tiger, gulping down a few mouthfuls before his purpled face began to ease up.

He sipped and trembled—he must’ve cried too hard.

“Little Nuan! Come out here and talk to us!!”
It was that same sharp and sour voice—belonging to the original host’s eldest sister-in-law.

Father Yu and Mother Yu had five sons in total. Counting Gou Wang, that made six boys, along with four daughters.

The older sons were named: Chun, Xia, Qiu, Dong, and Fa—Yu Chun, Yu Xia, Yu Qiu, Yu Dong, and Yu Fa.

The three married-off daughters were: Yu Jinhua, Yu Yinhua, and Yu Baohua.

Just now, when Yu Nuan glanced outside, she saw that the ones shouting in the courtyard were Zhang Xiufang, the eldest son’s wife, along with her three daughters-in-law.

Yu Chun, the eldest, had a timid personality, but unfortunately married a woman who was extremely domineering.

Zhang Xiufang was a textbook case of low emotional intelligence with a loud voice and aggressive attitude—always storming around with an explosive temper.

Over time, even Yu Chun had learned to obey her in everything and no longer dared to speak up.

Their three sons and their wives all followed Zhang Xiufang’s lead, which only made her more arrogant.

Gou Wang seemed exhausted from crying. After drinking half the bottle of milk, he dozed off in Yu Nuan’s arms.

She carefully laid him down on the bed, closed the door, and headed out to the courtyard.

“Mom, go watch over Gou Wang in my room.”

Yu Mother gave her a sorrowful look, let out a heavy sigh, and dragged her feet toward the room.

Yu Nuan pulled Father Yu behind her and stood in front of him protectively.

“Little Nuan, you’re not seriously planning to raise that little bastard like your own son, are you?”
The third daughter-in-law from the eldest family spoke up.

Yu Nuan glanced at her.

She looked about twenty-five or twenty-six, chubby and clearly well-fed.

Her eyes, slanted like her mother-in-law’s, were filled with ridicule.

“What? You care about me now?”
Yu Nuan took a step closer and stared coldly at her.

The third daughter-in-law felt unnerved under her gaze and instinctively stepped back.

Strange.

She hadn’t seen this girl for a few days, and somehow, she’d changed.

The girl who used to be soft as cotton was now talking back?

Zhang Xiufang frowned too. She stepped forward and grabbed Yu Nuan’s hand, scolding with a forced laugh,
“Little Nuan, you’re grown up now—it’s time to marry. Instead of raising someone else’s kid, how about—”

Yu Nuan shook her hand off forcefully.

She knew exactly what Zhang Xiufang was getting at, and cut her off mid-sentence.

“Big Sis-in-law, I really don’t like what you’re saying.
Raising a child is no small matter. When you and Big Bro first got married, who raised your three boys?”

“You!!! Don’t be so ungrateful!
Grandparents raising grandchildren is natural and right—you don’t need to argue with me about that!”

“And being filial to your parents is also natural and right.
So how come none of your brothers have taken our parents in to be cared for, huh?”

Zhang Xiufang gritted her teeth.
What was wrong with this girl—did she hit her head?

She looked at the scar on Yu Nuan’s forehead.
Hit her head or not, one thing was certain—her brain was definitely messed up now.

“Little Nuan, we actually came today to bring you great news!
My family’s been thinking about you and found someone for you in secret—he’s a bachelor with no siblings or parents. His name is Wang Jinlong.
You’d be living a comfortable life if you marry him. He’s even offering one tael of silver as a bride price!”

The speaker was Wang Qiong, Zhang Xiufang’s second daughter-in-law—known for being smooth-tongued and tactful.

Seeing her mother-in-law losing ground, she hurried forward to smooth things over and highlight the so-called “good deal.”

“Enough!” Father Yu roared angrily.

A “bachelor”? More like an old widower!

A solitary man.

The Wang family village was just next door. He knew Wang Jinlong well.

A bachelor in his late thirties or early forties—a gambling addict with barely any property.

If Little Nuan was to marry, she should at least have a chance to pick someone decent.

That eldest daughter-in-law of his was truly rotten—this was basically throwing Little Nuan straight into a pit of fire.