Chapter 8: Let Him Starve If He Won’t Eat

Zhang Xiulian and her daughter returned to the kitchen. She stacked the bowls and chopsticks into the basin and carried them over to the sink to wash.

Zhao Lili, after wiping the table, started sweeping the floor. The two of them worked together, and before long, everything was clean and tidy.

Previously, all these chores were left to Zhao Lili alone, but now, with her mother helping, it was much easier.

Zhao Lili brewed a pot of chrysanthemum tea and carried out two small stools, placing them under the crabapple tree at the entrance of the courtyard.

It was the season for crabapple blossoms. In the sunlight, the soft pink petals fluttered in the breeze, like a beautiful painting.

“Mom, come sit and rest a bit.”

“Alright, I’m coming.”

Zhang Xiulian came out of the kitchen carrying a plate of sunflower seeds, her face glowing with a cheerful smile.

Mother and daughter sipped tea under the tree and chatted about everyday things. Zhang Xiulian had never felt so relaxed in her life.

“Oh no! How could we forget about this?”
Zhao Lili suddenly shouted after spitting out some sunflower seed shells.

“Mom, second brother hasn’t eaten breakfast yet! I noticed during breakfast that he didn’t come out. I meant to call him,
but then Grandma got mad and scared me so much I forgot.
He didn’t eat dinner last night either. What if he gets sick from starvation?”

As she spoke, Zhao Lili’s eyes turned red, as if she were about to cry.

Zhang Xiulian glanced at her daughter and continued calmly munching sunflower seeds.

“Girl, your brother was ready to sell you off just to get himself a wife, and you’re still worried about him?

Missing two meals won’t kill him.
I never said he couldn’t eat—he’s the one who didn’t come out. Who can you blame for that?”

She then picked up her teacup and took a slow sip.

Truth be told, Zhang Xiulian had noticed her second son hadn’t come to eat—she just pretended not to know.

In her previous life, her second son often used food strikes to manipulate her.

Whenever something didn’t go his way, he’d lock himself in his room and refuse to eat.

Back then, Zhang Xiulian couldn’t stand to see that. A son is a piece of a mother’s heart—just skipping a meal was enough to make her ache inside.

So every time he pulled that stunt, she’d make special food just for Zhao Wen.

She’d stew an egg custard or make him a cup of rich malted milk.

Whatever demands Zhao Wen made, she’d agree to them all.

And it was exactly this unconditional pampering that made Zhao Wen grow into a selfish man—always thinking only of himself, even scheming against his own parents.

But now, Zhang Xiulian had no intention of coddling this ungrateful son.

“Let him eat or not. Whoever’s hungry, it’s their own problem. As for me—well, I’m not—”

“I’ll make him something to eat and take it to his room,” Zhao Lili said, unable to bear it, looking pleadingly at Zhang Xiulian.

“Absolutely not,” Zhang Xiulian said firmly. “From now on, this is the rule in our house — whether old or young, if they don’t show up for meals, then they’ll just go hungry.”

She clapped the crumbs from her hands, stood up, stretched, and then turned toward the east and west rooms and shouted loudly.

“Gurgle gurgle—”

At that moment, Zhao Wen was sitting up in bed with furrowed brows, leaning against the headboard, rubbing his loudly growling stomach. His eyes were dazed as he stared toward the door.

This didn’t make sense.

With how his mother usually acted, the moment she realized he had missed two meals, she should have been scrambling to bring him food.

Why was it so quiet today?

He couldn’t tell whether it was hunger or a fever from falling into the water yesterday, but his head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, and his whole body had no strength left.

He was starving. Even a plain steamed bun would do!

Zhao Wen slammed his hand against the bed in frustration, regretting not swallowing his pride and going out to eat that morning.

Just then, he heard his mother’s voice coming from outside the door.

Zhao Wen perked up and strained to listen.

After hearing what she said, his heart sank more than halfway.

He really couldn’t take it anymore. He got out of bed, quietly opened the door, and tiptoed into his grandmother Liu Dani’s room.

But the room was empty — not even a shadow of her.

Zhao Wen knew that his grandmother kept a stash of snacks in her old black cabinet.

Every time his two aunts came to visit, they’d bring delicious treats, and he had personally seen his grandmother lock them up in that very cabinet.

But now — there was a shiny padlock hanging on it!

Zhao Wen fiddled with it for a long time, but the lock didn’t budge an inch.

What kind of treasure is in there that it needs to be locked up so tightly?!

Frustrated, he raised his hand and slammed it down on the box.

“Ow!”

His hand instantly swelled up, red and throbbing.

Talk about bad luck — unlucky to the point of absurdity.

Muttering to himself and rubbing his wrist, Zhao Wen slowly walked back to his room.

And Zhao Wen wasn’t the only one who hadn’t eaten. At that moment, Zhao Debao was also lying in bed, starving, his stomach stuck to his back.

His face and back were still burning with pain. Every time he turned over, it felt like countless needles were stabbing him.

He kept replaying last night in his mind — how exactly had Zhang Xiulian managed to overpower him?

In the past, it had always been him hitting her, and she wouldn’t even dare fight back.

How had things flipped so completely? Also, what was up with that woman’s strength?

When she was on top of him, it felt like Mount Tai had collapsed on his body—he couldn’t move an inch.

Just thinking about how he’d been beaten to a pulp by a woman made Zhao Debao feel like he didn’t want to live anymore.

If the neighbors found out about this, how could he still show his face in the village?

He’d rather starve to death than leave the house before the swelling on his face goes down.

“Lili, tidy up a bit and come with Mom to town. I’m going to buy you some new clothes,” Zhang Xiulian said, her heart aching again as she looked at her daughter’s short, tight top and patched trousers.

A young woman this age, and she didn’t even have a decent outfit.

She couldn’t help but wonder what her eyes were even good for in her past life.

Although Zhao Debao lazed around all day and often beat his wife, he did have one huge redeeming quality—he never meddled in the household’s finances.

Of course, most of the family’s money was earned by Zhang Xiulian anyway.

She was busy all year round—farming during the busy seasons, and digging up herbs in the nearby mountains to sell during her free time.

In the countryside, they ate and drank what they grew themselves, so they hardly spent any money.

After covering necessary expenses, Zhang Xiulian still had a few hundred yuan saved up.

“Buy clothes?” Zhao Lili couldn’t believe her ears. She looked at her mother and asked again to be sure.

In her nearly twenty years of life, she could count the number of times she’d gotten new clothes on one hand.

The last time she got new clothes was three years ago, when she sold her braid and gave the money to her mother. Her mother, feeling happy, then bought a few yards of fabric to make her a new outfit.

She lowered her head and glanced at the patch on her pant leg, her face flushing bright red.

“Silly girl, of course it’s for you. Girls should dress up a bit when they’re young and pretty. We better hurry, or we won’t make it back before dark.”

“Oh, okay Mom. When I go out to work later, I’ll earn money and definitely pay you back.”

“A mom buying clothes for her daughter doesn’t need to be repaid. I don’t want your money,” Zhang Xiulian replied.

After explaining, she turned and wheeled out the bicycle. “Lili, let’s go. No need to lock the door—your dad and your brother are both home.”

“Mom, when did you learn how to ride a bicycle?” Zhao Lili stood behind her mother, asking curiously.

Zhang Xiulian almost forgot—at this point in time, she didn’t know how to ride a bike yet.

But in the decades that followed, she not only learned to ride a bicycle, but also mastered tricycles and electric scooters without issue.

It was just that… by then, her daughter was already long gone.