Chapter 7: Eldest Aunt’s Chicken Got Killed

After Madam Jiang left, Madam Zhou tidied up the house, reheated the food, and the whole family sat down happily to eat together.

“Here, Wanchun, eat more.” Madam Zhou picked up the fried eggs and placed them in her bowl.

Du Wanchun was deeply touched. Ever since her mother passed away, no one had treated her this kindly.

Without hesitation, she picked up the eggs with her chopsticks and placed them in Madam Zhou’s bowl instead. This time, she didn’t call her Aunt, but instead, she called her Mother. “Mother, you should eat the eggs.”

Hearing this, Madam Zhou felt warmth surge through her heart, and her eyes welled up with tears.

However, the sentimental moment was quickly interrupted by Zhou Zhao and Zhou Feng.

“Sister-in-law, Mother, stop fighting over it,” Zhou Zhao joked. “Be careful, or those two old ducks might think we don’t have enough to eat and start laying eggs like crazy. What if they lay so many that we can’t even finish them?”

Zhou Feng was an honest and quiet boy, while Zhou Zhao was lively and mischievous. Ever since his hearing had recovered, he always spoke with a cheerful grin, and in just a few words, he had everyone laughing.

Before long, the whole courtyard was filled with their joyous laughter.

It had been three years since the Zhou family had laughed so freely and happily together.

Meanwhile, in the house next door, chaos erupted in Chen Tieniu’s household. Madam Jiang, still fuming after being humiliated at Madam Zhou’s place, lashed out at both Chen Tieniu and Chen Laoda.

“Look at your good second sister! Today, she actually chased me away with a dung-stirring stick! She’s getting more and more out of hand! Isn’t there a saying that ‘the eldest sister-in-law is like a mother’? Now that your parents are gone, doesn’t that make me her mother? And yet, she treats her mother like this?!”

Then she turned her anger toward Chen Laoda. “And you! All you do every day is farm! When you have time, go with me to see that girl from the Wang family at the village entrance! We need to settle your marriage as soon as possible!”

Chen Tieniu and Chen Laoda didn’t dare to offend her, so they could only nod repeatedly.

Even after scolding them, Madam Jiang still felt unsatisfied. She got up, glanced toward the neighboring courtyard, and muttered, “Those two ducks from the Zhou family are really lucky. I clearly doubled the amount of poison, yet not only did they not die, but they even laid eggs.”

She hesitated, beginning to doubt herself. “Could it be that the ducks weren’t poisoned at all?”

Chen Tieniu tried to dissuade her. “Wife, you should stop doing these underhanded things. Sooner or later, karma will come back to bite us.”

Madam Jiang put her hands on her hips, fuming. “Karma? What karma?! A married woman has no right to come back and take from her maternal family!”

Chen Tieniu frowned and said, “Wife, but Second Sister didn’t take anything from us. That little broken house was something you didn’t even want. The backyard was cleared by them, not us. If anything, we’re the ones who took from her—we even occupied a piece of her land.”

The land he was referring to was something Madam Zhou had bought with most of her savings when she first arrived in Changliu Village.

However, Chen Tieniu and Madam Jiang had forcibly claimed it as part of the Chen family’s property and taken it for themselves.

Madam Jiang refused to listen. “Are you feeling sorry for your sister now?”

Chen Tieniu lowered his head, not daring to speak.

Madam Jiang scoffed coldly. “Back when she was living a life of luxury in the capital, did she ever think of you? And now you feel sorry for her? That’s just pathetic.”

Chen Tieniu turned away slightly, afraid to make a sound.

Madam Jiang kicked the table and stood up aggressively. “If one poisoning didn’t work, I’ll just poison them again!”

She rummaged through the house and found some rat poison. Then, she headed to the backyard. This time, she increased the dosage—if those ducks ate it, they wouldn’t last even an hour before dropping dead.

After laying out the poison, Madam Jiang did nothing for the rest of the afternoon except wait for the ducks next door to die. She waited and waited. As the sky began to darken, she grew impatient. Unable to resist any longer, she went to the backyard to check if the ducks had died.

However, just as she reached the backyard gate, she saw Chen Laoda running toward her, panting heavily. “Mother! Something bad happened! Our chickens… our chickens…”

“What happened to our chickens?” Madam Jiang’s face turned pale, and she immediately grabbed him, demanding an answer.

Chen Laoda’s expression was grim as he pointed toward the backyard. “Mother, all our chickens were killed by a weasel!”

“What?!” Madam Jiang thought she had misheard.

Chen Laoda repeated with certainty, “Mother, just now, all our chickens were attacked and killed by a weasel!”

This time, Madam Jiang heard him clearly. Her legs went weak, and she clung to the wall for support as she stumbled into the backyard. There, she saw all the old hens lying motionless on the ground, their necks twisted at odd angles.

Even the eggs that had been in the chicken coop had been broken, their shells scattered everywhere.

“Oh, my heavens! My chickens! They’re all gone?! How could a weasel come in broad daylight?!” Madam Jiang slapped her thick thigh and began wailing loudly.

The Chen family had farmland and never worried about food, but without these hens, they would no longer have eggs for special meals, nor could they sell them for money.

Losing the ability to sell eggs meant a significant loss of income.

The more Madam Jiang thought about it, the more her heart ached. She stomped into the middle of the dead chickens, kicking them as she cursed, “Damn you, weasel! If you wanted to steal, you could’ve just taken a few eggs! Why did you have to kill all my chickens?! Just wait until I catch you—I’ll skin you alive and dry your flesh into jerky!”

“Mother, what should we do now?” Chen Laoda stepped into the chicken yard, picked up one of the dead hens, and plucked at its feathers. He sighed heavily, “It’s been chewed up so badly, there’s not even a piece of good meat left to eat.”

Madam Jiang smacked the chicken out of his hands. “If we can’t eat it, then we won’t eat it! Our Chen family doesn’t rely on a single chicken for survival!”

Then, she turned and shouted at Chen Tieniu, “Old Chen! You must buy a rat trap for me today! I have to catch that damned weasel!”

Startled by her outburst, Chen Tieniu quickly nodded. “Alright, wife.”

Madam Jiang held her waist, breathing heavily, as if she had shed a layer of skin from exhaustion.

At that moment, Chen Laoda suddenly had a thought. He turned to look at the Zhou family’s backyard and said, “Mother, if we were attacked by a weasel, what about Second Aunt’s place?”