Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Shen Banyue had zero qualms about bullying a kid. After all, she was a child herself now.

Seeing Shen Ailin crying, tears and snot flying everywhere, she didn't hold back at all. Instead, she pulled a fierce face at him, causing Shen Ailin to wail even more miserably.

Shen Aihua was speechless.

He looked at Shen Banyue, then at Shen Ailin, momentarily at a loss.

Usually, he was the one apologizing to the parents of bullied children. This scene of Shen Ailin being bullied was somewhat unfamiliar to him.

Shen Aizhen had been wearing a gloomy expression ever since they were ushered out of the yard. Standing by the door, lost in thought, she heard the crying and shot Shen Aihua a look of disdain. "Second Brother, how could you let outsiders bully Little Brother?"

She then turned to lecture Shen Banyue. "And you, child! Eating our food, living in our house, how dare you hit someone!"

Shen Banyue hadn't heard her speak much before and had thought the girl was the quiet type. It turned out she had a real mouth on her when scolding people, and she seemed rather arrogant too.

Shen Banyue rolled her eyes and retorted, "You eat Grandma Wang's food and live in Grandma Wang's house too. How could you splash boiling water on her?"

Hit a nerve, Shen Aizhen's face flushed red with anger. "You're talking nonsense! I didn't do it on purpose! No, it wasn't me! Grandma knocked over the thermos herself by accident."

Two days had passed, and Shen Aizhen still hadn't quite figured out why she had been so impulsive at that moment.

Perhaps it was hearing that her eldest uncle's third daughter had a marriage arranged in a remote mountain village. The bride price offered was said to be twenty yuan higher than in villages outside the mountains, but that place was so isolated that it took a whole day's walk just to go down the mountain to buy a packet of salt.

A sudden panic seized her, realizing that her third cousin was only a year older than her.

Or maybe it was her mother's constant muttering—how if Little Brother was adopted by Second Uncle, he would become a city person and could even take over Second Uncle's job when he grew up. Having a city-dwelling blood brother would make people look at her more favorably when discussing marriage. Even if she couldn't find a partner from the county town, finding one from the commune might still be possible.

But her mother also said that the old hag in the family favored her own sons and was definitely waiting for Third Uncle to marry, have a child, and then adopt that child to Second Uncle.

In the end, they would rather adopt some unborn child from who-knows-where than adopt her little brother.

...

These past few days, her grandfather and parents had repeatedly warned her that she must tell everyone outside that her grandmother had accidentally scalded herself. Otherwise, her reputation would be ruined.

"Yes, it wasn't me. Grandma did it herself by accident," Shen Aizhen repeated, her voice growing firmer. She looked at Shen Banyue with disgust. "Besides, what's it to you, you little bastard from who-knows-where!" Taking advantage of her height, she raised her hand to hit Shen Banyue.

Ah, another unpleasant one.

Shen Banyue had no way of knowing the twisted thoughts of a teenage girl, but eight years in the apocalypse had ingrained in her the habit of letting her fists do the talking. Almost simultaneously with Shen Aizhen's swing, she instinctively lashed out with a kick.

Fortunately, in the instant she kicked, she realized and pulled her strength, changing direction. She ended up giving Shen Aizhen's calf a rather gentle kick, sending her sprawling to the ground—

Originally, she would have aimed for the knee; the lightest touch would have broken it.

Perhaps because the kick was too light, Shen Aizhen thought she had been caught off guard and was sneak-attacked by a child, which only made her even more enraged and humiliated. She scrambled up and charged at Shen Banyue again.

Shen Banyue caught a movement out of the corner of her eye. She withdrew her foot, which was poised to kick again, turned, and ran. As she ran, she shrieked in panic, "She's hitting me! The bad sister is hitting me!"

In a flash, she hid behind Auntie Qin, who had just come out carrying a basket.

"Oh my, what's going on?" Auntie Qin quickly shielded the child. "Aizhen, what are you doing? These little brothers and sisters were entrusted to your family by the commune. You can't bully them."

Shen Aizhen angrily said, "She bullied Ailin and kicked me, sending me sprawling!"

Auntie Qin glanced at Shen Ailin and Shen Aihua nearby.

Shen Ailin had long stopped crying. He'd even had the nerve to laugh when his own sister fell flat on her face. Now, he was watching the commotion with wide, curious eyes, not looking bullied at all.

Shen Aihua still had one hand holding his brother, his usual quiet and reserved self.

The boy was a bit mild-mannered, but Auntie Qin couldn't believe that a seventeen or eighteen-year-old would stand by and watch his younger siblings get bullied.

Moreover, Shen Banyue was hiding behind her, weakly complaining, "She wanted to hit me and called us bastards from who-knows-where."

Her tone was full of grievance mixed with sadness, and within that sadness was a suppressed, inexpressible anger. She was playing the part of a child living under someone else's roof, daring to be angry but not daring to speak out, to perfection. Auntie Qin's heart immediately ached for her.

She had heard that these children had just been rescued by the police from human traffickers.

Poor things. Who knows how much they suffered in that den of thieves? Even though they're rescued now, whether they can find their birth parents is still unknown.

Calling them bastards—is that something a decent person would do?

Auntie Qin thought to herself that she had never noticed before how cruel Guoxing's daughter could be. Her expression turned serious.

"Aizhen, look at you, you're a big girl now. How can you say such things? Even though they're not from our brigade, they were entrusted to your grandmother by the authorities. You mustn't bully them."

"That's not how it is! She said I first..." Her defense stopped abruptly. She couldn't repeat what the child had said about her splashing boiling water.

Shen Aizhen found herself unable to defend herself. She couldn't believe that a child this small could be such a little actress.

Auntie Qin simply thought Shen Aizhen was guilty and conscience-stricken. As a neighbor, she couldn't say much more. So, she turned to Shen Banyue. "Come on, let's go to Grandma Qin's house to play for a while." She waved, signaling Lin Mian and Xiao Dizi to come along too.

Then she asked, "Where are the others?"

Shen Banyue pointed toward the wasteland. "They went over there to dig for earthworms to feed the chickens."

Auntie Qin sighed. "Such good children. Not like mine—as soon as they put down their bowls, they run off to who-knows-where, never coming back until the sun goes down."

Shen Banyue and the others openly went to the neighbor's house as guests. Out of sympathy, Auntie Qin even showed them the highest hospitality, making each of them a bowl of brown sugar water.

After stuffing themselves at lunch, the three of them now enjoyed a "post-meal hot drink."

As for the three siblings outside the door, they couldn't enter their own home, weren't invited next door, and could only continue standing around uselessly.

The courtyard door opened again earlier than expected, but that period of waiting felt even more unbearable than imagined.

At the very least, after Shen Aizhen calmed down, she realized Auntie Qin hadn't believed her. Her reputation might have gotten even worse. Also, even that skinny child knew that dividing the family wasn't good for their branch. For her, it was adding insult to injury.

Originally, after the division, they wouldn't have had to move out immediately. There should have been time to pack and organize.

But when Shen Guoqiang came out to see off the guests, he ran into Auntie Qin sending Shen Banyue and the others out. Auntie Qin subtly mentioned that the children had had a little disagreement.

Shen Guoqiang thought it over and simply went to the village to call a few more people. They directly helped the eldest branch move all their belongings to the east end of the village.

The house there had been repaired before the rainy season. After the autumn harvest, Shen Dechang had gone to clean it. Apart from being old, it wasn't as dilapidated as Hu Huaihua had made it out to be. For a single family living in that courtyard, it could even be considered quite spacious.

With all this commotion, Shen Guoqiang and the others were running a bit tight on time for the cart ride. They simply borrowed a bicycle from the brigade leader. They could leave the bicycle at the commune first, and Shen Zhenxing could find time later to ride it back.

"Be good and stay in the village. If anyone bullies you, tell your uncle."

Shen Guoqiang half-squatted down, patting each child's head in turn. Then he pulled out a ten-yuan note from his pocket and handed it to Shen Banyue. "Two yuan for each of you. Xiao Yue, you keep it safe. When you go to the commune, you can use it to buy some snacks yourselves."

Shen Banyue accepted the money with mixed feelings.

Lin Xiaohui patted Shen Banyue's shoulder. "Take good care of your younger brothers and sisters. We'll come back to see you whenever we have time." Even though they hadn't been together for long, now that they were returning to the city, they really felt a bit reluctant to leave.

Xiao Dizi looked up with a bewildered expression. "No go 'way, Unca, Antie!"

Shen Guoqiang and Lin Xiaohui were the softest on the youngest child. Hearing her say that, their hearts practically melted, and they were inexplicably filled with a sense of guilt, as if leaving now meant abandoning her.

But time waited for no one. Without dwelling on it, the two quickly got on their bicycles and turned onto the village road.

A row of little ones stood in place, watching them with dazed expressions as they rode away until they were out of sight. The mood turned a bit somber.

Shen Guoqing glanced at them, clapped his hands, and said, "Come on, let's go inside and figure out the sleeping arrangements. You kids don't know how good you've got it—seven of you get to live in three rooms. I'll bet there aren't many children in our whole brigade, or even the entire commune, with this much space. At your age, most families have a bunch of kids crammed together!"

He went on, "We don't have enough beds, so we'll have to rough it with planks tonight. Tomorrow, I'll take you up the back hill. We'll cut some wood and maybe even catch a rabbit..."

The little ones' attention was instantly diverted. Little Stone spoke up first, "I can dig for wild vegetables! I know how to dig for wild vegetables!"

The others piped up eagerly.

"I can dig for bamboo shoots! Bamboo shoots stir-fried with pork—so yummy, slurp~"

"I can dig for bugs! Oh, we dug up lots of earthworms! We still need to feed the chickens so we can have eggs tomorrow!"

Amid the chatter were Xiao Dizi's babyish "Eat, Xiao Dizi eat!" and Lin Mian's quiet but determined "I can learn. I'm sure I can learn to dig for bamboo shoots, wild vegetables, and bugs!"

Shen Banyue: "..."

Not all of those were necessary skills to learn—especially that last one.