CHAPTER 49: CHAPTER 46: QINGSHAN VILLAGE – UNCLE PROTECTS HIS OWN

Jiang Beiyang, being the younger brother, saw the scene before him and didn’t say a word in defense of his second sister.

He even added fuel to the fire.

"Mom, you’re hitting the wrong spot. Jiang Beishan is so stupid. She was caught stealing by the family from the third house, disgracing the whole village. She deserves to be beaten!"

Sure enough, Wu Cuilan hit even harder.

Jiang Zhenghui, who was by the side, also fell silent. He would usually say something for his daughter, but today he had been brooding all day. Not to mention the division of the family, an incident like this occurring at night meant a complete break with the main house. How could he be in the mood to care about anything else?

Jiang Beishan hated it!

But she didn’t hate Jiang Zhenghui, who was just an observer not speaking for her.

Nor did she hate Jiang Beiyang, who added fuel to the fire.

She hated the third house.

Especially Jiang Mingyue.

She was just like Jiang Zhenzhu said, a jinx.

Ever since she saw her that day, Jiang Beishan’s life had been getting worse by the day.

First, she was labeled a thief, then her big cousin kicked her, and all her hard-earned clothes, skirts, and hair ties were burnt to ashes. The root of it all was Jiang Mingyue.

The harder Wu Cuilan hit now, the more Jiang Beishan hated Jiang Mingyue.

All of this was caused by Jiang Mingyue.

Finally, Wu Cuilan stopped when she was exhausted, casually threw the broom into the corner of the wall, and turned back into the house to sleep.

And Jiang Beiyang didn’t dare to ask Wu Cuilan for food again.

He wanted to sneak into Granny’s room to find some food. He knew Granny had a lot of food hidden in her room, but after pushing several times, he still couldn’t open the door, it was bolted from inside.

There was no one around, and the night was silent.

Jiang Beiyang was so hungry that it felt like thousands of ants were gnawing on his nerves, and in desperation, he could only think of the main house.

This was an instinctual habit. In the past, they always went to the main house to scavenge, and they could always find something to fill their stomachs.

You could say it’s because the people of the second house never endured real hardship, otherwise, they wouldn’t lose their will at the first sign of hunger, completely forgetting the lesson the main house had taught them earlier that day.

So, the newly built fence by the main house seemed like air, and Jiang Beiyang sneaked into the main house.

Jiang Ming’an had just recovered, and after a day full of events, he fell into a deep sleep as soon as he hit the bed, not knowing a rat was lurking around.

The old house only had a kitchen in the yard, so naturally the main house wouldn’t have a kitchen. What Jiang Beiyang was going for was the cabinet.

He thought that usually, Uncle and his big cousin would bring back lots of good food, but this time they didn’t give them any, so they must have hidden it early on thinking of separating the family.

The only place he could think of was the cabinet.

But after rummaging for a long time, he couldn’t find a single piece of biscuit, candy, or chocolate.

He refused to give up and wracked his brain to think where Jiang Ming’an would hide the goodies.

Finally, he thought of under the bed.

"Right, it must be under the bed." His granny always hid good food in the red lacquered wooden box under her bed.

The main house only had two rooms and two beds, easy to find.

The little thief was also a coward, precisely sneaking into the empty uncle’s room, struck a match, and was about to drag the box out from under the bed when... tragedy struck.

"Ah!" Can you imagine it? Just at the moment the firelight illuminated the scene, a face bathed in red light appeared, scaring Jiang Beiyang into screaming. His hand shook, and the match fell to the floor. When he finally reacted, he was scared into fleeing through the door.

The sound faded away, and only then did Uncle Jiang turn on the flashlight, picking up the box of matches.

"Heh heh! Frightened you, didn’t I, you little brat."

Originally, he was supposed to hurry back to the city for work in the evening, but the old lady locked his bicycle.

Conveniently, a message was sent by an old friend up the mountain asking him to make a trip there. That delayed him, and when he came back down the mountain, he encountered a neighbor, learning for the first time that his little one had been bullied. Jiang Zhengye’s heart ached.

He had just returned home and didn’t want to wake his eldest son, so moved lightly and even dared not let out any light. Unexpectedly, a little thief came in, which turned out to be a pleasant surprise!

By the next morning, the news spread throughout the village.

"Did you hear? The third child of the Jiang Family’s second house sneaked into the main house to steal things in the middle of the night. Tsk tsk tsk, I don’t know how the second house teaches them, the second daughter steals chickens and dogs, and now the third son steals too. In the future, keep an eye out if you run into them and don’t leave your things lying around."

"None of the whole family is worth anything. Better to keep your distance in the future."

Wu Cuilan, who came to work, heard these words and was so angry she wanted to fight with them, but Jiang Zhenghui held her back.

"If you think our family isn’t humiliated enough, go ahead."

Wu Cuilan was too ashamed to say anything, but she remembered the beating Jiang Zhenghui gave her the day before, so she quietly took her tools and walked away.

In the morning, Jiang Mingyue made dumplings for everyone. Xiao Jiang Ran wasn’t up yet.

After eating the dumplings, everyone got ready for work. Jiang Mingyue filled the green iron water bottle with boiling water for Mrs. Jiang and also stuffed eight pieces of chocolate into the basket.

When delivering food to Granny Shi, Granny Shi asked her to make a trip to Lotus Village for an old grandpa to deliver a parcel.

The package was tightly sealed, and Jiang Mingyue didn’t use her spiritual power to peek. She took it home, planning to take Xiao Ran with her once he woke.

Using her spare time, she entered her space to harvest her crops and expand her farm significantly.

Oh right, wasn’t she planning to build a house?

In this era, it’s quite a hassle to construct anything outside, with all sorts of restrictions.

But she could certainly build a brick factory inside her space, right?

With that thought, Jiang Mingyue started to draw up plans on her desk.

Xiao Jiang Ran woke up, rubbing his eyes, curiously asking, "Sister, are you going to bake potatoes?"

Jiang Mingyue was startled, then laughed, "Yes, but I could also bake cakes and sweet pancakes for Xiao Ran."

Kids in this era always crave sweets, and hearing "sweet pancakes," the little one became fully awake, even having his eyes light up, his little mouth couldn’t help but lick in anticipation.

Jiang Mingyue patted his head, "Alright, go wash up. Fourth Sister prepared a little toothbrush and toothpaste for you. Run along and rinse out." It was actually bought last time by Jiang Ming’an, the original owner.

She rummaged through things afterward and found a lot of essentials.

Which goes to show how foolish the second house was. If they had shown a bit of love to Xiao Ran, even if his big cousin flared up, Uncle wouldn’t have completely ignored them.

Xiao Ran, after freshening up, delightedly ate the steaming, fragrant dumplings, his big eyes bending into smiles.

When Jiang Ming’an arrived, he saw this scene and was momentarily stunned. It seemed to him like a morning from the past life, where a little girl would look at food with a smile in her eyes, the kind of moment he had always wished to see, making sure mornings were filled with enough joy to have her smile every day.

"Brother?" Suddenly turning around, he saw his big cousin.

"I’ll cook you some dumplings. Where’s Uncle?"

Jiang Mingyue went into the kitchen, and Jiang Ming’an followed along.

"Why care about him?" Mentioning that cheap father, Jiang Ming’an felt a little annoyed. Where was he when Xiao Jiang Ran was being bullied yesterday?

Jiang Mingyue figured he didn’t know about last night’s events, so she recounted what she had heard to Jiang Ming’an.

"I guess Uncle did it intentionally to vent for Xiao Ran."

"Yeah."

"He went up the mountain last evening. I heard he went looking for someone and wasn’t aware of what happened down below."

"Yeah."

"Hey! Big Cousin, you seem to be eating more than before."