CHAPTER 198: CHAPTER 198 ORIGINAL SIN 7

Upon seeing Yun Shuangshuang enter the door, Yun Zheng glared at Yun Shuangshuang with a cold face without speaking, but created a tense atmosphere. Wang Guixiang raised her palm to slap Yun Shuangshuang’s face, cursing, "You worthless girl, why aren’t you out gathering wild vegetables and working? Where have you been messing around?"

Yun Shuangshuang frowned. Although in her memory, getting beaten at the Yun Family was common, she hadn’t been hit for years now and didn’t want to revisit that feeling.

Facing these so-called relatives, Yun Shuangshuang felt no warmth, only endless disgust. Just as they hated her for being a "waste of space," she felt these people were unworthy of being elders.

Yun Shuangshuang stepped back directly, avoiding Wang Guixiang’s slap! Wang Guixiang paused, surprised that Yun Shuangshuang actually dared to dodge!

This evasion only further ignited Wang Guixiang’s already raging anger. Her eyes widened as she prepared to start cursing again. Rolling up her sleeves, she intended to give Yun Shuangshuang a harsh beating.

Yun Shuangshuang didn’t dodge to provoke Wang Guixiang. Being small and weak, she knew she was no match for Wang Guixiang, who had been working all along. Provoking her wasn’t wise. Before Wang Guixiang could continue her assault, Yun Shuangshuang simply took off her basket without a word and placed it in front of Wang Guixiang.

Just as Wang Guixiang was about to explode, she noticed the basket that Yun Shuangshuang put in front of her. She glanced inside and her anger dissipated instantly because the basket was full of meat-bones packed in transparent plastic bags!

Even though they were bones, for a rural family that rarely ate meat all year, they were a rare delicacy. Wang Guixiang first happily opened the bags to inspect the obviously fresh meat-bones, and then quickly showed a puzzled expression.

Then, as if realizing something, Wang Guixiang looked at Yun Shuangshuang with a stern face and said, "Where did you get these meat-bones from? Did you steal money from home to buy them?"

Upon finishing her sentence, Wang Guixiang didn’t even bother chastising Yun Shuangshuang. She swiftly took out a string of keys from her waist and rushed into the house, heading straight for the big wooden cabinet where she hid the money. She deftly unlocked the cabinet, then found a tightly wrapped cloth bundle from beneath the clothes inside.

Hastily, Wang Guixiang unfolded the small cloth bundle layer by layer. Inside was a neatly stacked wad of money! There were five and ten yuan notes, along with coins of one, two, and five cents, the largest denomination being a fifty-yuan note.

Wang Guixiang held the money in her hands, counting it over and over again carefully. After counting it twice more with the equally concerned Yun Zheng who followed her in, they confirmed that not a single penny was missing from the house. Now the two were genuinely curious.

Since no money was missing, Wang Guixiang felt a deep sense of joy rising in her heart. Her previous anger vanished as she hid the money back securely. Coming out, she continued checking Yun Shuangshuang’s small basket, taking out all the bones to weigh and inspect them, feeling even more delighted—it looked to be at least ten pounds of weight!

Of course, earlier when Yun Zheng and Wang Guixiang went inside to check the money, Yun Shuangshuang had already secretly hidden away the clothes she bought for her mom. Originally not knowing Yun Zheng and Wang Guixiang would be home at this time, Yun Shuangshuang had boldly brought the clothes back.

If Yun Shuangshuang knew the two were waiting at home for her, she wouldn’t have dared to bring the clothes home at this moment.

The reason is simple—she had just earned money for the first time, and it wasn’t certain for those at home that she could earn money consistently. Until she was the sole one able to earn money, her status in the family wouldn’t improve much and she definitely couldn’t hang on to the clothes. Right now, her say meant she could at most help her mom get a bowl of bone soup!

Fortunately, when Yun Zheng and Wang Guixiang suspected Yun Shuangshuang of stealing money, they hurriedly rushed to the inner room to count the money, allowing Yun Shuangshuang the chance to take out and hide the clothes!

The clothes Yun Shuangshuang bought were polyester and relatively thin, somewhere between summer and autumn clothing. Nicely folded, they didn’t take up much space and even after removing them, the basket was still filled to the brim, so when Yun Zheng and Wang Guixiang came out, they didn’t realize the basket had already been relieved of two pieces of clothing, thinking it only contained meat-bones.

Wang Guixiang happily sorted the bones, planning to have a big feast in the evening, while puzzlingly asking Yun Shuangshuang, "Where did you get these meat-bones from, you girl? You didn’t steal them from someone else’s house, right?"

Wang Guixiang’s last sentence, though a question, was stated with certainty, clearly believing Yun Shuangshuang had stolen the bones. However, there was no tone of blame, but rather a faint gentle approval, and her expression was one of delight.

These skewed values were beyond question. Normally, shouldn’t parents angrily reprimand a child for stealing? Even if they were protective, afraid their child would get a reputation as a thief without daring to return the items, any adult would sternly prohibit the child from continuing to steal and tell them it’s wrong.

Of course, the values of this family had nothing to do with Yun Shuangshuang. She silently took out more than ten yuan and handed it to Wang Guixiang, secretly keeping ten yuan aside. Wang Guixiang was even more shocked looking at the money in front of her, and even Yun Zheng was surprised, asking Yun Shuangshuang, "Where did you get this money from?"

"I picked mushrooms yesterday and sold them in the town today for money," Yun Shuangshuang explained concisely. It wasn’t that she couldn’t sweet-talk to make Yun Zheng and Wang Guixiang happy, but she knew that as long as she was a daughter, no matter how pleased they were, she wouldn’t be favored and would only be beaten less.

To avoid being hit or scolded, once she could earn money, it naturally wouldn’t happen again, so Yun Shuangshuang couldn’t be bothered to try pleasing people who would never truly care for her!

Wang Guixiang and Yun Zheng exchanged a look, finding it a bit unlikely. There were indeed lots of mushrooms in the hills, but they were all worthless. To earn this much money, she would need to gather at least a hundred pounds of them!

A few years old child, still a rather weak girl, how could she possibly achieve that? Even if she did manage to gather a hundred pounds of mushrooms, how could she transport them to the town! How did she sell the mushrooms! It was obviously a lie!

The expressions on Wang Guixiang and Yun Zheng’s faces darkened, and Yun Zheng began to create a low-pressure atmosphere again. Wang Guixiang, looking at Yun Shuangshuang, said coldly, "Children shouldn’t lie! Lying is not what a good child should do! Tell Grandma, where exactly did you get this money and these bones!"

Yun Shuangshuang raised an eyebrow, thinking Wang Guixiang hadn’t mentioned anything about stealing being wrong just now when she thought the bones were stolen! Yun Zheng wasn’t angry either; in fact, they were quite pleased!

"I didn’t lie. The mushrooms I picked were the kind that sells for a high price, and I went to the town riding Uncle Hao’s tractor, selling at the place with village uncles and uncles and them. They all know! You can ask if you don’t believe me," she said.

Wang Guixiang and Yun Zheng exchanged yet another glance. With so many people knowing, this should be the truth, such a lie would easily be seen through, even kids wouldn’t lie like that.

"What kind of mushrooms did you pick?" Yun Zheng, this time without keeping a cold face, asked Yun Shuangshuang with a bit of curiosity.