CHAPTER 37: CHAPTER 23: THE EGG INCIDENT (PART 2)_2

"Who dares go, I’ll break her legs," Lady Zhou blocked the way, "Old Fourth’s wife, so what if I say you stole an egg, and still you won’t let it go."

Who was the one who wouldn’t let it go? Lian Manman felt so frustrated by Lady Zhou that she wanted to laugh.

"Just go and feel for yourself, don’t wrongly accuse Old Fourth’s wife," Old Master Lian called from inside the room.

Wu Lang had already jumped into the chicken coop and was holding the white hen in his arms.

Lady Zhou kept a stern face, not letting Lian Zhizhi go to find anyone, and she herself was unwilling to take the white hen, simply glaring ferociously at Lady Zhang, waiting for her to give in.

Lady Zhang understood Lady Zhou’s look, her heart was filled with grievance, she was reluctant, but she had grown accustomed to a pattern of obedience and forbearance.

"If mother says forget it, then..."

Lady Zhang was about to say let it be, but Lian Manman wouldn’t have it and immediately cut her off.

"Mother, if you’re a thief, then we would be the children of a thief. Do you have the heart to let us bear such a reputation at such a young age? Not for yourself, don’t you think about us either?" Lian Manman argued.

Lady Zhang was then unable to speak the words that would have let it go.

Lady Zhou, not getting a way out, looked even uglier.

"You little wench..."

Lady Zhou was about to curse Lian Manman, but at that moment, the white hen in Wu Lang’s hand began to get restless, its face turning red as it struggled to break free. Lady Zhang noticed something was off.

"Wu Lang, let it go quickly, it’s about to lay an egg," she said.

Upon hearing this, Wu Lang hurriedly set the white hen down. It shuffled over to a corner of the wall with straw laid on the ground and crouched down. Watching its actions, Lian Manman thought it looked like someone desperate to urinate. In no time, the white hen stood up, clucked twice, and squeezed into the flock of chickens, facing away from the onlookers and crouched down again.

Where the white hen had just squatted, there lay a large red-shelled egg.

The faces of Lady Zhou and Lian Xiuxiu instantly turned ashen.

Lady Zhang breathed a sigh of relief, Wu Lang and the others were overjoyed. Lian Manman simply started clapping, and Lian Zhizhi, Wu Lang, and Xiao Qi also inexplicably joined in the applause, the young boys from the second room, who loved chaos, also began clapping wildly.

This made Lady Zhou even more unable to step down.

"This hen isn’t any good either, holding an egg without laying it, tomorrow I’ll slaughter it for meat," Lady Zhou turned to go back inside, and Lian Xiuxiu followed her.

Lian Manman went over and grabbed Lady Zhou’s arm.

"Grandmother, the hen laid an egg!" Lian Manman looked at Lady Zhou with a beaming smile.

Lady Zhou shook her hand off forcefully, and though she was over fifty, her body was still strong. Lian Manman was shaken and staggered, but happily Lian Zhizhi came over to steady her.

"You little wench, what do you think you’re doing?" Lady Zhou asked sternly.

"Grandma, you falsely accused my mother of stealing eggs, and now that it’s been cleared up, you have nothing to say to her?" Lian Manman said with a smile.

"Look at the fine daughter you’ve raised; are you trying to bully me or what? What’s the big deal about an egg? And I, an old woman, should apologize to her?" Lady Zhou, not having the upper hand, immediately started playing dirty.

"Mother, we’re not asking you to apologize..." Lady Zhang said honestly. Lian Shouxin nodded in agreement.

"We’re just asking you to give an explanation," Lian Manman immediately added.

Lady Zhou, furious, raised her hand to hit Lian Manman. Manman did not dodge but instead started sobbing. Unlike Lady Zhou’s dry wailing, Manman’s tears streamed down freely.

"...I was picked up... sold as a child bride... when ill, not given money for treatment... not even given an egg... falsely accused of stealing eggs... I have no money, not one wen... If it wasn’t for the hen laying an egg just now, I’d have been sold to make up for the egg... Grandma, go ahead and kill me. I was picked up after all; nobody will have pity on me..."

Lian Manman cried as she spoke, putting on an act of defiance and pitifulness. Moreover, she finally had the opportunity to cry out all the frustrations of the past few days.

At only ten years old, Lian Manman was small and slight, dressed in coarse clothes, with a piece of cloth wrapped around her head. As she cried, her little face seemed as if it had been washed with water, so much so that even strangers would feel pity, let alone her own blood relatives. Lady Zhang, Lian Zhizhi, and a few others came over and huddled together, crying as a group.

Lady Zhou had intended to make a scene but was outmatched by Lian Manman’s sobbing; her usual tactics were rendered ineffective, and her face turned the color of an eggplant.

"Mother..." Lian Shouxin approached Lady Zhou and said in a muted voice, "Mother, please go rest in your room."

Lady Zhou snorted and turned to leave.

Lian Xiuxiu was slow to follow, lingering behind.

"Older cousin, here’s your egg, still warm," Lian Manman said, taking the egg from Wu Lang’s hands and offering it to Lian Xiuxiu.

This move undoubtedly reminded Lian Xiuxiu of her earlier claim to swallow the egg whole. Xiuxiu was caught in a dilemma, unsure of whether to accept or refuse. Lian Manman and the others might be decent, but the boys from the second branch certainly weren’t. Seeing that Lady Zhou had been put in her place and had gone back to her room, they became even more animated, each running over.

"Older cousin, you said you’d swallow the egg whole earlier," Lian Silang said with a grin. "That’s not a small egg, older cousin; can you really swallow it?"

"Come on, come on, let’s see the older cousin swallow the egg, it’s still warm," Lian Liulang laughed out loud.

"You all just wait and see," Lian Xiuxiu, her face flushed, ran back to her room.

"Oooh," the group of adolescent boys began to tease, "Look at the older cousin talking big, and now sitting back on her own poop."

Lian Manman struggled to hold back her laughter at the side.

"What about this egg?" Xiao Qi asked.

"I’ll take it to Grandma," Lian Manman said. Neither Lady Zhou nor Lian Xiuxiu had the face to take the egg, and Manman wasn’t going to let it go unclaimed. She was determined to deliver the egg to Lady Zhou and Lian Xiuxiu herself.

Lian Manman, holding the egg, went straight into the Upper Room East Room. In front of Old Master Lian, Lady Zhou, and Lian Xiuxiu, she placed the hot egg into the basket where Lady Zhou kept her eggs.

"Grandfather, Grandma, Older Cousin, I’ve put the egg here," Lian Manman said, wiping the still-damp tears from her face.

"From tomorrow onwards, every morning, cook an egg for Manman until her wound is completely healed."