Chapter 203 - 191: Favoritism
Chapter 203: Chapter 191: Favoritism
But the sky was still dark, and the terrible dream had to go on.
Tang Yaxuan didn’t see the dozen or so people gathered around the fire pit eating. She would rather freeze to death than join that filthy, stinking crowd.
Of course, Liu Fengying wasn’t about to let her freeze or starve. After whispering a few words to Mo Guoqiang, he went to the pigsty, took out the old enamel basin they used to feed the piglets, and scrubbed it clean. He then used an iron shovel to fill the basin with embers from the stove and carried it over to Tang Yaxuan, who was sitting in the main hall, so she could warm herself. Meanwhile, Liu Fengying found the prettiest, most intact white porcelain bowl in the house. She washed it, scalded it with boiling water, and filled it with food, which she then brought to Tang Yaxuan. She assured her that this was the very first serving, and that it was clean, so she could eat without worry.
After much coaxing, Tang Yaxuan finally accepted the bowl of rice. She really didn’t want to eat it, but she was starving. Back at the county guest house that morning, she had only had two sips of congee, trying to win Wu Xiaowen’s sympathy. Now she was so hungry she felt dizzy and faint. On top of the white rice sat four pieces of glistening, golden cured pork, which looked quite tempting.
What she didn’t know was that the people eating in the kitchen had no meat at all—just a large pot of vegetables. Liu Fengying had specially steamed these few pieces of cured pork in the rice and secretly given them to her.
Just as she was frowning at the bowl in her hands, hesitating, Mo Xiao Zhi and Mo Xiaohua walked out holding their own bowls. When they saw the glistening yellow cured pork in Tang Yaxuan’s bowl, they were stunned. Mo Xiao Zhi cried out, "Oh my god, you get to eat cured pork! Mom! Mom! Why don’t we have any meat?"
Mo Xiaohua burst into tears with a WAIL. "Xuanxuan has meat and I don’t..."
She rushed over, crying and tugging at Tang Yaxuan. "I want meat! I want meat!"
The commotion was heard immediately in the kitchen. The adults didn’t say anything, but they inwardly blamed Liu Fengying for being unfair—having meat but not serving it to her guests. Mo Xiaofeng, however, exploded. She threw down her chopsticks and bowl and began groping her way toward the main hall, screaming and crying, "Why?! Why does that bitch get to eat meat when we don’t? Mom, you’re playing favorites! You dote on her so much, does that mean you don’t want me anymore? You might as well just kill me! I don’t want to live... AAAAAAH!"
Inside the house, Mo Xiaoqiang also began to wail, "How long has it been since I’ve had meat? She just got here and she gets to eat meat! You... You’re playing favorites! I hate you!"
The whole house of children was on the verge of a full-blown rebellion over the meat. Grandma Liu, the uncles, and the aunts had to swallow their own complaints. For better or worse, they first had to help Mo Guoqiang and Liu Fengying calm the children down.
In the midst of this chaos, however, Tang Yaxuan lost her bowl of food. Mo Xiaohua had knocked it over. The meat and rice spilled all over the ground. Xiaohua snatched up the meat and ate it, while she trampled the rice grains into the dirt...
In the end, Liu Fengying scraped and scraped the cooking pot, managing to put together a bowl of rice mixed with vegetable soup and bits of scorched rice from the bottom. Before taking it to feed Mo Xiaoqiang, she gave a small portion to Tang Yaxuan; after all, she didn’t eat much. Tang Yaxuan wanted to refuse, but she was simply too hungry. She didn’t even have the strength to fend off Mo Xiaofeng’s attacks anymore. With tears streaming down her face, she had no choice but to eat the half-bowl of cold, leftover soup and rice.
After the meal, the middle-aged couple, Grandma Liu, and the uncles and aunts still hadn’t left. They gathered around Liu Fengying, discussing something in alternating loud and hushed tones. As the night grew deeper, Liu Fengying was finally forced to act. She glanced quietly at Tang Yaxuan. Tang Yaxuan was busy guarding her basin of embers, not letting Mo Xiao Zhi or Mo Xiaohua get near it or move it. She also had to be on guard against Mo Xiaofeng’s occasional sneak attacks. Her focus was so intense that she had no time to notice what the adults were doing. Liu Fengying reached into her pocket and took out the money that Tang Qingyun had given Tang Yaxuan that day—money Tang Yaxuan had entrusted to her for safekeeping. The moment the money appeared, the middle-aged couple reached out to snatch it. Grandma Liu, the uncles, and the aunts quickly joined in. In the scramble of grabbing hands, Liu Fengying fought desperately and managed to hold onto only two or three bills.
Once the money was divided, there wasn’t much left to say. They each took a torch and left one by one.
Tang Yaxuan still had no idea that her biological mother had just used her tuition and living expenses to pay off debts and fill financial holes.
Still, Liu Fengying had managed to save three of the "Great Unity" ten-yuan bills. Combined with the grain ration coupons hidden in her other pocket, she thought, ’It should still be enough to send Xuanxuan to the commune’s middle school.’
As night fell, the children grew sleepy. Without washing their faces or feet, they each crawled into their beds to sleep. Liu Fengying was still busy in the kitchen and paid them no mind.
Mo Guoqiang was nowhere to be seen. According to Mo Xiao Zhi, he had gone to sleep on the haystack in the cowshed to free up his bed for Tang Yaxuan. Tang Yaxuan recalled the musty-smelling bed she had woken up in after fainting. A wave of revulsion washed over her, and she refused to sleep there again, no matter what.
But she was only thirteen, after all. Her body was weak from losing blood earlier in the day, and she had just exhausted herself mentally by battling with the three younger girls. Moreover, the basin of embers was gradually cooling. She leaned against the wall, thinking of the happy, sun-filled life she once had as tears streamed down her cheeks. She didn’t know how long passed before she groggily drifted off to sleep. Liu Fengying came out of the kitchen, carried her back to her room, and had her sleep in her own bed.
When Tang Yaxuan got up the next day, Mo Xiaoneng, Mo Xiao Zhi, and Mo Xiaohua appeared out of nowhere and viciously mocked her. They gave her a nasty nickname: "Little sow!"
The reason was that the cut on Tang Yaxuan’s upper lip had swollen up even more. Her nose and forehead were also red and puffy. In short, she looked hideous.
Tang Yaxuan was furious at the humiliation from the three country children and glared at them fiercely. Mo Xiaohua "kindly" ran to get Liu Fengying’s broken piece of mirror and handed it to her. Tang Yaxuan stared blankly, unable to believe the girl in the reflection was her. She threw the shard to the ground, covered her face, and sobbed bitterly for a long time.
Hearing the commotion, Liu Fengying rushed over and rapped Mo Xiaoneng, Mo Xiao Zhi, and Mo Xiaohua each on the head. She soothed Tang Yaxuan with kind words and stuffed two roasted taros into her hands. The other children immediately protested. While denouncing and cursing Tang Yaxuan, they scrambled into the kitchen to dig through the stove ash, fighting over the roasted sweet potatoes and taros inside.
Tang Yaxuan tearfully begged Liu Fengying, "Please, take me to the bus station. I want to go back to Wancheng! My mother is still in Wancheng today. If I can just get back, Mom and Dad won’t abandon me!"
Liu Fengying replied, troubled, "But your parents said that if you go to the county town, the district, or the provincial city, they can’t help you. This is an order from above."
"I don’t care! I can’t stand this place for another minute! I’ll die here!"
"Good girl, your mother has already asked around. The commune’s middle school starts tomorrow. I’ll take you there, and you can live at the school, all right?"
"What? The commune’s middle school? What kind of hellhole is that? I won’t go! I want to go back to Wancheng and find my mother!"
"Sigh. Xuanxuan, you need to be obedient. Your other mother dotes on you so much, yet even she was willing to leave you here. That proves she must be in a difficult situation. If you go running back now, crying and making a scene, you’ll just annoy her. And if she gets annoyed, she might wash her hands of you completely. That’s not worth it at all! It’s better to just be a good girl and do as they arranged. They made it very clear: you’re just staying here for a little while. Once they sort things out, they’ll come back for you!"
Tang Yaxuan stood there in a daze. ’That’s right,’ she remembered. ’Grandpa and Grandma want to return to Beijing quickly, and Mother wants to be transferred back to Beijing, too. All of it requires Grandfather in Beijing to pull some strings. And the person sent to investigate the baby-swapping incident... he was sent by Grandfather!’
’In other words, forcing Mom and Dad to swap me with Mo Xiaoman was Grandfather’s idea. That’s why Mom and Dad had to obey. If they defied him, not only would Mother not be able to return to Beijing, but all the plans for Grandpa, Grandma, and my uncles would go up in smoke!’
’The mother who doted on me the most... she made the painful decision to abandon me for the sake of her own parents!’
As this realization dawned on her, Tang Yaxuan once again began to cry tears of despair.