Chapter 311: She Knew Everything All Along
Chapter 311: Chapter 311: She Knew Everything All Along
Yang Jing didn’t answer, but her evasive gaze said it all.
"Fuck, what the hell happened? Did you piss her off?"
The tin-roof shack wasn’t very soundproof, but with the constant howling of the wind outside, and since Shen Lu and Yang Jing had spoken inside the greenhouse, Liu Yaozu and Liu Qiang hadn’t heard a thing. They didn’t even know Shen Lu had been there.
"I... I didn’t." Yang Jing shook her head. No matter how slow she was, she knew she absolutely couldn’t take the blame right now, otherwise Liu Yaozu would do something terrible.
"Forget it. Throwing a tantrum at your mother isn’t going to change anything," Liu Qiang suddenly interjected. "But you have to tell us exactly why we’re not getting a meal tomorrow. You need to be clear about that."
It was true that Liu Qiang had initially looked down on Shen Lu, and he especially hadn’t wanted to live under someone else’s roof.
But the longer he stayed, the more his way of thinking gradually changed.
Aside from the slight loss of face, living here was just too good to be true.
Just by doing a little work, he got to eat meals with vegetables, fish, and meat—things they would normally only splurge on for major holidays. On top of that, he could keep an eye on his son and stop him from getting into trouble outside.
A real man could endure a little humiliation. It was nothing.
Liu Qiang firmly believed that Shen Lu would come crawling to them one day. ’She’s just a young girl,’ he thought. ’How capable can she possibly be?’
’Right now, she’s just riding on her boss’s coattails. What if, one day, he decides she’s not so valuable anymore? What will she do then? Where will she go?’
’She’ll still have to rely on us, her elders, to figure things out for her.’
But if you were to ask him to take the initiative and make peace now, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. The most he could manage was maintaining a superficial sense of harmony.
At her husband’s command, an instinctual fear took hold of Yang Jing. She hesitantly explained what had just happened.
Liu Yaozu burst out cursing, "Are you a fucking idiot? You work in the greenhouse every day and you didn’t even know there was a camera! Great! You’ve really screwed us all over now!"
Liu Qiang was silent for a moment before saying, "Go find her now. Give her a proper apology. Even if we only get one meal tomorrow, that’s better than nothing. We can’t have nothing."
Having grown accustomed to a delicious meal every day at noon, Liu Qiang couldn’t accept that it would suddenly be gone tomorrow.
But Yang Jing didn’t dare go looking for Shen Lu now.
However, forced by her husband and son, she still shuffled hesitantly toward the main hall.
Shen Lu was playing with Xiao Lang. She had taken out a number of spices and was teaching him to identify them one by one, then blindfolding him and having him guess what they were.
Having learned his lesson, Xiao Lang was now very cautious about using his superpower. He no longer used it as recklessly as before.
Xiao Lang’s memory was average. Of the dozen or so spices, he only remembered a few with particularly pungent scents. He could smell the others and even picture them in his mind, but he just couldn’t recall their names.
"Sister Shen, am I a little dumb?" Xiao Lang asked, his cheeks puffed out, looking both indignant and dejected.
"It’s okay. The more you encounter them, the more you’ll naturally remember. We’re just playing a game, right?"
"Yeah!" Xiao Lang nodded emphatically. "I’ll definitely remember them next time."
Yang Jing, who had just witnessed this exchange, froze for a moment. She had never seen this gentle side of Shen Lu before. With them, she was mostly just cold and distant.
Yang Jing had assumed Shen Lu was just an unapproachable person by nature. ’So, she’s only like that with us?’
Her earthy scent was quite distinct, and Xiao Lang caught it the moment she entered. He poked his little head out and said to Shen Lu, "It’s Aunt Yang."
Shen Lu nodded. "I know. You can go play now."
Xiao Lang scurried off, casting a curious glance at Yang Jing as he passed before disappearing back to his room without a word.
Shen Lu put away the spices and went back to the front desk to tidy up the countertop.
Yang Jing hesitated, unsure of what to do. The feeling of being ignored left her at a complete loss.
Shen Lu didn’t indulge her. Once she was done tidying, she left the desk and headed for the stairs.
Seeing that she was about to go upstairs, Yang Jing hurriedly called out, "Little Deer."
With one foot already on the steps, Shen Lu glanced back over her shoulder. "What is it?"
"..."
"If there’s nothing, I’m going up to rest."
"Wait!" Yang Jing took two steps toward her. "I... I came to apologize."
Shen Lu leaned against the banister, crossing her arms. "Apologize?"
"I shouldn’t have lied to you. I promise it will never happen again."
Shen Lu remained completely unmoved. "So?"
"About the meal tomorrow..."
"No," Shen Lu cut her off. "Rules are rules. If you don’t learn from your punishment, you’ll just do it a second time."
"But..."
"Besides, does it really make a difference to *you* whether you get that meal or not?" Shen Lu tossed out the deeply sarcastic comment before turning and heading upstairs.
’So, she knew everything.’
Yang Jing’s expression was one of pure mortification. Even someone as slow-witted as she was could understand the implication behind Shen Lu’s words.
It was true, she realized. Every day at noon, she waited for Liu Qiang and Liu Yaozu to eat their fill before she ate her Insect Cakes, dipping them in the leftover vegetable broth.
Liu Yaozu complained that the Insect Cakes smelled, so he made her eat them in the greenhouse. Shen Lu must have seen it all on the camera.
Yang Jing trudged back to the tin-roof shack, head down and eyes lowered. They didn’t need to ask; one look at her expression told them she had failed.
"You’re a fucking waste of space! How did I end up with a useless mother like you? You’re good for nothing!" Liu Yaozu couldn’t suppress his anger and started ranting.
Liu Qiang’s expression was grim as well. He just leaned back against his pillow without saying a word.
Even though she was used to her son’s verbal abuse, it still stung. At that moment, she desperately wanted to do something to prove she wasn’t useless.
"Yaozu, let Mom give you a massage. The doctor said you need one every day, or your muscles will start to atrophy."
"Get lost, get lost, get lost! Don’t you fucking touch me, you goddamn waste of space!"
When Liu Yaozu’s temper flared, he would spew whatever insults came to mind, with absolutely no regard for the other person’s feelings.
But Yang Jing could be stubbornly single-minded. She insisted on getting closer, and Liu Yaozu, already finding her intensely annoying, raised a hand and gave her a shove.
Caught off guard, Yang Jing took the full force of the shove, her head hitting something and splitting open.
"Don’t you fucking pull this shit! I didn’t mean to push you, you’re the one who can’t listen to simple words!" Seeing blood trickle down Yang Jing’s forehead, Liu Yaozu started to panic, immediately trying to shift the blame. "How can anyone be as stupid as you? Hey! Hurry up and find Shen Lu, get something to wrap that wound! Don’t you fucking die in here!"
After all, Yang Jing was the only able-bodied person in their family of three. Now that the seed-sorting was done, Shen Lu hadn’t assigned them any new work, which meant no midday reward.
If Liu Yaozu wanted to continue eating those fragrant, delicious meals at noon, his only option was to exploit Yang Jing.
Yang Jing lay on the floor for a long moment before she came to her senses, her face wet and sticky, a piercing pain shooting through her head.
Although Liu Qiang had always looked down on his wife, he couldn’t bear to see her in such a wretched state. He dragged his injured leg and got up to help her to her feet.
"Honestly, you should know better," he chided. "Why did you have to approach Yaozu when he was angry? Alright, that’s enough. Go find Shen Lu. She’ll have medicine."
With her vision blurred by blood and her expression dazed, Yang Jing allowed Liu Qiang to help her out of the tin-roof shack.
A simple, covered walkway connected the greenhouse and the tin-roof shack. It was enough to keep from being knocked over by the gales, but wind still found its way through the cracks.
As a cool gust of wind blew over her, Yang Jing’s chaotic thoughts instantly cleared.