Chapter 4: Poor as a Clan

"Because I am a mother of three children, I have to take care of my children."

"You must have offended a lot of people to end up like this. Those people don't want you to be well. I'm a widow and unemployed, so I don't dare to offend them."

She deliberately spoke in a rude and harsh way.

"I figured you must have had family and friends in the past. When you were down, they couldn't abandon their homes and careers to save you, but after you've gotten through that time, there will always be someone to help you."

Xiao Yan lowered his eyes, "No."

"Ah? What's wrong with you?" Lu Qiniang was shocked, with a look of disbelief on her face. She couldn't help but mutter, "Wouldn't that mean it fell into my hands?"

Xiao Yan was silent.

Lu Qiniang asked the heavens speechlessly, how would she live in the future? She had to support one more person.

"Forget it, there will always be a way out when you reach the mountain." Lu Qiniang seemed to be comforting herself, "Then you can stay for the time being. But I have a bad temper, so I have to say something ugly in advance -"

She put her hands on her hips, looking fierce and ferocious: "I saved your life, so I don't owe you anything. But I'm soft-hearted. It's so cold and snowy here, I can't just throw you out here to freeze to death."

"But in this house, I have the final say. You have to do whatever I tell you to do. You have to eat whatever we eat. If you are picky, I will throw it out for you."

"Did you hear that?"

Xiao Yan seemed to say "hmm" very lightly, his eyes were dull and there was dead silence.

"And!" Lu Qiniang said, "If you dare to have any thoughts about my three daughters, I will, I will castrate you!"

Xiao Yan's face instantly showed a hint of anger.

This is really too humiliating.

Did she treat him as a beast?

Xiao Yan's lips moved, as if he wanted to explain something, but in the end he remained silent.

"Mom, the water is ready." Erya knocked on the door.

"Okay, I'll do it."

Lu Qiniang quickly brought in a large wooden basin, poured most of it with warm water, then walked over and took off Xiao Yan's clothes.

Xiao Yan wanted to push her away, but his hands were weak.

He was poisoned, which destroyed all his martial arts skills and left him completely without any strength. His legs could not support him to walk, and his hands could not lift anything.

Lu Qiniang quickly stripped Xiao Yan naked, lifted him up and put him in the basin, then filled the water and gave him a bath without any hesitation.

"He has indeed fought in a war, with so many wounds." Lu Qin's mother worked hurriedly. She scooped a bucket of water with a ladle and poured it over Xiao Yan's shoulders.

Water flowed down his shoulders, and the butterfly bones on his back were clearly visible. He had become very thin, with overlapping scars, both new and old.

"No, you're not dead yet?" Lu Qiniang rubbed the scar on his chest. "Did you get hit by a sword in the chest?"

Xiao Yan closed his eyes.

He had treated himself as a walking corpse, otherwise how could he tolerate the widow's rudeness?

Lu Qiniang didn't care about his indifference. After the warm water softened the dirt, she began to rub him vigorously, saying as she did so, "I used to give people baths in the town bathhouse, and I charged three cents for each bath!"

"Hey, I've spent all my money on selling pigs on you. I have to go ask if the bathhouse is still hiring. Ten rubs a day is thirty cents, twenty is sixty cents..."

Except for the private parts which were automatically avoided, Xiao Yan's limbs and body were all rubbed red by her.

After changing the water and rinsing it, she quickly washed his hair, wiped it roughly, and put him on the warm kang.

For the first time, Xiao Yan felt that he was just an object.

Like the old things that the maids washed with water before the New Year.

Daya prepared the meal, set up the table on the kang, and served Xiao Yan a bowl of sweet potato porridge. There was also a small plate with a cut salted duck egg. The yolk was soaked in oil and was a bright orange-red color.

"It's time to eat." Daya lowered her head, her face a little red.

Obviously, she is not used to having such a living father in the family.

Lu Qiniang and her three daughters were eating at the dinner table. Erya complained that the sweet potato porridge was unpalatable and had no taste in her mouth.

"If you want to eat salted duck eggs, just say so!" Lu Qiniang glared at her and bluntly exposed her little thoughts.

Erya said, "I didn't say that. Don't blame me, mother. I ate all kinds of delicious food when I was in the Zhou Mansion. I..."

Daya kicked her under the table.

Erya felt guilty and glanced at the furious Lu Qiniang with a guilty look, trying to show weakness before she could lose her temper. "Mom—I didn't say I missed the Zhou residence. The food there is just better than ours. When I grow up, I'm going to marry a high-ranking official and let mom and my sisters live that kind of good life every day. No, it's better than the Zhou residence!"

"Just shut up and eat." Lu Qiniang scolded, "You little girl, you don't know how high the heavens are and how deep the earth is. You want to marry a high-ranking official? The high-ranking official is blind. Can he be more interested in these three shabby houses of our family or a little girl like you?"

Erya snorted and said, "Don't look down on me. Just wait to enjoy my blessing."

"Just give me less trouble and stop being so sneaky."

Daya said hurriedly, "Second sister did a lot of work today. Fortunately, she is here. Isn't that right, second sister?"

San Ya kept looking at Xiao Yan curiously, calling him "Dad" from time to time.

She is the happiest person in the whole family.

"Shut up and eat." Lu Qin's mother was upset and didn't want to listen to her three daughters quarreling. She cursed, "Sister-in-law Zhao is such a bad person!"

"Mom, what are you and Sister Zhao whispering about? I see you both are not very happy." Erya loves to ask questions and is still energetic even after being scolded. She is thick-skinned.

"I bought something on credit from her and asked her to prepare a meal for me first, and then I'd pay her back after I collected the money, but she refused. Am I really that dishonest? Can I still owe her ten tables of money?"

"Bah, I don't think she's a good person." Erya chimed in, cursing, "When we were working at the Zhou Mansion and earning four monthly salaries, she even offered me candy when we got home. She really thinks we were driven back here. She's looking down on us."

Xiao Yan drank the porridge silently, listening to the conversation between mother and daughter, and piecing together some background information.

It turned out that the four mother and daughters were working in a Zhou mansion, but for some unknown reason, they returned home recently.

He said he had just returned home recently, and because it seemed like no one had lived in this house for a long time, the yard was empty.

But he also understood why Lu Qin's mother was still so fat despite having nothing at home. It turned out that their life was not hard before.

"The money I gave as a gift was wasted. I was hoping to get it back when I got married!" Lu Qiniang slapped her thigh.

"Mom, you may not be able to get it back. If you take twenty eggs and feed a family of four or five, you may end up losing money, so forget it." Daya comforted her gently and obediently.

Lu Qiniang sighed, "It's already the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, and I don't have the money to buy pigs anymore. How am I going to celebrate the New Year?"

"It's okay anyway. All I need is a new set of clothes." Arya said.

Lu Qiniang: It’s over.

Still thinking about it!

How should she tell Erya that the new clothes were gone?