The path was pitch black, and the tall branches were covered with swaying leaves, blocking out a lot of the soft moonlight.

The light reflected on the ground was very weak, barely enough for people to see the road clearly...

In the silent night, Hua Shi suddenly looked down at the little girl walking beside him and asked curiously, "Was that abandoned old temple a mountain god temple before?"

In the darkness, Hua Xiao seemed to turn his head and glance at her, muttering softly, "How could it be a mountain god temple? That was a temple dedicated to the Maitreya Buddha. Later, the statue collapsed, and the villagers said that worshipping in that temple was useless, so they didn't put the statue back, and the temple was abandoned."

Hua Shi was puzzled when he heard this. "If worshipping doesn't work? Then what about worshipping the mountain god's shrine?"

Hua Xiao hurriedly tugged at her hand, her voice a little anxious, "Don't say that! What everyone in the village fears most is badmouthing the mountain god. Don't say a word about whether the mountain god is effective or not!"

Hua Shi saw that her tone was indeed anxious, and his little face turned sideways and wrinkled up, and he responded obediently, "Okay."

Seeing that she was sensible, Hua Xiao felt relieved and walked through the alley towards home.

The little girl couldn't help but whispered, "No one wants that old temple. If grandma drives us out, my second brother will definitely take us to live in that dilapidated temple..."

In the past two years, whenever grandma got angry, she would take it out on my second brother and drive him out at night. He would always sleep in that little shabby temple...

Many times, it was because Hua Shi deliberately instigated that grandma drove my second brother out!

Hua Xiao got angry when she thought of Hua Shi's smug look every time he kicked his second brother out of the house.

"Don't talk to me anymore. I'm annoyed just by seeing you!"

The little girl suddenly said something annoyed, quickened her pace and ran forward two steps, holding the corner of her second brother's clothes, and refused to pay any more attention to Hua Shi.

We were talking peacefully, but suddenly he got angry...

It's not surprising to see flowers blooming.

She had only spoken a few words to Hua Xiao a few times before. The little girl was fine at the beginning, but then she turned her head and suddenly became annoyed, thinking of something, and refused to pay attention to her no matter what.

Hua Shi didn't even need to think about it. The reason the little girl was angry was nothing more than the things the original owner had done before. She held a grudge and resentment in her heart, and would lash out at her from time to time...

…

The news of the Xie family proposing marriage to the Hua family spread to almost everyone in the village within just one day.

It wasn't unusual for two families to marry, as both parties were of similar age. However, somehow, word got out that the Li family had demanded a betrothal gift of five taels of silver from the Xie family before agreeing to marry their daughter...

Because of this incident, the whole village was buzzing with rumors. For several days, the aunties sitting at the entrance of the village and chatting were talking about this topic.

Five taels of silver. I've never seen a family ask for so much money to marry off a girl. It's not like they're selling their daughter...

On the one hand, they criticized Li for asking for too much money, and on the other hand, they said that the eldest daughter of the Hua family had a bad reputation and bad character, was lazy and gluttonous, and that if she was married home, she would have to be served and pampered, like a young lady from a wealthy family, and there would be people willing to marry her.

Only the old lady of the Xie family, perhaps blinded by greed, was willing to spend five taels of silver to marry a young lady home...

There were rumors all over the village, with everyone saying different things.

Hua Shi didn't know all this, but after that day, Li had been making things difficult for her for two days in a row, which gave her a headache.

Before daybreak, someone was knocking on the old wooden door of her house.

“Bang! —”

Hua Shi, who was in a trance, was awakened by the loud knock on the door in reality.

"Meow--!!"

The black cat, who was sleeping soundly beside the pillow, was also awakened by the disturbing knocking on the door. It was so awakened that its hair stood up and it let out a dissatisfied scream.

Hua Shi opened her eyes reflexively, but all she saw was pitch black and she couldn't see anything clearly.

Apparently, before daybreak, Li came running over and knocked on her door again.

I was half asleep and still half awake when I suddenly heard Li's sharp cry.

"Hua Shi! Get up right now! Don't you even know what time it is? You're still sleeping. Hurry up and get up! Don't try to pretend you didn't hear me. Don't think I don't know you. If you don't get up, I'll break down this door!"

“Bang!!”

There were several more knocks on the door, accompanied by Li's cursing voice.

It seemed that if she didn't respond, Li would knock the door down.

Hua Shi buried her head in the quilt and took a deep breath to suppress her temper that had been woken up.

"knew!"

She replied word by word, and the next second, Li's sharp and harsh voice came to her ears.

"Bah! You think you're some rich lady! Without me, an old woman, you're nothing! Hurry up! You've been slacking around for over a decade. You're getting married soon, and you're still so lazy!..."

Li's voice gradually faded away, and she seemed to faintly curse her again, saying something like "ungrateful wolf"...

Hua Shi had been hearing these words for two days and had long been immune to them.

Li was like a madman. The next morning after they came back, she knocked on the door before dawn to wake Hua Shi up, asking her to get up to wash clothes, cook, and chop wood...

At first, Hua Shi was frightened and confused, and was driven by Li to do various chores...