"I'm just jealous!" Yu was like a camel whose back had been broken by the last straw. She cried and cursed madly: "It's so unlucky, so unlucky, you jinx, you are definitely a jinx!"
"Mom, don't you like me anymore? Are you going to drive me away?" Shen Xu pulled her sleeve with a look of grievance.
"Get out, get out, get out! Who is your mother? You, a jinx, dare to enter my house!" Yu shook her sleeves and head vigorously, picked up the broom and was about to drive Shen Xu out.
Shen Xu was still not happy, clinging to the door frame and refusing to leave, shouting: "Mom, please don't chase me away, I will be obedient and filial to you."
Lazy Shen wiped the vinegar off his face and sobered up instantly. Now their only property is this adopted daughter, and they can't let her run away!
"Old woman, what are you doing? How could you push the child out?"
He quickly grabbed Yu and pulled her into a corner, saying, "She's ruined our family. How can we let her go so easily without getting some money? Tomorrow I'll send her to the fields to work for us. Find a matchmaker right away and tell her that our daughter is very pretty. She'll ask for a five-liang betrothal gift. No, ask for ten liang first, and then ask for five liang if no one wants it."
Yu threw away the broom indignantly, and it took her a long time to calm down.
"Xiu'er, you just returned home, so you might not be used to it. Don't be afraid, I just feel bad for these things."
"Mom, you won't chase me away?" Shen Xu's face was covered with tears, and he stammered, "Dad and Mom, you don't blame me anymore?"
Shen Lazy Man sighed, “Hey, come in, come in, you must be too tired, take a good rest today.”
Shen Xu said "oh" and nodded obediently. He went into the house without cleaning up and stood in the middle of the room watching them.
Yu glared at her with resentment and pushed the messy furniture pieces towards the stove.
Now, the house, which was originally bare, suddenly became much more spacious.
Shen Xu slept carefreely on a makeshift wooden bed for the night, and was woken up early the next morning to do laundry and cooking.
She came to the river with the wooden basin in her arms, still sleepy, and returned empty-handed after a while.
Seeing her come back alone, Yu frowned and asked her, "Xiu'er, why did you come back alone?"
Shen Xu was still blinking, trying to cheer her up: "If I come back half alone, won't it scare my mother?"
"I'm asking you, where are your clothes? Where are your clothes?"
"Oh, it floated away along the river." Shen Xu scratched his head, his clear eyes looking blankly at the sky, and added faintly: "The basin also floated away."
"You, you, you!" Yu pinched her philtrum hard, trying to calm herself down and said, "Forget it, forget it. If you get angry, you'll suffer the consequences."
She asked in a gentle voice, "Xiu, which river did you throw the basin into? Mother will go and get it."
Shen Xu pointed to the stream at the entrance of the village, rolled up his sleeves, and said very attentively: "Then I will help mother cook."
In less than a quarter of an hour, the thatched hut was engulfed in flames, and thick smoke wrapped in the blazing flames rose into the air.
Because the couple did not carry water and the thatched house was small, by the time the villagers came with buckets of water to put out the fire, the house had already been burned down.
The villagers simply gathered around the smoking ashes and started chatting.
"Hey, look! This lazy guy's house was just set on fire by this silly girl. This silly girl didn't put out the fire but just stood there and watched."
A villager approached the crowd with a mysterious air, describing the situation vividly: "Hey, have you heard? The wild mandarin duck that Constable Song found in the charity cemetery yesterday was this idiot."
Another village woman scoffed, clapping her hands and laughing, "That's right! This couple is usually lazy and gluttonous. They thought they had found some treasure, but it turned out to be a disaster."
"If he and his wife had any brains, they wouldn't have gone to the charity cemetery to pick up someone. Just think how unlucky it would be. They even thought they'd picked up a beautiful girl in exchange for a betrothal gift. With such bad luck, which in-law would dare to accept her?"
"I heard she was the woman who fell to her death in Xiangya Mountain. Then, for some reason, she wasn't completely dead and crawled out of her coffin. Not only is it bad luck, but these abducted girls are destined for brothels in big cities. Who knows if their bodies are still clean? They might have been slept with by the traffickers long ago."
"Oh my! I never thought Constable Song, who looks like such a decent person, could eat something like this! He's really not picky about food!"
Shen Xu stood in front of the smoking ashes in a daze, his face black and a tuft of hair curled up from being burned.
She listened to the villagers talking about her with a dull expression, her curled fingers clenching her tattered clothes.
"Damn it, it's over!" The wooden basin in Yu's hand fell to the ground with a bang. She chopped her feet and howled. Finally, she couldn't bear it anymore, so she picked up a branch on the ground and hit Shen Xu with it.
"You jinx, what sin have I committed? You set my house on fire in the time it takes to pick up a pot. Are you really going to piss me and Old Shen off to death before you're satisfied?"
This time Shen Xu did not hide, but stood there woodenly with a gloomy expression.
Regardless of whether what the villagers said was true or not, the couple did indeed take her in for one night and provided her with two meals.
I'm really sorry for causing so much trouble to others.
She tried to explain: "Mom, listen to me, there was no water in the water tank, and there was too much wood piled on the stove. The fire was too big and it caught fire. I really tried to put it out. Look, my hands are hurt."
She spread out her black hands, her sleeves were full of holes and her arms were burned red.
"Ah! I don't want to listen, I don't want to listen! Pay the money, you little bitch, pay the money quickly, twenty taels of silver, not a penny less!" Yu started to throw a tantrum and asked for twenty taels of silver.
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