Mu Wanting was too lazy to reason with them; only magic could defeat magic.
If they don't bleed a little, how will they feel the pain, how will they realize they're wrong?
Madam Shen, Zhang Caiyun, was furious.
“When did we say we would give it to you? Taking it without asking is theft. Don’t force us to report it to the authorities.”
Mu Wanting's smile was somewhat cold.
"So, Second Aunt also knows that taking things without asking is considered stealing. Then why didn't you think that eating the fish and meat I cooked earlier was stealing?"
"If you don't ask, I'll charge you for the grilled fish. If it's ten fish, a thousand taels of silver will be enough."
As soon as she spoke, Madam Shen, Xu Wencui, frowned and retorted.
"Isn't this asking for an exorbitant price? Is it really worth it for just a few fish?"
Mu Wanting smiled coldly.
“Why isn’t it worth it? Are there any grilled fish or restaurants here? A bowl of meat soup with a meatball the size of a walnut can sell for 20 taels of silver. These ten fish of mine, each with a meatball the size of 50 meatballs, I’m already charging a small amount.”
"Consider this money bag your payment for the fish."
Madam Shen, Xu Wencui, looked particularly unpleasant.
"We haven't separated yet, what's wrong with us eating some of your food?"
Although Mu Wanting had a smile on her face, it looked cold no matter how you looked at it.
“Aunt, Aunt, you know we haven’t separated the family, right? If we haven’t separated the family, don’t we still eat together? The eldest and second branches have received some financial assistance from relatives, while our third branch only received a few pieces of clothing from Murong Rong.”
“If it weren’t for my fishing skills, we from the third branch of the family would probably have starved to death long ago. Back when the third branch was prosperous, the first and second branches reaped all the benefits. Now that the third branch has been unjustly exiled, it’s one thing for the first and second branches to eat all the food themselves, but they’ve even stolen our only dinner. Doesn’t that make us feel disheartened?”
After saying this, she looked at Old Madam Shen, knowing that Old Madam Shen was the authority figure after Shen Xinglan's downfall.
"Right, Grandma?"
Madam Shen hadn't expected to be dragged into this, but with all the Shen family members watching her, she had no choice but to speak up.
"The Shen family hasn't actually divided into branches. Eldest and second sons, you two were in the wrong for not separating the food from the third branch. When you invited me over to eat, I thought you'd already discussed it with the third branch..."
She didn't want to say any more after that, but Mu Wanting wouldn't let it go.
"Grandma, you are the head of the Shen family. So tell me, since we haven't separated, how are we going to solve the problem of food? Starting tomorrow, we won't be walking along this river anymore."
Mother Shen also wiped away her tears.
“That’s right, Mother. Xinglan was the most filial to you before. Whenever there was something good, you were always the first person she thought of. She was also good to the eldest and second wives. Now, if the eldest and second wives don’t care about us, we can only wait to die.”
The faces of the eldest and second wives were very grim, and they desperately tried to wink at Old Madam Shen.
Old Madam Shen closed her eyes.
"Eldest and second eldest, whatever you eat from now on, the third family will eat too. You'll cover their food expenses."
This was already the biggest concession that Old Madam Shen, who had always been good at mediating disputes, had made.
Both the eldest and second wives appeared somewhat unwilling. The idea of dividing the family property was on the tip of their tongues, but they stubbornly held back.
There's still a chance the third branch of the family can recover.
But the road to exile is so long, and they don't have much money. How could they possibly make it all the way to the Northwest?
They couldn't ignore what Madam Shen said.
Shen Linong and Shen Lijun glared fiercely at Xu Wencui and Zhang Caiyun. It's all the fault of those two spendthrift women!
Xu Wencui and Zhang Caiyun were also angry.
They came here to take advantage, so how did they end up being the ones who have to pay the price?
Mu Wanting said, "Alright, we from the third branch are starving. Please give each of us two white flour pancakes and a bowl of meat soup."
Zhang Caiyun frowned: "Mu Wanting, you're asking for the moon! If every one of you in the third branch of the family were to meet this standard, we'd lose hundreds of taels of silver."
Mu Wanting shrugged: "Fine, if you don't do it this way, you can forget about getting your money."
In the end, Zhang Caiyun and Xu Wencui had no choice but to reluctantly accept it.
The three families ate a few bites of white flour cakes and meat soup, feeling that they were not as good as fish and meat, but much better than black flour cakes, and they were free.
From that day on, Mu Wanting would only go into the water pretending to catch fish, then dry them into dried fish, but she stopped cooking. As her stockpiles grew, she had more and more free time.
Every night, I would change Shen Xinglan's dressings and massage her.
The eldest and second wives provided three meals a day for the third wife, and their lives were extremely difficult.
Several hundred taels of silver were spent like water every day, and the once bulging purse was instantly emptied.
In the end, the first and second wives were really unwilling to spend money, so they ate black flour pancakes and vegetable dumplings with the third wife, and often had hoarse voices.
But if they don't eat these things, the extra expenses are still going to the third wife's family, and they can't afford it.
Seeing the third wife living well is more painful than killing them.
Besides, this is just the beginning; there will be many more places to spend money in the future.
After eating like this for a few days, the stomachs of the first and second wives couldn't take it anymore. Because of the hot weather, the black bread and vegetable dumplings often went bad.
They either had stomach aches, vomited, or frequently needed to use the toilet.
The progress was severely hampered by the eldest and second wives' families, and the officials were not going to tolerate it. They immediately began to lash the eldest and second wives' families with whips.
"Why is it that other people can eat it without any problems, but you're treated like such precious things!"
Xu Wencui was so exhausted that she could barely stand. When the officer lashed her, she fell to the ground. Before the next lash came, she struggled to her feet and continued walking.
Zhang Caiyun cursed loudly and ordered her illegitimate sons and daughters to help her up. Even though she was weak, at least she didn't collapse.
The key point is that when it's their turn to push Shen Xinglan, even if they're exhausted, they still have to go, otherwise Mu Wanting will watch with her arms crossed, her smile cold and menacing.
But the road was difficult to walk on, and they were exhausted. They hadn't been pushing Shen Xinglan for long before they were covered in sweat.
So they had to take turns pushing it.
On the other hand, almost everyone in the third house had a hat and a fan, and they were fanning themselves to keep cool.
Their eyes reddened with envy, yet they knew those things came with a price.
By evening, they couldn't stand the black flatbread and vegetable dumplings anymore, so they ordered white flatbread, but they didn't want the meat soup anymore, saying it was too expensive.
The third wife now drinks a bowl of herbal decoction brewed by Mu Wanting every day to regulate her body; black flour pancakes and vegetable dumplings are just a small matter.
It would be even better if we could eat white flour flatbread.
The white flour cakes for the third wife were obtained by Shen Xingyi from the second wife's family, and he gave them to Mu Wanting.
"Wanting, white flour pancakes."
Mu Wanting smiled as she accepted the two, giving one of them to Shen Xinglan.
Shen Xinglan is currently not very active and is in a daze all day, so Mu Wanting broke the white flour pancake into pieces and took out a bowl of meat broth from her space to soak it in.
Shen Xinglan felt an indescribable sense of emotion when she saw the bowl of meat broth with flatbread.
Even though meat soup is so expensive, she was willing to buy it for him.
He knew how hard it was for her to earn money.
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