From afar, the two sisters heard Gong Honghong's loud voice, which startled Daya and made Xiaojiu very nervous, and they hurriedly looked for the way.
"Come with me, you go through the back door,"
"Hide the eggs and eat them tonight, but don't let them smell them. Remember, come out after they've gone to sleep on New Year's Eve. My sister and the others are waiting for you. We'll explain why later. Trust us, we won't lie to you. Can things get any harder than they are now?"
After seeing Xiao Jiu off with a frown, Da Ya looked at the two cold eggs in her hand. She felt flustered inside, but on the surface, she was already numb to her current life.
Hearing Gong Honghong enter the yard, she quickly dug a hole and buried the eggs. Even if she was very hungry, she couldn't eat them because they did smell and people would be able to smell them.
When Gong Honghong started cursing, Daya quickly ran to the front yard.
"Auntie, I'm here. I just went to the outhouse, I'll wash up right away."
Before Xiao Jiu had gone far, she heard a series of clanging and banging noises coming from the courtyard, along with Daya's incessant screams.
That old woman hit her sister again, how awful!
Although Daya was thin and had a rough face, her sisters could see the similarities between her face and theirs. It was like looking in a mirror; the more they looked, the more familiar and affectionate they became. Coupled with the child bride's identity, age, Niujia Village, and other clues, it was definitely Fifth Sister herself.
She had to quickly tell her second and third sisters the good news so they could come and save her fifth sister as soon as possible.
"Little Jiu, Little Jiu, where have you been? Big sister, have you seen my little granddaughter? She's so tall, with two little braids tied with red ribbons, and wearing a red floral cotton-padded jacket. She's so pretty!"
Hearing her grandmother searching for her everywhere, Xiao Jiu quickly ran out following the sound.
"Grandma, I'm here!"
Upon hearing Xiao Jiu's voice, the old lady patted her thigh.
"Oh my goodness, are you trying to scare your grandma to death? You naughty boy, come here and let me spank you. You're so big already, and you still don't know any better. Why didn't you tell me where you were going? I was so worried. What if you got lost?"
When her grandma grabbed her arm, she got a couple of pats on the bottom. She bared her little teeth and shook her grandma's arm in an ingratiating way.
"Grandma, I'm not in pain. I just want to look around. I've never been to Niujia Village before, have I?"
"But I just saw a girl who looks a lot like my eldest and second eldest sisters. Do you think she's the younger sister my eldest sister is looking for?"
The clever Xiao Jiu didn't say the last sentence directly, but instead pulled her grandmother aside and whispered it to her.
Upon hearing this, Grandma's expression tightened: "Really? Which family?"
"It's true, but that auntie is really something. She not only beat and scolded that older sister, but she also wouldn't feed her. That older sister is skinny, only a little taller than me. I found out she's six years older than me. She's said to be their child bride, her name is Daya."
Seeing that no one was paying attention to them, Xiao Jiu quietly told the old lady which family it was.
The old lady knew that when Cuihua came looking for her, she was chased away by the villagers on guard, so she didn't make a fuss. She just confirmed with Xiaojiu which house it was, and then quickly took Xiaojiu to the big locust tree. Just as the two of them walked over, Grandpa came over with a bamboo basket on his back.
"Did you buy everything? How's the meat?"
"Not bad, it's near the front of the line, mostly fat, less lean, a total of fifteen jin. They raise four pigs, and they've slaughtered them all. Before we came, they had already sold one to someone in the village. I bought some more, and got a set of intestines. I'll have Cuihua and the others come over later to take a few jin."
The Tao family has now developed a habit of always thinking of the three Tang sisters whenever something good happens.
Although they lived separately, they had been with their family for so long and had taken such good care of the elderly couple, so naturally they were very close.
Little Jiu's eyes darted around, and she tugged at her grandmother's sleeve: "Let's go to my sister's house, Grandma, let's go to my sister's house to talk about that."
“Even if we go, you can’t come with us. Here’s what we’ll do: let’s go back to the village and have your brothers go to Taoyuan Village to call your two older sisters over.”
Grandpa looked over with a questioning gaze, "What are you two talking about, grandfather and grandson? Why do you seem so mysterious?"
"Let's hurry up and leave after we've finished shopping, we can talk about it on the way."
After leaving Niujia Village, Grandma told Grandpa that Xiaojiu might have found Cuihua's younger sister, and the old man was shocked.
However, what Xiao Jiu said next made the two elders stop in their tracks.
"What did you say? You actually encouraged them to run away on New Year's Eve?"
"Are you so sure that's Cuihua's sister?"
"I'm sure, you can tell at a glance. And I even think I look a bit like her. Grandma, is it because I've been spending so much time with Sister Cuihua and the others that we're starting to look alike? I feel uncomfortable when I see her, so I couldn't help myself. I thought about how that family will be less vigilant during the New Year. If she manages to escape, then..."
Grandpa frowned, feeling somewhat helpless as he looked at the tiny child before him.
"Jiu'er, no matter what, he paid for her back then and even raised her."
"So what? Does raising a child give you the right to beat and scold her? She's six years older than me, only a little taller, and she's covered in bruises. She wasn't even allowed to rest when she had a stomachache. In just that short time, she got beaten twice. And her little fat son is mentally challenged. I know what a child bride means. She'll marry that mentally challenged guy, right? Her whole life is ruined then. I could see that woman looked utterly pathetic, half-dead, and barely had the strength to speak."
Little Jiu, who turned six in March, was quite eloquent when it came to this matter. Her little mouth chattered on and on, leaving the elderly couple completely bewildered.
“From childhood to adulthood, how much work has she done for their family? How much food could she possibly eat? When I went there, that wicked woman was beating her with a stick, saying that if she didn't work, she wouldn't get any food. My sister was so hungry that she was dizzy and fell to the ground, unable to get up for a long time. Grandma, no matter how much money you have, shouldn't all these years have already made up for it?”
"Anyway, I saw it. That woman is so wicked. If my sister goes to their house to demand her release, they'll definitely shout as loudly as they can. My sister and her friends can't even take care of themselves, where are they going to get the money to ransom her?"
Xiao Jiu's elaborate explanations made the elderly couple uneasy, so they quickly pulled her to the side of the road, far away from passersby.
Where did you hear that from?
“I figured it out myself. It’s true, Grandma. Didn’t you see? All their clothes are piled up in the yard for that older sister to wash. In the dead of winter, her hands, face, and ears are all frostbitten. She’s not even wearing a cotton-padded coat. She walks unsteadily in just a thin shirt. Even her shoes are tattered. They’re not cotton-padded shoes, they’re just thin ones. What kind of life do they live in their house? If they don’t run away, are they just waiting to starve or work themselves to death?”
Faced with Xiao Jiu's questioning, the elderly couple fell silent. After a long while, the grandfather smacked his lips.
“Let’s go back. When we get back, let Xiao An go to Taoyuan Village and call them over to discuss this. This matter still needs the sisters to make the decision. We are still outsiders.”
Grandma agreed wholeheartedly, patted Xiaojiu's head, and said, "Let's not talk about this anymore, let's go home."
Xiao Jiu silently breathed a sigh of relief, and couldn't help but look back at the big locust tree at the entrance of Niujia Village, praying in her heart that Fifth Sister could return soon.
Fortunately, she has a habit of storing food in her space. She usually boils eggs in the summer and stores them in her space as snacks.
She wanted to give her more, but it would be too conspicuous, and she was even afraid of being discovered!
This older sister was used to being submissive and never learned how to fight back; she was tormented to death.
They didn't know she had married a mentally challenged man before. If she hadn't seen the fat man looking mentally challenged today, who would have known?
Even if the eldest sister had memories of her past life, she had never met the fifth sister, and the few words of memory from the Friends of Nature were hardly enough to constitute an understanding.
I don't know if it was because I had something on my mind, but the return trip seemed to be much faster than the way there. I arrived home before noon.
After returning home, Grandma first drank some water, then called my third brother over, saying, "Come here, you two."
“Yesterday, your sisters Cuiju and Cuilian came over. We haven’t bought the meat yet. You two can take this meat to them and ask them to come over again. Tell them something.”
Grandma whispered something in Third Brother's ear.
"Tell them that there might be news about the girl from Niujia Village, and ask them to come over and discuss it."
Everyone in the Tao family knows that Cuihua and her sister are looking for their younger sister.
So when Tao Qing heard this, she was also shocked. "Grandma, you really found it?"
"It's pretty much a done deal. Have them come over this afternoon. You can go after lunch. Let them stay tonight, and then go talk to her sister tomorrow morning."
Grandma had made all the arrangements, so Third Brother naturally felt obligated to help.
Lunch was prepared by Tao Zui, who also steamed a mixture of sweet potato flour, sorghum flour, and wheat flour into multigrain buns.
The steamed buns were coarse because the grains hadn't been husked, resulting in coarse flour.
They were already used to this kind of food. They stir-fried cabbage and stewed tofu, and pickled radish shreds with fresh radish. The children ate happily. Although the steamed buns were not pretty, the dough rose well and the baking soda was just right. They were very satisfied with the food.
In this day and age, being able to eat your fill is probably a first in Xihe Village.
Xiao Jiu doesn't seem to eat much in everyone's eyes, but actually she deliberately eats less to save the visible food so she can make extra meals in her space later.
There's a saying that a half-grown boy can eat his father out of house and home, and that's absolutely true.
The older brothers can eat two or three steamed buns in one meal, which is considered restrained.
If this isn't controlled, even four might not be enough.
Those guys are all incredibly thin.
She really couldn't understand how that fat boy from Daya's family could get so fat in an era when there was no oil or fat.
Are you sure it's not some serious illness?
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