Chapter 18.1

Translated by Aviana

At this moment, Yang Tieshuan also walked in to have the lunch.

At this kind of behavior of his, everyone was able to keep their calm. When working, he would stealthily slip away, but when it came to having a meal, he would punctually come every day to have the food.

So long as he didn’t sneak away during the busiest periods of farming, Old father Yang also turned a blind eye to this sort of conduct. The beatings and scoldings he suffered weren’t any less, but all of them didn’t hve and effect on him. Yang Tieshuan remained the same.

Yang Tieshuan could hear his son crying from very far away. A soon as he entered through the door, he saw Wang-shi hitting and scolding their son in anger, and Erlang crying his eyes out with tears and snot all over while the others stood with their necks shrunken up.

“How did our son provoke you for you to scold him again?” Yang Tieshuan understands his wife, without any cause and reason, it was absolutely unlikely for Wang-shi to vent her anger on the child.

His mother must have been mad at Wang-shi again! Thus, she had nowhere to vent on but the kid.

“Look at them, they are once again covered with dirt when they came back from playing. It was only in the morning that they had changed into clean clothes! This old lady is busy every day. Not only do I have to serve the old, but I also have to serve the little ones. All-day long, I am working myself to death but am still mocked…”

Wang-shi raised her voice as she grumbled, very much wishing to say these words to He-shi in the main room.

Yang Tieshuan impatiently cut in and said: “Alright, alright, quickly go and set up the meal. Don’t you want to eat?”

Wang-shi pouted her mouth and pulled several children to clean up the mud all over them.

In fact, she didn’t dare to say too much, fearing that if said too much ruffling He-shi’s feathers, she would be once again sorted out by her.

After a busy day, everyone went into the main room to have a meal.

The Yang family has a large population, counting all the big and small, it was 15 people. Thus they would eat at two tables, one for adults and one for children.

In lunch, there were: a pot of stir-fried white cabbage, a pot of scrambled eggs with chives – in which the egg was merely scattered on top of the leeks, and a plate of homemade pickles. The rice was millet rice along with cornbread. Both the tables had the same food, but the ones on the kid’s table were of a smaller portion.

It was very noisy at the kid’s table. Those few kids from the first branch who were just admonished, in the blink of an eye, forgot all the pain and picked up the rice with you poking me and I poking you. While the two girls from the second branch sat far away and silently had their meals.

On this side, on the adult’s table, it was very quiet. He-shi had a long face, Wang-shi had a sullen pout while the others too silently ate their meals.

Yang Tieshuan picked up the chopsticks and pulled the pieces of scrambled egg in the chives, with his mouth curled in disgust.

“Why is that when second-eldest had just come down from the mountain, and we still had to eat these. My mouth is becoming bland.”

Old father Yang coughed and said in a muffled tone, “Eat your dinner, don’t talk nonsense.”

Today it was already the third person in the family mentioning this, but contrarily, Yang Tiezhu didn’t feel anything at this moment.

He opened his mouth and explained in a low voice: “This time I didn’t have any good luck going into the mountain and didn’t get to hunt anything. I only got two things, which I took to the town to sell them.”

He-shi was already restraining her anger, but when she head the eldest mention this again, her face became even more sullen, and said in an eccentric tone, “I am afraid that it’s not that he didn’t get anything to hunt, but had to go and show filial piety to others.”

Yang Tiezhu’s face stiffened, but he remained silent as he squeezed the chopsticks in his hand before loosening again and continued to eat his food.

What He-shi had said this time was actually the truth, but it wasn’t that he wanted to go and show filial piety to others, but in a hurry, Yang Tiezhu had forgotten to bring them from Yang-shi’s place.

However, all along, He-shi had always had such thoughts. In the past, when so long as he went to the mountains and brought only a few things, she would at once become skeptical if he had taken things to Yang-shi’s place to show her filial piety and would probe him. But this was He’s consistent thoughts.

Actually, he had wanted to show a bit filial piety to Yang-shi, however as Yang-shi was aware of his mother’s character, she wouldn’t take much from him, fearing that his mother would cause him trouble.

It goes without saying that in hunting, one could never get a fixed amount of things. Also, they weren’t the rear animals in their captivity to go and directly kill them. If one wanted to kill a few, it was inevitable for preys to be more sometimes and sometimes less. However, he had brought all of them back every time, and only once in a while, he would give a few to Yang-shi to make a few dishes.

Nevertheless, his mother would always be skeptical of how much he had given to Yang-shi to show his filial piety.

However, in his heart, Yang Tiezhu had always been sincere, but this time he was a bit improper of him to forget to bring back the stuff, thus even though he was terribly sullen in his heart, he nevertheless tried to endure.

“Alright, stop talking nonsense, you think all the animals on the mountain are reared by your family, to have as many as you want. It’s normal to get sometimes alot and sometimes fewer.” Old father Yang heavily slammed the chopsticks on the table and finally said something that was reasonable.

But whatever he says would always go in from He-shi’s left ear and come out from the right ear, completely regarding them as passing wind.

He-shi merely rolled her triangular eyes and again rushed to ask Yang Tiezhu, “Where are those silver you got from selling? Give it to me, I will put them away.”

Yang Tiezhu finally couldn’t bear this time; with a ‘bang’ he slammed the bowl on the table, stood up, turned around, and walk out. When he got up, the stool that he was sitting on flipped over and fell on the ground because of his sudden movement.

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