Chapter 3

Eldest Aunt Stealing Things

Seeing Du Xiu Heng’s mysterious look, Du Xiao Li asked, “What good thing?”

“Look!” Du Xiu Heng fished out two small bird eggs from his sleeve.

“Bird eggs!” Du Xiao Li saw the bird eggs and happily cried out.

“I saw this when I was chopping wood. In a bit, I’ll cook this for you to nourish your body.” Du Xiu Heng said with a smile, “You hold on to them first. I’m going to go dry out the moisture from the the wood, then take them to the town below tomorrow to sell.”

“Alright.” Du Xiao Li carefully took the bird eggs from him. If this was in her past life, she definitely wouldn’t even give them a single glance. But ever since coming to this world, drinking weirdly flavored clear water vegetable porridge every day, she felt that her own taste buds were about to deteriorate. That’s why these two bird eggs looked even more pleasing to the eyes!

Du Xiu Heng untied the bundle of wood and spread them out in the courtyard. Then he had the rice straws that Du Xiao Li took out in the afternoon all moved back inside, and then said to Du Xiao Li, who was still in the courtyard absentmindedly staring at the bird eggs, “Okay, I can cook that bird egg for you now! Let’s go in.”

“Bird egg? Mother, I want to eat bird egg!”

Du Xiu Heng had just taken the bird egg from her when a young boy’s voice sounded. They turned to look. It was precisely their eldest aunt, Cui-shi, and her son, Du Xiao Tian.

Du Xiao Tian’s age was about the same as Du Xiao Li’s, being older than her by a few months. His chubby and plump appearance looked like a winter melon. Hearing there were bird eggs, he pulled on Cui-shi’s hand and incessantly swayed, muttering on about how he wanted to eat bird eggs. One look and you could tell he was a spoiled one.

“Don’t worry, I’ll go get it for you right now.” Cui-shi patted Du Xiao Tian’s little hand and said. Afterwards, she turned to Du Xiu Heng, “Your younger brother wants to eat bird eggs, so give me the bird eggs.”

Du Xiao Li looked to Cui-shi, seeing her in cotton-padded clothes and quilted cotton trousers, and her hair styled neatly. Her fair white skin was not like an ordinary peasant woman’s filled with wrinkles, and her eyes revealed her shrewish nature.

“Why should we?” Du Xiao Li went and stood in front of Du Xiu Heng, glaring at Cui-shi and Du Xiao Tian.

Cui-shi didn’t expect that the little girl that would only hide behind the door whenever she saw her in the past would actually dare to glare to her. Placing her hands at her hips, she roared, “What are you glaring at me for? Today, this bird egg, I’m determined to get, so are you going to give or not?”

“Not giving! Want to eat bird egg, go up the mountain yourself to get!” Du Xiao Li also mimic Cui-shi’s appearance, placing her hands at her him, and roared back.

“Yo.” Cui-shi was angrily amused by Du Xiao Li, “Not only did you not die from illness, your guts even grew after getting better?!”

“I’m someone that has toured the gates of h.e.l.l. Grandpa Enma[1] told me that people need to have big guts to be able to live well, then afterwards had me sent back! Eldest Aunt, say, if my guts didn’t grow a bit wouldn’t grandpa Enma be angry with me if he sees?” Du Xiao Li looked to Cui-shi with a face full of childish innocence.

If it was an ordinary village woman, as soon as they heard G.o.ds and ghosts and such, they would’ve long been scared off. However, this Cui-shi’s character was shrewish, and usually never believed in the supernatural. Hearing Du Xiao Li say this, not only was she not scared off, she instead even walked towards her in quick steps and pushed her aside, saying, “What grandpa Enma? If you’ve met King Enma, they I would be King Enma’s reincarnation. Move aside. Du Xiu Heng, hand over the bird egg!”

Du Xiao Li had just recovered from her illness and had been malnourished for a long time. Getting pushed by Cui-shi like this, her entire person fell to the ground.

“Younger sister!” Du Xiu Heng saw Du Xiao Li fall, and in a moment of panic, the eggs in his hand were seized by Cui-shi. He didn’t bother with stealing the bird eggs back and ran to Du Xiao Li’s said asking, “Younger sister, are you okay?”

Du Xiao Li knew Cui-shi’s temper, and she herself didn’t have any strength right now. These eggs today, now that they’ve fallen into her hand, they won’t be able to get back. Looking to the pebbles on the ground, her eyes glistened. Picking the pebbles, she threw them at Cui-shi. Afterwards, she sat up, and with her two little hands covering her face, she began crying.

“Wu wu, eldest aunt is a bully, eldest aunt is a thief, stole my bird egg, wuu wuu…..”

Cui-shi reached out to block with her hands. Majority of the pebbles were all blocked by her, but there was a small stone she didn’t noticed that wasn’t directed at the upper body, and under the cover of those other pebbles, it struck her right leg, making her right leg feel numb. However the pain from the upper body made her very quickly overlook the discomfort on her leg.

“You little brat, actually daring to throw rocks at me!” Cui-shi said as she was about to go over and hit Du Xiao Li, but Du Xiu Heng immediately stood before her and said, “Eldest aunt, younger sister is still small. The bird eggs you’ve already gotten, so there’s no need to bicker with her.”

“Mother, I’m hungry, quickly go back and cook the bird egg for me to eat!” Behind Cui-shi, Du Xiao Tian, seeing that his mother had already gotten the bird eggs, began to urge.

“Hmph, this time, I’ll let you off. Next time, dare to hit me again, and just see how I’ll sort you out!” Cui-shi patted the place the pebbles. .h.i.t on her body, “That’s right, this time I came to ask, Du Xiu Heng, the rice you borrowed from our family a few days ago, when do you plan on paying back?”

Du Xiao Li was just thinking earlier why she’d came. Turns out she came to settle a debt!

“Eldest aunt, the skies have just cleared. I went to the mountains to chop wood today, and still haven’t had the time to sell them in town. So give me a few more days, in a few days, I’ll definitely have the rice paid back!” Du Xiu Heng replied.

“Mother, hurry up, hurry up.” Du Xiao Tian pulled on Cui-shi, urging her to quickly go back.

Cui-shi pulled Du Xiao Tian’s hand and looked to Du Xiu Heng, “Seeing on your dead parent’s behalf, I’ll give you a few more days time. You better pay it back quickly, our family’s Tian Shui[2] is running out of white rice soon, understand?”

(T/N: man I feel like you can’t get anymore cliche villain than this)

“This nephew understands.” Du Xiu Heng replied.

“Hmph, let’s go back then.” Finish saying this, Cui-shi pulled along Du Xiao Tian and left.

Du Xiao Li waited until Cui-shi left before getting up from the ground, patting the dirt off herself. Strolling to the edge of the courtyard, she placed both hands on the deteriorating fence and watched Cui-shi retreating figure.

“Younger sister, what are you looking at?” Du Xiu Heng, seeing Du Xiao Li not crying anymore and even ran to the edge of the courtyard nonchalantly gazing down the mountain, walked over and asked.

“Big brother, look.” Du Xiao Li pointed to Cui-shi and said.

“What’s….” wrong? Before Du Xiu Heng could finish his words, he saw Cui-shi, who was about to reach the foot of the mountain, suddenly go limp in the legs and her entire person fell down. Because the ground was slanted, she tumbled a few times before finally stopping.

“Aiyooo….”

Cui-shi’s pitiful cries came from the bottom of the mountain.

“Mother, how are you?” Du Xiao Tian quickly ran down, looked to Cui-shi who was sprawled on the ground, and asked. When Cui-shi finally lifted her head, he suddenly cried out, “Mother, you crushed the bird eggs!”

Cui-shi finally felt the dripping wet sensation on her face, and it was even sticky. Reaching out to touch it, there was crushed bird eggs on her entire face.

“Mother, you crushed the bird eggs, what am I going to eat now?” Du Xiao Tian saw that the two bird eggs were both crushed and said with a bawling face.

“Eat eat eat, all you know is eat. Quickly help me up! Aiyoo….” Cui-shi, seeing her own son’s disappointing look, scolded.

Du Xiao Tian finally went to help Cui-shi up, supporting her as she limped back.

“Hahaha….” Du Xiao Li, seeing the scene below the mountain, burst into laughter.

She originally only hit the nerve on Cui-shi’s leg, letting her be inconvenienced when going down, and tripping. She didn’t expect that she not only tripped, she even crushed the eggs on her face. This made the gloomy feeling inside from losing the eggs immediately disperse.

“Younger sister, how did you know that eldest aunt would fall?” Du Xiu Heng looked to the laughing figure and asked.

“Guessed!” Du Xiao Li looked to Cui-shi’s retreating figure and stuck out her little head. Afterwards, she turned and headed towards the house.

“This can also be guessed?” Du Xiu Heng skeptically asked, and followed Du Xiao Li into the house. However, seeing Cui-shi tumble, he was also very happy inside and went to make dinner while humming a tune.

[1] Enma – The mythical king of h.e.l.l in Chinese mythology; can also be romanized as Yama

[2] I think this is Du Xiao Tian’s real name; Xiao Tian just means little sky and seems to be like a nickname; or it could be the author’s type, I’m not sure

T/N: Tbh this story’s a bit cliche but I got really attached to the little dumplings, especially the brother. He’s too precious, please protect him. Honestly this story is mostly lighthearted slice of life from what I’ve read so far, so don’t expect any intense drama or complicated schemes. Debating whether I should add comedy tag or not–