The porridge with two floating leaves inside the small pot started boiling, and numerous pairs of eyes were all fixated on it anxiously.
When Granny Niu took the small pot down from the prop stick, Eldest Junior Wei’s family fought to scoop out the porridge in impatience.
When it was Qiao Zhongheng’s family’s turn, there really was only a mouthful of soup left. Who knew whose stomach it could even fill up?
In the end, the couple could only reluctantly let their darling son eat it.
“Mom, I’m close to starving to death.” Qiao Long drank a mouthful of soup, but he only felt his stomach rumbling even more in hunger.
Rubbing his sunken belly, Qiao Long recalled the varieties of pastries placed on the table when they barged into the marquis’s estate. He regretted that he hadn’t first rushed up and grabbed several pieces to stuff his stomach before quarreling with them.
“Sigh, wait until your dad finds a custodian job, then we’ll be able to have a bite to eat.” They wouldn’t be able to last if they continued starving like this. Even worse, they might even have to resort to eating soil soon.
Meanwhile, Elderly Lady Qiao whimpered as she lay on the layer of dry grass on the floor.
Xu Jiao simply flared up after casting her a glance.
This d*mned old woman really was a pampered one. For the past few days, she would order her about here and there the entire day. She even needed to be waited upon no matter if it was eating or pooping. She was simply an old piece of trash!
It had to be known that Elderly Lady had been enjoying the good life these past few years. How could she suffer this kind of hardship? The first night after arriving at the rundown temple, she started coughing after catching a cold from the winds.
She hadn’t gotten much better these two days either, and she kept clamoring to return to the marquis’s estate in a haze. She harped on it so much that it made Xu Jiao annoyed.
She lay there in a lethargic sleep and needed Xu Jiao to help her defecate, which disgusted Xu Jiao to no end. But if she just threw her aside and let her pee and poop on herself, they would still be the ones to suffer from the stink in the end.
Ultimately, Xu Jiao thought of a good idea. Since there wasn’t enough food anyways, then they just wouldn’t give her food or water. After eating and drinking less, it wouldn’t be as troublesome anymore.
As a result, Elderly Lady had only drank two mouthfuls of watery soup in these last few days. By this time, she had long fallen into an ill stupor.
“Your mother-in-law isn’t going to die from illness, right!” Granny Niu turned her nose up very much at Elderly Lady Qiao née Wang’s behavior. If she wasn’t born into the pampered lifestyle, then she shouldn’t pretend to be a noble family’s old madam.
After all, they had both come from a similar village, yet Elderly Lady Qiao née Wang was plump and fair-skinned, adorned in gold and silver accessories. When Granny Niu saw her like that that day, she felt immensely stifled.
However, Elderly Lady Qiao née Wang had slimmed down a size after these three days of wind and rain, on top of getting quite tanned. Now, she did look quite like an old woman from a farming village.
To exchange for food, Xu Jiao had sold all the valuable items Elderly Lady had on her, as well as her cold-resistant fur-lined coat.
It was also precisely because she didn’t have this cold-resistant fur-lined jacket that Elderly Lady’s pampered body fell ill from the cold winds on the very first day.
“Of course not, Auntie Niu. Rest assured, I’ll find people to weep in front of the marquis’s estate again and say that the mother of the marquis’s estate’s master is nearly dying from illness and starvation. What else can my family’s Eldest Uncle do but take his mother back. So, well… Auntie Niu, I’ll still have to trouble you to lend me some grain.”
However, Granny Niu tightly held onto her bag of grain as she looked at her with a guarded gaze. “I gave you quite a bit two days ago because you said that you would use it to hire people to weep in front of the marquis’s estate, but there hasn’t been news even until now. In my view, your family’s Eldest Uncle is eighty percent a black-hearted person. If that isn’t the case, how could he drive his own mother out of the estate. Your family’s eldest branch won’t welcome you guys back.”
“Aiyo, Auntie Niu, that must’ve been because I didn’t entrust the right person. This time, I guarantee that I’ll entrust the job to an honest person and weep for a whole day in front of my family’s Eldest Uncle’s place.”
Granny Niu was skeptical, but she still nipped a truly small pinch of millet with her fingertips and reluctantly released it into Xu Jiao’s open pouch.
