Chapter 131 -

Chapter 131: Chapter

Qinqin hurried back with a wooden bucket full of well water, but stopped in her tracks when she saw the entire Main Branch gathered in the center of the East Courtyard.

Madame Bai stood tall in the middle, her face firm and stern. Everyone was present, Yimei stood calmly to one side, Liu Feng stood beside Zhengyu’s wheelchair, and Madame Zhao stood silently with Bai Kang and Bai Shu. Rulan and Meiling stood behind their mother, while Madame Chen, An Yulan, Bai Wenxiu, Bai Shishi, and a groggy Bai Wenliang hovered near the back porch.

Master Bai was nowhere to be seen, having already hidden himself away inside the primary room to avoid manual labor.

On the ground in front of Madame Bai lay a pile of rusty iron sickles, wooden brooms, and heavy bamboo baskets.

"Listen to me, all of you," Madame Bai announced, her voice echoing clearly off the dusty walls. "This entire courtyard is covered in wild weeds, rot, and dirt. We cannot sleep peacefully or eat in a pigsty. Starting right now, everyone works. I had Liu Feng go to the store shed and gather these remaining tools. Grab what you can handle and start clearing this compound!"

Madame Chen’s eyes popped out of her head. She immediately puffed out her chest, stepping forward to protest.

"What?! You expect me to do farm work?!" Madame Chen shrieked, pointing at her own chest. "Look at my hands! I am a concubine of the head of the house! I have never touched a sickle or a broom in my life! Why should my daughters and I pull weeds while you sit back and command us like slaves? If anyone should do the heavy work, it’s the servants and the younger daughter-in-law!"

Madame Bai glared at her. "We are no longer in the capital, Sister Chen! There are no servants here except Liu Feng and Qinqin, and they have their own duties! If we don’t clean this place together, we will be living with rats and mosquitoes!"

"I don’t care!" Madame Chen snapped back, waving her arms dramatically. "My back hurts, my knees are weak, and An Yulan’s face is still swollen! Blah blah blah, we are delicate women! You can’t force us to clear a whole jungle!"

Before Madame Bai could even counter her again, Yimei stepped forward, her dark eyes locking straight onto Madame Chen.

"Then don’t clean," Yimei said, her voice smooth, flat, and chillingly calm.

Madame Chen blinked, caught off guard. "What?"

"Don’t clean," Yimei repeated, taking one step closer. "And when dinner is served, don’t eat. If you don’t contribute a single drop of sweat to this courtyard today, you don’t get a single grain of rice tonight, nor do you step foot into the kitchen. And if you drop a single piece of trash near my door, I will sweep it right into your bed chambers."

She glanced over at An Yulan, Bai Wenxiu, and Bai Shishi, her gaze sharp as a blade. "That goes for the rest of you, too. You can either pick up a sickle now, or you can sleep outside with the mosquitoes and starve. Choose quickly, because I don’t have the patience to listen to your useless whining."

An Yulan flinched, instinctively touching her swollen, purple cheek where Yimei had slapped her the night before.

Madame Chen’s mouth opened and closed, but not a single sound came out. She looked at Yimei’s icy face, then at Liu Feng’s hand resting on his sword hilt, and realized Yimei wasn’t making a threat, she was stating a fact.

Without another word of argument, Madame Chen grumbled under her breath, stomped over to the pile, and snatched a wooden broom. An Yulan and her sisters quickly scrambled forward, grabbing sickles and baskets with pale, terrified faces, rushing off to start hacking at the tall weeds near the fence.

Madame Zhao quietly picked up a basket and a sickle, nodding to her twins to follow her, while Madame Bai gave Yimei a quiet look of appreciation before grabbing a broom herself.

In the corner, Zhengyu watched the entire scene with a faint, dark smirk playing on his lips, resting his chin on his palm as the entire lazy family finally got to work.

While everyone was busy pulling weeds and sweeping dirt, Bai Wenliang barely did any real work. He would hold a sickle, cut two thin blades of grass, and then immediately sit down under the shade of a pillar to rest for fifteen minutes.

After taking another long break, he lazily dragged his feet back toward Madame Chen, wiping a tiny speck of sweat from his forehead while complaining loudly.

"Mother, my back is breaking!" Wenliang whined, stomping his foot. "Why do I have to suffer out here pulling weeds while Zhengyu just sits over there in his wheelchair doing absolutely nothing?! He’s just relaxing and watching us like a king! It’s not fair!"

Sitting nearby on a stone step, Bai Shu was busy stuffing pulled weeds into a bamboo basket. Hearing Wenliang’s loud complaining, she stopped her hands and looked up at him, her tone completely innocent yet blunt.

"Brother, it’s obvious," Bai Shu said, tilting her head. "Brother Zhengyu is sitting down because he is crippled. How do you expect him to clear weeds when he can’t even stand on his own two feet? Are you crippled too?"

Bai Wenliang’s face flushed bright red in an instant. "You—! You little brat! How dare you speak to your elder brother like that?!"

Madame Chen quickly jumped in, waving her broom angrily at Bai Shu. "Shut your mouth, you rude girl! How dare you compare my precious son to a cripple?!"

"She only spoke the truth," Madame Zhao’s calm voice echoed from a few paces away. She didn’t even stop her sickle as she sliced through a patch of thick brush. "If Wenliang wants to sit in a wheelchair and be carried around everywhere, I’m sure Liu Feng can find one for him."

Yimei didn’t even pause her sweeping. She threw a heavy pile of dead leaves into a basket right at Wenliang’s feet, kicking up a small cloud of dust that made him cough violently.

"If you have enough breath to whine, you have enough breath to carry this basket to the pit," Yimei said, her voice smooth and cold. "Move. You’re blocking the path."

Wenliang opened his mouth to shout back, but one sharp look from Yimei made his stomach drop. Coughing and grumbling under his breath, he picked up the heavy basket and hurried away before Yimei could find a reason to slap him, too.

He faced his mother, "Ma, I’m thank goodness it wasn’t this wench that married me.. unless I wonder how I would I have controlled her.. she’s like a tiger that’s always angry."