Chapter 61: The Bone Soup Incident

Chapter 61: Chapter 61: The Bone Soup Incident

Mrs. Zhu’s tantrum drew a larger and larger crowd.

Mrs. Zhu had always had a bad reputation. As for Ji Huan, aside from her reputation as a jinx, she hadn’t done anything particularly wrong. But the recent gossip had soured many people’s opinions of her, so they were all just there for the spectacle.

Mrs. Zhu didn’t get anyone to speak up for her, but her wailing did bring her son running.

Ji Mingmao pushed through the crowd, planting himself in front of Mrs. Zhu and roaring at Ji Huan, "You damned girl, don’t even think about snatching our family’s things!"

Ji Huan glanced at his right leg and said coolly, "Your leg doesn’t hurt anymore?"

Ever since the last beating, Ji Mingmao was indeed a little afraid of his older cousin. But the savory aroma of meat wafted right into his nostrils, and the thought of seeing it but not being able to eat it was a torment worse than death.

He stuck his neck out. "If you dare hit me again, I’ll scream! Grandpa and Grandma are home. I’ll have them beat you to death!"

’What a brat. All appetite and no memory of the beating.’

Ji Huan flexed her wrists and stepped forward.

Mrs. Zhu quickly shoved the soup pot into Ji Mingmao’s arms, pushed him to one side, and then stood with her hands on her hips to confront Ji Huan.

"What, you want to start something? You say this is yours, and that’s supposed to make it yours? What proof do you have?"

"It’s written all over your face that you’re a thief. That’s my proof."

"You!"

Regarding the theft, no one actually thought Ji Huan was lying. Mrs. Zhu was infamous for her sticky fingers.

Ji Huan ignored Mrs. Zhu and looked at Ji Mingmao. "You haven’t forgotten what I said last time, have you? Do you want me to teach you how to behave all over again? This is your last warning. Give the soup back."

Ji Mingmao shivered, immediately scanning the ground for any branches or sticks to keep that damned girl from getting her hands on one.

He didn’t spot any sticks, but he did see Ji Huan striding toward him with a cold expression. He panicked.

But he couldn’t bring himself to just hand over the soup.

His eyes darted around. Then, he suddenly ducked his head and spat repeatedly into the pot.

Ji Huan stopped in her tracks, her expression darkening.

Mrs. Zhu, who hadn’t expected her son to be so clever, wanted nothing more than to grab his little face and smother it with kisses.

She took the pot and theatrically offered it to Ji Huan. "Didn’t you want the soup? Here, take it. It’s not like we’ve never had soup before."

’There’s no way she’ll still want the soup now that it’s full of spit. And if she doesn’t want it, then it’s rightfully ours.’ Mrs. Zhu certainly didn’t mind her own son’s saliva.

Just as she was gloating, she was caught off guard when Ji Huan suddenly reached out.

But she wasn’t reaching for the pot.

With a single shove, the pot full of bone soup flew from Mrs. Zhu’s hands.

It hit the ground with a piercing SMASH, shattering into countless pieces. The soup splashed all over the ground and was almost instantly soaked up by the dirt.

Mrs. Zhu snapped out of her daze, let out a shriek, and lunged for the bones and meat, but a few stray dogs that had darted out beat her to it.

The dogs crunched on the bones, eating with great relish. CRUNCH, CRUNCH. Mrs. Zhu’s eyes went red with fury. She viciously kicked at them, but the animals stubbornly refused to leave.

Ji Mingmao had been stunned from the moment Ji Huan knocked the pot away. Seeing the dogs enjoying the feast while he couldn’t even get a single bone, he completely lost it. He plopped onto the ground, kicking his legs and wailing.

"Give me back my soup! Mom, hurry up and beat her to death! Make the damned girl give us back our soup! Waaaah... I want bones! I want meat! Mooooom..."

He was truly his mother’s son.

Seeing her son’s state, Mrs. Zhu forgot all about the dogs. She turned to glare daggers at Ji Huan, looking as if she wanted to tear her limb from limb.

"You little harlot! You have such a black heart! You’d rather feed it to the dogs than let another person have a single bite. Even if your cousin couldn’t eat it, what about your grandparents? Couldn’t they have a taste? Are you even human? I’ve never seen such an unfilial granddaughter in all the world!"

The soup she had spent half the day simmering was gone, just like that. It wasn’t that Ji Huan didn’t feel a pang of regret. But for her, it was better to feed it to the dogs than to let the Ji Family get their hands on it!

"You’re the ones who made it disgusting first. If I hadn’t knocked it over, was I supposed to just watch you serve that spit-filled soup to Grandpa and Grandma? Now *that* would be unfilial—an offense worthy of being struck by lightning."

Mrs. Zhu, never expecting the damned girl to become so sharp-tongued, was momentarily choked speechless.

’She had a point. After Ji Mingmao had spat in it, who would believe she was actually going to serve it to her parents-in-law?’

With such a huge commotion right outside, it was impossible for the rest of the Ji Family not to hear. Ji Qingshan and Granny Kang emerged from the courtyard gate.

The moment Mrs. Zhu saw her parents-in-law, she started twisting the facts. "As if we don’t know you! If I hadn’t brought it over, you never would have given any soup to your grandparents! You’re feasting on fine food behind our backs—if that’s not unfilial, what is?"

After her tirade, she scurried over to Ji Qingshan and Granny Kang to complain.

"Father, Mother, you didn’t see! I had a whole pot of soup for you, but that girl Wuan was too stingy to part with it! She chased me all the way home to block me and then knocked the whole thing over! She’d rather feed it to the dogs than let you have any!"

Granny Kang wasn’t blind. Her old face darkened ominously as she looked at the shattered pot on the ground and the bone fragments being gnawed on by the dogs.

’Being accused of being unfilial by Mrs. Zhu is one thing,’ Ji Huan knew, ’but being accused of it by Granny Kang and Ji Qingshan is something else entirely.’

So, she spoke up before Granny Kang had the chance. "Grandpa and Grandma are not so unreasonable! I knocked over the soup for two reasons. First, Ji Mingmao spat in it. Second, as I’ve said before, to take without asking is to be a thief. Grandpa and Grandma are respectable people. In the future, when Fourth Uncle becomes an official, the Ji Family will be a prestigious household. They would never eat stolen food."

Granny Kang had never been one for reasoning—she only cared about results. She was about to start cursing when Ji Qingshan gave her a discreet tug.

Ji Qingshan looked grim as well.

But Ji Huan’s words had both flattered the two elders and silenced them.

’If they sided with Mrs. Zhu and accused Ji Huan, it would be an admission that they were willing to eat stolen food—that their whole family were thieves.’

He shot Mrs. Zhu a vicious glare!

’This third daughter-in-law of his is brainless and greedy, and always leaves others to clean up her messes.’

He took a moment to compose himself before speaking.

"Wuan, you are right. Your third aunt was indeed out of line. Your grandma and I will have a talk with her when we get back... It’s not easy for you to have a nice meal, so it’s understandable you’d want to eat in private. As your elders, we’re fine eating chaff and wild vegetables. As long as you eat well, that’s what matters."

’Listen to him,’ Ji Huan thought with an internal eye-roll. ’Isn’t he just calling me unfilial in a roundabout way? Accusing me of secretly eating good food without sharing any with my elders.’

Ji Huan rolled her eyes internally but put on a beaming smile. "Oh, Grandpa, listen to what you’re saying. Before I was cast out, the family was always slaughtering chickens and carving meat. It was all for Fourth Uncle’s health, of course; I never got a single bite... I just figured, what kind of fine meat haven’t you two already tried? These few marrow bones I bought are hardly presentable. Besides, Third Aunt just grabbed the soup from my home and ran off. I thought something terrible had happened, so I chased after her to see what was going on..."

Someone in the crowd, who had been watching for a long time, chimed in, "It’s just a couple of bones, not some priceless treasure. Is it really worth making such a scene?"

"Going into someone’s house just to steal a bit of soup... She must have been a starving ghost in her past life."

"And spitting in it, too! How disgusting!"

Ji Huan glanced at Ji Qingshan’s ever-darkening face and sighed.

"If I had known Grandpa and Grandma wanted soup, I would have brought it over myself. There would’ve been no need for Third Aunt to resort to stealing and snatching. I know that when I was cast out, Grandma said we were to have nothing more to do with each other... but as long as you two want for something, forget about some bones—even if you asked me to carve off my own flesh as your granddaughter, all you would need to do is say the word."

Ji Huan’s words served as a stark reminder to the crowd of spectators.

That’s right! They already cast her out of the Ji Family, and so cruelly, too! They had even said her life, death, sickness, and old age had nothing to do with them, so what right did they have to talk about filial piety now?

"They didn’t give her a single grain of food back then. It’s a miracle Wuan didn’t starve to death. Now they have the gall to snatch her bone soup, and when they fail, they call her unfilial. What kind of logic is that...?"

"So shameless! How can they even show their faces? Forget a few bones—even if she were feasting every day, what business would that be of the Ji Family?"

"Exactly! It’s a wonder she wasn’t driven to her death. And they still have the nerve to talk about her carving off her own flesh. Ptui! What a bunch of scoundrels!"