Chapter 7

Fu Daxing saw it too.

Not just one, but many.

He swallowed his saliva in shock and counted, “One, two, three… a total of fifteen pigeons.”

“Big Brother, am I seeing things?” Fu Erxing rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

Fu Daxing shook his head. “Do blessings really fall from the sky?”

He was bewildered.

The two brothers looked up at the sky at the same time. With a few more thuds, more pigeons fell from the sky.

They were so shocked that their jaws almost dropped.

The mountain in their village was an uninhibited, forsaken place that was rarely visited by any humans or animals. This was the first time that so many pigeons had appeared here.

They could vaguely hear someone talking at the foot of the mountain. They seemed to be heading in this direction.

Suppressing the shock in his heart, Fu Daxing moved quickly and said, “Erxing, forget it. Hurry up and pick up these pigeons, lest others see us picking them up and want them too.”

Although pigeons were small, they were still meat.

How long had it been since their family had eaten meat?

Especially since Mother had just given birth, she would need nourishment even more. Only when their mother has had enough nutrition, will their little sister be well fed too.

They quickly took out a sack and stuffed the pigeons in. As they picked the pigeons off the ground, their hands trembled with excitement.

They were so lucky today.

The brothers carried the firewood and sack of pigeons down the mountain and rushed home.

Not wanting to attract attention, they took a shortcut.

The more one was afraid of something, the more it would happen.

Just as they were about to reach home, a huge figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

The person blocked the way, and laughed exaggeratedly, “Wow! Daxing, Erxing, the two of you had cut so much firewood. Are you going to sell them in town? They must be worth a lot of money, right?”

The person who spoke was called Fatty Li. She also had a famous nickname in the village— Busybody Li

She was extraordinarily nosy and liked gossiping about other people’s matters.

She had a lot of free-time on hand. She would stick her nose into anything she could find, be it looking out for signs of trouble, or gossiping about whose daughter or son was not yet married . Worse still, whenever it was lunchtime or dinnertime, she would bring along her bowl and knock on the doors of the villagers to see what they were eating. She would even help herself to the food shamelessly.

She did whatever she wanted because she was old.

Villagers thought of her as a jinx. Whenever villagers saw her, they would either shut their door quickly or move a distance away.

When Daxing and Erxing hers saw her, they immediately knew that it would be difficult to deal with her.

Why did they have to be so unlucky?

“No, Fatty Auntie. How much can this thing be sold for? It’s just to supplement our family’s expenses.”

The brothers looked at each other. Fu Erxing took a few steps back with the sack.

Fatty Li’s sharp eyes did not miss the nervous and protective expressions on the brothers’ faces.

Needless to say, there must be something valuable in the sack.

Anything that Fatty Li wanted to see, she would see. Nobody could stop her.

“Ah, what’s in this sack?” She pretended to ask casually.

Fu Erxing was quick-witted and answered, “It’s wormwood. It’s for my mother’s confinement.”

“Yes.”

Fatty Li raised her eyebrows. She didn’t believe him.

These two brats were still too inexperienced. Let’s see who could fool the other.

They didn’t want her to look, but she would.

“Daxing’s mother, why did you come out during your confinement?” Fatty Li looked behind them and exclaimed. In a surprised tone, she said, “Hurry up and go home. Don’t catch a cold.”

How could this be possible!

How could Mother come out?

The two brothers turned around to look.

Success!

Seeing that the two of them were distracted, Fatty Li took a few steps forward quickly and pulled hard at the sack.

It was too late for Fu Erxing to react. With a loud clang, most of the pigeons in the bag were scattered on the floor.

Fatty Li’s eyes widened.

So many pigeons!

The two brothers hurriedly squatted down to pick them up. Fatty Li quickly squatted down too and squeezed them aside with her big butt, grabbing around seven or eight of the pigeons.

“Fatty Auntie, these are for my mother;s nourishment during her confinement.” Fu Daxing was a gentle person and was reserved to put it too directly.

Fatty Li knew that she could easily take advantage of his character.

She had seen it just now. There were at least twenty of them.

Where did the two brothers get so many pigeons?

A pigeon is worth ten chickens.

Mdm Fu could live a few more years after eating this many pigeons.

She wanted to eat some too.

Fu Erxing was quick-witted. He opened his sack and said, “Thank you, Fatty Auntie, for picking them up for us.”

Fatty Li reluctantly put three pigeons into the sack.

She was afraid that if she had insisted, Mdm Fu would chase after her with a knife and not care about her confinement.

She still had four in her hand.

Fu Daxing watched anxiously.

It would not be easy to get back what has landed in Fatty Li’s hands.

Fu Erxing, on the other hand, appeared calm. “Big Brother, you bring in the firewood first. Tell Mother that we caught twenty pigeons and we would cook one for her everyday.”

“Okay.”

Thankfully Erxing is quick in his thinking.

Fatty Li panicked and stopped him from leaving.

Erxing was being too cold-hearted.

“Daxing, Erxing, remember that I watched you both grow up. Especially you, Erxing. Back then, you fell into the stream and almost drowned. I risked my life to save you.

Ever since I saved you that year, my health hasn’t been well. I would get sick every few days.

Is giving your Auntie a few pigeons to nourish her body too much to ask for?” Fatty Li brought up the past again.

She tended to bring up the same old story over and over again. They were so sick of listening to her nagging that they felt calluses forming in their ears.

Fu Erxing was instantly stunned at her mention of his near-drowning experience.

Taking advantage of this, Fatty Li grabbed the pigeons and fled. “Alright, that’s all. Auntie will take these back, bye.”

She fled faster than anyone else.

Seeing Fu Erxing’s expression, Fu Daxing did not have the time to care about her. “Erxing, are you alright?”

Could he have fallen into his nightmare again?

The near-drowning experience that year was a huge psychological trauma to Erxing. Ever since then, he would not dare to even approach the river and stream.

Daxing called in the direction of their home, “Guimei, come here quickly!”

At the same time.

Liu Guimei lay in her room with both her legs comfortably crossed, slacking off.

She was muttering under her breath

It’s so ridiculous that her grandmother-in-law’s long-term illness was healed instantly by the birth of her granddaughter.

How strange.

If it had been another son, she could have passed on instantly.

She patted her stomach lightly, disappointed at her own womb.

If she had given birth to a daughter earlier on, she might have been the center of attention at home now.

As she sighed, Fu Daxing’s cry came from outside.

Liu Guimei couldn’t be bothered. That cry surely didn’t mean anything good.

It was only when she heard Fu Daxing saying that something was wrong with Fu Erxing, did Liu Guimei jump out of bed in alarm. She didn’t even bother putting on her shoes and ran outside with a whoosh.

“Big brother, what’s wrong with Erxing?”

“Just now, Fatty Auntie mentioned the drowning incident again. Erxing seemed to be in one of those episodes again.”

“That d*mn busybody. Why did she bring this up again?” Liu Guimei chided.

The person whom Liu Guimei hated the most in this village was none other than Fatty Li. She hated her so much that she felt like tearing her apart and chomping on her bones.

Fu Daxing explained the situation. “Fatty Auntie said that she saved Erxing back then, and took four pigeons from us…”

“What?! How dare she mention this?!”

The next moment, Liu Guimei was so angry that her eyes were spitting fire. “And even took four pigeons from our family!”

That d*mn busybody!

She took four pigeons.

She ought to wait for her turn.

Without putting on her shoes, Liu Guimei rolled up her sleeves and ran towards Fatty Li’s house. “Big Brother, you help Erxing to settle down first. I’ll be back soon.”

In the blink of an eye, she disappeared.

She was worried that if she was slower, the four pigeons would have already been eaten by Fatty Li.

Mdm Fu heard the commotion outside and called Fu Daxing in to ask him what it was about. Fu Daxing answered, “Mother, Guimei has gone to make a scene at Fatty Auntie’s house. Xinghua and I should go over and take a look.”

Mdm Fu said that there was no need for them to go and instead instructed him to take good care of Erxing. She added on, “Your second sister-in-law is not good at anything else, but her combat power is pretty dependable. I’m sure she could take care of it.”