Chapter Twenty-Seven: It Is All Your Family's Fault

"No need to say more."

After dinner, Old Man Zhang called for Bai Mianmian, wanting to have a word with her. She refused him flatly. It wasn't that she looked down on the father and son, but she knew full well they wouldn't be able to dig up anything useful.

"I’ve been tired all day. Let's get some sleep; we still have to head into town tomorrow to settle the property transfer."

"Look... I can help you buy this land, but we won't farm it, and we certainly won't farm it for you," Old Man Zhang declared. He didn't have much face to speak of regarding the city; he had spent the whole day there and hadn't gathered a single piece of useful information!

"Child! I know your family situation, and it’s no surprise you have such thoughts, but aside from the Bai family, you have your mother's family and your maternal relatives. Helping you out shouldn't fall to my family."

"But I don't want any relation to them. If they had any heart, would I have ended up like this?" She insisted that the land bordering her own had to be the Zhang family's. "Once the land is bought, you can farm it if you want, or let it lie fallow if you don't."

"Fallow land will be fined." The old man felt inexplicably uncomfortable.

Bai Mianmian was speechless.

The old man spoke with earnest concern, "Child, there is a saying: poor households have many troubles. People like us are all preoccupied with filling our own bellies. If you have the ability, lend a hand. If you take a step back, others will also yield a bit. Our ancestors always said that taking a loss is actually gaining."

"Then I'll just be your granddaughter. Old Man Bai already 'gave' me to you, so tomorrow we might as well handle the adoption papers while we're at it." Bai Mianmian grinned, genuinely amused.

Now, it was Old Man Zhang’s turn to be speechless. He didn't want this "cheap" granddaughter at all.

"Heh!" She scoffed. "Whether you want to farm this land or not, you’re going to have to. I don't have the skill to farm that much anyway."

The Zhang family members were stunned. They had truly never met someone so insistent on forcing others to help them farm! The more she acted this way, the more they suspected she had some hidden agenda.

"What exactly are you trying to do?"

Lying in bed, Zhang Huilan couldn't fall asleep. Propping her head up, she asked again. Bai Mianmian was drifting off and couldn't be bothered to respond.

"Hey, don't just sleep without being clear. When it comes down to it, I don't really owe you anything. Do you really think you can just leech off my family because you think we're pushovers?"

"If you don't want me to bully you, then solve my problem." Bai Mianmian pushed away her prodding and rolled over. "At the end of the day, I just can't show my face. If I could, I would have just separated from the Bai family long ago. Once separated, they wouldn't be able to trample all over me."

"Then let's go into town tomorrow and take a look." The young girl brought up the subject of lurking again.

Bai Mianmian refused once more. No matter what the girl said, she wouldn't participate. In the end, the girl had no choice but to decide to go alone. That night, both of them kicked their quilts far away, and when they woke up the next day, their clothes were damp with sweat.

"No wonder tiger meat is so highly prized; I barely got to eat any!" the young girl lamented.

Bai Mianmian retorted sarcastically, "You didn't eat much meat, but you drank plenty of the soup. Tell me, why do wealthy families enjoy fine soups?"

"Ugh! If you're going to be so stingy about it, I'll pay you back." It was clear that having meat in the house didn't hurt her heart.

She replied crossly, "If I cared that much about it, would I have let it be poured into your family's bellies?"

Poured. Yes, that's right. The Bai family had only scavenged the meat broth she had intended to discard. The rest of the meat, which they had kept for themselves, hadn't even been touched yet. After stir-frying two or three pounds, it had all been distributed—to the villagers and the natal families of the wives. Everyone who needed some had been taken care of. As for her pot, people were too afraid to eat it until she ordered the soup to be dumped; only then did the family scavenge what was left.

"Are you really not coming with me?" the young girl persisted.

Bai Mianmian gave her a look that suggested she should figure it out for herself.

"Then tell my grandparents when you get back." The young girl wanted to accompany her, and the Zhang family was worried. But despite their worry, they couldn't sway her.

"Fubao, you must be careful." Grandma Zhang wished she could just strangle Bai Mianmian. Doing something wrong once would have been better than worrying for this long!

"We haven't done anything wrong; there’s no need to fear anyone watching," the old woman reminded her. The young girl’s ears were almost calloused from hearing it.

"Don't worry, Grandma, I promise to stay far away from her."

"Are you going or not? Or should the whole family come with me?" Bai Mianmian asked impatiently.

Grandma Zhang had no choice but to let her go. No sooner had they left than she clutched her chest. "What kind of situation is this! My Zhang family has always been honest and kind—how did we end up with such a scoundrel?"

"Fubao has always been lucky," Lady Jiang said, trying to comfort herself. "From the day she was born until now, she hasn't even scratched a fingernail. Even in that situation the other day, she turned bad luck into good. From now on, she’ll only have endless blessings."

"Mother, Second Sister-in-law is right," Lady Han said, forcing a smile. "Fubao has better luck than anyone. When we go to the river, she’s the only one who catches big fish. When we cut grass together, she’s the only one who finds wild duck eggs. When we go up the mountain, she’s the one who finds chicks. Come to think of it, that time was just bad luck. But even with such bad luck, she came back safe and sound!"

Lady Han wanted to say that no matter how bad the luck was, it couldn't be worse than being passed between two human traffickers in a single day. After that, everything else was a minor matter.

Zhang Qiang was more direct: "If something goes wrong, we'll just say we were threatened."

"You really are something." The fourth son of the Zhang family didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Why was he starting to look forward to it?

"Mother?" Zhang Qiang wanted to solve the root of the problem.

"Don't think about such useless things. That young girl is not simple." Grandma Zhang suddenly put away her sorrow and gestured for everyone to come inside. Before, she had always felt she was overthinking things. After everything that happened yesterday, she suddenly didn't feel that way anymore. A normal girl wouldn't dare go into the mountains alone, let alone walk into a trafficker's cellar, let alone demand money!

"Get back to work."

The others: "..." Were they the ones more worried, or was she?

"I have a feeling this girl won't let my family off easily," Lady Jiang whispered to Lady Han.

Lady Han twitched her lips. She felt the same way, but she didn't want to dwell on it. A perfectly good family, and now they couldn't even sleep peacefully because of this one piece of rat droppings!

"Mother!" Lady Jiang chased after Grandma Zhang, wanting to know the truth. She felt that if she knew, she might feel less stifled.

"Achoo!"

In the cramped carriage, Bai Mianmian suddenly let out a sneeze.

"Is someone bad-mouthing me?" She looked at Zhang Huilan. The young girl was speechless.

"I have a feeling it's your grandmother."

"My grandmother isn't a gossip." She retorted sharply, "You didn't cover yourself with the quilt last night."

"Don't think of my family as so bad. My family is very good," the young girl said, looking at her grandfather.

Old Man Zhang returned a silent smile. The girl was deliberately looking for trouble, intentionally making his family uncomfortable.

"You naturally think your grandmother is good." She was simply looking for trouble. This whole family was too nervous, every single one of them with their nerves stretched taut. If she didn't help them relax a little, they might just hand her over to the magistrate later!

"Don't tell me I'm not familiar with your grandmother. I know her well; every other day I hear her mediating disputes for others. She even mediated in my family once, and then my mother decisively remarried."

"How could my grandmother possibly support your mother remarrying!" the young girl said, shocked.

Old Man Zhang was also filled with confusion. When the second daughter-in-law of the Bai family wanted to remarry, his old woman had actually tried to stop it. Unfortunately, she hadn't succeeded.