Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I looked up at Hunter Zhang.

Mother hadn’t noticed what he said, but I had.

Grandma took the silver and was about to leave, but Hunter Zhang stopped her and demanded a written contract.

Grandma refused. She wouldn’t agree to any contract, but Hunter Zhang snatched the silver back from her hand.

“No signature, no silver.”

In the end, with the clan elders and the village chief as witnesses, the contract was written. Mother and I both became members of Hunter Zhang’s household.

Mother dropped our bundle and immediately started working.

She hoped that if she was diligent enough, if she did more chores, Hunter Zhang would see how hardworking she was and let me have a few extra bites of food. Maybe he wouldn’t hit me.

Hunter Zhang’s home was very simply furnished. There were three main rooms: the central room in the middle and a bedroom on each side.

But only one bedroom had a bed. The other was empty.

Mother took me to look at the woodshed.

The firewood here was neatly stacked, and the room was clean too.

Mother rearranged the firewood, found some planks, and put together a little bed for me.

“Nannan, don’t be afraid.”

This would be my nest for sleeping at night.

I spread straw over the bed. “Mother, I’m not afraid.”

It had been like this at the Zhao family anyway. Whenever Father was home, he hated that I got in the way of him and Mother having a little brother for me, so he always drove me out to the woodshed.

The Zhao family’s woodshed was much dirtier than this. There were rats and snakes, freezing cold in winter and hot as a steamer in summer. I had survived all these years there too.

Mother held me for a moment. “Maybe… once Mother gives him a son, things will be better.”

But I had a vague feeling that maybe Father hadn’t treated Mother badly just because she hadn’t given birth to a son.

“Mother, why did Father make you remarry into the Zhang family?”

In the past, Father had watched Mother so closely. He wouldn’t let her leave the village, wouldn’t let her raise her head to look at anyone. Grandma had always scolded Mother too, telling her not to go around seducing people outside.

So why would they suddenly want her to remarry? And in such a hurry too.

Mother’s bitter laugh was trapped in her chest, and her voice was very soft. “Because only Hunter Zhang could afford that much silver, and…”

She didn’t say what came after the “and,” but I knew.

Father had sent Mother here to die.

So it turned out that before Father left, he had already thought about selling Mother for money.

He couldn’t come back, but he still wouldn’t let Mother have an easy life. He sold her for silver, and he wanted to cut off any path she had left to survive.

I could guess all this not because I was especially clever, but because what they did was far too obvious.

Everyone in the village was saying it. It was impossible not to hear.

Before long, Hunter Zhang came back.

He paid no attention to Mother or me. He simply carried a lot of wooden planks into the house and hammered away with a loud clatter.

He struck so hard that each blow seemed to land on Mother and me instead.

Mother stood outside the room. Several times, she wanted to ask where the grain was so she could make dinner, but she didn’t dare.

After a while, Hunter Zhang came out. Seeing both of us standing there, he frowned.

“Something wrong?”

His voice was fierce, and I was so scared I wanted to shrink back.

But there were only Mother and me here. If I shrank back, Mother would be all alone.

So I stood firm, holding Mother’s hand and standing with her.

Hunter Zhang noticed what I did, and his brows shifted slightly.

Mother hesitated before asking, “I-I wanted to ask… it’s time to make dinner. If you take out the grain for dinner, I can go cook. You’ve worked all day too. You should eat.”

Hunter Zhang frowned again. He looked us up and down in confusion, then pointed toward the kitchen.

“There.”

Mother looked over. “Then… the key…”

Hunter Zhang’s frown deepened. He walked over and kicked the door open, then turned back to look at us.

I kept feeling like his eyes were asking if we were stupid.

There was no lock, so where would a key come from?

But things hadn’t been like this at the Zhao family.

At the Zhao family, the kitchen was locked. Even the grain, oil, salt, and eggs at home were locked inside a cabinet.

Mother made all the meals at home, but how much rice and flour she used, how much oil and salt, and how much firewood were all decided by Grandma.

Grandma would take out the rice, flour, oil, and salt needed for that one meal, set them on the stove, and stare at Mother while she cooked.

Even if a single grain of rice fell, she would curse for ages.

She called Mother a cheap slut and said the two of us were starving ghosts reincarnated, “thinking only of eating every day and not knowing how to do a speck of work.”

She was afraid we would steal food.

Mother took me into the kitchen. When she saw the rice, flour, oil, and salt all set out there, she hesitated.

She looked toward Hunter Zhang, but he had gone out again.

Mother still didn’t dare touch anything.

She was afraid that if she didn’t do it right, Hunter Zhang would come back and hit someone, just like Grandma did.

She was also afraid of being suspected of stealing food.