Chapter 3

Chapter 3

In the end, Mother still made dinner.

The food was set on the table, but she and I stood in the courtyard, neither of us daring to move.

Hunter Zhang came back carrying two big baskets over his shoulder and went into the unoccupied west room.

When he saw the food on the table, then looked at Mother and me, his frown deepened.

He washed his hands and sat down. Seeing that we were still standing, he called out in his rough voice for us to sit too.

He served himself less than half a bowl of rice. “You didn’t make enough. Make more tomorrow.”

He ate very quickly, shoveling the food down noisily, but in the end he ate less than half of what was there.

After he finished, he sat there sharpening his hatchet while watching us eat.

Mother hesitated, then served me rice. The two of us ate while keeping our eyes on him.

It did not take me long to notice the problem.

If I ate quickly, he stopped watching.

If I slowed down and looked like I wanted to put down my chopsticks, he would frown.

Was he… telling me to eat?

Mother and I trembled our way through the rest of the food, waiting to be scolded or beaten.

But Hunter Zhang did not curse at us, nor did he hit us. He only put away his hatchet and told Mother to boil some hot water. “Wash up and sleep. It’s been a long day.”

Mother hurried to boil water. After Hunter Zhang finished washing, she thought for a moment, then washed her own face, hands, and feet too.

“After all, it’s the first day. If I’m clean, maybe he won’t dislike me as much.”

She muttered as she washed, her expression dim and unreadable, and she was very nervous.

I used the hot water she had left over to wash myself. My hands and feet slowly warmed up.

So this was how comfortable it felt to wash your face and feet with hot water.

No wonder Second Uncle and Grandma were always ordering me to boil more hot water once winter came.

After washing up, I went into the woodshed.

Mother reminded me, “Cover your ears. No matter what you hear, don’t come out. Pretend you didn’t hear anything, understand?”

I nodded hard. I understood.

Back when Father used to bully Mother badly, I had cried and begged him to let her go, and he had kicked me so hard I hurt for more than half a year.

This time, I would not cry out again.

Mother and I both had to live carefully. As long as we lived, there was hope.

Though I did not know where that hope was.

But soon, the door to the woodshed was kicked open.

Hunter Zhang stood in the doorway with a lamp in his hand, staring at me where I lay in the straw.

I was so frightened I shrank back, cold sweat pouring down my body.

Once, Father had come home drunk late at night and gone into the woodshed too. Then he beat me.

He said it was all my fault for being a money-losing girl. I had made it so he had no son and was laughed at by others. I had made him lose money.

That time, he nearly beat me to death.

It was Mother who picked up the hatchet and tried to fight him with her life on the line, and only then did she save me.

Hunter Zhang was even stronger. Would it only take him three kicks to kill me?

But he had not been drinking, and he was not angry. He only came over, picked me up as if I were a little chick, and carried me into the west room.

Mother was standing carefully inside.

The room that had been empty before now held a very wide wooden bed. Several quilts were piled on top of it, old but clean, and on the quilts lay two old sets of padded jackets and trousers.

Hunter Zhang set me down, turned, and left. He went back to his east room, closed the door, and before long, the sound of his snoring came from inside.

Mother and I looked at each other in bewilderment.