Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Jin Bao had to pee. She dashed into the woods, picked a random big tree, yanked down her pants, bared her pale little bottom, and squatted.
“Cluck, cluck-”
Halfway through relieving herself, a wild pheasant suddenly burst out of the grass beside her in a flurry of wings.
Jin Bao’s eyes went perfectly round with fright, and her urge to pee was forced right back in.
With both little hands, she fumbled her pants up, then took off after the pheasant.
She did not notice Madam Chen chasing after her from behind at all.
Jin Bao ran incredibly fast, while the wild pheasant fluttered wildly just above the grass.
“Don’t run! You’re going to nourish Mother! I’m about to catch you!”
Jin Bao clenched her tiny fists, held her breath, and her two short little legs spun like wheels of fire.
She was so focused on chasing it that she accidentally overshot.
“Ah! I ran past it!”
Jin Bao slammed on the brakes, her little face flushed and her forehead covered in beads of sweat.
She whipped around and crashed straight into the pheasant, which had flown over and could not stop in time.
Jin Bao tripped over the pheasant and, with a splat, pinned it perfectly beneath her.
The wild pheasant flapped for its life. Afraid it would escape, Jin Bao did not dare get up.
Her little body sealed the pheasant tightly underneath her. The pheasant clucked and squawked, while Jin Bao flailed in a panic, not knowing where to grab first.
The moment she lifted one foot, the pheasant tried to shoot out. The moment she loosened one arm, the pheasant tried to beat its wings.
After a chaotic struggle of flying feathers and flailing limbs, Jin Bao ended up with pheasant feathers stuck all over her little head and blades of grass on her face. Her eyes shone brightly as she looked at the pheasant in her hands. Its tail feathers had been plucked completely bare by her, and it no longer had the strength to struggle.
She plopped down on the ground and let out a long breath.
“Finally caught you! Little chicken, don’t be scared. My mother is very nice. It’s your good fortune to be eaten by my mother.”
Jin Bao gently stroked the pheasant’s head, two deep dimples appearing on her little face.
“You damn brat, how dare you steal my pheasant?”
Jin Bao was about to drag the pheasant out of the woods when a voice suddenly sounded behind her.
She turned and saw Madam Chen.
“Baby didn’t steal it. Baby caught it. Only bad people try to steal things.”
Jin Bao knew Madam Chen was not a good person. She had bullied her mother before too. Nervous, Jin Bao hugged the pheasant tightly.
Madam Chen looked at the pheasant in Jin Bao’s arms. It had to weigh five or six catties, enough for the whole family to enjoy a proper meat dish.
She glanced around. There was no one nearby. This was the perfect chance to kill this little wretch and take the pheasant while she was at it.
Madam Chen bent down and reached for Jin Bao.
But Jin Bao had been on guard. The instant Madam Chen moved, she dragged the pheasant and darted out from under Madam Chen’s armpit.
Madam Chen grabbed at empty air. When she turned to look for Jin Bao, she only saw the grass rustling. The child had already vanished.
Madam Chen was so furious that she stomped hard, her face filled with rage.
“I’ll catch you today if it’s the last thing I do.”
Madam Chen followed the traces in pursuit, but she had not gone far when her foot suddenly stepped into empty space, and her whole body dropped straight down.
“Oww, my foot!”
Madam Chen had been running too fast and fallen into a trap dug by hunters. Not only did she sprain her ankle, no one even noticed her.
In her panic, Madam Chen burst into tears and kept shouting for help.
Meanwhile, the moment Xiao Che saw Jin Bao sprint into the forest, he immediately had his three sons chase after her.
The three of them searched the woods for a long while without seeing anyone, growing more anxious by the second.
Xiao Jingxing had shouted until his voice was hoarse when a sudden rustle reached his ears.
“Shh! Did you hear something?”
Xiao Jingxing’s ears twitched. Of the three of them, his hearing was the sharpest.
Xiao Jingmo and Xiao Jinghao immediately stopped where they were.
The sound drew closer and closer.
A small shadow shot out of the grass and slammed right into Xiao Jingxing’s long legs.
“Oww!”
Jin Bao clutched her little head and landed on her bottom. Two pools of tears brimmed in her big eyes. There was a red mark on her forehead, and several bloody scratches showed on her exposed wrist, likely cut by blades of grass.
“Little Sister, it really is you!”
The worry on Xiao Jingxing’s face finally faded. He bent down and picked Jin Bao up from the ground.
“Big Brother, pheasant! Baby caught pheasant. Eat meat!”
Xiao Jinghao stepped over first, picked up the wild pheasant from the ground, and weighed it in his hand.
“Whoa, this pheasant is really plump. Little Sister is amazing. You can even catch a wild pheasant.”
Xiao Jingmo, meanwhile, was still in shock. Just now, he had seen Jin Bao’s running speed with his own eyes. She had been like a wolf cub, far beyond the speed of an ordinary human. Catching a pheasant would be nothing for her.
Xiao Jingmo was thoughtful and did not ask too many questions. Seeing how disheveled Jin Bao looked, he figured she must have suffered quite a bit just now, and a trace of heartache could not help but appear in his eyes.
“Big Brother, let me. The injury on your back hasn’t healed yet.”
Xiao Jingmo took Jin Bao from Xiao Jingxing’s arms, carefully wiped the little one’s face clean, and picked the pheasant feathers out of her hair.
Jin Bao kept feeling as if there was something she needed to say, but Second Brother was so gentle that the words tangled up on the tip of her tongue and vanished. She looked at Xiao Jingmo with a giggly smile, her face adorably blank.
The group returned to the crowd, and the bailiffs did not make trouble for them. This time, Xiao Che had reported it to the bailiffs in advance.
Only when Pei Wanqing saw Jin Bao return safe and sound did her anxious heart finally settle.
“Mother, look! Little Sister caught a pheasant. We can have roast chicken.”
Xiao Jinghao waved the plump pheasant in front of Pei Wanqing, looking extremely smug, far happier than if he had caught it himself.
Pei Wanqing was surprised for only a moment before she felt it was only natural.
Her precious girl was so capable. It was just one pheasant; of course she could handle it with ease.
Xiao Jingmo looked at the pheasant and pondered for a moment.
“Third Brother, we can’t eat this pheasant. Take it to the officials and trade it for steamed buns.”
The whole family froze. Jin Bao was the first to object. She had caught it to nourish Mother. She couldn’t give it away.
“No, no! Baby caught it for Mother. Can’t give it away.”
Jin Bao reached out to grab the pheasant.
Xiao Jingmo hurriedly soothed her.
“Little Sister, Second Brother promises you, I’ll make sure you get a chicken leg later. But we can’t keep this chicken. In the end, not only might we not get to eat it, we could even offend the bailiffs. It’s better to offer it to them now and exchange it for some food.”
Xiao Jingmo was saying this to Jin Bao, but also to everyone else.
Everyone in the Xiao Family was clever. Before Xiao Jingmo had even finished speaking, they all understood. But seeing Jin Bao look so upset, each of them had to swallow down their anger.
“Mother, you don’t know how much Little Sister suffered catching this pheasant. Her arm got scratched open.”
Xiao Jinghao’s face was full of indignation, as well as heartache.
Pei Wanqing reached out and took Jin Bao’s little arm, tugging her sleeve up. Sure enough, she saw several bloody scratches.
“Bring the ointment. Quickly.”
Pei Wanqing’s voice trembled, her eyes reddening. This daughter had not enjoyed a single day of comfort after coming to her side. She suffered every day, yet still thought of her mother. And now, they couldn’t even keep one pheasant.
Pei Wanqing felt terrible inside.
But right now, they were all exiled convicts. Even if they wanted to do something, they were powerless. As long as they could reach the Northern Frontier alive, she would make it up to Jin Bao properly.
By now, Jin Bao also understood what Second Brother meant. Feeling wronged, she lowered her little head and stopped fussing.
Seeing Jin Bao like this made everyone in the Main Branch feel miserable.
“Come to Grandmother, good girl. Grandmother will comfort you. In a little while, have your Second Brother talk nicely with the bailiffs. We won’t ask for steamed buns. We’ll ask them to give us a small portion of the chicken back. That way, your filial heart won’t go to waste, and your mother can still be nourished.”
Since Old Madam Xiao had spoken, Xiao Jingmo did not object. He carried the pheasant and walked toward the bailiffs.
When Jin Bao heard that the chicken could still nourish Mother, the clouds immediately cleared from her face. Her eyes shone like stars as she blinked up at Old Madam Xiao.
“Grandmother is the best. Baby loves Grandmother.”
That one “Grandmother” from Jin Bao made Old Madam Xiao beam with joy. The address sounded so warm and intimate.
No one knew what Xiao Jingmo said to the bailiffs, but he really did bring back a small half of the pheasant. However, it was the upper half, without any chicken legs.
Still, something was better than nothing.
The family ate it with their steamed buns. Everyone got one bite of roasted chicken, making the others so envious they kept swallowing their saliva.
Half an hour later, when it was time to set off, Xiao Yan suddenly shouted.
“Sir, my wife still hasn’t come back.”
A living, breathing person had gone missing, so they had to search for her.
Only then did Jin Bao remember what she had forgotten.
She slapped her little head and cried out, “Oh no!”
“Father, there was a bad person who wanted to steal Baby’s pheasant in the woods. The bad woman who bullied Mother.”
Xiao Che understood at once. It was Madam Chen. He seemed to have seen Madam Chen enter the woods earlier too, only he had not paid attention to whether she came back out. Now that Xiao Yan said he had not seen her, there was an eighty or ninety percent chance she was still in the woods.
Zhu Laosan left Li Si and Cui Jin behind to watch the prisoners, while he and Zou Yong went into the woods to search for her.
Jin Bao nestled in Xiao Che’s arms and yawned. Mist dampened her raven-feather lashes, and her gaze was already growing hazy.
The scene appeared again.
[Ye Xiaotu went up to Li Si to buy steamed buns, while Yousha Ke took the chance to steal a stack of silver banknotes from the bundle.
After succeeding, the three of them immediately left.
“Big Brother, the silver is in hand. In a while, I’ll hide it on someone from the Xiao Family.”
“Mm. This time, you must be careful. What happened last night was strange from start to finish. I suspect someone is secretly helping Xiao Che. Keep your eyes sharp.”
The scene changed. The silver was placed on Xiao Jingmo by Yousha Ke without anyone noticing.
The bailiffs discovered that the silver had been stolen, and Ye Xiaotu testified that he had seen Xiao Jingmo steal it.
Without asking any questions, Zou Yong drew his broadsword and directly chopped off both of Xiao Jingmo’s arms.
Xiao Jingmo lost too much blood, and there were no conditions for treatment. He died that very day.
The other members of the Xiao Family were also branded as thieves and flogged by Zou Yong.]
“No! Second Brother won’t die! Don’t hit Baby! Don’t hit Mother…”
Jin Bao jolted upright in fright, her small body ramrod straight.