Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Shen Family really did keep their word. They gave my family one hundred taels of silver.

And I was put up in a quiet little courtyard, where I could eat three meals a day!

Every meal had meat, and I could eat as much as I wanted.

Each time, I only ate half and secretly hid the rest, planning to find a chance to take it out for my family to taste.

That day, Yurong, who had come to deliver my meal, finally couldn’t take it anymore.

She took a bowl of braised pork out of the wardrobe.

She dragged a basin of white rice out from under the bed.

Then she pulled a pile of pastries out of the vase.

She looked at me, then looked around the room.

Guiltily, I glanced up at the roof beam.

The corner of Yurong’s mouth twitched. She called someone in to climb up and bring down the fruit I had worked so hard to stash up there.

I stared dejectedly at the food that had been confiscated, hating myself for failing to protect it.

Yurong said kindly, “Mistress, food will spoil if you leave it too long. If you eat too much spoiled food, it’ll upset your stomach.”

I said at once, “It won’t upset my stomach! Last month I ate leftovers the village squire’s family didn’t want, and I was completely fine!”

I had always eaten a lot. Back when Father could still work, he had never let me go hungry.

But later, when he fell ill, I couldn’t eat that much anymore. Otherwise Mother and my younger brother and sister would get even fewer bites of food.

The village squire’s family was the richest household for miles around.

The leftovers they couldn’t finish were all fed to the dogs.

One day, I was so hungry I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I crawled through the dog hole and stole a little dog food.

Remembering how I had stolen dog food that day, my eyes darted away.

This was something I absolutely couldn’t let Yurong know.

If she found out I had fought a dog for its meal, she would definitely think I had no morals.

After hearing me, Yurong gazed at me softly.

The more I felt she had seen right through me, the less I dared to keep hiding it.

I lowered my head, pinched my fingers, and whispered, “Actually, it wasn’t that the squire’s family didn’t want that food anymore. He… he had poured it into the dog bowl, so I crawled in through the dog hole and secretly took a little.”

The moment I said the word “stole,” my face burned.

No matter what reason there was, stealing was stealing.

When I was little, my family was very poor and couldn’t afford pastries.

Once, Huzi from next door held a piece of white sugar cake and deliberately showed it off in front of me.

Later, when he got tired of eating it, he threw a small piece on the ground.

After he left, I picked it up and carefully licked it.

It was so sweet. How could it be so sweet? So sweet my heart nearly melted.

But Huzi’s mother saw me. She grabbed me by the hair and called me a thief, called me a lowborn wretch.

Huzi didn’t dare admit he had wasted food, so he called me a thief too.

When my mother heard, her eyes went red at once.

I was scared to death and immediately said, “Mother, I didn’t steal! I didn’t!”

But I had been a little slow ever since I was small, and I couldn’t explain myself clearly.

“He wasn’t eating it. I picked it up!”

My mother got into a fierce fight with Huzi’s mother.

She said viciously, “If you dare slander my daughter as a thief again, I’ll tear that mouth of yours apart!”

Mother took me home. I thought she would beat me.

But she didn’t.

She took some money and went out. When she came back, she was holding four pieces of white sugar cake.

Mother knocked me lightly on the head and said, “Dani, Mother believes you didn’t steal the white sugar cake. But from now on, you can’t pick up Huzi’s things and eat them. That boy is as filthy as a loach. Aren’t you disgusted?”

I asked foolishly, “Then if a clean person throws something away, can I eat it?”

Mother was speechless for a moment, then urged me, “That won’t do either. You can’t eat other people’s spit! Hurry up and eat your white sugar cake.”

But I didn’t eat it. I was too ashamed. I cried until my head felt dizzy, hating myself for being greedy.

I knew those white sugar cakes were very expensive. After buying them, our family would have to eat thin porridge for several days.

When Father came home and learned what had happened, he smiled.

“Dani, you really don’t want to eat this fragrant, soft, sweet white sugar cake?”

He picked up one piece and said, “Then Father will eat it.”

I hurriedly raised my hand and shouted, “Father, Dani wants to eat!”

The three of us huddled together and slowly shared those four pieces of white sugar cake.

Mother said that when people did wicked or criminal things, they always said the world had forced them into it.

Poverty, hunger, and illness could make people stop seeming human and turn them into demons.

Some people said poor people ought to steal, rob, and throw away their morals in order to climb higher.

But Mother said that was wrong.

She put her arm around my shoulders and said softly, “Dani, no matter how bitter or hard life gets, there are some things you simply cannot do. Being poor is not our sin. Having a muddled head and not knowing right from wrong-that is the sin.”

After that, in my heart, the word “steal” became very heavy.

As heavy as four pieces of white sugar cake.

Thinking of the white sugar cake, I couldn’t help crying.

Yurong asked gently, “Mistress, why are you crying?”

Wiping my tears, I choked out, “I stole the village squire’s leftovers. I’m not a good person. If the Shen Family wants to drive me away, I’ll accept it. I only beg you not to tell my parents that I stole someone else’s leftovers to eat.”

If my parents found out, their hearts would ache.

If my younger brother and sister found out, they would be even less willing to eat more than a mouthful of food.

They always said, “We’re little, so we don’t eat much. Big Sister is grown up. Big Sister should eat more.”

Yurong took out a handkerchief and wiped my tears, saying softly, “Mistress, why don’t you eat lunch before you leave? Today we have fermented rice dumplings, braised pork hock, and your favorite Four-Joy Meatballs.”

I didn’t want to eat at first. After all, I was going to leave, so I couldn’t take advantage of them.

But Yurong said all of it had been made for me. If I didn’t eat it, they could only throw it away.

I hurriedly said, “If you’re going to throw it away, throw it into my mouth!”