Becoming the Villain's Discarded Wife
Chapter 47_1

Chapter 47: Chapter 47_1

Gougou chuckled and pointed at his little uncle’s belly, saying, "Mom, uncle has pancakes on his tummy."

Upon hearing Gougou’s words, Lin Ercheng appeared somewhat surprised. How did this little kid guess that he and his elder brother were actually hiding pancakes under their cloaks? After all, carrying five pancakes each would be quite conspicuous wherever they went.

"Eating only pancakes wouldn’t do." Nanzhi said with a smile.

After inviting her two brothers to sit down in the house, Nanzhi went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

Initially, she just thought about whipping up something simple for breakfast. But now that her two brothers were in the house, she decided to prepare a noodle meal. Worried that they might not be keen, she peeked out and said, "Elder brother and Ercheng, sit and rest awhile. I need to make breakfast, and will need your help with something later."

The distance between Stone Village and Lihua Village was not exactly close. Even if she hurried on a donkey cart, it would still take half an hour. Just walking would’ve taken them an hour, wouldn’t it?

Moreover, it wasn’t even dawn yet. She didn’t know how early her two brothers had started. As she thought about it, Nanzhi couldn’t help but feel a little bit envious. She envied her predecessor for having such a family.

Right after saying it, Nanzhi scooped four bowls of white flour, kneaded a basin of noodles, then cut a potato into strips for the broth. After the water boiled, she threw in the kneaded noodles. In the meantime, Nanzhi began to prepare condiments for four bowls, which meant putting some animal fat in each bowl, and adding salt and five-spice powder.

When Nanzhi called them to eat, Lin Yicheng and Lin Ercheng were momentarily stunned by the noodles on the table.

They merely thought Nanzhi was good enough to make some gruel. They never expected that they could enjoy noodles.

Grian prices had been rising continuously, while white flour, after the Diniu’s upheaval, was now eighty wen per pound.

They feared that this meal had cost their sister forty wen.

"Elder brother and Ercheng, what are you staring at? Eat your noodles!" Nanzhi spread her five fingers and waved in their direction, asking, "Don’t tell me you don’t even want to help me, and now you don’t even want to eat the noodles?"

"Uncle, eat your noodles! Mom’s angry!" Gougou imitated his mother’s inflated cheeks and said, if his uncles upset his mother, he wouldn’t talk to them for a whole day.

"Ah...uh, eat." Lin Ercheng was the first one to react. He knew that Nanzhi was just pretending to scare them, but Gougou seemed serious—that he would be angry if they didn’t eat these noodles.

The two men were touched by a bowl of noodles, then patted their stomachs after eating, sighing appreciatively.

"Fatty, how did you become so good at cooking?" Lin Yicheng patted his belly and smacked his lips, savoring the taste of the noodles.

"Yeah, I remember your cooking skills weren’t very good before. How come it’s so delicious now?" Lin Ercheng grinned, looking very much like his elder brother, Lin Yicheng.

"I guess both of you are really starving." Nanzhi rolled her eyes at them, then picked up the bowls and chopsticks and went into the kitchen.

Lin Yicheng and Lin Ercheng looked at each other and found it hard to believe. But when compared to the idea that their sister’s cooking had greatly improved, they were more willing to believe that they were just really hungry—after all, even grass tastes good when you’re starving.

"That could be it. We did get up really early today."

"Yes, yes, really early."

Nanzhi widened her apricot eyes. Did they mean her cooking skills were poor?

The Lin brothers tacitly dropped the subject, asking instead what Nanzhi needed their help with.

"Help me make the house look shabbier."

The two brothers exchanged glances, understanding their sister’s intention, and just nodded.

After speaking, Nanzhi picked up a wooden bucket and took Gougou to the river side.

By the time they reached the place where the shrimp cages were placed, it was completely light.

Nanzhi went down to the river, to the spot where she’d placed the shrimp cage yesterday. She strained to remove the stone on top, picked up the cage and shook it. When she felt movement within the cage, she happily carried it up to the shore.

She retrieved the bamboo sliver that was securing the cage opening, then briskly poured everything inside into a wooden bucket. When she saw that the bucket was a layer full, Nanzhi checked to see if any clam meat remained in the cage. Once she found the cage empty, she moved it aside.

Just as she was about to fetch the second cage, little Gougou was seen earnestly fondling the bamboo sliver on the net, muttering, "Gougou wants lots and lots of bugs. Gougou wants lots and lots of bugs."

"Gougou? What are you doing?"

Looking at Nanzhi, Gougou’s big eyes were full of seriousness. "Gougou is catching bugs."

"Gougou is so clever." Nanzhi didn’t contradict him. Instead, she waited with a smile for his next move.

"Mama, quickly catch some bugs!" Gougou clapped his hands, devoid of dust, just like the adults did, and then he moved aside once he felt that the "ceremony" was complete.

"Alright." Nanzhi nodded in agreement and reached to lift the shrimp net. But as she started to lift it, she felt something was amiss. The net felt heavy, and despite her efforts, she couldn’t hoist it at all.

Unwilling to believe her luck, Nanzhi was hesitant to exert more force fearing she might break the net, so she decided to lift the other net first.

Lifting this net was easy, and it was heavy with fat, plump river shrimp, each about six or seven centimeters long, with no small ones to be seen.

With the wooden bucket half-full from just one cage and one net, Nanzhi was now more curious about the heavy net. So, she bravely stepped into the river and waded toward it.

Clearing some water plants, Nanzhi saw a greyish-yellow round "stone" lying on the net. She was a little puzzled.

Could it be that someone had placed a stone on her shrimp net?

The moment she reached out to remove the "stone," she saw the "stone" suddenly seeming to come alive, stretching out a long neck. This startled Nanzhi.

It was a wild large turtle!

Watching the turtle lift its long neck towards her triggered a reaction in Nanzhi, making all her hairs stand on end.

Although the wild turtle was nutritious and although it was quite expensive, she was terrified of creatures like turtles!

"Mama, run! The big turtle is going to bite you!" Gougou, seeing the turtle advancing towards his mother, immediately warned Nanzhi.

But it felt like Nanzhi’s feet weighed a thousand pounds. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t move. Watching the approaching turtle, now less than half a meter away, Nanzhi felt like crying. All she could do was tremble and say, "Gougou, mama is scared!"

Seeing Nanzhi’s pitiful state made Gougou flustered - but what could he, a three-year-old, do?

In the end, he chose to mimic Ms. Wu’s scolding, placing one hand on his waist, pointing at the turtle with the other, and shouting, "Naughty turtle! Shoo! Get away! You can’t scare my mama!"

He himself was very scared when Ms. Wu did this. If it worked on the big turtle, his mama would be safe.

The turtle paused its advance toward Nanzhi as if it understood. It turned its long neck to glance at Gougou, then abruptly changed direction and headed towards the middle of the river.

Only when the turtle had moved more than three meters away did Nanzhi feel her strength returning. She hurriedly scurried back to the bank and sat on the ground, gasping for breath.

Gougou pat Nanzhi’s shoulder gently with his tiny hand and said, "Don’t be afraid, Mama. The big turtle was scared away."