You are unlucky and I am tough

Cheng Shuang went down the mountain with this doubt in her mind. As soon as she got home, her three little ones ran out and surrounded her. They didn't even bother to eat the wild fruits that Cheng Pan brought back. They asked her where the pheasant came from.

Cheng Shuang carried the pheasant to the kitchen and said, "This is the pheasant your brother-in-law shot. We will stew the pheasant meat tonight."

"Third sister-in-law, please give me the pheasant. I'll take it to the river to clean it up." Wei Nanxing came over, took the pheasant, put it in a basin and went to the river.

Cheng Xu saw that there was really pheasant meat to eat, and clapped his hands happily, "Wow, brother-in-law is amazing, there really is pheasant."

"My third brother is amazing."

Wei Xinyi raised her chin with pride, "Every time he goes up the mountain, he always catches prey. A few days ago, he even dug up a Ganoderma lucidum and sold it for a lot of money."

"Are you saying that your third brother dug up some Ganoderma lucidum a few days ago?"

Cheng Shuang went into the kitchen to wash her hands and came out to hear Wei Xinyi's words.

"Well, the third brother said he walked a long way in the mountains before he found it."

"Then..." Cheng Shuang pulled her over and pondered for a moment before asking, "Did your third brother earn the ten taels of silver as a betrothal gift to the Cheng family from selling Ganoderma lucidum?"

"Yes." Wei Xinyi nodded. "I sold it for eighty taels. Ten taels of silver went to my third brother to get him a wife, and the rest was divided between Dad and my eldest and second brothers. My third brother only made one request: to take my fourth brother and me out of the family and have nothing to do with them anymore."

"Does your father agree to take you away together?"

Wei Xinyi pouted. "Even if they disagree, there's nothing I can do. My father doesn't work all day and can't afford to support us. My eldest and second brothers are already married, so neither of them wants to support us. They had a fight and then let us go with my third brother."

Cheng Shuang suddenly realized what was going on. She asked how the Wei family could afford a betrothal gift of ten taels of silver. Wei Qinglang and his younger siblings did not hesitate even to get a piece of land, as he was determined to leave that family and start over.

This means that he agreed to marry her not because he wanted to take responsibility or because he liked her, but because she was just a tool he needed to divide the family business.

This made her feel a lot more at ease. At least it showed that this man was smart and there was no problem living with him.

But before that, she still had to figure out whether he came from another world like her.

Wei Nanxing cleaned the pheasant cleanly by the river and brought it back. He then cut the chicken into pieces and gave the rest to Cheng Shuang.

People in the village eat dinner early because it is a waste of oil to light lamps as soon as it gets dark, so everything will be done before dark. Seeing that it was almost time, Cheng Shuang also started to prepare dinner.

Although her cooking skills are not very good, Chinese cuisine has been passed down for thousands of years, and she has watched many food videos and documentaries, so making a pheasant dish is easy for her.

Remembering that there were some peppercorns in the cupboard, she blanched the pheasant first, then put oil and peppercorns in a pot and stir-fried the chicken until it was well-seasoned. Finally, she added water and washed mushrooms and simmered it over low heat.

When the chicken was being fried, the little ones were attracted by the aroma. They peeked into the kitchen through the door, but were chased out by Cheng Pan, who was in charge of lighting the fire.

The aroma of meat wafted from the kitchen to Cheng Dafu's house next door, and the greedy family was drooling.

Cheng Dafu was having a headache at the moment, and his youngest son Cheng Pingshun kept pulling his mother and clamoring for meat in the evening, which made him so angry that he kicked the stool over.

"Such noise, all you do is eat, eat, eat all day long. It's like I'm torturing you."

After cursing, he felt his head hurt even more, so he kicked the stool away and went into the house.

Zhao Daya finally dared to pull up her son who had fallen to the ground. She patted his clothes with great distress and said, "I told you to stop making trouble. Your father is having a headache right now. Why do you have to provoke him?"

The two daughters who were washing mushrooms lowered their heads even more and worked without saying a word.

Zhao Daya was upset because her son had fallen. She picked up the dirty water she had used to wash the mushrooms and walked to the door to pour it on the path leading in and out of the Wei family. She spat fiercely in the direction of the thatched cottage, "Pah, you just separated from the family and have no land or house, and you still eat meat. With a bunch of burdens, you will starve to death sooner or later."

After scolding him, he felt a little better. He went back and called his two daughters to go weed the field before dark.

When Cheng Pingshun saw that his mother had left and his father was lying in bed with a headache, he opened the gate and quickly went next door.

The meat smelled so good that he wanted to go and have a look, hoping he could get a piece of it.

The Wei family's courtyard wall is half collapsed, giving it a sense of desolation. The gate is also shaky and it doesn't look like it will last long. Wei Qinglang said yesterday that he would go up the mountain to cut some wood and come back to repair it. The family is very careful when going in and out, for fear that it will collapse before it can be repaired.

As a result, Cheng Pingshun ran to the door, peeked through the crack, raised his hand and started knocking on the door a few times.

How could this old door withstand his beating? Half of it fell off with a loud crash.

The children in the yard who were sharing mulberries turned their heads to look over. Wei Xinyi trotted over and said, "Brother Pingshun, why are you tearing down my front door?"

Cheng Pingshun held his head high and denied, "I didn't take it apart. He dropped it himself. It's none of my business."

Seeing that he denied it, Wei Xinyi put her hands on her hips and snorted, "But I just saw it. You were the one who dropped it."

"It wasn't me, it wasn't me." Cheng Pingshun retorted loudly, "It just fell off on its own. My mother said that even dogs wouldn't live in this shabby house of yours. The door was broken in the first place."

"What is this for?"

Cheng Shuang was drawn out by the noise, and when she heard the phrase "even a dog can't help but frown in displeasure", she walked forward and said, "You are Pingshun from next door, right? What's going on?"

Wei Xinyi pulled Cheng Shuang aside and said, "Third sister-in-law, look, he broke our gate."

"It's not me, it's just broken by itself."

"It was you." Cheng Chen also ran over with his brother, "We all heard it. It was you who knocked on the door outside that caused it to fall."

"Your door was broken and fell off by itself. It has nothing to do with me." Cheng Pingshun shouted anxiously with his face flushed.

Cheng Shuang: “….”

It's nothing if a door is broken, and the door was not going to last long anyway. This child not only refused to admit his mistakes but was also so arrogant. It's really annoying to look at him. You can tell at a glance that he was spoiled by being treated like the pride of the family.

But she didn't want to argue with an eight or nine-year-old child, so she said directly, "Okay, stop arguing. Xinyi, take the wood on the ground to the kitchen to make a fire. Pingshun, you can go back too. You won't have to pay for this door."

When Cheng Pingshun heard that he didn't have to pay, he remembered that he had come to ask for meat. He immediately put away his arrogant attitude and said, "Sister Cheng Shuang, no, Sister-in-law Wei San, I just smelled that you were cooking meat and came to take a look. I haven't eaten meat for a long time. Sister-in-law, can you give me a piece of meat?"

Cheng Shuang almost couldn't help rolling her eyes and pulled the corner of her mouth, "The meat is saved for dinner. It's not ready yet. Besides, some people from my sister-in-law's family haven't come back yet. We have to wait until everyone is here before we can eat."

"It's okay, sister-in-law can pick a piece from the pot for me."

Cheng Shuang's tone turned cold. "We have so much meat in our family that we don't even have enough to eat. If you want to eat some, you can ask your father to go to the mountains and shoot a pheasant, or go directly to the hunters in the village to buy one. Just stop staring at us, okay?"

Cheng Pingshun shrank back in fear, but when he smelled the aroma of meat in the air, he bravely said, "Then, can I play with Cheng Chen, Cheng Xu, and the others in your yard?"

He thought that when his family was eating meat, he would just watch from the side and try to get a bite.

Cheng Shuang was almost laughing out of anger. She didn't expect this kid to be so shameless.

She frowned and was about to say no when she saw a group of people walking towards her outside. The leader was Cheng Jinshan's wife, Li, who looked very aggressive.

Li was married from the previous Lijia Village. She was the second most aggressive and unreasonable person in the village after Hu Chunhua.

Cheng Shuang knew that the visitor was not friendly, so she immediately turned around and shouted into the house, "Nanxing, come out for a moment."

Wei Nanxing, who had been repairing a table in the house, stopped what he was doing and ran out. Cheng Shuang whispered a few words to him, and Wei Nanxing climbed over the half-collapsed wall next to him and quickly ran towards the headman's house.