Chapter 3

Li Gui frowned slightly. "Third Sister-in-law, in my opinion, you should just let that snake go. Who would eat such a filthy thing?"

What decent woman would go out of her way to eat a snake? Just thinking about it was nauseating!

Luo Zhi'er gave him a disdainful look and spoke with a tomboyish air: "Little Uncle, Mother assigned me to cook, but there's no meat, no vegetables, and no rice in the house to put in the pot. Why don't you solve that for us?"

"What?"

"Ahem..."

"You damn fool! You're rebelling! Gui'er is studying; why are you asking him for meat?"

"So what if he's a starving ghost reincarnated? Is our old Li family going to let you starve to death?"

Madam Zhou defended him.

"Just because you won't eat it doesn't mean it doesn't taste good! Oh, I get it. Little Uncle is used to delicacies and looks down on this. Fine, I'll cook it myself, but don't you dare eat any when it's done!"

"Heh, thanks."

Li Gui was so embarrassed that his face turned red, and he retreated into the house!

Madam Zhou was fuming. This idiot actually dared to make her youngest son, A-Gui, lose face.

Her son had been studying for years; everything he said was the truth. How dare she talk back?

Seeing that she was about to fly into a rage to defend her son, Luo Zhi'er's lips curled into a cold smirk as she leaned in.

"Mother, help me catch it!"

"Ah! Get away from me!"

The mother and daughter turned and bolted into the house in a flash!

As they ran, they shouted loudly: "Don't forget to feed the pigs and make breakfast! Otherwise, I'll skin you alive!"

The door slammed shut with a *bang*!

Luo Zhi'er rolled her eyes.

She carried the snake to the pigsty to check on the pig. Seeing its head drooping as it grunted and curled up, she figured it was napping; it actually looked quite cute!

She tossed it a handful of pig fodder...

Then, she went to the main hall to fetch an axe. With one heavy chop, she split the snake into two sections, head and body separated. The snake's body continued to writhe and thrash wildly on the ground...

Through the crack in the bedroom window, the mother and daughter watched as she picked up the snake body, hung it on the persimmon tree, used scissors to slit the belly open with a *zip*, extracted the gallbladder, and skinned it!

After a moment of thought, she placed the snake head on a stone and used the back of the axe to smash it into tiny pieces!

She threw the entrails into the chicken coop to feed the chickens, who pecked at them greedily as if they were spicy strips.

That ruthlessness and the sight of that disgusting, filthy thing made the two women's scalps tingle with fear!

It also caused Little Madam Zhou and Madam Chen, who had been walking out of their own rooms one after another to watch the commotion, to gasp repeatedly in shock!

The two women exchanged glances and teased,

"Yo! I say, Third Sister-in-law, what are you doing..."

This Luo Zhi'er and the Third Brother truly were a matched pair! One could skin a snake without even blinking, and the other was a hunter!

Speaking of which, had the Third Brother's wife gone mad from hunger these past two days? She wasn't like this before.

She could actually kill a snake to eat?

"Could she have gone stupid from hunger?"

Luo Zhi'er turned around and saw Little Madam Zhou and Madam Chen. "Making breakfast!"

Then she said indifferently, "Eldest Sister-in-law, yesterday's bowls haven't been washed yet. Please wash them!"

Then, she turned to Madam Chen, who was standing aside in clean clothes, looking somewhat deliberately made-up with oil and powder, and said

"Second Sister-in-law, please help me fetch a few buckets of water!"

"What?"

"What?"

Little Madam Zhou couldn't believe it. She dared to assign her tasks?

Madam Chen watched her silently...

Her eyes flickered. Had this idiot undergone a change of character?

Normally, they would use all sorts of tricks to dump the housework on her!

"What's wrong? Mother told me to make breakfast. We're all daughters-in-law, why are you two just standing there?"

Luo Zhi'er shouted loudly toward Madam Zhou's window.

That voice could be heard a kilometer or two away in the village.

"The floors haven't even been swept this morning. Are you all just here to be useless?"

In the past, she was a simpleton who did whatever she was told. She was slow in her work and often missed out on food, which made her a bit selfish; she was always hungry and was always scavenging for food around the house.

Madam Zhou swallowed hard. She actually felt somewhat dissatisfied with this too; this Third Brother's wife was so difficult to deal with!

Little Madam Zhou was a niece from Madam Zhou's maiden family. She had a sweet mouth and had brought two males to the old Li family, so she naturally enjoyed Madam Zhou's protection and affection.

Although Madam Chen was not from Madam Zhou's maiden family, Madam Chen's family had good conditions, and she was a daughter-in-law personally chosen by Madam Zhou. She had also brought a male to the old Li family.

Her maiden family ran a small business in town. Usually, the young couple helped out in town, which might help the Second Brother with something in the future!

They had just returned from the busy harvest season!

She couldn't afford to offend her!

"Third Sister-in-law, I caught a bit of a cold yesterday. My head has been aching all night, *cough... cough!*"

"My Yunliang is the same. He was whimpering all night before his fever finally broke. I have to keep an eye on him," Madam Zhou said.

Yunliang was the second son. The eldest was Mu Xin. The third was a girl, Liu Liu, who was about the same age as Miao Miao; she had gone to the fields this morning to pick up wheat ears!

This was how she had explained it to her mother-in-law this morning... In reality, Yunliang was sleeping in, and her husband, Li Daqiang, had kept her up half the night. This morning, her husband had allowed her to be lazy and sleep a bit longer while she was still in bed...

Madam Chen hurriedly said, "Second Sister-in-law, my shoulders ache. They hurt whenever it rains. You saw how I was cutting wheat a while ago, and it just rained the other day. My arms hurt so much I can't even lift them!"

Madam Zhou spat in disgust from inside the house, "Nothing but a bunch of lazy bones!"

None of them were easy to deal with!

Unfortunately, the wives of the eldest and second sons were not people to be offended!

"Have you two been arguing all morning? Can't you settle down?"

Old Man Li returned from the fields with his two sons...

The eldest was carrying wheat stalks...

The second was carrying a hoe...

Miao Miao and Liu Liu had followed them to the fields to pick up the wheat ears dropped on the ground!

The two girls were tanned dark by the sun! Especially Miao Miao; she was a five-year-old girl, yet despite her mother being so fat, she was frighteningly thin!

There was nothing left of her face but a pair of large, blinking eyes...

The fields weren't too far away, so the noise from the house could be heard faintly.

The closer they got, the louder the sound became.

When Madam Zhou saw them, she felt a bit nervous. "Father, Eldest, Second... why are you all back so early?"

(End of Chapter)