Chapter 1608 - 1603: Xia Guagua Comes to Question

"The chicken soup’s gone, we’ll just cook more, don’t you worry!" Mu Shuangshuang said.

"Mm!" Yuanbao nodded hard.

Right away, his face was full of worry again. "But... my grandma’s place doesn’t have any chickens, she can’t make chicken soup!"

"Your grandma’s doesn’t, but our place does! You help Grandpa Zhang and your grandma inside, I’ll run back home." Mu Shuangshuang said.

"No problem!" Yuanbao nodded hard again.

Mu Shuangshuang turned around and headed toward the Third Branch of the Mu Family’s new house.

Back home, Fu Wu’s family, Zhang Yutou and Zhao Gouzi’s family had all gone back.

Only those living in the third branch were left; Mu Shuangshuang found Yu Si Niang and told her what had just happened.

Yu Si Niang was even more worked up than Mu Shuangshuang.

"That woman actually dared hit Yuanbao? I’m going to her!" Yu Si Niang’s eyes were firm, looking like she was ready to fight Gu Jiulian to the death.

But Mu Shuangshuang grabbed her by the wrist.

"I’ve already taught her a lesson, for now she probably won’t dare come out and make trouble for Old Lady Lu! As for Yuanbao, with us watching him, she has even less chance to do anything bad!

Ma, the chicken soup I just stewed all got spilled. Could you give me another old hen, and some more eggs? I’ll take them to Old Lady Lu and Old Sir Lu to build them up a bit."

Mu Shuangshuang used a tone like she was discussing it, but Yu Si Niang agreed in one breath.

"Just right, there’s an old hen in the back yard, keeps not coming home. We’ll cook it and save ourselves the trouble!

As for eggs, we’ve got more than enough at home. You pick a basket and send them to the old man!"

Yu Si Niang said.

Mu Shuangshuang nodded in a rush. "Thanks, Ma!"

"What’s there to thank, we’re all one family! Actually, if Fengzi hadn’t cut ties with the Old Lu Family, we ought to treat the old man and the old lady even better!" Yu Si Niang sighed.

She knew herself she didn’t really have the standing to say that.

After all, that old couple really had done muddle‑headed things in the past.

Yuanbao was so little when he lost his mother.

Her being his aunt, no matter how good she was to him, in his heart she still couldn’t compare to his own mother.

That’s blood ties for you!

"Ma, don’t sigh. We’ll just do what we’re able to, without letting ourselves suffer, and without making Fengzi feel torn!" Mu Shuangshuang said.

"Right, don’t make Fengzi feel torn!" Yu Si Niang repeated Mu Shuangshuang’s words.

"You go catch the chicken, I’ll go pick the eggs. We’ll meet up in the main room later!" Yu Si Niang said.

"Alright!"

Mu Shuangshuang went into Yu Si Niang’s room, picked a basket of eggs out of the cabinet where odds and ends were kept. She’d thought Yu Si Niang really was just going to catch a chicken—who knew, she not only caught it, she’d already killed it and let the blood out.

Seeing Yu Si Niang still hadn’t come out, Mu Shuangshuang went to check. Yu Si Niang had even boiled the water already and was plucking the feathers.

"Ma, how come you went straight to doing all this?" Mu Shuangshuang’s face was full of shock.

"If I do it, my girl doesn’t have to. Be good, go sit by the stove mouth and warm yourself for a bit, wait for me. Once I get the chicken cleaned, you can just put it in the clay pot and take it over, set it on the stove and stew it right away!"

Yu Si Niang was thinking of everything for Mu Shuangshuang; how could Mu Shuangshuang not be moved.

She said to Yu Si Niang, "Ma, you’re really too good to me, I don’t even know what to do."

"I keep saying you’re silly and you don’t believe it. Who’s that polite with their own mother? You just behave and wait there!"

Yu Si Niang talked as she worked, never forgetting the task in her hands.

In a short while she had plucked all the feathers. Mu Shuangshuang built up a fire for her; over the flames they singed the chicken once more, completely getting rid of all the down, then she slit it open and cleaned out the insides.

Doing all that took a full three sticks of incense worth of time.

Mu Shuangshuang grabbed the chicken Yu Si Niang had prepared and ran toward the Old Lu Family’s place.

By the time she got there, Zhang Huai Shu had already gone home.

He’d examined Old Sir Lu’s illness and left a few doses of medicine.

Old Lady Lu took the medicine and went to the kitchen to decoct it.

Unlike usual, this time, with no Gu Jiulian beside her scolding and beating, Old Lady Lu actually felt relaxed.

Mu Shuangshuang went into the kitchen to help. Old Lady Lu’s medicine was only half done; it wouldn’t be ready for a while yet.

So borrowing the stove wasn’t going to work!

Mu Shuangshuang simply borrowed the big iron pot and started boiling the soup in that.

She was busy in the kitchen when Gu Jiulian, who’d been beaten senseless, finally crawled up off the ground.

Crying all the way, she went home to find Xia Guagua.

Xia Guagua hadn’t eaten supper, she’d been waiting on Gu Jiulian’s chicken, her stomach had long been starving.

At first glance at Gu Jiulian, she was just about to start cursing, but seeing Gu Jiulian’s face beaten black and blue,

a trace of pity suddenly rose in her heart.

"What happened? Who hit you? Was it that bastard Lu Xiao?" Xia Guagua stood up and demanded.

"No, no, it was... it was that bitch Mu Shuangshuang, she beat me with a shoe sole!"

As she spoke, Gu Jiulian started sobbing again.

Xia Guagua had always treated Mu Shuangshuang like a sworn enemy. Now Mu Shuangshuang had hit her mother—how could that be stomached.

"Where is she? I’m going to her!" Xia Guagua said.

"I just saw her, she’s in the kitchen, cooking with that damned old hag!" Gu Jiulian said.

Xia Guagua charged out, heading straight for the Old Lu Family’s kitchen.

When she went in, Mu Shuangshuang was using a boiled egg to roll over Yuanbao’s face.

With those two slaps Gu Jiulian had given him, Yuanbao’s face had swollen up. If she didn’t use an egg to soothe it, by tomorrow it might swell even more.

"Mu Shuangshuang, you bitch, you dare hit my ma!?" Xia Guagua came in the door cursing her.

"You’re the bitch! Xia Guagua, if you want to stick up for your ma, first ask what vile thing she did. Watch out or your own face will get beat swollen!"

After a few months apart, Xia Guagua had put on a bit of weight compared to before.

She’d used to have a melon‑seed face, now it was faintly tending toward round, and her waist and belly were more bulging than before.

Mu Shuangshuang, on the other hand, looked exactly the same as when she’d left.

She hadn’t gotten rough from wind and rain at all.

The way Xia Guagua looked at Mu Shuangshuang was as full of hate as ever.

"Doesn’t matter what my ma did, you hitting her is your fault! Kneel down and apologize to my ma, or don’t blame me for making a scene at the village chief’s!" Xia Guagua pressed on relentlessly.

"No matter what she did she can’t be hit? Killing and arson can’t be hit? Thieving and sneaking can’t be hit?" Mu Shuangshuang snorted coldly, clearly not taking Xia Guagua seriously.

Xia Guagua: "When did my ma ever kill or commit arson? When did she steal or sneak? You need evidence when you talk—stop spraying shit out of your mouth here!"

"Did I say your ma did those things? Stop trying to gild your own face! And stop trying to gild your ma’s!

The whole village knows you and your ma gang up to bully Grandma Lu!

Don’t talk about making a scene at the village chief’s—even if we go to town, to the county, just on that one thing, your ma daring to beat Grandma Lu, I’d like to see who lets you off!" Mu Shuangshuang said.