The Comeback of the Cannon-Fodder Supporting Actress

Chapter 432: Chapter 423: I’m the Vicious Eldest Aunt (Part 10)

”Mother, what should we do about Erya?”

After Anning left, Daya asked Mrs. Feng while crying.

Mrs. Feng was actually a bit annoyed with Xu Erya.

She replied irritably, ”First apply the medicine, then we’ll talk.”

Daya then helped Mrs. Feng strip Xu Erya and applied medicine to her wounds. She also gave Erya some water. Seeing Erya shivering in pain without waking up, Daya cried again.

Mrs. Feng angrily said, ”How could she be so thoughtless, why provoke your great aunt who is nothing but a sweet-faced tormentor? I usually avoid her, yet she still causes many problems. Erya recklessly ran into her hands, and she got ruthlessly punished.”

While crying, Daya responded, ”No matter what, Erya is still a child. Seeing her beaten half to death and suffering like this breaks my heart.”

As mother and daughter spoke, Xu Zhiyong entered the room.

He was also worried about Xu Erya.

Seeing Xu Erya beaten and confused, Xu Zhiyong felt distressed.

He touched Xu Erya’s head and urged Mrs. Feng, ”Take good care of Erya; from now on you must teach her well so she doesn’t make these mistakes again.”

Mrs. Feng nodded in agreement.

That night, Daya didn’t sleep all night, constantly taking care of Erya, wiping her sweat, and giving her sips of water. Though Erya couldn’t open her eyes, she could still feel it.

She was actually very grateful to Daya.

She also felt a long-missed kinship from Daya.

The next morning at breakfast, as Mrs. Feng was about to bring food into the room, Old Madam slammed her chopsticks down on the table: ”What are you doing? Do you still want to feed that dead girl? Put the bowl down; let her go hungry for a day. I’ll see if she dares to be sneaky in the future.”

Mrs. Feng’s hands trembled, and tears streamed down her face: ”Mother, Erya has been beaten half to death, if she is also starved...”

”I don’t care about that; whoever makes a mistake must be punished. That is the rule in our house.”

Old Madam was very firm.

Anning added fuel to the fire, ”Sister-in-law, I advise you to listen to Mother. Don’t anger her again. You feel pity for your daughter, but why don’t you pity Mother? Mother got so angry for your family’s Erya yesterday, she hardly slept all night.”

Hearing these words, Mrs. Feng’s anger filled her chest, yet she didn’t dare to express it.

Daya glanced at Mrs. Feng and, while Old Madam wasn’t looking, secretly hid half of her pancake.

Mrs. Feng, not daring to bring food to Xu Erya, sat down resignedly to eat.

After breakfast, Daya got up.

Anning immediately stopped Daya and held out her hand, ”Give it here.”

Daya, confused, replied, ”What?”

”The pancake.”

Anning’s smile carried a hint of malice, ”You hid half a pancake for Erya, right? I just happened to see. Hand it over.”

Reluctantly, Daya had no choice but to take out the pancake.

Just then, Old Madam saw and slapped her several times: ”You disobedient girl, daring to hide things behind the adults’ back. Truly uncultured! Let me tell you, even if it’s fed to a dog, it can’t be given to Erya.”

Anning laughed, ”Mother, feed it to the pigs instead. Feeding it to the pigs will at least give us more meat to eat, who knows when feeding Erya might lead to her biting us back.”

”Go, feed the pigs.”

Old Madam pointed to the pigsty.

Anning laughed and threw the pancake into the pigsty.

Daya’s face turned purplish-blue.

She felt both ashamed and angry, ashamed that her act of hiding the cakes was publicly exposed, and angry that Old Madam and Anning were truly unreasonable, feeding the cake to the pigs and not giving any to Erya.

Her eyes brimmed with tears as she ran away crying.

Erya lay in the room, her face covered in tears.

Her body ached terribly, her stomach growled with hunger, and she had to listen to Old Madam scolding someone outside the window, finding the time unbearably hard to endure.

Erya was only focused on the pain in her body, having long forgotten about the acts she had committed.

Anning knew that the days for the second household were going to get even harder.

While Daya devotedly took care of Erya, and Mrs. Feng blamed herself daily, Xu Zhiyong’s leg was broken by someone.

That day, after Anning finished her embroidery, planning to go to the town to hand over her work and collect silver, and to buy more embroidery materials for a big project to sell in Prefecture City, she heard voices from fellow villagers in the courtyard: ”Is anyone home? Your Third had his leg broken by someone, hurry up...”

”What did you say?”

Anning heard the elder’s voice, followed by the Old Madam’s voice.

”Your Third’s leg is broken.”

The person repeated it once more, right at the village entrance, you should hurry over.”

The Old Father and Old Madam hurried over in a panic.

Anning calmly put away her embroidery, washed her hands, and steamed a bowl of egg custard for each of the children, Lan and Brother Ying, watching them eat before washing the dishes. Only then did she hear a noise from the courtyard.

She asked Brother Ying to watch over Lan, and told the children not to leave the house, then hurried out to see what was happening.

She saw Xu Zhiqin returning with a few young men, carrying Xu Zhiyong.

Xu Zhiyong was sweating profusely from pain, the Old Father and Old Madam anxiously instructed people to bring Xu Zhiyong inside and hurriedly sought a doctor.

When Mrs. Feng saw Xu Zhiyong in that state, her eyes rolled back, nearly fainting.

Mrs. Li, however, was busy attending to the villagers who came to help, the whole family was busily spinning in circles.

Anning helped boil water, and assisted Mrs. Li by making tea for some of the village elders.

The doctor soon arrived and after examining Xu Zhiyong’s injury, told the Old Father: ”Your Third’s injury is quite severe, this leg may not recover. Using top-quality herbs, and getting the best bone-setter, spending three to five taels of silver a month, even after half a year he won’t be like a normal person, he might end up limping.”

The Old Father felt both heartache and urgency: ”Doctor, is there really no cure for my son?”

The doctor smiled bitterly and shook his head: ”I’m telling the truth. With his condition, even spending more than three to five taels of silver a month might not be enough, it’s an expense most families can’t afford, and spending so much money might not even lead to recovery.”

The Old Father listened, his brow furrowed tightly.

He let the doctor prescribe the medicine, and personally saw the doctor off.

Coincidentally, Xu Zhiqin overheard this conversation.

He looked back to see Mrs. Li still busy, then pulled her aside to a room and whispered: ”The doctor said Eldest Brother’s leg can’t recover, and it will cost a lot in the future, possibly over three to five taels of silver each month. Even then, he would need half a year of care, during which he can’t do any work, and after half a year he’d still be a cripple.”

Upon hearing this, Mrs. Li’s face turned extremely unsightly.

”This can’t be allowed.”

She cried out sharply: ”Our family can’t afford this burden, we must separate households.”

Xu Zhiqin was also inclined to separate households.

He had no other choice; he wasn’t particularly skilled, and the money he earned was barely enough to support his family, including his wife and children. Later on, taking care of his elderly parents as well, he simply couldn’t afford to bear the medical expenses for Xu Zhiyong.

After contemplating for a moment, Xu Zhiqin nodded: ”Alright, I’ll talk to father about separating households soon. Eldest Brother is in this condition, he probably won’t be able to take care of the elderly in the future, it’s better if the parents stay with us.”

Mrs. Li had no objections to that.

Eldest passed away, the second was disabled, if Third didn’t take care of the elderly, he would be criticized.

Mrs. Li wasn’t the sort of person to neglect her duties to the elderly.

She was only pushed to think about abandoning the second household out of desperation caused by their impoverished circumstances.