Chapter 46

At the foot of the mountain, after finishing the scene where they worked with the villagers to carve out a road, Wei Sheng gulped down half a bottle of mineral water in one go, took a deep breath, and immediately followed Director Li up the mountainside without pause.

According to the script, the women in the village also wanted to contribute to the development of their tourism industry. So, while the men were down below chiseling through the mountain to open a path, the women had already gone up the mountain to forage for wild vegetables. Now, they were digging a makeshift stove, washing the greens, and preparing to cook a pot of wild vegetable porridge for everyone.

Of course, Huangjiabao wasn’t actually so poor that they could only eat wild vegetable porridge, but wasn’t that just a necessary exaggeration for the plot?

The character played by Wei Sheng, Yang Fan, came running up the mountain drenched in sweat. The assistant director quickly organized the extras and lead actors into position, and they began filming the scene of cooking wild vegetable porridge in the mountains.

After a chaotic round of shooting, they finally got the footage they needed. However, since the village’s grannies and aunties were acting as extras for the first time, nerves got the best of them. Someone knocked over the salt container, someone else tripped and fell flat on the ground—there were over a dozen retakes. By the time the scene wrapped up, it was nearly one in the afternoon.

The pot of wild vegetable porridge had almost burned.

He Ya’ni quietly sighed in relief—if it was burnt, then she wouldn’t have to eat it, right?

This stuff wasn’t even in the same category as the vegetable porridge she had imagined!

The villagers’ wild vegetable porridge was made by soaking leftover rice from various households in mountain spring water, then pouring everything into a huge pot, covering it, and boiling until the grains turned soft and mushy. Finally, they’d add in the finely chopped wild vegetables, stir a few times, and season it with salt and a tiny bit of soybean oil. Honestly, it looked no different from pig feed!

But what He Ya’ni hadn’t expected was that even though the porridge had already burned, the village women weren’t willing to waste it!

They fetched a fresh basin of mountain spring water, poured it into the pot, stirred it around, scraped up the burnt rice from the bottom, mixed it with the unburned portions, and continued cooking.

Watching the murky, strange-colored, and even stranger-smelling porridge, He Ya’ni nearly gagged.

No way! She would rather die—she’d jump off this mountain before she ate this slop that even pigs wouldn’t touch!

Yeah, right! If she didn’t eat this, what else could she eat?

Granny Cuimei certainly wasn’t going to be polite to an outsider like her!

Even though the old lady was notoriously harsh on her own daughter-in-law, that was only because she saw her as an outsider. But when He Ya’ni refused to eat the boiled potatoes they had brought, Granny Cuimei was secretly delighted. She immediately split the six potatoes she had brought in half—just enough for her and her youngest daughter-in-law to have three each!

The boiled potatoes had already gone cold, but the mountain folk were used to it. When working in the mountains, they often sweated buckets, and eating something cool was actually refreshing.

Besides, weren’t there several big pots of steaming hot wild vegetable porridge today?

Soon, the villagers-turned-extras began taking out their own bowls from their baskets, backpacks, and woven carriers. Their aluminum, enamel, and stainless steel bowls were far more rustic and authentic than the props the production team had prepared!

They broke up the bread and potatoes they had brought from home into small chunks, placed them at the bottom of their bowls, and then lined up to get a serving of the hot vegetable porridge.

The bubbling wild vegetable porridge in the pot was scalding hot. As soon as it was ladled into the bowls, people immediately winced and yelped from the heat. They quickly grabbed their jackets—shed earlier while working—to use as makeshift heat pads, picked up their chopsticks, and began slurping away.

The bread and potatoes at the bottom of the bowls were soon warmed by the porridge. Mixed with the various wild vegetables, it looked even more like pig feed… but why did it actually smell kind of good?

He Ya’ni swallowed hard.

But before she could mentally prepare herself, the villagers—fast eaters that they were—had already wolfed down their first bowls and were rushing to grab seconds…

Despite looking like a large amount, the porridge was mostly water. Since the villagers’ bowls were all fairly big, after just one serving per person, the pots were nearly empty.

He Ya’ni: “……”

“Hey~ there’s some burnt rice at the bottom. Who wants it?”

“I do! I want the rice!”

He Ya’ni clutched her bowl and rushed forward.

Food was more important than anything! Even a pampered rich girl couldn’t withstand an empty stomach.

At that moment, all the love and hate in He Ya’ni’s heart disappeared. The only thing that mattered was that deliciously charred, slightly burnt rice at the bottom of the pot…

And to her surprise! The leftover wild vegetable porridge, mixed with the crispy and soft burnt rice, was even tastier than any delicacy she had ever had!

The rice stuck to the bottom of the pot had become half crispy, half mushy. The wild vegetable porridge had simmered for so long that it was bursting with flavor. She scooped up a spoonful and put it in her mouth—savory, rich, and utterly satisfying!

He Ya’ni had always maintained a low-salt, low-fat diet to keep her figure. But at this moment, she was grumbling about how frugal these village aunties were—couldn’t they have added just a few more spoonfuls of lard?!

After a whole morning of exhausting labor, her body was completely drained. This was the perfect time to replenish her energy with something salty and nourishing. Content and full, He Ya’ni gracefully wiped her mouth. Just as she was about to go for another serving, she saw that the diligent village women had already started scrubbing the pot…

And so, the high-and-mighty rich girl learned the brutal art of competing for food with a bunch of rough-and-tumble mountain men.

She had no choice—these guys had absolutely no mercy!

And they had not even a shred of chivalry!

Serves you right for being single! Pah!

He Ya’ni had misunderstood—these mountain men weren’t incapable of being considerate. It was just that… for that to happen, the person had to be their own woman!

After the meal, as everyone busied themselves packing up, Cuimei’s youngest son, Huang Xinfai, secretly slipped a handful of freshly dug white cogongrass roots into his wife’s hand. He gently squeezed her rough, calloused palm.

“Xiangxiang, just bear with it a little longer. Once you give us a big, healthy grandson, we’ll have Mom stay home to take care of him. Then, I’ll take you to the city to work, and we’ll rent an apartment there, okay?”

This was the only solution he could think of that would satisfy both his mother and his wife.

Li Chunxiang’s eyes turned red as she silently stuffed the small handful of freshly washed white cogongrass roots into her coat pocket.

She moved quickly, but she still couldn’t escape Granny Cuimei’s sharp eyes.

“Oh my, the boy is grown now, and his mother no longer has a say! He’s married a wife, and now he barely recognizes his old lady! Sneaking around, stuffing things into his wife’s pocket! What’s this? Did I starve her? Did I deprive her of water?”

“She just had two big bowls of wild vegetable porridge! And that’s still not enough? She wants to eat extra on her own?”

“I tell you, in our days, if a new daughter-in-law dared to eat two bowls of wild vegetable porridge, her legs would have been broken!”

Zhang Cuimei scolded her younger daughter-in-law relentlessly.

Li Chunxiang’s face turned pale. The white cogongrass roots hidden in her pocket felt like burning coals—she couldn’t take them out, but keeping them there wasn’t an option either.

“Mom! Can you stop talking already? Our family is still counting on Chunxiang to carry on the family line and give us a grandson.” Huang Xinfan looked at his mother with displeasure.

“Oh? You dare to talk back to me now? Fine! Then tell me, where’s the grandson? Huh? Li Chunxiang has been married into our family for almost two years now, right? Grandson, you say? I haven’t even seen her lay an egg!”

“Listen up, Li Chunxiang! If you can’t give birth by next year, pack up and take the dowry back to your parents’ house! The Huang family doesn’t need a hen that just sits on the nest and doesn’t lay eggs!”

“You spend all night making noise, but I don’t see any results!”

Granny Cuimei’s words turned vulgar in an instant, making the young wives in the village blush with embarrassment.

Li Chunxiang’s face burned red as she covered it with her hands and ran off. Her husband, Huang Xinfan, hurried after her.

He Yani stood there, dumbfounded.

At that moment, she suddenly recalled how Ding Chengcai had once described his mother to her:

“My mom may have a sharp tongue, but she has a good heart. She’s just a rural woman without much education, so she doesn’t always know the right way to say things. If she ever says anything unpleasant in the future, just bear with it. After all, she’s an elder…”

The thought that Ding Chengcai’s mother might be another “Granny Cuimei” made He Yani’s heart go completely cold.

She could tolerate a mother-in-law who didn’t let her eat her fill. But could she tolerate one who openly made crude jokes about her and her husband in front of everyone?

He Yani thought this was the worst that rural mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships could get.

She was too naive!

The fact that her youngest son had secretly given his wife something to eat made Granny Cuimei, who was already narrow-minded, even more furious!

Many older rural mothers-in-law were like this: they wanted their daughters-in-law to bear many grandchildren for their family, but they couldn’t stand seeing their sons and daughters-in-law getting along too well.

They wanted their daughters-in-law to be emotionless child-bearing machines, having two kids in three years, working tirelessly, but never taking their sons’ affection away! If a son got even a little too close to his wife, they would immediately point at the daughter-in-law’s face and call her a shameless vixen…

Watching the petite Li Chunxiang being bullied to tears by her own mother-in-law, He Yani felt completely numb.

All afternoon, Li Chunxiang was run ragged by her mother-in-law.

One moment, she was told to carry home a load of freshly cut pigweed, cook pig slop, and feed the pigs and poultry.

The next moment, she had to haul a bundle of firewood down the mountain to dry for winter fuel.

After running back and forth four times, her legs were trembling, yet Granny Cuimei still sat down and started scolding her again—

“New daughters-in-law these days! They don’t see any work at all!”

“You only move when someone pushes you! Is your mind always filled with nothing but your man?”

“You went all the way down the mountain, and you didn’t think to bring back some pancakes and hot water? Just standing there watching your mother-in-law and husband go hungry and thirsty?”

After a few more scolding remarks, seeing her younger daughter-in-law hanging her head without answering back, Zhang Cuimei finally felt satisfied.

“Fine, fine, I won’t expect you to cook for me. You stay here and keep working. I’ll go home and make dinner!”

“Oh, right. I saw some fish mint growing over there. After you finish, go dig some up for dipping sauce tonight.”

“Such big eyes, yet you can’t see anything useful! Can’t even find wild vegetables unless I point them out! How did our Huang family end up with such a lazy daughter-in-law?”

Granny Cuimei scolded as she walked away, almost as if she wanted the entire village to know just how terrible her daughter-in-law was.

Seeing Li Chunxiang, so meek and submissive, being bullied to this extent without daring to talk back, He Yani had the urge to grab her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her!

Can’t you stand up for yourself for once? The world isn’t just limited to Huang Xinfan!

His mother is treating you like this, and he doesn’t even have the guts to stand up for you. Why are you still holding onto this man? Are you keeping him around to be slaughtered for the New Year?

“Sigh~ Chunxiang’s life is hard. When she got married, her greedy family demanded a 100,000 yuan dowry from the Cuimei family! Not only did she bring back nothing, but all her family gave her as a wedding gift were two quilts and a washing machine.”

“You think she doesn’t want a divorce? Where is she going to find 100,000 yuan to pay back the dowry?”

“She tried running home twice, but I heard her parents said that the money was already used to build their new house, and there wasn’t a single cent left!”

“For rural families, marrying a wife is no easy feat. That 100,000 yuan dowry is their life savings—do you think Cuimei would just let Chunxiang go without it?”

“You guys should stop talking so much. All the rural women here got through their struggles little by little. In time, the daughter-in-law becomes the mother-in-law, and Cuimei finally got her turn to be in charge. Can’t she enjoy her moment of authority?”

“Haha~ That’s true! Cuimei only has a sharp tongue, but she hasn’t beaten or tortured her daughter-in-law. That’s already much better than how things were when we were young!”

“Isn’t that the truth? Just a few years ago, wasn’t there a woman from the village behind us who was beaten black and blue by her mother-in-law? In the end, didn’t she jump into the river and drown?”

“In the earlier years, there were quite a few women in our village who were tormented by their mothers-in-law and ended up drinking pesticides to end it all…”

The village women gossiped back and forth, each adding their own piece to the conversation.

Not far away, Li Chunxiang lay sprawled over the steep hillside, her face blank as she mechanically dug up fish mint with her small hoe.

Listening to the mocking laughter around her, He Yani suddenly felt a deep chill creeping over her body.

She had heard that Ding Chengcai’s hometown was an even more remote and impoverished mountain village than Huangjiabao.

If she really married into a place like that and encountered a mother-in-law like Granny Cuimei, how long would she last?

Would she end up dying in that village, with no one even knowing?

(End of Chapter)