Chapter 7: If You Find It Dirty, Then Starve Yourself

“Slap!”

Three pancakes fell to the ground, and Li Yuan immediately flew into a rage. If he hadn’t just been beaten by Ling Yunhe, he would have rushed over to kick Li Mumu right then and there.

Li Mumu chuckled softly. What were pancakes? Her spatial pocket was stocked with all kinds of food, including abalone and sea cucumber she had scavenged from the Li family kitchen yesterday, and even freshly cooked beef.

“Li Mumu, you really are... hopelessly foolish.”

Li Mumu looked at her furious father’s distorted face and thought to herself that he must be regretting having her instead of a piece of barbecued pork.

“Father, Mumu didn’t do it on purpose,” Li Yunye said.

“Shut up!” Li Yuan’s anger toward Li Mumu was like hitting cotton, and it only made him more frustrated, so he took it out on his son instead.

Li Mumu took the pancakes and went to offer them to Grandmother Li first, but the old woman looked disgusted. “I won’t eat that. It fell on the ground and is filthy.”

Li Mumu then offered the pancakes to Lin Siyan, who also frowned upon seeing the dirt stuck to them. “I’m not hungry. You eat it yourself.”

As for Li Yunzhé, he was also clamoring for clean pancakes.

They were all so picky, yet soon there would be no dirty pancakes left for them to despise.

“Go and ask your mother to bring some clean pancakes,” Li Yuan said harshly, glaring at Li Mumu. “Don’t drop them on the floor.”

Li Mumu smiled cheerfully and left. Since she wasn’t wearing shackles, she ran quite fast.

When she rejoined the Gu family’s group, indeed, the matriarch Gu was instructing her daughter to bring back extra food. After all, they were family and had to support each other along the way.

Her grandmother was a kind soul who didn’t realize that the Li family never truly considered them kin. When faced with a pack of wolves, they were the first to be sacrificed.

Her gentle grandmother had been devoured by wolves, leaving no intact remains.

Li Mumu took a deep breath. When she heard her grandmother intend to split the food evenly, she couldn’t help but speak up. “Father said it’s dirty and doesn’t want it.”

That was true; it was his own words.

Matriarch Gu frowned. “Dirty?”

Li Mumu noticed the displeasure on the old lady’s face and inwardly rejoiced. She continued, “Father said it was dirty and refused. He wants clean food.”

Because everyone still saw Li Mumu as a naive girl who couldn’t lie or scheme, this was naturally assumed to be her father’s words.

Matriarch Gu was so angry she gasped for breath. “He has the nerve to say our food is dirty? If it weren’t for him, how would we have ended up like this?”

“Enough, Mother, don’t be angry. Brother-in-law was just speaking out of anger. Sister, there’s plenty of food; take some back with you,” a gentle woman said.

Li Mumu looked at the woman before her and thought she must be her eldest aunt-in-law Zhang Yi. Her second aunt-in-law was stingy and surely hated the Gu and Li families by now, for dragging her, a noble scholar’s daughter, into exile.

“Sister-in-law, you’re truly generous. We’re being exiled thousands of miles away. This is pretty much all the good food we have,” said another woman, who Li Mumu recognized as her second aunt-in-law, Song Qiang.

Zhang Yi took a deep breath. “Younger sister-in-law, I believe some of this was sent by our parents’ friends, and some by the Zhang family.”

“You…” Song Qiang’s face instantly paled.

Their Song family hadn’t been involved or even seen.

“I… I only did this for our family. We’ve been implicated already and are unlucky enough. There’s only this much good food. Why should we share it with them?” Song Qiang’s tone lost its earlier toughness but she still didn’t want to part with the food.

Although Li Mumu disliked this second aunt-in-law, she agreed with her now — the Li family didn’t deserve it.

Seeing that Matriarch Gu wouldn’t relent, Song Qiang quickly pulled out her son. “Mother, if we give it to others, what will your own grandson eat?”

However, the boy in her arms, Gu Yu, said loudly, “Mother, let’s share some with Aunt.”

“You… hmph!” Song Qiang poked her son’s head in frustration. “Why is my life so hard? I married a man who barely let me enjoy happiness before being implicated, and now my son is ungrateful. Boohoo…”

Li Mumu looked at her little cousin with warmth. Because of his words, when he was bitten by a venomous snake later, she would act to save his life.

Even if Gu Yurou had wanted to take some food just now, she couldn’t now. She didn’t want to cause more strife in her maternal family, and besides, Li Yuan’s behavior had chilled her heart, so she hadn’t planned to take any.

“Mother, forget the food. Could I have some of the wound medicine that Yunhe gave? I’m afraid Yun Chao won’t hold out,” Gu Yurou’s eyes reddened at the thought of her eldest son. She truly feared he wouldn’t survive.

Matriarch Gu hurriedly produced the wound medicine. When she saw the silver notes, her eyes brightened. Remembering what Ling Yunhe had left unsaid, she understood.

“Ah, what’s this? Silver…” Song Qiang started to speak but was immediately silenced by Zhang Yi, who came from a military family as well, and gave her a scolding look.

Song Qiang wasn’t foolish and knew what was going on. She regretted it deeply.

If the officials found out, it would be gone; this was the lifesaving money Ling Yunhe had prepared for them.

But the officials’ ears were not deaf. Just moments ago, Song Qiang’s shout had been overheard.

“What silver? Silver money?”

The head official escorting them, Zhang Xiang, suddenly looked over. They had already left the city gates. Even though the Gu family had Minister Liang as an ally, what could that do? At best, he wouldn’t make things worse, but he would certainly take advantage of any benefit. Otherwise, why was he here?

He raised his arm and glanced at the sun overhead. “It’s getting late; time for lunch. Get ready, brothers.”

Then he smiled and walked toward the Gu family.

“Don’t move. Let me see what it is,” said Zhang Xiang with a sly grin. No matter how much Matriarch Gu wanted to hide it, she couldn’t.

“Matriarch Gu, what is that? Show me,” he said.

Nervously, Matriarch Gu swallowed hard. She considered it a small price to pay for safety on the road. After all, their family were prisoners now; there was no need to antagonize him.

“All right, uncle,” Li Mumu said cheerfully as she snatched the neatly folded silver notes from her grandmother’s hand and happily handed them to Zhang Xiang.

“Mumu!” Gu Yurou wanted to protest but was pulled back by Lady Gu, who shook her head — sometimes losing money prevents greater disasters.

Zhang Xiang rarely smiled so kindly. “This kid is quite obedient. That’s good. Good things must be given to uncle.”

Li Mumu nodded vigorously and passed him the notes.

From a distance, the Gu family could only see Zhang Xiang unfold the notes. A smile appeared on his face, then his eyes widened, and his expression grew even more smug.

Song Qiang sighed, lamenting the wasted silver notes she hadn’t even touched.

But what happened next left the Gu family dumbfounded — Zhang Xiang returned the silver notes to Li Mumu.

Even Matriarch Gu couldn’t understand. She didn’t believe the officials were suddenly honest.

What was going on?