Chapter Eighteen: Going to the Heroine’s House to Collect the Debt

Before dusk, Bai Mianmian, having changed her appearance, successfully left the city and finally returned to the village.

When she entered, all twenty-two members of the Zhang family were having dinner.

Compared to the chaotic quarreling and crying at the Bai family’s table, the Zhang family’s dinner was much quieter.

Brothers were friendly and respectful to each other; fathers were kind and children filial.

One-year-old Zhang Mu was being held by Zhang Huilan, who fed him spoonfuls of fried noodle porridge.

“Who are you?” Jiang Shi, the first to notice her, stood up. “Have you eaten?”

Because many guests came to their house, whenever someone was home before bedtime, the door was usually secured.

There were many households and children in the village.

Usually, everyone was busy with their own affairs, so few faces were familiar.

“I’m Bai Er’ya.”

“I haven’t eaten yet. Auntie, could you please prepare some dishes and chopsticks?”

She was Bai Er’ya, which alone was surprising, and now she was casually freeloading.

Jiang Shi nearly smacked her lips in shock.

This year’s taxes were heavier; inviting someone to eat was bound to cause trouble or injury.

“Wait a moment.” Having said this, she had no choice but to awkwardly fetch a bowl.

At that moment, Han Shi, who was almost done eating, stood up: “Second sister-in-law, you sit down. Once I finish, I’ll get it.”

The harmony among the Zhang family’s sisters-in-law was unimaginable to the Bai family’s.

Jiang Shi sat down in response, and Han Shi rose with an empty bowl.

“Sit down first, I’ll be right back.”

“Come quickly, Auntie,” Bai Mianmian said as she circled the table and sat under the watchful gaze of twenty-one pairs of eyes.

“Is this all you eat at home?”

She looked at the dishes with disdain.

Her disgust was genuine.

After all, this was the heroine’s family.

Not to mention lavish feasts, at least some meat dishes should be present.

But these dry radish slices, cabbage stalks, and dried bean curds—

No matter how she looked at them, they just didn’t fit the heroine’s family’s dignity!

“Sorry to embarrass you,” Zhao Shi, with a less than pleasant temper, said, “I suppose the Bai family’s meals are better than ours. If you’re used to better food, no wonder our plain dishes don’t appeal.”

“Maybe they were worse before, I don’t know now,” Bai Mianmian shamelessly stared at the basket of flatbreads on the table. “I haven’t been home for days. I’m not even sure what they eat.”

Her straightforwardness was so refreshing that Zhao Shi exchanged a glance with the eldest sister-in-law and decided to leave the goodwill task to her.

“Did Er’ya visit your mother?” Jiang Shi asked gently.

Bai Mianmian reached out and took a flatbread herself. “No, I went to the mountains. I heard there are many ginseng and medicinal herbs up there and wanted to get some to sell.”

“The mountains are dangerous. You’d better not go again,” Jiang Shi’s lips twitched involuntarily.

She truly had never seen someone complain about the quality of food when eating at someone else’s house.

“Nonsense!” The old village chief, who had been silent, scolded.

He wasn’t trying to keep his distance; it was just that the young girl hadn’t glanced at him upon entering.

He couldn’t kick her out when she was here to beg for food!

But upon hearing this, his expression changed.

“Do you know how dangerous the mountains are?”

“Yes. Not long ago, a young hunter from the neighboring mountain village had his leg bitten off by a wild boar. Further up, my grandmother’s village had wolves, and people from our village even saw tigers and black bears.”

“Then you still dare to go there? Are you tired of living?” The old village chief was perplexed.

Bai Mianmian took a bite of the flatbread and choked a little as she replied.

Han Shi had already fetched the bowls and chopsticks.

Unfortunately, she showed no interest in the dishes: “It’s not that I’m tired of living, it’s that I can’t survive. If I could eat my fill, I wouldn’t be thinking about these things.”

“…These days, everyone’s life is hard, every family is tightening their belts.

The grain is sown, and soon the shepherd’s purse and wild vegetables in the wheat fields will be ready to eat.

Just hold on a bit longer,” the old village chief said earnestly.

“This spring, your family had two fewer head taxes to pay, so there’s more silver left over, and meals aren’t as tight.

Child, hang in there a little more!

It won’t be so hard in the future.”

“I can’t hold on any longer.” She took another piece of flatbread, as if afraid others would eat it, and placed it on her bowl.

The black wheat flatbread was truly unpleasant.

Calling it flour was generous.

In reality, it was bran!

Unleavened, no yeast, simply dry baked bran flatbread.

It didn’t feel like a throat cutter because it was ground finely enough, but the taste was terrible.

A mouthful of indescribable bitterness!

She had never tasted anything like this in her life.

“Even if the Bai family’s life is better, it has nothing to do with me. Where would the good stuff ever come to my mouth?

It’s just that I can’t endure this life anymore.

Not even one day more, which is why I came to collect debts.”

Zhao Shi directly handed over the remaining flatbread.

While doing so, she shot a sharp glance at her.

It was somewhat amusing, but Bai Mianmian held back from laughing.

The more freely she behaved in that moment, the more uncomfortable others felt.

If a subtitle system were linked, the screen would likely be filled with people angrily cursing this shameless girl.

Suddenly, she thought the villainess system wasn’t so bad, at least it wasn’t some saintly system.

She couldn’t accept a life where she could only watch others eat while starving herself, unable to fight back.

“Seeing the village chief’s family living so well today, I must have come to the right place.”

Her confident attitude and assured demeanor even made the old village chief start doubting.

“When did my family ever owe you anything?”

The many pairs of eyes looked puzzled at this question.

“Let’s talk outside,” Bai Mianmian, choking on the dry flatbread, stood up and spoke to the chief.

On a whim, she also called out, “Fuwa, come out too.”

Zhang Huilan, eyes clouded, exchanged a look with her grandmother and then passed the baby to her.

At this point, everyone thought their child might have agreed to something under confusion.

Their minds were at ease.

“Hurry and eat, wash up early, and get some rest. It’s been exhausting lately,” urged Grandma Zhang.

The table grew lively again.

At that moment, Bai Mianmian, leading the Zhang family’s elders and children toward the kitchen, automatically fetched water to wash her face.

The main room was low and dimly lit; the old village chief didn’t notice anything unusual about her.

Mainly because he hadn’t looked closely that day and didn’t clearly remember Bai Er’ya’s exact appearance.

“I never played with her,” the chubby little girl said innocently.

The old village chief comforted her, “It’s alright, Grandpa isn’t blaming you. Let her speak later.”

The grandfather and granddaughter looked at her in confusion.

When she washed off the thick makeup and leaned close to Zhang Huilan, the latter was stunned.

“You, you, you—”

“At the time, you promised that if I let you go, you’d pay me thirty taels of silver as a reward.

Now that you’re safely home, and I’m here to collect the money, there’s no problem, right?”

Zhang Lao kept asking repeatedly back then.

Hearing this, he immediately understood what it meant.

His eyes widened in disbelief.

“You, you, you?”

He was completely confused now, his thoughts in chaos.

Bai Mianmian turned and smiled at him.

“Village chief, your Fuwa never played with me, doesn’t know me, but I’ve seen her many times and remember her face. That day, luck was on my side…”

She babbled on, weaving a long tale about how she was kidnapped, then rescued before being locked in the cellar, and how an unknown hero handed her the key.