Chapter 2 Not Embarrassing Enough If It Gets Out

Chapter 2: Not Embarrassing Enough if Spread

Xu Lin's innocent little gaze rendered her family utterly speechless. It was the first time they had ever heard someone claim that hens grew by eating sand. They could only feel that this little wretch, Xu Lin, was treating them like fools.

"It must be you who mixed in the sand, you little wretch. Are you unhappy about being made to cook every day and deliberately causing trouble?" Old Lady Xu gritted her teeth, steeling herself to swallow the egg, then pointed at Xu Lin, cursing her so fiercely that Xu Lin almost overturned the table.

"I really didn't do it! You're wronging me. If you don't believe me, then... then I'll eat the rest of the eggs myself." To prove her innocence, Xu Lin reached out to grab the few remaining eggs.

But the Xu family would never allow that. The little wretch wanted to eat eggs? She could keep dreaming. Before Xu Lin's chopsticks could touch the eggs, the last few disappeared, swept into Xu Kun's bowl.

He sneered, "Hah! Shameless jinx, you think you deserve to eat such precious eggs?"

He finished his insult, triumphantly raised his bowl, and shoveled all the eggs into his mouth, casting a provocative glance at Xu Lin, basking in his own pride.

But before Xu Kun could savor his victory for three seconds, the grit in the eggs scraped against his teeth. He spat the eggs out immediately, coughing several times, still feeling unsatisfied, so he gulped down some water to rinse his mouth, too busy to even curse.

Xu Lin arched her brows slightly. They wanted eggs? Ha! Let them eat nothing but air.

She'd make them watch as these precious things slipped through their fingers, seething with frustration. If she couldn't eat them, no one else could, either.

Old Lady Xu's face twitched painfully as she stared at the spat-out eggs on the floor. She pounded the table and barked, "You little wretch, you did this on purpose! Just you wait, just you wait!"

She itched to throw her bowl at Xu Lin, but couldn't bear to waste the porridge inside, so she settled for cursing, "Kun's mother, take away the wretch's porridge. We'll give her a good beating later and starve her for a few days. Let's see if she dares to cause trouble again!"

"Yes," Xu Lin's mother replied immediately, moving Xu Lin's porridge bowl in front of Xu Kun, feeling secretly pleased. One less bowl of porridge saved—even if it was watery enough to see the bottom, without a single grain of rice, she couldn't bring herself to let the little wretch eat it.

Xu Lin didn't get angry at having her porridge snatched away, but sat wooden-faced in the corner. After all, this was her carefully prepared feast; she had to watch the family finish it.

Old Lady Xu glared at Xu Lin, the sight of that eyesore, that spineless wretch, always made her furious.

Almost as if to show off, Old Lady Xu picked up her thick rice porridge, took a large gulp, and deliberately exaggerated her chewing.

Crunch!

"Ouch!"

Old Lady Xu clutched her mouth, her triangular eyes wide with horror. A salty, fishy taste flooded her mouth—and then! She pushed her tongue against her front teeth: empty, it was empty!

Her—her—her big front tooth had fallen out!

The expression on Old Lady Xu's face was so thunderstruck that it amused Xu Lin, making her lips curve up ever so slightly before she quickly suppressed it. She had not wasted her effort in dropping that little stone into Old Lady Xu's porridge!

Old Lady Xu spat out the rice porridge, and with it came a large, yellow tooth—quite disgusting to behold.

Xu Lin quietly turned her head away from the scene.

"My tooth, my big front tooth!" Old Lady Xu pointed at the yellow tooth, wailing in heartbreak. "You little wretch, you put stones in the porridge on purpose, didn't you? You must have done it deliberately, you black-hearted, rotten-lunged jinx, you..."

Old Lady Xu was beside herself, trembling as she pointed at Xu Lin and cursed.

"I'm not, I didn't, you're wronging me." Xu Lin blinked her innocent peach-blossom eyes and explained, "I was going to eat this porridge too. Why would I deliberately put stones in it?"

Xu Lin shook her head, denying everything, not admitting a single word. In the end, she added, "Maybe you were cheated when you bought the rice?"

Old Lady Xu was stumped. That's right, with grain so scarce and expensive these days, maybe the seller really mixed in sand and stones.

Remembering that she had personally bought the rice from the black market, Old Lady Xu grew even angrier. But she wouldn't take the blame herself. She immediately pointed at Xu Lin and continued cursing—no matter whose fault it was, blaming Xu Lin was always right.

Xu Lin was the family’s punching bag, their little maid, their old ox!

Watching Old Lady Xu curse, the rest of the Xu family acted as if nothing was amiss. Not one spoke up for Xu Lin; they even kept eating without changing their expressions.

But this meal was doomed to be unpleasant. Every bite of rice contained sand and stones, even the vegetables were gritty. Not a single dish was edible—even the mixed-grain buns had bits of gravel in them.

The meal was pure chaos, with Old Lady Xu and several others cursing throughout, so much so that the neighbors came over to watch the commotion.

Xu Lin stood at the door with her head bowed, her ears drooping, occasionally offering a weak defense, looking as innocent as could be.

The neighbors shook their heads. Everyone knew that the eldest Xu girl was nothing but a scapegoat—she did the most work, ate the least food, suffered the hardest beatings, and endured the harshest insults.

It was a pity she never stood up for herself, like a hopeless case, and helping her never brought any good. Gradually, people stopped intervening and simply watched the spectacle.

When news spread that the Xu family's food was full of sand, some skeptics came forward to inspect, but after turning over every dish, they couldn’t find a single grain of sand.

This drew even more clicks of the tongue. Old Lady Huang, unable to bear the sight, spoke up, "Old Xu, I know you don't like this child, but you can't mistreat her like this."

"Who’s mistreating her? Are you blind? Didn’t you see the sand in the food?" Old Lady Xu, nursing her lost front tooth, erupted in fury at Old Lady Huang’s words.

She didn’t even give Old Lady Huang a chance to continue, making her roll her eyes in exasperation.

"You’re the blind one. Look—where’s the sand?" Old Lady Huang stirred the porridge, examining the rice porridge, which was white and fragrant, not a single impurity in sight.

She checked the vegetables, which were neatly stir-fried; there wasn’t a trace of sand.

"Is there? Is there? I can't see any. Let me try." Mrs. Hu, always eager for a freebie, sidled up to the table, grabbed a chopstick-full of vegetables, and stuffed them into her mouth.

The Xu family watched, feeling pained over the lost vegetables and worried for her teeth—such peculiar expressions!

Hmm? Mrs. Hu smacked her lips—the vegetables were delicious, she’d never tasted anything so good.

"See? There’s sand in it, it scrapes your teeth," Xu Lin's mother said, her eyes fixed on Mrs. Hu’s mouth, aching for those vegetables.

"Really? I didn’t notice. Let me try another bite."

Mrs. Hu took another chopstick-full, leaving only two strands of vegetables on the plate. The entire crowd grimaced, silently cursing Mrs. Hu for her greed. Who would taste someone else’s dish until only scraps remained?

It was embarrassing enough to be talked about!

But did the Xu family’s food really have sand? If there was, how could Mrs. Hu eat so heartily?

"You said the porridge has sand too, right?" Mrs. Hu’s eyes sparkled as she asked.

Old Lady Xu nodded in confusion—there was indeed sand and stones in the porridge, her lost tooth was proof.

Seeing Old Lady Xu's reaction, Mrs. Hu's eyes lit up. "Really? Then let me taste it for you."