"Why can’t I ask for money?" Yang Anshi rolled her eyes, "Where is there work done for free?" Saying that, she got up and walked towards the door, "If you’re too embarrassed to ask, let me do it. The Gu Family might be powerful, but they can’t just take advantage of honest people like this..."
"Mom..." Yang Baixiang became anxious, went over, and grabbed Yang Anshi, "What are you doing? Do you want your son to be able to live in this village in the future?"
"Why can’t he live here?" Feng Caie muttered from behind, "That Black Bear must be worth quite a bit of silver... Why should we work for free? Are you stupid? They’re not afraid of being disrespected, what are you afraid of?"
"They didn’t ask me for help at all, I went there brazenly on my own accord." Yang Baixiang was somewhat anxious, "The Gu Family’s second young master is skilled; that bear wasn’t even 300 pounds, you think they couldn’t handle it themselves? With my limp, how much strength could I possibly have?"
Yang Anshi was suddenly at a loss for words. Yang Baixiang’s limp had always been a taboo subject in the family, not out of regret or sympathy, but because it was considered bad luck.
"Besides, they had a middleman sell it, probably didn’t get much silver for it, and they even took care of dinner for a few of us, buying meat buns for everyone. How could I have the nerve to ask for silver?" Yang Baixiang sighed, holding his head and squatting on the ground, "Little Liuzi and Tie Dan didn’t ask for any, and they did more work than me; I just followed along... I already felt ashamed taking food from them..."
He still had five buns in his arms, but for the first time, he didn’t think about taking them out, for the first time he kept something from his mom.
"You worthless thing." When Yang Anshi heard there was no money coming, she immediately spat at her son, "How did I give birth to such a useless thing?" Not feeling satisfied, she kicked her younger son, then turned around and went back inside the house. But as soon as she got inside, she came back out, "Where are the buns?"
Even though the kick to his calf had hurt, Yang Baixiang still sighed with relief. He was just afraid of his mother causing trouble with the Gu Family, and the guilt he felt for hiding the buns was now replaced by the pain in his leg. But just as he was about to get up, his grandmother came back asking for buns, which made him feel even more depressed. He simply shook his head: "I ate them."
"You’re a scoundrel." Yang Anshi kicked Yang Baixiang again, "Only thinking of yourself, you have no consideration for us elders... Your sister is at home eating chaff and vegetables while you’re out eating big meat buns, you heartless thing, you should be struck dead by lightning..."
Yang Baixiang was extremely distressed, but once an honest person becomes stubborn, they won’t change. Had it been before, he would have immediately taken out the buns, as respecting elders is a natural duty, but upon hearing his sister Baihe mentioned first, he was even less inclined to bring them out. If he did, they would certainly end up in the mouth of his sister who was never satisfied with what she ate.
"Enough, what’s with all this noise late at night?" Unusually, Yang Peili shouted from inside the room, "What a disgrace! If you don’t want to live a good life, just get out." This was also his consistent approach: either play dumb, mediate, or punish everyone equally.
Yang Anshi immediately stopped yelling, then turned around and left, but apparently still not feeling satisfied, she turned back and kicked Yang Baixiang one more time before truly going inside.
Yang Baixiang finally breathed a sigh of relief, but when he tried to get up, he found his leg was too painful, and he could only sit back down on the ground. He raised his hand to rub his leg, as the three kicks from Yang Anshi had all landed on his injured leg.