Chapter 875: Chapter 875: After the Collision, Collect the Corpse_1
Four won doing tasks for money would naturally follow whatever Tong Tiehu instructed them to do.
And so, the days of suffering for the Zhang Family began, and it was much more torturous than when she had feigned illness before. Back then, she had food for every al, but now she was dismissed with just a bowl of hot water.
The next morning, after being hungry all night, Zhang Family drank the hot water only to feel even hungrier.
She had never been starved for so long, feeling as if a fire was burning in her stomach, causing her heart to panic.
Her brain also seed less nimble. She stood at the door and banged on it hard, “Xiaoxia, bring a bowl of rice. I will give you a hundred wen.”
Xiaoxia was the one among the four won she was most familiar with, and she had already told her the price Tong Tiehu had set. That’s why she made such an offer now.
Xiaoxia was sitting at the door, doing needlework, as the four of them took turns in shifts. Today it was her turn for the day shift.
Upon hearing Zhang Family’s words, she replied with difficulty, “Even if you gave a tael of silver, it wouldn’t be possible.”
Not following Tong Tiehu’s orders ant waiting to be scolded.
Taking silver from both sides would end very badly.
If Tong Tiehu treated Zhang Family, his daughter-in-law, this way, what more for them.
Holding this thought, Xiaoxia was tempted, but still decisively refused Zhang Family.
Zhang Family talked until her mouth was dry and her tongue parched, then she resorted to begging for a bowl of hot water instead.
There was no hot water either.
Tong Tiehu had stated, every al there would only be one bowl of hot water, no more.
With no options left, Zhang Family simply went to bed to sleep.
If she slept, she wouldn’t feel hungry!
She woke at noon, only to feel even hungrier.
The last al she had was yesterday morning, and she had purposefully eaten less to make room for a big al at Jiwei House. Struggling till now, she really couldn’t bear it any longer.
But she had to endure it. At noon, another bowl of hot water.
It was tasteless. After it was in her stomach, she felt a bit better.
But this only briefly fooled the stomach; with only water and no food, the stomach would soon start grumbling again.
She simply went back to sleep.
When she woke up again, it was almost dark, and dinner ti, and she got another bowl of hot water.
Having not eaten for two days and a night, she was so hungry that she wanted to cry after drinking a bowl of hot water.
The green vegetables and radishes she once looked down upon she now wished to devour raw.
Even a cornbread made of bran, she would have gulped down in a few bites!
Thinking of the two more days to co, a sudden wave of despair threatened to engulf her.
“Open the door, let out! If you don’t open the door, I am going to smash my head against the wall and kill myself!” She kicked against the door, pounding it fiercely.
Hearing this, Xiaoxia exchanged a glance with another woman outside, then put down her needlework. “I will go ask the Village Chief.”
They asked Tong Tiehu, and Tong Tiehu’s reply was only one: if she died from smashing her head, they’d just handle the corpse. Having such a mother, she would only hold Tong Sanlang back. It would be better if she died, he’d rather Tong Sanlang observe three years of mourning without attending the Imperial Examination or having children.
A delay of three years was better than being dragged down for a lifeti.
This rciless reply was relayed to Zhang Family through Xiaoxia’s lips, and Zhang Family could imagine the tone in which Tong Tiehu must have spoken these words.
She was in utter despair, truly desolate.
Now she wouldn’t even mind if soone brought her a bowl of spoiled leftover rice; she’d be able to eat it.
At this point, she no longer dared to think about the delicacies she had once eaten. She could only contemplate the food she had previously scorned. But even so, it hardly quelled the burning hunger inside her stomach.
She spent the remaining two days and two nights on the bed, her stomach either growling or feeling as if it was on fire.
In her decades of life, she had never suffered like this.
She was so hungry she didn’t even have the energy to curse.
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