Chapter 19: Bringing Ingredients To Freeload A Meal
The next morning, as soon as Lin Xin stepped out of the room, she saw the courtyard littered messily with dead chickens all over the ground, chicken feathers and chicken blood everywhere. Big Tiger lay smugly in the middle waiting for praise, and upon seeing her come out, it raised its fluffy big tail and wagged it several times.
Lin Xin looked at the messy courtyard, feeling a surge of anger rush straight to the top of her head. She tried hard to suppress the urge to skin, debone, and chop up the culprit into pieces. With a flick of her wrist, a bright green vine appeared in her hand. Not only did it grow longer and longer, twisting and knotting in various ways, but it quickly turned into a green large net that covered the tiger who hadn’t realized the danger yet. It then automatically flipped and lifted off the ground, and in the blink of an eye, Big Tiger was suspended in mid-air.
“Awoo······” Before the whine could escape, a small fine net like a mask covered its mouth, preventing it from making even the slightest sound.
“If you dare dirty my courtyard again next time, I’ll peel off your skin to use as a quilt, draw out your tendons to use as rope, and smash your bones to soak in wine.” Lin Xin narrowed her eyes, approached the cage, and threatened.
Big Tiger had long lost its earlier smugness and was shrinking its tail, looking at her timidly, utterly aggrieved no matter how one looked at it.
“Hmph!” It wasn’t Lin Nan, and Lin Xin had no time to watch it act cute. She first threw all the dead chickens to one side, then unleashed her water element supernatural ability at full power to wash away the bloodstains in the courtyard.
Fortunately, Lin Lao Er hadn’t cut corners when building the house. Half of the courtyard was paved flat with stones, and the other half was reclaimed to plant some vegetables. If it had all been dirt, it would have turned into mud.
Finally having cleaned the courtyard, Lin Xin couldn’t help but shoot another sharp glare at Big Tiger. It was all this thing’s fault for going crazy, forcing her to increase her workload.
“Sis～” Lin Nan’s sleepy little milky voice came from the room. Lin Xin walked toward the room, raising her right hand and snapping her fingers. The vine suspending Big Tiger vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving Big Tiger sprawled flat on the ground in a daze.
“Nan Nan is awake! Your friend came to play with you and brought you gifts!” Lin Xin helped Lin Nan put on his clothes while teasing him.
“Friend? Gifts?” A big flash of confusion appeared in Lin Nan’s eyes. The village kids never played with him; he had no friends at all!
“You’ll know when you go see.” Lin Xin didn’t explain.
“Oh!” Lin Nan slowly got out of bed, put on his little shoes, and walked toward the door, showing not the slightest urgency to meet his friend or receive gifts.
Lin Xin frowned. At this point in the plot, everything related to her and Lin Nan had completely collapsed. Whether she watched or not made little difference; as long as she remembered the timing of major future events, it didn’t matter if there was an original book or not.
With no other choice, she carefully rummaged through the original owner’s memories again. After reviewing them, she felt that she had probably, maybe found the reason.
When Lin Nan was still in his mother’s belly, their father had died in an accident. Then his mother gave birth to him and passed away too. Only his older sister had struggled to raise him. Though the villagers pitied them, under the Old Lin Family’s vigorous propaganda, a “family-curse” label was firmly pinned on his head.
The original owner had to do a ton of heavy work every day just to feed herself and her younger brother, leaving no extra energy to pay attention to her younger brother’s mental state. Naturally, she didn’t know that apart from the clan leader’s little grandson Lin Zhi, no other kids in the entire village played with him.
Hmph! Lin Xin snorted coldly. If they didn’t want to play, fine—no need for such turncoat friends. Once Lin Nan grew up and broadened his horizons, he would naturally make like-minded friends.
“Wow! Big Cat, are you here to play with me?” Lin Nan’s surprised voice came from the courtyard. Lin Xin’s lips curved up. Big Cat it was, then! Compared to some humans, animals were even more noble.
“Sis, Sis, come quick! Big Cat brought so many wild chickens to see me.”
Lin Xin rolled her eyes toward the sky. With that courtyard full of chickens, what was there she didn’t understand? They hadn’t had enough of yesterday’s beggars’ chicken! This was bringing ingredients to the door to freeload.
“Sis!” Lin Nan urged again.
“Coming!” Lin Xin quickly folded the quilt and turned to leave the room.
In the courtyard, Big Tiger lay lazily on the ground, its tail swinging leisurely back and forth. Lin Nan lay on its body, his little hands stroking its fur up and down. The human and tiger got along in an oddly harmonious way.
Big Tiger had brought a total of seven wild chickens in all. Four had their necks bitten through, with the rest of their bodies intact. The remaining three were more tragic, bitten to shreds.
Lin Xin immediately decided: one complete one for her and Lin Nan each, and the rest all for the tiger.
The tantalizing aroma spread from Lin Xin’s home. Soon, the village was filled with children’s crying, parents beating kids or indirectly scolding, and some even deliberately bringing their children near their house to yell and curse, with Lin Shenzi’s voice being the shrillest.
Lin Xin turned a deaf ear to it all. She wasn’t the original owner and had no emotional expectations toward these villagers. She would repay the old clan leader’s family, who had shown kindness to her and her brother. As for the others, verbal comfort or sympathy was too hollow; she was long past the naive age.
“What are you crying for? Do you even have the fate to eat meat? You embarrassing thing, you’ll kill your parents sooner or later······” Lin Shenzi’s scolding grew harsher, even cursing her own son, and her voice got louder.
“Sis～” Lin Nan held up a chicken leg, looking at Lin Xin somewhat at a loss.
“Eat yours. Look at your Big Cat—it’s not affected at all.” Lin Xin pointed with her slender finger at the tiger devouring its meal nearby. It had tender, fatty chicken meat in its mouth, tail swinging freely, and its tongue full of barbs occasionally licking its lips. It really looked like a domesticated big cat.
“But there are so many people outside cursing.”
“Do you know why they’re doing that?” Lin Xin set down her chicken meat and looked seriously at Lin Nan. If Lin Nan pitied the kids outside being beaten and scolded and wanted to give up the chicken meat, she’d have to properly explain the reason to him. She didn’t want to painstakingly raise Lin Nan only to end up with a bleeding-heart saint; that would depress her to death.
Lin Nan blinked his big eyes and thought for a long time, then nodded and shook his head. “I know a little.”
“Then tell me, what do you know?”
“Probably because we have meat to eat, they want to ask us for some but don’t want to come directly, so they beat and scold their own kids, hoping we’ll voluntarily give them the meat.”
Lin Xin was a bit stunned after hearing this. Lin Nan was only three and already understood so much? Was he too precocious, or was she too foolish?
“How do you know?”
“Last time at the old house when they were eating meat, kids outside were beaten and crying by adults. Fourth Cousin wanted to go watch the excitement, and Third Aunt said exactly that.”
Lin Xin breathed a sigh of relief. She knew it—no kid could be that precocious. Turns out he had overheard it.
“So do you want to give them the meat?”
This time Lin Nan shook his head very decisively. “No.”
Lin Xin nodded with a smile. “That’s right. The meat we eat isn’t even ours; it’s from Big Cat. We can’t give away what it brought, right?”
“Yeah, I know.” Lin Nan grinned and stroked Big Tiger, leaving a greasy fingerprint on its sleek fur. He added softly: “Even if it were my meat, I wouldn’t give it to them.”
Lin Xin smiled in satisfaction, pretending not to have heard his last words.
