Qi Qingyao was starving now too. She did not waste too much time talking to the children, asking them to wait while she went outside and boiled some water to wash the pot. After that, she boiled more water and deftly plucked the chickens!

Once the feathers were all gone, Qi Qingyao looked at the wounds on the chickens and fell silent for a long time.

This was…

There were two extremely thin cuts on the chickens. Rather than saying they were cut by actual blades, it looked more like they had been killed by a razor-thin blade aura!

Were there really legendary martial arts masters getting into a duel around here?

Were these chickens caught in the crossfire?

She was curious, but it was more important for her to fill her stomach now. Hence, Qi Qingyao did not spare the matter much thought. After she butchered the chickens, she heated up more water to make chicken soup…

*

On the other hand, Madam Guo ran back home with her hand on her face, by which time her cheek had swollen up. She did not dare to let Qi Yuancheng see her injury. If anyone found out that she was reduced to this state by that half-wit, she would be ashamed for life!

The rest of the family was having lunch indoors, so Madam Guo snuck into the backyard and scooped up some cold water into a wooden basin. She then wet her handkerchief in it and tried to use the wet cloth to reduce the swelling in her left cheek!

Imagine putting water on your face in the winter. The cold went straight to her heart!

Madam Guo let the swelling recede slightly before she went into the house through the back door. There was no one there, so she slipped inside her room. After the meal, her mother-in-law Madam Wu began clearing the table since Madam Guo was nowhere to be seen. The moment Qi Yuancheng entered their room, he saw Madam Guo sitting on the bed-stove. Her face… was hard to ignore!

It was swollen like a steamed dumpling now.

"What happened to your face?" Qi Yuancheng was shocked. The next second, he asked, "Who bit you?"

"Your idiot sister, of course." Madam Guo held her face, her tone sarcastic.

Qi Yuancheng immediately said, "What are you talking about? She died outside."

"Died? My foot!" Madam Guo's temper flared at the first mention of this, so she jumped off the bed-stove angrily and shoved Qi Yuancheng, saying, "You cursed fool, you and your father must not have sent her and her three b*stards far enough away! Otherwise, there's no way they could have walked back here."

"Huh?" Qi Yuancheng was left dazed by her complaints. "Wait, what, huh? Say that again. She's back? Back where? I don't see her."

Madam Guo raised her chin and rolled her eyes at her husband. "Where do you think? Back at that small hut at East Villageside, of course."

"But that's impossible…" Qi Yuancheng thought his wife had to be pulling his leg.

"Who else do you think hit me, then?" Madam Guo was properly incensed now.

Qi Yuancheng saw that his wife was on the verge of losing it and said as patiently as he could, "Tell me everything in detail!"

Madam Guo pursed her lips and pulled Qi Yuancheng to sit with her on the bed-stove before whining the entire story at him. She exaggerated the parts where Qi Qingyao treated her badly and did not say a word about how she had tried to take their chickens.

Qi Yuancheng stood up immediately once he heard the story. "I'll call Dad, we'll go see what's up at once."

Madam Guo was glad that her husband could get her revenge for her, but she then remembered something and pulled Qi Yuancheng back. "You idiot, why are you going there now?"

"She's not dead, so of course we have to…" take that idiot and her three dead weights away again.

"She's not dead, but can't you pretend she is?" Madam Guo said seriously. "As long as she doesn't come here herself, we can pretend we don't know she's back. What if she freezes to death over the next two days? Wouldn't that be just right?"

That got Qi Yuancheng thinking, too. "..."