A fierce wife enters the house: She helps up a house full of spineless people.

At dawn, as the sky was just beginning to lighten, Wang Jinzhu reached out and touched her side; the blankets were already ice-cold.

She put on her coat and got off the kang (a heated brick bed). Pushing open the door, she saw Chen Tianwei squatting at the kitchen door, tending the fire. Her little face was flushed red from the firelight.

"Where's your brother?" Wang Jinzhu rubbed the back of her neck.

"Sister-in-law, my brother went into the mountains with his bow before dawn." Chen Tianwei added a handful of firewood to the stove, his voice becoming very low. "He said he was going to try his luck and hunt some wild game to thank Erniu."

"Sister-in-law, it's all my fault. If it weren't for me..." Looking at Chen Tianwei, who was lost in self-blame, Wang Jinzhu sighed, "Tianwei, don't get caught up in it. It's all the bad people's fault. Don't think too much about it. Come on, help your sister-in-law wash this bunch of wild vegetables."

Fearing she would overthink things, Wang Jinzhu could only make her do more work to distract her.

Just as breakfast was set on the table, the courtyard gate creaked open.

Chen Tianfang walked in, radiating coldness. A longbow was slung over his shoulder, a pheasant flapping in his left hand, and a plump rabbit clutched in his right. The rabbit's fur was glossy gray, and it weighed at least four or five pounds.

As Old Mrs. Chen came out of the main room, supporting her back, her eyes lit up the moment she saw the pheasant and rabbit. She quickly went to meet them and reached out to take them.

Before Old Mrs. Chen's hand could even touch the rabbit's fur, Chen Tianfang slightly shifted his body to the side, avoiding it.

Without even glancing at Old Mrs. Chen, he lifted the pheasant up a bit and said, "Erniu helped me a lot yesterday. I'll take this pheasant to Erniu's house next door."

Old Mrs. Chen's face went from red to green, then to purple, and her hand, which was stretched out in mid-air, trembled awkwardly: "What did you say? Give it away? Chen Tianfang, are you crazy! This chicken is so big, it could sell for a lot of money, and you just give it away like that?"

Chen Xiufen, speaking sarcastically from the doorway, said, "Oh, brother's family is really generous. Their own children are starving, yet they're going out to give money to outsiders. If this chicken were given to Shuyan, maybe he could read a few more pages of his book."

"Hey, Tianfang, how can some people be so shameless? Yesterday they wanted to sell someone's sister, and today they have the nerve to lick their boots and ask for food." Wang Jinzhu couldn't stand the second wife's attitude. How could people be so disgusting?

"Tianfang is right, one must have a conscience. Didn't Master say yesterday that he would no longer concern himself with the affairs of the eldest branch of the family? This prey was brought back by Tianfang at the cost of his life, so how we, the eldest branch, deal with it is up to us."

Old Mrs. Chen's chest heaved with anger as she turned to look at Old Mr. Chen. Old Mr. Chen sat on the doorstep, thinking about yesterday's events, and turned his head to the side.

Chen Tianfang carried the chicken and strode out of the yard.

A short while later, Zhao's delighted refusals and Erniu's cheerful laughter came from next door.

Hearing the laughter, Old Mrs. Chen felt as if each laugh was slapping her old face.

"Come on, I'll take you to town today." Chen Tianfang hurriedly ate a bite of wild vegetables after returning home and then called to Wang Jinzhu.

Wang Jinzhu deftly stuffed the rabbit into the basket on her back and covered it with a layer of dry grass. Neither of them looked at Old Mrs. Chen's face, which was as dark as the bottom of a pot, and they went out the door side by side.

When we arrived in town, the market was bustling with activity.

Wang Jinzhu skipped the scattered stalls and went straight to the back door of the town's largest restaurant, "Ruyi Restaurant." Selling these plump wild rabbits to restaurants was the most profitable business.

The restaurant's purchasing agent was a shrewd man. He examined the rabbit's fur and weighed it: "Good quality. Was it caught in a trap or shot with an arrow?"

"It was shot with an arrow, right through the eye, but the skin wasn't damaged at all," Chen Tianfang said succinctly.

A hint of approval flashed in the buyer's eyes: "Alright, since the hides are intact, I'll give you 150 coins."

One hundred and fifty coins!

Wang Jinzhu took the heavy copper coin and felt reassured.

"Come on, I'll take you somewhere." Wang Jinzhu tugged at Chen Tianfang's sleeve.

Chen Tianfang followed her to the wonton stall on the street corner. The stall, run by the elderly couple, was steaming hot and had a wonderful aroma.

"Two bowls of wontons, one extra spicy, one without scallions," Wang Jinzhu instructed skillfully.

Chen Tianfang wanted to refuse, saying that one bowl would be fine, but seeing Wang Jinzhu's expectant look, he ultimately didn't say it. She must have come here often before.

When the wontons were served, watching Wang Jinzhu eat with sweat dripping from her nose and a few strands of hair sticking to her temples, his heart inexplicably started racing.

After finishing her wontons, Wang Jinzhu went to the steamed bun shop next door and bought four large meat buns for a total of twelve coins, one for each of her parents and younger siblings.

"We need to sort this money out clearly," Wang Jinzhu said as she walked, counting the coins.

One hundred and fifty coins, eight coins for wontons, twelve coins for steamed buns, one hundred and thirty coins left.

She counted out fifty coins from her purse, and carefully put the remaining eighty coins into the pocket of her undergarment in front of Chen Tianfang.

"Take these fifty coins back to Grandma."

Chen Tianfang frowned: "That's too much."

"Not enough. Any less and this old woman will throw a tantrum, crying, screaming, and threatening suicide. It's so annoying."

As soon as you enter the Chen family courtyard, Old Mrs. Chen is already sitting there waiting.

Seeing the two return, she gave a sarcastic snort: "Oh, you've decided to come back? How much did you get for it? Hand it over, the rice jar at home is almost empty."

Without wasting any words, Wang Jinzhu slammed the fifty copper coins onto the table with a "bang".

"Grandma, this is what Tianfang earned from hunting today. It's fifty coins in total, and it's all here."

Old Mrs. Chen was stunned for a moment, then shrieked, "Fifty coins? Are you kidding me! Such a big rabbit, and you're only selling it for fifty coins?"

"Grandma, what are you saying?" Wang Jinzhu sighed, her face sincere. "It's definitely more than fifty coins. But this family isn't just for our eldest son's family to eat. How much money has the second son's family given us? We can't keep supporting them forever!"

"You! You troublemaker! It's been like this ever since you came. It's all your fault for corrupting my grandson!" Old Mrs. Chen was so angry that she jumped up and down, pointing her finger at Wang Jinzhu's nose and cursing.

"Let's go back to the room and ignore her! It's only fifty coins, take it or leave it." Chen Tianfang threw the fifty coins on the table and led Chen Tianwei back to the room.

Old Mrs. Chen jumped up and down as she watched the two men leave. "Old man, look at them! They're increasingly disregarding me. Fifty coins? What can they do with that? Second Brother and the others still owe Wu Third Brother and the others money!"

"This is all because the second son's family went too far; they even schemed against me this time. Don't worry about it for now. Just let the eldest son's family do what they want these days and let them vent their anger."

Since the old man said so, Old Mrs. Chen had no choice but to compromise.

Back in his room, Chen Tianfang took out the meat buns from his pocket and invited Tianwei and Tianrun, who were still busy outside, into the room.

"Eat up, your sister-in-law bought you some meat buns, one for each of you. After you finish, call your parents to each have one too. Tell them quietly, don't let anyone know."

The two ate in small bites; the meat buns were so delicious. It's so good to have a sister-in-law!

The Chen couple, who had been called over, were initially embarrassed to eat alone. "This isn't right," they said. "Why don't you take these two to your grandparents?"

"Alright, then you two go and deliver it. After you're done, let Grandma give Tianfang and me a good scolding. She can scold us for being greedy and unfilial, and hopefully the whole village will hear it."

Wang Jinzhu was somewhat exasperated with her husband's in-laws. She had initially thought they'd changed their ways after her father-in-law's assertive behavior towards the second wife, but it turned out they were still the same two cowards.

"Jinzhu, that's not what Mother meant! Mother..."

"Do whatever you want with him, Tianfang. Come on, let's go catch some fish in the stream at the foot of the mountain!" Not wanting to hear his mother's explanation, Wang Jinzhu took Chen Tianfang and left.

Anyway, his parents are both cowards, and they'll always be afraid of one of them, so let's just let them be afraid of her.

As the two left, Chen Shi looked at Chen Yuxiang and said, "Look at you, what did you say? You made your daughter-in-law angry! From now on, whatever your daughter-in-law says goes."

"Take me for example, you didn't..." Even eating a meat bun couldn't stop the two from shifting blame.