After the family split up, my stepmother and scumbag father begged me to come home.

Grandma Lin was reclining on the kang (a heated brick bed), her eyes half-closed, holding a palm-leaf fan in her hand, fanning herself idly. The lingering heat of late summer made her feel restless, and she was too lazy to move, not even bothering to lift her eyelids.

"Mother." Wang Hehua leaned closer, her voice not loud, but her tone carried an air of "I have something important to do."

Grandma Lin didn't open her eyes: "Hmm."

"Mother, don't you know? Those two little bastards found something good on the mountain."

The palm-leaf fan paused for a moment, then continued fanning itself.

"Them?" Old Mrs. Lin curled her lips down, her eyes still closed. "What can they find? So many people have already turned the mountain upside down. Do you think they'll get a chance? They'll be lucky if they don't starve to death."

Her words were neither too warm nor too cold, but Wang Hehua understood the underlying meaning—the old lady didn't disbelieve, she just didn't want to believe it. If the people who had moved out were doing well, wouldn't that make her, as the mother-in-law, seem unkind?

"Mother, it's true."

Wang Hehua took half a step forward, lowering her voice even further, as if she were talking about some unspeakable secret.

"Widow Wang said it herself; she saw it clearly. She said that when Qianqian saw her, she covered her basket, not letting her see, like she was guarding against a thief. Think about it, if it were just ordinary wild vegetables, would it be worth covering them up like that?"

Grandma Lin stopped using her palm-leaf fan completely.

"Besides," Wang Hehua added fuel to the fire when she saw her reaction, "that widow Wang has no grudge against our family, so she wouldn't make up lies to deceive us. If she says she really saw it, then it must be true. Qianqian is covering it up and won't let anyone see it, so it must be something good. If it's valuable..."

She paused deliberately at this point, not saying anything more, but the meaning behind that ellipsis was even more weighty than what she said aloud.

It's valuable.

These two words were like two pebbles thrown into the stuffy air of the main room.

Lin Xiaohua, who was eating sunflower seeds nearby, couldn't sit still any longer. She threw the unfinished sunflower seeds on the table, clapped her hands, and her eyes shone like a cat's.

"Mother, she definitely doesn't want anyone to know!" she chimed in, her voice crisp and clear. "Otherwise, why wouldn't she let Widow Wang see? There's something fishy going on, there's definitely something fishy going on!"

As she spoke, she began to make plans in her mind.

If it's valuable, Mother will definitely snatch it. Once she snatches it, it belongs to the Lin family. And as the eldest granddaughter of the Lin family, shouldn't she at least get a share of the Lin family's property?

New clothes.

She remembered the piece of light red cotton cloth hanging high on a rack in the town's cloth shop, shimmering in the sunlight. Every time she passed by, she would take a second look. If she could have a dress made like that made and wear it out, wouldn't all the girls in the village be green with envy?

Lin Xiaohua's little scheme ran through her mind in a flurry, her calculations more swift and precise than anyone else's.

Wang Hehua was also making plans.

She wasn't thinking about the new clothes. Her precious son, Xuan, had been clamoring for meat last night. He kept saying that so-and-so in the village had eaten braised pork, and so-and-so had eaten stewed ribs, making his mouth water. Wang Hehua had coaxed him, saying, "I'll get you some when your grandma slaughters a pig," but when would that be?

If we could squeeze something of value out of those two from the second wife's family, exchange it for money, and then cut off a piece of pork belly—a mix of lean and fatty meat—and stew it in a pot, Xuan-ge could eat three bowls of rice.

Two women, two schemes, but both with the same idea.