Chapter Six: You Have Me From Now On

"Qiang Qiang..." Gu Jianmin and Gunt Gu felt a pang in their hearts. They screamed and rushed toward Guo Xiang, clawing at her face and body.

Guo Xiang picked up a thin bamboo stick that was leaning against the wall and whipped it toward their calves.

"Ah!" The two yelled out in pain and jumped. Although the bamboo stick was skinny, it still hurt a lot.

"Get lost!" Guo Xiang shouted. She pointed at the two of them with the bamboo in one hand and held the plate of scrambled eggs steadily in the other.

Guo'er quickly walked over, "Guo Xiang, give me the eggs!"

"Okay!" Guo Xiang nodded and handed the eggs over. She was also worried that she might accidentally tip it over later.

Guo'er carefully held the eggs and walked to the kitchen. Before she even got to walk far, the brat suddenly stretched out his leg and tripped Guo'er over.

Guo'er cried out in shock and fell forward. The plate of eggs in her hands almost fell out.

Guo Xiang stretched out her long legs as she leaned over, grabbing Guo'er by the back of her collar with one hand and carried her in her arms. Guo'er was still in shock as she held the eggs tightly in her hands.

Guo Xiang was really angry. She let go of Guo'er and grabbed the brat's ear, "you still dare to cause trouble? I'm gonna bash you"

Of course, she was only trying to scare him. She wouldn't actually do anything to the child.

However, she really did manage to give the kid a good fright. He struggled violently and wailed.

Gu Jianmin rubbed his injured leg and pointed at Guo Xian, "if you hit my grandson, I will fight you!"

Aunt Gu, on the other hand, started shouting, "murder! Somebody come! She's committing murder!"

Guo Xiang sneered, her eyes full of fury, "don't provoke me. Everybody knows that I'm a fool. A Fool, do you understand? I don't need to suffer the consequences if I were to kill anybody. Do you want to try?"

The couple became genuinely terrified this time. This woman's fierce expression looked like she really ready to kill. They knew that a fool could kill without suffering the consequences. If their grandson was really killed by a fool, how would they explain it to their son? It was better for them to run first.

"Just you wait!" Gu Jianmin became timid. He pointed his finger at Guo Xiang and grabbed his grandson together with his wife, running as fast as they could.

After they left, Guo Xiang picked up the things that were knocked over in the hall. Wang Guiying walked in with lingering fear.

"Xiang Xiang..."

"Mom, how are you? Is your head still hurting?" Guo Xiang rushed over to help Wang Guiying. Seeing that there was still blood on her head, she asked, "how's your injury? Do you want to go to the clinic?"

"No, no, I'm fine. Why would I spend that money?" Wang Guiying quickly waved her hand. "Just get some stove dust in the kitchen and apply it on the wound."

"That won't do," Guo Xiang was serious. Home remedies were the worst. "Mom, you have injured your head. If you don't apply medicine, it might become inflamed. It'll be troublesome if you get an infection. I'll go buy some medicine!"

"No need. There is medicine at home," Wang Guiying quickly stopped Guo Xiang. "Zhennan put some medicine at home. Go to the chest of drawers and look for it. There should be some."

Guo Xiang helped Wang Guiying to sit down on the chair. She quickly went back to her room to look for the medicine. Wang Guiying was telling the truth, but there was only a small bottle of Merbromin and some cotton balls. It must have been left here after the previous use. 

Guo Xiang took the medicine back to the hall. She used the cotton ball to wipe the blood on Wang Guiying's forehead and then dipped it in the Merbromin. Fortunately, the wound was not big, only the skin was damaged. The Merbromin could still clean it up a little.

"Mom, Do you feel dizzy? Does it hurt?" Guo Xiang asked. She did not know how Wang Guiying hit her head. She was afraid that her head might be hurt and leave some side effects.

"No, I'm fine," Wang Guiying shook her head and grabbed Guo Xiang's hand. "Xiang Xiang, thank you for today, but... I've offended your uncle. I'm afraid that our days are going to get worse..." Wang Guiying was worried.

"Mother, don't worry. I'm here. They won't dare to do anything to us. If we continue to tolerate them, they'll only cross the line even more. If we are too kind, they'll bully us. If we're weak, they'll take advantage of us," Guo Xiang stated with seriousness.

"That's right!" Guo'rr took out the eggs from the kitchen. "In the past, weren't we just tolerating them? But they're getting worse every year."

"In the past, Mom always said that it was fine to swallow our anger, but they would come and take our food every single year. We don't even have enough food ourselves, so how dare they take ours? Mother also wouldn't let us tell my big brother, or else he would definitely not let them off."

"It's better to avoid trouble. Your big brother is under a lot of pressure at work. He doesn't have to hear about all this," Wang Guiying sighed. "Right now, the crops are not ripe yet but food storage is already running low. Nobody is having it easy."

"You think we're having it easy?" Guo'er pouted.

"We still have your big brother..." Wang Guiying smiled bitterly.

"That doesn't mean we should get bullied like this! Our family doesn't owe them anything." Guo'er said angrily.

"Don't talk back to your mother!" Guo Xiang bumped Guo'er's forehead lightly. "You have a sister-in-law now. Don't be afraid of them."

"Guo Xiang, you are so awesome!" Guo'er raised her head, her eyes shining. Her sister-in-law was so awesome just now. She had never seen a woman so good at fighting. It was not just an ordinary fight between women. It seemed that she knew kung fu.

"Guo Xiang, do you know kung fu?" Guo'er looked at Guo Xiang with admiration.

"A little," Guo Xiang touched Guo'er's head. "I'll teach you when I have time!"

"Really?" Guo'er was surprised.

"Girls shouldn't learn that," Wang Guiying muttered. She was surprised that her daughter-in-law actually knew kung fu, but she still felt that it was not good for girls to fight.

"It's good to learn. Guo'er is a girl, and it's better for her to learn self-defence," Guo Xiang smiled. "Not only will it help her when she goes into society in the future, but it will allow her to protect her family in the village. In the future, when I'm not around, I'll feel more at ease knowing she can protect everyone."

"What do you mean when you're not around?" Guo'er was shocked. "Didn't you just say that we don't have to be afraid of them in the future? Where are you going?"

Wang Guiying also looked at Guo Xiang nervously.

Uh... it slipped out. Guo Xiang pursed her lips and chuckled. "No, what I mean is that I might go to your brother's workplace to look for him. When I'm not here, I'll rely on you to protect Mom, okay?" Guo Xiang laughed.

When Wang Guiying heard that, she immediately heaved a sigh of relief. She was shocked just now and thought that her daughter-in-law was going to leave. In the past, her daughter-in-law was a fool, but now that she had recovered, was she going to look down on her son?

After listening to her explanation, she was relieved. She knew that the two of them did not consummate their marriage when they got married.

Her son didn't come home a lot. God knew when Guo Xiang would get pregnant. Her son did not have time to come back, so her daughter-in-law could only go to his place. She had no choice but to leave home.

"Well, from tomorrow onwards, I will learn kung fu from my sister-in-law!" Guo'er nodded and looked at Guo Xiang with admiration. She did not expect her sister-in-law to know kung fu.

Her eldest brother knew kung fu, but he said that girls did not need to learn kung fu. As long as he was at home, it would be fine.

However, he was not at home for a long time, and her second brother was studying in the county. There was no man at home, which meant that she would sometimes get bullied. If she knew kung fu, she would not be scared of being bullied in the future.

Guo'er became more and more fond of Guo Xiang. Previously, she hated Guo Xiang because the Guo Family ripped her family off and took her eldest brother away from her. She thought Guo Xiang was a fool and looked down on her.

However, not only was Guo Xiang not stupid, she was also cultured. Now, it turned out she actually knew kung fu, saving both herself and Mom. It was really amazing.

She suddenly felt that her eldest brother was not unlucky after all. In fact, he was lucky to marry a wife like Guo Xiang.

"Mom, the eggs..." Guo'er looked at the egg on the table and licked her lips. She really wanted to eat it.

"Eat up. It's already cooked. It would be a waste if you don't eat it," Wang Guiying said sadly. She had saved the eggs for a long time and was going to sell them in town to pay for Guo'er's tuition. It was really a pity that they cooked the eggs.

"What about the rice?" Guo'er asked again. Three huge bowls of rice would be enough to cool many serves of sweet potato porridge.

"We'll use one bowl of it to make sweet potato porridge and put away the other two bowls for tomorrow," Wang Guiying said.

"Mom, we might as well eat them all. If you don't eat them by tomorrow, they will go bad," Guo Xiang said. The weather was hot, and there was no refrigerator at home. They wouldn't be able to keep the food for long.

"But... there will be no rice after you eat them..." Wang Guiying's heart ached as she thought about it.

Guo Xiang felt sourness in her heart. Life seemed to be quite difficult where even rice was a delicacy. This was something she didn't dare to imagine in her previous life.