The moment Xu Lei finished speaking, Ma Dalian spat in his face.
“You? Are you the one going? Don’t think I don’t know—you’re just jealous that our family has so many children while your Zhang Yun only gave birth to one! Tell me, did your family deliberately make my Lüdan disappear?”
“You’re all no good! Living off your daughter-in-law! You’re just envious! Envious that the Liu family lives well, envious that we have lots of kids!”
Seeing Ma Dalian grab Xu Lei’s collar again, demanding answers, Ge Yue was speechless.
“Auntie, let’s go already!”
At a time like this, the Xu family wasn’t going anywhere—they lived in the same courtyard. Couldn’t they settle accounts after the child was found?
Ge Yue worked at the slaughterhouse and had real strength. She dragged Ma Dalian toward the gate.
Xu Lei still looked ashamed. He said to Xu Dama, “Mom, I’ll go out and help search, too. You stay home and help Auntie Ma look after things.”
Then he hurried off.
Xu Dama’s eyes darted around. With everyone in the courtyard out searching for the child, wouldn’t that leave her alone here?
She shuffled toward the Ma family’s doorway.
All the Ma family adults had gone out to search. Even the older children had followed along, leaving only the three youngest behind—one five years old, one three, and one just over a year old.
That foolish Ma Dalian had stubbornly grabbed onto her Dabao earlier. What did Dabao have to do with this? If their Lüdan had any sense, he wouldn’t have wandered off. The roads are open to the sky—who knew which hole the kid crawled into?
Besides, a foolish woman gives birth to foolish children. If he’s lost, he’s lost! That whole family is dirt poor and still keeps having child after child—they deserve to lose one!
Xu Dama had to admit that Ma Dalian’s words had stung her.
It was true—among the households in this courtyard, although the Liu family’s second daughter-in-law Ge Yue had been married in for years without children, they had money. Three formal workers in the family—their life was far better than that of these old neighbors.
And that Liu old woman was hard-hearted too—she’d shut her door and eat well, never offering help to Xu’s family.
Xu Dama had cursed the Liu family men behind their backs more than once, wishing misfortune upon them.
As for the Ma family, they were poor too—but not because they lacked work. It was because they had too many children.
That alone was enough to make Xu Dama resentful.
The Ma family had three sons. Excluding the youngest, the two older ones were already married. And their wives were fertile—very fertile.
One after another, three children per branch. Though life was hard for the Ma family, their big household was lively and bustling.
Only her own family had neither money nor prosperity.
Sometimes Xu Dama would look at other families living their lives and feel so envious she wished something would happen to them—something big—so they’d end up scattered and miserable, none with a good outcome.
But wishing was one thing. She knew she only dared think it in her heart. If she actually did something, the two men in her family were weak and spineless—no match for either of those households in a fight.
Xu Dama simmered with resentment. The only time she truly felt relieved each day was when she went to the public latrine, found a moment with no one around, and let loose—cursing the air with the nastiest words she could think of. After venting her anger, she would return home as the frail, sickly old lady she pretended to be. When she ran into those neighbors, she even had to greet them with a smile.
She shuffled over to the Ma family’s doorway. Inside, the three children left behind were huddled together. With one older brother missing, they were terrified.
The adults had always said that children taken by traffickers suffered terribly—no food, no water, whipped with belts.
Of the three left behind in the Ma family, the oldest was Yangdan from the second branch, only five years old. Yangdan held three-year-old Goudan from the eldest branch and his own one-year-old sister Miaomiao, trembling with fear.
Seeing that the children were too scared to come out, Xu Dama felt much more at ease.
She no longer acted timid. Instead, she strode about the courtyard, swaggering.
As she walked, she muttered curses under her breath.
“That unlucky Ma Dalian, stupid beyond belief, daring to cross me. Hmph, doesn’t she know what she is?”
“Hmph, why do her cabbages dry better than mine? So heavy. Damn it, makes me furious.”
“The Liu family’s no good either. Losing a brat and making such a fuss. That Dou Hongying old hag, blowing a small thing out of proportion. Showing off that she manages the courtyard or what?”
“Hm, their radishes look pretty good though.”
“And the Xu family—those two are selfish too! Hmph, pregnant now, after all these years of marriage. Who knows if she can even carry it to term? Maybe she’ll be like the Liu family’s second branch—get pregnant and miscarry every time!”
“Why aren’t they drying anything outside their door…”
…
Wang Ying, along with Liu Yang and Liu Yue, watched Xu Dama outside, waddling with her legs splayed like a goose, muttering as she pawed at things in front of each household.
Her arms were nearly full!
Wang Ying: …
The two children ground their teeth in anger. “That’s ours!”
As the weather turned cold, fresh vegetables were scarce in winter. Besides storing vegetables, people in the courtyard found ways to preserve and vary their dishes.
White radishes were cut into small sections, soaked in brine, then laid out to dry thoroughly in the sun. The finished dried radish, mixed with chili and seasonings, became a chewy, savory side dish. Those with means would drizzle a bit of sesame oil and add fried peanuts. Even just that little pickle could make plain food delicious.
Both the Liu and Ma families had dried radishes out front. The Xu family hadn’t.
Xu Dama couldn’t be bothered. Drying radishes was exhausting—cutting them, salting them, watching all day to make sure rats or stray cats didn’t steal them. No rest at all.
With Zhang Yun at work during the day, she certainly wasn’t going to trouble herself.
But not wanting to work didn’t mean she didn’t want to eat.
In winter, this kind of side dish was especially nice. Eating boiled cabbage and radish every day got old fast. A bit of salty dried radish to change the flavor was wonderful.
Xu Dama had brazenly gone to the Liu and Ma families to ask for some.
Technically, dried radish wasn’t worth much. Old neighbors could lend a hand, couldn’t they?
But although she went confidently, both families refused.
After all, exchanging small dishes was normal among neighbors—but if your household offered nothing in return and came empty-handed to ask, that wasn’t right. Reciprocity required giving first.
So Xu Dama had to go to the neighboring courtyard to play pitiful and exchange for half a bowl.
Today, seeing everyone gone, she finally let loose, grabbing a large handful of dried radish from the Liu family’s doorway.
Two cabbages and a handful of dried radish weren’t worth much.
But knowing they belonged to neighbors who always looked down on her filled her with satisfaction.
Unfortunately, Xu Shuang and Wang Ying worked during the day and never dried anything outside on weekdays. Xu Dama couldn’t steal from their door, which left her slightly dissatisfied.
Little Liu Yang clenched his fists, wanting to run out and argue. “My dried radish!”
He loved dried radish most of all. His family had good conditions; they always mixed it with sesame oil. Crunchy bites paired with coarse flour buns—delicious beyond words. And Liu Yang knew how hard it was to make. Once, after fighting with his sister over it, his grandmother punished him by making him prepare it himself. He struggled to slice just two radishes and nearly cut his hand.
Waaah, Grandma Xu was so bad, stealing their dried radish!
Wang Ying pressed the two children down. “Don’t go out.”
Outside was an elderly person. No matter how justified the children were, she could easily silence them with a few words.
Xu Dama wasn’t satisfied yet. She leaned against Wang Ying’s door, peering through the glass, but couldn’t see anything inside. So she stuffed the cabbage and radish into her arms and reached toward Wang Ying’s coal pile.
Wang Ying: …
A lump of coal wasn’t even worth a cent, and she still wanted to take it. Incredible.
Wang Ying stood at the Liu family’s doorway, watching. When she saw Xu Dama’s hand on the coal, she suddenly shouted:
“Ah! Thief!”
Xu Dama jumped in fright. Not only did she drop the coal, but the vegetables in her arms clattered to the ground. She whipped her head around to see who had shouted—but turned too fast and toppled backward.
“Ow!”
She fell in front of Wang Ying’s door, a sharp pain shooting through her lower back.
Wang Ying didn’t step out. She remained at the Liu family’s doorway and said, “Oh, Auntie Xu! You scared me to death!”
Xu Dama: … Do you have no shame saying that? Who scared whom?!
“Auntie Xu, were you looking for me? If you have something to say, just say it next time. Don’t hover at my door without making a sound. I’m pregnant now—I can’t handle being startled. Get up quickly. Oh my, why is there so much stuff on the ground?”
Xu Dama struggled up, furious. She had originally intended to throw a tantrum—whether she’d been stealing or not, the other party had startled her into a hard fall. Shouldn’t there be some compensation?
She was an elderly woman. Even if she looked fine after a fall, she was sure to have a large purple bruise once she got home and checked.
But Wang Ying was simply too unreasonable—she had been standing so far away, yet she dared to accuse her of being the one who got frightened?
Xu Dama was furious. Then she heard Wang Ying mention the things on the ground, and her heart leapt into her throat.
“These are…”
Wang Ying cut her off. “Oh my, that cabbage looks like it belongs to Auntie Ma, doesn’t it? And the dried radish is Auntie Liu’s? You were…”
Xu Dama hurried to explain, “I just saw a cat pawing things over here. I was afraid the cat might have gone into your house, so I came to take a look. It’s just that you startled me just now…”
Wang Ying replied, “Well, thank you very much then. But next time, please don’t do that. If something gets knocked over, just call out. Standing there silently like that—I almost thought you were stealing my coal.”
Xu Dama quickly hid her sooty hand behind her back and forced an awkward laugh. She regretted it now—she shouldn’t have touched Wang Ying’s coal. Her hand was blackened from it. She couldn’t keep arguing; she wouldn’t gain anything.
Wang Ying turned to the children. “Yangyang, go call the Ma family kids and tell them to take their things back inside.”
Liu Yang ran out quickly. Soon he returned with Yangdan. The two children hurriedly gathered up the cabbage and dried radish and carried them inside, not even daring to leave them on the rack by the door.
Grandma Xu was too bad. When the adults came back, they would definitely complain about her.
After wandering around and gaining nothing—only injuring her back—Xu Dama could only hobble home, supporting her waist and grinding her teeth, cursing Wang Ying for meddling.
No sooner had Xu Dama gone inside than loud voices erupted outside.
Wang Ying thought perhaps the police had arrived, but it turned out to be the search party returning.
“They found him! They found him!”
“The kid somehow crawled into someone else’s haystack and fell asleep!”
“Ma family, go easy on the child when you get home!”
“Luckily he wasn’t taken by traffickers. Good thing that other child was clever enough to remind us to check the haystack.”
“Exactly. Alright, everyone head back and rest. And remind your kids to be careful when they go out to play—look at the trouble this caused.”
![The Villains Are All My Reserve Food [Quick Transmigration]](https://novels.space/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Villains-are-Reserve-Food.jpg "The Villains Are All My Reserve Food [Quick Transmigration]")
