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Three days later, the Jiang brothers returned each carrying a deer on their shoulders, causing a stir in the entire village.

Three deer in total, one dead and two injured, one of which was a fawn.

“I say, Jiang Three, that’s not very honorable of you.”

“Going deer hunting without giving us a heads up,” a young villager commented sarcastically.

Jiang Sanlang chuckled: “It all happened so suddenly, besides, I didn’t see you around.”

Knowing he was just fobbing him off, the youngster switched topics and asked, “Where did you go hunting?”

“North Mountain, my elder brothers and I chased them dozens of miles and nearly lost our way back.” Jiang Sanlang put a rope around the fawn’s neck and tied it to the handle of the stone mill.

“North Mountain ah, I was chopping hemp on North Mountain yesterday, why didn’t I see this?” asked another villager.

“By the time you see it, the deer would have already run off somewhere,” the young man retorted snappishly, then turned back to Jiang Sanlang and asked, “You brought back three deer, the herd must have been pretty large, right?”

Jiang Sanlang replied, “Not that big, just three or four deer, three adult deer and one fawn.”

In truth, there were more, but he wouldn’t reveal the whole truth to outsiders.

This time, when he and his elder brothers went chasing after the deer, they found that the herd had as many as a dozen deer.

If they were to hunt one, they could have settled it and returned the same day. Because of the hot weather, the dead deer wouldn’t keep for long, so they had to be brought back as soon as possible for processing.

But how could they let go of such a good opportunity.

So they followed closely, waiting for a chance to hunt more live deer to bring back.

Sure enough, their efforts paid off, and they managed to hunt three deer.

However, one of the deer suffered severe injuries and died on the way back. Fortunately, the deer carcass had been wrapped with herbal medicine, so it hadn’t rotted much.

Upon hearing that it was only a small deer herd, the young man’s grudge dissipated, and he reluctantly said, “You are really lucky, actually managed to hunt three.”

Jiang Sanlang chuckled and went to help his elder brother skin the deer.

Yingbao squatted in front of the stone mill, and seeing the fawn curled up under the stone mill, looking at her with a pair of frightened, wet eyes, she couldn’t help but feel a stir in her heart.

It seemed like the fawn had been shot in the buttocks, which had been treated with some herbal medicine, but blood was still seeping out.

Many flies were buzzing around the wound, which didn’t look very good.

Yingbao slowly moved closer, and quietly got some Wudingzhi (a type of medicinal herb) from her dwelling. She crumbled it and applied it to the fawn’s wound.

Just as she finished applying it, she heard Sister Dani calling, “Yingbao, don’t touch it, you’ll get your hands dirty.”

Yingbao turned her head and smiled, “Not dirty.”

Dani saw that her cousin’s hands indeed weren’t dirty, and took her outside the yard, “Let’s go watch the deer being skinned.”

Yingbao didn’t want to go; she wanted to look after the injured elder deer.

But she was too small to resist Sister Dani, she had no choice but to follow her, glancing back one step at a time.

Outside in the tree grove, a crowd of villagers had gathered, all watching eagerly as the Jiang brothers skinned the deer.

A few kids were darting about in the crowd, touching the antlers and poking the deer legs, frolicking and laughing.

Yuanbao was among them as well, acting like a little wolf protecting its food, glaring at this one and blocking that one, not letting anyone touch his family’s deer.

In the afternoon, the Jiang Family cooked the deer meat, inviting Chief Chen Fu of Chen Village Clan, village chief Chen Sanyou, private school Master along with several highly respected elders in the village to their house for dinner.

After the deer banquet was over and the guests were sent off, Old Man Jiang finally called his three sons to have a talk.

“Tomorrow is market day in Simen, why don’t the three of you take the injured deer, deer hide, and antlers to sell there? Simen is near the county town and it’s a large market, you should get a good price.”

After taking a sip of the bamboo leaf drink handed to him by his wife, Old Man Jiang resumed, “The silver you get, you three split evenly. As for the fawn, let’s leave it for Sanlang. Da Lang, Er Lang, you two don’t have any objections, right?”

Jiang Da immediately replied, “What are you talking about, how could we object? We’re all family here, the fawn should indeed go to Sanlang.”

Jiang Er also nodded, “Exactly, Father, you’re too much of a stranger, what do you think we are?”

Old Man Jiang nodded, “That’s good.”

Turning to his third son, he said, “When you go back, take the fawn with you. I noticed that Yingbao seemed to like it very much. If the fawn can be raised well, it can later be sold for money to make clothes for her. Sanlang, Yingbao is such a good girl, you have to take good care of her.”

This was effectively handing over the ownership of the fawn to Yingbao.

Jiang Sanlang laughed, “Father, don’t worry, even without the deer, my girl will have new clothes.”

“As long as you understand.” Old Man Jiang snorted lightly, “Our boys and girls are all precious in this household. Yingbao is also my own granddaughter. Whatever others have, she must have too.”

He was reminding his third son not to neglect Yingbao when his own biological children were born.

Jiang Sanlang wasn’t foolish; he naturally knew what his father intended to convey.

But how could he be terrible to his own daughter? His father was underestimating him.

“You can rest assured that Yingbao is my eldest daughter. Her younger brothers and sisters will all respect and love her. When she grows up, I will find a good family for her to marry into.” Jiang Sanlang said with a laugh.

Old Master Jiang glared at his third son, “You talk nonsense all the time. How old is she now? Go away.”

Jiang Sanlang scurried away, leading Xiaolu back home, and tied it to the leg of the table in the main room.

Hearing the noise, Yingbao hurriedly got off the bed and ran over to see.

“Dad, why did you bring Xiaolu back?”

Though the three brothers of the Jiang family had split up, they still lived in the same household. Whenever they worked together on a project, the profits were primarily managed by the eldest brother, since their parents still lived with him.

Jiang Sanlang laughed and said, “Your grandfather gave Xiaolu to us. He said that my daughter should raise it, and the money we get from selling it later will be used to buy you fabric for beautiful clothes.”

“Really? Hehe.”

Yingbao was happy. She joyfully stroked Xiaolu’s head and murmured, “I promise to fatten you up, so my little brother can eat meat.”

Xiaolu: …

It backed away in horror, keeping its distance from this frightening human cub.

That night, Yingbao had a dream again.

She stood in a thick fog, and that book appeared before her again.

The pages of the book turned of their own accord, flipping directly to the third chapter.

Yingbao didn’t dare to hesitate and quickly leaned in to read.

Before she could read much, the book turned into a paper butterfly and flew away.

This time, Yingbao was certain that the book was describing the Chen family of Xichen Village, including Aunt Han’s family in county town.

Except for the name Yingbao, everything else matched up one-to-one.

The book said that there were three brothers in the Chen family, with Chen Changping being the second. He was a scholar who had failed the imperial exam multiple times.

His wife, from the Han family, had lost her parents early. She had no brothers and only one younger sister.

She gave birth to their eldest daughter, Chen Wan, their second daughter, Chen Zhao, their third daughter, Chen Ying, and a four-year-old son, Chen Xu.

The third daughter, Chen Ying, was the name that Chen Changping had given to Yingbao in her previous life.

Yingbao squinted her eyes.

This book was fascinating indeed.

It was written from the perspective of Aunt Han’s second daughter, Chen Tiantian.

In the book, Chen Changping’s three daughters were described as follows: Eldest daughter Wan was timid and fearful, second daughter Zhao sweet-tongued but full of bitterness, third daughter Ying was gloomy and malicious, and all were considered undesirable females.

The only son, Chen Xu, was portrayed as a spoiled, little tyrant, selfish and disliked by many.

And indeed, this was the truth.

Chen Changping’s three daughters were often beaten or scolded by Madam Han.

Girls who grow up in such a family atmosphere would naturally have some character flaws.

Yingbao clearly remembered how, when she was five years old and brought back to the Chen family, Madam Han had beaten her severely with a bamboo strip as soon as she entered the door. Her back, arms, and legs were all bruised.

Madam Han probably regretted parting with the two taels of silver given to the Jiang family and was frustrated with previous issues. Upon seeing Yingbao’s crying and fussing, she wanted to establish her authority over her new daughter and vent her own anger.

After all, the process of getting their daughter back was full of twists and turns and had even ended up in court.

In that lawsuit, though it seemed that the Chen family had won, they ended up losing their reputations in the village.

But Madam Han had her wish fulfilled. The next year, she gave birth to a big, fat son.

Chen Changping was jubilant and searched through numerous books to name his son—an auspicious name ‘Xu’ and pet name was ‘Baobao’.

As for Yingbao, who they used as a tool in all this, she started living a miserable life in the Chen family from that day onward.