"What's wrong?" Old Mrs. Qiao was in a bad mood.

Qiao Lian'er patted the basket next to her.

Grandma Qiao glanced inside; it was covered by something, but she seemed to smell a scent that stirred her heart.

Qiao gave Old Man Qiao a wink, and Old Man Qiao immediately got up. After entering the main room, Qiao Lian'er closed the door and winked at the courtyard with a sly look.

The people left in the courtyard looked at each other in bewilderment.

Lian'er is acting all mysterious; what is he doing?

"Lian'er, what do you say?" Old Man Qiao was a little worried. Would Lian'er also ask them to become a maid? He absolutely could not agree to that.

Qiao Lian'er didn't say a word. She just picked out the tattered cloth and withered leaves covering the basket, and then took out the contents one by one.

There was a large piece of lean pork, weighing about five or six pounds, an oil jar containing about twenty pounds of oil, a salt jar containing about ten pounds of salt, a vinegar jar, and a soy sauce jar, all of which were quite substantial.

As Qiao Lian'er presented these items one by one, Old Man Qiao and Old Woman Qiao's eyes widened and their mouths opened wide, eventually forming an "O" shape.

Rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things, Old Man Qiao exclaimed in surprise, "Lian'er, where did you get all these things?"

Grandma Qiao pressed her pounding heart and lowered her voice: "Did you steal it? Lian'er, no matter how poor our family is, we shouldn't do such a thing."

"Grandpa, Grandma, these things weren't stolen or robbed; I bought them or traded them for them."

Then, Qiao Lian'er recounted the entire incident in detail.

Of course, she didn't say that what she was selling was mushrooms; she only said that it was a rare delicacy she found in the mountains, and that she wanted the two elders to digest it first before revealing the truth.

The two elders were stunned for a long time, and the house fell into silence.

Finally, Old Mrs. Qiao asked, "What was it that you went to squeeze dry and sell?"

Qiao Lian'er said, "It's a non-poisonous fungus."

Upon hearing this, the two elders' expressions changed immediately. Old Man Qiao swayed and supported his forehead with his hand.

"It's all over, it's all over! You've fed them poisonous mushrooms! When they get sick, their clansmen will come knocking on our door. They're a wealthy family, they have plenty of people around them, they'll definitely arrest all of our family members and interrogate them. Then none of us will survive."

Grandma Qiao was also terrified. She trembled and stared blankly at Qiao Lian'er: "Lian'er, how could you be so confused? Qi Xiaoliang down there vomited after eating the poisonous mushrooms and seemed to be better, but he relapsed after a day. That family is okay now, but they will relapse in no more than three days. When that happens, our whole family will be completely finished."

Grandma Qiao couldn't sit still on the stool any longer. Her back buckled and she fell to the ground, muttering, "It's really over. Everything's over now."

Qiao Lian'er did not expect the two elders to react so strongly.

Fortunately, she had anticipated that the two elders would not accept it, so she locked the other members of the Qiao family outside. Otherwise, there would have been a huge commotion with crying and shouting.