Chapter 22 Since it's a severing of ties, then what about my sister's marriage...?

It was agreed that you could check in once if you found more than ten mushroom nests, so I took advantage of my free time to go and take a look.

Pei Ying stayed home and worked on the furniture.

Lin Chuntao led the three of them around in the mountains for most of the hour. They picked up quite a few mushrooms, but only found one mushroom nest with more than ten mushrooms. It was a purple-skinned green-headed mushroom nest. They picked up fourteen mushrooms, completing one check-in.

They crossed the mountain and reached the sandy area behind it.

Lin Chuntao recalled how, when she was a child, she would dig in the sandy ridges looking for ground mushrooms, a type of spherical or flattened wild mushroom also known as horse skin mushroom. It tasted pretty good when grilled or stir-fried. Once you found this mushroom, you would find a whole bunch of it, at least a dozen or twenty.

Lin Chuntao thought about it and broke off some branches for her younger sisters, then led them to search carefully on the sandy ridges by the mountainside.

After bending over and digging along two ridges without finding anything, Lin Duo'er gradually lost patience.

"Sis, we definitely don't have them here. Let's keep looking in the mountains."

You can still find some miscellaneous mushrooms in the mountains, but Lin Chuntao's main purpose now is to sign in, so she has to keep looking.

She looked at Lin Chunxing and said, "Chunxing, take your sisters to pick some camellias. I'll look for some more."

Chunxing turned to look at the third sister, Lin Chunhe, and said, "Third sister, you take Duo'er with you. I'll go with my sister."

Helpless, Lin Chunhe left with Lin Duo'er.

Lin Chuntao pursed her lips, wanting to laugh.

She had no siblings, but she had heard a saying: "When you have many siblings, the eldest brother orders the second brother around, the second brother orders the youngest brother around, and the youngest brother does his work while stomping his feet."

Lin Chuntao watched Lin Chunhe walk away and decided to have a small family meeting when she had some free time in a few days.

She was thinking to herself, but her hands didn't stop moving. She saw a branch scrape down and a round thing, like a pebble, rolled down the edge of the ground. She quickly chased after it to pick it up.

"Chunxing, come quick, we've found her."

"How many are there?" Lin Chunxing asked as she ran. Lin Chuntao looked at the sand that had been pushed up beside her and replied, "There should be more than a dozen. Come and dig around here."

At the edge of the embankment, once you dig open the oval-shaped horsehide bubble, it rolls down.

Several tumbleweeds rolled down the ground. Lin Chunxing ran to pick them all up. Lin Chuntao then dug with one hand and caught them with the other. After digging up all the tumbleweeds—about eighteen or nineteen in total—she quickly summoned the system to check in.

Lin Chuntao was in a great mood after completing another check-in.

I estimate that the sign-in and server opening will be completed in the next day or two.

Lin Chunxing returned from picking mushrooms and noticed Lin Chuntao's cheerful demeanor, which puzzled her somewhat.

Over the years, Lin Chuntao and her friends have been constantly frowning and miserable.

This time, she secretly brought home a husband without telling her grandparents and father, then made her fake illness to deceive people, and even severed ties with her family. These are all things she would never have dared to do before, but now she has done them all.

Moreover, after jumping into the lake, Lin Chuntao's face no longer showed the worry she had before. She seemed to be worried about nothing, not afraid that they would have nowhere to live or no food to eat.

She didn't know if Lin Chuntao was relieved because she made some money from selling mushrooms, or if there was something else going on.

Picking and selling mushrooms is only a temporary solution; once autumn is over, the mushrooms will be gone, and they won't have a single grain of food this year.

Lin Chuntao was no longer worried, but she was worried; just thinking about it made her anxious.

"Sis, are you going to carry these rollers to sell tomorrow morning?"

Lin Chuntao shook her head: "We won't sell them. We'll keep these we picked up during the day for ourselves. They won't be fresh if we leave them overnight before selling them. We'll sell the ones we picked up in the morning."

Lin Chunxing pursed her lips and remained silent for a long time.

Lin Chuntao didn't hear anything and looked up at her, only to see her looking worried.

"What's wrong?"

Lin Chunxing looked at her, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Sister, will we be able to stock up on enough food for the winter if we pick and sell mushrooms this year?"

It's only May, and winter is still a long way off. Is Lin Chunxing worried that there won't be enough food to get through the winter?

She shook her head. "Relying on picking mushrooms to sell probably won't be enough to stock up. I plan to save some money to buy some buckwheat seeds. Although we can't grow rice anymore, we can still grow buckwheat. In a few days, I'll also clear out two plots of land and plant some vegetables. That way, we can save money on vegetables. Don't worry, we'll definitely have enough food to get through the winter this year."

Lin Chunxing breathed a long sigh of relief upon hearing this.

“We’re not the same as before. Sister, you can tell me what your plans are, and we can share the burden together.”

Lin Chuntao looked at Lin Chunxing in front of her. The two sisters looked quite similar. Fourteen-year-old Lin Chunxing was almost as tall as her, but she was thin, as thin as a bamboo pole.

Hearing her say that, Lin Chuntao was quite pleased.

"Okay, I'll tell you first if anything happens in the future."

Lin Chunxing looked at her quietly, and the two sisters smiled at each other.

But what she just told Lin Chunxing was only to temporarily calm Lin Chunxing down. She had to wait two days. Could this broken system get her some seeds? She remembered that some varieties had short growth periods and could ripen normally even if planted late. It would be even better if she could plant crops now.

As the sun set, Lin Chunhe and Lin Duo'er each picked a bunch of camellias.

Lin Chuntao loves camellias; the same plant can produce flowers in multiple colors.

The flower buds are pinkish-red, the flower buds are pink and white, and the fully bloomed flowers are white with a hint of pink. It's a delight to look at.

The two sisters each picked a few branches of flower buds, blossoms, and blooming flowers.

Lin Chuntao plucked some vine leaves and twisted them to tie up their two bunches of flowers for easy carrying.

Clutching their favorite flowers, carrying mushrooms and firewood on their backs, the sisters hummed little tunes as they slowly walked home.

The sisters had just come around from the back of the mountain when they encountered people from the village.

"Oh, Chun Tao, you're here! Your uncle and his family are here, arguing with your grandma and the others. Go back and check on them."

Lin Chuntao's expression changed slightly. She didn't have time to ask further questions. After thanking them, she quickly led her sisters back.

*

At this moment, the Lin family courtyard was packed with people, inside and out.

The Xu family members came with hoes, sickles, and even two wooden sticks, looking menacing and clearly ready to fight.

When the villagers saw this commotion, they all grabbed their farm tools and carried their baskets and ran back to watch the excitement.

The people who came were Lin Chuntao's uncles and cousins, as well as two elderly people.

Faced with the menacing Xu family, Lin Changhe felt a wave of dizziness.

Since Xu Xiu passed away, they have had little contact with the Xu family. In the first two years after Xu Xiu's death, Lin Chuntao and the others would still visit, but later the old lady wanted them to do chores and wouldn't let them go, so the sisters didn't visit their uncle's house much anymore.

People who haven't been around much in recent years have suddenly come, and judging from their demeanor, it doesn't look like anything good.

Tian thought that Lin Chuntao and the others had gone to complain, and she was so angry that she gritted her teeth and cursed Lin Chuntao in her heart.

Lin Changhe looked at them, then gave Xu's eldest uncle a forced smile.

"Big brother, what brings you here?"

Xu Tianlin had a square face, was tall, and had a rather serious demeanor. At this moment, he looked at Lin Changhe with a cold and imposing air.

"I heard you remarried. Why didn't you let us know so we could all come and have a drink? My sister may be gone, but my nieces are still here. We are their uncles, and that will never change, right?"

The eldest uncle's tone was calm, but his voice was deep, and his seemingly innocuous words carried an air of accusation.

Lin Changhe was so embarrassed that she was speechless. Just as Madam Qian put on a smile and was about to speak up, her uncle didn't give her a chance to speak and directly asked Lin Changhe, "Where are Chun Tao and the others? Why aren't any of them here?"

There were many people present, and Lin Changhe was too ashamed to say that they had driven Lin Chuntao out. He wanted to lie, but the villagers were watching, so he simply couldn't bring himself to say it.

Seeing Lin Changhe's flushed face, Xu Tianlin asked in a deep voice, "Lin Changhe, are you capable of doing something but unable to admit it?"

"Brother, are you here to interrogate me? That brat Chun Tao disobeyed her elders and made her own decision about her marriage without even informing us. She insisted on taking her sisters with her. Now that the children are grown up and have their own wings, what can I, as their father, do?"

The eldest maternal uncle's wife, Madam Sun, scoffed at these words.

"That sounds nice, but I'd like to ask, are you separating from the family or being kicked out?"

Lin Changhe remained silent. Qian Shi, supporting her back and with her slightly protruding belly, stepped forward. "Sister-in-law, what Changhe said is the truth. You can't help it if you don't believe me. No one chased the child out. It was Chun Tao who went to find the village head to sign a letter of severance, insisting that she wanted to cut ties with our family."

No sooner had Qian finished speaking than Lin Cunzheng squeezed through the crowd at the entrance.

Seeing the courtyard full of people, about twenty from the Xu family, he knew that if the two families started fighting, they would surely end up with bloodied heads. So he hurriedly returned from the fields and encountered the people Xu Tianlin had sent to invite him.

The young man looked at him and said they just wanted justice for the child and wouldn't easily resort to violence, which made him breathe a sigh of relief.

Upon entering the courtyard, he heard Qian's shameless words and his heart sank.

Since the child's uncle has come to us demanding justice, we must find out the whole story.

To spout nonsense in front of the Xu family, isn't that just stirring up trouble?

The two elderly people who came with the Xu family knew Lin Cunzheng and the others. They chatted about everyday things before getting down to business.

The old lady spoke very tactfully, saying that she had heard that several of her nephews were coming to visit their niece, so she came along.

Lin Cunzheng looked at Xu Tianlin and said, "Tianlin, Chun Tao and the others have moved out and are living in my old house now. They're not here."

"Uncle Lin, to be honest, I came to see what was going on after I heard that Chun Tao and the other girls had been kicked out. I don't know if it's just hearsay or if it's true."

Lin Cunzheng was speechless. Even if he didn't do it himself, it was his clansmen who did it, and it was utterly shameful.

Xu Tianlin naturally wouldn't let Lin Cunzheng answer such a question. He continued, "My sister passed away early, leaving Chun Tao and the others to suffer. If the children grow up, get married, and live separately from their elders, I will have no objections. But if they are kicked out, then we need to settle this score. I heard that Chun Tao asked you to be her witness."

Lin Cunzheng nodded slightly.

“I was the witness that the sisters severed ties with them and started a new household.”

After receiving Lin Cunzheng's words, Xu Tianlin looked at Lin Changhe, whose face was sullen and whose eyes were cold and indifferent.

"Lin Changhe, since you're severing ties, I'd like to ask if my sister's dowry was taken by the children?"