Chapter 153 The Peach Blossoms Are Coming

"Junior brother, what are you doing here?"

Master Zhang, dressed in a dark blue Taoist robe, looked around. "You're going to elope with someone?"

Song Chunxue glared at him, "You're the one who eloped with someone. I have a home and land, would I be stupid enough to elope with someone? Senior brother underestimates me too much."

Master Zhang laughed heartily, dismounted from his horse, and stroked it affectionately.

"What do you think of the horse I just bought?"

Song Chunxue saw it from afar; the horse's color was truly beautiful.

"The horse is a good horse, but the person is no decent person. Senior brother, are you going to dig up graves again?"

Master Zhang swept Song Chunxue with his whisk, "You have no manners. I'm your senior brother. Have you been meditating lately?"

“Yes, I meditate before bed every night, and I don’t know when I fall asleep,” Song Chunxue said with praise. “I don’t know about other gains, but every day when I wake up, I feel that the grass on the opposite mountain is becoming clearer and clearer. I hope that I will still be sharp-eared and sharp-eyed when I get old.”

Master Zhang sat down beside her and took the wine gourd from his waist.

"This is nothing. If you persist for a year, you will reap even greater rewards."

Song Chunxue took out a piece of guokui (a type of flatbread) from her bundle. "Here, have some."

"Oh my, this guokui is baked so well, did you make it?" Master Zhang took a bite and said, "Mmm, it's so delicious, I haven't had this in years."

Song Chunxue leaned against a large willow tree, looking at the golden poplar forest on the distant hills, and couldn't help but sigh, "If only I were younger, I would have gone up the mountain to become a Taoist nun."

“You can do it now, your kids are all grown up, you won’t starve.”

Song Chunxue was startled.

Yes, the fourth one is leaving. The third one is the one she trusts the most. Even if she leaves, the third one will take good care of himself.

After a few more days, once the family is settled, she will go to the county to choose a good house, and her third child will go there to study next year.

Next year, she can move all her valuables to the county. Once she has finished farming, she can do whatever she wants and go wherever she wants.

Once the wheat was ripe, she told Sanwa to spend money to find some people who could earn money by harvesting wheat from all over the place, and then take it to the county.

She doesn't necessarily have to be a loving mother at home.

In that instant, Song Chunxue felt that her future was bright.

She had always wanted to see the majestic Yellow River, the boundless grasslands, and the vast desert, where, it was said, the scorching sand could cure knee pain.

She's so short-sighted; even if she had to do it all over again, she never thought of leaving this godforsaken place to see the outside world.

She most wanted to go to the water towns of Jiangnan, where it is said that there is no need to dig water cellars, and you can wash vegetables and clothes by the river right outside your door.

More importantly, there are no cold winters there; it's spring-like all year round.

As she thought about it, Song Chunxue's smile deepened.

"What are you grinning about? Are you going to see your sister?" After finishing his guokui (a type of flatbread), Master Zhang put the crumbs from his palm into his mouth. "I need to do some feng shui for that nouveau riche in Hanjiaji. I'm off."

"By the way, you've been attracting a lot of romantic attention lately, so be careful." With that, he mounted his horse. "Don't fall in love easily, or you won't go far on this path."

The donkey approached the chestnut horse and sniffed it, and the chestnut horse proudly raised its head.

Song Chunxue felt completely bewildered.

"Shouldn't you cut off your junior brother's unwanted romantic advances?"

“If we can’t cut it off, let nature take its course.” He sat on horseback, scrutinizing her face, his brows furrowing slightly. “How strange, your fortune is even stronger than your romantic luck. Logically speaking, you haven’t had any luck this year, so why do you always seem to have such incredible luck?”

Song Chunxue couldn't suppress the smile on her lips. "Senior Brother, are you serious?"

“Really?” Master Zhang said thoughtfully. “After I finish looking at the feng shui, if we happen to run into each other, let’s go somewhere together. I’d like to borrow your luck, senior brother.”

Song Chunxue also got up and climbed onto the donkey's back with some difficulty.

"Forget it, it sounds like they're going to dig up graves."

“This time it’s different. It’s an ancient tomb, dating back a thousand years. If we can unearth two treasures, we brothers can establish a sect together. We must seize this opportunity.”

Master Zhang lowered his voice and said, "This time we'll go on the night of the full moon, and I'll bring two more black dogs to embolden you."

"As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, otherwise you'll never make any money."

As he spoke, he had already walked quite a distance.

"It's settled then. See you in a couple of days." With that, he squeezed his legs together and yelled, "Giddy up!"

Song Chunxue was not given a chance to refuse.

She never gets to do anything good, except dig up graves.

Although the gold she dug up last time was very valuable, she didn't want to dig up anything that valuable now.

Money and romantic relationships are both stumbling blocks for her; is this the beginning of a test from God?

The donkey, somewhat displeased with the dust kicked up by the horse's hooves, ran after it for a distance.

"Don't chase it. It's a horse, and you're just a donkey. You can't catch it."

She rode her donkey, swaying and staggering, and arrived at her second sister's house before sunset.

Baicaoyuan sounds flat, and as far as the eye can see, there are no high mountains, only a row of gray, low hills in the distance.

Of the sisters, the second sister married the best and had the most grain.

However, she did not have a good life in her later years. Both of her sons went to live and work in distant places, and her daughter moved away not long after she got married.

However, they probably haven't left yet.

She looked at the new courtyard wall made of rammed earth, which was very different from the one she had seen last time. The north house had been demolished and rebuilt, and the blue tiles on the roof were not made by her. It was a sight to behold.

The second sister and brother-in-law were chopping grass at the entrance when they saw a person and a donkey appear at the entrance, and they stopped to look at Song Chunxue.

"Second sister, second brother-in-law, don't you recognize me?"

Looking at the woman who looked like she was in her fifties or sixties, Song Chunxue's eyes welled up with tears.

"You are... the fifth brother?"

The second sister got up, patted her faded old blue cotton-padded jacket, and slowly walked towards Song Chunxue with outstretched hands.

Her eyes were red and she choked up, "You, why did you come all this way?"

Looking at Song Chunxue's straight back, her brother-in-law thought to himself that she had been a widow for many years and had given birth to five children. Logically, she should be suffering so much that she would be bent over. How come she looked so radiant and didn't look like a woman who had lost her husband at all?

"What are you standing there for? Go inside and sit down to talk. There's something else I can do by myself. I'll go start the fire and cook later."

As he spoke, the second brother-in-law led the donkey over and took the cloth bag off its back. "What's in it? It's so heavy."

“I packed a guokui for each of my three older sisters. Since I’m going out, I thought I’d visit them all, so I’ll come see my second sister first.” Song Chunxue said with a smile, wiping away her tears. “Could you please bring it inside, brother-in-law?”

"No problem, no problem." As he spoke, he carried the things into the house.

My second sister's husband, surnamed Liu, is bald and wears a melon-shaped hat. He is of medium build and is the most caring of all my sisters' husbands.

My second sister's house is very bright, with no mountains blocking the view. The people in the village live relatively close together, and although the courtyard is not very big, it has everything they need.

There are two small gardens in front of the steps of the north house, with two red peonies planted on the left and right, which bloom brightly every April.

"Fifth sister, I was actually planning to come see you in a few days. Now that you're here, I have something to ask you." Second sister pulled her hand and sat her down on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), sniffing.

"you say."

“There’s a man in our village who’s good-looking and comes from a good family. I’ve been keeping an eye on him for you. Would you like to meet him?”

"..." Saying this as soon as you walk in is such a downer.