Chapter 268 White Handkerchief with Blue Flowers

Grandma Mao's large wad of small bills probably didn't even amount to five yuan. The old woman had wrapped it up tightly in a handkerchief. This was probably all the money she had. How could Qin Suisui possibly accept it?

She quickly pushed the money back and pressed the old lady's hand, saying, "Grandma, no need, no need to give money. You've already given me so much good food, that's enough. You can take this ham back with you too."

These days, meat is expensive, especially pork. Ham is made from pork hind leg meat. This should be a whole pork hind leg, probably weighing about 20 pounds.

Seeing that she resolutely refused to accept the money and even wanted to return the ham, Grandma Mao became anxious. The old woman's Mandarin was not fluent, and when she got anxious, she spoke even more haltingly, only able to keep calling out, "Keep it, ham, ham, keep it..."

Qin Suisui couldn't refuse, so she had to agree to leave the ham behind.

Seeing that Qin Suisui had accepted Grandma Mao's food and ham, the other parents had no choice but to silently put away the small change they had taken out, and push the food out of their baskets forward, shouting, "If you accepted Grandma Mao's, you have to accept ours too."

Qin Suisui was both amused and exasperated, and could only accept them all.

After seeing the guests off, it was already past six o'clock. Aunt Zhang smiled and poured Qin Suisui a glass of water. The more she looked at this girl, the more she liked her; she was beautiful and capable. If only she weren't married, she could introduce her to someone… But no! Her stupid sons were far from being good enough for her!

She inwardly cursed her son for being stupid and dull, but outwardly smiled sweetly at Qin Suisui:

"Daughter, are you tired? Auntie has already cooked dinner. You didn't enjoy the mushroom hot pot yesterday, so today Auntie went up the mountain again to pick some fresh mushrooms and made you a mushroom hot pot again."

Seeing Qin Suisui's somewhat complicated expression, Aunt Zhang chuckled: "Don't worry! I watched the whole time, and I guarantee that that brat Tiedan didn't touch the mushrooms!"

Hearing her say that, Qin Suisui finally felt relieved. The hallucination last night was just too real, so real that she didn't dare to sleep alone at night and had to stay close to Jia Zhenzhen.

Besides the mushroom hot pot, Aunt Zhang also made fish stewed with pickled bamboo shoots and a very appetizing dish called "Black Three Chops," which is a side dish made with pickled mustard greens, minced meat, chili peppers, etc. It is salty, fragrant, and slightly spicy. Qin Suisui ate two large bowls of rice in a row.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened that night. After finishing their meal, Qin Suisui and the other two took a walk in the village before returning to their stilted house to rest.

Inside the stilted house, Aunt Zhang had already boiled hot water for them and placed it there.

Before leaving, Qin Suisui also took a cup of bamboo tube tea brewed by Aunt Zhang. Bamboo tube tea is made by steaming sun-dried green tea leaves with fragrant rice (eight-treasure rice), stuffing it into a golden bamboo tube, pounding it tightly, and then roasting it. The tea soup is clear and yellow-green, with a mellow and sweet taste, and a unique "three fragrances" that blend the aroma of bamboo, glutinous rice, and tea.

Qin Suisui was drinking this kind of tea for the first time and found it very novel. Even Jia Zhenzhen, who doesn't like tea, drank a few more cups.

There is a private bathroom in the stilted house. Qin Suisui was exhausted yesterday and only took a quick shower. She plans to take a proper bath today.

So he closed the door, went straight into the space, and let Big Yellow and Big Black out through the window to let them run wild on the mountain. It was already dark, and as long as they avoided people, no one should notice.

Having been raised in the space for so long, Dahuang and Dahei have surpassed ordinary forest beasts in both combat power and intelligence, so Qin Suisui is not worried that they will be bullied by the wild beasts in the mountains.

Moreover, she had just told the two little ones that they should sneak back before dawn, and the two little ones were very well-behaved and listened to Qin Suisui.

Once she confirmed that the two little ones had run into the woods, Qin Suisui began to take off her clothes to prepare for a bath.

When she took off her small cloth bag, she habitually rummaged through it to see if there were any handkerchiefs to wash. When she pulled out a white handkerchief with blue flowers, she suddenly paused.

In last night's "hallucination," she used this handkerchief to wrap the lantern flower. Now it seems there really is something inside the handkerchief? But didn't Aunt Zhang say last night that there weren't any lantern flowers in that area? Lantern flowers all grow on the mountain... So what's in the handkerchief now...?

Qin Suisui suddenly shivered, and the handkerchief in her hand felt hot to the touch. Startled by her own imagination, she threw the handkerchief to the ground with a "thud." As she backed away, she accidentally bumped into the wooden basin on the washbasin, which fell heavily to the ground with a dull thud.

"Sui Sui? What's wrong? Sui Sui? Are you alright? Should I come in?" Jia Zhenzhen went outside to get a drink of water and happened to hear this voice, thinking that something had happened to Qin Sui Sui.

"Zhenzhen, come in here for a moment."

Jia Zhenzhen frowned, strode over, and slammed the bathroom door open. Qin Suisui pointed to the handkerchief on the floor: "Zhenzhen, do you remember this handkerchief?"

Jia Zhenzhen looked in the direction she was pointing and saw a white handkerchief with blue flowers, seemingly wrapped around something, lying quietly on the ground.

She froze for a moment, then a dead memory suddenly resurfaced: last night, after she and Sui Sui picked some lantern flowers, they seemed to have used this very handkerchief…

"ah!"

She screamed in fright and jumped to Qin Suisui's side. The two of them stood close together, their eyes warily fixed on the handkerchief.

She screamed so loudly that even Hu Jue, who was in the first room, heard her and rushed out, asking, "What's wrong? What happened?"

Seeing the two women embracing tightly, and looking at the handkerchief on the ground, he frowned: "What's wrong? What's inside? Are there bugs?"

He knew that many women were afraid of insects, just like his wife, who was originally from the inland. After coming to Qiongtan Island with him, she was often terrified and cried when she saw cockroaches the size of half a palm.

So he subconsciously assumed that there was a cockroach under that handkerchief.

He stomped on it with lightning speed, reassuring them as he said, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, it's just a bug, I'll kill it."

As he spoke, he bent down to pick up the handkerchief and was about to open it.

Jia Zhenzhen and Qin Suisui both reached out at the same time: "No!" They weren't ready!

But Hu Jue was faster than them; by the time the two women spoke, he had already picked up the handkerchief and opened it.

Qin Suisui and Jia Zhenzhen reflexively closed their eyes, unable to look at all, their minds filled with the image of the child's remains in that big tree hole from that day.

"Huh? They're not bugs. Why are you wrapping these up? They're disgusting."