Chapter 14

Niu Ailing was angry and didn't want to talk to her, but when she heard the word "get rich", she couldn't move her feet.

Looking at Zhao Shiliu in confusion, she asked, "Get rich? How did you get rich?"

Zhao Shiliu pulled her to sit down and pretended to chat. Her tone was casual, as if she was just having a normal conversation. "Oh, these days, everyone is poor. How much money can you make by following the usual path? I heard that guy sold his own daughter to someone else as a child bride and made a full 150 yuan!"

"What?!" Niu Ailing almost popped her eyes out.

She opened her hand and made a five sign. "Can it be sold for this much? One hundred and fifty?"

Zhao Shiliu laughed and said, "His daughter is beautiful. If she were not good-looking, she would not be sold at this price. Look at my Chunhua and Xiahua. No one wants them even if I give them away for free."

Niu Ailing turned her head and glanced at Chunhua who was washing clothes in the yard. In fact, Chunhua looked pretty good, but after hearing what Zhao Shiliu said, she thought that people outside really looked down on people with this kind of looks. If they even looked down on this kind of looks, then what kind of people could be sold for 150 yuan?

Almost in an instant, Niu Ailing remembered Chu Jiujiu's doll-like face.

She was lost in thought when Zhao Shiliu patted her coat and casually said, "My sister-in-law told me all this. I heard that the family thought their daughter ate too much and couldn't afford to feed her anymore, so they sold her to provide food for their other children. It's 150 yuan. If we had a son, we'd have a betrothal gift. I can't bear to part with her. No matter how much she eats, she's my own child. Selling her for money would be heartbreaking."

Changing the subject, she added, "However, there's nothing wrong with being a child bride. As long as she's raised as a daughter-in-law at home, they won't treat her harshly. When she's old enough, they'll just put her in the house and save her the trouble of getting married. If you think about it this way, this one hundred and fifty yuan is just a betrothal gift. It's not like selling a child at all, isn't it, sister-in-law?"

Niu Ailing: "Well...well, you are right."

In fact, she didn't even hear what Zhao Shiliu said.

Seeing her like this, Zhao Shiliu laughed in her heart and stood up. "Okay, I still have a lot of work to do at home, sister-in-law, I'll go back first."

Then she called out to the yard, "Chunhua, after you finish washing the clothes, remember to bring your sister home."

After saying that, Zhao Shiliu left gracefully, feeling very proud.

The entire Zhang family was full of idiots, except for Zhao Shiliu, who had a bright mind. She wouldn't do something as immoral as selling a child. If Niu Ailing succeeded, she could use the situation to split the family and get a share of the money. With such a strong leverage over her, she wasn't afraid that Niu Ailing wouldn't give her the money.

If Niu Ailing failed, it would not be a big loss for her.

Oh my, only someone as smart as her could come up with this trick of getting something for nothing.

Chu Jiujiu didn't know that someone had already set their sights on her, and her mind was full of mushrooms.

After going up the mountain, she found out that Han Shengyi didn't know how to pick mushrooms.

Specifically, he didn't know which mushrooms were edible.

Unlike Chu Jiujiu, he couldn't move around freely in the village. Even when going up the mountain, he had to avoid people or go at night. People would stay away from him when they saw him, and of course no one would come to teach him how to identify these little things.

Now, with Chu Jiujiu here, she will be particularly enthusiastic about passing on the mushroom picking technique.

Chu Jiujiu was a quick learner, especially when it came to memorizing mushrooms, but she wasn't very good at applying enough force, and she always ended up breaking them. She also didn't know how to dig up the soil for some of the mushrooms, which had roots buried deep underground. Han Shengyi was a perfect complement to her; he was very hands-on, and even if Chu Jiujiu's demonstrations were wrong, he could always correct them himself.

The two of them were busy, one looking and the other digging. Finally, they brought the mushrooms to the stream again. The bamboo forest was on the shady side of the mountain, and the stream was on the sunny side of the mountain. It took them a long time to get back to the stream. This place had become their base camp. They seemed to be uncomfortable with going to other places.

As usual, they set up a fire to grill. Chu Jiujiu looked at the cleaned mushrooms and said with regret, "If only I had a pot, boiled mushrooms are really delicious..."

Han Shengyi didn't have a pot, but he silently took out a small cloth bag from his arms.

Chu Jiujiu looked over curiously. When he unfolded the cloth bag, she took a closer look and immediately laughed in surprise, "It's salt!"

"Brother Shengyi, how did you get salt?"

Han Shengyi also laughed with her, "My grandma gave it to me."

In fact, it was Grandpa Han who secretly slipped the salt to him when he went out this morning. Grandpa Han thought he was very secretive, but he didn't know that their house was too small. If something was missing, Grandma Han could find it with her eyes closed. He was able to steal the salt with Grandma Han's tacit approval.

After eating the fish and chicken sent by Chu Jiujiu, Grandma Han could no longer ask him to stay away from Chu Jiujiu. Now, for five or six days in a row, Chu Jiujiu would come to find Han Shengyi and eat with him every noon. Grandma Han did not stop her, but Grandpa Han found a way to improve the quality of their lunch.

Mushrooms are not like meat, you can tell whether they are cooked or not at a glance. Both of them were novices at grilling mushrooms. Han Shengyi waited for a while and felt that it was almost cooked. He took a bite first. As soon as he put it in, it tasted strange. He relied on his sixth sense to think that it was cooked.

Chu Jiujiu took the mushroom and said: ...

Although she was a little skeptical of Han Shengyi's judgment, she didn't know how long it would take to roast the mushrooms. They had roasted them for more than ten minutes, so it should be fine.

So Chu Jiujiu also took a bite tentatively.

If there really was something wrong with the mushrooms, then their lives would have come to an end here.

…

While eating mushrooms, Chu Jiujiu thought of the lotus pods she brought with her. She peeled off the fluffy outer skin, revealing oval emerald green beads.

Chu Jiujiu picked up the beads with a puzzled expression.

She had never seen raw lotus seeds, but she had seen lotus seed and longan eight-treasure porridge. Aren’t the lotus seeds in it white?

Han Shengyi picked up one and used his fingernails to break open the emerald green skin, revealing the white flesh inside. He handed it to Chu Jiujiu and said, "You have to peel off the outer part before you eat it. Try it, it's delicious."

Chu Jiujiu nodded in surprise and crowed like a rooster: "Cock-a-doodle-doo!"

"So that's how it is!"

After saying that, Chu Jiujiu put the white lotus seeds into her mouth. Han Shengyi just turned his head to take a look at the mushrooms being roasted, but without noticing this one glance, Chu Jiujiu had another accident.

Covering her mouth, her facial features wrinkled together. She spat out the lotus seeds, but the taste still lingered on her tongue. So, with an expression as if she was about to die of poisoning, she said to Han Shengyi with difficulty: "It's so bitter..."

Han Shengyi: "... if you remove the lotus seeds, it won't be bitter anymore."

He showed it to Chu Jiujiu, breaking open the lotus seeds to reveal the green sprouts inside. After removing the sprouts, he ate the white part. The sprouts were sticky, so Han Shengyi didn't let Chu Jiujiu touch them and put the processed part directly into her mouth.

Chu Jiujiu chewed it carefully, then uttered a familiar exclamation: "Delicious!"

So Han Shengyi smiled again, handed the mushrooms to Chu Jiujiu, and started peeling lotus seeds. He had long fingers, so he was particularly good at peeling this kind of thing.

"Actually, I've never eaten anything like this before coming to Qingzhu Village."

Chu Jiujiu was spinning the mushroom skewers. Upon hearing this, she asked, "Brother Shengyi, where are you from?"

Han Shengyi replied: "The capital."

He lowered his eyes, his attention focused on the lotus seeds. It was not until he said this answer that he was stunned for a moment, as if he was a little surprised and puzzled.

Han Shengyi never told outsiders about things outside Qingzhu Village. It was really beyond his expectation that he would blurt it out now. However, he was stunned for only a moment. Soon, he continued to peel lotus seeds, and the trace of surprise disappeared without a trace.

Chu Jiujiu wasn't as cautious as Han Shengyi. She simply mentioned her hometown, "My ancestors were also from the capital."

Han Shengyi thought she was talking about a long time ago, but he didn't know that the ancestor she was talking about was actually not yet sixty years old and was being sent to a poor place to work as a garment factory director.

…

Following her words, Han Shengyi also talked about his ancestors. The family history of the old Han family was unremarkable. Their ancestors were all farmers. It was not until the generation of Grandpa Han that they suddenly became powerful.

Eat lotus seeds, chew mushrooms, and listen to Han Shengyi tell stories about the past.

Soon, it was getting late, and the two children who had drifted to the same mountain village for different reasons returned to their respective homes with the mushrooms they had divided.

As expected, Chu Shao heard Chu Jiujiu mention Han Shengyi while eating mushrooms. He had originally wanted to keep Chu Jiujiu away from the cowshed, but, in her current situation, Chu Jiujiu had no playmates. She liked Han Shengyi, and Han Shengyi treated her well. Besides, if she was with Han Shengyi, she wouldn't be constantly being dragged around and questioned by the villagers.

Out of caution, Chu Shao asked a few questions: "Has he asked you about your family situation?"

Chu Jiujiu shook her head. "No, Brother Shengyi hardly ever asks me questions."

"Did he ask you to do anything, like turning the soil or watering the vegetable patch?"

Chu Jiujiu shook her head again, "I want to help, but Brother Shengyi won't let me. He said these seedlings are very expensive and I can't afford them."

Chu Shao: “…”

"Go to sleep."

Chu Shao lay down, feeling a little numb.

He was thinking too much.