"Stop, stop, stop! Be quiet, everyone!" Li Xiangdong was exasperated by his friends' ability to veer off-topic. They were already talking about begging and stealing money. If he didn't interrupt them, who knew what they would say next.

"Look what this is!" Li Xiangdong took out a golden cicada stalk to show everyone.

"Isn't this a cicada nymph's shell? I know!"

"You can't eat this, Second Brother. Only cicada nymphs are edible."

"Shh—listen to me! Someone wants to buy these! Twenty for a dime!" Li Xiangdong whispered.

"One cent! You can earn one cent by finding 20! So if I find 200, I'll make a dollar!"

"I want to buy ten boxes of firecrackers! I'll set off one box in the morning and another box at night!"

"Second brother, I'll go right now!"

Seeing his friends suddenly get excited, Li Xiangdong quickly stopped them, "Keep your voices down, keep your voices down! If others hear you, how will you make money!"

"Shh-shh-shh-shh-" Li Guoqing and the others quickly covered each other's mouths with their hands.

"Now I'm going to state a few rules. First, this matter must be kept secret. No one can tell anyone, Erhu, and you can't tell Gaifeng either!"

The group of friends laughed and winked at Erhu, saying that Gaifeng was Erhu's future wife.

"Second, the cicada shells must be dry and intact. Don't be clumsy and crush them; any shells missing parts won't be worth the money. Third, cicada nymphs molt at night, so everyone must hurry and try to collect all the cicada shells. Finally, you can start looking for cicada shells now. Including tomorrow morning, come back here at noon and hand them all over to me!"

"When will you give us the money?" Li Xiangjie was the quickest-witted kid.

"We'll split the money tomorrow night!"

"OK!"

"Charge!"

"Don't try to take it from me, I saw it first!"

Everyone scattered and each grabbed a tree to search carefully.

Tonight is destined to be a sleepless night. Under the bright moonlight, as you walk through the grass and through the dense branches, you can hear children's cheers from time to time.

The worry, tension, and exhaustion of the past few days made Li Xiangdong sleep until 11 o'clock the next day. The sun outside was bright and shining, and the house was quiet, with only his little sister sitting at the foot of Li Xiangdong, quietly playing with his toes.

Li Xiangdong sat up, stretched, scooped up the little girl, and gave her a quick kiss. The little girl giggled.

"Little girl, your second brother won't let you suffer like you did in your past life! In this life, I'll make sure you live a life of luxury!"

The little girl, a fan, adorably mimicked him, saying, "Eat the best food and drink the best drinks!"

"Let's go, your second brother will take you to make money."

Li Xiangdong picked up a large basket made of thorns and carried it on his back. He poured the more than five hundred cicada nymphs he had caught into it and then tied his younger sister to his chest with a strap.

As he walked to the riverbank, he found Erhu already waiting for him, accompanied by a girl of about fourteen or fifteen years old. Li Xiangdong frowned, walked over, and greeted the two of them.

"Two tigers, changed to phoenix."

"Second Brother, Gaifeng came to play with me last night. When she saw me looking for cicada shells, she insisted on coming with me. I thought, two people can find more than one person..." Erhu noticed that Li Xiangdong's expression was a bit unpleasant. Remembering the special instructions he had given him yesterday, he couldn't explain any further.

"Okay, this is the last time. Tell Gaifeng to keep it a secret."

Li Xiangdong thought about how Gai Feng in his previous life was a fiery and energetic person, but not one who liked to cause trouble, so he accepted Erhu's explanation. However, he still held a grudge against Erhu for being undisciplined.

"Yes, yes. Second brother, look how many we found, nine hundred and eighty-three!" Erhu carefully opened his blue coarse cloth jacket, revealing a collection of intact golden cicada flowers inside.

"Hmm, not bad, nine hundred and eighty-three is forty-nine cents." Li Xiangdong took out a pencil and neatly wrote "Wang Erhu, 983, 4.9 yuan" on the exercise book.

Erhu grinned as he looked at the words on the homework book, then carefully poured the cicada skin into the bramble basket.

"Wait a minute!" Li Xiangdong thought for a moment, then dumped his golden cicada skin on the ground, gathered a few handfuls of wild grass to line the bottom of his basket, and tore off two sheets of homework paper to put on top of the grass. "Pour it out, be careful!"

One after another, Li Guoqing, Li Xiangjie, Zhao Xiaojun, and Guo Yuxi arrived, all covered in sweat.

Everyone held their bamboo baskets or bundles carefully, as if they were carrying a precious treasure.

After a flurry of counting, Li Xiangdong wrote down the following in his notebook: Li Guoqing, 820, 4.1 yuan. Li Xiangjie, 700, 3.5 yuan. Zhao Xiaojun, 680, 3.4 yuan. Guo Yuxi, 600, 3 yuan.

The children's eyes lit up as they looked at the numbers on their workbooks, as if they could see toy guns, steaming hot meat buns, canned hawthorn berries, and red and green firecrackers...

Guo Yuxi was happy for a short while, but then she became unhappy. "Second brother, weren't we told to keep it a secret? Why did Erhu bring Gaifeng along? The two of them have searched more than we have."

The moment Li Xiangdong saw Gai Feng, he knew his friends would have objections. Hearing Guo Yuxi complain, he immediately told them what he'd prepared: "You can find people to help you catch them, but there's a bottom line: you can't tell anyone the golden cicada garments you're collecting are for me, and you absolutely can't tell anyone they can be exchanged for money. If I hear from anyone that the golden cicada garments can be exchanged for money…" He glanced around at everyone, lingering particularly on Gai Feng and Er Hu, "I won't collect any of your golden cicada garments, and you won't get a single penny in return."

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