Chapter 36 Chapter 36 Different Thoughts

Zhou Huaian put down the chicken bus and immediately went to the kitchen to pour two bowls of boiled water. He handed one bowl to Yang Chunyan, and they both gulped down half a bowl before they felt thirsty.

Yang Chunyan took out two candies from her bag and gave them to Zhou Xiaolin. The little girl called her sweetly.

Zhou Huaian rubbed her head: "Call me daddy!"

"Don't shout, these are the candies my aunt gave me." Zhou Xiaolin turned around and ran.

"Your aunt is my wife. If you don't call me, I won't give you food next time."

"Dad!" For the sake of her sweet Tangtang, Zhou Xiaolin had to turn her head and called out reluctantly.

"Little thing!" Zhou Huaian waved his hand and sat down on the straw bench under the eaves. "What a horrible weather! It's so hot and it's not raining."

"What's the use of pointing fingers at the sky and cursing the earth? It will come when it's time to come." Zhou's mother said as she took the meat, pork intestines and bones in the bamboo basket to the kitchen.

Zhao Huifang and Li Qiuyue poured out the grass from the baskets on their backs, and the sisters-in-law used a grass rake to rake the grass and hang it up to dry before going to the kitchen to help clean the pig intestines.

Zhou Huaian sat for a while, pushed the chicken cart to the small house next to the pigpen in the backyard, stood the chicken cart upright and placed it against the wall, climbed up the plum tree, sat on the branch and picked a few to eat, then slid down the tree and walked towards the front yard.

Yang Chunyan went back to the house, put down her shoulder bag, took off her waist bag, and found that she had prickly heat all around her waist.

He sat down on the edge of the bed, took the money out of his waist bag, and began to count the money he still had to give to Zhou Huaian.

Snake medicine cost 5 cents, medicine hoe and knife cost 5 yuan, tobacco leaves cost 1 yuan...a total of 17.2 yuan was spent, and I still had to give him 2.8 yuan.

Zhou Huaian pushed the door open and walked in. He saw the money on the bed and handed Yang Chunyan a few plums. "Where's my money? I hope it's all gone?"

Yang Chunyan broke open one and ate it before handing him the money and cigarettes. "I still have 2.8 yuan and two packs of cigarettes."

Seeing that she was no longer trying to take his money, Zhou Huaian took it with a smile and put the pack of cigarettes and the money in his pocket.

Yang Chunyan took out the active oil and said, "Take off your clothes and I'll rub some on your arms and wrists."

"Yes!" Zhou Huaian took off his clothes. Yang Chunyan poured some activating oil into his palms and rubbed them.

Zhou Huaian felt itchy when her little hands rubbed against his chest, so he grabbed her hand and said, "Wife, can you take a nap?"

"Get lost!" Yang Chunyan raised her hand and hit him.

"You hit me again!" Zhou Huaian put on his clothes angrily, "I'm going to go out for a walk. I'll come back in the afternoon and go cut some flowers with you."

Yang Chunyan put the active oil away and said, "The sun is so bright, don't you want to take a nap?"

"I'll go ask some of them," Zhou Huaian said angrily, "If I find out who stole our corn, I'll kill him if I catch him."

"Huai'an," Yang Chunyan hurriedly held him back, "Don't be impulsive. If you kill someone, you will be arrested and shot!"

"I know. First find out who did it. When we catch him, beat him up and then ask him to pay the money!"

"It's good that you know it." Yang Chunyan thought about it and reminded, "The matter of the bezoar has spread all over the village. Keep your mouth shut in front of your friends."

Zhou Huaian pointed at himself and said, "Do I look stupid to you? I'm leaving first. I'll be back when the sun goes down to cut herbs with you."

Yang Chunyan was skeptical about what he said, "You decide for yourself. If you want to make money, come back early."

"Nonsense!" Zhou Huaian took two steps, turned back, grabbed the back of her head, and kissed her soft lips heavily, "You cruel woman." After saying that, before Yang Chunyan could react, he let her go and ran away.

Yang Chunyan put her hand on her lips and was stunned for a while before she came to her senses. She put the money away, took out the knife, fruit candies, flashlight and batteries from her bag, took off her going-out clothes, changed into clothes for working at home, and walked out of the room.

There were tobacco leaves and a medicine hoe in the small backpack at the door of the main room. Yang Chunyan took out the tobacco leaves and placed them on the eight-immortals table, took out the medicine hoe and walked towards the backyard, intending to find two pieces of wood to make a hoe handle.

When we arrived at the backyard, we saw Zhou's mother and sister-in-law washing pig intestines, and Li Qiuyue and Zhang Xiuxiang sewing shoe soles.

Mother Zhou took a look and said, "I thought you wanted to sleep for a while!"

"I'll find two hoe handles and wait for the old man to come back and help me fix the hoe handles." Yang Chunyan pulled out a few wooden sticks and selected the ones with good toughness.

Li Qiuyue glanced at her and said, "Chun Yan'er, why did you buy such a small hoe?"

Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "This is a medicinal hoe, used to dig herbs!"

"I saw you dug up some Houttuynia cordata yesterday. How much can you sell it for per pound?"

"Three cents a pound."

"Wow!" Li Xiuyue looked at her in surprise, "Can Houttuynia cordata be sold for three cents a pound?"

"Yeah!" Yang Chunyan didn't want to say more, and walked towards the front yard with the two selected wooden sticks.

Li Qiuyue looked at her from behind and said dissatisfiedly, "Mom, in two days, the third brother and the old man will go up the mountain to cut trees. Will Huai'an still go with Chunyan to dig herbs and sell them?"

"I know what you're thinking!" Zhou's mother glanced at her calmly. "You're good in every way, except that you're a little impatient. Think about it, the two of them just went to sell herbs once, and they haven't found a way yet. Can't you wait for two days?"

She also wanted Yang Chunyan to bring up her three daughters-in-law to dig herbs and sell them, but she could see that Yang Chunyan didn't want to mention it yet.

Li Qiuyue nodded awkwardly, "I think if Chunyan takes us to dig herbs, when we repair the house, when Lao Xiong and the team members ask about the money, we can say that we dug herbs and sold them."

Zhao Huifang and Zhang Xiuxiang were also thinking that since Houttuynia cordata is sold at three cents per pound, other herbs might be even more expensive. Even if they could sell it for two or three yuan at a time, it would still be better than doing physical work like carrying coal from a coal mine.

Moreover, the coal mines don’t recruit people very often. They only hire people to work for two days when the work is too busy. Normally, only those with connections can go.

Yang Chunyan took the hoe and the stick back to the front yard, then took the sickle and started sharpening it at the whetstone by the well.

She poured some water on the grindstone and while sharpening the knife, she was wondering whether she should take her three sisters-in-law to dig herbs.

It would be difficult for the villagers to notice her and Huai'an alone when they went to dig herbs to sell. But once several people from the family went, the villagers would soon discover that herbs could also be sold for money.

Many people in the village know about herbs like Chinese lobelia, Chinese bark lotus, houttuynia cordata, motherwort, wormwood, and calamus. If everyone goes to dig them, they will be hard to find.

She also had a concern. No matter how much she and Zhou Huaian dug, the money from the sales would be theirs. Besides, there should be many more valuable herbs on the mountain these days than there would be thirty or forty years later.

Although she could dig more by bringing her three sisters-in-law along, she felt it was not worth it to split the money earned from selling the herbs equally. She was afraid that if she gave them too little, they would be dissatisfied.

Yang Chunyan thought for a while but still couldn't make a decision, so she simply put on a straw hat, picked up her backpack and walked towards the stone bridge.

As she walked, she recalled that in her previous life, no matter whether Zhou Huaian was alive or after he left, Zhou's brother and sister-in-law had always taken good care of her.

Especially when she got older and encountered illness and pain, every time either her sisters-in-law took turns to take care of her, or she asked her children to look after her. She owed them all these favors.

After she came back, what she hoped most was to avoid the bad things that happened in her previous life, so that her grandfather and father-in-law could have a good end, and everyone's life could be better than in the previous life...

(End of this chapter)