Neither Wang Ergou nor Fang Peiru slept well that night.
I just want to see if Jiang Tangtang, who always loves to cause trouble, will still cause trouble, and if she will call Lu Shiyan away again because of those strange requests.
Once Lu Shiyan leaves, it will be easier for the two of them to take action.
Unbeknownst to the two, Jiang Tangtang had already gone through a lot of trouble while they were rushing on their way.
After arriving at the three-way intersection, Jiang Tangtang quickly activated the scanning function.
Through system scanning, Jiang Tangtang discovered that although there was no water source here, there was a large clump of banana trees near the mountainside close to the river.
The banana tree is a very drought-resistant plant with a well-developed root system that has a strong water storage capacity, and its leaves have a special structure that also helps retain moisture.
In addition, the fruit of the banana tree tastes similar to bananas when ripe, the banana flowers can also be used as a vegetable, and the heart of the banana tree is very juicy and tastes sweet and delicious.
Jiang Tangtang was afraid of snakes, and since it was already dark, she didn't want to go to the mountainside. However, she was also afraid that Lu Shiyan wouldn't be able to find the place and would end up not finding the banana tree.
So she thought about it for a moment and started clamoring for fish, asking Lu Shiyan to catch some for her.
The villagers of Dawan Village rolled their eyes when they heard this.
Well, here we go again, causing trouble.
Upon seeing this, a refugee nearby who was unaware of the situation couldn't help but inquire, "Is that a young lady from a family who has fallen on hard times?"
Gao Shumei pouted and said, "What young lady! She's just a butcher's daughter."
The refugees nearby didn't believe it. One of the women said, "Could a butcher's family raise such a pampered girl? They're fleeing from disaster, and they still want to eat fish?"
Besides, apart from wealthy families, few poor families like to eat fish. Not only are there many bones, but it also has a fishy smell, and you can barely eat two ounces of meat after a long time. It's nowhere near as satisfying as eating a big chunk of meat.
Although the family was trying to hide it, she had a very keen sense of smell and could clearly smell the meat in their dry rations.
She's already eating meat, yet she's still clamoring for fish. If she weren't from a wealthy family, what daughter would act so unruly?
The woman expressed her doubts at the opportune moment.
Gao Shumei turned around and glanced at the woman. She saw two young men in their early twenties following behind her. The two men were staring intently at Jiang Tangtang. Instead of answering the woman's question, they looked at the two young men and asked the woman, "Are these two your sons?"
Speaking of her sons, the woman's face showed a hint of pride, "Of course, I was so lucky to have these two big boys protecting me all the way here, otherwise I would be dead by now. This road is really chaotic!"
"Then you'd better keep a close eye on your son, lest he be bewitched by that vixen. If he is, I'm afraid he won't even recognize his own parents."
As Gao Shumei spoke, she gave Lu Shiyan a look and said, "See that tall, handsome man with a face as good as a god descended from heaven? That's the man of that vixen."
He was such a good child, both filial and kind-hearted. Whenever someone was in trouble, he was the first to step forward and help.
But ever since he married that vixen, he's changed. He's like a stone to us villagers now, cold and hard. He's so good to that vixen, though; whatever she says goes. I bet if she wanted the moon, he'd go and pluck it down for her.”
The woman didn't actually intend to find Jiang Tangtang to be her daughter-in-law. She just saw that Jiang's family had a carriage, and that she complained about eating meat and insisted on eating fish, so she assumed that Jiang was from a wealthy family and wanted to take her two sons there to find a way out.
Although her two sons were strong, her family was really poor. Before the disaster, they could barely make ends meet.
But then one disaster followed another, and now, after fleeing for so long, her family has no food left at all.
Now they rely entirely on tree bark and wild vegetables to fill their stomachs.
"You'd better keep a close eye on your two boys, lest they be bewitched by that vixen."
Gao Shumei, unaware of her thoughts, pointed to Li Shi and the others beside her, "See those three men over there? They've all been bewitched by that vixen. To please her, they'll do anything. They even went up the mountain to catch doves, saving them for her instead of eating them themselves."
The woman looked surprised. "Is this even possible? Isn't this a bit too reckless?"
She glanced at Lu Shiyan again, and said incredulously, "Her man is handsome and looks like a vigorous young man. How could she tolerate this?"
“How can we not tolerate it? Don’t you know what time it is? To survive, who cares about propriety and shame?”
Gao Shumei was angry that the Lu family hadn't given her any beef, so she vented her dissatisfaction by telling the lady all the rumors she had heard from Lu Cuilan.
The woman initially didn't believe it, but thinking about the state of the world these days, she gradually came to believe it.
Several men in her village sold their wives just for a bite to eat, didn't they? At least this guy hasn't sold his wife yet!
The woman sighed inwardly and turned to look. She saw the handsome young man leading a burly man, walking upstream along the dried-up river.
She couldn't help but look surprised. "You're really going to catch fish for her? The river's all dried up. Where are the fish coming from?"
Gao Shumei looked completely unfazed. "What's so strange about this? Have you ever seen a woman on a famine escape route who doesn't walk a single step, but sits comfortably in an oxcart, complaining that the sun is too hot and asking a man to knit her a hat?"
The woman's eyes widened again. Gao Shumei was amused by the shocked look on the woman's face and continued, "Have you ever seen a dead ox pulling a cart that refuses to walk and instead sits on a man's shoulders?"
She recounted all sorts of bizarre things Jiang Tangtang had done, and with each one she mentioned, the woman opposite her looked even more astonished.
Looking at the woman's expression, Gao Shumei felt a strange sensation.
On one hand, she felt that Jiang Tangtang was a disgrace to women, and that the Lu family must be out of their minds to let her cause such trouble.
On the one hand, he felt a sense of pleasant satisfaction from the woman's shocked expression.
This kind of mentality is like having no money yourself, but having a very rich relative, and then bragging to others about how rich this relative is.
He felt jealous and envious of his wealthy relative, but at the same time, he couldn't help but satisfy his vanity by boasting.
It was as if by saying this, one's own identity had changed.
While the villagers of Dawan Village were shaking their heads and saying that Jiang Tangtang was too noisy and that Lu Shiyan should slap her hard to make her behave, Lu Shiyan was seriously considering what Jiang Tangtang had said.
He had noticed something unusual when he first found the wild horse earlier that day.
Her seemingly unreasonable demands were ultimately aimed at directing him to that mountain valley.
This time was no different. She seemed to be being unreasonable, but he gleaned several key pieces of information from her words.
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