The next day, Shen Yuan carried her medicine basket into the mountains as before.
She wandered around the mountains for half a day and picked a small basket of medicinal herbs. Now that it's autumn, there aren't many medicinal herbs to pick in the mountains; she could only find common herbs like forsythia and cassia seeds.
But Shen Yuan was always luckier than others when it came to gathering herbs. She could always find herbs that others couldn't. While gathering wild mushrooms, she even dug up a few angelica roots.
As Shen Yuan was cleaning the soil around the roots of the angelica root, she suddenly heard the rustling sound of leaves behind her.
She spent many years gathering herbs in the mountains and knew that the mountains were full of birds and beasts, so she was always very alert when gathering herbs and would turn around immediately if she heard any noise behind her.
When Zhao Dayong saw Shen Yuan turn around, he immediately stopped in his tracks and scratched his head somewhat guiltily. "Yuan girl, did you go into the mountains to gather herbs?"
Shen Yuan gave a soft "hmm." The person she was waiting for had finally arrived.
Zhao Dayong glanced at the bamboo basket on Shen Yuan's back, noticing the thick pile of wild mushrooms on it, and asked, "Did you find any valuable medicinal herbs? Did you dig up the 'life-giving mushroom' I told you about last time?"
“No.” Shen Yuan shook her head. “They were probably poached.”
Upon hearing this, Zhao Dayong licked his lower lip awkwardly. Of course, he knew that Shen Yuan hadn't found it, because he had dug it up before telling Shen Yuan.
Unfortunately, he didn't know how to dig. After digging for a long time, he only dug out a root about the length of his little finger. He even broke this root into four or five pieces. The shopkeeper bought it cheaply for one tael of silver, saying that the ginseng was young and had several broken pieces.
Zhao Dayong cleared his throat and asked again, "Yuan girl, didn't you say there were traces of wild boars in the mountains? How come I haven't found any after searching in these mountains for two days?"
"Several days have passed; perhaps it has run to another mountain!"
After saying that, Shen Yuan seemed to think of what happened that night. She lowered her head and said with some annoyance, "Brother Zhao, do you think I was too reckless that night? If I hadn't found the wild boar's tracks that night, I wouldn't have gone to the village head's house, and I wouldn't have... run into Aunt Zhao and Uncle Village Head's affair."
“Sigh, you’re right.” Zhao Dayong picked up where Shen Yuan left off. “If you hadn’t shouted that day, my cousin wouldn’t have died! Although I don’t like her, she’s too stingy! But with her dead, Chunhua and Qiuyue are motherless, those two children are so pitiful!”
Shen Yuan twitched the corner of her mouth. "I heard from the villagers that Chunhua and Qiuyue have been taken to the Wang family in the city by Aunt Zhao. From now on, they will be the Wang family's cousins, and their lives will definitely be better than they are now."
Zhao Dayong felt that Shen Yuan's words made some sense, but he didn't want Shen Yuan to feel comfortable, so he added, "But because of you, the village head was burned half to death and now he has to lie in bed every day. He can't be the village head anymore! How difficult will their family's life be from now on!"
Shen Yuan chuckled inwardly. She didn't think Zhao Dayong genuinely cared about Aunt Tian and Xiao Huzi's situation; he was just resentful and unwilling because he hadn't been able to get her family's land.
Shen Yuan followed Zhao Dayong's words and said, "Uncle Village Head suffered a lot because he was injured and sick, but fortunately, he saved a lot of money over the years. Even if he can no longer farm or work in the future, the money he left behind will be enough for Aunt Tian to raise Xiao Huzi to adulthood!"
"What did you say?" Zhao Dayong's almond-shaped eyes widened instantly. He asked in disbelief, "How did you know about this? How do you know how much money the village head has?"
“I went to see Aunt Tian yesterday. When she gave me some candy, I saw a wooden box in the cupboard. Aunt Tian accidentally knocked the lid off, and I saw that the wooden box was full of loose silver, probably about half a pound! Enough for them to live on for decades!”
Shen Yuan seemed worried that Zhao Dayong wouldn't believe her, so to prove her credibility, she even revealed where the box was.
After saying that, she realized she shouldn't have said it, and then warned Zhao Dayong, "I've only told you about this, so you mustn't tell anyone else! Wealth brings trouble, and it wouldn't be good if those scheming people in the village found out."
Zhao Dayong gave a vague "hmm".
"I can't say anymore, it's getting dark, I have to go down the mountain! Goodbye, Brother Zhao!" Shen Yuan waved to Zhao Dayong with her small bamboo basket on her back, then turned around. The smile on Shen Yuan's lips vanished the moment she turned away.
She gave a soft hum and carried half a basket of medicinal herbs and mushrooms down the mountain.
When Shen Yuan returned home, she emptied all the wild mushrooms from her small bamboo basket.
Seeing the fresh and tender mushrooms, Granny Liu smiled and said, "It's a pity not to use such good mushrooms to make soup. I'll go kill a chicken right now and stew a big pot of wild mushroom and old hen soup!"
After saying that, Granny Liu picked up a kitchen knife and rushed towards the chicken coop.
Shen Yuan silently mourned for three seconds for the chick that was going to die tonight.
As the sun set and the sky grew darker, the aroma wafting from the earthenware pot simmering in the stove grew stronger. Seeing that the chicken soup was almost ready, Shen Yuan went out to the village head's house.
"Aunt Tian, we've made mushroom and chicken soup. Grandma wants you and Xiao Hu to come over for some soup!"
Shen Yuan called out from the door of the village head's house, and the gate was opened in no time. Little Tiger was the first to peek out.
"Sister Yuanyuan, it's Sister Yuanyuan!" Little Tiger's round eyes curved into crescents as he tugged at Madam Tian's clothes. "Mom! I love chicken soup! I want to go to Sister Yuanyuan's house for chicken soup!"
Shen Yuan also looked at Madam Tian and said meaningfully, "Auntie, the chicken soup is almost done cooking, it's time to go drink it!"
"good."
Tian responded softly, took Xiao Huzi and went out the door. When they reached the outside, she looked back at the house again, as if she were looking at the man lying on the bed through the closed doors and windows.
She glanced at it for a moment, then looked away and said to Shen Yuan, "Let's go!"
Little Tiger really likes Shen Yuan. He held Shen Yuan's hand the whole way and told everyone he met that he wanted to go to Sister Yuan Yuan's house to drink chicken soup. He couldn't contain his excitement.
After the three of them walked away, a figure emerged from behind an old locust tree not far from the village head's house. It was Zhao Dayong, who had been observing them in the dark for a long time.
Even from a great distance, he could hear that Madam Tian was taking her son to Shen Yuan's house for dinner.
Seeing that only the village head was left at the village head's house, Zhao Dayong finally came out from behind the tree. Thinking of the silver that Shen Yuan had mentioned during the day, he rubbed his hands together, somewhat impatient.
This Chu Xiaoshan has so much money hidden away; he must have swindled it from the villagers!
Tonight he'll seek justice for the villagers and take back the money that doesn't belong to them in the first place! Who told the village head to repeatedly refuse to allocate land to him? He even failed to give him the land he promised to give to Shen Yuan's family!
When Zhao Dayong was young, he was ignorant and incurred debts. He had no choice but to sell all the fields in his family. After that, he had no land to cultivate and no food to eat, so he could only go into the mountains to hunt and live a life of hunger and hardship.
He desperately wanted his land back, but the village head refused to give it to him unless he paid him! Now he had no land and couldn't even get married!
Now he could not only get his land back, but also have enough money to last him half a lifetime. Zhao Dayong was so excited that he was trembling all over. He took several deep breaths before going around to the backyard of the village head and climbing over their courtyard wall.
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