When Bai woke up early the next morning, she had already filled a lot of water with the broken bucket in the yard, picked some wild fruits and caught a few fish. After arranging everything, she hurried to the town.
It was an hour's walk from here to her home, which is why she didn't bring the frail Bai Shi with her. After all, her feet were blistered from walking all the way, and she ignored the pain and went straight to the market.
Upon arriving there, she first used a small gold bean she had prepared to exchange for a horse. Then, she rode at full speed and arrived in Lin'an City at noon, where she pawned all her jewelry and obtained three thousand taels of silver.
For convenience, she asked the shopkeeper to exchange the silver for a ten-tael ingot of cash. However, to avoid attracting attention, she did not ask the shopkeeper to pack her box. Instead, she used a particularly worn but sturdy cloth bag, covered it with several tattered clothes, and then mounted her horse and left the city.
Once she reached a secluded spot, she immediately stored it in her spatial storage, then changed her clothes before returning to the city.
This time, she had two hundred taels of silver in her bag. The first place she went to was a clothing shop, where she ordered forty sets of summer clothes and forty sets of spring clothes for herself and her mother.
Of course, winter warmth is also essential. She chose the best cotton for the inner lining of the clothes and the cheapest yet durable and windproof coarse cloth for the outer garment. She asked the shopkeeper to make a design for all of these.
Seeing that she ordered so much, the shopkeeper assumed she was from a wealthy and powerful family and was in charge of procurement. In order to win her over and ensure future business, he offered her a very reasonable price. The total cost was 150 taels of silver, and the production period was 15 days.
Then she ordered fifty 10-pound cotton quilts and thirty pillows, all necessities for keeping warm. The total cost was fifty taels of silver, and the production period was fifteen days. She only took two tattered cotton quilts that she asked the shop owner to give her.
After visiting those two households, she hurriedly bought some rice, flour, oil, salt, a small amount of vegetables, an iron pot, and a spatula before heading back. However, to avoid causing unnecessary trouble, she did not ride her horse to the village entrance. Instead, she found a relatively secluded cave some distance away and put the horse inside before carrying her bags and belongings straight to the dilapidated house.
As soon as I reached the door, I heard a familiar voice from inside: "Shanshan is really something, leaving you here, Auntie, and running off like that."
Bai hurriedly explained, "No, Shanshan has something to do."
"What could she possibly have done? In my opinion, my cousin is just selfish. This time she insisted on causing trouble for my mother and grandmother. Luckily, my mother is strong enough to break open the Chu family's coffin and escape death, otherwise she would be a murderer!"
"Clang!"
Cheng Shanshan threw the iron pot directly on the ground.
The loud thud startled everyone inside.
When Cheng Wan'er saw her, she immediately went up to her in a very warm manner: "Cousin, you're finally back."
Cheng Shanshan looked at her with extremely cold eyes: "What are you doing here?"
Before Cheng Wan'er could speak, Bai Shi stepped forward to explain: "Shanshan, don't misunderstand. Wan'er came to tell me that your aunt is alright. Look, she even brought a lot of food."
Cheng Shanshan tried hard to suppress her anger: "I don't have any aunt!"
"Cough cough."
Mr. Bai was a little embarrassed.
Cheng Wan'er frowned and looked at Cheng Shanshan: "Cousin, you can make a scene all you want, but everyone in the village is saying you're disobedient and unfilial! How will you ever get married like this?"
Cheng Shanshan ignored her.
He started organizing the things he had bought without a second thought.
To avoid arousing suspicion, she bought only leftover vegetables from the stalls that were closing up shop, and the rice and flour were infested with insects. The pot was also rusty. The only good thing was the two cotton quilts that were given away, but on her way back, she deliberately tore them in several places and stuffed them with some grass leaves.
Cheng Wan'er looked at the things with disgust and couldn't help but cover her nose: "My God, cousin, did you pick these up? Are there rats nesting in them?"
"none of your business."
Cheng Shanshan replied.
Then she quickly tidied up the bed.
She placed one of the two quilts on the hay and used the other as a cover. The pillow was made of hay wrapped in two tattered cloths. Although it was rather simple, it was at least much better than last night.
Seeing that Cheng Shanshan was not friendly, Cheng Wan'er turned to Bai Shi and said, "Aunt, look at the mess she's made! You should come home with me and apologize. It's much better than suffering here with her!"
Have you said enough?
Cheng Shanshan glared menacingly at Cheng Wan'er: "You keep talking about going home, but that's your home, not ours. What would we do back there? Continue serving you?"
"I am……"
Cheng Wan'er looked at Cheng Shanshan with a wronged expression: "Cousin, how did you... become like this? Weren't we very close before?"
"Are we close?"
Cheng Shanshan found this ridiculous: "Take your leftovers and get back to your mother! I'm warning you, if you don't want to die, you'd better avoid me from now on!" As she spoke, she raised the kitchen knife in her hand, her expression extremely fierce.
Seeing Cheng Shanshan's ruthlessness, Cheng Wan'er was so frightened that she ran to the door and said, "Cheng Shanshan, you will regret this!" Then she ran away.
Bai felt a pang of pity: "Shanshan, Wan'er meant well, really."
Cheng Shanshan was already feeling hot-blooded upon seeing Cheng Wan'er, and Bai Shi's words made her completely lose her composure: "Mother, why do you think everyone means well? Do you think I want to harm you?"
"Shanshan, that's not what I meant."
Bai realized she had said the wrong thing and panicked.
Cheng Shanshan looked at Bai Shi with a mixture of heartache and helplessness, but she knew she couldn't be soft-hearted and had to make her stance clear this time: "Mother, I know you're soft-hearted, but you should also know that the people in the Cheng family are wolves in sheep's clothing. For our future to be better, you have to harden your heart and refuse those people."
Madam Bai nodded: "Okay, Mother will listen to you."
"As long as you listen to me."
Cheng Shanshan breathed a sigh of relief for the time being.
Then he led Bai Shi to start sorting out the scraps of vegetable leaves and the rusty iron pot.
The two of them worked busily for an hour to set up a simple stove. After arranging the rice, flour, oil, and other ingredients, she cleaned an old, dilapidated water vat in the yard and filled it with water using a broken bucket. Finally, it looked like a kitchen.
That evening, they made boiled vegetable noodles. Although there was no meat, at least they didn't have to worry about what others thought when they ate, which was quite pleasant.
After Bai fell asleep that night, Cheng Shanshan quietly slipped out of the house again...
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