"You've been credited with suppressing bandits?!"
Amian was taking a bath in a wooden tub when she suddenly heard a loud commotion outside the window.
Then she lowered her voice again, and it became unintelligible.
After washing up, she realized she was already past the point of being hungry and didn't feel hungry at all. She closed her eyes and rolled onto the bed.
Meng Chijian was worried that the baby would go hungry, so he insisted on giving her a bowl of millet porridge and forced her to eat most of it. Only when the little one in his arms closed her eyes and refused to open her mouth did he let her go to sleep.
Seeing this, the second sister-in-law joked, "You won't starve for a few days. You've already grown into a little calf. If you disturb their sleep again, I'll slap you."
Meng Chijian said with some helplessness, "They are very difficult to raise."
Meng Er asked in bewilderment, "When are you going to have children? It's the same whether you raise one or a whole litter."
Meng Chijian scoffed, "You think you're raising pigs?"
After a quick meal, it was Meng Chijian's turn to take a shower. It took him about three times longer than A-Mian's shower before he finally got rid of the sticky feeling. Even so, he still suspected there was a bloody smell on his body, so he shook his head before walking into the house.
Ah Mian was sleeping soundly, her cheeks rosy, like a pure lamb.
Meng Chijian wasn't too sleepy to begin with, but as he lay down, he carefully placed an arm around her waist. The faint scent of soap and grass filled the small bedroom. His eyes blinked slower and slower until they finally closed.
When he woke up again, it was already dawn. He sat up and found that he was all alone.
Ah Mian's voice came from outside: "...I had a nightmare last night. In the dream, a huge mountain was about to crush me. I ran and ran as fast as I could, but I couldn't move anymore. When I looked back, I realized I was carrying a huge rock on my back!"
She was making breakfast for the family—pumpkin porridge and egg pancakes. After finishing her chores, the very hardworking Ah Mian went to feed the chicks, while muttering about her "adventures" from the past few days.
After breakfast, Meng Chijian called Lu Amian and Yuan Hua over and gave each of them a silver ingot.
Both of them were stunned.
"Originally there were only ten taels, but it is said that we guarded the goods and delivered them to the neighboring county on time, so we were given extra. You two helped on the way, so this is what you deserve."
Ah Mian held the plump silver ingot in her hands, gently bit it with her upper teeth, and quickly hid it after confirming its quality.
Yuan Hua also suddenly became rich, and even her leg injury miraculously stopped hurting.
"The government will definitely continue to suppress the bandits. You should all travel in groups these days, especially A-Mian. Some of those bandits have seen you before, and it would be bad if they came to retaliate." The village is relatively safe, and the villagers are wary of unfamiliar faces. Besides, the bandits don't know where they live, but Meng Chijian still gave them a few more words of advice.
With money, you naturally want to spend it.
Yuan Hua was very generous and invited Lu Amian and Meng Jing to have dinner together at a restaurant in the city.
Upon arriving in the city, they found the city walls covered with notices. After studying them carefully for a long time, Ah Mian realized they were wanted posters.
The wanted posters depicted several bandits. A-Mian looked at them for a while, then pulled Meng Jing aside and said, "They don't really look like them. The bandit I've seen had thick eyebrows, and his face wasn't this long..."
However, Ah Mian still hoped that the government could quickly wipe out the bandits and find the thousand taels of silver hidden in the cellar, returning it to the victims and their families.
Stop looking, come here quickly!
Yuan Hua went to the clinic to buy medicinal wine and liniment, and then excitedly went to the restaurant.
He glanced at the menu, already having a plan in mind: "First, two-way fish, phoenix belly and dragon liver (prawns and chicken slices), braised winter bamboo shoots, osmanthus-flavored pork intestines, three dishes of peach blossom pastries, and a pot of good wine!"
"Five coins, you're so generous! You're not stingy at all!" Ah Mian smiled, her face crinkling into a crescent moon, and immediately began to flatter her.
"Of course. I already inquired about it. This two-way fish dish is a specialty of this restaurant. One way is to eat it spicy, and the other way is to cook the other half of the fish in a fish soup with some fresh vegetable slices. It's absolutely delicious and goes very well with rice."
Before long, the waiter had laid out a table full of dishes.
Seeing that three wine cups were still set out, Meng Jing hesitated and asked, "Isn't it inappropriate for us to drink? What if Third Brother finds out..."
“What are you afraid of him for? He never said we couldn’t drink.” A-Mian took the lead and filled a cup with wine.
Wine is made from grains, and it's very expensive, so of course she wanted to try it.
"So spicy! So bitter! It'll cut my tongue—spit it out!" Ah Mian took a bite and her face immediately scrunched up.
Yuan Hua chuckled: "That's not how you drink alcohol. You have to pair it with food and savor it as you eat."
The three of them ate and drank, and A-Mian quickly began to appreciate the taste of sake. Surprisingly, she had a good tolerance for alcohol, unlike Xiao-Jing, whose face turned red as soon as she drank.
However, after a few rounds of drinks, Ah Mian belatedly realized something was wrong and said, "Let's not let Third Brother know. If he asks, just say we only ate a meal."
Yuan Hua said, "It's alright, it's just these two cups. The evening breeze will clear them up."
"But...but why do I always feel like someone is watching us..." Meng Jing was on the verge of tears.
Ah Mian slurred, "It's nothing, you only drank one sip..."
Yuan Hua, who had drunk too much, was unusually talkative today.
He said he came from a world very, very far in the future, living in a place called "Rental Room," where he had to go to "work" every day. But he had no friends there, and didn't know who to talk to. Although his living conditions were much better than here, he was tired of his monotonous life...
No one listens to him when he talks, and Ah Mian is happy that he talks nonsense so that she can eat less.
"Before graduating, I thought that after studying for so many years, it wouldn't be unreasonable to find a job that pays over 10,000 yuan a month. I don't know how things turned out like this..."
Yuan Hua had the best alcohol tolerance among the three. After finishing their meal and paying the bill, the three of them strolled back to the village.
Meng Jing took a few sips. There were no pedestrians on the country road at this time. She hesitated for a moment and said, "I'm really not lying to you. Ever since we entered the restaurant, I've felt like someone has been watching us..."
Amian waved her hand: "Looking around, there are only the three of us on the road!" She was in a great mood and hummed a country tune.
"Ah!" Meng Jing grabbed A Mian's arm tightly, trembling like a leaf.
The person who jumped out of the bushes had dark eyebrows, a narrow face, and was holding a sharp knife. He was covered in dirt and looked like the most disheveled beggar on the street. This person was the mountain spirit that A-Mian had seen before!
The mountain spirit's face was filled with a menacing aura.
He fled into the woods that day, and when he returned to the mountain at dawn, he found it already surrounded by government officials, and countless of his brothers had been captured. He dared not go back, nor could he retrieve the money hidden there. Seeing that the portrait on the wanted poster did not resemble him, and that the search at the city gates was not very strict, he decided to boldly sneak into the city!
He spotted A-Mian and her group in the restaurant, and on a whim, he quietly followed them.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
