As more and more people gathered, Ling'er's stepmother feared that the head of the household would lose face.
She quickly replied, "What are you saying, Miss Li? You're joking. Our family really doesn't have much money to buy new clothes. Look at what I'm wearing, it's patched too. Qiao'er's clothes and hairpins were given to her by my younger brother who's away doing business. He spoils Qiao'er, and I told her to keep them for the New Year, but the child insisted on wearing them to show off." Qiao'er's mother pretended to be in a difficult position.
"Yes, Qiao'er's mother is usually very kind to Ling'er. She always speaks to her very gently," an older woman chimed in.
The villagers are no strangers to Li Xi, and she has chatted with them occasionally over the past few months.
"Hmph, everyone knows her fake face; she says one thing and does another."
"On the surface, she pretends to care about Ling'er, but behind her back, she keeps ordering her around while Ling'er sits there eating sunflower seeds," another aunt retorted.
At this moment, they spontaneously split into two factions and started arguing endlessly.
Anyone with eyes can see that Qiao'er's mother treats Ling'er badly. It's just that those who have received favors from Qiao'er's mother are lying through their teeth.
The scene gradually spiraled out of control. Ling'er's father lost face and shouted at Ling'er, "You heartless wretch! Your mother died after giving birth to you. I raised you and your two siblings, and now I've found you such a good marriage. Are you trying to break my heart by acting like this?"
Qiao'er's mother pretended to wipe away tears, "Ling'er, you were only a few months old when I married into this family. I raised you as my own child."
"Sister, do you have to make Mom and Dad sick?"
Qiao'er stepped forward to support her parents, pretending to be about to cry but feeling extremely depressed inside. She had originally planned to put on her new clothes and hairpin and go to Brother Chen's house to pretend to bump into him.
Who knew this would happen before they even reached the gate? Yes, she had taken a liking to Brother Chen, who was supposed to be engaged to her sister.
Brother Chen passed the preliminary examination last year and is preparing to take the county-level examination this year. With his talent, passing the provincial-level examination is a piece of cake.
She's definitely going to be the wife of this scholar; her poor, unworthy sister is no match for her. She needs to find a way to marry her sister off to someone else as soon as possible.
Coincidentally, a matchmaker came to her door saying that a butcher wanted to marry her sister, and she was overjoyed.
So she urged her mother to persuade her father to agree to the marriage. The butcher went all out and offered a dowry of fifty taels of silver, which delighted her and her mother. Her mother whispered in her father's ear every night.
Her father agreed within a few days. Who could refuse fifty taels? Once her sister got married, her mother would coax her father into giving her half of it.
Qiao'er composed herself, suppressed the upturned corners of her mouth, and forced out a few tears.
Seeing the undisguised thoughts of her so-called parents and sister, Ling'er suddenly calmed down; making a fuss was useless.
As long as Butcher Zhang gives up on marrying her, no matter how much her father and stepmother try to cause trouble, it won't work. Now, she can only pin her hopes on Li Xi and Meng Zhelan.
Li Xi understands the helplessness of traditional values in this era.
She sneered, "What goes around comes around. Everyone knows what you're thinking. What's the point of saying so much? This won't work." Li Xi pretended to be mysterious.
"Don't talk big, Miss Li," everyone laughed, seemingly laughing at her overestimating her abilities or at her naivety.
Li Xi ignored what others thought and pulled Ling'er outside, with Meng Zhelan following behind.
Meng Zhelan gave Li Xi a thumbs up, "Xi'er, the way you spoke just now was like that of a peerless master."
The three looked at each other and smiled, but Ling'er's smile was bitter.
Ling'er doesn't care about anything anymore, and she doesn't want to please her father and stepmother. It's no use if you show your sincerity to people who don't like you.
She snatched the ladle that Meng Zhelan was about to use to hold the flour. "Lan'er, let me do it. You've all helped me so much, but I can't do anything, and I'm not good with words either."
Meng Zhelan comforted her, "Ling'er, three years ago when my father and I first arrived at Yadi Village, we were in a sorry state and starving. It was you who secretly brought us rice and eggs from home, which helped my father and me recover. You even got a beating from your father for it. You saved my life. It's nothing for me to do something small for you."
The two chatted back and forth, pouring out their hearts to each other for quite a while.
Li Xi couldn't sit still any longer. "My two dear sisters, why don't we start a fire and cook first before we talk? My stomach is growling with hunger."
She and Meng Zhelan ate a bowl of noodles in the morning, and on their way back at noon they ate two hard steamed buns. Now it was already late afternoon, and they were starving.
Ling'er smiled through her tears, "Xi'er, I haven't properly thanked you yet. Let me cook you a delicious meal first."
Meng Zhelan watched Ling'er get busy, and then walked out with Li Xi.
"Xi'er, I wonder if Butcher Zhang will fall for it as planned," Meng Zhelan worried.
“My dear sister Lan, even if you don’t believe me, you should believe in your own medical skills. You know the medicinal herbs like the back of your hand.”
Li Xi knew that Meng Zhelan was a very good doctor and also skilled in using poison.
Although she wasn't exceptionally intelligent, she could tell that she and her father were no ordinary village doctors, and that their home was filled with medical books and herbs.
Although books were not expensive items in this era, the fact that the room was full of books was enough to show that the two people were not ordinary.
However, Li Xi will not inquire about it. She will naturally tell Lan'er when she wants to, as she is certainly concerned at the moment.
Although they had only known each other for a few months, it was clear that she was very sincere in her relationship with him.
Before long, Ling'er had cooked a big pot of noodles. The three of them sat together and began to enjoy the food, leaving their worries behind.
Putting everything else aside, Ling'er's cooking skills are indeed excellent; she can turn ordinary flour into delicious dishes.
After a satisfying meal, the three began discussing their plan to target Butcher Zhang.
After about three days, even when Zhang the butcher was sober during the day, he would be trembling with fear, making the subsequent arrangements much easier to implement.
The three of them divided the work and prepared the necessary props. Don't let Ling'er's pitiful appearance fool you; she's a very capable worker, a skill honed from a young age.
Such a wonderful girl deserves to be cherished, Li Xi couldn't help but sigh.
Although she is straight, she is particularly fond of all types of girls, including cute, gentle, and aloof ones, except for scheming girls, scheming girls, and other girls with questionable character.
After Ling'er returned home, she ignored her father's shouts and curses.
She may have had some expectations of him before, so she didn't resist much when her stepmother treated her badly, thinking that if she did more, her father would value her more.
Since being forced into marriage, she has become indifferent to the idea that there is no such thing as family affection between them. The four of them are what constitute a family, and she has no place in it.
Li Xi was a little worried that Ling'er would be bullied when she went back, but Meng Zhelan reassured her.
Sister Ling'er may seem gentle and delicate, but she is actually very resilient. Once she sees through the people and things she has been longing for, nothing can sway her. She is quite stubborn.
Over the next two or three days, Li Xi and Meng Zhelan went back and forth to the town early in the morning and late at night, partly to observe Butcher Zhang and partly to make money.
In their spare time, they would go deep into the mountains to find some medicinal herbs. In the past, Meng Zhelan and her father did not have martial arts skills, so they could not pick some precious medicinal herbs that grew on cliffs.
Li Xi certainly didn't waste her talent in martial arts; the rugged mountain paths and towering cliffs were no challenge for her.
Under Meng Zhelan's direction, they found a ten-year-old ginseng, as well as some common medicinal herbs such as Lysimachia christinae, Isatis indigotica, Prunella vulgaris, and Angelica sinensis.
In the bushes, Meng Zhelan also found a Polygonum multiflorum plant, which could also be sold for a good price.
Leaving some inexpensive herbs at home to dry, Meng Zhelan carefully wrapped up the ginseng and he shou wu.
Then Li Xi and I rode in the oxcart of Grandpa Huang from the village to the town, and went straight to Jikangtang.
The doctor in charge was Dr. Chen, who owned Jikangtang. It wasn't a large establishment, but fortunately, he could treat most common ailments. He looked up and saw that the person who had come was Meng Zhelan, so he stood up to greet her. "Miss Meng, it's been a long time since I've seen you. Oh, why didn't your father come today?"
In the past, her father would bring her to sell medicinal herbs to earn money, but she didn't want outsiders to know about her father's disappearance for the time being.
He then laughed and said, "My father has gone into the mountains to gather herbs again. He said he's too busy to go out."
"I see. Let me see what good things you brought this time," Doctor Chen said with a smile, stroking his beard.
Meng Zhelan opened the cloth bag, and Doctor Chen exclaimed in surprise, "This is a rare and precious item!"
Meng Zhelan was quite pleased with Doctor Chen's reaction, "This is all thanks to Li Xi. He is the son of my father's junior brother. This time, he came to ask my father to be his mentor."
As a transparent tool, Li Xi dressed like a vibrant young man.
Finally remembered, she scratched her head sheepishly and said, "Oh well, it was just a lucky break." Being a brainless young person is fine.
In the end, the ginseng and he shou wu sold for ninety taels, making a small fortune, and the two were extremely happy.
Meng Zhelan and her father used to make some money selling herbs, although they never made as much as they did this time.
However, her father would go to the bookstore to buy medical books as soon as he got the money, and he squandered almost all of it, so after deducting living expenses, there wasn't much left in the family.
Her father didn't earn much money treating villagers. Suddenly having a "huge sum" of money in her hands filled her with immense excitement.
He quickly took Li Xi to the clothing store and carefully selected two new outfits for her. Wearing her father's old clothes every day was too unflattering for a girl with such a good figure.
Li Xi smiled and declined, saying, "I'll buy some fabric and make it myself. You should buy some for yourself, though. My sister Lan is as beautiful as an angel, so you should dress her up nicely."
Meng Zhelan pretended to pinch Li Xi's cheek, but then remembered that she was a man and should be mindful of her manners.
I picked out a few sets of ordinary cotton dresses, a few hair ties, and two simple peach wood hairpins.
After picking out some fabric for making outerwear and innerwear at the cloth shop, Li Xi headed to Butcher Zhang's pork stall.
It was noon, and Zhang the butcher was suffering from nightmares every night for the past few days.
Half asleep, he discovered a pig demon baring its teeth at him, as if saying, "You killed so many of my kind, now pay with your life!"
He was terrified and tried to get up and run away, but found that he couldn't move his body.
I didn't wake up until the night watchman struck the gong, and I was drenched in sweat and feeling utterly exhausted. I hurriedly got up and started doing chores, calculating the time.
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