When the family returned home, Gu Sang had just finished washing up when she saw a fire burning in front of the thatched house, but Li Rong was nowhere to be seen.
Siya tugged at her sleeve: "Sister, Brother Rong said he'll come again tomorrow."
Gu Sang thought about it thoughtfully. She realized that this was essentially hiring child laborers without paying them wages.
We can't let the kids suffer too much!
She set up a pot, put in two fish, cooked a pot of delicious fish soup, and served a large bowl to Li Rong.
Li Rong's house was right next to the Gu family's main courtyard, and it wasn't much better than Gu Sang's thatched house.
When Gu Sang delivered the fish soup, Yang Shi smelled the aroma and spotted her. She slapped her thigh and shouted into the house, "Mother! That wretched girl Gu Sang is delivering fish soup to that jinx!"
Gu Sang knocked on the door, and it opened shortly afterward. Li Rong's hair was still wet, as if she had just taken a shower.
"Reward." Gu Sang raised an eyebrow and handed him the fish soup.
The fish soup was fragrant and whitish, still steaming.
Just as Li Rong was about to refuse, Zhang and Yang appeared outside the gate. Zhang walked in, pointed at her nose, and cursed, "Pah! Gu Sang, you shameless hussy! You have food and drink but don't feed your grandparents, instead you send it to that jinx. Do you think you're so horny that you've taken a fancy to this jinx?"
Her eyes were fixed on the fish soup. She swallowed hard and cursed viciously, "I think you're incredibly unfilial! You think you can ignore your grandparents just because you've separated from the family? Today I'm sending your aunt to find you and your siblings to come and work. Where have you been all this time?!"
Zhang's spittle flew everywhere, almost splashing into the fish soup. Gu Sang listened to her increasingly offensive words and her face turned cold: "Grandma, what are you saying? Brother Li made a bed for our family, and this fish soup is his payment. How is that unfilial? Since you want to drink fish soup, then you can pay for it for us!"
A bed isn't cheap!
This little vixen is digging her own grave!
Zhang immediately spat at the fish soup, raising her voice, "Pah! It's just a bowl of fish soup, who cares! But starting tomorrow, if I don't see you leading Da Wa and the others to work by Chen Shi (7-9 AM), I'll break your legs..."
"ah!"
Gu Sang splashed the hot fish soup at Zhang's feet, and Zhang immediately screamed. Gu Sang's smile didn't reach her eyes: "Grandma, if you don't understand what it means to divide the family, I'll go and ask the village head to come over and explain to him why we're dividing the family."
"Now that we've separated, even if I want to feed this fish soup to the pigs, you can't stop me!"
Zhang's eyes widened in shock. She slapped her thigh, sat down on the ground, and cried out, "This is outrageous! What kind of granddaughter would fight her grandparents to the death over a bowl of fish soup!"
Yang, standing to the side, quickly adopted the demeanor of a dutiful daughter-in-law, saying, "Mother, you're too old to sit on the ground."
She glared at Gu Sang, adopting the demeanor of an elder: "Sang Sang, you should apologize to your grandma right away..."
Gu Sang looked up at the two of them and said calmly, "You can cry and scream all you want. Once we get help from others, we'll start by telling the story of how my niece was buried alive."
Her cries immediately ceased, and Gu Dekang's stern voice came from the next courtyard: "You old hag, what are you making a scene for? Get back here and cook! Are you trying to bring bad luck to our family by running to the next courtyard all the time?!"
Listening to Gu Dekang's veiled insults, Li Rong lowered her eyelids, her figure becoming increasingly solitary.
Gu Sang's gaze turned cold.
After Li Rong was born, her entire family died unexpectedly, leaving only her mother and grandfather. Seven years ago, Li Rong's mother passed away, and her grandfather also fell seriously ill and passed away last year.
Before her death, Li Rongniang asked Gu Ying'an to take care of her. Afterwards, Gu Ying'an disappeared, which further cemented Li Rongniang's reputation as a jinx.
Li Rong didn't say anything, and Gu Sang felt inexplicably embarrassed and guilty.
Suddenly she remembered her earlier retort to Zhang, "I just wanted to feed this fish soup to pigs," and blurted out, "Um, I didn't mean you were a pig."
Li Rong gave her a deep look and said in a calm tone, "Go back."
Gu Sang was somewhat irritated.
This child would be a primary school student in modern times!
But who knows what elementary school students in this world are thinking!
She scratched her head, giving up on comforting him, and looked into his eyes: "Will you come again tomorrow?"
Li Rong looked at her for a while and then said, "Come here."
For some reason, Gu Sang breathed a sigh of relief and returned home in high spirits.
Under the moonlight, she and Li went up the mountain to move the fruit and lotus root home. They also packed up the dried wild berries, ground the stems and leaves into powder, put them in a jar, and prepared to sell them the next day.
She looked at the pile of fruit in front of her and thought for a moment.
The fruits from the lotus pond cannot be taken directly to the market to sell. Firstly, fresh fruits at this time of year are too eye-catching, and secondly, there are not many people who actually buy fresh fruits.
Wealthy families own their own estates, so they naturally wouldn't buy them; poor people certainly couldn't afford them either.
These fruits are mainly wild cherries, wild grapes, wild apricots, and raspberries, which are sweet and sour and appetizing.
Gu Sang plans to make all kinds of fruit wines and fruit drinks and sell them to hotels.
She plans to take some of the lotus root and make lotus root starch, then use the lotus root starch to make pastries and sell them.
As for the fish, Gu Sang had a better way to handle it, but she would decide to wait until she had the money from selling it.
Fruit wine takes time to make, while fruit drinks are much more convenient. Gu Sang made two small jars of cherry juice and grape juice in one night, ready to test the waters.
Collect cherry juice, grape juice, dried berries, and berry powder. Wash the lotus root and wait to make lotus root powder.
My younger siblings are all asleep.
Gu Sang simply let Li try the juice and dried fruit one by one, "Mother, try it and see if it's good?"
Li watched as her daughter transformed ordinary wild fruits into various kinds of things, and she took a bite of each one.
The Li family didn't have much money, so they didn't buy much sugar from the peddler. The dried berries didn't have much sugar added, but they tasted sweet and sour and were quite appetizing.
Grape juice is sweeter than cherry juice, but Ms. Li prefers the lighter taste of cherry juice.
Overall, however, they are all rare and exquisitely crafted!
After commenting on each item, she looked at the pile of things with some surprise: "Sangsang, how did you come up with all this?"
Gu Sang smiled. She was a foodie in her modern life and later became a semi-food blogger.
This kind of minor processing is really no big deal for her.
However, she was curious about how much money these things could be exchanged for.
If I had known, she would have been driven crazy by the lack of money these past few days!
The next morning, Gu Sang and Li Shi tidied up, and together with their younger brother and sister-in-law and Li Rong who came to help, they carried their belongings and left the village before dawn.
"Big sister, will we really make money?" Da Wa asked Er Wa, feeling a little uneasy but mostly expectant.
Sanwa followed beside Li Rong, while Siya was held by Li Shi.
After hearing what Da Wa said, everyone looked at Gu Sang.
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