"Hua Ni! My little girl! What's wrong with you! Don't scare your mother!"
Aunt Wang's scream drew the attention of everyone on the bus.
The women were startled when they saw Huani lying on the oxcart, her eyes rolling back in her head.
"What's wrong with Huani?!"
Uncle Erniu was the oldest among them, and with his experience, he immediately figured it out.
"It looks like she's choking! Huani Niang, did you just feed her something?!"
Aunt Wang's face turned deathly pale: "Apricot, I just gave her an apricot!"
"She must have choked on an apricot pit," Uncle Erniu quickly concluded. "We have to get the pit out! Otherwise, Huani will suffocate!"
"Suffocated!?" Aunt Wang exclaimed in horror.
Huani was her youngest daughter, born when she was thirty-five. She was like her lifeblood. If Huani suffocated because of an apricot she fed her, she wouldn't live either!
She quickly reached out to try and remove the apricot pit, but the more anxious she became, the more her hands trembled.
I tried to pry the apricot pit out for a long time but couldn't.
Seeing that Huani was about to breathe her last, Wan Shu quickly stepped forward and picked her up in his arms.
"Wan Shu, what are you doing!"
Aunt Wang glared at Wan Shu with red eyes: "If you don't hurry up and remove the pit, my girl will die! Put her down right now, or if anything happens to her, I'll fight you to the death!"
"I'm determined to get the core out of her body! I know a special rescue method!"
The situation was urgent, and Wan Shu didn't have time to explain much. As he spoke, he clenched his fists and placed them between Huani's navel and ribs, then thrust them forcefully.
This scene would be truly horrifying to ancient people who had never seen the Heimlich maneuver; it would look like child abuse.
"Wan Shu, how dare you treat my Ni'er like this? I'll fight you to the death!"
Aunt Wang tried to rush forward to snatch Huani back, but just then, the apricot pit was suddenly spat out of Huani's mouth.
Wan Shu laid Huani flat on the oxcart, and after a short while, Huani slowly woke up.
She blinked twice, her voice hoarse: "Mother, what's wrong with me?"
"You almost died!" Aunt Wang hugged Huani, crying and laughing at the same time. "You silly child, how could you be so foolish? You didn't even know to spit out the apricot pit. Do you know that apricot pit almost killed you!"
Uncle Erniu and several other women looked at Wan Shu in astonishment.
"My dear wife, how are you so amazing? You got the apricot pit out without even having to go down your throat."
How did you know such an awesome method?
Wan Shu started making up a lie without blinking: "Once when I was out on the street, I happened to see someone choking on their food. The person who helped them used this method. I thought it was amazing, so I wrote it down. I never thought it would actually come in handy."
The excuse seemed reasonable, and no one doubted it; instead, they all praised it.
"Your memory is really good. If it weren't for you, Huani might not have made it here today."
"Yes, Fu Gui's wife, no, Sister Shu, we owe you so much today!" Aunt Wang nodded, and with Hua Ni by her side, knelt down in front of Wan Shu with a thud.
"What do scholars say? A life-saving grace is impossible to repay. I really don't know how to thank you right now, so Ni'er and I can only kowtow to you first!"
Wan Shu had never received such a grand gesture in modern times, and she felt embarrassed to accept it, so she quickly helped the two of them up.
"No, no, I was just helping out. I believe everyone would have helped if they saw this."
That's true, but Aunt Wang knew very well that if Wan Shu hadn't been there today, her daughter really wouldn't have made it.
So no matter how much Wan Shu refused, she still gave Wan Shu half of the apricots and vegetables she had bought that day.
Wan Shu couldn't refuse any longer and had to accept it, making the already heavy basket even heavier.
Aunt Wang kindly offered to help her carry it back.
Uncle Erniu found it amusing: "Do you think my oxcart is made of paper? Why would you need someone to carry it if you have a cart? That's just asking for trouble."
Uncle Erniu walked a little further to take Wanshu to the end of the village.
The sun was blazing, and several children happened to be at home. Hearing the noise, they rushed out to help her get her things.
"Uncle Erniu, thank you for going to all that trouble. Here, have this to quench your thirst." Wan Shu took out an apricot and tried to give it to Uncle Erniu.
"You've already paid me, how could I possibly take anything else from you!" Uncle Erniu waved his hand, turned around, and left.
The oxcart was fast, and soon the distance between them widened. Wan Shu smiled, had no choice but to give up, and went back inside.
Several children were looking in amazement at the contents of the basket on their backs.
"Mom, why did you buy two chickens all at once? Good heavens! There's also more than ten pounds of rice at the bottom of the basket!"
"Not only that, there's also a big bag of corn here!"
"There's also a lot of pork belly and pork fat! Probably more than ten pounds!"
"And a whole bunch of vegetables and fruits!"
At first, they were happy to see the food, but the more they looked, the more horrified they became.
"Mother, did you steal money? Otherwise, where would you get the money to buy so many things?" Liang Dazhu asked cautiously.
Wan Shu raised her hand and flicked him on the forehead: "What nonsense are you talking about! The fruits and vegetables were given to you by your Aunt Wang, and the other things were bought by your mother with her own money."
Liang Dazhu remained worried, thinking that even if he had a secret stash of money, he shouldn't use it like this. If he ate it all at once, what would he eat in the future?
However, this was his mother's private savings, so he couldn't interfere too much.
The other children clearly thought the same thing, their faces filled with worry.
Seeing this, Wan Shu was about to use the Su family to teach them a lesson again when San Shun spoke up before she could.
“If we don’t eat now, and Mother doesn’t understand later, everything we save will belong to the Su family!”
The moment the name "Su family" was mentioned, the other four children were startled. They immediately stopped worrying about whether they would have money to spend and started moving rice, feeding chickens, and rendering lard.
Wan Shu watched San Shun's busy figure with admiration in her eyes. This child was clever and had potential.
Ten catties of pork fat were rendered into a large basin full of lard, and more than half a basin of pork cracklings.
With her money almost gone, Wan Shu planned to try to earn more money in the mountains over the next few days and would not go to town again.
So of the ten pounds of pork belly, she only kept two pounds for dinner. The other eight pounds were deep-fried and then soaked in lard to make sealed pork, which can be preserved for a long time and is also convenient to eat.
Pork cracklings are cheap, but they're a great snack.
Wan Shu ladled out a small bowl of pork cracklings and instructed Wu An, "Take this to your maternal grandparents and your uncle to satisfy their cravings."
Wu'an had already eaten several pieces of pork cracklings. He wiped his greasy mouth, grabbed the pork cracklings, and ran off in a flash.
A few minutes later, hurried and chaotic footsteps came from the doorway.
Sam-soon had a bad feeling. She went outside to take a look and then ran back in a panic.
"Mother, something terrible has happened! My uncle and the village head have come looking for Father's pension!"
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