Chapter 77 The Schemes of the Wu Family Father and Son
After finishing her meal, Liu Ye went to the outhouse and then went to the front yard to lock the gate. "Thump!" There was a knock on the gate, as if someone was throwing stones. Who is it that's so annoying!
Liu Ye opened the door and saw a pebble on the ground, clearly thrown by someone. Could it be Wang Dani? She looked around the doorway and then at Wang Dani's house next door, but didn't see anyone. It seemed the person had already run away. Humph, it must be Wang Dani, that brat!
Liu Ye closed the door, locked it, and went back inside. Wu Changgui emerged from the corner, his eyes filled with surprise and delight. He hadn't expected her to be so beautiful. When his father told him, he hadn't believed it, but it turned out to be true. Since that was the case, he couldn't let Bai Zilin have her so easily. He would follow his father's plan and make their marriage a fait accompli as soon as he returned from the south. As for Bai Zilin, sending him to jail would be a piece of cake. He had gotten to know quite a few officials in the government during his three years working for the Zhao family!
The next day, Bai Zilin got up early again, took his bow and arrows and went up the mountain. He walked into the dense forest in the morning dew. The pine needles were shiny from the morning dew. His straw sandals startled a few grasshoppers. His quiver dangled at his waist. He turned past the old pine tree with its crooked neck and heard the bushes rustling on his left.
Bai Zilin's left arm was as strong as iron, and with three fingers of his right hand hooking the bowstring, the arrow tip was already on the boxwood bow. Suddenly, a gray shadow emerged from the grass—it was a half-grown wild rabbit, its front paws clutching a wild chestnut.
Bai Zilin held his breath and drew his bow to its fullest extent. With a soft "whoosh," the arrow grazed the rabbit's ear and embedded itself three inches into the ground. The rabbit fell to the ground, its hind legs still kicking in vain.
Bai Zilin picked up the straw rope and tied up his prey. Just as he straightened up, he saw a colorful long-tailed pheasant fly out from the dense hazelnut bushes to his right, its tail feathers spreading out like a fan-shaped screen.
Such beautiful pheasants are a rare sight. Bai Zilin lightly touched the ground with his toes, his body darting out diagonally. His right hand had already drawn a second arrow from the quiver. The pheasant had only flown a dozen feet when it felt a chill on the back of its neck, its body, still fletched with arrow feathers, plummeting straight to the ground.
Bai Zilin picked up the pheasant from the ground, tied it with grass, hung it on his shoulder, and continued walking into the mountains.
Not long after Bai Zilin left, Liu Ye also got up. Diligent people really can't stay idle. Yesterday she said that Brother Bai shouldn't go hunting in the mountains, and that he should rest today, but he still went.
She went to the kitchen, steamed half a basin of white rice and a large bowl of wild duck eggs. After she finished eating, she put the leftover rice in the pot and went to the front door, looking towards the hillside.
Brother Bai should be back by this time usually, why hasn't he come back yet?
"Liu Ye, what are you looking at?" Liu Ye rolled her eyes and turned to look at Zhang Fang, who was walking towards her: "Nothing..."
Zhang Fang had a basket slung over her arm, and her facial injuries had healed. She walked up to Liu Ye with a smile and said, "Today is the Xiangshan Town market day. I came to find you to go to the market together. Come on, we'll have company. I also want to buy some fabric scraps. Can you take me to the shop where you buy fabric scraps?"
Liu Ye didn't want to go to the market with her, so she refused without hesitation: "I'm not going to the market today, and I won't be going for a while. You go by yourself."
Zhang Fang grabbed Liu Ye's arm and shook it coquettishly, saying, "Oh, I've already come to find you, so come with me. If you don't come with me, I won't know where you bought your fabric scraps. Just come with me, you don't have any work to do at home, you're just sitting around anyway, so why not come with me to the market? Let's go..."
Liu Ye removed Zhang Fang's hand from her arm. It was unbearable to watch the ugly girl act coquettishly. She said, "I'm not going. I've already forgotten where I bought my fabric scraps. Most fabric stores sell fabric scraps. Just buy from whichever store you like. There's no need to go to the store where I bought my scraps. It's getting late. You should hurry up and go."
When Zhang Fang saw that Liu Ye really wasn't going, she stormed off in a huff. Not long after she left, Bai Zilin came down from the mountain, carrying game in his hands and on his shoulders. He must have had quite a few kills.
Liu Ye ran up to Bai Zilin and said, "Brother Bai, didn't I tell you to rest for a day? Why did you go up the mountain again?"
She reached out to pick up the pheasant from Bai Zilin's hand, but he dodged her: "No need, it's not heavy at all. We won't sell the game we hunted today; you can keep it for yourself. I'll smoke it all up after I've cleaned it."
Liu Ye happily followed Bai Zilin home. Bai Zilin carried the prey to the backyard and then went to wash up and eat.
Liu Ye piled the pheasants together and the rabbits together, making a total of five rabbits and five pheasants. If she were to sell them, she could fetch more than ten taels of silver. However, Brother Bai wanted to smoke them all for her to eat. Brother Bai was so good to her. He was leaving tomorrow, and she was so reluctant to see him go.
Counting the days, it seems she has been in this world for several months. Since then, she has been with Brother Bai, relying on each other, taking care of each other, and being closer than family. She truly likes him from the bottom of her heart.
This time, Brother Bai went to the south to deliver goods with Young Master Zhao. That's fine, but she can't let him go next time. He doesn't earn much money and risks his life. It seems she needs to find some business to do, like opening a shop, letting Brother Bai be the boss and her be the boss's wife. That way, Brother Bai won't be able to do anything else.
Okay, that's settled then. I wonder what the prices are in the town. I'll go to town and ask around sometime. I also need to raise some money. The money I have on hand is definitely not enough to buy a shop. A shop would cost at least a thousand or eight hundred taels. No, I'll just mess with the gold bricks in my space. There are words on the gold bricks. If I remove the words, I can use them.
"What are you thinking about? Your eyes are practically glued to the ground," Liu Ye said with a smile as she stood up. "I was thinking that since you've hunted so much game, maybe we should sell half and keep the other half so we can eat until the New Year."
"No need, keep it for dinner." After saying that, Bai Zilin went to the wall to gather firewood, lit a bonfire, and started smoking pheasants and rabbits. The aroma of the meat filled the whole village, making the village children cry with envy, shouting that they wanted to eat meat.
Wang Dani's house was nearby, so the aroma was even stronger, making Old Wang's mouth water. He paced back and forth in the yard, saying, "Dani's mother, why don't you go and buy some? I haven't been feeling well these past few days, and I'd like to eat some meat..."
Aunt Wang swallowed hard, her mouth watering. She pulled out ten copper coins from her sleeve and said, "Why don't you go buy them? It's easier for you men to talk to each other, and he'll be too embarrassed to ask you for more. If I go, who knows? Last time I proposed to him, Bai Zilin didn't give me any face at all!"
Wang Laopi thought it made sense. He took the ten copper coins, put them in his pocket, and went to Bai Zilin's door. He knocked hard on the door, "bang bang bang, bang bang bang."
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