Chapter 37

“Are you coming back soon? I don’t think you will or dare to come back.”

“Wait for what? Why should we wait! Da Ya, open the door quickly. I’m telling you, if the fox nut seeds dry out, you have to return them based on their dried weight.”

The five children of the Fan family, adhering strictly to Shuiqing’s teachings, remained calm and courteous despite the crowd’s shouting, politely saying that they would wait for their parents to return.

After yelling for a while, Wang Mazi and the others became dry-mouthed and exhausted.

But facing five children, surrounded by several layers of people, and with the village elder present, they couldn’t resort to violence and could only continue shouting.

Damn, without even a sip of water, they couldn’t hold out much longer.

Fan Damu glanced at the thatched hut and incited, “It’s just a thatched hut. How can it stop us men?

The second family just split off, and I know they have several bags of rice, millet, and corn, enough for us to share!”

Zhang Tuzi’s eyes lit up at the mention of several bags of grain.

Wang Mazi immediately chimed in, “Good, good! They took our stuff without returning it, so it’s only right for us to take our own things back!”

Jiang Hehu got anxious when he heard they wanted to take their family’s grain.

Thump, thump, thump, he ran in front of them, spread his arms to block their way, and said, “No, our parents will be back soon!

When they return, they will naturally return your things. You can’t just take our things!”

“Our parents aren’t home. How can you just come in and take our grain?”

Wang Mazi didn’t care, using his age as an excuse to shout, “Why can’t we? Your family took our fox nut seeds, so we can take your grain!

Everyone, tell me, isn’t this fair?”

“That was agreed upon!” Xing Hui shouted back just as loudly.

“Bah, who agreed with you? Your parents are liars! Don’t you understand?!” Fan Damu interjected from the back now and then.

Zhang Tuzi, feeling justified, said, “Right, it’s a scam, just a scam!”

“Your parents are scammers, big scammers raise little scammers, and you’re all a bunch of little scammers!”

“Shameless, cheating the whole village, aren’t you afraid of retribution?”

“Give back the grain I worked hard all day to peel!”

…

The five Fan children were, after all, just kids, with the oldest, Yan Qiu, being only eleven. They had endured so far, but now they couldn’t bear their parents being cursed anymore.

As the eldest sister, Yan Qiu stood in front of her younger siblings, showing the maturity and stability of an older sister.

She lifted her chin slightly, held her head high, and, with a voice trembling from anger, said slowly and clearly, “My parents are not liars!

You all don’t keep your word, going back on your agreements without any credibility. Fine, we don’t need your words; our family will return what is yours!”

“You can talk all you want, but what use are your words? You’re just a little girl, can you make decisions? Who do you think you are, talking big? It’s laughable.” Fan Damu shouted from the crowd.

The village elder frowned deeply.

Just as Li Changlin was about to speak, a clear voice came from afar.

“In our family, she does make decisions!”

Hearing the familiar voice, the strength Yan Qiu had been holding onto dissipated. She turned with teary eyes towards the source of the voice, “Mom!”

“Mom!” The other four children, seeing Shuiqing, ran towards her like birds returning to their nest.

Shuiqing, carrying a heavy bamboo basket, walked step by step to the crowded group, surrounded by her delighted children.

Li Changlin, afraid Shuiqing might misunderstand, stepped forward and briefly explained what had happened and how his grandfather had handled it.

Shuiqing let out a breath, looking gratefully at the village elder.

He had saved her a lot of trouble!

The village elder waved his hand and reminded, “Second Fan’s wife, that’s the situation. Do you have anything to say?”

Shuiqing glanced at the troublemakers, then saw Fan’s mother, Sun Jinhua, and Fan Qian at the back of the crowd. With a smile, she replied, “We’ll return the fox nut seeds as the village elder said.”

Returning rice would be more cost-effective for her, but sometimes, pride is more important!

She would rather not earn these people’s money than let them take advantage of her. Not only will they not gain from this time, but she will also make sure they never gain anything from her in the future!

“However, the fox nut seeds from yesterday have already been sold, so I need some time.”

Before Zhang Tuzi and the others could speak, the village elder, implying something, said, “No problem, we brought some with us. You can return these first, so they have no more complaints.”

Shuiqing readily agreed, “Alright! Thank you, village elder.”

Then she addressed the crowd, “The village elder has already made a list. If anyone else wants to return theirs, speak up now, and I’ll return them together.”

She was making money, and the villagers benefited, a mutually beneficial situation. She didn’t want it to turn into a forced sale.

For those who were grateful, she would accept them. For those who were troublesome, she wouldn’t serve them; they could leave without delay.

Wang Mazi waved his hands to rally everyone, “Folks, this is the last chance, hurry and return it! Don’t end up with nothing later.”

Zhang Tuzi’s eyes shifted to the bamboo basket Shuiqing brought, and he quietly moved forward.

Shuiqing noticed but did not stop him.

In fact, she did it on purpose.

She intended to use this gathering of most villagers to make this food public – so in the future, everyone would remember she discovered it in the ‘small forest outside the village.’

The more trouble it caused now, the more memorable it would be.

To deepen this memory and kick out the troublemakers and those with ulterior motives, she even asked Fan Jin, who had packed the cart, to come back later.

“Hey, everyone, look at this black stuff, what is it?” Zhang Tuzi suddenly shouted, drawing everyone’s attention.

The crowd looked at Zhang Tuzi and saw a pile of fist-sized, round objects, covered in mud, next to Shuiqing’s bamboo basket.

“What is this? It looks so dirty.” Zhang Tuzi’s eldest daughter, Zhang Chunhua, said, covering her nose and mouth.

“It’s so ugly, who knows if it’s poisonous.”

Seeing everyone’s attention drawn, Shuiqing was very satisfied and explained, “I went to the small forest up front to dig wild vegetables and saw these. I don’t know what small animal dug them up;

I saw a few had been gnawed on, so they must be edible. I dug them all up and brought them back, thinking of planting them.”

Yan Qiu was stunned. Why did her mother go to dig wild vegetables when they had a good vegetable garden at home?

Could it be that her mother had already discovered these things? No wonder she took a bamboo basket before going out.

“Hey, Second Fan’s wife, are you so poor that you have to dig wild vegetables?”

“Bringing back something you’ve never eaten to plant, is your family out of food?”