Chapter 91: Picking Fruit for His Pregnant Wife

Du Wanchun could tell that Madam Zhou no longer had any affection for the lofty emperor. All that remained was resentment and disdain.

In the future, even if that emperor were to kneel and beg for her to return, she would likely never look back.

As Madam Zhou listened to the news about Concubine Wu, a rare look of relief appeared on her face. She then stood up and asked Du Wanchun, “Wanchun, is there anything you’d like to eat? I’ll make it for you.”

Recently, as her pregnancy progressed, Du Wanchun had been experiencing a loss of appetite. Apart from her prenatal medicine, she could hardly eat anything at home.

She took a sip of the herbal medicine from her bowl and shook her head. “It’s alright, Mother. I’ll eat whatever we have at home.”

Madam Zhou stood up and firmly said, “That won’t do. If you keep starving yourself, it’ll harm your health.”

Then, she turned to Zhou Ruizhen and instructed, “Ruizhen, go up the mountain and see if you can find any wild sour dates. If you find some, pick a few and bring them back. I’ll make some sour date cakes for Wanchun to stimulate her appetite.”

Sour date cakes are both tangy and sweet, a favorite among many pregnant women. Madam Zhou had heard about them from someone in the village recently and thought it would be a good idea to make some for Du Wanchun.

Zhou Ruizhen took the empty bowl from Du Wanchun’s hands and nodded. “Alright, I’ll go take a look now.”

Madam Zhou added, “If you find any sour plums, those will work too.”

Du Wanchun, standing nearby, chuckled and said, “Mother, the pickled radishes we made at home would work too.”

A few days ago, Zhou Zhao had picked a lot of small radishes, and Madam Zhou had learned from Auntie Wang how to make pickled radishes.

Du Wanchun was able to eat a little bit of them every day.

Madam Zhou smiled and said, “But you can’t eat radishes every single day.”

After speaking, she quickly winked at Zhou Ruizhen, urging him to hurry up. If he delayed any longer, his wife might not let him go up the mountain.

Zhou Ruizhen quickly got up, grabbed the basket by the door, and left for the mountain before Du Wanchun could call him back.

Since it was still early, Zhou Ruizhen decided to venture deeper into the mountains.

The further he went, the taller the trees grew, and the path was filled with thorny brambles.

Fortunately, he was tall and carried a sickle, cutting through the thick growth as he moved forward. By the time he reached the deepest part of the forest, his hands were covered in thin, bloody scratches.

Stopping in front of a large tree, he circled around it twice before looking up—and right above him was a sour date tree.

It wasn’t very large, but it was packed with ripe sour dates.

Overjoyed, Zhou Ruizhen quickly moved under the tree and started picking.

With each handful, he collected five or six dates at a time. Before long, his basket was completely full.

Looking at the overflowing basket, Zhou Ruizhen felt a surge of happiness. His usually composed and serious face now bore a childlike grin.

“This should be enough for Wanchun,” he muttered to himself, hoisting the basket onto his back and turning to head down the mountain.

However, after only a couple of steps, he suddenly noticed something strange underfoot—he had stepped on something solid.

He immediately stopped, looked down, and saw a piece of gold peeking out from the ground.

Frowning slightly, he crouched down and picked it up. This piece of gold was much larger than the one he had found last time. Engraved on its surface was a complete “Lu” character.

It was a perfectly intact gold ingot.

Judging by its size, it weighed at least twenty taels, which would be worth two hundred taels of silver.

After examining it for a moment, Zhou Ruizhen carefully placed the gold in his clothes and started searching the area.

However, just like last time, he found nothing else.

It gradually became clear to him—Steward Sun must have hidden those gold ingots all over the mountain.

With this realization, Zhou Ruizhen looked out into the distance, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

As night approached, he hurried back home with the sour dates and the gold.

When Madam Zhou took the gold from him, she examined it closely, her face filled with shock. “There’s no mistake—this gold belongs to our family. I can’t believe there’s still more hidden in the mountains.”

Zhou Ruizhen nodded slightly. “If that’s the case, there must be a lot more up there. Mother, what do you plan to do with this gold ingot?”