Chapter 11: Making a Fool Sad

Xia Li walked for a while and felt hungry.

She had planned to make a dish of braised fish with the marinated fish prepared yesterday, but she forgot that there was no oil at home, so she had to change it to cabbage stew with fish.

According to the original owner’s memories, the Xia family actually relied on being chefs, but later fell into decline due to special historical circumstances.

In the past few years, when everyone was still eating from a communal pot, people in the brigade took turns cooking, and the differences in taste were not significant.

In recent years, the overall environment has relaxed a bit, and there have been some street vendors in the town and at the village entrance.

For example, there are vendors frying small dishes, making pan-fried buns and fried snacks, selling loose wine, noodles, and sunflower seeds… quite a few.

Xia Li’s uncle, Xia Wei, has now become a cook at the lumber yard. Although the salary is not very high, he often manages to earn some extra money, so the family’s situation is considered decent.

The original owner could also cook, but her skills were just average.

After being adopted by her uncle’s family, she had to help with housework and farm work from the age of seven or eight, as well as take care of her cousin, in exchange for food and school fees.

To be honest, if her cousin, Xia Yingzhen, hadn’t been about the same age as her, and if the commune school wasn’t far away, her aunt wouldn’t have been willing to spend that money to let the original owner go to school too.

The original owner dropped out after finishing the first year of high school because her cousin started boarding school and no longer needed someone to accompany her.

Xia Li knew the trends of the times and understood the importance of education and platforms for a person in the future.

She was determined to take the college entrance examination.

The original owner had no savings, and since she worked hard helping her uncle and aunt on the farm, they took it for granted and didn’t give her any money. Now, in order to raise tuition fees, Xia Li had to think of other ways.

In the past few days, she had already come up with a rough plan in her mind.

After finishing her meal, she absentmindedly went to the small room to get something and was stunned to see the neatly stacked bedding on the floor.

A tall figure flashed through her mind, the one she had left behind at the police station.

What expression would that foolish man have when he realized she was gone?

Surely it wouldn’t be the same as this morning, with his stubborn and aggrieved eyes turning red, would it?

Making a fool sad, she felt helpless.

After all, she really wasn’t the wife he spoke of; the police might quickly help him find his family, and then he would know.

Xia Li shook her head and put away the neatly stacked bedding.

Suddenly, she seemed to notice a small dark red stain on the pillow he had used for the night.

The old pillowcase was dark-colored, so it wasn’t very noticeable at first glance, but since Xia Li had studied medicine before, she could recognize it.

Was this the bloodstain from where the back of his head had rubbed against it?

So… his confused look from memory loss could very well be because he had a head injury?

Xia Li silently stared at the dark bloodstain.

She also knew he had some minor injuries, thinking they were left from wandering around.

He had taken a bath quite comfortably last night, moving without any issues, showing no signs of discomfort, so she hadn’t thought to check his injuries in detail.

Xia Li put away those things, her long eyelashes lowered, and suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable.

The Shinianzi Village is backed by a large mountain, and the original owner used to go into the mountains to forage for wild fruits when she was young.

There are indeed many treasures in the mountains.

In the past few years, when everyone was eating from communal pots, many families in the village would sneak up the mountain to hunt for rabbits or wild chickens to supplement their meals. Nowadays, fewer people go up the mountain.

Xia Li wasn’t interested in hunting; she was thinking of going up the mountain to try her luck at picking some herbs.

Influenced by her grandfather, she had a good memory for the shapes of many traditional Chinese medicinal herbs.

In this era, people still relied heavily on going to the health clinic in the town for medical care; whenever an elder or child had a small ailment, they would go to the barefoot doctor to get a prescription for traditional Chinese medicine, which was cheap and effective, so everyone generally trusted Chinese medicine.

After that, Xia Li set off up the mountain with a bamboo basket on her back.

As she explored, the deeper she went into the mountains, the more pleasantly surprised she was to find plenty of herbs suitable for medicinal use.

Among them, she was very familiar with a herb called Qixingcao, which looked like an upside-down chicken foot and was easy to identify.

She carefully picked a good amount, planning to try drying it into a preliminary product after returning down the mountain, then sell it for money.

After a busy time, on her way down, Xia Li unexpectedly encountered a plump wild gray rabbit, hiding in the bushes and nibbling on rabbit grass, seemingly unafraid of people.

It only perked up its ears and quickly hopped away when it saw her approaching, moving extremely swiftly.

Xia Li watched it slip away, her mind flashing with eighteen different ways to cook rabbit meat, licking her dry lips in regret.

If only she had the skills to catch rabbits and chickens.

Backed by this treasure-like mountain, wouldn’t she be able to eat well every day?

Upon returning to the village, the setting sun was late, and the sky darkened to a dull yellow.

The small village was filled with rising smoke from cooking, and the smell of food wafted into her nose.

After a long day, her stomach started to rumble, so she quickened her pace to go home, but on the way, she ran into an unexpected guest.

In the distance, Xia Yingzhen was wearing a green floral dress, her figure slightly plump, with two braided pigtails styled into a ring shape hanging down beside her round face.

As soon as she saw Xia Li, she raised her chin and stormed over angrily.

“Where have you been running off to? Do you know I’ve been looking for you?!”

Xia Yingzhen didn’t care that Xia Li was her cousin; she always spoke to her in this tone.

Xia Li was soft-spoken, having been bossed around and scolded by her mother since she was young, never daring to say a word in response, so Xia Yingzhen naturally didn’t take her seriously.

Today, after finally getting a school holiday, Xia Yingzhen wanted to go out and play, but when she got home, there were guests, and her mother insisted on calling Xia Li over for dinner.

Who would have known that she wasn’t in the house, and they couldn’t find her anywhere?

So, Xia Yingzhen was sent by Xie Shuangxiu to help look for Xia Li.