Chapter 29 – Eyes for Nothing

“Su Miaomiao, are you heading up the mountain again?” Cheng Haoqiang ran up to her, still wearing his usual gentle and warm expression.

“Mm.” Su Miaomiao nodded.

“What’s with all these kids?” Cheng Haoqiang looked at the group of little ones and tried his best to suppress the dislike in his heart.

“They’re coming with me to dig for medicinal herbs.” Su Miaomiao replied simply.

“Them? But they’re just kids. They don’t even know how to read, let alone recognize herbs!” Cheng Haoqiang was stunned.

“If they don’t know, just teach them. Then they’ll know.” Su Miaomiao didn’t like this kind of man—looks capable on the outside, but useless in action.

He couldn’t even keep up with her, a girl, when climbing the mountain, yet he nagged nonstop every day.

She honestly wanted to sew his mouth shut.

Thinking of that, her pace quickened.

Huzi immediately led his little crew to follow.

These little kids had been running wild around the village since they could crawl.

They climbed the mountain with ease—faster and more agile than Cheng Haoqiang, a grown man.

Cheng Haoqiang, unwilling to be outdone by a bunch of kids, pushed himself to keep up.

When they reached the destination, Su Miaomiao began assigning tasks.

“Five people per group. Each group is responsible for one basket. Whoever digs the most will get a special reward when we go back.” Su Miaomiao knew exactly how to motivate children.

“Okay!” As expected, the mention of rewards made the kids cheer at the top of their lungs.

“Alright, everyone can start moving around, but stay in this area. Don’t go deeper into the mountain. If anything happens, shout for me immediately.” Su Miaomiao was still very focused on safety.

“Don’t worry, Sister Su. We come to this mountain every day. We know it better than you. Be careful not to get lost yourself,” Huzi said proudly.

“Alright then, make sure you keep your little brothers in line,” Su Miaomiao chuckled.

“Mission guaranteed!” Huzi patted his chest with confidence and started organizing the others.

Su Miaomiao observed for a while, making sure they were clear on their tasks and that there were no fights or chaos, then nodded in approval.

Honestly, kids often had better focus than adults.

As long as the reward was tempting enough, the results they gave back would definitely surprise you.

Seeing that everyone had started searching and digging for herbs in an orderly manner, Su Miaomiao got to work herself.

By the time Cheng Haoqiang caught up, this was the scene he saw.

He didn’t dare go over and try to make his presence known, and instead lowered his head and started looking for herbs as well.

That afternoon, Deng Siyue had been called by the village chief to help harvest corn in the fields.

At this time of day, the sun was blazing, and the cornfields were like steamers — hot and suffocating.

The corn leaves were sharp too, and could easily cut your arms if you weren’t careful.

Cheng Haoqiang had no intention of suffering like that in the fields. It was cooler and easier up in the mountains.

Seeing what happened to Deng Siyue, he didn’t dare slack off anymore.

He quietly kept an eye on Huzi’s group, watching what herbs they dug up and following their lead.

The once quiet forest became lively thanks to the group of little turnip heads.

As the sun began to set in the west, Su Miaomiao figured it was time to go back, so she called for Huzi and had him gather everyone.

The children looked like they had rolled around in a mud pit, but their eyes sparkled brightly.

“How did you all get this dirty?” Su Miaomiao asked helplessly.

“From digging in the dirt, of course.” Huzi looked at himself but didn’t think it was a big deal.

Compared to usual, they were actually much cleaner today.

“Alright, it’s about time. Let’s head down the mountain.” Su Miaomiao glanced at the baskets on their backs.

There was quite a bit collected—Huzi’s basket was already more than halfway full.

She wasn’t sure how much of it would be usable medicinal herbs though. They’d have to sort through it carefully once they were back and remind the kids again based on what they got right or wrong.

“Comrade Su, are we heading down the mountain now?” Cheng Haoqiang, hearing the commotion, rushed over carrying his own basket.

Su Miaomiao glanced at it—it had more than earlier, at least.

“Mm.” She nodded.

“Huzi, do a headcount. Make sure no one’s missing,” Su Miaomiao instructed.

Huzi checked everyone one by one, then shook his head. “Everyone’s here.”

“Alright, then let’s go down.”

When they had come up, Su Miaomiao had taken the lead. But on the way down, she stayed at the back.

Though these kids were used to running wild, she was still worried someone might fall behind.

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Today, the medicine hall welcomed its first real big harvest.

Su Miaomiao set her own basket aside, and the little kids had brought back a total of three full baskets.

Huzi’s group had collected the most—their basket was more than half full.

The other two groups had about a third each.

Su Miaomiao and Old Zhao inspected all three baskets carefully, smiles spreading across their faces.

“They’re all proper medicinal herbs—not a single wild weed!” Old Zhao exclaimed, clearly excited.

Hearing that, Huzi let out a big sigh of relief, lifting his little chin proudly.

“This wasn’t even hard—it’s just a few kinds of grass. Sister Su explained them really clearly. If we still got them wrong, we might as well not have these two eyes at all!”

“You brat, getting cocky just because I praised you?” Old Zhao shot him a glance, though he couldn’t hide the smile on his face.

He hadn’t had much hope for Su Miaomiao’s idea of letting the children gather herbs, but didn’t want to reject her directly either.

Besides, Huzi and his gang often ran around in the mountains anyway, so they could also help guide Su Miaomiao.

He hadn’t expected such a pleasant surprise.

If he’d known it’d work this well, he would’ve let these little turnip-heads go herb-hunting ages ago.

“Well done!” Su Miaomiao patted Huzi on the head.

Huzi’s face instantly turned bright red.

“W-we didn’t do that great…” Just moments ago, he was full of confidence, but now he was stammering like a shy little cub.

Old Zhao then checked Cheng Haoqiang’s basket. Though there weren’t many herbs and there were still a few weeds, it was a big improvement from that morning.

“Yours isn’t bad either.”

Cheng Haoqiang let out a breath of relief—at least he wouldn’t be lumped together with Deng Siyue and told not to come back.

“I’ll head back first, then. I’ll come again tomorrow morning,” he said.

“Alright,” Old Zhao nodded.

Cheng Haoqiang immediately turned to leave, as if afraid Old Zhao would change his mind.

But as he passed Su Miaomiao, he couldn’t help but glance at her one more time.

Su Miaomiao didn’t even spare him a look. Her eyes were still focused on the kids in front of her.

“You all did really well today,” she said as she reached into her pocket and pulled out two White Rabbit milk candies.

“These are a reward for your group,” she said, handing them to Huzi.

Huzi’s eyes lit up immediately, and he accepted the candies with both hands.

“Sister Su! We’ll come again early tomorrow!” Huzi, now completely convinced the rewards were real, clutched the candy and ran off excitedly with his little gang.