Chapter 300

In the evening after work, with the slanting rays of the setting sun still illuminating, there was plenty of light remaining.

Most households in the village took this opportunity to cook dinner. They hurried to finish eating and washing up before it got completely dark, as it was inconvenient to do anything after that. Lamp oil was expensive, so they were reluctant to use it unnecessarily.

At this dinner-making hour, what did Aunt Fan come over to do?

Clearly, she had already come over yesterday, and Fan Jin’s refusal was so evident that Shui Qing didn’t relent either. Everyone didn’t like her, so why did she come again today?

“Oh, Aunt Fan, how come you’re here?” Zhao Lan greeted her with a smile, raising her voice.

Upon hearing this, the people behind them immediately fell silent, not saying another word.

The people in village might not know what it was, whether it was worth money, or how much it was worth, but everyone in Polygonum multiflorum Village, from the elderly to children as young as five or six, knew it was a good thing!

A precious medicinal herb that could be sold for money!

After all, people in the village had previously discovered a particularly old specimen, and just one plant sold for twenty or thirty taels of silver.

That’s twenty or thirty taels of silver. If Aunt Fan found out that her son’s Polygonum multiflorum was being carried in baskets, it would cause a big fuss.

Even if the specimens were not old enough to fetch twenty or thirty taels of silver, a younger one could still bring in several hundred wen. Other families in the village had also dug up Polygonum multiflorum several times before, so they had some understanding of its price.

They knew, and Aunt Fan naturally knew too.

No wonder Aunt Fan brought Polygonum multiflorum today. Aunt Ding told them after they returned to make a selective statement that could be spoken to the adults at home who had tight lips, but the children had to keep it secret.

Now they finally understood what it meant!

They didn’t know who had been so talkative before, letting Aunt Fan know about the wages at the pharmacy, causing yesterday’s uproar. They almost lost such a good job.

It had to be kept secret!

Aunt Fan didn’t even look at Zhao Lan, walked straight ahead, and gave a cold hum as a response.

These people were working at her son’s house, paying wages like servants. According to the big lords in the capital, there was no difference between them and servants. It was their duty to greet her with smiles, and they were being sensible.

Zhao Lan was not upset either, smiling as she approached and asked, “Aunt Fan, are you hungry? Why don’t you come to my house for dinner?”

Aunt Wu also smiled and said, “Come to my house, we can have a chat.”

And let the Shui family have a quiet dinner.

“No need, I’ll go to my son’s house to stroll around and chat!” Aunt Fan continued walking without stopping.

These people had never been so generous before. They only came to curry favor with her after earning money at her son’s house today. In the past, she would have been very happy, but times had changed. She had important matters to attend to!

“Hmph, there’s nowhere good to go. Aunt Fan, you don’t know, the courtyard is full of mud and water, so dirty that there’s nowhere to step. If you go, you’ll dirty your clean new cloth shoes.” Xu Laosan’s third daughter-in-law, Huang Tao, looked at Aunt Fan’s shoes and exclaimed.

They cleaned the courtyard before leaving work, and it was so clean that even the gaps between the bluestones had been brushed several times with a bamboo brush. It had to be said that a courtyard with tiled floors was easy to clean and looked comfortable.

Aunt Fan’s step forward stopped, and she frowned, hesitating.

People in the village wore grass shoes, but she wore her own cloth shoes. This was the gap between her and the village women! Especially today, she was wearing new cloth shoes made a few days ago, and she treasured them carefully. Just thinking about getting them dirty or soaked made her heart ache.

Seeing an opportunity, Huang Tao continued persuading, “Why don’t you wait until another day? Why go on the first day when everything is dirty and messy?

Besides, if you have any questions, you can ask us. We’ll tell you everything clearly. Who would dare to hide anything from you?”

Aunt Fan’s eyes flickered as she hmphed and asked with a raised eyebrow, “Alright then, let me ask you all, what are those herbs? Are they valuable?”

“How would we know what herbs they are? They’re just things like tree roots, weeds, wild fruits, and such. If I see them in the wild, I’d just step right over them without a second glance.”

“Whether they’re valuable or not is hard to say. If they were really valuable, wouldn’t they just sell them directly? From what Aunt Ding said, it seems only the processed ones are valuable, maybe it’s the Ding family’s skill that’s valuable?”

Aunt Fan felt a doubt creeping in. Why did it sound like the Ding family was more skilled than her own son?

Could it be that the Ding family was in charge, so yesterday her son couldn’t agree to let his older brother’s family help in the herb shop? “But the Ding family still has to listen to my son’s orders. What’s so great about them?”

“You can’t say that. Today we’ve been following Uncle Ding and Aunt Ding’s orders all day, doing whatever they asked. And Aunt Ding said they don’t take wages, so it’s different from us.”

“Sister Shuiqing said that Uncle Ding and Aunt Ding recognize these herbs. Otherwise, they wouldn’t know; they’d just treat them as tree roots and wild fruits.”

“Uncle Ding and Aunt Ding are really amazing. I even wanted to invite them to my mountainside to see if there are any herbs, but I’m not familiar with them, so I can’t ask.”

“Yeah, me too. If we have herbs on our mountainside, even if they’re not precious, it’s better than just collecting firewood, right?”

As Aunt Fan listened, she regretted deeply.

It seemed like the valuable part of the herb shop on her son’s land wasn’t the herbs themselves, but the Ding family’s skills?

So her strong opposition to Ding Jiajia and her eldest grandson was completely off the mark.

If she hadn’t caused trouble for the Ding family, wouldn’t her eldest son’s family now be the ones benefiting? If Jin’s grandson married Ding Jiajia, wouldn’t the Ding family indirectly work for her grandson?

Taking a deep breath, Aunt Fan remembered what the second and third pillars had said yesterday about escorting Ding Jiajia home. As long as either the second or third son married Ding Jiajia, it was a simple matter for the Dings and Qin Yilin Lin to find herbs on their mountains.

The herb shop’s work was the egg, and the Ding family was the hen. If Jin’s grandson married Ding Jiajia, what was there to fear without the hen?

Having figured out this relationship, Aunt Fan no longer had the mood to go to her second son’s house. She wanted to go home and tell several of her golden grandsons about this good news!

Seeing Aunt Fan return with a joyful expression, Zhao Lan felt uneasy and muttered, “Why did Aunt Fan return so easily?”

“Today might be quiet, but I have a feeling there will be more trouble ahead,” Aunt Wu sighed, her expression worried and pessimistic.

The days ahead for Shuiqing were likely to be far from peaceful.

Li Tiantian, Zhang Xiaocao, and other unmarried girls shivered in fear. Sister Shuiqing had been obedient and resilient before the division, enduring all kinds of beatings and scolding without gaining Aunt Fan’s favor. After the division, she managed the household well, earning money inside and outside, and even raised her children and nieces well. Despite all this, Aunt Fan still came over from time to time to cause trouble. Although she didn’t achieve anything, it was still annoying and upsetting.

They didn’t have Sister Shuiqing’s abilities. If they encountered a formidable mother-in-law… they didn’t dare to imagine the miserable days ahead.