Chapter 46

Li Yuechan had just opened the door when she heard the words. She put her hands on her hips and shouted, “What, are you still trying to argue?”

Li Shengli, frightened, immediately hid behind his grandmother. “Grandma, save me! She’s going to bully me again. Tell her to leave, tell her to leave!”

Huang Hehua quickly blocked Li Shengli. “What are you doing? Why are you bullying my good grandson?”

Li Yuechan sneered, “You’re still hoping for him to pass high school? I think he’s barely going to make it through middle school. There’s only a month left anyway. He might as well get a middle school diploma and be done with it. He can’t even answer the simplest questions. After graduation, he’ll just stay home and farm, not think about anything else.”

Huang Hehua stiffened her neck. “You’re teaching him like this? Don’t get too proud of yourself. I’m calling your dad right now.”

“Call him, go ahead, you asked me to come teach him, now you’re blaming me!”

Just then, she heard her cheap grandfather cough and say, “Let’s eat.”

Liu Xinghua quickly brought the food from the kitchen to the table.

At the dining table, Li Yuechan glanced at the food and sighed. It was still the same old porridge, steamed buns, and stir-fried pickled vegetables.

Her mom had given her so much money every year, what was this old woman doing with it?

With her second uncle’s wages and the family’s harvest, they shouldn’t be living this poorly!

“Aunt, where are my eggs?”

“Here, here, I’m getting them for you.”

With that, a boiled egg was placed in front of Li Yuechan.

Li Shengli, seeing this, widened his eyes and asked, “What about mine, Aunt?”

“Shengli, our chickens only lay two eggs a day.”

“Then where’s the other one?”

Li Yuechan scoffed, “Li Shengli, the other one is mine. Don’t you know your cousin needs two eggs a day?”

Li Shengli looked at his grandmother, his eyes brimming with tears.

“Don’t cry. Grandma has some peach crisps. I’ll get you some in a bit.”

Li Yuechan shrugged. “Li Shengli, you’re fourteen, not four. Still acting spoiled with your grandmother. Aren’t you embarrassed?”

Li Meili heard this and couldn’t help but laugh.

When Li Shengli heard Li Meili laugh, he raised his head and walked over. “You troublemaker, why are you laughing?”

Li Meili exploded. “Li Shengli, you jerk, I’m on your cousin’s side!”

“You’re no cousin! How dare you make fun of me? I’ll punch you!”

Li Meili’s eyes went wide as saucers. She quickly jumped up and ran far away.

Just then, Li Xiangdong walked over, didn’t say a word, and punched Li Shengli in the face.

“I’m here, yet your still bullying my sister!”

Li Shengli clutched his nose, tears flowing like a broken dam as he cried out.

“Grandma, help! My cousin is going to kill me!”

Li Yuechan rolled her eyes. This early in the morning, and things were already chaotic.

She went straight into the kitchen, and when she saw some sweet potatoes steaming on the stove, she didn’t hesitate to grab two and stuff them into her pockets. She also took the boiled eggs with her.

As she exited the kitchen, she saw her aunt and grandmother arguing again, so she quickly slipped away.

She didn’t have time to deal with this nonsense. She needed to hurry up and go to the mountain to find gold!

Since she’d found one box, maybe there would be a second, or even a third. Hehehe!

She made her way to the back mountain, eating as she walked. Soon, two eggs and two sweet potatoes were gone.

She took out a loaf of bread from her space and started nibbling on it. Then, she ate two apples. Finally, she reached the big locust tree.

She circled the tree once, but felt nothing. Was there really only one box of gold? That didn’t seem right!

She scratched her head and continued deeper into the mountain, picking wild fruit and planting it on the land in her space.

She had plenty of land now, so she didn’t need to worry about this little bit.

After walking for over an hour with no sign of gold, she sighed. Looks like today was a wasted effort.

Meanwhile, Huang Hehua had triumphed in her argument with her eldest daughter-in-law and excitedly headed to the village office.

“Li Director, there’s a call for you!”

Li Jianguo frowned and slowly walked to the phone room.

“Hello.”

“My child! You’d better hurry and take that demon of yours away! If she stays here a few more days, my old bones will fall apart!”

Li Jianguo looked at her with annoyance. “Mother, she’s only been here for a day, and we agreed on this!”

“Oh, son, I really can’t take it anymore! That girl of yours is too ferocious!”

“Mother, we agreed, and you can’t go back on your word!”

“Go back on my word? Why is she even staying here in the first place?”

“My business is none of your concern, besides, you already took five yuan from me!”

“That’s for you to show your filial piety to your old mother!”

“Mother, I’ve given you the annual filial piety money, and Lichun gave it to you during the New Year!”

Huang Hehua ground her teeth in anger. “She can stay for two more days, but that’s it!”

Li Jianguo thought for a moment, then agreed, “Alright, two days, then!”

After hanging up the phone, he narrowed his eyes and touched the packet of medicine in his pocket, a wicked smile curling at the corner of his lips.

—— ——

In a house in the eastern suburbs,

“Jin Ge, lucky we moved the goods in time. Oh boy, that Dong Gang is really in trouble! I heard the entire black market in the northern suburbs got cleaned out!” Ah Liang said, gleeful at the misfortune.

Jin Biao squinted his eyes and sighed. “This time, the noise is huge. Good thing we managed to send the goods out in time, or we’d be the ones caught up in it!”

Ah Liang quickly wiped the smile from his face, becoming serious. “Right, we really need to thank that Jin Buzi! Don’t know how he got his hands on that info.”

“Ah Liang, go call Zhang Jinbu over. That guy’s got some luck. I’ve been watching him for half a year now. He’s got potential.”

“Got it, Big Brother, I’ll go right now!”

Meanwhile, Zhang Jinbu was still lounging at home, unaware that good fortune was about to come his way.

Li Yuechan had spent a couple of hours on the mountain, picking wild fruit but not a single gold nugget. Disappointed, she was heading down the mountain.

As she reached the foot of the mountain, she ran into Li Goudan. Li Yuechan called out, “Numei, there you are!”

Li Goudan, who had been picking pigweed, looked up and immediately walked over when she saw Li Yuechan.

“Yuechan, I heard from my brother that you’re back! But I haven’t seen you. I was thinking of going to find you to hang out!”

“Ah, I just came back. I was planning to walk around the mountain to see if I could find something to improve the food situation,” Li Yuechan said with a light chuckle, covering her mouth.

“That’s not easy. My brother often comes to the mountain, and five out of ten times, he comes back empty-handed! Oh, by the way, Yuechan, how long are you planning to stay this time?”

Li Yuechan pouted, “I think I’ll go back today.”

“You’re leaving today? But tomorrow is your cousin’s engagement. Aren’t you going?”

Li Yuechan was surprised. “What? My cousin is getting engaged?”

“Yes, her engagement is tomorrow. You didn’t know?”

Li Yuechan scratched her head, laughing awkwardly. “Hehe, I didn’t hear anything from them. I honestly didn’t know.”