Chapter 37

Qian Caihua did not take Gu Qinghuan’s reminder to heart at all, and she was not angry.

“Huai’an’s family, to be honest, if I had known you were so filial, I really should have had my family’s Qiulin propose to you.

Don’t even mention a hundred, I’d be willing to pay a hundred and one, but it’s a pity for you, so young, what will you do in the future?”

Gu Qinghuan only wanted to laugh when she heard this. A hundred and one, how could she even say that? She couldn’t be bothered to respond. She slung the sack over her shoulder and, with the two children, prepared to go down the mountain.

Seeing that she was really leaving, Qian Caihua hurriedly shouldered her own firewood and followed, shouting after her: “Those red berries, if you eat too many, you’ll get hiccups, acid reflux, stomach pain, and feel weak. Don’t think you can eat them like meals.”

The people from the mountain knew what could be eaten and what couldn’t. Otherwise, with so many fruits around, how could no one want them?

Qian Caihua was worried that this clueless young intellectual might not understand and end up causing herself problems.

Qian Caihua was just that kind of person—she was bad, but not completely so. At most, she had some bad habits common among rural women. She liked gossiping, and her words could be harsh, but she didn’t mean to harm anyone.

Gu Qinghuan saw that she was chasing after her, so she had no choice but to stop and respond seriously.

“I understand, take your time.” She didn’t want to be the one blamed if Qian Caihua fell.

Seeing that Gu Qinghuan had listened, Qian Caihua finally slowed down her pace.

Along the way, Gu Qinghuan walked quickly.

Perhaps because she saw how much Gu Qinghuan disliked Qian Caihua, Da Bao whispered: “Mom, Qian Grandma isn’t a bad person. Once, when I was hungry for several days, she secretly gave me a piece of black flatbread.”

This was one of the few kind gestures Da Bao had received.

In these times, no family had any extra food, and even a piece of black flatbread was a kindness.

Gu Qinghuan felt a mix of emotions, her thoughts in turmoil.

Everyone had their flaws. Qian Caihua was unpleasant, gossipy, and meddling, but her life should not be controlled by Lin Xiaomeng’s manipulation.

Just based on the fact that she had just chased after her to offer those reminders, she should help her, but she had not yet figured out how exactly.

She couldn’t just run up and tell Qian Caihua not to drink Lin Xiaomeng’s water, warning her that her fortune might be stolen, right?

Sigh, one step at a time.

–

When they got home, Zhong Zijun had already steamed the rice.

The small chicken stew with mushrooms in the pot emitted a rich, fragrant aroma, making anyone who smelled it salivate.

Seeing her daughter struggling with the sack, Zhong Zijun felt a pang of heartache. She quickly reached out to take it but remembered that her hand wasn’t quite functional.

Gu Qinghuan threw the sack onto the ground.

“Da BaoBei Bei, hurry and fetch some water to wash your hands, we’re having chicken stew with mushrooms today!”

The family’s faces were filled with happy smiles.

As usual, lunch was served on the kang in the east room.

Zhong Zijun fairly divided the two chicken legs between the two little ones, then gave the two chicken wings to her daughter and son-in-law, while she herself savored the chicken head, the meat crisp and flavorful.

Never mind what they say about the chicken head not being edible. These days, having a bit of oil was already a luxury, and the chicken butt was considered a delicacy.

A wild chicken, after being plucked, weighed just over two pounds. With the mushrooms added, they stewed it into a full bowl. The family even mixed the broth with their rice, eating every last drop. Xu Huai’an’s eating speed noticeably picked up.

After eating and drinking their fill, sitting on the kang, Gu Qinghuan was already thinking about when to release the wild chicken that was still in the space. Wild mountain chicken, in its original flavor, really was delicious.

She needed to figure out a way to gather more wild game using the spiritual spring water from the mountain, stock it in the space, and eat it slowly. She just had to be careful with larger wild animals and take things step by step.

But as she thought about it, she remembered the seafood in the villa’s kitchen. If she didn’t eat some soon, she might actually die from hunger.

But with Zhong Zijun around now, it wasn’t convenient. Plus, they were already having enough to eat for every meal, so it wouldn’t be right to secretly cook something else.

She wondered if the spiritual spring water could be used to cultivate fish and shrimp from the sea. Maybe she could try it, and they might even reproduce and multiply.

“Huan Huan, the schisandra you mentioned, can it really be exchanged for money?”

Zhong Zijun had heard of schisandra before as a medicinal herb, but she had only ever seen the dried version. This was the first time she had seen it fresh.

“Don’t worry, it’ll definitely work. I know someone who specializes in purchasing medicinal herbs.”

“I’ll go again in the afternoon and bring back more. Tomorrow morning, I’ll take it to sell and make some money.” Gu Qinghuan said before yawning, feeling a bit tired.

Seeing this, Zhong Zijun quickly stood up to tidy up. “Go ahead and sleep for a bit. I’ll clean up. The things you need to do, I can’t help with, so leave these small matters to me.”

Gu Qinghuan was still a bit worried about her, so she gave the two little ones a glance. They immediately understood and eagerly ran off to help Zhong Zijun.

Gu Qinghuan returned to the west room and locked the door behind her.

She didn’t sleep right away. Instead, she went into the space. Since Zhong Zijun had come, she hadn’t had time to use the space.

The first thing she did was pick the persimmons and chestnuts that she had transplanted earlier and hang them on the vending machine to sell.

In the space, she could control things with her thoughts, and the harvest only took a moment.

There were about a dozen persimmon trees, and she collected a pile of persimmons as tall as a small mountain.

She also gathered a small pile of chestnuts with their fuzzy outer shells removed.

Gu Qinghuan tried one of the chicken-heart persimmons. Its skin was thin, juicy, and sweet, with no seeds. It tasted great—she wasn’t sure if it was because of the spiritual spring water, but it had a unique sweetness that seemed to come from the water.

She kept a portion for the winter, leaving some for the family, and hung the rest on the vending machine to sell.

The chicken-heart persimmons were so delicious that she couldn’t sell them too cheaply. She priced them at three mao per jin.

After the vending machine weighed the persimmons, the total came to 1450 jin. Including the ones she kept, she estimated that she had harvested around 2000 jin in total.

Calculating it out, each tree produced over a hundred jin of persimmons. They were wild, uncultivated, and considering that, it was quite a good yield.

The chestnuts, however, were much fewer, totaling only about a hundred jin.

Gu Qinghuan decided not to sell them, keeping them for the family to eat.

With 1450 jin of chicken-heart persimmons on the shelves, she was expecting another 400 or more yuan in income, which made her feel quite happy.

After finishing with the fruit trees, Gu Qinghuan went to the kitchen and found that the fish, shrimp, and crabs in the pond were still alive.

Not wasting any time, she immediately found a suitable spot in the space, dug a large pit, and added some spiritual spring water, planning to start an artificial fish farm there.

Just having the spiritual spring water wouldn’t be enough, though. Gu Qinghuan planned to go to the creek in the afternoon to collect some river water into the space.

She also thought it would be a good idea to gather more fish species, the more, the better. Then, whenever she wanted to eat, she could just scoop them up with a net—how wonderful it would be.

She also needed to plan for grains and vegetables, so that in the future, she wouldn’t need to spend money to buy them.

While she was lost in her dreams, Zhong Zijun knocked on the door.

“Huan Huan, are you asleep?

Why are you locking the door to take a nap, child?”

Gu Qinghuan hurriedly scrambled to open the door.

Goodness, you really picked the right time to come.