Chapter 31: The Reincarnation of the Fortune-Scattering Child

Mai Xiangnan had no sons, only four daughters.

He and Yang Huizhen had indeed considered keeping one daughter at home to marry in a son-in-law.

However, Mai Xiangdong believed that Mai Dongxue was not suitable for this role.

Becoming a live-in son-in-law was already not a particularly honorable thing, and with Mai Dongxue’s temperament, they might end up at odds with the son-in-law.

Mai Xiangnan thought his eldest daughter, Mai Chunni, was honest, hardworking, and diligent surely, she would be able to find a good husband.

However, Yang Huizhen preferred their youngest daughter and wanted to keep Mai Dongxue by her side.

As for the final decision, the couple had yet to formally determine anything.

Unexpectedly, Yang Huizhen had already spoken to Mai Dongxue in private.

Mai Xiangnan’s face darkened as he told his daughter, “You don’t need to bring in a son-in-law. Just marry obediently!”

Seeing her father’s serious anger, Mai Dongxue dared not talk back and quietly lowered her head to focus on eating.

There was fish on the table today she couldn’t risk being sent away before she got her share. She needed to eat a few extra pieces while she had the chance.

…

Three days later, the intense and exhausting double harvest finally came to an end.

The village leader, Mai Xiangdong, granted everyone a day off to rest properly.

But he himself couldn’t take a break just yet higher authorities had assigned four more educated youths to their village.

He had to go to the Hongqi Commune to receive them.

When the educated youth relocation policy was first introduced, Mai Xiangdong had been quite pleased.

He thought that since these youths were educated, they would surely contribute to Lianhua Village.

But reality proved otherwise.

Not only were they not as capable as the villagers when it came to manual labor, but they were also delicate and easily tired, constantly complaining.

Some were even prone to dramatic breakdowns, threatening to take extreme measures over minor hardships.

It was exhausting!

As a result, Mai Xiangdong became reluctant to accept more educated youths.

However, this wasn’t just a problem unique to Lianhua Village it was widespread.

Neither Mai Xiangdong nor the other village leaders wanted to take in more of them.

But the government orders had to be followed.

To make things easier, the commune started offering incentives to persuade the village leaders.

Persuasive words had long since been exhausted promises that the youths just needed time to adapt had fallen flat.

Eventually, the commune resorted to tangible benefits: for every educated youth a village took in, they would receive a grain subsidy of 200 catties.

This grain wasn’t given to individuals but was allocated to the entire village, meaning the village’s grain tax could be reduced by 200 catties per youth.

With the commune making such concessions, the village leaders had no choice but to comply and support the government’s decisions.

Previously, Lianhua Village had five educated youths. With the addition of these four, the total would be nine.

Conveniently, this coincided with the grain tax submission period, allowing them to reduce their quota by 1,800 catties—definitely a worthwhile benefit.

Mai Xiangdong was relieved that these four newcomers arrived at a good time right after the double harvest.

If they had arrived during the busiest season, he feared they would have spent their days complaining and crying.

That would have been a headache!

To fetch them from the commune, Mai Xiangdong wouldn’t ride a bicycle he had his son, Mai Juncai, drive a tractor instead.

Any villagers needing to go to the commune could ride along.

However, on the way back, if the tractor was too crowded, they would have to walk home.

Everyone understood this arrangement after all, the educated youths were new and would likely have a lot of luggage. It wouldn’t be fair to make them walk.

The tractor ride to the commune took less than half an hour, but walking took an hour and a half.

The villagers were used to this normally, they walked to the commune anyway.

After all, the entire village only had two bicycles one belonging to the village leader and the other to the village accountant.

At this time, bicycles were a rare luxury, something ordinary rural families couldn’t afford.

When Mai Hongcai heard that his cousin was driving the tractor to the commune, he immediately ran home to inform Mai Sui.

“Sis, we’re out of green beans and rock sugar. Let’s go buy some at the commune.”

“Alright!”

Mai Laosan, on the other hand, didn’t want to go.

Finally having a day off, he wanted to go to the neighboring village to gamble.

Previously, no one could control him he would go whenever he wanted.

But now, with Mai Sui around, he didn’t dare skip work and slack off.

This was his only precious day of freedom he didn’t want to waste it.

Of course, he couldn’t let Mai Sui know his real plans.

Instead, he claimed he was exhausted from the recent work and needed to rest at home.

Mai Sui didn’t care either way, as long as Mai Hongcai could help carry things.

As soon as Mai Sui and Mai Hongcai got on the tractor, Mai Laosan immediately dashed off to the neighboring village.

The tractor was packed with other villagers, all taking advantage of the day off to buy supplies.

For some reason, Mai Sui felt that everyone was being especially warm and friendly toward her.

One elderly woman even shoved her five-year-old grandson into Mai Sui’s arms, saying something about letting him “absorb her good fortune.”

Mai Sui was bewildered.

Fortunately, the child was well-behaved and had even worn clean clothes for the trip.

Otherwise, Mai Sui would have definitely refused to hold him.

Meng Guilan, the elderly woman, watched her grandson nestled in Mai Sui’s arms and became even more delighted.

She turned to Mai Sui and said, “Mai Sui, you and Jinbao look so much alike both fair-skinned and delicate. That means you two are both blessed with good fortune.

How about this…”

Jinbao should recognize you as his godmother.”

Before Mai Sui could respond, Mai Hongcai immediately objected:

“Granny Meng, what are you saying? My sister isn’t even married yet! How can an unmarried girl become someone’s godmother?”

Meng Guilan’s face flashed with embarrassment.

Oh right, she had completely overlooked that detail, too focused on the idea that Mai Sui was the reincarnation of a wealth-dispensing deity.

She quickly corrected herself, “Then let’s make her his god-sister.”

“No way!” Mai Hongcai refused outright again.

“Granny Meng, that would mess up our family hierarchy! I’m in the same generation as Jinbao’s father.

How could my sister be Jinbao’s sister? He should be calling her ‘Auntie’ instead!”

“Then we’ll wait until your sister gets married before making her his godmother. That should be fine, right?”

Meng Guilan had no other option.

Mai Hongcai puffed up proudly. “My sister is going to marry into the city. She won’t be Jinbao’s godmother.”

Previously, most villagers were 90% skeptical about whether Mai Sui could actually marry into the city.

Now, that doubt had dropped to just 30%.

Because not only was Mai Sui good-looking, but she now also carried the aura of a reincarnated fortune-bringer.

With that alone, someone might be willing to marry her.

Of course, the premise was that her luck continued to hold.

As for her mental state well, as long as it didn’t interfere with daily life and she didn’t go around hitting people, it wasn’t a big deal.

Mai Sui, however, didn’t object to Mai Hongcai’s words.

She knew that no one could decide her future for her.

Besides, there was no point in explaining things to these nosy village women.

Also on the tractor were Zhao Xue and Lin Ranran from the educated youth dormitory.

They were also taking advantage of the day off to visit the supply and marketing cooperative in the commune.

Hearing Mai Hongcai’s words, Zhao Xue’s face showed a trace of disdain.

Tch, a mere village girl worse yet, a mentally unstable one daring to dream of marrying into the city? What a joke!

As for the whole reincarnated fortune-dispensing deity nonsense, Zhao Xue didn’t believe it for a second.

She was an educated person, not some illiterate peasant woman who would buy into such superstitions.

Lin Ranran, meanwhile, was gazing at the scenery along the road, completely uninterested in the conversation.

Seeing her indifferent attitude, Zhao Xue became even more annoyed and turned her head away.

If it weren’t for the fact that she didn’t get along with Wang Hongxia, the other female educated youth, she really wouldn’t bother with Lin Ranran at all.

Not only was she clueless, but her temper was also like a firecracker completely impossible to deal with.