The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

Chen Ergou spoke with certainty, “I borrow money, but I always pay it back. Sanlang, saving a life is better than creating seven statues, so could you just do me a favor? When my donkey comes home, he can consider you his godfather; he’ll work for you for life…”

Jiang Sanlang and Chunniang turned green with indignation and furiously yelled, “Get lost!”

They picked up a wooden spade to hit him.

Scared, Chen Ergou and his wife crawled up and ran far away, still not stopping their gabbles, “Could… could I borrow your deer? When my donkey comes back, I’ll go hunting in the mountains to repay you with another deer, no… three in return…”

Jiang Sanlang became so furious that he lifted the wooden shovel and chased after them.

Scared, Chen Ergou and his wife broke into a run and disappeared in a cloud of dust.

Upon hearing this, the villagers in the threshing ground couldn’t help but scoff, “Really shameless! No wonder Chen Lulu dares to block the road and rob, with such parents, it’s no surprise he turned out this way.”

The more Jiang Sanlang thought about it, the stranger Chen Ergou’s behavior seemed.

“No, I have to go see the Clan Leader of the Chen Family and have him solve this.”

After all, Chen Ergou is from the Chen Family Clan, and only the Clan Leader could control him.

Chunniang nodded, “You go. I’m worried Chen Ergou might make more trouble.”

“Yes.” Jiang Sanlang threw the spade he was holding and headed towards the Clan Leader’s house.

The midsummer sun was as hot as a small stove.

Yingbao took Youyou for a walk out. Seeing Xiaowu and Xiaojie’s heads sweating under the bright sunlight, she quickly returned home.

She helped her two younger brothers off the carrying basket and asked Yuanbao to get Huzi as well.

She spread two mats on the ground in the main room, and the four boys sat down to play with a Kongming lock and Tangram puzzles.

Little Yingbao then went into the kitchen to cook.

She couldn’t stir-fry, but she could wash rice and cook it, along with boiling some water chestnuts on the side.

With no one around, Yingbao simply got a basket of water chestnuts, washed them thoroughly, and started boiling them.

Her family’s stove had two pots, perfect for cooking both rice and water chestnuts.

Before long, the rice was cooked and the water chestnuts boiled.

She took out the water chestnuts and poured the water into a clay jar, stired in some brown sugar, and set it aside to cool for Yuanbao and Huzi to drink later.

She then picked some green vegetables, washed them and set them aside for her mother to cook.

In early spring, one of their hens had hatched a brood of twenty chicks, which were now big enough to find their own food. Yingbao threw them the plucked vegetable leaves to peck at.

Fluffy chicks circled around Yingbao’s feet, clucking incessantly.

It wasn’t until evening that Jiang Sanlang and Chunniang came home.

Seeing that their daughter had cooked the rice and prepared the vegetables, Chunniang touched her little girl’s head, praising, “Baobao, you’re so capable.”

Yingbao gave a small smile, “I also boiled some chestnuts. Yuanbao and Huzi took some home, and we still have a little left. Mother, you taste.” Chunniang was surprised, “Did you go chestnut picking again?” Yingbao nodded.

“Did you take your brothers with you?” Chunniang asked.

It seemed she had seen her daughter leading the deer around earlier.

“No, I went by myself,” Yingbao replied straightforwardly, not blushing.

Chunniang took her at her word, adding, “Baobao, in the future, when you go out to play, it’s better to go with your siblings.”

The previous incident was still unresolved, so she didn’t dare let her daughter out of their sight by herself.

“Ok, Mother, don’t worry. From now on, I will stay with Sister Dani and the others,” Yingbao obediently nodded.

Once Chunniang had finished cooking the vegetables, the family sat down to eat.

Xiaojie and Xiaowu, smelling the delicious food, quickly crawled over and started clamoring for attention from their parents and sister.

Chunniang fed them steamed egg with a spoon and asked her husband,

“Sanlang, what did the Clan Leader of Chen family from West Village say?”

Jiang Sanlang wolfed down his rice, saying, “Chen Ergou said it was Chen Laoshuan who stirred things up, and the Clan Leader of Chen Family gave him a scolding. I guess this matter will just end as it is.”

“However, the Chen Family’s Clan Leader assured me that Chen Ergou won’t bother us again.”

“That’s good news.” Chunniang was somewhat relieved.

After finishing his meal, Jiang Sanlang cleaned up the dishes and started washing them while Chunniang boiled water for the children to bath and change clothes.

Ever since the two little monkeys learned to crawl, they’ve been scampering all over the place, making themselves as dirty as mud monkeys, their shorts and shirts looking as if they had been dug out of mud.

After changing their clothes, Chunniang patted her son’s bottom, “If you continue to crawl all over the place, I’ll punish you.”

Xiaojie giggled while Xiaowu crinkled his nose and turned around, looking for his sister for comfort.

At this moment, Yingbao was lying on a table in the west room, first copying from a calligraphy model, then transcribing the Thousand Character Classic.

Her handwriting was already quite impressive, though it lacked a bit of flair, it was pretty and neat.

The summer harvest ended.

Lizheng came with the local constables to collect taxes, and Jiang Sanlang was the first to pay his taxes, also paying for his two older brothers.

Once they sold their golden ears, his brothers would naturally pay him back.

In the meantime, the Jiang family bought several hundred jin of wheat from other villagers, to be stored as food.

After the wheat harvest comes ploughing, rice planting, and soybean planting, all these chores would keep them busy for a month.

And just at this time, the golden ears also ripened and needed to be harvested and dried urgently.

Jiang Sanlang was in a bit of a predicament, not knowing which to do first.

“Father. I can harvest the golden ears. let me take care of this.”

Yingbao volunteered to help: “There are only 300 golden ears in our family, I can finish picking them in two days. The sun is now strong, so it’ll save us the trouble of drying.’

“Then I’ll leave it to Baobao.” Jiang Sanlang gladly agreed.

So Yingbao started to busily work, while her two younger brothers were well-behaved, not causing any trouble. As long as they could see their sister, they could sit quietly on the mat and play with tangram puzzles for two hours.

The golden ears were dried under the hot sun for five days until completely dry, with none of them getting moldy or rotting.

Just in time, Jiang Sanlang and his wife had also finished plowing the dry land and planting rice seedlings.

Taking a day off, the three Jiang brothers took the dried golden ears to the county town and sold them all.

This time, Jiang Sanlang sold eleven jin of golden ears and got thirty-three taels of silver.

Jiang Dalang’s hundred golden ears also dried up to three jins, which were sold for nine taels of silver.

Jiang Erlang made the same amount, earning nine taels.

Even old man Jiang made one coin and eight.

The family happily returned from the county town, bringing back loads of cloth and daily necessities.

Now, the entire village knew that the Jiang family made a lot of money from selling golden ears.

The first to inquire was the Wang’s second sister-in-law.

Her house was not far from Jiang Sanlang’s. In the recent days, she saw the Jiang family spreading out the yellow mushrooms to dry. Although curious, she only took a brief look.

Later, the three Jiang brothers took loads of yellow mushrooms to the county town and brought back lots of cloth and goods. Even a fool could guess they made a lot of money.

“Chunniang, how did your family grow those yellow mushrooms? Could you spare some seeds for us?”

Wang’s second sister-in-law smiled broadly as she questioned Chunniang.

Chunniang chuckled: “Sure, but our seeds are very expensive, costing ten coins per plant.”

“What!? Ten coins per plant? You might as well rob!” Wang’s second sister-in-law turned around and left, her face darkening.

Chunniang ignored her.

Selling them at ten coins a plant would be a loss. Why not grow it for themselves?

Sigh, if not for the limited space in the bamboo shed, Sanlang would like to plant four or five hundred plants at a time..