The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

“It doesn’t matter, who cares? They dared to mercilessly slaughter our common people; they got what they deserved in death.”

Jiang Sanlang finished eating the melon, stood up and said, “I need to get some sleep. I’ll talk to you all about future matters afterwards”.

He had not slept much in several days, now he was beyond exhausted.

Old man Jiang waved his hand: “Go and sleep. I’m going to go outside and have a look”.

He had to tidy up the rooms of his first two sons, come free time he had to pick things up, clean out all the clutter from the room, then, when he felt better, repaint and fix the roof.

Right now, Yingbao was taking her brothers and sisters to find melons.

Of course, it was impossible to find any, but they did find a bamboo bed. On the bed were stacked two large wooden boxes, two sacks of rice, and two sacks of wheat, plus several quilts.

They were covered with some straw, and surprisingly, they hadn’t been soaked after two days of rain.

Jiang Quan rushed over first, pushing off the straw, exclaiming excitedly and incoherently, “We’re rich! We’re rich! Hahaha! I’ve found the bandits’ treasure!”

Yingbao grimaced, “This is my family’s stuff”.

Jiang Quan, “”

He opened one of the wooden boxes and picked up a garment to look at, it was indeed his cousin’s clothing.

He was disappointed; he had gotten excited for nothing. He thought he had found the loot that the bandits had hidden.

Jiang Quan and his elder brother Jiang Cheng carried a sack back each, while Dani and Erni each shouldered a quilt.

Yingbao, her two brothers, Yuanbao, Huzi, Wei Zhan, and others remained by the bamboo bed.

The two dogs barked excitedly and circled around the bamboo bed.

They both clearly saw the sudden appearance of this item in front of their young master, which caused them to take a severe shock.

Even now, they hadn’t recovered from the shock.

“Yingbao, let’s go collect some eggs, Brother Yuanbao and Wei Zhan can just watch over this,” Huzi was already itching to go, urging his cousin repeatedly.

Little did he know, before his cousin could even respond, Yuanbao was the first to object. “Why should we watch over this? What can you and Xiaojie Xiaowu do? I think you guys should just watch the stuff here, Yingbao and I will go collect the eggs.”

“Why?” Huzi huffed, “I’ve already made plans with Yingbao! Humph! I want to go!”

Seeing the two brothers about to fight, Yingbao glared at them: “None of you are going, I can go myself.”

She then pointed at her two brothers: “You guys stay here and watch the things, when I return, we’ll go home and cook some eggs to eat.”

Jiang Jie and Jiang Wu pouted in grievance, but they nodded their heads.

Jiang Wu ran to whisper into his sister’s ear: “Sis, next time let’s not bring them! Humph!”

“Okay,” Yingbao agreed.

Jiang Wu brightened up immediately, he glanced at Huzi and the others confidently, feeling smug inside.

With that, the boys watched Yingbao leading Xiaolu into the bamboo thicket.

Yingbao found a clearing in the bamboo thicket, about one zhang (3.3 meters) square.

She took out a small shovel and started digging, moving the melon vines and cucumber vines some distance away and planting them into the ground one by one.

After preparing the soil and watering the vines, she finally felt satisfied.

She would call Dani and Erni over to pick melons later, then she’d have something to say to the adults.

She later brought out a few hens and scattered a handful of wheat grains on the ground.

The hens looked a little befuddled on coming out, but on seeing Yingbao, a familiar face, they calmed down and happily pecked at the grains.

When Yingbao appeared in front of Yuanbao’s group with a basket of eggs, Dani, Erni, Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Quan had also arrived.

Accompanying them were old man Jiang, Jiang Liu, and Zhou of the Chun family.

They were preparing to carry back a few sacks of grain and boxes on their shoulders.

“Baobao, where did you find the eggs?” The old man Jiang asked first.

Yingbao pointed to the bamboo grove: “Over there, do you want to go take a look?”

“Go, of course, go!” Old man Jiang was always curious about where his granddaughter found these things.

Not only the old man, but everyone in the family was curious.

So, Yingbao led her grandparents, cousins, and sisters to the spot she just cleaned up.

“Oh my, so many melons!” Jiang Liu’s excitement gripped her listless husband, “Look, are those our chickens? Oh, God is really watching over us.”

Dani and Sister Dani, along with Jiang Quan, had run off to pick melons early.

Second Sister picked and yelled: “No wonder! So there’s a melon field here! Haha! I’m coming here every day to pick melons.”

Jiang Liu, seeing her granddaughter yank the melon vine from the ground, slapped her thigh in distress: “Aiyo, careful! There are still baby melons up there, don’t pluck the vine. Ah, you clumsy girl…”

The second sister was careful, but the melon vine was too fragile, and it pulled out from the root.

“Stupid!” Jiang Liu slapped her granddaughter’s hand, forbidding her to pick any more, and ordered her grandson, “Go home and fetch a sickle!”

Yingbao silently handed over a pair of scissors, “Why not use the scissors to cut?”

Second Sister was overjoyed, she took the scissors and began to snip away.

It has to be said, the feeling of cutting melons with scissors was quite satisfying.

After picking the melons, Jiang Liu carefully mounded soil around the base of each melon vine, pressing it down. Only then did she go home with the chicken they had caught.

On the way home, Old man Jiang muttered to his wife: “I wonder if the bandits hid anything else in the bamboo grove?”

Jiang Liu nodded: “Certainly. Let’s return these things home first, then we’ll come back and search.”

“Alright, I’ll go look around later.”

But to no avail, Old man Jiang turned the bamboo grove upside down and found nothing.

At night they retired, with the women in one room and the men in another.

Fortunately, today they found a few quilts and blankets, so no one would freeze to death.

The next day, the weather became colder.

Jiang Cheng got up early to have breakfast, then he and his younger brother Jiang Quan went to town.

The families would need to start preparing their cotton clothes, otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to get through the winter.

Just as Jiang Cheng they left, Clan Leader Chen and a few village elders came by to see Jiang Sanlang.

Clan Leader Chen sat down by the bamboo bed and stroked his beard as he said to Jiang Sanlang: “Now that Sanyou cannot be in charge, our village has decided to elect you as the head of Chen Village.”

Jiang Sanlang was taken aback and waved his hands: “That can’t be.”

“How can it not?” Clan Leader Chen said: “Our village’s young people all listen to you, and your family is a second-tier household, there’s no one more suitable than you to be head.”

“Yes, Sanlang, just agree.” The village elders chimed in, “With the way things are in the village right now, we can’t do without a leader.”

Jiang Sanlang scratched his head, “But I…”

“Well, that’s settled then.” Clan Leader Chen said: “Before coming here, I had talked with the village people, and they all agreed that you becoming the village head was most appropriate.”

One of the village elders patted Jiang Sanlang’s shoulder, “Managing the village won’t be easy now, but I believe in you. Later, we’ll go to Lizheng to tell him, from now on you’ll be taking care of all the affairs in Chen Village.”

“Yes indeed, you absolutely cannot turn this down, otherwise, our village will be done for.”

Jiang Sanlang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so he just nodded in agreement: “Well then, I will humbly obey. If there’s anything I’m not doing right, please guide me, Uncle Chen, and the village elders.”

“What are you talking about, we trust you very much.”

The village elder smiled kindly: “Also, the problem of repairing the villagers’ houses needs to be addressed; winter is coming soon, and we can’t leave people without a place to live.”