pjbooks Chapter 21 Great Abilities at a Young Age
Chapter 21 Great Abilities at a Young Age
He looked at Ms. Qian in surprise, feeling a dryness in his throat.
Shouldn't Aunt Qian take Zhao Taohua and stay far away from him?
Why did they invite him to their home for the Mid-Autumn Festival?
He instinctively refused, saying, "Aunt Qian, no need, I can stay at home just fine."
"You are not allowed to refuse. This is what your aunt is saying to you as an elder," Qian said firmly.
What's the point of Shen Ming spending the Mid-Autumn Festival alone at home? It's much more interesting to be with someone.
Besides, Shen Ming is a grown man, and his elders died young. She didn't believe he could cook anything; he probably just ate those dry mooncakes to make do.
Shen Ming: "..."
He suddenly realized that Zhao Taohua and Qian Shi had something in common: they were both very assertive, and he was not allowed to refuse their decisions.
However, he didn't hate this feeling.
Seeing Shen Ming standing there dumbfounded, Zhao Taohua seized the opportunity to step forward and secretly poked the back of his hand with her finger, saying:
"Brother Shen Ming, it's settled then. Remember to go early tomorrow night. If you dare not go, I'll come to your house and invite you over!"
After saying that, a sly glint flashed in Zhao Taohua's eyes.
Shen Ming felt as if he had the illusion that he couldn't escape Zhao Taohua's grasp!
After Zhao Taohua and Qian Shi finished packing, they went together to buy food for the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Since it's a holiday, we should naturally eat well.
They bought some old rice that they usually couldn't bear to eat, and even bought luxurious spices like ginger and star anise.
"Get your dad two ounces of liquor, he loves it!"
Then, the mother and daughter weighed out another pound of pork belly and two pounds of spare ribs.
In the past, I would only buy fatty meat because I could render lard from it and use it to make cooking oil.
But in reality, no one in the Zhao family likes to eat fatty meat.
For this holiday, I'll buy some pork belly and ribs with bones!
Finally, Zhao Taohua and Qian Shi also bought five-nut mooncakes and crabs to take home, as these two items are indispensable for the Mid-Autumn Festival.
When they arrived home, the menstrual spirit was still sitting in the main room embroidering handkerchiefs, and had already embroidered more than a dozen in half a day.
Zhao Taohua suggested, "Let's not embroider the handkerchiefs for now."
The menstrual spirit thought Zhao Taohua had a change of heart and wanted her to rest for a while, but Zhao Taohua continued, "You should embroider a purse instead!"
Menstrual fluid: "..."
Embroider! Embroider! Embroider!
I curse you to have your period every day!
After giving her instructions, Zhao Taohua returned to her room and took out paper and pen to draw.
Now, she has saved up seven taels and one hundred coins, and with the help of the "menstrual essence" as a helper, she and Qian can also work as helpers, which saves a lot of labor costs. The bricklayer's wage is thirty coins a day.
Suddenly, Zhao Taohua felt that they could build the house bigger.
Now, the Zhao family only has three rooms including the kitchen. She's already so old, yet she's still sharing a room with Qian Shi and Zhao Ershu. She needs her own room.
However, if you want to build four rooms, you will need to buy some more land for the house.
In the village, the courtyard can be enclosed to a larger area, but the land for building a house must be registered with the local government. If someone builds a house illegally and occupies land without permission, they will be imprisoned.
After Zhao Taohua calculated it, she found that the more than seven taels that were originally more than enough were not enough!
However, there's always a way to overcome difficulties. The menstrual spirit is still embroidering sachets, and the herbs at the foot of the mountain can also be sold for money.
We'll discuss building four rooms with Zhao Ershu when he comes back tomorrow.
Tomorrow, she will go to the village chief and Xiangping's great-grandfather to discuss the matter of digging for medicinal herbs. She not only wants to become rich herself, but also wants to help the other villagers become rich together!
Otherwise, if she is rich alone, others will be envious. Moreover, the annihilation of Zhao Family Village three years later cannot be resisted by her alone; she needs the strength of the entire village!
The following day, the Mid-Autumn Festival, Zhao Family Village was much more lively than usual.
In addition to the villagers who usually stay at home, some villagers who work in the town also rushed back to celebrate the festival!
After having breakfast, Zhao Taohua headed to the village chief's house. Along the way, many villagers greeted her with smiles.
"It's Taohua! Have you had breakfast yet?" Grandma Yang asked warmly when she opened the door and saw Zhao Taohua.
The day before yesterday, she also saw the scene where Tao Hua caught the menstrual essence in Grandma Sun's body.
I can't believe that Peach Blossom has such great abilities at such a young age!
"Grandma Yang, I've already eaten. Is Grandpa Village Chief home? I need to talk to him about something."
"Yes, I'm washing dishes in the kitchen!"
As she spoke, Grandma Yang took Zhao Taohua to the kitchen.
The village chief's family is one of the few in the village to live in a large house with eight rooms. His family is large, and they are united and work together towards a common goal.
Grandma Yang had three sons, and her sons and daughters-in-law worked in the town.
The grandsons have all grown up and are working as apprentices in town, learning to slaughter pigs, carpentry, or blacksmithing, all of which earn money for the family. Only their only granddaughter remains at home to keep the two elderly people company.
This granddaughter is the only one in two generations; she is the apple of the family's eye.
"Old man, Peach Blossom has come to see you."
After Grandma Yang finished speaking, Grandpa Village Chief looked at Zhao Taohua with some surprise.
"Have you eaten peach blossoms? Have an egg."
As soon as the village chief finished speaking, Zhao Shengyue grabbed three eggs from a large bowl on the table and gave them to Zhao Taohua.
One egg costs a lot of money!
Only a girl as innocent as Zhao Shengyue would give someone three eggs at once.
Zhao Taohua pushed it back: "Sister Yue'er, I've already eaten."
"Sister Peach Blossom, please eat!"
Zhao Shengyue refused and insisted on stuffing the egg into Zhao Taohua's hand.
"Peach Blossom, take this. Eggs are good for your health," said Grandpa Village Chief.
Helpless, Zhao Taohua could only accept one egg in the end.
The village chief's family was too kind to her family. Before, when Ms. Qian came to repay a debt, they gave her ten eggs.
Seeing such a kind-hearted villager made her even more determined to tell the village chief about digging for medicinal herbs.
So she put down her basket and said, "Grandpa Village Chief, I've discovered that the reason there are wolves at the foot of the mountain is because there's a group of troublemakers there."
They love to scare people; they mimic wolf howls to attract wolves.
I subdued them yesterday, and they'll never cause trouble again, summoning the wolves down the mountain. We can also go to the foot of the mountain to dig for medicinal herbs and earn money.”
As Zhao Taohua spoke, she took out a plant of medicinal herbs, including a sprig of *Gynostemma pentaphyllum*, from her basket.
"These are what I dug up this morning. I sold them to the town's pharmacy yesterday. They buy fresh herbs there."
The price varies depending on the quality of the herbs.
For decades, no one dared to dig for medicinal herbs in the mountains of our village. Now, the herbs there are so plentiful that we can turn them into money as long as we dig them up and sell them to the pharmacy!
Yesterday I dug up half a basketful and sold it for over a hundred coins.
The village chief was shocked. He took the stalk of the herb and asked, "Is this a medicinal herb?"
Zhao Taohua nodded.
The village chief continued, "Did you dig this up from the foot of the mountain near our village? Won't those mischievous kids who like to summon wolves from the mountain bring them down?"
Zhao Taohua nodded again.
The village chief was still a little uneasy, but the fact that half a basket of herbs could be sold for more than a hundred coins made him very tempted.
He was the village head of Zhao Family Village, and no one knew better than him how poor Zhao Family Village was.
If the medicinal herbs at the foot of the mountain can really be dug up, he certainly hopes that everyone can improve their lives through this.
The village chief took a machete for self-defense and went to the foot of the mountain with Zhao Taohua.
Grandma Yang and Zhao Shengyue were a little worried, so they followed, but stood at a distance.
However, just as Zhao Taohua had predicted, the village chief stood at the foot of the mountain for a long time, but no wolves came.
The mountain was quiet, except for the chirping of insects, birds, and the sound of the wind; everything was peaceful and serene.
The village chief looked at Zhao Taohua and asked, "Is the foot of the mountain in our village really safe now?"
Zhao Taohua nodded: "Village chief, the wolf pack is active on the mountaintop, we are just digging some medicinal herbs at the foot of the mountain, so we don't interfere with each other."
Furthermore, over the past few decades, although the mischievous spirits would summon the wolves to scare people whenever someone came to the foot of the mountain, there has never been a case of the wolves eating people.
The wolves didn't enter the village to hunt people because the mountains were rich in resources, and the wolves weren't hungry at all, so why would they eat people?
The village chief thought about it and realized that made sense.
Since everyone encountered the wolf pack because of the troublemaker, and now that the troublemaker has been subdued by Zhao Taohua, and there are medicinal herbs at the foot of the mountain that can be dug up and sold for money, why not dig them up?
However, the village chief still had a concern: "Peach Blossom, we don't know what medicinal herbs are."