Chapter 51

Chapter 51

Awkward... The entire courtyard fell silent with only Zhao Guifen's groans of pain breaking the stillness!

In the neighboring courtyard, Old Lady Feng came out to pour some water and, seeing the Wangs bustling again for reasons unknown, curiously glanced over. That glance infuriated Zhao Guifen.

She covered her buttocks and cursed, "What are you looking at? Why don't you mind your own business?"

"Pah! Who would want to look at you? I was just checking if you were bullying your son and daughter-in-law again. What is there to see in you, wicked woman? Don’t think that no one knows about what happened back then!" Old Lady Feng spat in disdain before turning away.

Back then?

Bai Xiuxiu's gaze shifted to Old Lady Feng.

She took note of it.

Zhao Guifen felt a pang of panic at her words and her tone turned nastier. "What are you all standing around for? Hurry up and borrow a cart from the brigade for me! You want me to die without taking me to the hospital? Ouch... my leg! What have I done to deserve this!"

Zhao Guifen’s bitten leg had swollen up, rivaling the wild boar’s leg from the other day!

"What hospital? Third, go find Old Zhang first and have him take a look at the leg. If it doesn’t need a hospital visit, we’ll treat it at home," Wang Shoucheng said, his face darkening as he looked at his wife.

How much would a hospital trip cost?

She really didn’t know how to manage their finances!

"What are you waiting for? Go quickly!" Zhao Guifen, losing her composure due to the pain, didn’t care who they sought help from as long as she got treated.

"You three, carry your mother into the house."

As Wang Shoucheng directed his sons, his gaze fell on the bag. "Old Fifth’s wife, is that snake in the bag?"

Still stunned by her father-in-law’s attitude toward her mother-in-law, Zhou Jiaojiao nodded blankly when he asked about her bag. "Ah... yes! It’s the snake."

"Have Old Zhang identify it later. See what kind of venomous snake it is and whether it can be sold." Wang Shoucheng recalled what his wife told him last night about his youngest daughter-in-law’s good luck. He finally believed it now.

Whenever his youngest daughter-in-law went up the mountain, she seemed to come back with something.

But why didn’t she say anything sooner?

If she had, would they have agreed to split the extra income evenly?

Right, Eldest!

"Qinghe, where’s your catch?" Wang Shoucheng stared at Wang Qinghe.

At his words, Wang Qinghe calmly set down the basket. "Dad, I didn’t see even a single rabbit in the mountains today. They must be spooked after these few days."

Wang Shoucheng’s smile vanished instantly.

What? Nothing? They lost two eggs this morning! All of them ended up in Eldest’s family’s stomach!

Before Wang Shoucheng could get angry, Wang Qinghe started painting a rosy picture. "Dad, I probably won’t be able to catch any small game. I plan to start staking out for bigger prey tomorrow."

Wang Shoucheng’s eyes lit up. "Really?"

Those small creatures wouldn’t fetch much money. Only big game could bring in a decent share.

But... if his youngest daughter-in-law’s luck persisted for another half month and he couldn’t squeeze any more money out of Eldest, he’d kick Eldest out of the family.

He couldn’t let Eldest benefit from the family.

Without guessing, Wang Qinghe knew what Wang Shoucheng was thinking. He nodded. "Yes, Dad. I’m going back to my room. It’s been a tiring day..."

With that, he followed his wife inside.

Ever since he returned, Xiuxiu had been staring at him with bright eyes, probably because of some good news.

Compared to watching the people he disliked in the courtyard, he preferred returning to his room to see Xiuxiu and their children.

The moment they entered the room, Bai Xiuxiu pulled him down to sit. "I have some good news to tell you!"

"I also have some good news for you."

As Wang Qinghe spoke, he took out three glass jars. They were the size of regular canned food jars. He had sewn large pockets inside his clothes, which, coupled with his bulky attire for the mountains, allowed him to sneak them into the room unnoticed.

"I found a beehive a few days ago. Today, I extracted the honey.

There’s enough for you to last through winter."

Wang Qinghe gazed at his wife, his tone gentle as if afraid of startling her.

Bai Xiuxiu couldn’t hide the corners of her mouth lifting at the sight of the honey. Who wouldn’t like something sweet!

She hugged him and kissed him hard. "Let me tell you about my good news."

Bai Xiuxiu recounted everything that happened with Chen Jinhua, the captain’s wife, earlier that day.

"How about that? Good news, right?" Bai Xiuxiu’s face radiated joy. Most importantly, with this job, she could easily control the Wangs.

"That’s great! You won’t have to work in the fields anymore." Wang Qinghe was even happier than Bai Xiuxiu!

He held her hand tenderly. "Even though I helped you before, you still had to work in the fields. When you married me, I promised not to make you do anything you disliked. Yet..."

"What’s the point of talking about that?" Bai Xiuxiu felt as sweet as the honey in her heart.

In her previous life, Wang Qinghe was good to her, and she thought it was just his personality. But after drifting behind him, she realized that he wasn’t usually so kind; he was simply good to her.

She didn’t know if it was love or not, but no one would reject such unique treatment!

"Right, about the pot, Uncle Wu asked around and found one for eight yuan without a ticket. It’s not large, just the size of a small stir-fry pan. There’s only this one available, and I’ve already reserved it. We’ll have Chen Chengcai bring it over for us tomorrow.

If they ask, just say it’s a parcel sent through mail."

Wang Qinghe then took out another roll of money—sixty yuan in total. This morning, I sold the Astragalus, which should have fetched sixty-five yuan, but I traded the five yuan for fifteen bath tickets from him.

Here are the supplementary food tickets, industrial goods tickets, and daily necessities supply tickets.

They said that more people exchange tickets towards the end of the year, so these are all we could get right now.

Wang Qinghe handed Bai Xiuxiu the items listed on today’s shopping list, one by one.

Bai Xiuxiu put away these tickets; she couldn’t do without them!

Back at her mother’s house, her mother had raised her and her older sister together, and she was accustomed to this kind of life. During the few years she had been married to Wang Qinghe, he had never fallen short in providing her with these necessities!

"Old Zhang, you can’t leave! Who will save my old woman if you go?" Outside, Wang Shoucheng held onto Old Zhang, who had been invited over to see his wife.

Old Zhang was determined to leave, grumbling, "Are you asking me to save someone or to harm them? Your Aunt Guifen’s leg is swollen like a pig’s leg! If you don’t take her to the hospital soon, you might lose the leg entirely!

Instead of stopping me, hurry up and save her!"

With that, Old Zhang used a burst of strength to free his sleeve and quickly left the Wang residence.

"Dad, what do we do now?" Wang Qingfu, the second son, was also panicking, somewhat reluctant to spend the money. His mother really was something else—she didn’t bring back the bird eggs but ate them herself, and now she got bitten by a snake because of it.

How old is she, doing something like this?