Chapter 31

Chapter 31

"Stomachaches? And you want leave?" Teacher Wang Lihua looked at the bunch of little turnip-tops before her, frowning slightly. "One or two with stomachaches, but all of you? You mean to tell me *all* of you have a stomachache?"

Shen Banyue kept a straight face, lying through her teeth: "We all ate together. The meat last night might have been a bit spoiled, and we felt unwell early this morning. Studying is so important; we originally thought we could tough it out if possible, but we really can't hold on anymore."

Teacher Wang gave the kids another once-over.

Xiao Jie and Xiao Wei immediately put on a dramatic 'woe-is-me' face. Xiao Zhuzi and Xiao Shitou's performances were more superficial, simply clutching their stomachs. Lin Mian wore a solemn expression, his face clearly stating, "Anyway, I'm taking leave"... As for the youngest one, her little face was rosy-cheeked and chubby, the picture of health—there wasn't a healthier child in the entire brigade.

Catching Teacher Wang's eye, the little one looked left and right, pressed both small hands to her chest, and scrunched up her little eyebrows in a crooked frown, acting even more convincingly than her older brothers.

Teacher Wang: "..."

Child, you're pressing the wrong spot.

Forget that the college entrance exams were currently suspended; even before they were halted, no one from the entire Xiaodun Brigade had ever gotten into college. Knowing how to read was already an accomplishment. Having a junior high school diploma was considered cultured; high school graduates were basically a rare breed.

Adults' expectations for children mostly stopped at "not being functionally illiterate." Going out to visit relatives or attending a banquet was more important than attending class.

Asking for leave and being absent was actually commonplace for Teacher Wang; specifically finding an excuse about feeling unwell was relatively rare.

Teacher Wang was both amused and exasperated. Considering these children were usually quite obedient and their learning progress was remarkably fast, she thought it over. Whether it was true or not, there was no need for her to hold them back. She simply waved her hand: "Alright, go back and rest then. If you're really unwell, have Auntie Wang take you to see the barefoot doctor in the neighboring brigade."

The Xiaodun Brigade didn't have a barefoot doctor; for any issues, they went to see Doctor Xu in the neighboring Dadun Brigade.

The children thanked her and scampered off happily.

Once outside the school gate, Shen Wendong and Zhao Xuehai were already waiting halfway down the road.

These two hadn't asked for leave; they had simply skipped class.

Shen Wendong was usually obedient and diligent in his studies, a model student in the teachers' eyes. Skipping class for the first time, he was very nervous. As he walked forward, he kept looking back towards the school, as if expecting a teacher to come chasing after them—

Schools in those days didn't have closed gates; the schoolyard was open to the world.

Unfortunately, people outside weren't very interested in knowledge either.

Zhao Xuehai's heart was big enough to hold the entire Changxi River that flowed from Qishan Commune through Yunling Commune all the way to Dong'an Commune. He didn't feel his good friend's nervousness at all. His excited demeanor wasn't like that of a student skipping school; it was more like he was off to a bustling market fair.

"Where are we going to scavenge? Can we really find stuff? Can the stuff we find really be sold for money?" Zhao Xuehai asked in a rapid-fire string of questions.

"Yes."

Shen Banyue shut him down with one word, took Xiao Dizi by the hand, and quickly darted into a small path nearby. The others hurried to follow. Zhao Xuehai, looking excited, patted Shen Wendong, grinned, and ran ahead.

They first took the small path up a small hill. After entering the bamboo grove, Shen Banyue kicked here and stepped there, directing the boys to dig out the scrap metal buried under the bamboo leaves.

With her metal ability, to a certain extent, she could act as a living metal detector—high power, wide coverage, excellent detection effect.

Under the decaying bamboo leaves and soil, the scrap metal buried there from who-knows-what era was quickly dug out by the little boys... Shen Banyue wasn't planning to drain the pond to get all the fish; she only picked the larger, easier-to-dig pieces.

After this round of digging, the burlap sacks in the children's hands were more or less filled. Shen Banyue then waved her little hand, leading the group of children onward.

They walked and dug along the way. Led by Zhao Xuehai, who was clearly no stranger to 'roaming wild' and was a local expert, they circled around the small hill, skillfully avoiding the fields where people were working, and followed a small path overgrown with brush out of the village.

Once outside the village boundaries, the group turned a corner and headed to the stream.

Water flow was most likely to carry "contraband." A gaggle of kids dug and scavenged in the willow grove by the stream, occasionally bursting out with cheers of "Ah, there's one here!" The things in their burlap sacks kept increasing, clinking and clattering together.

"Why didn't I ever think of scavenging this stuff to sell for money before?" Zhao Xuehai mused aloud while grimacing as he dug in the soft, damp soil under a willow tree.

"What I picked up on the road before, I always gave to my dad. He said long ago this could be sold for money. But you can't find that much on the road. I never realized before that there was so much stuff buried underground. If I'd known, we should have come digging during all our winter and summer vacations," Shen Wendong said, unusually enthusiastic.

Before, whenever he found a small iron piece, his dad would give him one fen. With this much, it should be able to be exchanged for quite a bit of money, right?

"Ah, being an adult is so troublesome. Getting a wife even requires a bride price. Does Brother Guoqing absolutely have to marry this wife? Wouldn't it be much better to save the money and buy meat to eat at the state-run restaurant yourself?" Zhao Xuehai grumbled.

Xiao Jie was the first to agree: "Exactly! I won't get a wife in the future. I'll use all my money to buy braised pork. Braised pork is so delicious, *slurp*."

Xiao Shitou nodded emphatically: "Right, buying meat to eat is good, *slurp*."

Xiao Zhuzi and Xiao Wei chimed in agreement, emitting a chorus of slurping sounds.

Lin Mian had a different opinion: "But everyone else has a wife, only Uncle doesn't. Isn't he pitiful?"

Zhao Xuehai sighed with a world-weary air: "Forget it, let's just help him. My mom said he's a presentable young fellow. Being rejected by a girl from another village doesn't just shame him; it brings shame on our entire Xiaodun Brigade. Let's scavenge more, sell for more money, so he has more bride price. My mom said that way, lots of people would be willing to be his wife."

Lin Mian picked up a small iron piece about the size of a child's palm and tossed it into the burlap sack. Amid the clatter, he slightly furrowed his brows: "But we aren't..."

He wanted to say they were scavenging to exchange for money not to save up for Uncle's bride price, but to help Uncle buy a job.

But before he could finish, Zhao Xuehai had already darted to another spot.

Lin Mian pressed his lips together and didn't say anything.

Anyway, it's all for exchanging money. Getting a wife and buying a job... there's not much difference really... right?

Even though Shen Banyue was long accustomed to these little kids' flights of fancy and childish chatter, she couldn't help but laugh listening to them now.

She and Xiao Dizi were squatting together on the other side, quietly giggling, when Xiao Dizi's bottom-in-the-air figure suddenly paused. The little one let out an "Eh?" Shen Banyue leaned over to look and saw her pull a small, golden, gleaming bead from the mud.

A small gold bead.

To make the process and result seem slightly less unreasonable, apart from "detecting" the general area of metals, Shen Banyue hadn't used her ability at all. The scrap in her burlap sack was also dug out "manually," one shovelful at a time.

She had only roughly sensed the general range before, not even carefully discerning what the metals underground were. So, seeing this small gold bead, she was just as surprised as Xiao Dizi.

Talk about protagonist luck!

"Sister, shiny, shiny-shiny."

The little one was at the age of "regarding money as dirt." What made her go "Eh?" wasn't the value of the gold, but the bright, yellowish gleam the gold bead couldn't hide even under the mud.

Shen Banyue took the small gold bead, casually pulled some wild grass leaves from nearby, and wiped it haphazardly. The small gold bead soon shed its dirt, becoming cleaner and brighter.

"You can't eat this; it'll give you a stomach ache if you eat it," Shen Banyue said, stuffing the small gold bead into the little pouch on the front of the child's belly. "Take it back to play with."

Xiao Dizi nodded. The messy, not-at-all-bun-like little bun Shen Banyue had haphazardly tied on her head swayed wildly in the wind a couple of times with the movement. "Give, Uncle."

"Alright, you can give it to 'Uncle' if you want."

The cheat-assisted "scavenging" operation went exceptionally smoothly. By late morning, the five burlap sacks they brought were almost half-filled.

The stuff was too heavy to carry on small paths. From a distance, they listened. After the work-break whistle blew, estimating the adults should have all gone home, they either dragged or carried the clinking, clattering load back.

They really didn't run into anyone along the way. Every household was having their meal. It wasn't until they reached near Shen Wendong's house that Shen Zhenhua, who had been waiting there, saw them.

He looked at his own son with great curiosity: "No way, you actually skipped class too?" His tone held no anger, only surprise.

Then again, the kid's personality was neither like his nor his wife's—so mature and steady it was as if he were Shen Zhenxing's own biological child. When Teacher Tang showed up at the door to say the child hadn't attended class that day, Shen Zhenhua almost thought Teacher Tang was talking in his sleep.

Shen Wendong pursed his lips and said, "It won't happen again."

Shen Zhenhua waved his hand. "It's fine. Even if you do it again, it's fine. To err is human, and kids will be kids. But next time, you'd better give me a heads-up. Otherwise, when the teacher shows up, I'm caught off guard too."

Shen Wendong looked a bit blank, thought for a moment, and finally gave a nod and mumbled, "Uh-huh."

Shen Zhenhua took the sack from his hands, opened it for a look, and immediately exclaimed, "Whoa! Where did you kids get all this junk metal?"

Glancing at the bulging sacks in the other kids' hands, Shen Zhenhua couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth. "All of these?"

He couldn't help sighing. "No way, did you raid some scrap yard or something?"

This was just too much.

"Wait, you skipped class so openly just to go collect all this scrap? What are you planning to do with it—sell it for candy money?"

Shen Zhenhua was full of questions. Even if they wanted to buy candy, picking up a few pieces would be enough, right? Five whole sacks—how many pounds of candy were they trying to buy?!

Zhao Xuehai protested, "Uncle Zhenhua, you're really underestimating us. If I wanted to buy candy, wouldn't I just ask my mom for money?"

Shen Zhenhua: "..."

That didn't exactly sound all that admirable either.

"We're collecting this stuff to sell at the commune's scrap station for money, so we can give it to Brother Guoqing as a bride price to get him a wife!" Zhao Xuehai declared loudly. "He got rejected by a girl from another village during a matchmaking session. Not only did he embarrass himself, but he also shamed all the men in our brigade! We're going to save up more for his bride price and get him a nice, sturdy wife!"

Shen Zhenhua: "..."

Shen Guoqing, who'd come out searching after the kids were gone so long: "..."