The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

Jiang Sanlang and the brothers Li Dayong and Li Eryong quickly trimmed five hundred pepper vines, and handed them to Chen Changsheng and the others.

He generously gave them an extra ten and then pocketed the silver.

Turning his head and seeing his little daughter looking on, he asked with a smile, “Have you finished picking the apples?”

“Hmm.” Yingbao looked around the pepper garden, noting that the vines were somewhat thin. She planned to water them with the Pupil Spring later. “Dad, who else wants to buy pepper seedlings?”

Jiang Sanlang thought for a while and said, “There are quite a lot. The village chiefs from several surrounding villages have come to make appointments, but our pepper vines are not quite enough.”

However, they couldn’t possibly strip their own pepper vines bare, so they could only have those people wait in line until new vines grew back.

Yingbao nodded and looked around.

When her father and the others were pruning the vines, they pruned intermittently. At most, they cut two small roots from each pepper plant, so it wouldn’t affect their own pepper plants from flowering and fruiting.

Fortunately, like the kudzu vine, the pepper vine is a perennial vine and can grow for many years, so she wasn’t worried about having to re-seed next year.

The question was, how should she take out the pepper vine seedlings and give them to her father to sell?

She was short on money. Not only her, but also her parents.

They had recently bought a house and a store in the county town, and along with refurbishment, making furniture, shelves, counters, etc., and purchasing a lot of household items, they had almost spent their savings.

Even though her parents later sold a batch of golden ears, all the proceeds were invested in the house in the county town.

Her dividends with her older cousin were also successively spent in the store.

Because the straw houses in the back of the store needed rebuilding, she wanted to change the low and damp straw houses into several larger brick houses, which were convenient for living and storing goods.

Therefore, her monthly dividend was used for her older cousin to help her buy bricks and tiles and save them in the yard, waiting for construction to begin when enough materials were gathered.

Coming out of the pepper garden, she saw several children practicing horse stance in the martial arts training area not far away.

Her younger brother, Jiang Wu, was already practicing with Master Zhang on the Plum Pile.

Yingbao watched from a distance with her two puppies.

Zhang Meng’s punches were fast, but Jiang Wu’s evasion was not slow, and he even sneakily kicked Zhang Meng. But because he was small and his legs were short, it didn’t hurt at all.

Yingbao watched for a while, then turned her eyes to the children in the field.

There was five-year-old Chen Bozhong, and several unfamiliar kids who were probably from neighboring villages.

Huzi was not there, he had to be at the academy to learn literacy; it was only in the afternoon that he had time to practice martial arts.

Her brother practiced martial arts in the morning and went to the academy in the afternoon. The two brothers alternated, so Master Zhang Meng had an easier time teaching one-on-one.

“Sister!” Jiang Wu finished practicing with Master Zhang, jumped down, and ran towards his sister.

“Let’s practice against each other.” The little boy made an attack posture towards his sister.

“Okay!” Yingbao took off her bag, threw it to Dahuang and Xiaohei to look after, and started to grapple with her brother.

Due to her age and height advantage, coupled with her experience in dance from her previous life, her speed and reaction were not weak. She was on par with Jiang Wu, and even slightly took the upper hand.

But after all, she had not practiced much of two-person fighting, and in the end was still knocked down by her brother.

“Not bad, not bad!” Master Zhang came over and asked with a smile, “Do you want to learn too?”

Yingbao nodded: “Yes, but I also have to go to the medicinal hall, so I can only come to learn occasionally.”

Zhang Meng: “The purpose of girls learning martial arts is just for self-defense, so you can learn more defensive moves. According to Jiang Wu, you practice basic moves every day?”

“Hmm.”

“Then I’ll teach you a few defensive moves.” Zhang Meng pulled Jiang Wu over, pointing out on his body, “Women are not strong, so aim for the opponent’s vital parts to defeat him in one strike.”

As he spoke, he gestured with Jiang Wu, “The vital parts of the opponent are their head, throat, chest, abdomen, ribs, and groin. A hit at these parts will temporarily incapacitate them.”

He demonstrated punches, kicks, palm chops, knee strikes, and elbow jabs on Jiang Wu.

Then he signaled to Yingbao, “You try to train with Jiang Wu for a bit.”

Thus, Yingbao and Jiang Wu practiced each move at the martial arts training ground until noon when Chuchu called them for lunch.

Several children from neighboring villages brought their lunch because of the long distance. It was usually Chuchu who helped with the cooking.

Jiang Wu sometimes ate here, but today his sister came home. Their mother made delicious food at home, so naturally, neither he nor his sister would stay to eat.

“Yingbao, stay and try the fried loaches I made.” Chuchu tried to persuade her to stay.

Yingbao glanced at Chuchu and then at Zhang Meng, shaking her head, “No, I will eat at home.”

Seeing Yingbao was insistent about not staying, Chuchu picked two leaves and wrapped them around some fried loaches and gave them to Yingbao and Jiang Wu. “They’re fried in lard, so they’re delicious.”

In the morning, she had gone with Dani and Erni to pick the peppers. They had also caught many loaches in a small mud hole by the edge of Chuanhe with a bamboo basket. They had even given some to Mrs. Chun on their way back.

Yingbao didn’t stand on ceremony. She accepted the food and ate it as she headed home.

Looking back at Chuchu, she saw her and Zhang Meng sitting on opposite sides of the table, eating. Chuchu was even occasionally picking food with her chopsticks and putting it in Zhang Meng’s bowl, which he received without hesitation.

There were several kids sitting on their left and right. The scene was just like a family.

The sixteen-year-old girl was stunningly beautiful and looked quite matched with Zhang Meng at the moment.

This Zhang Meng was surprisingly younger-looking after shaving his beard, apparently only around twenty-eight or twenty-nine. He was handsome and had a heroic air about him, but he was minus several fingers on his right hand.

Yingbao walked back home pondering.

Mrs. Chun had prepared the meal and was going to call her children. Seeing them enter the house, she served the food under the grapevine canopy in the yard and called them to eat.

Today, she had made braised fish, shrimp fried with leek, fried loaches, winter melon soup, a few salted eggs cut open, and a bowl of white rice.

Yingbao and her brother washed their faces and hands, sat down at the small dining table, and took the bowls and chopsticks handed over by their mother.

“After eating, I need to soak some soybeans. I plan to cook beans and sun-dry the paste tonight.”

As she ate, Mrs. Chun told her husband, “When you have time, go to town and buy more salt. I’ll need it when I make the paste.”

Jiang Sanlang said, “Didn’t I buy salt yesterday?”

“That little salt is not nearly enough. I want to sun-dry more, so we can eat it until next spring.”

“Oh, alright, I’ll go in the afternoon.”

After finishing the meal, Mrs. Chun cleaned the dishes and utensils. Yingbao wiped the table with a rag and fed the two puppies some winter melon soup and rice.

Mrs. Chun washed the pots and dishes, then picked out the dirt and rotten beans from the soybeans under the grapevine canopy.

Yingbao also pulled out a stool and sat down to help her pick, listening to her mother chatter.

“Last time I went to the county to see Xiaojie, he asked why you didn’t go to see him.”

“Then I’ll go back and tell Grandpa Li to arrange my rest days on the first or fifteenth of the month. By then, I can go to the county with you.” Yingbao said.

Mrs. Chun nodded, “That sounds good, we’ll go together on the first of next month.”

In the evening, Yingbao was alone taking the two puppies to water the pepper garden. After that, she went to the martial arts training ground to practice her combat skills with Jiang Jie.

With Master Zhang Meng’s continuous guidance on the side, she made great progress.