The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

“Mother knows, mother won’t make such a mistake again…” Leng Family was sobbing, “Huzi, my Huzi doesn’t recognize his mother anymore.”

She saw Huzi once before, intending to talk to him, but he didn’t recognize her at all. He even said his mother was Lu Yanru, not an old woman like her.

Seeing that the mother and daughter had more to say, Yingbao had no choice but to go deliver the food with the pony.

Upon arrival at the cotton fields, she shouted, “Dinner time!”

The people who were working came over one after another. “Oh! It’s Little Yingbao delivering the food today.”

“Yes, we have fish today.”

She brought out the dishes one by one, braised fish, pork stewed with cabbage, cold cucumber with garlic sauce, a bucket of chive and egg soup, and a big bucket of white rice.

She then took out a stack of ceramic bowls and started serving food to everyone.

A dozen or so workers gathered around, each holding a large bowl of white rice, squatting at the edge of the field and eating.

Among these workers, there were fourteen or fifteen-year-old boys, children from poor families in neighboring villages, who came to Dongchen Village to earn some money with their parents.

Not only could they earn money, but they could also get two meals a day, both with meat dishes.

The big bucket of rice was quickly cleaned out by everyone, not a scrap of food remained, even the chive and egg soup was finished.

The workers, their stomachs full, strolled around for a bit then returned to the fields to continue pulling cotton stalks.

Yingbao packed up the food buckets, bowls, and chopsticks into the basket and let the pony carry them home.

Various wild grasses and flowers were growing along the field ridges, all of which, in her eyes, were medicinal herbs.

Yingbao took out a small medicine hoe she had prepared in advance and started to dig, picking some medicinal herbs to keep in the cave dwelling.

By the time she reached the place where Erni and Leng Family had met, Leng Family had already left, and Erni was squatting on the ground crying.

Seeing Yingbao, she wiped away her tears and got up, silently following her back.

“Yingbao, my mother is so pitiful. I want to bring her to our village.” Erni said with tears in her eyes.

Yingbao remained silent.

She couldn’t really comment on this matter.

Erni continued, “I want to build a thatched hut on the wasteland, or even a bamboo shelter is fine. Just let her live there, so I can take care of her.”

Jiang Erlang had also bought some wasteland further away from the village, but he hadn’t found the time to tidy it up yet.

Yingbao turned to ask, “What if you get married? Who will take care of her then?”

Are they expecting Huzi to take over?

If that were the case, what would happen to Yanru, Huzi’s stepmother?

Erni’s tears spilled out, after a pause, she said, “Then… then I won’t get married.”

Yingbao sighed quietly and remained silent.

In fact, if the Leng Family had not behaved badly back then, living with the man surnamed Zuo wouldn’t have been too bad.

She already had two children with that man, one of them being a boy. Given his son, Zuo Cheng would not have abandoned Leng Family.

When they got to the edge of the pond, Erni took down the food bucket, soup bucket, bowls, and chopsticks from the pony’s back and squatted down to clean them by the pond.

After cleaning everything, she scooped water to wash her face, and then she and Yingbao went home.

In the following days, Erni often went out to meet Leng Family, she even gave her fabrics and silver coins.

After receiving the fabrics, Leng Family would make clothes and socks for Erni and Huzi, but she always wore worn-out clothes herself.

Sometimes, Yingbao would see the mother and daughter sitting on a rock by the orchard, sewing and chatting, with Erni secretly bringing delicacies from home to Leng Family.

By the time October arrived, it was time to harvest the last batch of wood ear mushrooms of the year.

The village was busy again; even Chu Chu, heavily pregnant, was busy sun-drying the mushrooms.

She and her husband had also built a mushroom shed next to their house, which was now full of gold ear mushrooms. This was their third harvest, and they had a total of four hundred mushrooms.

Once everything is dried, there should be about ten pounds of golden ear mushrooms, which will sell for thirty taels of silver to Steward Zhou.

As Aunt Wang passed by Zhang Meng’s house, she saw Chu Chu, heavily pregnant and still bustling about, and laughingly said, “My oh my, you’re almost due, aren’t you? You should call your relatives from your maternal family to attend to you soon.”

Zhang Meng Chu Chu’s husband, isn’t a local, so he can’t expect anyone from his wife’s natal home to take care of her postpartum recovery.

Chu Chu laughed, “I can manage by myself.”

She didn’t have a maternal family to speak of.

Ever since their father started growing mushrooms and saving up silver coins, he quickly remarried and brought another woman into the family home.

The new wife was young, and just last month, she was confirmed pregnant, so there’s no way she was going to look after Chu Chu.

Aunt Wang tutted a few times, shook her head, and carrying her basket, she went to the pond to wash clothes.

Zhang Meng also overheard Aunt Wang’s words. He came out of the house and anxiously studied his wife, “We should hire someone to stay with you.”

He had to go to the martial arts training ground every day to coach the children, and was busy for several hours at a stretch. He had no spare time to care for his wife.

Moreover, this was a crucial time. Even the midwife in town said that someone had to be on hand to watch over Chu Chu. She was nearing her due date and could deliver at any moment.

Chu Chu shook her head. “No need. Yingbao is regularly checking up on me. I’ll be fine.”

Indeed, Yingbao came to her every day to check up her pulse, both in the morning and in the afternoon.

When he saw that she had a poor appetite, he even brought her some fruit juice.

So, Chu Chu wasn’t worried about experiencing any complications.

That day, right after Yingbao had checked Chu Chu’s fetal heartbeat, someone outside called out, “Is Chu Chu home?”

Chu Chu quickly got dressed, got up, and walked out of the house.

There were several women and a pretty young girl standing outside.

Recognizing them, Chu Chu’s brows slightly furrowed.

Among the women were her young stepmother, Xiao Sun, Chu Man’s mother Sun Erniang, as well as the Clan Leader’s wife, Granny Chu.

And that teenage girl turned out to be Chu Man.

“Granny, why are you here? Please come in.” Chu Chu invited them into the house.

Granny Chu looked Chu Chu up and down, her face stretching into a wide smile. “You’re about to give birth, aren’t you?”

“Yes, the due date is the ninth of the tenth month.” Chu Chu served the guests some tea and busied herself preparing to entertain them.

Granny Chu: “Don’t bother with it. We’ve just come to see how you are. We’ll leave soon.”

The old lady quickly glanced around Chu Chu’s house, nodding approvingly. “Chu Chu, you’ve found a good husband. Look at this house of yours; it lacks nothing.”

Sun Erniang chimed in, agreeing, “Yes, Chu Chu is definitely a rice scoop that fell into the bucket. You don’t have to worry about food or clothing for the rest of your life. You should thank your great uncle. If they hadn’t sent you here, how could you have ended up in such a comfortable marriage?”

Chu Chu lowered her eyes, her face gradually turned cold.

Yingbao was packing up his stethoscope, ready to go home, when he heard Granny Chu ask, “Who is this young girl?”

Chu Chu took Yingbao’s hand. “She’s the daughter of the head of Jiang village, and she is my adoptive sister.” Chu Chu had taken Chunniang as her adoptive mother, and Jiang Sanlang as her adoptive father, which naturally made Yingbao her adoptive sister.

“Oh my, so you’re the daughter of the head of Jiang village. What a pretty girl!” Granny Chu chuckled, patting Yingbao on the head.

Sun Erniang also laughed agreeably, though looking slightly embarrassed.

Chu Chu’s stepmother seemed honest and slow with words, only giving Yingbao a faint smile.

Chu Man was different, though. She sneered at Yingbao, seating herself arrogantly on a bench, and started looking around Chu Chu’s house, her expression full of disdain.

Chu Chu inexplicably felt a strong aversion for these guests. She whispered to Yingbao, “Yingbao, don’t leave just yet.”

Yingbao nodded and sat on a small stool.

These people obviously had some ulterior motive for their visit. Yingbao decided to stay and see what they intended to do at Chu Chu’s.