Chapter 7: A Rich Harvest

In the dimly lit room, Little Bruiser finished his last mouthful of chicken soup. He held his stomach and smacked his lips in satisfaction.

The pheasant was fat enough. After splitting half of it with her uncle’s family, there was still a small pot left. Yu Wan went to the bamboo forest in the backyard and dug two bamboo shoots. She cut them into slices and put them in the pot and ate them until nighttime.

Yu Wan also fed Madam Jiang some chicken soup and some meat. Madam Jiang only woke up for a short while before she fell asleep again.

People who have been ill for a long time should not have too much nourishment. Compared to chicken soup, what Madam Jiang needed more was a bowl of light and nutritious coarse rice porridge.

“Sis, what are we eating tomorrow?” Little Bruiser asked, his eyes wide as he sat on a stool next to the brazier, soaking his feet.

Yu Wan took a piece of rough cotton cloth and walked over. “The chicken giblets are still untouched. I’ll stir-fry the chicken giblets with garlic sprouts for you tomorrow.”

“What’s chicken giblets?”

“It’s the innards of a chicken.”

“What are innards?”

This child was really talkative. Yu Wan said, “Stop talking. If you get excited, you won’t be able to sleep later.”

“Oh.” Little Bruiser obediently agreed and opened his mouth again.

Without waiting for him to speak, Yu Wan glanced at him indifferently. “Excitement is what you look like now.”

Little Bruiser shut up resentfully.

Yu Wan squatted down and wiped Little Bruiser’s wet feet. After wiping them, she realized that the child’s feet were frozen. Yu Wan picked up Little Bruiser’s shoe and saw that there was indeed a small hole under it.

Yu Wan stuffed Little Bruiser under the blanket. “Go to sleep. Don’t talk anymore.”

With that, she turned to look for Little Bruiser’s shoes, only to find that they were old and worn.

“Sis!” Little Bruiser called excitedly.

“Didn’t I tell you not to talk?” Yu Wanwan looked at him and saw that he had unknowingly laid down at the spot where she had slept last night. Seeing that she was looking at him, he quickly moved to the side of Madam Jiang and blinked his bright eyes as he said, “Sis, I’ve warmed the bed for you! Quickly come and sleep!”

Yu Wan’s expression did not change, but there was an indescribable bitterness in her heart. She curved her lips and said softly, “Okay, I’ll sleep now.”

…

On one side, Yu Wan was resting. On the other side, Mrs. Zhao was tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.

She recalled what happened during the day and felt that she had seen a ghost!

She had watched that girl grow up. She knew her young daughter-in-law very well. Usually, she would not even dare to breathe loudly in front of her. She would address her as “Auntie Zhao”, even more affectionately than her mother!

If she told the girl to go east, she never went west. If she told her to farm, she wouldn’t dare to disobey!

So many years had passed, and that girl’s kindness towards her had never decreased. Even when she had once stayed at her aunt’s house for an entire year, when she returned, she still didn’t distance herself from her. Instead, she treated her like a Buddha and even used the few hundred taels she brought from her aunt’s house on her and her son!

This stupid girl listened to everything she said. What exactly happened? Why did she seem like a different person in just a few days?

At the thought that she didn’t get to drink the chicken soup and was instead thrown into the pig feed trough by Ah Wan, Mrs. Zhao lost all her face and was so angry that she gritted her teeth under the covers!

However, what she was most angry about was not this. It was what her daughter had told her just now. That wretched girl, Ah Wan, had actually sent the chicken that she snatched from her to Old Yu’s family!

“That d*mn lass really wants to anger me to death… Just you wait! When Ah Heng is back, I’ll make him divorce you!”

…

The next day, Yu Wan woke up early again. There was a little snow at night, but it was not heavy and only dropped a thin layer.

Yu Wan planned to try her luck in the vegetable field today and see if she could catch another pheasant. If she could catch one, she would stop cooking and think of ways to go to the market to exchange for some money.

However, her luck seemed to have run out. She waited in the vegetable field for a full two hours, but did not see any pheasants. It was daylight, and it was time for Little Bruiser to wake up. Yu Wan had no choice but to give up. She chopped up a bag of cabbage that had been chewed into a mess and went home. When the rotten cabbage leaves were removed, the cabbage core could still be eaten.

Yu Wan went to the kitchen and took out the last small bowl of chicken soup. She added some cabbage core and stir-fried some garlic sprouts and chicken giblets with a small spoon of oil that she had refined yesterday. She also washed the radish and dressed it in sauce. This was their last meal.

The cupboard was empty again.

The chicken giblets with garlic sprouts mixed together really tasted very good. The garlic sprouts were a little burnt, but they were full of oil. They tasted salty, smooth, and crisp. Among the chicken giblets, Little Bruiser loved the two “small yellow eggs” and two pieces of fat chicken liver.

Little Bruiser couldn’t stop eating. His little mouth was oily, and it was only at this time that Yu Wan had some quiet.

After breakfast, Yu Wan brought the shovel and basket to the small bamboo field in the backyard. She had thought about it just now. It didn’t matter if there were no chickens. Winter bamboo shoots were also good stuff. Although she didn’t know if they were valuable or not in ancient times, as long as they were vegetables, someone would definitely buy them.

There was not much bamboo here. Yu Wan dug carefully and only dug out six medium-sized winter bamboo shoots. It was still too little.

Yu Wan’s gaze was fixed on the small hill behind the bamboo field. If she was not mistaken, there was a mountain behind the hill. At the waist of the mountain, there seemed to be a green bamboo forest.

“Bruiser, I’m going out for a while. You stay home and take care of Mom.”

After instructing her brother, Yu Wan carried the basket and entered the mountain.

That mountain seemed to be right in front of her. When she really walked over, she realized that there was an extremely exaggerated distance. Fortunately, this body had done a lot of farming, so its constitution was not bad.

The dry grass on the ground had frozen. Yu Wan was wearing ordinary cloth shoes. The soles of her shoes were not very anti-slipping, so she could only walk carefully. With this delay, it was already more than an hour later when she arrived at the forest.

However, there were really a lot of bamboos here. They were big, green, and emitted a bamboo fragrance that was more than ten times more elegant than her backyard. Just by smelling it, one would feel relaxed and happy.

Yu Wan took out a shovel and began to carefully search for winter bamboo shoots.

Winter bamboo shoots were much harder to dig than spring bamboo shoots. Spring bamboo shoots grew out of the ground and could be seen at a glance. As for winter bamboo shoots, they were hidden underground. It was difficult for inexperienced people to dig them out.

In her previous life, she had grown a lot of bamboo in her hometown. During the flourishing season of bamboo shoots, her favorite thing to do was to follow behind her aunt. She would pick it up when her aunt dug one, until her small basket was full. However, the winter bamboo shoots she had eaten in her previous life were not as big as this one.

Very quickly, Yu Wan dug out the first winter bamboo shoot on the mountain. Good fellow, it was actually two times fatter than the bamboo shoots in her backyard! 

Yu Wan continued to dig, each one bigger than the last. In less than ten minutes, the basket on her back became heavy. Yu Wan dug for a while more until she was sweating profusely. She only left the mountain satisfied after she filled the basket.

As she approached the hill, Yu Wan noticed a river and stopped. Looking at the still water, she gently licked her lips. It was a cold day and she wondered if there were any fish in the river.