Chapter 131: Cotton Harvesting_1

Translator: 549690339

Yingbao thought about it and agreed.

She had managed to attract everyone’s attention with her success, and people were bound to seek her medical advice in the future. If they all used the excuse of not having money, would she still treat them?

All this would result in was her being left to deal with myriad problems.

“Alright, you can go back home now. Our family is set to harvest cotton tomorrow, you can come over and help with the labor.”

The Jiang family’s cotton was practically mature and they had already begun the harvest.

They had sown quite a bit this time, so her parents were busy plucking cotton every day. Even their meals were being prepared by their Aunt Yanru.

“Alright, I will definitely come tomorrow.” With heartfelt thanks, Zhao Daqian took his son and returned home.

At this point, the curious onlookers swarmed in, all wanting to buy gourds.

“I’ll just buy a small one for some good luck.” “The big one, give me that big one, five coins it is!”

“I saw it first, why are you trying to snatch it?”

She had brought a total of ten gourds, and they quickly sold out.

Jiang Quan was grinning from ear to ear, urging Yingbao to help count the money.

There was no choice; a lot of people had paid with copper coins. If they miscalculated by even a few coins, it would be a significant loss.

After selling the gourds, the town’s tax collector Xiang Zhi showed up.

He looked Yingbao up and down, then asked with a smile, “Did you really grow these gourds yourself?”

Yingbao had no choice but to admit, “I did.”

Xiang Zhi then asked, “Will you come again for the next fair?”

Jiang Quan quickly nodded, “Yes, we still have some left at home.”

Xiang Zhi: “Leave a gourd for me next time you come. Don’t worry, I’ll pay what it’s worth.”

Yingbao: …

Jiang Quan squinted his eyes and grinned: “Sure, rest assured, we’ll keep the best one for you.”

After returning from the fair, the children began to divide the money.

Today, Li Dao and Li He had only brought five gourds. At the rate of two coins per gourd, that was ten coins.

They had agreed to give a third to Jiang Quan, so Li Dao and Li He ended up with seven coins.

They had made seven coins off of just five gourds, earning several more coins than they usually did. Li Dao and Li He were grinning from ear to ear with delight.

“I’ll bring all the gourds from our house to the next fair.” Li Dao said excitedly.

His family had also planted over a dozen gourd plants, yielding around thirty to forty gourds of various sizes. What he had brought this time were just average sized ones.

Jiang Quan was happy to have earned an additional three coins for nothing,

“Alright, we’ll go again next fair.”

Li Dao and Li He happily returned home with their copper coins, and then Jiang Quan began to settle accounts with Yingbao.

Their own gourds, two big sizes and three small, had totalled to sixteen coins. Adding the three coins earned from Li Dao, the total was nineteen coins.

So Jiang Quan gave his little cousin nine and a half coins and kept the same for himself.

Yingbao didn’t stand on ceremony and took the nine and a half coins.

At noon, the husband and wife pairing of Jiang Sanlang and Jiang Erlang returned from the cotton field with Jiang Cheng, Dani, his second wife and Chuchu to eat.

Yingbao picked two bunches of grapes, a dozen pears, and a basket of peaches, washed them clean, and placed them on the dining table for everyone to taste.

The family sat around the table, eating fruit.

Today, Yanru had made a fish stew, fried tofu, steamed glutinous rice with lotus root, vegetable soup, and also a few salted duck eggs.

Additionally, she had cooked rice. The crispy rice at the bottom of the pot was scooped out and kept for the children as a snack.

“Tomorrow, I will invite some people to help us harvest cotton, and I’m afraid I’ll need your help to cook.” said Jiang Sanlang while eating.

Yanru smiled and nodded: “There’s no trouble at all. I have nothing else to do at home, so cooking is something I should do.”

Chunniang stated: “There will be a lot of people to feed tomorrow. You can’t handle this alone, Dani, Erni and Chuchu can help you. We do not need them in the cotton field.’

When harvesting the cotton, it’s inevitable to get poked by the cotton fluff. The girls’ arms are delicate, and even when wearing long sleeves, they can’t avoid being pricked to bleeding, which looks very painful.

“That’s fine,” Yanru agreed, knowing that Chunniang was concerned about the girls.

The next day, that Zhao Da indeed came, bringing his wife and son along.

The little boy had woken up, but his spirits were not very high, and he was carried on his mother’s back.

Yingbao checked the boy’s leg, seeing that most of the bruising had faded, she gave him some medicine from a porcelain bottle.

She told the boy’s mother: “You need to make him drink more water to flush out the toxins in his body, that’s the only way he can recover quickly.”

The woman responded in a low voice and went to scoop water for the boy.

“We have boiled water on the table, you can give him that to drink.” Yingbao suggested: “If he drinks unboiled water and gets diarrhea, it won’t be good.” “Oh.” Zhao’s wife responded awkwardly and went to get the boiled water.

Jiang Sanlang was already aware of Zhao Da’s situation, so he didn’t say anything. He went with him and a few villagers to pick cotton in the cotton field.

“Yingbao! Yingbao! Madame Wen is back!” Erni ran in from outside, jumping excitedly.

Yingbao was surprised: “She’s really back? And Wen JieJie?”

“She’s back too, hurry and go see her.” Erni was excessively excited.

She suddenly remembered she had forgotten half of what she learned and felt guilty, “Yingbao… you go first, I’ll be right there.”

Yingbao quickly ran to the yard, put the saddle on Youyou, stepped on the stepping stone and rode on the deer’s back.

Youyou galloped towards the village.

It wasn’t long before she reached the school, where she saw several carriages parked in the courtyard and servants unloading things.

“Wen Jiejie!” Yingbao dismounted from the deer and ran towards Wen Shu.

Wen Shu was also delighted to see Yingbao, she hugged her and smiled: “Yingbao, you’ve grown taller.”

Yingbao tip-toed to compare her height with Wen Shu and giggled: “You’ve grown taller too.”

Wen Shu sat down with her under a pavilion on the side and started talking about her own affairs.

“Mother and I originally went to the Prefecture City, but something happened at home and we had to rush to Yuzhou.”

Yuzhou is thousands of miles away from here, not to mention the long and difficult journey, some mountain roads are fraught with bandits.

Luckily they hired a team of several dozen armed escorts, and they safely reached Yuzhou.

Yingbao didn’t know how to respond, she asked: “Why haven’t I seen Madame

Wen and Wen Hengyin?”

Wen Shu replied: “Mother and my third aunt are tidying up the house. Little brother couldn’t come this time, grandfather wants him to study in Yuzhou, so he probably won’t be able to come here in future.”

“Is everything at your home resolved?” Yingbao was still worried about a troubling event in the Wen family’s past.

Wen Shu nodded, “Fortunately, there wasn’t any big trouble. My uncle was demoted and sent back to our hometown. He’s currently in Yuzhou recovering. My mother and I have returned here, and my third aunt came with us.”

Wen Shu didn’t accurately depict their troubles, stating that her third aunt had worked hard to compete with her mother for this trip to Qinchuan.

The golden fungus from the Jiang family has remarkable effects. Their family almost encountered a disaster this time, it was thanks to the golden fungus her parents brought back that relieved them from immediate danger, that’s why her third aunt was keen on coming here. Her intention was obvious.

But how could she talk to Yingbao about such matters?

“My third aunt also brought her two young daughters here. They will be studying with us from now on.” Wen Shu said softly: “They are eight years old this year, a little over three years older than you. One is named Wen Tian, and the other one is named Wen Jiao, they are twins.” “Wen Tian? Wen Jiao?” Yingbao inquired.

Why do these names feel a bit odd?