Returning the Money

Yu Xiaolian and Jiang Lin giggled as they picked another basket full of wolfberries. As they walked back, Jiang Lin suddenly asked, "What was that thing on your eye yesterday? Why did you put it in your eye? Doesn't it hurt?"

"That thing is called contact lenses. It can change the size and color of the eyeball. It's attached to the eyeball. It doesn't hurt."

Jiang Lin added, "That's good. If it hurts, don't wear it."

Yu Xiaolian stopped and looked at Jiang Lin seriously. "I'm sure you've guessed how I got the antidote to save you yesterday. I hope you can keep the fact that I'm a descendant of the Witch Tribe a secret for me. I don't want to be captured and drained of blood one day."

Jiang Lin said seriously, "Who dares? Whoever dares to make you bleed, I'll kill him!"

Yu Xiaolian chuckled. "Brother Jiang Lin, I don't have any siblings. You too. Why don't we become sworn brothers? You can be my brother in the future, okay?"

Jiang Lin smiled boldly, revealing his white teeth. "Alright, Sister Lian. I'll protect you from now on!"

Just like that, Yu Xiaolian had her first true friend in this strange world.

…

The next day.

Yu Xiaolian, Madam Sun, and Yu Changhe went to visit Yu Zikuang's grave together.

Yu Zikuang's grave was just a small mound that was not tall. There was not even a tombstone, and the surroundings were filled with tall water millet grass.

Madam Sun first opened the oil paper bag. Inside were five exquisite osmanthus pastry hearts. She placed the snacks in front of Yu Zikuang's grave.

Yu Xiaolian saw Madam Sun draw a circle on the ground with a tree branch, and then use a matchstick to ignite the burning paper. Then, she began to burn paper money for Yu Zikuang in the circle.

Yu Xiaolian couldn't kowtow to someone who wasn't related to her, but she was currently enjoying the love of Yu Zikuang's parents. She couldn't just stand there and do nothing. She bowed three times to the little bumpkin and said in her heart, "Brother Kuang, I'll earn more money in the future and be filial to my parents. If you can reincarnate, then go. I hope you can reincarnate into a rich family in your next life and live a carefree life."

On the way back, Madam Sun cried her heart out. She looked back three times with every step, making Yu Xiaolian feel very uncomfortable.

There were eight hardships in the human world. Life, old age, illness, death, resentment, separation from love, inability to obtain, and the five Yin.

Separation should be the most painful, right?

Now that she had transmigrated here, her parents must be as heartbroken as Madam Sun. Thinking about it, she was really unfilial.

However, fate played tricks on her. She could only take things as they came.

After returning home, Yu Xiaolian secretly came to Huichun Hall under the guise of digging wild vegetables.

When Lai Shun saw that it was her, he immediately welcomed her into the inner hall with a smile. He poured her tea and made her eat snacks.

Yu Xiaolian didn't waste any time. She took out the ginseng slices she had accumulated over the past few days and placed them on the small table.

When Lai Shun saw such a large bag of ginseng slices, which weighed four to five catties, he was so shocked that his eyeballs almost fell out.

Lai Shun went to get the ginseng slices with a smile. He nimbly weighed the ginseng slices, as if he was afraid that Yu Xiaolian would go back on her word if he was late. "Baby, four and a half catties, a total of four hundred and fifty taels of silver. Do you want banknotes or silver ingots?"

"Silver ingots!"

Who knew if the ancient bank would close down? It would be troublesome if the banknotes were accidentally wet. It was still the silver ingot that was reliable. It felt real and safe in his hand.

Lai Shun was dumbfounded and asked again with uncertainty, "Child, 450 taels is more than 30 catties. It's heavy. Are you sure you want all the silver ingots?"

"I'm sure. Just bring it over! Also, don't call me child in the future. My name is Yu Xiaolian."

Lai Shun nodded. "Then wait for me. I'll go get the silver for you."

Silver circulating in the market of Great Liang had an exchange rate of ten taels of silver per ingot. For example, a hundred taels of silver per ingot was usually specially made by the national treasury. Commoners like them had no use for it at all.

When Lai Shun placed the ten taels of silver into Yu Xiaolian's basket one by one, Yu Xiaolian smiled until her eyes narrowed.

After covering the basket tightly with a cloth, Yu Xiaolian bade farewell to Lai Shun. Once they left town, she put all the silver into her interspace.

When she returned to Hewanzi Village, Yu Xiaolian first looked for Jiang Lin from the foot of the mountain. Jiang Lin had already dug up a large basket of wild vegetables and was waiting for her.

Yu Xiaolian and Jiang Lin exchanged hands perfectly. They poured the wild vegetables into their baskets before carrying them home.

Ever since Madam Feng was beaten up last time, Madam Feng had been in a very low mood. It was not good for Madam Sun to go to the Zhao family to do embroidery work, so she had been embroidering in her house.

Yu Xiaolian was just about to show off her big basket of wild vegetables when she heard Yu Changhe counting the baskets over and over again in the small storeroom. It seemed that a few of the woven baskets were missing.

Yu Xiaolian unloaded the basket on her back and ran into the small storeroom. "Father, what's wrong?"

Yu Changhe frowned. "Why don't I see too many of my baskets? I realized that there were too few that day, so I specially checked. There were 35 of them. This morning, I made up three more. There should be 38 of them. When I checked just now, why did it become 33?"

Yu Xiaolian recalled seeing Yu Ziyi wandering around the warehouse a few days ago and said firmly, "Father, Yu Ziyi must have stolen them and sold them. I'll go find him!"

Yu Changhe grabbed Yu Xiaolian. "Don't accuse people without evidence!"

Yu Xiaolian thought about it and agreed. If they didn't catch him red-handed, Yu Ziyi wouldn't admit it. He might even accuse them of slandering him.

"Father, I have an idea!" Yu Xiaolian said in a low voice, "Let's not tell anyone that we lost the baskets and pretend that we didn't notice. Yu Ziyi will definitely come back to steal again after getting the benefits. I'll keep an eye on him for the next few days. When he steals again, I'll catch him and expose him."

However, Yu Changhe disagreed. "It's better not to make a big deal out of this. If there's a thief in the family, it's always a disgraceful thing. It won't be good if it affects your Third Uncle and Zishu's exam. Besides, Ziyi is only twelve years old and still a child. How can a child not make mistakes? I'll just talk to him in private. Don't interfere in this matter!"

Yu Changhe was such a soft-hearted person. He did not resemble the selfish Old Madam Yu at all.

Although Yu Xiaolian didn't agree with Yu Changhe's actions, there was nothing she could do.

After leaving the small storeroom, she saw Madam Sun picking the wild vegetables she had brought back. She said that she wanted to wash them and marinate them with salt.

Yu Xiaolian remembered that she hadn't put salt in the salt jar for a few days, so she secretly sneaked to the wooden house kitchen in the backyard. She opened the salt jar and added some coarse salt. Fortunately, the coarse salt in her supermarket was very similar to what Madam Sun had bought, so she wouldn't be discovered.

She checked the bottles of soy sauce and vinegar one by one. Seeing that they were not decreasing, she did not add any more. Madam Sun rarely cooked. Occasionally, she would make wild vegetable soup, but she could not bear to add salt. It was very light.

Suddenly, a commotion came from the front yard. Yu Xiaolian hurriedly walked towards the front yard.

When he arrived at the front yard, he saw Old Madam Zhao with her hands on her hips, shouting at Yu Changhe to return money.

Old Madam Zhao knew that her son had betrayed Yu Changhe. Moreover, Zhao Kuo had hesitated and couldn't make up his mind back then. It was still her who kept persuading him.

After what happened yesterday, Old Madam Zhao was afraid that Yu Changhe would think things through, so she wanted to get back the four taels of silver that Yu Changhe owed first.

If Yu Changhe knew the truth, not only would he cut ties with Zhao Kuo, but he would also lose four taels of silver.

Therefore, Old Madam Zhao ignored Madam Feng's obstruction and came to look for Yu Changhe.

At this moment, Yu Changhe's face was red. He felt extremely ashamed. He had not expected Old Madam Zhao to ask him to return the money so openly. She had even attracted the attention of the surrounding neighbors.

"What? You don't have money?" Old Madam Zhao sneered. "You've been a bailiff for so many years, but you haven't saved up a single cent. Seriously."

Seeing that Yu Changhe was silent, Old Madam Zhao said to Old Madam Yu, "The money Changhe earned over the years has been handed over to you. You've returned the money for him, right?"

Old Madam Yu spat on the ground. "In your dreams. We've already split up. It's not like you don't know that when we split up, we agreed that we will be in charge of our own debts."

Seeing that Old Madam Yu's attitude was firm, Old Madam Zhao knew that her method of asking her to return the money for Yu Changhe would not work, so she said, "Then what should we do? I'll give you three days at most. You have to return the money. Otherwise, we'll go to the village chief and get him to write a contract. We'll use your share of the land to repay the debt."