Going to the City

The next day when sun was already high in the sky, Liu Xiaolan left Mu Yuchen at home to take care of their possessions and went towards their village center.

After spending the rest of her time yesterday, she finally managed to cover all the details of her business. Her only worry for now is finding a good spot to sell her chestnuts, but hopefully she'll see one while going around the city this time.

"Good morning Uncle Zou. You're early today…" Liu Xiaolan said with a smile.

Zou Xinghe was just preparing his own family's cargo that he needs to take to the city today. Hearing Liu Xiaolan's voice, he turned towards her and smiled. "Morning little girl, it's good that you've came earlier this time. I need to bring some of our prey to the butcher today, so we need to leave a little bit ahead of time…"

"No problem Uncle Zou. I'm thankful anyway you're taking me with you…" Liu Xiaolan said and waited till he's finished with his things.

This time her purpose of going to the city is not to sell but to buy things, so she doesn't need to carry any sacks with her. All she has on her body is some silver to pay for the things she needs, but the amount that she carries is not too heavy for her.

"Alright, I've got everything loaded." Zou Xinghe said and looked towards Liu Xiaolan, "Are you not taking anything with you this time?"

"Yeah, last time we went into the forest we went a little too deep and almost got attacked by a wolf, so we haven't gone there since…" Liu Xiaolan said slowly.

Although nothing happened back then thanks to Mu Yuchen's quick response and she couldn't even see the wolf, once she thought about the fact that she could have been killed that day if not for him, she was still a little scared.

Zou Xinghe's family's business is hunting, so he knows a lot more about different animals on the mountains than she could ever know. "You guys were lucky. Wolves usually don't wonder too much outside of their usual camp, it's only if they can't find enough food they would go down towards people's villages. If you didn't escape quickly, you would probably end as their dinner…"

Seeing that he said a little too much, Zou Xinghe reacted and said with a smile, "Alright, don't think about it anymore, girl Liu. Let's go, we have a long journey to do…"

Liu Xiaolan agreed with him and nodded.

Just as they were about to start moving, Liu Weixin came running towards them and shouting to them to wait for him. Liu Xiaolan's face upon seeing him didn't change, but she couldn't help but curse her bad luck inside her mind…

Liu Weixin noticed noticed that Liu Xiaolan was together with Zou Xinghe and his face didn't look too good either.

Originally, his son was supposed to take care of the selling business and he could just sit still in his home and wait for the money. But who could expect that something happened in his son's college suddenly and he was picked up by a friend to go back to the city in the evening yesterday?

Liu Weixin at first didn't think this was a problem, since he could wait for his son to come back once his own things are done. However, today morning when his wife checked out their mushrooms, it turned out that they are starting to get bad!

If he doesn't sell them quickly, they might all get spoiled and won't be worth anything.

With no time to lose he could only dress himself quickly and run to the city himself. After years of living in the village he knew that Zou Xinghe goes to the city every day, but who can tell him why when he came towards the center of the village Zou's ox cart was already moving?

"Zou Xinghe, I need to go to the city today, can you take me with you?" Liu Weixin was asking a question, but the tone of his voice sounded more like an order.

Without waiting for Zou Xinghe's answer, he quickly moved towards the ox cart and loaded his sacks with mushrooms on it.

Zou Xinghe looked at him with a little anger and sighed in the end. "Alright, get in, just don't slow us on the way…"

After all, they are all villagers from the same village. Although he doesn't like the Liu family personally, his father still took the position of the village's elder. Even if he himself didn't want to take Liu Weixin with them, he still needed to take care of his father's reputation in the village.

Once they started moving again, Liu Xiaolan noticed that Liu Weixin's clothing looked a little in disorder and he was sweating badly.

She looked towards his sacks filled with mushrooms and understood. Looking at one of the mushrooms that fell off the sack, it seems like they are starting to get mushy and will go bad very soon.

But didn't they just pick them up yesterday? It wasn't so hot that after a single night they would go bad… Even without a dark room with a colder temperature, the mushrooms should be fine at least till tomorrow…

Liu Xiaolan couldn't understand why the mushrooms are getting spoiled, but what she didn't know was the fact that the mushrooms were kept right by the fire for the whole night.

Grandma Liu hates cold temperature and needs to have a really hot room each time she goes to sleep, so sometimes even during the summer they would need to make a little fire in her room to keep her warm.

Last night when she saw the mushrooms, Grandma Liu was excited thinking of earning tens of silver coins by selling them. Afraid that something would go wrong, she took them to her own room for the night and kept them in a really warm temperature all night long...