Chapter 33 Joyous Tidings Descend from Heaven
The fragrance of chicken soup wafted out from the kitchen. Man Bao didn’t continue chatting with Fourth Elder Brother. She followed on Xiao Qian Shi’s heels, squeezing into the kitchen to watch the lively scene.
Zhou Si Lang also livened up. He didn’t get money but at least he could still eat chicken right?
Although this rooster looked miserable when brought back, it was a very robust and handsome rooster before the cockfight, raised very well.
Therefore, there was quite a bit of meat on it. Xiao Qian Shi specially set aside half to simmer more soup for Mother-In-Law tomorrow.
So tonight, there was only half a chicken.
But Man Bao didn’t know this because no matter who else lacked food, hers would not be lacking.
Xiao Qian Shi first served Mother-In-Law a bowl of soup and picked out some meat pieces for her. Then she gave Man Bao a chicken leg. The other children also each got a piece of meat. There wasn’t much left after that.
But after the adults started eating, they didn’t take any meat. They only ate radishes, but still ate with relish.
The remaining chicken meat of course all entered the children’s stomachs. Four, five, and six each ate several pieces, satisfied as they helped clean up the bowls and chopsticks, savoring the taste.
Man Bao also rarely got to eat chicken. After eating it tonight, she felt it was pretty delicious. So she said to Qian Shi, “Mother, in the future when Man Bao has money, I’ll buy chicken for you to eat everyday.”
Qian Shi laughed. Stroking her little head, she said, “Great. Mother will wait for Man Bao’s chicken.”
Early on, Man Bao climbed into bed. She first secretly slipped into the System’s independent space to peel candy wrappers. After all, she promised Fu Wen Yun a hundred pieces of candy tomorrow.
As she peeled, Man Bao got tired and complained to Ke Ke, “Why do you wrap all your candy in wrappers?”
The System said, “There’s also unwrapped kinds.”
Man Bao immediately said, “What do those look like? Why didn’t you buy that kind?”
“Star Reviews said that kind isn’t as good as this one. I thought Host would prefer this more.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not the one eating them anyway.” Man Bao had Ke Ke buy her a bag to take a look.
The System glanced at her points and very quickly bought her a large bag. Man Bao tore open the packaging and found white round candies inside. She picked one to taste and nodded. “Delicious!”
The System said, “There are candies of other colors too. Do you want to try them?”
Man Bao asked, “Do the flavors differ?”
System: “They differ.”
“Then buy some to try.”
The System made its selection. It didn’t choose extremely bright colors, but matched the range of possible candy colors and crafts of this world. The only difference was the colors it purchased were better and more consistent.
It knew the candies were seldom eaten by Host herself and would mostly be sold.
The Host was still little and couldn’t consider safety issues so it couldn’t ignore them.
Man Bao didn’t know any of this. Seeing the three bags of candy appear, she tore each one open to taste a piece. She ranked them from most to least delicious in her opinion. Then she took a hundred pieces from the bag she felt was least tasty, planning to have Fifth Elder Brother bring these to sell at the county town tomorrow.
After planning for tomorrow, Man Bao contentedly curled up in her blanket to sleep.
But it wasn’t peaceful in the other rooms. The parents were all coaxing their children to hand over the money. Even Zhou Wu Lang and Zhou Liu Lang were coerced by Elder Zhou into handing over most of theirs.
The original twenty wen was now reduced to only five wen remaining on their persons.
And this was because the two brothers brought up Elder Zhou’s private money. Only then did Elder Zhou let up and allow them to keep that much. Otherwise, they probably couldn’t have kept a single wen.
Elder Zhou handed the thirty wen scraped from his two sons to his wife. Lowering his voice he said, “The children are all grown now and hard to control. Let them keep a bit of money on themselves.”
Qian Shi put away the money and said, “Take this money tomorrow and repay Village Chief’s debt first.”
Elder Zhou grunted in agreement. Qian Shi continued, “I heard Old Master Bai plans to repair his house. Have Eldest and Second Son go take a look tomorrow. If they can get picked, there’s also income. With winter coming, there are still many expenses. These past two years, Man Bao has worn remade clothes from my old ones. They don’t keep warm well. She’s going to teaching hall to study under the teacher. It must be cold there in winter without stove fire. She still needs new clothes so she won’t freeze.”
Elder Zhou heavily grunted again.
After finishing discussing tomorrow’s matters, Elder Zhou took a look at Man Bao in the side room. Seeing she hadn’t kicked off her blanket, he felt assured and went to bed.
Having woken up early these past days, Man Bao actually developed the habit of rising early. As soon as there was activity outside, she woke up. Then she rolled off bed and crawled to the window to peer outside.
Seeing this, Xiao Qian Shi exclaimed. She hurriedly went over to push Man Bao back in and closed the window. Through it she said, “Little auntie, it’s cold in the morning. You aren’t fully dressed yet you stick your head out. What if you catch a chill?”
Qian Shi who had woken up called for Man Bao from inside, “Be good and lie in bed. Mother will dress you shortly.”
Man Bao stuck out her tongue and burrowed back into her blanket to lie properly.
After getting dressed and washing up, Man Bao secretly found Zhou Wu Lang. She wrapped the candies in a large oil paper and gave them to him, whispering, “Don’t tell Father and Mother about this.”
Otherwise she had no way to explain where the candies came from.
Zhou Wu Lang indicated no problem. He also didn’t want to mention it or else Father would take all the earned money.
Zhou Wu Lang and Zhou Liu Lang left without breakfast, heading towards the county town. The adults only assumed they went with Zhou Si Lang for land reclamation and didn’t know they went into town.
Zhou Si Lang was already used to his two younger brothers’ behavior of fishing for three days then sun-drying nets for two. Thinking back, when he was working, as long as he wasn’t pressed down by Father and elder brothers, he acted the same way.
So he shouldered a hoe himself and went to the wasteland.
Da Tou and Da Ya who understood things went to help.
But they only helped cut grass and pick up rocks to stack nicely outside.
Man Bao also followed, very diligently helping to pick up rocks. Just as she was moving enthusiastically, the System sounded *ding ling ling*. “Host, research is complete on the two types of flowers recorded yesterday. Reward points have been deposited into your account. You may check now.”
Man Bao went to look and found the number had become very big.
The System’s voice sounded somewhat cheerful. “Two types of flowers. One called Purple Vine, one called Mountain Red Reflection. Both are primitive species that went extinct on Earth during the Jurassic Period. But the genetic diagram left behind contains their genes. So the Encyclopedia Hall’s scientists could quickly confirm their names. Recording these two plants is tremendously significant so Encyclopedia Hall granted Host a one-time reward of a thousand points. Additionally, Purple Vine’s reward is three hundred and fifty points. Mountain Red Reflection is three hundred and eighty points. Please check receipt.”
Man Bao couldn’t help asking, “Why are there so many points for them when the many flowers and grasses I dug up for you before only gave one or two points each?”
Blister had the most yet was still only fifty.
The System said, “Points are the Encyclopedia Hall’s comprehensive assessment based on the plant’s value, scarcity, influence, and so on. Host is very lucky. These two plants already went extinct on Earth during the Jurassic Period. And Encyclopedia Hall’s scientists wanted to restore them from the leftover genetic diagrams but were unable to. So Host providing recordings of these two plants holds great meaning. Host, you have reached the conditions to unlock the shopping mall. Do you want to Open the shopping mall?”
