The Farm Girl and the Executioner (Rebirth) 48

Chapter 48: Ping’er Eats a Flatbread

The next day, Lu Erqiao came to settle the accounts.

She and Wang Zhimei had been setting up their stall since the first day of the new year, rain or shine.

After two months, each of the two families had earned over ten taels of silver. Lu Erqiao was so happy that she couldn’t stop smiling every time she came to the West Mountain Valley.

After settling the accounts with Lin Shuang, she said to the old woman, “We had arranged a marriage for our second son before, but the other family looked down on us for being poor and wouldn’t wait, so she married someone else. After the new year, our family earned a little money selling flatbreads, and we arranged another marriage. The betrothal gifts have already been sent, and we’ll welcome the bride in the autumn. You can all come to the wedding then.”

Old Madam Jiang’s health was much better now, and she could walk without a cane.

And Jing Lei’s hoof was no longer a big problem. Jing Lei was the name Lin Shuang had given to the big black horse. When the carriage was ready, it would be convenient for them to go in and out.

Hearing Lu Erqiao’s invitation, she couldn’t help but be a little moved.

For all these years, let alone going to a feast, she had barely taken a few steps out of the valley. She was eager to join in the fun.

Seeing this, Lin Shuang said, “We’ll go. We’ll definitely go then.”

Only then did Lu Erqiao and Old Hu take their leave, beaming.

It was now February, and the weather was starting to warm up. Every household was busy in the fields, preparing for the spring plowing. The whole village was a scene of bustling activity.

Lin Mancang and Ma Guihua, who were in the Lin family’s fields, watched as the ox-cart passed by them on the road, their expressions varied.

The old woman from the neighboring Hao family’s field was next to them. They were usually not on good terms, and she couldn’t miss the opportunity to be sarcastic. “I say, Guo’er’s mother, how come Shuang’er didn’t give you the secret recipe for the flatbreads when she was at home? Now that she’s gone to someone else’s house, she’s earned so much for them.”

“You, you’ve really made a wedding dress for someone else.”

Ma Guihua was so angry her nose was almost crooked. She cursed, “You have so much time to care about other people’s business, but you don’t have time to watch your own daughter-in-law. She’s been gone for so long, who knows how many children she’s had with someone else.”

The matter of her daughter-in-law running off with someone else had always been a sore spot for Old Woman Hao. Being pricked by Ma Guihua like this, she said angrily, “I gave her good food and drink. It was that bitch who didn’t know what was good for her! Unlike you, who mistreated your brother-in-law’s daughter since she was little and even wanted to sell her to a brothel. No wonder she didn’t tell you about such a money-making secret recipe. You deserve to be green with envy.”

“Do you think you’re any better? Aren’t you the same to your own granddaughter? You beat and scold her all day and don’t give her anything to eat. They say that even a tiger doesn’t eat its own cubs, but you don’t even spare your own granddaughter. Do you dare to say that you’re not more vicious than me?”

Hearing this, Old Woman Hao was so angry she picked up a clod of mud from the ground and threw it at Ma Guihua.

Ma Guihua was not to be outdone and also grabbed a large lump of wet mud and threw it back. They went back and forth, and before long, both of them were covered in mud.

It wasn’t until Old Woman Hao had to go back to feed the pigs that she cursed and walked home, and the matter was finally over.

Ma Guihua touched her face, which was covered in black mud, and cursed at Lin Mancang, “When someone curses your wife, you just stand there and don’t say a word. What kind of man are you?”

Lin Mancang said slowly, “You women are arguing. What’s the point of me interfering?”

Ma Guihua spat. “Useless thing. If it weren’t for me in this family, it would have fallen apart long ago. You probably wouldn’t even be able to eat.”

Lin Mancang’s face darkened, and then he lowered his head and said nothing.

Seeing this, Ma Guihua was even more unhappy and cursed, “The villagers laugh at me every day for raising an ungrateful wretch. You have to go and find that little bitch tonight and ask her for the secret recipe.”

In the village chief’s field not far away, Matron Yan had also seen the scene just now. She stared in the direction of Old Hu and Lu Erqiao, her heart filled with displeasure. She grumbled to her granddaughter, Dongzhi, who was next to her, “You say that Sister Huaizhen of yours, you’re so warm to her every time you see her. When her grandmother was sick, she went everywhere to borrow money but couldn’t. It was your grandfather who gave her two taels of silver. Now that she has such a skill in making flatbreads, she didn’t even think of her own family and found outsiders to do it. Don’t you think she’s an ungrateful wretch?”

Hearing this, Dongzhi was unhappy. “That’s her secret recipe. She can find whoever she wants. Didn’t you dislike her before and wish you were as far away from her as possible? Even if Sister Huaizhen had wanted to find you, you wouldn’t have been happy.”

Hearing this, Matron Yan was unhappy and reached out to hit her.

Dongzhi was a clever girl. She ducked her head, twisted her body, and ran away, saying, “Grandma, you can’t just hit people. I’ll tell Grandpa when he gets back!”

“You little brat, you’re rebelling,” Matron Yan cursed. Thinking of the dark ox-cart that would creak past her door every morning before dawn, pulling several large baskets of dough, she felt very unhappy.

Lin Shuang didn’t know anything about what had happened in the fields. She was counting money with Jiang Huaizhen.

From the new year until now, in two months, they had earned a total of 26 taels of silver just from selling flatbreads. After deducting Old Madam Jiang’s previous ten taels of emergency funds, the remaining total was 29 taels.

“I was thinking, we can give another 10 taels to Grandma. That will be 20 taels in total, which is enough to deal with any major illness. We won’t continue to save for this part. In the future, we’ll just replenish what we use.”

“The rest, we’ll keep 4 taels for daily turnover and buying ingredients for the sauce and oil pastry. The remaining 10 taels, we’ll invest it all in the mohele,” Lin Shuang said.

Jiang Huaizhen asked, “Is 10 taels enough?”

Lin Shuang said, “We agreed before that we can’t bet all our assets on the business. If we lose, it will all be gone. We’re doing a small business, and 10 taels is our limit.”

Jiang Huaizhen said, “I’ll listen to you.”

Lin Shuang glanced at her. “Didn’t you say before that you’re in charge of the big matters at home? Why are you listening to me now?”

Jiang Huaizhen said calmly, “These are not big matters.”

“Then what is a big matter?”

Jiang Huaizhen paused. “We’ll know when we encounter it.”

Lin Shuang helplessly patted her hand and got back to the point. “Let’s go to the prefectural city again in a couple of days and find that sister at the stall. I’ve looked at her goods repeatedly, and they’re really good, and the price is also reasonable. We can see if she can make the goods according to our requirements.”

“How long does it take to produce a batch of goods?”

“The time varies depending on the material. It shouldn’t be more than a month.”

“It’s only the beginning of March now. It’s still a long way from July. We have enough time,” Jiang Huaizhen said.

Lin Shuang nodded. “We’ll finalize it in March, get the first batch of goods in mid-April, and have Guiying’s side find someone to sell them for a while. If it’s feasible, we’ll order more. We’ll get a large batch of goods in mid-June and sell them in the prefectural city. From mid-June to Qixi is the peak sales season. Whether we succeed or not will depend on this time.”

“You said before that you wanted to paint these dolls and add clothes and decorations. That will also take some time. I’m afraid we won’t have enough manpower,” Jiang Huaizhen asked.

During this period, the two of them would go to the fields to reclaim and cultivate the land and plant rice seedlings during the day. When they returned home at night, Lin Shuang would be busy painting these little dolls and sewing small clothes and shoes. Jiang Huaizhen was busy with housework and didn’t participate, but watching her work, she knew that it was a job that required patience. She was worried that if they ordered thousands of goods, the two of them would definitely not be able to do it.

“We can just find someone to help then. As long as we pay wages, we won’t have to worry about not finding anyone.”

“Alright.”

After they had discussed it, Lin Shuang left ten taels for Old Madam Jiang to add to the emergency fund and put the rest away.

Seeing Jiang Huaizhen rubbing her stomach, she raised an eyebrow and asked, “Are you hungry?”

Jiang Huaizhen hummed in agreement. “I’m a little craving for a flatbread.”

Since they had handed over the business to Lu Erqiao and Wang Zhimei, they hadn’t made flatbreads at home for a long time. Lin Shuang really missed them.

“Then let’s make flatbreads. I’m craving them too.”

Hearing her say this, Jiang Huaizhen got up and went to light a fire.

The iron pot at home was not as good as the special flat-bottomed pot for making flatbreads, but it could still be used. The sauce and oil pastry were ready, and they could be used at any time. Before long, they had made two large flatbreads.

The flatbreads were hot. The old woman had eaten so much yesterday that she had made herself sick. Now, she couldn’t even stand the smell of the flatbreads. The two girls shared one, half each.

There was still one left. Lin Shuang divided it into several small pieces. “I’ll take this to Ping’er.”

It had been a long time since she had seen that little girl. She didn’t know how she was doing.

When she saw her again, the little girl was still thin and small, her face pale, her hair like weeds, a veritable little bean sprout. She was waiting under that large tree, occasionally looking toward the road in the distance.

Unfortunately, the person she was waiting for would not appear there.

When Lin Shuang called out, the little bean sprout heard her voice, turned her head, and her dull eyes lit up. She ran over with a patter.

“Aunt Shuang…”

Lin Shuang pinched her cheek. “Have you eaten?”

Ping’er hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

Lin Shuang chuckled and took out the hand that was behind her back, handing her the flatbread.

“Go on, eat.”

Seeing that there was something to eat, Ping’er’s face lit up with a smile. She took the flatbread, hugged Lin Shuang’s leg, and looked up at her affectionately.

“Come, let’s sit under the tree and eat.”

The flatbread was already delicious, and to a little girl who was always hungry, it was a delicacy.

The little girl, who was wolfing down her food, finally ate her fill, patted her little belly, and then remembered what she had heard in the fields today. She told Lin Shuang all about the argument between her grandmother and the neighbor, Ma Guihua.

She was almost four years old, and her speech was quite clear. Even if there were some things she couldn’t say, Lin Shuang could guess.

“Auntie, you must hide the secret recipe well, or your aunt will snatch it away.”

Lin Shuang patted the little girl’s messy hair. “Auntie knows. I’ll hide the secret recipe when I get back. Don’t worry, Ping’er.”

Only then did Ping’er feel at ease and licked her lips, wanting more.

Aunt Shuang had brought a lot of flatbreads, but her stomach was so small that she was full after just one piece. She really wanted to take this flatbread back and hide it, but the flatbread was too fragrant, and her grandmother would definitely find out.

Seeing her disappointed face, Lin Shuang said with pity, “I’ll come back at this time tomorrow. There will be more flatbreads then.”

Ping’er’s eyes sparkled as she looked at her. “Really?”

“When has Auntie ever lied to you? But if you can’t make it in time, don’t worry. I’ll put the things in this hole here. If I’m not here when you come, you can just look for them here.”

“Can’t you put it there now?” Ping’er looked at the flatbread in her hand, very reluctant.

“The weather is starting to warm up now. There are a lot of insects at night. If I leave it here, the insects will eat it all.”

“Alright then,” Ping’er pouted, but she quickly became happy again, because no matter if she left it tonight or not, there would be more to eat tomorrow.

“Alright, go home now.”

Ping’er stood up, but her feet were stubbornly unwilling to move.

Lin Shuang suddenly squatted down and lifted her tattered pant leg. Below her knee, there were several welts, horizontal and vertical.

Her heart ached, and she gently rubbed it. “Does it hurt a lot?”

Ping’er shook her head and said softly, “It’s almost healed.”

Lin Shuang didn’t dare to urge her to go home, but she didn’t know how to help her.

It wasn’t until she had to say goodbye that she could only stride forward, not daring to look back, afraid of seeing this little girl’s expectant eyes asking, “Aunt Shuang, can you take me with you…”

They were not related, and for no reason, she couldn’t.

A large flatbread, and Ping’er had only eaten two pieces. There was still more than half left. Lin Shuang didn’t know who to give it to and suddenly felt a little sad.

The villagers were taboo about Jiang Huaizhen’s identity, and no one was willing to get close to them, let alone eat their things.

But she couldn’t force this matter. She sighed softly, put away the flatbread, and returned to the West Mountain Valley.

It wasn’t until she passed by the foot of the mountain that she saw three little children digging for wild vegetables.

The eldest was a boy, about five or six years old, and there were also two little girls. The youngest was only about two years old, barefoot and with a runny nose from the cold.

Lin Shuang recognized them. The boy was called Caitou, and his two younger sisters were called Dahua and Erhua. They were the children of the widow Zhang from the end of the village.

Hearing the footsteps, the boy looked over warily.

Lin Shuang smiled at them. “Caitou, you’re digging for wild vegetables.”

Caitou hummed in agreement. Seeing that Lin Shuang was about to leave, he suddenly called out to her, “That, can you help me see if this is edible?”

Lin Shuang was surprised that this child had taken the initiative to talk to her, so she walked over. When she saw the plant with a small umbrella that he was pointing at, she was slightly taken aback. “This is not edible. This is poisonous.”

With that, she squatted down, reached into the bamboo basket on the ground, and picked out some inedible things. “Why are the three of you out here? Where’s your mother?”

Erhua, who was next to her, sniffed and said, “Mother is sick.”

Lin Shuang’s brow furrowed slightly. “What kind of illness? Is it serious?”

Caitou said, “She caught a cold. Her throat hurts, and she’s been coughing.”

“Has she taken any medicine?”

Caitou shook his head. “Mother said that drinking some ginger water will be fine.”

It was spring now, and the temperature was rising quickly. The wind was strong and dry. From the symptoms, it should be a warm evil. It was not advisable to eat ginger for this symptom. Lin Shuang had been at the apothecary for over a dozen years and still knew this simple thing.

“It’s not good to use ginger at this time. Do you know about houttuynia cordata? It would be better to boil that water for your mother to drink.”

Caitou clearly knew about houttuynia cordata but hesitated for a moment.

Lin Shuang smiled. “It’s alright. You can take it back and ask your mother. If she says it’s edible, then you can brew it for her. And, it would be even better if you could brew it with silver vine.”

Hearing her say this, Caitou was relieved and nodded.

Lin Shuang smiled and stood up, but she saw that the youngest, Erhua, was staring at her hand, swallowing.

Not only Erhua was swallowing, but Dahua was also swallowing. Only Caitou was holding back.

Lin Shuang thought for a moment and handed him the remaining flatbread in her hand. “You can go back and ask your mother. I gave you this flatbread. If she doesn’t want you to eat it, you can just throw it away.”

Caitou stood there, his two hands loosening and tightening.

His two younger sisters next to him were looking at him with eager eyes.

He finally couldn’t resist their gazes and took it.