Chapter 407: Ninety's Contrast System (10)

"What did you say? Credit? Are you mistaken? When have I ever gone to your house to buy eggs without paying?"

On a Saturday afternoon, Zhou Ru was preparing to go to the station to pick up Zhu Meijiao, but just as she stepped out of the courtyard gate, she was called out by Fu Qiang's wife, who raised a hundred or so chickens at home.

Upon hearing that her family had unpaid credit, Zhou Ru's sharp voice rang out.

Fu Qiang's wife explained with patience:

"You didn't buy eggs on credit, but your daughter came to buy chickens and put it all on the account. She bought a total of five of the most nourishing two-and-a-half-year-old pullets; it's impossible that you didn't know about this, right?"

"!!!"

Zhou Ru certainly did not know!

If she had known, she would have beaten that dead girl to death.

It was one thing to constantly steal eggs from the house to make egg pancakes for herself, but she actually used her name to buy pullets from a major chicken farmer?

The key is, where are the chickens?

Where are the pullets she bought?

She never saw her bring them home at all.

And she bought five at once...

How many days has this dead girl been back? Seven days at most, yet she bought five chickens!

Does this mean she has been stewing chicken behind her back every day? And in the end, she, the mother, has to pay for the chickens?

Zhou Ru was so angry that her chest throbbed with pain.

But since Fu Qiang's wife had come to her door, she dared not refuse to pay the credit. Otherwise, if word got out, it would be the Zhu Family that lost face, and she, Zhou Ru, as well.

The dead girl is like a piece of tough meat now, not only impervious to reason, but if you provoke her, she will retort, saying things like if she's going to die, everyone will die together, and anyway, she doesn't have many years left to live...

Zhou Ru was so angry she leaned back.

After settling the money for the five pullets with Fu Qiang's wife, she turned and walked toward the house, shouting at the attic:

"Dead girl! Get down here!"

After shouting for a long time with no response, she climbed up the ladder a few steps, only to discover that the attic door, which had always been left ajar, had a brand-new little silver lock hanging on it for some reason.

At this moment, the "iron general" was guarding the door; the dead girl was clearly not inside.

She was instantly so angry that she cursed loudly: "If you have the guts to die outside, don't come back!"

"Achoo!"

Xie Yang sneezed, stimulated by the cold wind.

However, catching a cold was impossible; if she still caught a cold after taking the interstellar-brand Physical Fitness Potion, she would go to the Main System to demand a refund of her points.

Main System: 【...】

Its Host was becoming more and more stingy; it really didn't know what she was saving so many points for.

【Host, do you need seasonings? System can help Host order goods from I99 Agricultural Reclamation Star.】

Seeing so many points, the Main System eagerly encouraged the Host to spend.

Xie Yang took a moment to glance at the point balance on the system interface; not bad, not bad! Having spent little and saved much in the last few planes, the total balance had finally reached six figures.

Although it was still a long way off from the portable storage Prop she really wanted, redeeming a few small amounts of seasonings was no problem at all.

So she said readily: "Sure, bring some star anise, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns, and bay leaves. Also, do you have shiitake mushrooms and Wild Onion? Bring two taels of each. If you have lotus leaves, find me a large one."

She had built a simple stone stove at the foot of the mountain to roast beggar's chicken.

For five days in a row, one pullet—said to be the most nourishing—each day, she had been rotating ways to supplement this body's nutrition.

This place was a geomantic treasure she had found after wandering for half a day—

A hillside sheltered from the wind and facing the sun, and the key was that it was far from the village and near the upper reaches of the creek bank.

It was just that the season didn't match; in the depths of winter, the vegetation had withered, let alone Wild Onion or wild vegetables, even the wild grass was dry.

Xie Yang pulled a bundle of straw from the Zhu Family's straw stack, wove a thick straw mat to spread on the ground, and built a simple stove with a few large stones nearby.

She picked up some dry firewood to start a fire, washed the Soup Pot she had swiped from the Zhu Family, and filled it with water to boil.

The chicken had been plucked and gutted by the major chicken farmer; after cleaning it with creek water, she used a thin bamboo skewer to poke a few holes in the chicken, then crushed the star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, bay leaves, and other spices, mixed them with Salt, cooking wine, and Soy Sauce, gave the pullet a massage, then stuffed a handful of shiitake mushrooms and Wild Onion into the chicken's belly, wrapped it in several layers of lotus leaves, smeared it with mud, and threw it into the stone stove.

The beggar's chicken was roasting in the fire, and the water in the Soup Pot was boiling, churning with fragrant kelp and chicken foot soup.

The kelp was dried goods bought in the County a few days ago; since she couldn't buy pork ribs at the butcher shop at the village entrance, she chopped off the two chicken feet of the pullet to make up for it.

These past few afternoons, she had been basking in the warm afternoon sun here, cooking for herself.

The first two days were both stewed pullet soup, rich and enticing, which she drank from the afternoon until the evening, and she finished the chicken meat in two meals.

On the third day, she tried making steam-pot chicken, and the taste was also quite good.

Yesterday was salt-baked chicken, today was beggar's chicken; Xie Yang felt the satisfaction of having eaten a full chicken feast.

With meat and soup, she also roasted a few sweet potatoes by the fire, which she had taken from the Zhu Family's cellar.

Zhou Ru had been guarding against her like a thief these past few days, fearing she would secretly cook for herself, and had actually moved the Rice, White Flour, and oil from the kitchen into her bedroom.

However, Xie Yang wasn't truly craving Rice and White Flour; she just wanted to add a meal for herself when she was hungry sometimes.

Seeing that the sweet potatoes in the corner of the cellar looked quite appetizing, and that eating coarse grains occasionally wasn't bad, she picked a few and brought them out.

Zhou Ru: Dead girl! Those were the ones I carefully selected and screened to save for seeds!

Xie Yang didn't know that; she just felt these sweet potatoes were large, plump, and looked good, comparable to the high-end organic sweet potatoes sold for a high price in supermarkets in later generations.

【Host, I99 Agricultural Reclamation Star has ones that are larger and plumper than these; if you need them, System can help Host order them.】

Xie Yang twitched the corner of her mouth: "What would I do with so many sweet potatoes? I'm not farming."

In the last plane, she raised a stepson and ran a restaurant, busy for half her life; the task target for this plane—the Female Supporting Character Contrast System—could not be recovered for a short time, so she simply took advantage of the body's condition to give herself a long vacation.

Main System: 【...】

Its Host was truly, at every moment and with all her might, carrying out the great cause of retirement!

"Auntie Ru? Why didn't you go to the village entrance to pick me up today?"

Zhu Meijiao stepped into the courtyard panting, carrying her schoolbag and a bag of dirty clothes, and complained as soon as she saw Zhou Ru.

"Meijiao is back?"

Zhou Ru stepped forward to take the large bag of dirty clothes she had brought home to wash, feeling like sighing again in her heart.

Winter clothes and trousers were thick and heavy; in previous years, this work was all done by that wretched girl, but this year she had gone out to work, and Zhou Ru had no choice but to take on this heavy burden.

Fortunately, when the weather wasn't cold, the clothes and trousers were relatively thin, so washing them was fine.

As the end of the year drew closer, the outer trousers were replaced with heavy corduroy.

Once this kind of Fabric met water, it became so heavy that it was impossible to wring out.

If it weren't for the fact that corduroy Fabric was expensive and there were only two pairs of trousers to rotate, Zhou Ru would have even wanted to save up the dirty clothes and leave them for Xie Yang to wash when she returned.

But now, let alone helping the family wash clothes, it would be good enough if Xie Yang didn't dump her own clothes on Zhou Ru to wash.

Thinking about having to wash clothes for her stepdaughter in the freezing cold, Zhou Ru felt even more weary at heart.

She cursed her own biological daughter in her heart: That wretched girl! She didn't get sick early or late, but had to get sick right when the New Year was approaching!

Getting sick was one thing, but she even used her name to buy chicken on credit, and on top of that, she wouldn't come home; who knew where she had died!