Chapter 234

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Protagonist:

Chai Mi

Whether she could become the village's rich woman was hard to say, but as the village's current "debt woman" with the most debt, Song Qiushui had long since grown accustomed to hunger.

She said in a low voice to Chai Mi, showing off: "You don't know, the equipment I bought for eight hundred yuan was actually sponsored by Da Zhi. That day, weren't he and the Village Chief giving your family two thousand yuan in gift money? When we were eating afterward, I asked him. I said: Da Zhi, I look at you and feel you're a promising child, so I won't hide it from you—I'm a Fox Immortal reincarnated, my previous life was a nine-tailed spirit fox. Now you only need to lend me one thousand yuan, and I can return to Green Hill and reclaim my Iron Throne... When the time comes, once I unify Green Hill, I'll make you Crown Prince... then you'll be one person below, ten thousand people above..."

"Then Da Zhi lent you one thousand yuan?" Chai Mi's forehead was almost wrinkled into a rope.

"No..."

Chai Mi just breathed a sigh of relief: Da Zhi couldn't be that simple-minded...

But then Song Qiushui said: "Da Zhi said: I'll give you one thousand, but later after you unify Green Hill, I won't be Crown Prince, I want to be the Grand Marshal who commands the troops of Tian Xia, the Grand Regent Prince, the Grand General..."

Chai Mi was stunned: Uh...

Da Zhi really was that easy to fool...

One dared to lie, one dared to believe!

It was just too bizarre!!!

"You're the best." Chai Mi was somewhat helpless, not knowing whether she should praise Song Qiushui or not.

"Hehehe." Song Qiushui laughed.

The tractor wasn't going very fast, and the sound of the tractor on the road was quite loud, so when the two spoke, they needed very loud voices, and after saying a few sentences they didn't say much anymore.

It really took a lot of effort on the throat.

Hongshan was quite far from Sanjiacun; one had to go south all the way, cross the Ling River, and then walk a long stretch of mountain road before entering the mountains.

Hongshan was actually not a single mountain, but many mountains.

Chai Mi had actually never been to Hongshan, and sometimes she felt ashamed saying so. Hongshan, as the most famous mountain around Ke County, yet as a local born and raised there, Chai Mi in her previous life had never been.

It was like you living in Wuhan's Three Towns but never having been to Yellow Crane Tower.

It was heartbreaking to say.

But this was probably life.

Life was sometimes just this cruel, making people busy every day, though most of the time they didn't know what they were busy with, didn't know what they were thinking about, just living boring, repetitive days.

Day after day.

Fish have a memory of seven seconds.

But humans probably only have a memory of twenty-four hours.

Then it was day after day, year after year.

Repeating, and also wandering.

Then it became an ordinary person's life.

Sloppy, and humble.

But was this cruel?

Probably not very cruel.

After all, not being able to go on living was the real cruelty.

So Chai Mi was quite interested in earning money, even if just a little bit.

The car drove for nearly an hour and a half before reaching Hongshan. After getting off the car, Chai Mi began to popularize some "scientific cultural knowledge" for Song Qiushui.

"Qiu Shui, scorpions usually live in nests, so if you find one scorpion, there must be many around. Their living habits are generally under relatively cool stones... More simply put, anywhere near spider webs where a good-for-nothing like a scorpion can catch something to eat will basically have scorpions. Scorpions are very idiotic, with terrible eyesight; as soon as they see light, they won't move. So the first priority in catching scorpions is what..."

"I know, it's to come to Hongshan!" Song Qiushui shouted a slogan.

Chai Mi had a splitting headache: "Shouldn't it be to find scorpions?"

Song Qiushui hehehe laughed: "That's also right. Okay, want to have a pre-battle mobilization?"

Chai Mi frowned: "Are you mobilizing me, or am I mobilizing you? Let's just go catch them, don't wait until after midnight later when the scorpions go home to sleep."

After Song Qingshan parked the car, he also came over; he couldn't rest easy about Song Qiushui.

Song Qingshan knew exactly how many catties and taels his precious daughter weighed.

Song Qingshan summed up Song Qiushui's abilities in two points: good for nothing at anything, number one at eating.

This was the same phrase Song Qingshan's wife used to sum up Song Qingshan.

However, Song Qiushui's mother, that is, Song Qingshan's wife Meng Shi, summed it up very accurately.

Because the two of them, grandfather and granddaughter, were basically half a catty and eight taels, not much different...

"Daughter, let me tell you, the most important thing about catching scorpions is not to get injured. If you get injured, it will hurt, it will be uncomfortable, this side has high mountains and bad roads, and it's dark sky, you must watch your step, absolutely don't slip. And, this isn't our mountain top where there's nothing, this side might not have anything, who knows there might be laidai, tigers, big bears..." Song Qingshan nagged on with advice: "In short, one sentence: safety first, catching scorpions second. No matter what, just don't bump or hit anything..."

Song Qiushui glanced sideways at Song Qingshan: "Old man, I think you're being a bit alarmist. Could there be tigers here? This isn't Daxinganling... Besides, I highly suspect, old man, you're mocking me. You look down on me, don't you? Let me tell you: I, Song Qiushui, am known as Sanjiacun's number one big shot, I can strangle two tigers with one hand..."

(Tiger: Sister, why am I so unwilling to listen to you speak? Don't brag, if you have the ability let's compare.)

"That's natural, my eldest unmarried daughter is impressive." Song Qingshan shamelessly praised: "Not to mention tigers, even if dinosaurs came, my eldest unmarried daughter would just need one slap... But still pay attention to safety, the three of us walk close together, don't get too far apart, keep a distance of no more than fifty to one hundred meters."

Everyone naturally understood, so they didn't say much.

Chai Mi held the two flashlights Song Qiushui had prepared; one was an ordinary white-light headlamp with a high-density battery, looking like an industrial product, unknown where it was scavenged from, good quality, strong brightness, very convenient to wear on the head for exploring the path.

And this kind of headlamp could work continuously for a long time, with no problem of running out of power halfway.

The other was a purple-light flashlight.

This one was even more scarce, a high-end item. In this era, taking this thing out to catch scorpions was simply too easy.

Of course, these two things were definitely expensive; otherwise Song Qiushui wouldn't have spent over eight hundred.

Several people followed the mountain road and went up the mountain first.

Hongshan's original name was Ulan Hada. Ulan means red, Hada means mountain, translated it's Red Mountain.

As the name suggests, this mountain is red, all red earth, plus some stones.

Red earth is a special kind of soil, easily compacted, forming small gullies, suitable for small animals to live in.

So Song Qiushui heard there were many scorpions here, which was indeed the actual situation.

However, since it was everyone's first time coming here, although the mountain wasn't very high, this place actually belonged to a sparsely populated area, human activity traces weren't many, so there were basically no paths on the mountain, entirely relying on Chai Mi alone slowly walking out a small path ahead.

Song Qiushui followed behind.

Chai Mi said inside the mountain, then entered a large gully, then took out a flashlight to look at the two sides of the soil cliff, and within a moment shone on a scorpion.

Then went up and caught it, put it into a small bottle carried on her person.

Several people slowly walked inside, along the way scorpions were neither many nor few, when they reached deeper places, vegetation was more lush, environment more humid, scorpions were visibly more to the naked eye.

One nest after another.

"Catch them all, let them have a family reunion." Song Qiushui immediately got into the spirit, regardless of big or small, all caught.

"Aiyo aiyo aiyo... girl, don't catch the little ones, after catching them there won't be any left to catch?" Song Qingshan reminded.

Song Qiushui indeed didn't care at all: "Saying it's as if I can come again in the future, catching scorpions is too tiring. Busy for several hours, not even half a catty..."

"Not bad, going out to work you might not earn this much. Half a catty isn't over fifty yuan? Going out to work for a day, you might make thirty or twenty." Chai Mi sighed: "Still all physical labor, this job isn't particularly strenuous."

Song Qiushui then reluctantly continued catching scorpions.

However this job was indeed not very rewarding, the path was hard to walk, full of potholes everywhere, walking required extreme caution, especially now at night even wearing a headlamp, still could easily make someone slip if not careful.

This was also a place few people came, thorns were dense, fortunately wearing thick clothes, so wouldn't be cut, but...

Very hot, very hot.

Although it was night, after a while, several people were all hot to no end.

Sweat poured down.

"Going home, going home. I feel I've caught one catty." Song Qiushui started to retreat: "People can't be greedy, I'll come again tomorrow. At this speed, I only need eight days to break even..."

Chai Mi: Uh... if not counting gas and food money, indeed so.

But this trip gas money alone would be fifty or sixty...

And because Song Qingshan was afraid Song Qiushui would fall, he basically spent the whole time either reminding or holding the flashlight, hardly catching anything, but Chai Mi also caught over one catty, plus Song Qiushui's catch, the two together were just so-so, not a total loss.

Of course, tired... it was time to go home.

After all, they had been busy for five or six hours.

So several people packed up their things, and slowly walked back step by step.

Then got on the tractor, no words all the way, returned to Sanjiacun.

Chai Mi took out the vast majority of the scorpions, keeping only over ten large ones for herself, then gave them all to Song Qiushui: "I'll keep a few to soak in alcohol, the rest you keep to sell."

Song Qiushui didn't haggle, after taking them, the two each went back to their own homes and found their own mothers.

Now it was already one thirty at night, the night was bizarrely dark.

Because the car was parked at Song Qiushui's doorstep, Chai Mi also felt the road was close, just a few steps, so she didn't let Song Qingshan drive the car to run more, she would just walk back herself.

As a result, just when reaching the fork in the road above her own home, she saw a figure in the darkness, squatting at her own doorstep, firelight brightening and dimming.

"Who the hell is smoking at my doorstep in the middle of the night? Is your addiction that big?"

Chai Mi was a bit confused, Chai Youqing also smoked, but his addiction was just average, not to the point of coming out to smoke in the middle of the night, right?

"Who is it?" Chai Mi shouted at the black shadow: "Middle of the night, running here to smoke what?"

"Chai Mi... it's me." Chai Zhongxiao stood up with a dark face.

"Hmm?" Chai Mi was stunned for a moment: "Grandpa, what are you doing? Are you trying to learn from my Old Aunt who hanged herself at your old house doorstep, planning to put on a show at my doorstep too?"

Chai Zhongxiao was immediately made red-faced and thick-necked by Chai Mi's words, cursing in his heart: This Chai Mi really isn't a good thing, she doesn't speak human speech at all, where is there a granddaughter cursing her grandpa to hang himself at her doorstep?!

Chai Zhongxiao originally came at dusk, and told Chai Youqing: Let you lend Chai Youde some money waiting to save a life, how did you not believe it?

Chai Youqing said: The money isn't in my hands, it's in Chai Mi's hands, what I say doesn't count.

As for Su Wan, she didn't give Chai Zhongxiao any good face at all.

Chai Zhongxiao saw these two really had no money, so he planned to come again after a while.

But Chai Mi had already run off with Song Qiushui to catch scorpions at Hongshan, gone for five or six hours. At first Chai Zhongxiao still came every half hour to check, after coming three or five times, seeing Chai Mi was never home.

Chai Zhongxiao simply decided to wait it out.

But Su Wan after all had a child, it was impossible to let Chai Zhongxiao wait at home in the middle of the night, so Chai Zhongxiao, out of helplessness, waited at the doorstep.

He smoked one cigarette after another, his scalp almost smoked bald, but Chai Mi still hadn't returned.

Chai Zhongxiao then remembered, he seemed to have forgotten to ask Chai Mi what she went to do...

Just like that, he endured until now, Chai Mi finally returned.

Chai Zhongxiao then breathed a sigh of relief, preparing to get up.

As a result...

With a thud, he fell directly.

"Aiyo... Grandpa, don't try to cheat me... we're over ten meters apart, your cheating isn't done like this!" Chai Mi indeed had no guard, being scared by Chai Zhongxiao's fall: "I didn't touch you, you can't cheat me..."

While speaking, Chai Mi instead retreated several steps.

Chai Zhongxiao: "......"

He just squatted for too long, his leg went numb...

"You little girl, why do you speak so sharply and maliciously? I'm this old, have I cheated anyone? Damn it, me cheat you... is there anyone who speaks like you?"

"Then you get up..."

"Help me up..."

"Dare not..."

"Why wouldn't I dare……"

"I'm afraid you'll cheat me……"

"To hell with it……" Chai Zhongxiao was furious, so angry he even forgot about borrowing money: "Chai Mi, you've become unfilial. I'm your grandfather, how could I cheat you? Are you even speaking human speech?"

"Then why don't you get up?" Chai Mi wasn't angry but laughed instead: "You won't get up, so you're still trying to cheat me!"

Chai Zhongxiao was so angry he nearly turned his back, he had always been the family head all his life, caring about face.

But right now his face had been trampled beyond recognition by Chai Mi.

But, Chai Zhongxiao's legs were numb…… and indeed numb severely, he simply couldn't get up.

"Chai Mi…… you…… you……"