Chapter 47: A Bit of Bad Luck

"Li-Li, are you full?" Lu Baozhen's childish voice echoed in the quiet "new" bridal chamber.

A bright red "double happiness" character was pasted on the earthen wall, and the bed was very red, covered with a quilt featuring a dragon and phoenix pattern; the quilt looked like it had been used many times and had patches on it.

The little girl sat cross-legged on the bed, wearing two small braids and a bright red cotton-cloth round-neck shirt.

She was talking to her own hand.

"No." The Black Koi spoke, also in a child's voice, like a five or six-year-old, though it was impossible to tell if it was male or female.

"Then what should I do?" Lu Baozhen's small face crumpled into a ball, very worried.

"Go find Gu Gu Da Cai and Gu Ercai," the Black Koi said. "Once accepted by anyone in that family, I can give you everything you want."

To sway the naive human cub, its tone took on a seductive quality: "Piles of White Rabbit creamy candies, countless dresses, beautiful hairpins—whatever you want, I will give you."

Lu Baozhen wanted all of it.

But.

She drooped her head, pouted, and said, "Brother Gu Da Cai and Brother Ercai won't pay any attention to me at all."

The Black Koi choked.

It gave the human cub a pep talk: "You have to try hard."

Lu Baozhen didn't understand; she propped up her chin and asked doubtfully, "How do I try hard?"

The mark on the web of her hand twitched repeatedly, and the Koi was greatly agitated.

Communicating with a human cub was truly exhausting.

"Take the initiative to play with them."

Lu Baozhen lowered her head even further, wanting to cry from sadness, and aggrievedly said, "Brother Gu Da Cai and Brother Ercai run away as soon as they see me; I can't catch up to them."

The Black Koi fell silent.

Lu Baozhen didn't want to disappoint her good friend, so she added, "Can't you just eat my stepmother's luck instead?"

"..."

After tonight, your stepmother's forehead will be dark; what luck could she possibly have left?

"Your stepmother is about to become a jinx; she's useless now," the Black Koi said, using a sweet and soft child's voice to say something hair-raising.

It added, "The people with the best luck in the whole village are those in the Gu family's third branch. You must, must become friends with them, otherwise, the sweet candies, beautiful dresses, and hairpins will all be gone."

Lu Baozhen lowered her head and played with her fingers, her voice tinged with a sob: "But I don't know what to do."

The Black Koi had no patience for coaxing children and threatened, "If you can't do it, I'll go find other friends."

After saying this, it went invisible.

"Li-Li!" Lu Baozhen called out.

No one answered.

After a long while, she wiped her tears and whimpered, "I will become friends with Brother Gu Da Cai and Brother Ercai; Li-Li can only be good to me."

The Black Koi was very satisfied, its figure flashing by.

In an instant, a White Rabbit creamy candy appeared in front of Lu Baozhen.

"It's a White Rabbit!" Lu Baozhen's watery eyes revealed surprise.

She cheered, "Li-Li!"

The Black Koi didn't respond again, but Lu Baozhen became even more determined in her resolve to befriend Gu Da Cai and Ercai and help Li-Li find "food."

Thinking of Gu Mu's miserable appearance, the little girl didn't feel afraid; instead, she giggled.

Anyone who didn't satisfy her wishes would be punished.

"Li-Li, thank you for helping me vent my anger."

She was referring to Gu Mu being taught a lesson for rejecting her.

The Black Koi said softly, "We are good friends, after all."

While saying the softest, cutest words, it opened its big, pitch-black little mouth.

*Aba aba*, food, food.

Lin Zhao didn't know about all this yet, but after awakening, she knew how evil Lu Baozhen was—she was a typical "those who follow me prosper, those who oppose me perish."

Whoever made her unhappy, she would make them unlucky.

What Lin Zhao found strange was, how did Lu Baozhen make people who didn't like her unlucky?

Gu Da Cai was practicing characters with his mother. When he asked a question and got no reply, he looked up and saw his mother was in a daze. He put down the character card and asked, "Mom, what's wrong?"

"Cub, do you know who your grandma met before she got hurt? Or who she talked to?" Lin Zhao had originally intended to ask Gu Mu another day, but she really couldn't control her curiosity.

Besides.

With such a dangerous person watching from the shadows, her heart could never settle.

Gu Da Cai thought carefully. Seeing Ercai secretly taking spicy strips, he confiscated them directly and said with a serious expression, "Ercai, Mom is asking a question; you should think about it too."

Ercai was a child who could multitask. While secretly eating the spicy strips, he didn't ignore his mother and knew what Lin Zhao had just asked.

He hurriedly stuffed the spicy strips he had just taken into his mouth and sucked on his fingers hard.

"If Mom wanted to know, why didn't you ask me earlier? I know," he said crisply.

Lin Zhao's expression brightened. "Tell me quickly."

Ercai said, "It was Lu Baozhen."

It really was her!!

A flash of realization crossed Lin Zhao's eyes, and she asked, "Did Grandma tell you?"

"Someone saw it," Ercai said.

His white and tender little face showed a hint of disgust. "Mom, do you think Lu Baozhen is the jinx Grandma talked about? That everyone gets unlucky if they get close to her?"

Lin Zhao: "Hmm?"

How did she remember the original book saying Lu Baozhen was a treasure who could bring people good luck?

How did she become a jinx here in Ercai's eyes?!

Ercai puffed out his cheeks and said indignantly, "I don't care if she's a jinx or not, I hate her!"

"It must have been her who caused Grandma to bleed! I hate her to death!" Ercai felt that because Lu Baozhen caused Gu Mu to get hurt, he hated her to the core.

"That's not necessarily..." Fearing the two children would become superstitious, Lin Zhao wanted to explain a bit more, but was interrupted by the talkative Ercai.

The little guy huffed twice before continuing, "She asked Grandma why my brother and I didn't go to her house, and asked if she could play with us. Grandma knew my brother and I didn't like playing with her, so she said 'another day,' and then Grandma fell."

Speaking of this, Ercai sighed heavily, feeling so uncomfortable he wanted to eat another spicy strip.

"If only I had followed Grandma. If I had followed her, Grandma definitely wouldn't have fallen."

As a dignified man, he would definitely have protected his grandma well.

Lin Zhao sensed something was wrong.

She asked thoughtfully, "Wait, you said she asked Grandma if she could play with you?"

Gu Da Cai said, "That's what Grandma said! I remember too!"

"Mom, is something wrong?"

It was wrong!

Very wrong!

When children in the village wanted to find playmates, they just went directly; why would they go through the extra trouble of asking the parents if they could?

Strange.

Truly strange.

Lin Zhao's brain turned rapidly, and suddenly she captured something; her eyes were startlingly bright.

Could it be because she wanted to get something from Gu Da Cai and Ercai, and the threshold was... Gu Mu's agreement?

This guess was a bit outrageous, but Lin Zhao felt it was very reasonable. She could have a lucky wheel, so it wasn't strange for Lu Baozhen to have strange opportunities.

In that case, some of the outrageous plots in the original book became reasonable.

"Mom?" Gu Da Cai tilted his head and called out.

Lin Zhao kissed her eldest son hard, her expression light. "You really helped Mom a lot."

Gu Da Cai's white, tender cheeks flushed red. *Oh my, Mom really likes me. *

Lin Zhao turned her head and saw Ercai's oily little hands reaching toward the open bag of spicy strips again.

"Gu Ercai!"

There was no child who wasn't afraid of their parents calling them by their full name.

Ercai retracted his hand *whoosh*, sat up straight, and looked away—at the ceiling, the bed, the cabinet—anywhere but at his mother.

"..." *You've mastered the art of burying your head in the sand. *

"No more eating today." Lin Zhao confiscated the spicy strips and glared at Ercai. "Especially you, Gu Ercai. If your throat hurts, you'll have it coming. Don't come crying to me then."

At this moment, Ercai felt spicy strips were the most delicious thing in the world. The little guy licked his lips, hissed twice, and acted spoiled in a soft voice.

"I'm not afraid of a sore throat. Mom, let me have one more, please~~"

"Take back your spoiled act! It's useless!" Lin Zhao smiled and refused. She sealed the remaining half-bag of spicy strips and gave them to Gu Da Cai. "Gu Da Cai, it was agreed that you and your brother would have half each. Ercai ate his half, so this remaining half is yours. It's time to sleep; eat it tomorrow, okay?"

Gu Da Cai accepted it and raised a smiling face. "Okay, thank you, Mom."

Lin Zhao touched his head. "Go wash up with your brother and sleep."

Ercai and his brother left the room, heads drooping. Their tiny backs inexplicably exuded a sense of pitifulness.

The five-and-a-half-year-old gluttonous child experienced the feeling of regret for the first time in his life. Just thinking about having no spicy strips to eat tomorrow made him feel miserable.

"Ying, ying, ying!!"

Lin Zhao went out to use the restroom and heard these three heavy, emotionless "ying-ying-yings," and was left between laughing and crying.

*If you can't really cry, then don't. *

She held back her laughter and went to the outhouse.

Gu Da Cai glanced at his mother's disappearing back, took his brother's hand, and whispered, "We'll eat it together tomorrow."

Seeing Ercai about to speak, he hurriedly raised his index finger to his lips and made a "shh" sound.

Ercai mimicked his brother's gesture, his eyes bright with laughter, and also whispered, "Thanks, Brother. I'll just eat one."

He had a look of deep regret. "I'll never be gluttonous again."

"Hmm," Gu Da Cai said. "Listen to Mom and don't make her angry."

"Okay."

The next day, Lin Zhao sent the children to the old house and rode her bike to work.

Not long after she left, the Lu family became lively.

Yuanbao ran to the Gu family's old house to recruit people. "Twins, there's excitement; are you going to watch?"

Ercai loved to join in the excitement. He slipped out of the house, his sandal soles almost sparking.

A few steps from the entrance, he heard Yuanbao say, "Today's fun is provided by the Lu family. Hurry, hurry, let's go grab a spot, otherwise we won't be able to compete with those adults."

Hearing this, Ercai clamped his legs together and performed an emergency stop. His soles skidded half a meter on the mud, his body tilted forward, and his arms swung like a windmill, stretching himself into a slanted candied hawthorn stick.

He stood up abruptly.

He waved his hand at Yuanbao.

"You go, I'm not going."

Yuanbao was surprised: "Why?"

"Pah!" Ercai mimicked the old men at the village entrance and spat. "The Lu family caused my grandma to get hurt and bleed. We have a grudge against them; we won't watch their excitement."

"... Alright then," Yuanbao said disappointedly.

In a hurry to watch the excitement, he ran away at high speed, shouting as he ran, "Ercai, you wait! I'll tell you about it after I watch!"

Ercai stood on tiptoe and waved vigorously. "I'll wait for you."

At this time, at the Lu house.

Su Yuxian sat on the ground in a sorry state, holding her bleeding foot, her hair disheveled, staring at her sister-in-law who was looking down at her, her eyes full of humiliation.

"What are you looking at! Vicious woman, my brother shouldn't have married you. It's only the first day you've married in and you're already trying to starve your parents-in-law, starve your sister-in-law and Baozhen. You have such a poisonous heart!" Lu Sister-in-law opened her mouth and dumped a bucket of filth on Su Yuxian's head.

Lu Mother slapped her thighs and sang a drama, wailing to the heavens.

"My life is bitter. The daughters-in-law I marry are worse than the last. The previous one was a sickly thing, and this one was fine before she married in, but the first day she's married, she starts smashing plates and bowls."

She picked up the porcelain bowl shards with a pained heart, tears streaming down her face.

"There are only so many bowls in the house, and two were smashed in just one morning. Two! Without bowls, how are we supposed to eat in the future..."

Her singing, reciting, acting, and fighting were too interesting; the Lu family's neighbors couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.

It instantly attracted everyone's attention.

A young man scratched his head and offered an idea: "It's not like you can't eat. One person finishes eating, then the next person eats. It's the same, it's the same."

After saying this, he quietly retracted his head.

Su Yuxian was also aggrieved. "I didn't do it on purpose. Do you think I would deliberately smash a bowl?"

"That's not necessarily true!" Lu Sister-in-law crossed her arms. Her cheekbones were high and sharp, and her eyes flashed with shrewdness from time to time; she looked difficult to get along with.

"Maybe you didn't want to cook and smashed the bowl on purpose."

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. She looked at Lu Yizhou and stomped her feet in anger. "Brother, look at the woman you married. It's only the first day she's here and she dares to be a spendthrift. Hurry up and divorce her!"

"Shut up!" Lu Yizhou scolded.

He was a soldier and understood more than the villagers; he knew the word "divorce" was a remnant of feudalism and couldn't be said.

"What divorce or not? This is the new society," Lu Yizhou said in a deep voice.

Then he picked up Su Yuxian by the waist and placed her on a stool.

"This is your sister-in-law; restrain yourself." He looked at his younger sister with a warning expression.

Su Yuxian looked at Lu Yizhou, her face full of emotion, and didn't forget to pretend to be magnanimous. "Yizhou, I'm fine. Little Sister didn't mean it either. This matter today is my fault; I didn't hold the bowls and chopsticks well."

Lu Sister-in-law was very angry and gritted her teeth. "Stop pretending. It was your fault to begin with."

Her mother said the new bowls in the house were to be her dowry. Su Yuxian smashed two, so she would have to take out two new ones to use, which meant she would lose two.

Thinking of this, Lu Sister-in-law wanted to carve out Su Yuxian's heart.

A dowry was a girl's foundation!

Su Yuxian lowered her head like a punching bag.

The people watching the excitement didn't just watch; they also whispered their opinions.

"Yuxian's sister-in-law is really fierce. She won't have a good life in the future."

"What's going on with Yuxian? Is she really not doing it on purpose? I never heard of her smashing bowls when she was at the Su family."

"The Lu family boy is not bad; he's good to his wife. He's worthy of being a good youth who went out. I heard he's become an officer; Yuxian is blessed."

The villagers didn't know how to keep their voices down. They looked like they were whispering, but their voices weren't actually low.

Su Yuxian heard some of it vaguely, and the corners of her mouth curled into a satisfied smile.

Before she could even smile, she heard the person closest to her say, "Is this Su family girl a bit unlucky?"

As soon as this was said, the area centered around the Captain's wife fell silent for a moment.

Everyone looked at her, revealing expressions that wanted to hear more.

"Yesterday she got married, and Yuanshan's mother got hurt and went back miserably; last night on her wedding night, she smashed her own foot with a kitchen knife—I heard her toe was almost shaved off; today, she smashed a few more bowls..." The Captain's wife cracked pumpkin seeds, her face full of excitement as if she knew some secret.

"Which new bride is this unlucky? I'm afraid she's the first one in the entire commune."

Others felt what she said made a lot of sense; it seemed to be the case.

"The Su family girl's luck is indeed quite back-handed."

Another person said, "It's okay, Baozhen's luck is good. I heard she can pick up money while walking on the road. It shouldn't matter if the Su family girl's luck is a bit rotten."

Just as this was said.

"Clang!"

The stool Su Yuxian was sitting on exploded into shards. She sat on the ground with a thud, letting out a sharp wail.

"Ah...!!"

The gossipers looked at each other.

It seems, she really is a bit unlucky, huh. ===== CHAPTER 48 =====