Chapter 51: Gone

Gu Da Cai and Ercai stopped their steps; they didn't even look at each other, but retreated half a step in unison.

"Brother, the sticky candy is here to find us again. What should we do now?" Ercai whispered.

The brother-obsessed child listened to his brother on all major matters.

Gu Da Cai turned slightly, wanting to use his body to block Ercai behind him, his bright eyes fixed on Lu Baozhen. "What are you doing here?"

Lu Baozhen acted as if she didn't feel the disgust and smiled sweetly. "I'm here to find Brother Gu Da Cai and Brother Ercai to play."

Ercai poked his head out and rolled his eyes fiercely. "Are you deaf? My brother and I don't like playing with you, and we don't want to play with you. Stop following us; aren't you annoying?"

Ever since Gu Mu got hurt, in Ercai's heart, Lu Baozhen's reputation as a jinx was unshakable; he wished he could never see her for the rest of his life.

When had Lu Baozhen ever suffered such grievances? She pouted and looked at Gu Da Cai aggrievedly.

Gu Da Cai: "?"

*Why are you looking at me! *

*Could he not help his own brother and help an outsider instead? *

His brain wasn't muddled, and he hadn't been kicked by a donkey.

"I don't want to play with you either," Gu Da Cai said seriously, word for word.

Lu Baozhen acted as if she hadn't heard and stared at what the twins were holding.

"What are you holding?"

Ercai's expression was vigilant, using his body to block the wooden box they had picked up. "None of your business. Move aside; we're going home."

The little superstitious cub felt Lu Baozhen was unlucky and didn't want to be too close to her, just wanting her to leave quickly.

Lu Baozhen acted as if she didn't understand, walked forward a few steps, and said: "My grandma said everything belongs to the brigade; you can't take it home."

Hearing this, Ercai was furious, his eyes blazing as he glared at her. "We picked this up; why can't we take it home? If you talk nonsense again, be careful, or I'll beat you up."

He waved his sandbag-sized fist.

Lu Baozhen shrank her neck but didn't run away, still standing in place.

"I'll say it even if you beat me up," her voice was soft but very annoying.

She felt there were good things in this box, and they should be hers.

Gu Da Cai used reason to counterattack: "My brother and I are picking up things for the first time, but you've picked up things several times. If the brigade makes us hand things over, you must hand them over too."

Ercai clapped his hands and said happily: "Right! You picked up a stack of money before, a bag of White Rabbit creamy candies, and a gold ring; you have to hand them all over to the brigade. If you don't hand them over, we won't either."

Lu Baozhen couldn't turn her brain around, and tears the size of beans rolled down her cheeks, crying: "You're bullying people, woo woo woo."

She was very angry and instinctively looked for help, raising her hand to call the Black Koi.

"Li-Li, I want you to help me."

Seeing this scene, Gu Da Cai and Ercai were both confused.

They looked around synchronously—

Sparrows leaped from the branches and flew into the sky; the hot wind blew, the grass and trees moved; the little insects hidden in the deep grass chirped; the big sun in the sky roasted the cicadas on the trees until they were mute.

They were certain there were no living creatures that could talk within ten meters.

"Brother, who is she talking to?" Ercai's eyes flashed with excitement.

A newborn calf wasn't afraid of tigers; the child was fearless, his voice full of excitement: "Is there a monster?"

"You're the monster; Li-Li is my best friend," Lu Baozhen said loudly in anger.

Ercai deliberately provoked her: "Where? Where? I don't see anything. You must be lying."

"I'm not lying." Lu Baozhen's voice was sharp, shouting at the web of her hand: "Li-Li, come out."

If the Black Koi had a face, one could see its face full of despair.

Sure enough.

Human cubs were unreliable.

Ercai had originally believed her, standing on tiptoe, poking his head to look at Lu Baozhen's hand, curious and excited, his eyes as if burning with torches.

Half a minute passed, his eyes were sore from opening them, but he didn't even see a hair, and his expression was disappointed.

He pointed at Lu Baozhen and said: "You're a jinx, and a big liar."

"I'm not a big liar!" Lu Baozhen's face turned red, and she scratched at the position where the Black Koi was hiding. "Come out, Li-Li, come out quickly and help me vent my anger. Let Gu Gu Da Cai and Gu Ercai lie in a small dirt mound; I don't want to see them again."

Ercai looked at her in disbelief, his face full of "how can you be so vicious."

"If children lie in a small dirt mound, they can never see their mother again. You're a bad child! You don't have a mother, so you should be the one to lie in a small dirt mound."

Gu Da Cai didn't like what Lu Baozhen said either; he wanted to be with his mother forever.

He looked at Lu Baozhen with dissatisfaction, and Gu Da Cai, who had always been generous, began to hate this child.

Lu Baozhen's wish was too strong, and the Black Koi was forced to appear.

It sighed gloomily.

However, the four-year-old little girl, who had been spoiled to the point of lawlessness and had long since lost her pure nature, didn't care.

She still gave the order as before: "Li-Li, help me."

"... Okay," the Black Koi replied.

It came from another world that couldn't become a spirit.

The first person it possessed was a boy who had just turned twenty-two and just graduated.

At that time, it was still a red, white, and black koi representing auspiciousness.

It used its good luck to help the host, letting him change from a bottom-tier youth living in an old rental house, receiving a meager allowance, and struggling every day over whether to add ham sausage to instant noodles, into a big boss of a transportation company, walking to the pinnacle of life and realizing class ascension.

But who knew human greed? The youth whose original wish was only to live with dignity became unrecognizable. He used it to deal with people who had humiliated him.

At first, the little koi didn't find the problem, until its tail turned black, and it knew its power was being backlashed.

It wanted to call a stop. After all, it was a lucky charm that everyone loved; how could it turn black!

Just having become a spirit, how could it compare to a human who had mixed in society? From the very beginning, that human had tricked it out of its biggest secret—in this relationship, the host was the master.

The game started with it, but it wasn't up to it to say stop.

Gradually, its whole body turned black.

Later, the little koi learned the host wanted to get rid of it completely and escaped in a near-self-destructive way.

When it woke up again.

The newborn Lu Baozhen became its new host.

Affected by its bad luck, Lu Baozhen's biological mother died miserably in the delivery room. Before she died, the woman made a wish: she was willing to use all her good luck and the opportunity for reincarnation to exchange for her child's lifelong smoothness and worry-free life.

Because of this, the Black Koi felt its power recover a little.

Later, it discovered it could use Lu Baozhen to absorb other people's luck to recover itself, so it embarked on a path of no return.

Seeing the good luck on the people of the Gu family's third branch, which was as bright as the sun, it couldn't help but drool and incited Lu Baozhen to get close to them.

Originally, the progress was very good, just waiting for Lin Zhao to be drained of luck and die miserably, and then those four cubs would be at its mercy.

Who knew there would be a change? Lin Zhao didn't die, and her four cubs hid from Lu Baozhen, causing it to only spend and not earn during this period, and the little bit of good luck it had accumulated before was almost exhausted.

Speaking of which.

Lu Baozhen's order fell, and the Black Koi mark on the web of her hand flashed suddenly.

In an instant.

The little girl's eyes became as black as an abyss, without human emotion, her pupils unfocused, extremely eerie when staring at people.

Ercai was thick-skinned and didn't notice her transformation, swinging his arms, which were sore from lifting the wooden box. "Brother, let's go home; let's not pay attention to this annoying big crybaby."

He walked in front to lead the way.

Don't expect the country path to be very wide; it was at most as wide as four or five adult men walking side-by-side.

Ercai was walking with a swaggering pace when he was suddenly grabbed by the arm by Lu Baozhen as he passed her.

"What are you doing!" Ercai swung his arm as if stung by a hornet.

Lu Baozhen grabbed the box in his hand, not knowing where the strength came from, pulling Ercai's body forward. "Give it to me!"

Ercai never suffered a loss and held on tight. "No."

Lu Baozhen was anxious and bit him.

Biting the flesh on his hand, she pulled upward hard. Ercai felt the pain in his hand and swung her away vigorously. Gu Da Cai hurriedly helped, and the three children twisted into a ball.

"Ah ah ah, I'll fight you to the death!!" Ercai used his head-butting skill, moved his head backward, and then pushed downward quickly, hitting Lu Baozhen's face hard.

"Bang!!"

No matter how big Lu Baozhen's cheat was, she was still flesh and blood. Suffering the impact, two lines of blood flowed from her nostrils.

"Ow—" The little girl's two braids came undone, and she screamed sharply.

She wiped the nosebleed, saw Gu Da Cai and Ercai running away, chased after them, and grabbed the red rope on Ercai's wrist.

The blood-stained hand just touched it.

Lu Baozhen screamed and retreated quickly.

Covering her hand, she buried her head and squatted down.

In a place no one noticed, the black koi on the web of her hand flickered, and suddenly detached from Lu Baozhen's body.

Then it turned into black dust.

Ercai discovered the little red rope Mom gave him had turned black and said in shock: "Ah, my little red rope, the little red rope Mom gave me!"

He touched it with his hand, wanting to wipe off the black, but as soon as his hand touched it, the little red rope turned into powder and scattered in the air.

Ercai was confused.

"My little red rope!"

He was so angry he wanted to rush up and hit Lu Baozhen, but was pulled by Gu Da Cai. Gu Da Cai took off his own little red rope and put it on his brother's hand.

"Mine is yours."

Ercai was instantly coaxed, and seeing his brother didn't have one, he became unhappy again. "Brother doesn't have one."

"It's okay. Wait until the afternoon to ask Mom if she can buy another one." Gu Da Cai thought about Mom saying they would have New Year's money in the future, so could he ask for a few cents in advance to buy a red rope?

Ercai happily rubbed against his brother.

At this time, Lu Baozhen moved.

Gu Da Cai's nerves tightened, and he hurriedly said to his brother: "Ercai, carry the box, let's go home and eat."

"Yup!"

The little brothers left the foot of the mountain.

Not long after, a piece of news spread in the village.

Even the Gu family members who had just finished work heard about it.

"Why did Baozhen go to the foot of the mountain when she had nothing to do? She was almost gored by a wild boar running down, and she was scared into fainting. Thanks to Aunt Lu arriving in time, otherwise..." Huang Xiulan didn't make it clear, but the Gu family all understood what she meant.

Gu Mu had been on medicine for two days, plus a bowl after bowl of brown sugar water and malted milk to supplement her body, making her more energetic than before she was hurt. She felt stuffy in the room and hated lying down doing nothing; it was worse than killing her. She sat in the courtyard.

Hearing her eldest daughter-in-law's words, she asked: "Baozhen fainted? Doesn't Old Lu Woman always say her granddaughter is some big lucky bag and God's own daughter? What's this, God's own daughter can also be gored by a pig?"

As she was speaking, Gu Da Cai and Ercai entered the door and happened to hear it all. The brothers looked at each other.

*Lu Baozhen was gored by a pig?! *

Ercai took a small stool nearby, sat down silently next to Gu Mu, and pricked up his ears to listen to his eldest aunt's words.

Huang Xiulan was washing the twins' faces.

Country children loved the land; once they reached the fields, they rolled around everywhere.

The white and tender Third Cub and Fourth Cub had dirt on their cuffs, hems, and knees that couldn't be patted off by hand. Their white and tender faces were flushed red, their eyes were bright, and they were clearly having a lot of fun.

"There's no such thing as God's own daughter. Who knows whose life-saving money the things Baozhen picked up before were." Huang Xiulan gave a shallow comment.

She continued: "I didn't see with my own eyes what happened at the foot of the mountain. I heard that it was mealtime and Baozhen hadn't gone back, so Aunt Lu searched the whole village and finally found her at the foot of the mountain. When she found her, her face was full of blood, and a wild boar rushed out of the forest."

"Are the villagers okay?" Gu Mu asked hurriedly.

"They're fine," Huang Xiulan said. "They didn't dare to startle the wild boar when they saw its shadow and quietly ran back to the village. The village head even said he would take people to hunt those beasts another day."

Gu Father, who had been silent, couldn't help but say: "They must hunt them. There are children in the village; it would be terrible if those beasts came down the mountain."

Gu Yucheng sharpened his knife. "Hunt, hunt them and there will be meat to eat."

There were no fewer than ten people in the village who had lost their lives to wild boars before. Gu Mu was really afraid of this fierce creature with tusks and glared at him: "How many pounds are you that you want to hunt a wild boar? Be careful that the wild boar hunts you."

"Is the family short of meat for you? You're so old, and you're still greedy for that bite."

There was plenty of meat sent by Lin Zhao, and she had her daughter-in-law cook it for the whole family to eat together.

Gu Yucheng didn't care about his mother's white eyes and said with a smile: "Who would think there's too much meat."

After saying this.

Laimei leaned in front of his father, his eyes bright. "Dad, can you hunt wild boars?"

"... No."

Laimei withdrew his look of admiration very realistically and said desolately: "When will Third Uncle be able to come back? I miss Third Uncle."

Gu Yucheng laughed in anger. "If you dislike your father, go be Third Uncle's son!"

"Can I?" Laimei was full of expectation.

"..."

*Take him away, take him away immediately. Whoever wants this son can have him. *

Zhao Liuniang came out of the kitchen and shouted: "Time to eat."

Bangbang took his younger brother and sister to wash their hands.

Since getting rid of the worms, the Gu family children had become much cleaner. They drank boiled water and washed their hands before meals and after using the restroom.

At this time, at the Lu house.

The Lu family thought their big lucky star was hurt and hurriedly called for a barefoot doctor.

The old man with half-baked medical skills looked and looked, and was so angry he laughed.

"What injury? It's a nosebleed; just wipe it off. Was it necessary to call me over so anxiously? Wasting other people's time."

After complaining, he packed his things and left.

The Lu family was stupid.

Su Yuxian, carrying the reputation of an unlucky wife, was anxious to compete for performance and hurriedly fetched water to wipe Lu Baozhen's face.

"It really is a nosebleed. I wonder who said Baozhen was gored by a wild boar and disfigured. Their mouth is so poisonous, even making things up about a child." Lu Sister-in-law cursed angrily.

She sat on the edge of the bed and felt all over her niece's body.

She didn't find any good things, and disappointment flashed in her eyes.

Lu Sister-in-law was spoiled at home and even knew where the money in the house was kept. She familiarly went to get the money, but saw the box where the money was kept was empty.

Thinking Lu Mu had changed the money to another place, Lu Sister-in-law went to find her mother, full of resentment.

"Mom, why didn't you tell me you changed the location of the money? You made me run for nothing. Where's the money? I need to use it."

Lu Mu looked confused.

"What location of the money changed?" She asked. "Isn't it still in the box? I didn't move it."

Lu Sister-in-law hadn't realized the seriousness of the problem yet and said: "There's no money in the box."

Lu Mu wiped her hands and walked quickly to the room.

The box that originally held a lot of money was empty!

The cloth bag full of banknotes that Baozhen picked up, the gold ring weighing a full 15 grams, the blue and white porcelain teacup... all gone!

Even the money Lu Yizhou sent back was gone!

Lu Mu's eyes were about to split, she was almost fainting, grabbed the wooden box containing the money, and searched it unwillingly.

"It was all here; the money was all inside. I didn't move it."

Lu Sister-in-law helped search together, but didn't find it either.

Suddenly, she thought of something, threw away what was in her hand, and went to find Su Yuxian.

"Was it you? Did you steal the money in the house?" Lu Sister-in-law grabbed her shoulder and questioned her sternly. "No outsiders have come to the house. Except for you, it must be you who stole the money. Hand it over, hand over the money in the box."

Lu Mu also stared at her daughter-in-law suspiciously, scratched her, and scratched several red marks on Su Yuxian. "Where's the money? Where did you hide the money?"

Su Yuxian was confused.

She felt she was even more wronged than Dou E.

"What money? I didn't see it." Su Yuxian covered her stinging face and explained, "I haven't even entered Mom's room."

Lu Mu regained her reason. "Then where's the money?"

"Did Dad take it?" Lu Sister-in-law said. "I'll go find Dad."

Leaving this sentence behind, she rushed out of the house.

Su Yuxian sat down, dragging her injured foot, and looked at the room where her parents-in-law lived, her eyes flickering.

That dead old woman and the damn little sister-in-law were so nervous; there must be a lot of money in the house.

Thinking of how the Lu family didn't invite a doctor for her when she hurt her foot, only using wood ash to make do, Su Yuxian lowered her eyes, a fierce light flashing in the depths of her eyes. ===== CHAPTER 52 =====