Chapter 30: Locust Plague

"Mother, this carriage is brand new. Little Sister still has to ride in it. If we use it to carry other people and get it dirty, what then? Little Sister still needs to ride in it!"

"That's right, Mother. We were even thinking of taking Little Sister to town for a stroll!"

"Zhilan, Yi'er must take a carriage when she goes out. We can't have her walk to town on foot like the rest of us."

Chi Nan Yi sat there, looking at the rabbit leg in her bowl before her, listening to their conversation, and couldn't help shaking her head.

The rabbit had four legs in total. Three of them were now in her own bowl, and the other had been sent to Grandmother Shen's room.

So it turned out this entire Chi family household was made up of sister-obsessed brothers and daughter-doting parents.

Just then, Shen's voice also came from her room: "These boys are right. Yi'er still needs to ride in the carriage."

Fine, add one more granddaughter-obsessed member to the list.

"Yi'er, what do you think?"

"Mother, using the carriage to haul people and goods won't earn much silver. The most urgent matter right now is to harvest the crops in the fields first."

"Harvest the crops?"

Chi Nan Yi nodded: "When I was still at the Minister's Residence, I heard people say that this year there may well be a locust plague."

"A locust plague?" Wen said in alarm. "Is that true or false? If there's a locust plague, won't our crops be ruined?"

"Exactly. So before the locust plague arrives, we should harvest the crops first."

"But..." Chi Ting Song hesitated. "There hasn't been much rain this year, and the harvest was already going to be poor. We were counting on this exact time to let the rice grains fill out. Otherwise, after we pay the taxes this year, there won't be much grain left. This winter is long—how are we going to get through it!"

"Father, even though our village's harvest is poor this year, if it's truly as Little Sister says, and we don't harvest now, there won't be a single grain left when the time comes."

"Yi'er, did you really hear someone say this?"

"Mm, absolutely certain."

Chi Ting Song nodded and made up his mind, saying: "All right, we'll listen to Yi'er. Tomorrow I'll go find the village chief and have everyone harvest their fields. Better to have a smaller harvest than to let the grain be ruined by locusts."

Chi Nan Yi had thought she'd need to spend quite a bit of effort persuading the Chi family to harvest early. She hadn't expected just a few words to do it.

One could imagine just how much weight the Chi family gave to their youngest daughter's words.

The original owner deserved to be killed in her past life—blind and foolish, unable to let go of wealth and glory, abandoning such good family members, choosing instead to eke out a miserable existence in the tiger's and wolf's den of the Minister's Residence. She deserved it!

The news that the Chi family had taken back their biological daughter spread overnight.

Now everyone in Yuping Village knew that the Chi family had a precious darling named Chi Nan Yi.

Early the next morning, Chi Ting Song came back dejected, carrying a sickle.

Seeing this, Wen hurried forward: "Husband, what's wrong?"

"I went to the village chief's place first thing this morning. I talked until my spit ran dry, but he simply refused to believe there would be a locust plague. He even said I was spouting nonsense and spreading alarmist talk."

Hearing this, Wen said softly: "Forget it. Since they don't believe it, we won't force the issue. This matter isn't set in stone anyway. The rice is theirs. If they don't want to harvest, what can we do about it?"

"Father, are we still harvesting our family's rice?"

"Harvest!" Chi Ting Song nodded. "We'll listen to Yi'er. Since this talk has come from Jingcheng, it definitely isn't baseless. We'd better harvest the rice, just in case."

Chi Nan Yi held her bowl of porridge, looked at the porridge in her own bowl, then looked at the gruel in her three brothers' bowls beside her. At the entire table, only she had white rice porridge.

She thought for a moment, picked up her spoon, and shared some of the porridge from her bowl with them.

"Little Sister, we don't like drinking porridge. You eat it yourself."

"That's right, we're fine drinking gruel."

"What gruel? How could you possibly not like porridge? I'm a child of the Chi family too. Father, Mother, aren't you being a bit too biased? From now on, whatever you eat, I'll eat too."

The Chi family members looked at her, their feelings extremely complicated for a moment.

They hadn't imagined that coming here from the Minister's Residence, she would have not the slightest complaint. From former fine clothes and delicacies to a time when even a mouthful of white rice porridge was a luxury—under such a gap, she could still be so optimistic.

"Mother, you all go harvest the fields today. I'll take a stroll around the back mountain and see if there's anything I can sell for money."

Hearing her say this, Chi Huai Qian quickly waved his hand: "Little Sister, no need to go. There's nothing on the back mountain except weeds. Those grasses are all inedible. Earlier someone dug up wild grass from the mountain, insisted it was wild greens, and after eating it the whole family died. Trust Third Brother's words—let's not go."

Hearing this, Chi Nan Yi's interest grew even stronger.

Wild grass that could kill people must be extremely toxic, which meant it wasn't wild grass but medicinal herbs—perhaps they could even be exchanged for some silver!

"Third Brother, in your eyes they might all be wild grass, but in my eyes they're different."

Chi Huai Qian heard this, looked at Chi Nan Yi, then looked at the porridge in his bowl: "What's going on? We haven't eaten any wild greens today! How come you're talking nonsense before even being poisoned?"

Chi Zhiqiu looked at Chi Nan Yi: "Little Sister, do you really want to go to the back mountain?"

"Mm. When I was in Jingcheng, I learned some medicine from doctors and physicians, and I know medicinal herbs. There may be no wild greens on the back mountain, but there might be medicinal herbs. What you see as weeds are treasures in my eyes!"

"Big Brother will go with you."

"No need." Chi Nan Yi quickly waved her hand. If he followed, it would be inconvenient for her to take things out of her spatial realm. "I won't go far. I'll just wander around the foot of the mountain. If I can't find anything, I'll come back. Big Brother, you're harvesting the fields today—you can't slack off!"

"All right then. Remember, stay at the foot of the mountain. Don't go into the mountain lightly."

"Okay."

Just then, Wen placed a peeled egg into her bowl: "Grandmother's has already been delivered. This one is yours."

Chi Nan Yi looked at the egg in her bowl, her eyes growing slightly red.

This was perhaps the most delicious egg she had ever eaten.

Many years later, Chi Nan Yi still remembered the morning of her second day back at the Chi family—what that warm egg truly tasted like.

After breakfast, Chi Nan Yi shouldered a basket and headed toward the back mountain.

Along the way, the villagers watched her from afar, whispering about something.

"That's her. The locust plague Chi Ting Song talked about, that natural disaster—he heard it all from her. How ridiculous. With weather this fine, where would locusts come from?"

"She's just riding on the fact that she stayed in Jingcheng. What's she acting so high and mighty about? The Chi father and sons are really thick-headed. They bought a carriage for a girl like that. How precious a carriage is! What a waste."

"Trying to get us to harvest our grain? Dream on!"

Chi Nan Yi took these words in through her ears, but she didn't mind. Good intentions treated like a donkey's liver and lungs. She had already given her warning anyway. If they refused to harvest, that was their own problem.

Chi Nan Yi didn't pause her steps, heading briskly toward the back mountain.