Chapter 32: Lucky Star

"See, what did I tell you? Yi'er is our family's lucky star—ever since she came back, nothing but good things have happened to our family!"

"That's right! Little sister, it's all thanks to you."

"Now that sister-in-law is with child, she mustn't lay a hand on any heavy or tiring chores around the house."

"Right!" Chi Zhiqiu nodded. "Yi'er is right. I've got plenty of strength anyway—once the harvest is done, I'll come back and do the chores."

Mentioning the harvest, Chi Nan Yi couldn't help asking, "Father, besides our family, is anyone else in the village harvesting their fields?"

Chi Ting Song shook his head. "No. They all think I'm talking nonsense—that harvesting early will affect the yield. This year's grain was already scarce, and harvesting now means we lose about thirty percent, barely enough to pay the taxes." He sighed. "Tomorrow I'll go to the back mountain and chop more firewood to sell in town, exchange it for silver to stock up on winter supplies. Otherwise, this winter will be hard to endure!"

Hearing this, Chi Nan Yi's expression grew heavy. If the original owner's memory was correct, only half a month remained before the locusts passed through. If they didn't harvest soon, the crops would truly be completely destroyed. What method could she use to convince everyone?

If Meng Qinghe was also reborn, she should also remember the locust matter. She wondered whether Meng Qinghe had mentioned it to Meng Hui.

Meanwhile, in the Minister's Residence in Jingcheng, Meng Hui stared at Meng Qinghe in shock. "What did you say? You dreamed of a swarm of locusts?"

"Yes," Meng Qinghe said with certainty. "Daughter dreamed that those locusts devoured all the crops, the farmers harvested nothing, many people starved to death, and Qi Guo suffered a famine for a long time."

"Enough!" Meng Hui scolded coldly. "You are never to say such things again!"

Meng Qinghe was startled by his attitude. "Father, what's wrong? Why can't I say it?"

"Since its founding, our Qi Guo has never suffered a locust plague. You saw such an inauspicious thing in a dream and even spoke of it aloud—if others heard it and said our Minister's Residence harbored superstitious talk, your father would likely be dismissed and investigated by the Emperor!"

Meng Qinghe quickly shut her mouth.

"Daughter—daughter only wanted to help Father share his burdens. If what daughter says comes true, the Emperor will surely regard Father as his confidant, and our Meng Family can rise even higher!"

Hearing this, Meng Hui's scrutinizing gaze fell upon her, and he couldn't help feeling puzzled: she was born to a farming family—how could she have so many insights?

"Enough. Pretend this matter was never spoken of. Go back and rest first."

"Yes, Father." Meng Qinghe nodded and turned to leave.

Meng Hui watched her retreating back, lost in thought.

Could it be that this daughter of his truly had something that set her apart from ordinary people?

Just then, Liu Yiniang came over carrying a bowl of ginseng soup. "My lord, what are you looking at?"

Liu Yiniang was Meng Hui's childhood sweetheart and the person he trusted most in this residence, so he relayed Meng Qinghe's words to her verbatim.

Liu Yiniang smiled and said, "My lord, it's just a dream—why take it seriously? I've never seen a locust since the day I was born, and rarely heard anyone speak of them. For the eldest young lady to have such a dream, it must be related to her having lived in the countryside. She's just returned here and hasn't fully adjusted to life yet."

The implication in Liu Yiniang's words was to tell Meng Hui that although Meng Qinghe was born of the primary wife, she came from a farming background, and her dreams could only be such unrefined things. After all, what young lady of a great house would dream of something as dreadful as locusts?

Hearing this, Meng Hui nodded and felt a degree of distaste toward Meng Qinghe.

At this moment, he even felt a bit of regret. Though Yi'er was not his biological daughter, she had been raised in the Minister's Residence since childhood, excelling in the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting, and her looks were first-rate.

Compared to her, Qinghe...

How had she become the unrefined one instead?

Meng Hui did not take Meng Qinghe's words to heart, and this caused him to miss the opportunity to become the Emperor's confidant.

Meng Qinghe returned to her room. She didn't care whether Meng Hui believed her words or not.

In her view, in this life, only she herself knew what had happened in the previous life. If her father reported this matter to the Emperor and truly prevented the locust invasion, that would be a great merit—an excellent thing for the Minister's Residence, for her father, and even for herself. But if her father did not report this matter to the Emperor, it wasn't entirely without benefit either. At the very least, in this life she could watch Chi Nan Yi beg along the streets just as she herself had in the previous life, reduced to the lowest kind of beggar!

In this life, the Chi Family, Chi Nan Yi included, would not receive a single grain of relief food in Jingcheng. She wanted to watch the Chi Family starve to death with her own eyes! Freeze to death!

"Chi Nan Yi, in the previous life you cost me my life. In this life, I will make you pay blood for blood!"

Over the next few days, the men of the Chi Family were all harvesting crops, while Chi Nan Yi, under the pretext of foraging for food on the back mountain, took some potatoes and sweet potatoes out of her space, claiming she had dug them up in the mountains.

Looking at the fresh dirt on the sweet potatoes, Chi Huai Qian murmured, "Could it be that little sister really is a lucky star? How come every time she goes up the mountain she finds something tasty, but when I go up I can't even dig up a single wild vegetable!"

Hearing this, Chi Nan Yi just smiled awkwardly. It did seem like she had taken a bit too much out of her space.

The Chi Family's grain was nearly finished harvesting, and the villagers of Yuping Village were somewhat puzzled to see that their family had actually harvested their fields.

"That Chi Family actually harvested their fields! What a waste of grain!"

"Isn't that the truth? Grain is precious right now! Their family brought back a girl from Jingcheng, and whatever she says, the Chi Family believes it."

"But since she did come from Jingcheng, maybe she really does know something!"

The crowd discussed back and forth for a long time but couldn't reach a definite answer.

Just then, a child came running over, holding something in his hand.

"This... isn't this..." The crowd looked at the grasshopper in the boy's hand, their hearts startled.

This grasshopper looked bigger than usual, with yellow markings on its body.

They took the grasshopper to the village head's house. When the village head saw the grasshopper, his heart sank. "This really is a locust."

"Village head! What do we do? Could it be that the locusts are really coming?"

The village head thought for a moment, then took the grasshopper and hurried toward the Chi Family's home.

Mother Chi was cooking porridge. While she wasn't paying attention, Chi Nan Yi poured in some Spirit Spring Water, and the aroma of the food in the pot spread in all directions. Lately, every time they cooked, she would add Spirit Spring Water, so even when the Chi father and sons returned from the fields, panting with exhaustion, a single bowl of porridge would make all their fatigue vanish.

"Chi Family! Chi Family!" The village head walked into the courtyard. "This must be the precious treasure the Chi Family just brought back?"