Chapter 39: Fooling

With the locust plague resolved, the next most important task was to repair the house.

Yuping Village was poor, and the houses were all quite dilapidated; drafts and leaks were commonplace.

In the original owner's memory, this winter had been bitterly cold—the famine starved one batch of people to death, and the snowstorm froze another batch to death. With the house the Chi Family currently lived in, if it was not repaired, people would surely freeze to death once winter arrived.

In the previous life, in just two more months there would be a once-in-a-century heavy snowfall, and massive numbers of disaster victims would pour into Jingcheng. By then, her engagement to the Crown Prince was already half-arranged. She suggested that the Minister's Residence set up a charity porridge stall, and it was also at that time that Madam Jiang spotted Meng Qinghe, who was nearly frozen and starved to death, among the crowd.

The Emperor was extremely pleased about the Minister's Residence setting up the porridge stall. To let Meng Qinghe take the original owner's place, Madam Jiang told the Emperor that it was all Meng Qinghe's idea. The Emperor was greatly delighted by this and kept praising Meng Qinghe as a girl who cared for the world. Coupled with her status as the legitimate daughter of the Minister's Residence, he directly gave the marriage originally promised to Chi Nan Yi to Meng Qinghe instead. The original owner, believing she and the Crown Prince shared a mutual affection, was willing to marry into the Crown Prince's Residence even as a secondary wife. Thinking back on it now, it was truly as foolish as could be.

How could the Crown Prince have been of one mind with her? He simply did not want the world to think him a hypocrite who only valued background. Add to that the original owner's pretty face and the zither playing he enjoyed, as well as the desire to win over the Left Minister—only then did he take her into his residence.

Since Meng Qinghe was also reborn, she certainly knew the exact timing of the natural disasters as well. But in this life, without the locust plague, even if the heavens turned freezing cold, the disaster victims would not be as numerous as in the previous life. It would likely not be easy for Meng Qinghe to make a name for herself this way.

For now, she had no shortage of either grain or silver in her space. The problem was how to bring these out through proper channels.

Her gaze fell on the tall mountain behind the village, and an idea formed in her mind.

Early the next morning, Chi Nan Yi put on a bamboo basket and headed up the mountain. Seeing this, Chi Huai Qian hurriedly chased after her: "Little sister, you're going up the mountain?"

"Yes! What is it, Third Brother?"

A smile lingered at the corners of Chi Nan Yi's eyes. She had deliberately let Chi Huai Qian see her put on the bamboo basket, her purpose being to get him to go to the back mountain with her. If he did not go, wouldn't all the good things she had prepared on the back mountain go to waste?

"Little sister, everything edible on the mountain has already been dug clean. You don't actually think you'll run into a blind rabbit crashing into a tree stump every single time, do you!" Saying this, Chi Huai Qian reached to take the basket off her shoulders: "Don't go. If we're careful with the grain we harvested this year, we can surely make it through this winter."

Make it through this winter?

Ha!

Freezing or starving to death this winter is more like it!

Surviving on those few grains of rice floating in a bowl each day?

Chi Nan Yi smiled and said: "Third Brother, have you forgotten? Last time I even found potatoes there! And I vaguely remember there seemed to be some left behind, they should be potatoes too."

"Really?"

Chi Nan Yi nodded: "Of course! So I figured I'd go check early, before anyone else finds out."

Hearing this, Chi Huai Qian was instantly fired up and volunteered to carry the bamboo basket himself: "Good, good, good! Let's go up the mountain right now. Who knows, we might even run into a stupid rabbit."

The two arrived at the back mountain. Looking at the bare, barren mountain, Chi Huai Qian could not help frowning.

"Little sister, let's just go! What potatoes could there be here? Only dirt is left." Chi Huai Qian sighed: "And rabbits are impossible too. There's barely any grass left. Any rabbit here would probably starve to death too."

Seeing that Chi Nan Yi's footsteps did not stop, Chi Huai Qian quickly caught up.

"Little sister, let's go back! This mountain right now is even emptier than my pockets. Little sister!"

"Since we're already here, we should at least take a look." Chi Nan Yi pointed at the hillside ahead: "Right over there."

Hearing her say this, Chi Huai Qian could only quicken his pace to follow.

"It's not that I mind the effort, I'm just afraid you'll be disappointed after walking all this way and finding noth—" Before he could finish, he heard Chi Nan Yi say with a laugh: "Potatoes! There really are potatoes!"

What?

There really are?

Chi Huai Qian strode forward quickly. Chi Nan Yi dug a potato out of the ground and turned to wave it at him: "Third Brother, look!"

"This... this is really..." Chi Huai Qian held the potato, his face full of disbelief: "Good heavens! Little sister is truly a lucky star reincarnated! She actually found potatoes, and a whole patch of them!"

"Third Brother, don't just stand there, hurry up and dig! If someone comes by in a bit, these potatoes won't be safe!"

"Right, right, right." Chi Huai Qian did not doubt it for a moment. He picked up the hoe and started digging.

"The potatoes here are actually quite easy to dig. Before, when digging potatoes in the mountains, you had to dig really deep pits." Chi Huai Qian said as he dug: "These potatoes are big and round too. If we take them to town, they'll surely fetch a good price."

Hearing this, Chi Nan Yi pressed her thin lips together without speaking.

How were these potatoes easy to dig?

She had secretly come over yesterday and taken potatoes from her space to plant here. It was precisely because these potatoes were from her space that they were so much larger.

To stand guard against the locusts, the villagers had barely slept the night before. After the locust plague passed, nearly every household had shut their doors to rest, and no one had noticed her going to the back mountain.

After several days of interacting with them, Chi Nan Yi knew that among her three brothers, Chi Huai Qian had the most carefree and easygoing personality, and he probably would not suspect that she had done anything to this patch of potatoes.

How could Chi Huai Qian suspect the origins of these potatoes?

All he could think about right now was harvesting these potatoes quickly and taking them to town to exchange for silver. The silver their mother had given to Second Brother had been taken by them to buy a rabbit for Little Sister. Now that they had these potatoes, Second Brother could go to town to buy bamboo slips, ink, and brushes.

The two filled an entire basket. Chi Huai Qian wiped the sweat from his brow: "Little sister, you head home first! Third Brother will make a trip to town and see if these potatoes can sell for a good price."

Leave now?

How could that work?

There were even better things ahead!

"Third Brother, since we're already here, let's go take a look up ahead. Grandmother is still sick, so I want to see if I can find any medicinal herbs up there."

"Medicinal herbs?" Chi Huai Qian shook his head: "Don't even think about that. Third Brother has been in and out of these mountains who knows how many times, and I haven't seen a single medicinal herb."

"Third Brother, do you know what medicinal herbs look like?"

Chi Huai Qian blinked and honestly shook his head.

"Well, there you go. You don't even know what medicinal herbs look like, so of course you think you've never seen any."

"I don't know them, but I did see someone gathering herbs in the mountains before. His basket was empty. He said he'd walked around the mountain several times and found nothing."

"Of course he'd say that. Otherwise, if you all knew there were medicinal herbs on the mountain and everyone went to gather them, how would he make his silver?"

"That... I hadn't thought of that."

Seeing how easily fooled he was, Chi Nan Yi could not help feeling a twinge of guilt.

Was it really okay to fool such a simple-hearted Third Brother?

But...

Third Brother was just too gullible!

He practically begged to be fooled!