Chapter 69: Sneaking Up the Mountain to Pick Up a Divine Object

Regardless of which world one is in, there are always people who cannot stand to see others doing well, so Jiang Jinshi pretended not to hear those sharp, sarcastic remarks, merely silently committing the other's appearance to memory.

Under their gaze, Jiang Jinshi led the horse back home; hearing the commotion, Jiang Li came out to check and was stunned.

"Brother... brother, is this a horse?"

"Silly girl, what else could it be if not a horse?" Jiang Jinshi was almost laughing at his sister.

Jiang Li was about to step forward for a closer look, but shrank back in fear; after all, the horse looked strong, afraid of being kicked, she could only ask from a distance.

"Where did this come from?"

Jiang Jinshi patted his chest: "Someone gave it to your brother me, how about it? This horse is handsome, right?"

"Mm-hmm! Much better-looking than you, brother." This time Jiang Li didn't oppose Jiang Jinshi, just nodded in approval.

"How can you compare a person to a horse?" Jiang Jinshi laughed and cried, pulling the reins to tie it to a post beside the house.

Jiang Li didn't think about who would send such a precious horse; now she was more concerned about one thing.

"Brother, what does this horse eat?"

Her idea was simple: she would prepare some food for the horse, and while it was eating, she could approach and pet it.

"Eat grass!"

Upon hearing that, Jiang Li shouldered her small basket and hurried up the mountain, leaving only the words, "Perfect, I'm going up the mountain to find my sister-in-law."

Li Xinyue often runs up the mountain, which Jiang Jinshi knows, so he didn't ask further; today she had run enough on the road, now it's a good time to rest.

At this moment, Li Xinyue was sitting on a rock halfway up the mountain, having bought a bottle of some Ha Ha pure water from the system using points to drink.

Items bought in the system are strange in that they have no text at all; for example, the self-heating hot pot bought last time and this bottle of water, although one knows it's some Ha Ha brand, the bottle bears no common label.

It's as if the label had been torn off, leaving only a transparent plastic bottle.

Around Li Xinyue, a few meters were empty; if one looked closely, one could see many pits, proving that trees had previously existed here.

At this moment, Li Xinyue was also glad that she had waited until Widow Wang was not at the mountain base before coming, because the disturbance of collecting trees was large.

At first she thought that as long as she placed her hand on it, the tree would disappear without anyone knowing.

In fact, the whole tree, wrapped in a mysterious force, was uprooted, and only after being completely detached from the soil was it reclaimed by the system and exchanged for points.

That commotion was not small; the tree's branches hooked with those of neighboring trees, causing the forest's trees to rustle.

This harvest was not bad; Li Xinyue actually gained ten thousand points, enough for her to exchange for many things.

However, relying on these ten thousand points to live leisurely is completely insufficient; Li Xinyue could only silently calculate how many more points she would need to live out the rest of her life in leisure.

Right now there should be nothing valuable left on this mountain; to exchange for more points she'd probably have to go outside.

Just as Li Xinyue was thinking, a shout interrupted her thoughts.

"Sister-in-law! Sister-in-law! Where are you?"

"Little Li?" Li Xinyue heard the voice, curious how Jiang Li would come up the mountain to find her, so she followed the sound, but didn't notice the bottle of some Ha Ha purchased from the mall still placed beside the stone.

When the two had filled their small baskets with grass, Li Xinyue shouldered it, and they happily went down the mountain.

However, they didn't notice that in a thicket at the mountain base, Widow Wang was secretly hiding there, watching them.

Widow Wang, who originally didn't want to go out again, came to the mountain base because her family had run out of grain and she was starving.

She thought this way: she would find a spot at the mountain base to hide; if she saw someone cutting trees for firewood, she could report them for a reward; even if no one cut trees, once it was clear she could go up the mountain to dig some wild vegetables to eat, so she wouldn't starve to death.

Not long after she arrived, she saw Li Xinyue and Jiang Li coming down the mountain; after realizing they had only gone up to cut grass, she lay dejected in the grass.

"No, if this continues I'll starve to death." Widow Wang muttered, seeing that it was getting late, thinking that there should be no one on the mountain now.

Widow Wang poked her head out of the grass and sneaked up the mountain.

As the sky grew darker, after a while on the mountain she still had found nothing, and couldn't help complaining to heaven.

"Why is it that others go up the mountain and find wild boar or wild ginseng, while I go up and can't even find a wild vegetable?"

The angrier Widow Wang got, the more she couldn't help kicking a pebble at her foot; the pebble flew and struck a nearby stone, then bounced back and hit her foot.

"Oh dear! Even this broken stone is bullying me."

The force of the rebounding pebble wasn't strong, and Widow Wang didn't feel her foot hurt, but she couldn't swallow this anger, walking toward the stone to step on it.

But when she approached, she discovered something beside the stone that looked precious.

Widow Wang, full of doubt, picked up the plastic water bottle, seeing that some liquid remained inside, not knowing what it was.

Although Widow Wang lacked experience, she knew this must be a good thing: crystal clear, transparent, one could see inside at a glance, utterly free of impurities, purer and cleaner than ice formed on an early winter morning, yet clearly not ice.

Widow Wang suddenly thought of something!

Could it be... that this is also a gift from heaven?

The more she thought, the more plausible it seemed; perhaps heaven had heard her earlier complaint and, taking pity, sent this divine object.

Widow Wang immediately knelt on the ground, reverently placing the plastic water bottle on the ground with both hands, and began to worship with a devout expression.

"Heaven, thank you for your gift; the words I just spoke were unintentional, please don't hold it against me."

After saying that, Widow Wang paused and added: "From now on, heaven, please recognize me; whether it's wild ginseng or wild boar, give it to me, give it to me, thank you! Thank you!"

After lightly kowtowing three times before the plastic water bottle, she felt that wasn't sincere enough; gritting her teeth, for the sake of future boundless wealth and honor, she fiercely kowtowed three more times on the ground.

"Thud! Thud! Thud!"

Although her head buzzed a little and it hurt enough to bring tears to her eyes, Widow Wang's face was still very happy.

Just this bunch of village simpletons dared to mock me; now with heaven's help, I believe I will become ever wealthier, and when the time comes I'll see what sort of faces they have.

Next, Widow Wang fiddled with the plastic water bottle, discovering that this "treasure" was quite fragile; even a little force would deform it, so she became even more careful.

After opening the cap, Widow Wang held it to her nose and sniffed, detecting no special smell.