“Twenty?” Liu Guohua exploded in anger. “Are you fucking crazy from being poor? Why don’t you just rob people instead?!”
Ruan Qiaoqiao replied bluntly, “Robbery is illegal. I’m not like you people—I don’t do shameless things. I’m only asking for what I deserve. If you disagree, then let’s go to the police station right now.”
Hearing her mention the police station over and over again made the village chief nervous.
“Enough. Twenty it is. The four of you, hurry back and prepare the money.”
Liu Guohua’s face darkened. “Village chief, yesterday it was her second brother who instigated us—”
Ruan Qiaoqiao cut him off directly. “He didn’t do anything himself. He just manipulated you into acting. You were willing to become someone else’s weapon, so who can you blame? If you’re unhappy, go settle accounts with Liu Ercheng yourselves. What does it have to do with me? Don’t you agree, Village Chief?”
“The girl’s right,” the village chief immediately agreed. “Four grown men getting played around by a street punk—aren’t you embarrassed? Hurry back and bring the money to the production team office. Not one cent less.”
“Just paying money isn’t enough,” Ruan Qiaoqiao added. “They also have to apologize.”
“Right, apologize too!”
As long as the matter didn’t affect his own interests, the village chief didn’t care how it was resolved.
The four men glared hatefully at Ruan Qiaoqiao.
People in the village had openly and secretly targeted Fu Wenzhou more than once before, and usually those incidents ended quietly.
Although everyone believed Fu Wenzhou carried terrible luck and anyone who got involved with him would suffer misfortune afterward, this was the first time someone had not only lost a fight but also had to pay compensation afterward.
It was all because of that little bitch Ruan Qiaoqiao.
But to avoid prison, they could only swallow the loss.
Ruan Qiaoqiao followed the village chief back to the production team office.
After the four men delivered the money, the village chief dragged them into the neighboring broadcasting room to apologize publicly.
While their apologetic voices echoed through the village loudspeaker one after another, Ruan Qiaoqiao sat in the next office happily counting money.
After the four finished apologizing and came outside, Ruan Qiaoqiao also walked out of the office. Upon meeting their eyes, she deliberately passed in front of them, slapping the stack of bills against her palm with loud smacking sounds.
“Liu Ercheng stole my man’s money and almost forced his own sister to marry into the Fu family. Everyone already knows he’s a thief, so he lost both pride and reputation. He wanted revenge against Fu Wenzhou but didn’t dare do it himself, so he found four idiots like you instead…”
She sneered.
“No brains really are useful sometimes. At least now I got this money. Honestly, I should thank you for being stupid. I’m taking your money to buy rice, flour, and meat so my family can eat well.”
Watching her leave with such a smug expression, the four men were furious.
Liu Guohua gritted his teeth and cursed, “That bastard Liu Ercheng dared use me? I won’t let him off!”
Hearing the furious cursing behind her, Ruan Qiaoqiao’s lips curved slightly upward.
On the way home, she suddenly remembered the net she had set on the mountain yesterday.
That was practically the crime scene. She absolutely couldn’t let Fu Wenzhou discover it.
Taking advantage of the fact that he didn’t know, she hurried secretly up the mountain.
She hadn’t even expected to catch anything and only intended to retrieve the net. But from afar, she saw two huge gray rabbits struggling desperately inside it.
Her eyes instantly lit up.
Oh my god.
She truly was a living lucky koi.
Even she envied her own outrageous luck.
Carrying the net happily, she headed down the mountain. When she reached the fork near the foot of the mountain, the production teams had just gotten off work for lunch, and she spotted Liu Bangguo among the crowd.
Seeing so many people nearby, Ruan Qiaoqiao’s eyes shifted slightly, and she took the initiative to greet him.
Liu Bangguo introduced his wife, Liu Meihua, to her.
Seeing the rabbits in her hands, Liu Meihua looked shocked. “Xiao Ruan, you caught those?”
“Yep. Yesterday I noticed signs of rabbits eating grass on the mountain, so I set a net.”
“Your Uncle Liu goes hunting in the mountains all the time and still can’t catch even one rabbit after several days. Yet you caught two at once? Your luck is unbelievable.”
Ruan Qiaoqiao sighed dramatically, deliberately steering the conversation elsewhere.
“It’s lucky I have good fortune. Otherwise, my family probably wouldn’t survive at all.”
Remembering what Liu Bangguo had mentioned the day before, Liu Meihua immediately asked about Fu Wenzhou’s condition again.
Ruan Qiaoqiao’s eyes instantly reddened. “Not very good. It’ll cost a lot of money to nurse him back to health. Otherwise… he might not even survive.”
Liu Bangguo frowned. “But didn’t your stepbrother from Qianliuhang Village just steal Xiao Fu’s money? Then… how are you going to pay for treatment?”
Ruan Qiaoqiao raised the money in her hand. “The four families who caused trouble just paid some compensation. It’s barely enough for treatment. Later I’ll also sell these wild animals I caught and the medicinal herbs I dig up in the mountains. Somehow we’ll manage.”
Liu Meihua looked surprised. “You know medicinal herbs too?”
“I studied medicine since childhood and often gathered herbs in the mountains with my grandfather and father.”
“That’s impressive. But there probably aren’t any valuable herbs left in the mountains, right?”
“I dug up a ginseng root yesterday.”
The moment she said that, the surrounding people reacted differently—some shocked, some jealous, and some eager to immediately rush into the mountains to dig herbs themselves.
Liu Meihua exclaimed loudly, “Goodness, Xiao Ruan, why is your luck so amazing?”
Ruan Qiaoqiao understood very well that showing too much wealth attracted trouble. By spreading the fact that she could earn money from herbs, people would know her family had legitimate ways to make money, and they wouldn’t need to constantly pretend to be poor.
Her eyes reddened again as she sighed softly.
“Maybe heaven pitied my miserable life and gave me a bit of luck in compensation.”
The people nearby had originally been jealous of her good fortune, but then they remembered her husband was useless, she had become a stepmother the moment she married, would likely remain a lonely widow in marriage, and her family was poor…
Suddenly, there wasn’t much left to envy.
Liu Meihua nodded sympathetically. “Luckily you can recognize herbs. If it were me, I wouldn’t know valuable medicine even if I saw it.”
“Then next time I go into the mountains, I’ll sketch the herbs I find for you. Some medicinal herbs can actually sell for quite a lot at county pharmacies.”
“Oh my, Xiao Ruan, that would be wonderful. Thank you.”
“We’re all neighbors in the same village now. It’s only natural.”
A young married woman nearby, around Ruan Qiaoqiao’s age, immediately moved closer too.
“Little Sister Xiao Ruan, can I have a copy too?”
“Of course. Once I draw them, anyone who wants one can copy it from Aunt Meihua.”
Instantly, several people in the group gained a much better impression of the young wife who had married into the Fu family.
Ruan Qiaoqiao followed everyone to the village cooperative store, bought some things with the compensation money, and finally returned to the cowshed.
From afar, she saw Fu Wenzhou and the two children standing outside the thatched hut.
She immediately ran toward them happily, raising the net high in her hand, unable to hide her excitement.
“Fu Wenzhou! Fu Wenzhou! Look what I caught!”
Watching Ruan Qiaoqiao run toward him with such bright joy on her face, the faintest trace of pleasure instantly appeared on Fu Wenzhou’s usually calm expression—