When the village head and the others returned with the wooden cart, the villagers who had been waiting at the village entrance for a long time got excited at the sight of the items loaded on it.
The village head had actually bought things! Did that mean the herbs had really been sold?
The villagers followed behind the wooden cart as a large crowd marched into the village. A group of children jumped, ran, and made a ruckus. Gone were the worried expressions on everyone’s faces—replaced by bright smiles, their truest reaction to the successful sale of the herbs.
Finally, there was a little hope for survival.
Once in the village, the village head didn’t waste any time. He immediately distributed the items each household had agreed to buy earlier. Before wrapping up, he didn’t forget to remind the villagers to remember Yue Jiuyue’s kindness.
“This time, every household in our village got to share so much money, all thanks to Third Sister-in-law. You all need to remember—the idea to make money came from her. If she hadn’t been thinking about the village and the Lin family, she could have easily kept that two taels and three qian of silver for herself.”
“We remember! We all remember Third Aunt’s kindness!”
“Yeah, we’ll always remember Third Sister-in-law’s kindness. She gave us a way to survive!”
“Third Aunt has had such a hard life over the years, yet she still thinks about the village. From now on, we need to help her family more!”
“Yeah! We’ll definitely help Third Aunt’s family more!”
…
Yue Jiuyue, who was wandering around the mountain gathering grass for the rabbits, had no idea about the villagers’ passionate declarations. The things she’d asked the village head to buy weren’t going anywhere anyway—they were far less important than picking up free money out here.
(︶.︶)
That evening, Lin Chaonan came running all the way home.
“Mother! Today, Dr. Li taught us how to process Polygala root (yuanzhi)! I’ve learned it!”
Lin Chaonan was drenched in sweat. He wiped his forehead with his sleeve and immediately urged Yue Jiuyue to go to the clan leader’s house to share the news.
“Mother, let’s hurry to the clan leader’s house. Otherwise, they might go to bed soon.”
He was so anxious that he didn’t even have time to eat. He didn’t even notice that the dinner table, for once, had actual food on it.
“Have your older brother go with you.”
She still wanted to eat.
Lin Chaonan didn’t bother asking if his brother wanted to go. He grabbed Lin Chaodong and ran out. Lin Chaobei, for some reason, followed right behind them.
“Hey! None of you have eaten yet!”
Liu Shi called out after the three brothers, but they were already too far away to hear.
“Never mind. Set their portions aside. Let’s eat first.”
It was rare to see rice porridge. Even though the rice was old, and even though the porridge still inevitably had chopped wild vegetables in it and very few grains of rice, Yue Jiuyue still found herself swallowing saliva at the faint, tempting aroma of rice.
She wasn’t the only one. It wasn’t just their family—it was the same for the whole village.
That day, because the herbs had been sold for money, and because the village head and the others had taken the wooden cart to town and were sure they’d get paid, everyone had asked him to buy grain and salt. Two years ago, old rice was only about seven or eight wen per catty. Now it had risen to twenty wen per catty. The price of salt had also gone up—from one hundred twenty wen to two hundred wen.
People could survive without grain, because wild vegetables could fill their stomachs. But without salt, they’d become weak and exhausted—and that would be the end.
So most households chose to buy salt. Only Yue Jiuyue’s family also asked for a catty of old rice and spent an extra eleven wen to buy three taels of salt.
Don’t ask where she got the copper coins. If you ask, the answer is: she dug them out of a rat hole!