“I won’t eat your flatbread for free. In exchange, let me read a fortune for you.”
What could possibly drive a young maiden in her prime to beg strangers on the street for a fortune-telling session?
It was a stomach singing an empty-city strategy.
It was this completely irresponsible flatbread that was causing her saliva to secrete wildly and uncontrollably.
Looking at the youngest daughter of the Wang family acting so brazenly, Qi Chunchun wore a look of helplessness.
“I don’t need you to read any fortune. I’m giving it to you to eat, just take it.”
Reaching into the basket slung over her arm, she picked out a relatively large vegetable flatbread and forcefully shoved it into Wang Zhaoming’s hands.
“Your parents are something else, too. Knowing you have an illness, they still can’t watch you properly and let you run around outside causing a ruckus.”
Qi Chunchun looked around. In such a remote place, she had no idea how this girl even managed to find her.
If she hadn’t wanted to find a spot to relieve herself just now, she never would have discovered her.
Had she arrived even a step later, this girl would have almost been coaxed away by that piece of trash from the village.
Thinking of the consequences if Wang Zhaoming had actually been coaxed away, Qi Chunchun didn’t even dare to keep imagining it.
“Stop eating, let me take you back first.”
Wang Zhaoming had just taken a single bite of the flatbread when Qi Chunchun snatched it away.
Looking at her empty hands, Wang Zhaoming was furious!
She was seriously going to throw a tantrum!
Not noticing Wang Zhaoming’s aggrieved expression, Qi Chunchun muttered under her breath:
“Let me tell you, that Zhang Mazi from earlier is a man-eating monster. The next time you see him anywhere, just run—run straight back and tell your parents about it.”
If she hadn’t happened to walk by just now, this young girl would have been lured away by Zhang Mazi with a single flatbread.
How dangerous was that!
That Zhang Mazi was a notorious loafer in the village who went around stealing things. She heard that not long ago, he had tried to scam people out of their money outside, got beaten up for it, and only ran back here to dodge the spotlight.
If you asked her, it would be best if that Zhang Mazi just died outside so he wouldn’t come back to plague the villagers. Yet here he was, already harboring the mindset of ruining someone else’s daughter.
Once she got back from her maiden home, she would definitely have to go over to the Wang family and give them a good talking-to about keeping a close eye on their daughter.
Since Zhang Mazi hadn’t succeeded this time, he certainly wouldn’t give up and would look for another chance next time.
And the Wang family’s little girl was still so young.
“Bah! Beast!”
As she thought about it, Qi Chunchun cursed out loud.
“Why won’t he just drop dead out there!”
As soon as she finished speaking, Qi Chunchun realized her mistake and quickly covered her mouth.
“No offense meant to any spirits, no offense meant.”
Wang Zhaoming blinked her eyes and looked at Qi Chunchun.
“If you return the flatbread to me, I’ll tell you when he’s going to die.”
Seeing this reaction from her, Qi Chunchun cursed Zhang Mazi once more.
“Little beast, sooner or later you’re going to come to a bad end!”
“Did you hear what I just said, or did it go in one ear and out the other?”
Seeing Wang Zhaoming resting her chin in her hands and raising a pair of watery eyes to look at her, Qi Chunchun couldn’t keep going.
That was a close one—that urge to pee had come at the truly right moment.
Thinking this with a smug sense of satisfaction, Qi Chunchun reached out to take Wang Zhaoming’s hand.
However, Wang Zhaoming dodged her grasp. “Once, a miraculous destiny was placed before you, and you failed to cherish it, only regretting it bitterly after it was lost.”
“What is this girl spouting nonsense about? I can’t understand a single word. As expected of a child from a scholarly family, even an idiot has this much ink sloshing around in her stomach.”
“Fine, fine, fine. I know you’re amazing. Once we get to your house, you can read my fortune all you want, alright?” Qi Chunchun coaxed Wang Zhaoming with the tone one used on a toddler.
Normally, this little girl couldn’t speak properly, and her family wouldn’t let her leave the house by herself anyway.
Who knew what was going on today for her to actually be out here all alone.
“Hurry up and go back. If your family finds out you’re missing, they’re going to be worried sick.”
Wang Zhaoming rose to her feet following her momentum. “Your family has a total of seven people, and you are the eldest. When you were three years old, you fell into the water and were saved by your current mother-in-law. Because of that debt of gratitude, your marriage to your current husband was settled right then and there.”
Qi Chunchun didn’t notice that as Wang Zhaoming kept her hands behind her back, her fingers formed an extremely complex gesture.
At the same time, a trace of imperceptible green light flashed across her eyes.
A scroll unfolded behind Qi Chunchun, and her life’s trajectory played out like a slide show on the scroll, open for Wang Zhaoming to inspect at will.
Yet, Qi Chunchun just perfunctorily said, “Yes, yes, yes. Everything you say is right.”
“Let’s hurry up and go. Don’t delay me getting back to my maiden home—I’m walking the whole way there on my own two legs, you know.”
Qi Chunchun didn’t take Wang Zhaoming’s words to heart at all. Most people in the village already knew those little details about her background.
She figured someone in the family must have been chatting about it, and the girl just happened to overhear it and memorize it.
Come to think of it, Qi Chunchun even felt a little flattered. You had to know that the old Wang Zhaoming used to remember nobody and recognize no one; the fact that she recognized her now was actually rather heartwarming.
As Qi Chunchun thought about it, she couldn’t help but smile.
Wang Zhaoming walked alongside her pace, and upon seeing a certain scene on the scroll, she closed her eyes with a pained expression.
My eyes! My eyes!
“At nine years old, you witnessed your father’s scandalous deeds.”
Qi Chunchun froze in her tracks, the look in her eyes instantly changing.
She turned her head to stare at Wang Zhaoming, who had her eyes closed with an expression of utter disgust.
She had never told a single soul about this matter—how on earth did this little girl know?
“At twelve years old, you discovered your mother’s secret.”
“Shall I spell out your mother’s secret for you?”
“An abandoned temple, a bed of grass…”
Qi Chunchun immediately clutched her hand over Wang Zhaoming’s mouth, casting a guilty glance all around them.
“Stop talking, I believe you!”
Qi Chunchun was dying of sheer embarrassment. Her father had messed around with someone else, and when her own mother found out, she refused to be outdone and went right out to mess around with others, too.
The most pathetic one was her. She didn’t know which deity she had offended to constantly keep running into these kinds of things.
She didn’t dare tell anyone else either, keeping it bottled up inside until it felt like she was dying of misery.
She couldn’t even bear to hear other people say the word “nemesis.”
Qi Chunchun wore a helpless, forced smile.
Suddenly, the image flashed into her mind of her biological father and mother, while committing adultery, petulantly calling other people their “nemesis.”
She shook her head vigorously to banish those horrifying images.
“It was your husband who suggested you go back to your maiden home today, wasn’t it?”
“He told you that you’d worked hard and suffered through the autumn harvest recently, and that you hadn’t gone back to see your parents and younger siblings in a long time. He said since the farm work had slowed down a bit now and there wasn’t much to do around the house, he and your mother-in-law would handle the rest of the chores. You didn’t have to worry about the children either, because they would watch them well at home, and you should just head back to your maiden home to enjoy yourself.”
“Inside the wicker basket are the flatbreads your mother-in-law got up early in the morning to prepare for you, telling you that she was afraid you’d get hungry halfway and wanted you to have something to pad your stomach.”
“Aside from the flatbreads, your mother-in-law even had you bring all the remaining eggs in the house back to your maiden home, saying that under no circumstances would she let you return empty-handed and become the laughingstock of others.”
“You were very happy when you heard all those words, weren’t you?”
Qi Chunchun looked at Wang Zhaoming as if looking at a fool. Why did everything she said sound so full of thorns and weird sarcasm?
Was this girl perhaps jealous?
“Shouldn’t I be happy?”
Many daughters-in-law in the village had to look at their mother-in-law’s expression just to visit their maiden home, often having to beg bitterly before they even had a chance of getting permission.
Even if they did get to go back, if they ran into some miser reincarnated who gave them nothing while demanding they bring back goods from their maiden home instead, that would truly be the death of them.
When she went back to her maiden home, her mother-in-law went around bustling and busying herself to prepare things for her to take along. Although they weren’t anything precious, it was still vastly better than those people who couldn’t even bring along a single egg.
Wang Zhaoming curled her lips in disdain. “Bah!”
“You’re celebrating far too early.”
“Do you know why they suddenly became so willing to let you, this old plow-ox, go back to your maiden home, and even gave you the eggs they were saving to sell for money?”
“It’s because they’re planning to sell your daughter.”
“They know very well that as long as you’re around, they won’t be able to pull this off successfully. That mother-son pair cooked up this scheme just to get you out of the way.”
Upon hearing these words, Qi Chunchun raised a hand as if she wanted to slap Wang Zhaoming across the face, but then felt that since this wasn’t her own child, she shouldn’t hit her just because she was spouting nonsense.
“For the sake of your young age, I can’t be bothered to argue with you. Let’s go, let’s go, I’ll send you back. If you delay me any longer, I won’t make it back home in time.”
Wang Zhaoming dry-heaved a little, trying to force the flatbread she had just eaten back up.
Old friend, don’t be so greedy next time.
A single bite of flatbread tangled with unnecessary karma—it just wasn’t worth it!
Fine, fine. For the sake of Qi Chunchun’s kind heart, she would act the bigger person and let bygones be bygones.
“Go to the east side of the village right now and see if there is a carriage parked somewhere over there, with a beautiful matron inside.”
“She is the buyer purchasing your daughter. As for her identity, don’t tell me you haven’t sensed that something is amiss.”
“He runs off to town every other day. Even during the busiest farming season, when he’s worked as exhausted as a donkey, he still digs up excuses to head to town.”
“He claims he’s looking for odd jobs to pad the family income, but in reality? Not a single copper coin ever gets brought back.”
“While you’re working yourself to the bone like a beast of burden at home, he’s cradling someone else’s foot and sucking on her toes one by one.”
“If you believe me, go take a peek quietly and come right back without alarming a single soul. For the sake of this piece of flatbread, I can help you make that mother-son pair suffer a massive loss—one that will ensure they never dare lay a finger on your mother-and-daughter pair ever again.”
“If you don’t believe me and insist on sending me back, I won’t argue with you either. I’ll obediently go back with you.”
“Anyway, the debt of gratitude for your flatbread has already been repaid by me. You’re the one who refuses to accept it, so it has nothing to do with me.”
Qi Chunchun was left in a state of utter emotional limbo by Wang Zhaoming’s attitude.
On the one hand, she told herself that Wang Zhaoming was a universally known idiot who only ever sat around grinning at people.
Even for herself, this was the first time she had ever heard Wang Zhaoming speak so many words.
Therefore, she couldn’t possibly listen to and believe the words of an idiot.
Yet deep down in her heart, another voice was telling her: What if? What if what she said was actually true?
Didn’t elderly folks always say that people who lost their wits like that were actually taken away by the immortals in heaven to become fairy children, and the mortal world simply couldn’t keep them?
Did this mean that everything this little girl said was guidance given to her by the immortals?