“When a disaster is imminent, crows hover overhead as a warning.”
“Yet in the eyes of people, the moment a crow appears, disaster follows. Therefore, people hate crows, avoiding them whenever they see one.”
“Of course I could have directly told the village chief that his son would meet with an accident and be unable to take the civil service examination this time.”
“And what after saying it? They wouldn’t think I’m capable; they would only believe I couldn’t bear to see them thrive, deliberately cursing them, spewing who knows how much vile abuse behind my back.”
“Once my words actually came true, the first thing on their minds wouldn’t be gratitude, but blame—blaming me for why I had to speak such ominous words.”
Most importantly, Wang Zhaoming disliked meddling in other people’s business.
If not for wanting to make a little silver to improve her family’s living conditions, she wouldn’t have waded into these muddy waters.
Later on, she was completely forced into it.
If she dared walk away, that bolt of thunder would have definitely struck her.
This was the protection certain rules granted to those with strong fortune.
She was very satisfied with her current life—living in harmony with her family, with quarrels, with laughter. Even the most ordinary day was a day that her modern self had longed for every single day.
Zhao Guizhi reacted immediately. “Your second sister-in-law was mistaken to think otherwise. You’re right—people will only hate the one bringing bad news, rather than the bad news itself. Fortunately, you didn’t meddle in that matter back then.”
“Still, how did you think to meddle later on?”
“Because I did a quick calculation and found they have a benefactor in their destiny.”
Pure nonsense. Apart from the first two reasons, the third reason for helping the Song family was entirely out of Wang Zhaoming’s curiosity.
It was very strange that Song Meihua’s line of life and Song Song’s line of life actually overlapped to a high degree.
In their original lines of life, Song Meihua being sold was originally caused by Song Song’s involvement; the people behind the scenes had exhausted every means to prevent Song Song from taking the civil service examination.
Song Meihua was simply the first loophole they seized upon.
Only, in the original line of life, after the village chief learned of the matter, he decisively expelled the mother and son from the clan to ensure the guarantor could smoothly recommend Song Song for the exam.
Seeing that one trick failed, the people behind the scenes plotted another underhanded move, attempting to pull the rug out from under him by taking Song Song’s life directly.
The coincidence lay in the fact that Song Meihua, after escaping from the human traffickers, stumbled all the way right into the scene where Song Song and the other two were being thrown into the water.
At first, when Wang Zhaoming saw this part, she couldn’t understand why Song Meihua, who could barely save herself, would jump into the water to rescue others.
Until Song Meihua began looting the bodies in the water.
The act of looting required untying the burlap sacks, and by coincidence, the first person whose sack was untied was Song Song.
Discovering that the victims were fellow villagers, Song Meihua dragged all three of them out of the water single-handedly.
The lines of life for the two became intertwined from then on.
The most interesting detail within this line of life was that Song Meihua was not Song Jiangshui’s child.
“Judging by their attitude toward you just now, I support you in keeping everything from them—let them squirm with anxiety!”
Wen Caimei let out a cold snort.
If you ask someone for help, you ought to have a proper attitude. The moment they arrived, they relied on being older, deliberately using the pressure and coercion of elders—it would be a miracle if she were willing to let her daughter help.
Wang Zhaoming hugged Wen Caimei’s arm, resting her head on her mother’s shoulder. “Mother, think of it this way: if I help them, the Song family will be polite and respectful to our family in the future, making life easier for us in the village. Isn’t that even better?”
“I don’t care for any of that. Before you got better, they often mocked your father and me for having a fool. Yet despite their mockery, didn’t we still make a good life for ourselves?”
“Life is lived for oneself, not for others to see. As long as the few of you live peacefully without illness or disaster, your mother isn’t afraid of encountering minor difficulties—just live your own lives well like this.”
“If others love to talk, let them talk. The mouth belongs to others; we can only control our own mouths, not anyone else’s.”
Zheng Duowei, who had been silent all this time, expressed strong agreement with Wen Caimei’s words. “Mother is right. You can handle the Song family’s business as you see fit; our family hasn’t reached the point where we need to push you out to be put in a tight spot just to get by.”
Zhao Guizhi added, “Your eldest sister-in-law and I have been thinking these past few days that once we have money in hand next year, we’ll set up a small tea stall along the imperial highway, selling tea and some snacks. With so many passersby, business is bound to be good.”
“The tea Mother brews tastes wonderful and feels soothing to drink. Those traveling merchants will definitely love to drink it on their journeys.”
Hearing about money, six-year-old Wang Yitang got excited. “Mother, then will you buy us meat to eat?”
Zhao Guizhi held Wang Yitang dotingly. “You little foodie! Yes, once we make money, we’ll buy two full catties of meat and let the whole family eat their fill.”
In the yard, the two sisters-in-law hadn’t even glanced at the meat brought by the Song family.
The four children were raised very well; though craving it, they wouldn’t harbor any thoughts about those items, leaving them untouched from start to finish.
Hearing that they could eat meat, Wang Yanli, Wang Qingyi, and Wang Zhinuan couldn’t help but recall the taste of meat, instinctively swallowing their saliva.
Wang Zhaoming suddenly recalled when she had just returned. At that time, her soul had been in intense turmoil; apart from her mouth and eyes, which could move, every other part of her body was suppressed by the pressure of soul fusion, leaving her so weak that even moving a finger was difficult.
No one in this family had treated her as a burden. Her two sisters-in-law and her mother kept her meticulously clean, and her four nephews and nieces would gather by her bedside to keep her company and chat after finishing their chores, speaking of the interesting things in the outside world.
Her father’s very first action upon returning home from work was also to check on her, often bringing back something to eat.
Yet before this, there was clearly no extra silver in the whole house. To hire doctors and buy medicine for her, the entire Wang family’s savings had been practically drained dry.
Her two sisters-in-law took over all the household chores, allowing her two brothers to go to town and the county to find heavy labor carrying sacks.
After an entire day, the two combined could earn around one hundred copper coins.
Nearly all of this money was spent on her medicine.
Her mother, two sisters-in-law, and several nephews and nieces never had a idle moment at home either, spending almost all their time on the mountain searching for anything edible.
In a bowl of porridge, all one could see were vegetables and a few grains of rice.
Paired with a bit of salted vegetables made the previous year, that constituted a meal for the whole family.
Wang Zhaoming couldn’t describe the helpless, agonizing turmoil in her heart when she saw her family saving on food and clothes just to treat her illness.
The day she ran out of the house after becoming able to move, besides being hungry, she mostly wanted to find a suitable way to help improve her family’s life.
It was just that she had overlooked her background and the era she was in. After looking around, she found nothing suitable, feeling utterly disappointed. Only then did she squat by the roadside in a daze, where Zhang Mazi spotted her, leading to her entanglement with Qi Chunchun.
There was a precept in her sect: disciples must not use the skills they learned to earn unrighteous wealth.
To treat her, her master had become the very first disciple in the sect to break this rule.
A flash of disappointment crossed Wang Zhaoming’s face, unnoticed by anyone.
*But Master… it seems this set of abilities is the only thing I have to rely on…*
The disappointment lasted only a moment before Wang Zhaoming’s gaze fell upon the items brought by the Song family. She said, “Mother, Eldest Sister-in-law, Second Sister-in-law, put these meats away and prepare them.”
Zheng Duowei hesitated. “Let’s not for now. What if they regret it later and want to take them back? That would be so embarrassing.”
“They won’t.”
Wang Zhaoming shook her head.
“If they hadn’t listened to my words and everyone had gone off to deliver the silver, these people wouldn’t have just suffered a bit of flesh injury.”
In the line of life where she hadn’t intervened, not a single one of those Song clansmen who went to rescue the boys survived.
Therefore, accepting these items? She accepted them with a clear conscience.
Seeing Wang Zhaoming speak with such confidence, Wen Caimei stopped dwelling on it.
“Guizhi, go enclose the chicken in the back yard first. Give each of the kids one of these eggs tomorrow.”
“Duowei, keep two strips of this meat for tomorrow night’s dinner, and let’s smoke all the rest to keep for the New Year.”