By the time they finally reached town, Su Xinghui practically fled from the cart. Cheng Yuanhang wanted to chase after her, but she had already vanished from sight.
Ling Xi, however, knew—in the original plot, the female lead had no other skills, but she was exceptionally good at curing salted eggs, and it was this craft that earned her her first pot of gold.
The wild pheasant and duck eggs Ling Xi had picked up earlier were never given to Wang Guiqiu, and counting the curing time, it was just about time for them to be ready now.
Ling Xi smiled indifferently and happily took Yu Lian’s arm as they walked toward the supply and marketing cooperative, not giving her another thought.
A while back, she had improved her traps, and they managed to catch game every few days. The salt Yu Lian had hidden away was all used up curing the meat—the salt jar was completely empty. That was why they had come to town today: to buy salt.
Old Mrs. Su favored the third branch, so the second branch didn’t have much private money to spare. After buying the salt, there was barely anything left.
Even so, Yu Lian gritted her teeth and went to the state-run restaurant to buy a meat bun for Ling Xi.
Ling Xi was a stone—she had no mother, not even others of her kind. In hundreds of millions of years, she had never experienced such deep affection. Only now did she understand how fitting the phrase “a mother’s love is as deep as the sea” truly was.
She playfully insisted that Yu Lian take the first bite, then held the bun and ate it with relish. Thin skin, generous filling—absolutely delicious.
A camouflaged green military vehicle drove past. The man in the passenger seat saw this scene, and warmth couldn’t help but rise in his eyes. He didn’t even notice someone speaking to him from behind.
“Xiao Jue! Xiao Jue, what are you looking at!” Chen Tianjun slapped the back of the seat. “Did you hear a word I said?”
“What?” Xiao Jue snapped out of it, asking perfunctorily.
“I said, I’m off duty the day after tomorrow—how about I go visit that little Xi girl? I’ve never met such an interesting girl before. She actually managed to knock a prisoner out cold!”
Xiao Jue’s eyes flickered. “Don’t.”
“Why not? Are you jealous that I get to go play with her?” Chen Tianjun narrowed his peach-blossom eyes and said smugly, “When I get there, I’ll take her out for good food and buy her pretty little dresses. She’ll forget all about Brother Xiao Jue and only remember me, Brother Tianjun.”
“In your dreams.” After tossing out those two words, Xiao Jue couldn’t even be bothered to acknowledge him any further. He leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes to rest, and let Chen Tianjun babble on and on.
It wasn’t until they were nearly at their destination that he spoke lightly: “You can go. But help me deliver something to her.”
After buying the salt and eating the bun, Yu Lian took Ling Xi for a stroll around the street. Seeing all the blue and green fabric in the supply and marketing cooperative, she touched her daughter’s face with a hint of guilt. “When we get our meat ration, Mama will make you new clothes!”
Looking at those eye-searing colors, Ling Xi thought her own drab gray clothes looked exceptionally nice by comparison. She shook her head repeatedly. “Xi Xi doesn’t want new clothes. Mama can wear them.”
“Oh, my darling girl! Mama’s far too old to be wearing new clothes!” Yu Lian’s heart warmed immensely, and she hugged her thoughtful daughter, kissing her again and again.
Ling Xi looked at her mother’s haggard yet still delicate features. She was only in her early thirties—in a few decades, that would be the very prime of youth and beauty. Yet now she was like a withering flower, teetering on the edge of decay.
Ling Xi felt a pang in her heart. Such a gentle, strong woman—in the original plot, she ended up with her right hand amputated, her husband paralyzed and her daughter sickly. How utterly unjust.
She hugged Yu Lian. No matter what had brought her here, at least in this moment, she genuinely felt that this was her own dear mother.
The two of them wandered around until the afternoon, then returned to the place where the ox cart was parked. Quite a few people were already waiting there—Aunt Wang and several educated youths from the neighboring village were all present.
Seeing the mother and daughter, Aunt Wang warmly came up to chat, while the educated youths, led by Cheng Yuanhang, looked on with disdain, apparently already convinced that they had bullied Su Xinghui.
Old Niu, the cart driver, soon arrived as well. Everyone gathered their things and boarded the cart. Old Niu called out, “Is everyone here?”
Yu Lian was about to speak when the educated youth, who had been so high and mighty just moments ago, spoke up even more anxiously than her: “Sir, we’re still missing one!”
As if she would abandon Su Xinghui.
Yu Lian didn’t like Su Xinghui, but she was still a child of the Su family—how could she possibly have the heart to leave her behind? But this stunt by the educated youth made it seem as though her abandoning the child was a foregone conclusion. Who was he trying to disgust?
She frowned in displeasure, but ultimately said nothing—it wouldn’t be proper for a married woman like her to quarrel with him.
Yu Lian had her scruples, but Ling Xi couldn’t bear to see her mother wronged. She gave a cold snort: “This comrade sure is concerned about my second sister. What, afraid we’ll leave her behind?”
The blunt question left Cheng Yuanhang choking. His face turned livid. “So young and already smearing your sister’s reputation—how can you be so vicious?!”
Ling Xi sneered. “Still not as vicious as Su Xinghui, who watched her own younger sister suffocate from an allergic reaction and did nothing, and now even lets outsiders bully the very family that helped her.”
Her eyes were slightly round, which usually made her look friendly and endearing at first glance. But now, as they turned cold and sharp with glints flashing within, they inexplicably sent a chill down people’s spines.
When Cheng Yuanhang met her gaze, he involuntarily faltered.
He knew nothing of the Su family’s grievances, and at this moment he felt his rash remark had been inappropriate. He mumbled, “Maybe… maybe there was some misunderstanding…”
“You seem to know everything so clearly. What, were you hiding in a corner watching?” Ling Xi tore into him without mercy.
At those words, the aunties burst out laughing, laughing until Cheng Yuanhang’s face turned red from his cheeks down to his neck, unable to utter a single word.
Just then, Su Xinghui arrived. She had been beaming with joy, but the scene startled her into a freeze, and she asked awkwardly, “Comrade, what happened?”
Thinking that it was because of her that he’d been so humiliated, the last trace of Cheng Yuanhang’s earlier tender feelings vanished completely. He set his face coldly and didn’t even spare her a glance.
Su Xinghui didn’t understand what was going on, but she had no interest in pressing her warm face to his cold backside either. She lowered her head, thinking about the money-making opportunity she’d just discovered, and her spirits lifted once more.
They rode back to Huaixing Village in silence. With money in her pocket, Su Xinghui felt emboldened, paying no mind to the cold stares of others as she strode ahead with big steps.
Ling Xi and Yu Lian got off the cart at the back. From far away, they saw her nearly trip and fall, then crouch down and fiddle with something for a while, after which a dark, blackish object appeared in her hands.
Only when they got closer did they see that it was a groggy crow.
The female lead just had that kind of luck—animals knocked themselves out and stumbled right into her hands. Ling Xi wasn’t surprised. But when she saw the crow suddenly snap awake, a fierce will to survive flashing in its eyes, she couldn’t help but feel moved.
As if sensing her gaze, the crow lifted its head to look at her, its eyes full of pleading.
No one knew that Ling Xi had obtained a heaven-sent opportunity to gain sentience and cultivate, and it was precisely because of that opportunity that she felt a natural affinity for birds, especially the more intelligent ones.
Crows could be called one of the smartest bird species, so she could immediately understand the longing in its eyes.
Just as she was deliberating whether to save the crow, a burst of frenzied barking approached from afar. The three looked up and saw a mad dog, having darted out from who knows where, charging straight toward them howling.
Ling Xi’s heart tightened. In the original plot, Yu Lian’s hand had been bitten off by a mad dog, leading to amputation—and this incident had happened, coincidentally, right after Su Xinghui’s luck took a turn for the better.
Sure enough, whenever the female lead had good luck, disaster struck her!