Seeing Ye Xiaohua hesitate to speak, Qin Shuhe assumed she did not know how much silver to ask for. He prompted her, saying, “A typical consultation fee is two to three taels of silver. But seeing your circumstances… how about I give you five taels?”
As he spoke, his gaze intentionally drifted over to Xiao Douzi, who was currently stuffing his face with pastries and fruits.
Qin Shuhe felt that since he was offering extra money, the little girl ought to be happy. Little did he expect that this was Ye Xiaohua he was dealing with.
Ordinarily, it wouldn’t have mattered—no one would complain about having too much silver. However, Qin Shuhe’s last remark genuinely made her feel quite uncomfortable. Her circumstances? What about her circumstances?
Though she was poor, she was no beggar and would not simply hold her hand out for charity.
“Whatever others charge for a consultation fee is exactly what mine will be. However, I want this set of silver needles.” Ye Xiaohua did not say anything superfluous. A man like Qin Shuhe was clearly a shrewd veteran of the business world; how could he not grasp her meaning?
In truth, Qin Shuhe had meant no offense. While he did possess a sense of pity, he offered the extra silver primarily because he admired the little girl’s medical expertise. A white-bearded physician who had practiced medicine for decades had bowed his head in shame before her. Even if this girl had begun studying medicine the moment she was born, it had only been a few years. For her to possess such accomplishments, he genuinely admired her.
Yet even though Ye Xiaohua refused his extra money, her stubborn nature made him look at her with even greater respect. At such a young age, she possessed such an unyielding backbone; it was rare, truly rare.
With Xiao Douzi in tow—who was now full, satisfied, and hiccuping—and holding her hard-earned three taels of silver from the consultation, Ye Xiaohua left the Qin residence. She then went to another medicine shop and sold the mantis egg cases for seventy copper coins.
Ye Xiaohua kept the three taels of silver tucked safely against her body and carefully placed the silver needles into her sleeve. To her, being without silver needles was like a warrior being without a weapon; her excellent skills would be impossible to display.
As for the remaining seventy copper coins, she intended to buy some items they urgently needed right now. In reality, there were simply too many things to buy, but she couldn’t rely on Xiao Douzi, and a single person couldn’t carry that much anyway. Thus, she chose to buy only the most critical and pressing items.
Having delayed for over an hour at the Qin residence, she had to quicken her pace now. Otherwise, by the time she finished shopping and headed back, it would be dark.
During the time she was at the Qin residence, Jin Dashan, who had previously told her to wait, had indeed come back to look for her. But seeing no sign of her at all, he had simply gone home. When he passed by the village entrance, he caught sight of Old Mrs. Ye and mentioned the matter to her, completely unaware that this would stir up another bout of trouble.
It was already past noon, and there were not as many people buying vegetables as before. After being baked under the scorching midday sun, the originally fresh and crisp vegetables had wilted. Moreover, since the market was nearing its closing time, the prices of the vegetables were naturally a bit cheaper than before.
However, seeing how Ye Xiaohua and Xiao Douzi were dressed in rags, those vegetable vendors were unwilling to pay them any mind. They even distanced themselves, deeply afraid that these two children had come to steal vegetables.
Although she now had some silver, there were many places at home that required money. Forget about three taels of silver—even thirty taels would easily be spent. But poor people had their own ways of getting by. Ye Xiaohua intended to spend these three taels of silver where it mattered most, ideally using the money to make more money.
When they passed by a meat stall, Xiao Douzi’s eyes fixed squarely on the pork. Looking at his expression, Ye Xiaohua knew the little fellow wanted to eat it. In fact, even she couldn’t remember the last time the original owner’s family had eaten meat.
Ah, well. Today counted as making a small profit, after all. Ye Xiaohua not only bought vegetables but also bought some meat, along with some rice, flour, and seasonings. If she bought any more, she wouldn’t be able to carry it on her back.
However, this body was truly a bit frail. Walking back and forth was already a stretch, let alone carrying so many things on her back. Add Xiao Douzi to the mix, and the siblings had to walk and rest in turns. By the time they reached home, smoke was rising from the chimneys of every household in the village.
Ye Xiaohua dragged her exhausted body along, preparing to go home and cook. At noon, she had only bought two buns to stave off hunger; food outside was truly too expensive, not worth it, and didn’t taste good either.
Carrying her basket, Ye Xiaohua tried her best to keep a low profile by taking the small paths back, but she still crossed paths with a woman. “Where is the little idiot coming back from?”
As the woman spoke, she familiarly tried to rummage through Ye Xiaohua’s basket, but Ye Xiaohua swiftly dodged away.
“Oh, the little idiot has a temper now, does she? What kind of treasure is hidden inside? Is it dirt clods or pebbles? Just a pile of junk, what’s wrong with me taking a look? I’m not going to steal it from you.”
Revealing her true colors, the woman made a move to force her way, but Ye Xiaohua dodged her once again. In the memories of the original owner, she had been bullied by this woman quite a lot. Not only did she instigate her son, Tiedan, to beat up the original owner, but she herself had frequently laid hands on the original owner as well.
In any case, since she was a fool, hitting her meant nothing. Her birth mother was timid and weak, never daring to clash with others even if she saw it happen. This only made the wicked people in the village increasingly unscrupulous, and among them was this very woman, Lady Tian.
Lady Tian still viewed Ye Xiaohua as the fool from before. Her husband was a dishonest man who had an affair with a widow in the neighboring village. After Ye Xiaohua’s father died, Lady Tian discovered her husband currying favor with Ye Xiaohua’s mother, which was absolutely intolerable to her.
Going to settle scores with the widow was a long journey, but settling scores with the cowardly Lady Li was an easy task. Lady Li was a turtle shrinking into its shell, never daring to talk back even when Lady Tian pointed at her nose and cursed.
Whenever Lady Tian was in a foul mood and couldn’t bear to strike her own children, she would take her anger out on Ye Xiaohua. If anyone saw her, she would shift the blame onto Ye Xiaohua anyway; since she was a fool, no one found it surprising when she caused trouble.
This time, Lady Tian wanted to repeat her old tricks. In truth, she was just curious. She had heard that the little idiot went up the mountain and gathered a bunch of useless things. This time, the whole village thought she had gotten lost with her younger brother again, yet here she was back with a whole basket of things. She simply wanted to see what it was.
“Let me see. It’s not like you’ll lose a piece of meat over it.”
Ye Xiaohua thought to herself that if she let her look, that piece of meat inside the basket would probably really be gone. In any case, if word got out, no one would believe that a silly girl’s basket would actually contain meat.
“Move aside.”
“Oh, wow, the little idiot has grown some capability. I don’t believe it today—I can’t discipline you? Before your mother ran off, I could beat you whenever I wanted. Now that you have no father and no mother, I can’t teach you a lesson? Show me what’s inside!”
Ye Xiaohua was not the easy target she used to be. Holding Xiao Douzi with one hand, she caught the perfect timing just as Lady Tian prepared to lunge forward, and delivered a fierce kick to her knee.
With a heavy thud, Lady Tian—whose body was two heads taller than Ye Xiaohua’s—collapsed heavily to the ground, crying out repeatedly in pain.
Ye Xiaohua looked down at her coldly, but Lady Tian had already burst into loud curses, “You wretched girl born of a loose woman, you have the exact same wretched virtue as your mother! You little wench, your mother seduced away my husband, that sly fox, tui! Adulterer and adulteress…”
Wait a moment. Ye Xiaohua was a bit dazed by what she heard. “My mother and your husband?”
With a loud “wah,” Lady Tian broke into a fit of wailing tears.