Slimming Candy: Has no direct weight-loss effect, but guarantees that the consumer will maintain their current weight and not gain any pounds during the validity period. One candy lasts for ten days, with no side effects. A blessing for those who love beauty—it helps you eat freely without gaining weight.
What a wonderful thing!
Yu Wanzhu's eyes lit up. In her previous life, to maintain her beautiful figure, she not only had to exercise regularly but also strictly control her diet. Seeing delicious food, wanting to eat but not daring to—that was pure torment.
Now with the Slimming Candy, she could eat however much she wanted without gaining weight. What was there to worry about?
She took one out and was about to pop it into her mouth, but her hand stopped halfway.
No, wait. Not to mention that she couldn't enjoy the same rich variety of food here as in her previous life—she was now a fat woman weighing over 170 jin. What she needed was to eat less and move more to lose weight, not to eat without gaining.
Moreover, the Song family was poor, and her dowry had already been spent. Being able to eat her fill was already good enough—where would she find that much food to eat anyway?
So eating the Slimming Candy would do her no good; it would be a pure waste.
With that thought, Yu Wanzhu put the Slimming Candy back into the porcelain bottle and tossed it into the Spatial Dimension.
This thing was useless to her now, but that didn't mean it wouldn't be useful later. She'd keep it for now—who knew, it might come in handy for something big.
After the initial excitement, Yu Wanzhu glanced at the System screen and couldn't help but let out a sigh of lament.
This damn System—just when it gave her a little sweetness, and a sweetness she couldn't even use yet, it started doing nonsense again!
There on the System screen, a row of large characters was neatly displayed.
— Current task: Lose 8 jin; Task reward: 1 volume of Weight Loss Great Method
Yu Wanzhu: "…"
She didn't even want to ask what this Weight Loss Great Method, which sounded like some kind of cult technique, was. Just from the word "volume," she could guess it was some kind of book or manual.
The Slimming Candy was absurd, but at least it was actually useful. She wondered what this manual was for.
Sigh, forget it. Time to sleep. Normal people could never guess how the System's brain worked.
Tomorrow's weight-loss motivation: none.
…
The next day, Yu Wanzhu got up bright and early.
Today they were going to the prefectural city. Since they were going to do business, better to leave early than late.
If she could really make the deal, she'd feel at ease. At least she could earn some silver selling mountain goods before spring came.
Song Xiaolan had also gotten up early and was packing the things they needed to bring. Yu Wanzhu called her over.
"Sister-in-law, what is it?"
Yu Wanzhu touched the gauze wrapped around her head. "Xiaolan, help me take off the gauze. We're going to the prefectural city to do business—I can't go looking like this."
Song Xiaolan hesitated. "But your wound hasn't fully healed…"
Yu Wanzhu smiled. "I've rested for a few days, and I'm fine now. Besides, I don't need to apply medicine anymore. Keeping it wrapped is uncomfortable. Just help me take it off."
Hearing this, Song Xiaolan could only do as she was told.
Layer by layer, she unwrapped the gauze, revealing a large swollen bruise beneath the hair, along with a small bump on the back of her head that hadn't fully gone down from her earlier fall.
Song Xiaolan let out a sharp "hiss," a look of pity spreading across her face. She asked softly, "Sister-in-law, does it hurt?"
Yu Wanzhu shook her head. "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt. Help me clean my hair too. I may be ugly, but I can't go out looking all dirty."
Dr. Zheng was skilled in medicine—the bruise-relieving and pain-killing medicines he prescribed were very effective.
This wound looked frightening, but it truly didn't hurt anymore. It was just that her hair was mixed with some herbal residue, which looked rather unsightly.
Hearing her belittle herself, Song Xiaolan felt a strange pang of discomfort in her heart. She pouted and quietly retorted, "Sister-in-law, you're not ugly. You're a bit plump right now, but aren't you doing that… weight loss thing? You've already lost so much in less than a month. Once you really slim down, even Big Brother won't be worthy of you!"
Anyway, the way she saw it now, her plump sister-in-law looked perfectly fine to her—she couldn't see anything ugly about her.
Yu Wanzhu was amused by these words. She reached out and gently pinched Song Xiaolan's cheek, chiding playfully, "Oh my, I didn't expect our little hot pepper to have such a sweet tongue when coaxing people! Did you dip it in honey? If your big brother hears this, watch out—he'll scold you!"
Song Xiaolan stubbornly insisted, "Hmph, I'm not afraid of him!"
With that, she went off in a huff to boil water.
The two of them finished getting ready and were about to set off when Mrs. Xu came out.
Her health was poor, and her children and daughter-in-law were all filial—even though her illness had mostly recovered, they wouldn't let her get up too early.
Song Xiaolan had told her last night about today's trip to the prefectural city, but she hadn't expected them to leave this early.
She said, "The early mornings in the twelfth month are the coldest. If you two set out for the prefectural city this early, you'll freeze. Why not eat breakfast before you go?"
Yu Wanzhu shook her head. "Mother, we'll skip breakfast. It's more important to get to the prefectural city early and find a way to sell the goods."
Mrs. Xu thought to herself that a basket of mountain goods couldn't be worth much, but looking at her daughter-in-law's smiling face, she couldn't bear to dampen her spirits.
She then turned to Song Xiaolan and instructed, "Lan'er, your eldest sister-in-law is still recovering from her injuries and has been working hard for the household. Help her out more and don't let her overexert herself, understand?"
Then she said to Yu Wanzhu, "Wanzhu, you two go early and come back soon. At noon, I'll kill a chicken to nourish you and A-Bai."
Hearing this, Yu Wanzhu quickly declined.
"Mother, don't kill a chicken. Once we sell our goods, we'll buy meat to bring back at noon. Just wait for us!"
She didn't dare let Mrs. Xu kill another chicken. With three invalids in the household and having been injured twice herself, they had already slaughtered two ducks and one chicken these past days.
If they killed another, they wouldn't even have a laying hen left.
Somehow, when Mrs. Xu caught sight of her daughter-in-law's confident gaze, an inexplicable hope rose in her heart. She opened her mouth and said with a smile, "Alright then, Mother will wait for you."
Song Xiaolan wasted no time in hoisting the bamboo basket onto her own back and replied, "Mother, don't worry. I'll take good care of eldest sister-in-law!"
Only then did the two set off.
Today, Yu Wanzhu had only brought winter bamboo shoots. The wild yams had a long shelf life and were a novel food item—she hadn't yet figured out how to approach that business, so she left them untouched.
Song Xiaolan carried the bamboo shoots on her back while Yu Wanzhu went empty-handed. After leaving the village, she flagged down an ox cart by the roadside. The two boarded the cart and, swaying gently along, arrived outside the city walls in less than half an hour.
Once inside the city, Song Xiaolan asked, "Eldest sister-in-law, where should we sell the winter bamboo shoots?"
Yu Wanzhu led her through the streets, saying as they walked, "The market won't fetch a good price. I know a restaurant—let's go try our luck there."
The restaurant was called Wangchun Tower. Among the eateries and taverns of Shuozhou Cheng, it ranked only as second-rate and wasn't particularly famous, but with decades of history behind it, business was still decent.
Yu Wanzhu was fond of good food. Before her marriage, she would often ask her father for money and come here to eat and drink her fill.
However, although her stepmother didn't interfere when she came, she would always badmouth her afterward, gradually causing her father to grow weary of her.