“First of all, Shen Jianing is my wife. Only after that is she your aunt by marriage. If she weren’t my wife, how would you even be calling her your aunt?”
“I don’t care. She’s my aunt!”
“Alright, alright, I’m your aunt. Don’t be upset. Don’t stoop to your uncle’s level,” Shen Jianing hurried over to comfort her.
“Hmph! I’m not going to argue with him.”
Even Qin Ruan didn’t know why she was always bickering with her uncle. Maybe it was because they’d been teasing and arguing with each other ever since she was little.
“Alright, alright. Ruanruan, hurry up and clean the house. Ruofeng, go weed the vegetable garden. We’ll make do with these vegetables over the next few days. Anything we can’t take with us later, we’ll sell.”
“Huh? We can actually sell these vegetables?” Qin Ruofeng asked in surprise.
“Yes, yes, yes, we can!” Qin Ruan ran over eagerly. “I already sold a batch before we left last time.”
“Oh, alright then. I’ll go take care of it.”
With that, Qin Ruofeng headed into the vegetable garden, where the weeds had grown quite a bit over the past few days.
“Ruanruan, come inside and clean up the house. It’s gotten dusty while we’ve been away,” Grandma Hu Yufen called from inside.
“I’m coming, Grandma!”
Qin Ruan answered as she walked into the house.
Shen Jianing sighed before eventually heading to the garden to help Qin Ruofeng.
The moment Qin Ruofeng saw her, he quickly shooed her away.
“Go sit over there. Don’t come into the garden. It’s full of bugs, and it’s not easy for you to squat down.”
“I can still squat. It’s fine—I’m only in the early months of my pregnancy.”
“That’s exactly why you shouldn’t take it lightly. Go on.”
“Alright, alright. Then I’ll see if I can help with something else in the yard.”
In the end, Qin Ruofeng stayed in the garden pulling weeds, Qin Ruan cleaned the dust inside the house, and Hu Yufen sat in the courtyard chatting with Shen Jianing.
Qin Ruan couldn’t help grumbling to herself.
Grandma has Auntie now and doesn’t dote on me anymore.
Another little voice in her head replied,
Your aunt is pregnant. And you’re actually jealous?
The little “dark” version of herself protested,
So what? I want to be Grandma’s favorite. I want to be Auntie’s favorite too.
The little “light” version answered,
Keep dreaming.
I’m not dreaming! the dark little figure retorted, glaring at the white one.
The white little figure quietly disappeared.
The dark one smugly lifted its chin before fading away as well.
Qin Ruan shook her head.
Then she continued cleaning the house, wiping away the dust from top to bottom before sweeping the floors clean.
She also removed the dust covers from her uncle’s room, planning to wash them later.
Everything inside was still neat and tidy, just as it had been when Qin Ruofeng lived there alone.
Now that Shen Jianing had returned with him, however, the bedding needed to be changed.
Fortunately, the weather was warm now, so the lighter quilts would be enough.
“Grandma, where did you put Uncle’s new quilt?” Qin Ruan called from inside the room.
“You silly girl! It’s in the storage room, inside the large cabinet at the bottom. Go have a look.”
“Okay, got it!”
Qin Ruan answered loudly before heading to the storage room.
The little courtyard had once been part of the Qin family’s estate back when they had been landlords.
It wasn’t especially large, but it certainly wasn’t small either.
There were six rooms altogether.
Three were bedrooms currently in use, one served as a storage room, and the remaining two were utility rooms filled mostly with things they no longer needed.
Back then, the family treasure had been hidden beneath a corner of one of those utility rooms.
After all, who would ever think that the Qin family had buried so much treasure underneath the floor of a cluttered storage room?
Qin Ruan carried the new quilt back and spread it neatly over Qin Ruofeng’s bed.
Once she had finished organizing everything, she felt exhausted.
She had worked up quite a sweat.
When she came out, her aunt-in-law and grandmother were still chatting and laughing together, smiles on both of their faces.
Qin Ruan felt especially happy and content at that moment.
Turning her head, she saw her uncle still tending the vegetable patch by the side of the yard, so she walked over.
“Uncle, why aren’t you done yet?”
Qin Ruan’s slightly displeased voice rang out beside Qin Ruofeng.
Qin Ruofeng looked up at her impatiently.
“What’s with that expression?”
“Just look at the vegetables you planted. There are weeds everywhere. Didn’t you ever pull them out before?”
Qin Ruan laughed in exasperation.
“Hmph! Me? I cleaned everything up before. I even sold a batch of vegetables. These weeds only grew afterward. It just proves our land is really fertile.”
“Quit talking and come help me.”
“You can do it yourself. I’m going up the mountain to have a look.”
With that, Qin Ruan went into the storage room to get a small bamboo basket.
The storage room held everyday kitchenware, tools, and several small carrying baskets.
After coming out with the little tea-picking basket on her back, Qin Ruan told Hu Yufen and Shen Jianing that she was heading to the back mountain to check on the tea leaves.
“Ruanruan, it’s getting late today. Why don’t you go tomorrow instead?”
“It’s okay, Grandma. I’m just going to the back hill for a quick look. I’ll be back soon.”
“All right then. Be careful.”
“I know!”
Qin Ruan waved her hand as she walked away.
Today, Qin Ruan had only one goal: pick tea leaves and see if there were any mushrooms on the mountain.
In her memories from the modern world, wild mushrooms were expensive because they were considered mountain delicacies. But in this era, they weren’t worth much.
People who found mushrooms in the mountains usually kept them to eat themselves.
If I find mushrooms, I’ll just sell them through the system.
Then I’ll pick some fresh tea leaves, either pan-fry them or simply sun-dry them into white tea, and sell that in the system marketplace too.
By then, I’ll earn a ton of points.
Just imagining it made Qin Ruan feel as if she were picking up money off the ground.
“System, do you buy fresh tea leaves?”
[Replying to Host: We do buy fresh tea leaves, but the price is very, very low. We recommend processing them into tea first.]
“All right, then I’ll make white tea and just sun-dry it.”
[That works, Host.]
“Oh, right, System. Can I find out which dynasty my previous tea was sold to?”
[Replying to Host: That feature requires the system to be upgraded first.]
“Huh? The system can be upgraded?”
[Yes. Of course the system can be upgraded. Every transmigrator’s system is capable of being upgraded.]
“Then how do I upgrade it?”
[You currently have a Level 1 beginner system. It costs 100,000 points to perform one upgrade. The points will be deducted immediately.]
“What? That’s such a rip-off! One hundred thousand points is equivalent to 10,000 yuan. Do you know what 10,000 yuan means these days? That’s enough to make someone a ‘ten-thousand-yuan household.'”
Qin Ruan was reluctant to spend it.
“Forget it. I’ll wait until I’ve earned more money before upgrading.”
[Host, if you want to view information about the buyers who purchase your goods, you’ll need to upgrade the system to Level 10.]