Holding little Xihe, Old Lady Shen wept tears of joy as she said, “Wonderful! I knew it, Guibao is our Shen family’s little lucky star!”
“With Guibao around, none of us need to worry about starving to death! Boo-hoo… Green smoke must really be rising from our old Shen family’s ancestral grave for us to have a little lucky star like Guibao!”
Old Man Shen nodded in agreement, looking at everyone in the Shen family and saying, “Listen to me and remember this, all of you! That our whole family can survive and not be starved to death is all because of Guibao!”
“In the future, you must treat Guibao well and not let Guibao suffer the slightest grievance. Otherwise, just watch how I teach you a lesson!”
Almost everyone in the Shen family nodded, except for Wang Juhua, whose heart was filled with resentment, her face revealing a trace of defiance.
She could not help thinking secretly and maliciously in her heart, damned pot spirit, why does it only give grain to that little girl Shen Xihe?
Seeing that everyone in the Shen family had nodded and only his third daughter-in-law Wang Juhua had not, Old Man Shen also recalled that Wang Juhua had actually kicked the “Pot Immortal” just now.
He immediately glared in anger at Wang Juhua and said, “Third brother’s wife! Do you have an objection to what I said?”
Hearing Old Man Shen’s words, Wang Juhua snapped out of it and hurriedly shook her head, “Father, I have no objection to your words!”
Old Man Shen snorted coldly, looked at Wang Juhua, and said, “You kicked the Pot Immortal just now, showing disrespect to the Pot Immortal. Kneel down right now and kowtow to the Pot Immortal to admit your fault!”
“Even if the Pot Immortal doesn’t give us grain in the future, the Pot Immortal had already given Guibao a bag of grain before. The Pot Immortal has been kind to our family, so you ought to respect the Pot Immortal!”
“Yet not only did you not show respect to the Pot Immortal, you actually dared to kick the Pot Immortal…”
Hearing this, Wang Juhua remembered that she had kicked the iron pot earlier because she thought the “Pot Immortal” didn’t exist.
Frightened, she instantly fell to her knees on the ground, kowtowing toward the iron pot while crying and saying, “Lord Pot Immortal, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been disrespectful to you just now. I beg you to forgive me, I’ll never dare to do it again…”
Seeing his wife frightened into such a state, Shen Fu stepped forward to help her up.
However, Wang Juhua was terrified that the “Pot Immortal” would punish her, refusing to stand up for dear life and insisting on kneeling on the ground to apologize to the “Pot Immortal.”
Looking at Wang Juhua kneeling on the ground, little Xihe blinked her eyes and said, “Third Aunt, get up! Iron Pot Brother is a good pot. As long as you don’t kick him again in the future, he won’t blame you.”
Only after hearing little Xihe’s words did Wang Juhua breathe a sigh of relief.
In her view, since little Xihe could ask for grain from the “Pot Immortal,” it meant little Xihe could communicate with the “Pot Immortal.”
Since little Xihe said the Pot Immortal no longer blamed her, only then did she dare to stand up from the ground.
…
Holding little Xihe, Old Lady Shen directed her eldest son Shen Qiang to take out the bag of rice that appeared in the pot this time, and then poured some of the previously opened bag of rice into the pot, cooking a pot of rice porridge that was slightly thicker than before.
After finishing the rice porridge this time, the members of the Shen family, whose stomachs had been hungry for two whole days, finally managed to eat their fill, continuing their journey toward the direction of the capital.
After nightfall, the Shen family finally found a ruined temple by the roadside that could shelter them from wind and rain, intending to rest in the temple for a while and cook some rice porridge to fill their stomachs while they were at it.
However, as soon as they walked into the ruined temple, they discovered that there were actually more than twenty refugees already inside.
Seeing the Shen family enter from outside, these famine-stricken refugees whose faces had turned pale from hunger instantly spotted the two bags of rice carried in the hands of Shen Qiang and Shen Zhuang.
Some of the refugees could not help swallowing their saliva, while other refugees could not help standing up and approaching in the direction of the Shen family.