Master and disciple returned with a full haul.
To keep as many sweetfish alive as possible, Ye Qingyun sprinted down the mountain, leaving Wang Tiezhu far behind.
The old man ran with every ounce of strength he had, yet he still couldn’t catch up.
For the first time, he truly felt how weak this mortal body was, silently cursing the heavens under his breath.
A deafening boom of thunder exploded across the night sky.
Startled, Wang Tiezhu thought heavenly punishment was about to strike him.
The words “Heavens, spare me!” had just reached his lips when raindrops the size of beans came pouring down.
He let out a huge sigh of relief.
So it was only an ordinary rainstorm.
Even so, he couldn’t avoid being drenched from head to toe.
“Thank goodness… the flashlight didn’t get ruined.”
Wang Tiezhu wiped the rain from his face in relief.
Ye Qingyun had arrived home ahead of him, so she hadn’t gotten wet.
The only pity was that despite rushing back as fast as she could, more than half of the sweetfish had still died.
Only a dozen or so remained alive.
She quickly poured them into a wooden bucket filled with fresh water.
The dead ones were emptied into a basin to be cleaned later and made into dried fish.
Unfortunately, the weather refused to cooperate.
It had started raining, and there was no telling whether tomorrow would be sunny enough to dry them.
If she couldn’t make dried fish, then the ten-plus pounds of sweetfish would have to be eaten by themselves.
Thinking about how delicious sweetfish tasted, Ye Qingyun felt that wasn’t a bad outcome at all.
Wang Tiezhu snorted.
“Stop dreaming.”
“The rain will end before dawn.”
“Tomorrow will be bright and sunny.”
“Oh.”
Ye Qingyun answered lazily as she emptied another sack of stone frogs into her master’s washbasin.
Wang Tiezhu picked out ten frogs and covered the basin with a wooden board, weighing it down with stones.
Five would be delivered to Widow Liu as usual—the rental fee for borrowing the flashlight.
The remaining five were reserved for themselves.
There wasn’t a single proper tool in his shabby little house.
Unable to find a knife, Ye Qingyun pulled the kitchen cleaver out of her storage space.
Wang Tiezhu stared.
“Why are you carrying a cleaver around?”
Ye Qingyun rolled her eyes.
“Seriously?”
“I don’t have my sword anymore.”
“If I go into the mountains alone without a decent weapon and run into danger, what am I supposed to do?”
She had a point.
Wang Tiezhu couldn’t argue.
Ye Qingyun certainly wasn’t expecting her useless master to clean fish.
Instead, she had him grill a few sweetfish while they were still fresh.
Anything related to food was something Wang Tiezhu loved doing.
Master and disciple each busied themselves with their own tasks.
Before long, the tiny cabin was filled with an enticing, fruity fragrance unique to sweetfish.
The finest ingredients required only the simplest cooking.
Salt-grilled sweetfish had tender flesh and a wonderfully fresh flavor.
Each bite filled the mouth with a delicate aroma that wasn’t greasy in the slightest.
It was so delicious that the two of them nearly swallowed their own tongues.
They each ate six or seven fish before finally stopping, their stomachs completely full.
After they had eaten their fill, the rain also came to an end.
To avoid unnecessary complications, Ye Qingyun decided to sell both the stone frogs and the sweetfish in town the very next day.
It was one day earlier than the three-day promise they’d casually made to that customer.
Neither master nor disciple gave it a second thought.
Who would take such an offhand promise seriously?
As for whether it was moral or not…
The two of them had the same opinion.
We joined the Hehuan Sect. Since when were we respectable people?
Of course, if that customer had really been hanging around the clinic these past few days, they might run into him tomorrow.
Going into town meant asking for leave.
Ye Qingyun worried that requesting time off too often would arouse suspicion.
So she simply decided not to ask.
No one closely supervised the job of gathering pig fodder anyway.
As long as she could convince Qi Xue and Mo Qiuyu, everything would be fine.
Early the next morning, after arriving at work, Ye Qingyun claimed that her monthly cycle had started.
She said the cramps were unbearable and that she needed to go home to rest for a while.
“But I don’t want to ask for leave,” she added.
“I don’t want to trouble anyone.”
Before she could finish speaking, Qi Xue immediately said with concern,
“Then hurry home and rest.”
“Mo Qiuyu and I will gather your share of the pig grass today.”
The corner of Mo Qiuyu’s mouth twitched slightly.
But since Qi Xue had already spoken, she could only smile supportively.
“Go home and get some rest, Sister Qingyun.”
“Don’t feel embarrassed.”
“The next time Qi Xue or I are on our periods, you can help us out a little more.”
“The three of us can just take turns resting from now on.”
Qi Xue thought it was a wonderful idea and nodded enthusiastically, signaling for Ye Qingyun not to feel guilty.
Truthfully, after settling into the work, she had realized that gathering pig fodder didn’t actually require three people.
Two people carrying two baskets each in the morning was enough to feed the three pigs.
That was only because these pigs were already grown.
If they had been piglets, one person alone would probably have been sufficient.
Of course, easier work meant fewer work points.
She and Mo Qiuyu each earned only four points a day.
Wu Younian had assigned Ye Qingyun six points, clearly giving preferential treatment to family.
At first, Sister-in-law Chunhua had been a little unhappy about that.
After all, she only earned six points herself despite cooking pig feed and cleaning the pigsty.
But on Ye Qingyun’s very first day, she had proven her ability.
Those six work points were fully deserved.
Ye Qingyun exchanged a look with Qi Xue.
Just like that, the three of them agreed to rotate their days off during their monthly cycles.
Watching Qi Xue and Mo Qiuyu disappear with their baskets on their backs, Ye Qingyun immediately turned toward her master’s house.
Nearly everyone in the village had already gone to work.
Along the way, she encountered only a few children heading to school.
Nine-year-old Wu Xiaohong watched as her aunt walked past, entered Old Wang’s wooden cabin, and then came back out together with him before the two headed toward the village entrance.
The little girl looked utterly confused.
Why was her aunt with the village’s laziest man?
Before she had time to think further, the school bell rang.
She hurried after her classmates.
“No one saw us, right?” Wang Tiezhu asked cautiously.
Ye Qingyun nodded confidently.
“My niece saw us.”
“Oh, good… that’s grea—”
Wang Tiezhu froze.
“What did you say?”
“Who saw us?”
Ye Qingyun calmly repeated herself, then gestured for him to hurry up.
She had already told him his legs were too slow and that he didn’t need to come.
The stubborn old man had insisted anyway.
Seeing how calm she remained, Wang Tiezhu assumed she already had a plan and decided not to worry.
But…
What was with that look of disdain?
Was she looking down on her master?
“If I didn’t come,” he grumbled, “could you even sell all this?”
Ye Qingyun answered honestly.
“No.”
She had never been good at dealing with people.
Her blunt honesty usually ended up offending others.
Besides, her master had once taught her:
Among cultivators, strength was everything.
Once she ascended, learned scholars would naturally debate on her behalf.
There was no need to concern herself with trivial matters of conversation in daily life.
Ye Qingyun flashed the old man a smile.
“Master, you’re truly a successful profiteer.”
Wang Tiezhu fell silent.
He suddenly felt as though he’d picked up a rock only to drop it on his own foot.
At around ten o’clock in the morning, the master and disciple arrived at Hongyan Commune.
Watching Wang Tiezhu quickly attract customer after customer, Ye Qingyun saw all of their goods sell out in less than half an hour.
She decided that it didn’t really matter if the old man walked slowly.
Being able to sell everything was what mattered most.
Lingering too long carried risks.
This time they finished the transaction as quickly as possible.
The moment everything was sold, they immediately hurried back to the production brigade.
They had left the village at eight in the morning and arrived home at around one in the afternoon.
After resting briefly, Ye Qingyun returned to the ranks of the hardworking laborers for the afternoon shift.
Qi Xue and Mo Qiuyu were pleasantly surprised.
They had assumed Ye Qingyun would rest for the entire day.
Instead, she had already recovered by the afternoon.
The three of them easily finished gathering the afternoon’s pig fodder together and were able to clock out early.