Old Madam Zhou widened her eyes, for a moment not quite daring to believe it.
“Third Zhou, do not speak nonsense. Do not make your mother happy over nothing.” Old Madam Zhou clutched her chest, taking two rough breaths.
After all, a stroke of good luck like finding a treasure was not something easily encountered.
Furthermore, she came from a poor background and hadn’t even left the village more than a few times in her life, so she couldn’t tell whether it was jade or jadeite.
She merely felt that these oily, emerald stones before her were truly beautiful and didn’t seem like ordinary items.
Third Zhou didn’t dare to speak carelessly either.
So he hastily picked up two larger pieces: “Mother, the sound of jade and stones is different. Listen to this.”
When he gently tapped the two pieces of jade stone—each about half the size of a palm—together, they instantly emitted a crisp sound that was incredibly pleasing to the ear.
Third Zhou struck them against each other a few more times, and the sound grew increasingly ethereal. Listening closely, it was clear and resonant, lingering and far-reaching.
It was clearly jade without a doubt!
Only now did Old Madam Zhou finally dare to believe it, excitedly holding the jade stones in the palms of her hands.
“Who would have thought that without scrambling or fighting, we would actually get our hands on such a good thing? It’s all thanks to Mianmian going over by the tree to play. Otherwise, who could have imagined that such a valuable object was buried beneath the tree?!”
Third Zhou picked up his daughter and kissed her joyfully.
“Mianmian, how did you think of digging the soil?”
He remembered his daughter didn’t like playing with mud before, so how did she change her temperament the moment she arrived here?
And she managed to make the Zhou family strike big fortune all at once!
Zhou Mianmian shook her little round head, her eyes flitting everywhere, pretending to be completely oblivious.
She couldn’t possibly tell her father that these jade stones were buried by Mianmian herself.
Digging these up on the hill of the spiritual pool had taken a massive amount of effort, and Mianmian was so tired that she felt a bit sleepy even now.
So she rubbed her eyes, tilted her head back to rest in Third Zhou’s arms, and fell asleep with her little cheeks puffed out.
The Zhou family members didn’t fret over this either, all happily watching Old Madam Zhou put the jade stones away.
The quality of these jade stones wasn’t low, but unfortunately, they were all raw materials that had just been mined and hadn’t been polished. If they were taken to a pawnshop, the price would likely be far lower than that of polished ones.
However, the Zhou family didn’t complain either; they were already very content.
One had to be grateful for unearned wealth; it wouldn’t do to be insatiably greedy.
After putting the jade stones away, Old Madam Zhou thought of the two gluttonous and lazy ones in the house, feeling somewhat uneasy after all.
So she pulled a stern face to issue a warning.
“The matter of our Mianmian digging up jade stones is absolutely not to be known by Second Zhou and Fourth’s wife, lest the two of them cause trouble again.”
“Did everyone hear me? Especially you, Fourth Zhou, keep your mouth shut! If you dare tell that spendthrift wife of yours, I will not let you off!”
Fourth Zhou nodded vigorously and immediately agreed.
He was also afraid that Li Chunzhu would eye the jade stones. Even if Old Madam Zhou hadn’t instructed him, he wouldn’t speak a single word about it.
Seeing that Fourth Zhou had declared his stance, Sun Pinghua didn’t care about Second Zhou either, choosing only to look after Old Madam Zhou submissively.
“Don’t worry, Mother. The matter you forbade us from speaking about—even if I were beaten to death, I wouldn’t tell Second Zhou.”
Only now did Old Madam Zhou feel that everything was secure. Holding the soundly sleeping Mianmian, she hummed a few small tunes contentedly.
After quite a while, those refugees in the front yard who were scurrying around like headless flies finally stopped.
They were all discouraged; after searching a large circle, they hadn’t found a single thing in the end.
Within the massive mansion and courtyard, let alone gold, silver, and jewels, even a broken pot or cracked basin couldn’t be seen.
Anything even slightly valuable had long since been taken by others. How could it ever be their turn?
Many refugees even got into fights during the search, and a few even suffered significant injuries.
It was truly a futile effort.
Li Chunzhu was even more unfortunate. While she was squeezing through the crowd with Meifu, her head was struck by a stray rock thrown during a fight.
Her temple was cut open, and she bled quite a bit.
In the end, Li Chunzhu finally found Old Madam Zhou and the others, weeping with a face full of tears from fright, and Second Zhou also returned looking utterly disheveled.
Old Madam Zhou didn’t bother to scold them any further.
She simply pulled a stern face and dropped a line: “You have to suffer before you learn your lesson. So next time, all of you better be smarter for me.”
When they were about to leave, someone finally found a little something in this official residence.
Unbeknownst to them, someone had found an extremely well-hidden granary filled with grain.
However, it had been stored for too long, and most of it had already turned moldy, leaving very little that was edible.
Blacksmith Li from the same village was about to rush over to grab the grain.
Catching sight of the Zhou family right then, he hastily and excitedly grabbed Third Zhou.
“Third Zhou, where has your family been running off to? Come quickly with me to grab the grain!”
The Zhou family hadn’t starved to the point of eating grain that had grown white mold. Third Zhou was just about to politely decline.
But Old Madam Zhou pushed him with a sharp look.
“Third Zhou, go quickly with your Uncle Li! If you are late, there won’t be any left. Our whole family is still starving!”
Third Zhou was startled, but after a moment’s thought, he understood. He nodded and went over together with Blacksmith Li.
Standing to the side, Fourth Zhou and Sun Pinghua were astonished. Hadn’t they just obtained several pieces of jade stone?
Furthermore, they still had the money from selling the bamboo mushrooms to support them.
Although the Zhou family wasn’t wealthy yet, they hadn’t starved to the point of needing to grab moldy grain.
Sun Pinghua didn’t find it proper to ask Old Madam Zhou directly, so she secretly whispered to Song Nianxi.
“Third’s wife, what does Mother mean by this? Are we truly going to eat that moldy grain?”
“Naturally not. Mother is doing this deliberately to show Uncle Li and the other fellow villagers.”
Song Nianxi smiled and whispered warmly.
The fellow villagers were all scrambling for moldy grain. If their Zhou family didn’t go, it would appear too unusual, and everyone would surely assume their family had an abundant supply of food.
In a worse case, they might even be suspected of having money and wealth on them.
If that happened, wouldn’t they invite disaster upon themselves for no reason?
Sun Pinghua suddenly realized the truth; so it was a diversion tactic deployed by Old Madam Zhou.
This couldn’t help but make her feel a sense of admiration for her mother-in-law.
“Mother still knows best. How could I never think of these things?”
Song Nianxi smiled without a word.
It wasn’t easy for her mother-in-law to pull this large family along. If she didn’t possess some brains, how could she have endured until now?
…
After resuming their journey and walking for about a day and a half, the refugee group arrived at another town.
Taking advantage of a moment of rest, Zhou Mianmian extended her little hand toward Old Madam Zhou, wanting to take a piece of jade stone out.
“Grandma, give jade-jade. Just one is enough.” Zhou Mianmian pointed a tiny finger in a babyish manner.
Want jade-jade to go get meat-meat!
“Sweet darling, here you go.”
Old Madam Zhou hastily fished a piece out, without a single shred of hesitation.
No matter how precious an item was, as long as her granddaughter wanted it, there was no way she wouldn’t comply.
Furthermore, this item was originally dug up by Mianmian, so whenever Mianmian wanted it, it should be given to her!
Once she got it in her hand, Zhou Mianmian tugged at Song Nianxi’s coat hem, her short little legs moving hurriedly as she rushed toward the front.
Song Nianxi looked up, and not far away, there happened to be a pawnshop.
Presumably, Mianmian wanted to exchange it for some silver coins to buy things.
Song Nianxi didn’t dare to make the decision on her own, so she looked toward Old Madam Zhou: “Mother, Mianmian wants to…”
Before she could finish speaking, Old Madam Zhou waved her large hand and interrupted her.
“Whatever Mianmian wants to do, you take her to do it. You are not allowed to stop her. Let her do whatever makes her happy.”
Song Nianxi complied with a smile, and then pulled Zhou Mianmian’s soft little hand to walk toward the pawnshop.
Zhou Mianmian clutched the jade stone with both hands, her small body swaying because she was walking too fast.
Looking at how frantically those little feet were moving, Song Nianxi feared her daughter would accidentally tumble and hurriedly kept close.
The moment they entered the shop, Zhou Mianmian held up the jade stone, standing on her tiptoes to place it before the shopkeeper.
“Pawn it! How much money-money can you give?!”
Such a childish voice, yet speaking such grand and imperious words, caused even the pawnshop shopkeeper to be amused.
He thought it was just some child playing a prank.
So, the shopkeeper took the jade stone, smiling warmly as he pretended to look it over for her.
However, before long, he could no longer smile. Instead, he cradled the jade stone in astonishment, his expression becoming much more serious.