At this time, the four sisters had already arrived on the mountain.
The ravine was full of both pig fodder and shepherd’s purse.
The past few years had brought good weather and abundant harvests to Great Qi, so the villagers no longer cared much for wild vegetables from the mountains.
Wen Ye and Wen Lan set down their baskets and began digging for shepherd’s purse.
Not far away, Wen Mei and Wen Li Yue were cutting pig fodder with dark expressions.
They rarely did this kind of rough work, and after cutting for a long time, they had only managed to fill half a basket. They were already getting impatient.
After only half an hour, Wen Ye tossed aside her little hoe and stood up, pounding her waist.
“Oh my, I’m starving! Sis, let’s eat lunch!”
Wen Lan was startled.
“But it’s still early. There’s still an hour before noon.”
“Who cares? I’m hungry. We barely ate anything last night—how could that possibly fill us up?”
Wen Lan nodded helplessly.
“Alright then.”
Wen Mei and Wen Li Yue had long wanted to slack off. As soon as they heard the sisters mention lunch, Wen Li Yue plopped down onto the ground.
“We’re eating too!”
The four girls sat down on the grass and took out the lotus-leaf-wrapped pancakes from their baskets.
When Wen Li Yue and Wen Mei unwrapped theirs, they found pickled-vegetable pancakes.
Wen Ye and Wen Lan, however, had chive pancakes.
Wen Ye walked over with her pancake.
“I don’t know why, but I suddenly don’t want to eat chives anymore. The smell is too strong. Li Yue, let’s switch.”
Wen Li Yue hurriedly protected her pickled-vegetable pancake.
“I don’t want to eat chives today either.”
What a joke! Her mother had said there was minced meat in her pancake!
“If you didn’t want chives, why didn’t you say so this morning? And now you want to switch? As if I’d agree!”
Wen Li Yue snorted and was about to eat.
“Fine, don’t switch then.”
As she spoke, Wen Ye suddenly pulled out a small oil-paper packet from her clothes.
Opening it, she revealed two palm-sized slices of cured pork.
The meat was thin and almost transparent, streaked with red and white fat, glistening and incredibly appetizing.
Wen Ye took one slice and stuffed it into Wen Lan’s chive pancake.
“Roll it up and eat it.”
“Wen Ye, where did you steal that cured meat from?”
The moment Wen Li Yue saw it, her eyes widened.
Wen Ye looked smug.
“Who said I stole it? When I went to play at Yu’er’s house yesterday, she gave it to me.”
Wen Li Yue and Wen Mei were annoyed, but the important thing right now was that they wanted to eat the cured meat too.
Putting on a stern face, Wen Li Yue said,
“Why are you only giving the meat to Lan’er? We’re all sisters. You should give us half too.”
“No way.”
Wen Ye rolled her eyes.
“We can’t stand the taste of chives, so we’re using the cured meat to cover the flavor.”
Wen Lan was stunned.
She didn’t dislike chives at all.
But since Wen Ye said so, even though she didn’t understand why, she nodded in agreement.
“You…”
Wen Li Yue held back her anger, thought for a moment, and then said,
“Then let’s switch after all. I want the chive pancake. Give me the cured meat.”
Wen Ye looked reluctant.
Wen Li Yue immediately snatched the chive pancake stuffed with cured meat from her hand and took a huge bite.
“Ah… you!”
Wen Ye jumped to her feet and, looking angry, grabbed Wen Li Yue’s pickled-vegetable pancake.
“Fine, take it! I can’t eat chives anyway, even with the cured meat.”
As Wen Li Yue chewed on the chive pancake wrapped around the cured meat, she felt an explosion of delicious flavor in her mouth.
Although her mother had said there was minced meat in her own pancake and that she’d be losing out by switching, this chive pancake had a big slice of fatty cured meat in it!
Not only had she not lost anything, she’d actually profited!
Seeing how deliciously Wen Li Yue was eating, Wen Mei couldn’t help looking at Wen Lan.
Wen Lan shrank back and hurriedly handed over her own chive pancake with the cured meat inside.
“Here…”
Only after taking the pancake did Wen Mei feel satisfied.
A smile flashed through Wen Ye’s eyes.
“Sis, hurry and eat.”
“Ah… okay.”
The four sisters sat on the hillside, all eating to their hearts’ content.
Before long, they had all finished.
Wen Ye simply lay down on the grass.
“I’m going to rest for a while.”
Seeing that Wen Ye had lain down, Wen Mei and Wen Li Yue naturally followed suit, leaning against a big tree to rest.
Although Fang Shi had told them to gather firewood immediately after lunch, or there wouldn’t be any wood for cooking that night—
it wasn’t noon yet!
What was wrong with taking a little rest after eating?
Half an hour later, Wen Mei and Wen Li Yue suddenly thudded onto the grass and lost consciousness.
“Ah! Li Yue, what’s wrong with you two?”
Wen Lan was startled and hurried over.
“There’s sleeping powder in the chive pancakes. The drug’s taking effect, that’s all.”
Wen Ye sneered.
“What sleeping powder? Weren’t those pancakes originally ours…?”
As she thought about it, Wen Lan’s eyes widened.
“What’s going on?”
“Because Grandma and the others want to sell us, of course! They already put something in the sweet egg soup yesterday at noon. Once we fainted, they planned to tie us up and hand us over to the slave traders.”
Wen Lan’s face turned deathly pale, and her head spun.
“How… how could they? How could they treat us like this? What… what do we do now?”
“You stay here and watch them. I’m going down the mountain. When you hear me speaking later, hide yourself.”
As she spoke, Wen Ye had already started walking quickly down the mountain.
“Little Sister…”
Before Wen Lan could stop her, Wen Ye had already disappeared.
…
Under a large tree about fifty meters from the village entrance stood a donkey cart.
Qian San and Zhao Qiang were sitting at the back of the cart with blades of grass in their mouths. They were the slave traders.
“Yesterday, Wen Lao Er stood us up. He won’t pull anything funny today too, right?” Qian San said.
“There’s still half an hour left. If he still doesn’t bring the girls, we’ll go to his house, get our money back, and beat him up.”
Hiding nearby, Wen Ye’s eyes lit up.
She casually grabbed a handful of dirt and smeared it all over her face until it looked dark and grimy. She even deliberately twisted her mouth to make herself look ugly before stepping out.
“Greetings, big brothers.”
Qian San glanced at her.
“Where did this ugly girl come from?”
“I’m Wen Lao Er’s daughter! My parents had an urgent matter to deal with, so they asked me to tell you that the goods are ready. They’re on that mountain over there. Come with me and pick them up.”
Qian San frowned.
“That Wen Lao Er has some nerve, making a child handle this kind of thing. Forget it, Zhao Qiang, let’s go.”
Wen Ye happily led the two men forward and up the mountain.
As they neared the ravine, Wen Ye deliberately raised her voice.
“Careful, big brothers! There’s a rock here.”
Hearing her voice, Wen Lan, who was hiding in the ravine, turned pale and stumbled behind a large boulder.
Wen Mei and Wen Li Yue lay on the grass, sleeping like dead pigs.
Wen Ye led the two men over and smiled.
“There they are.”
Qian San squatted down and lifted Wen Mei’s chin, examining her from side to side.
“Why do they seem less pretty than when we looked at the goods last time?”
Naturally, slave traders inspected their merchandise before buying.
A few days earlier, Wen Lao Er had brought them to secretly look at the Wen sisters from afar.
But the distance had made things somewhat unclear.
“It was too far away to see clearly then. That one is ordinary-looking, but this one is rather delicate and pretty.”
Zhao Qiang pointed at Wen Li Yue.
“At that price, we won’t lose money. Let’s go. The sooner we sell them, the sooner we get paid.”
A calculating smile flashed through Wen Ye’s eyes.
“I wonder where you’re planning to sell them?”
“Of course to the Ten Thousand Flowers House in the county.”
“The Ten Thousand Flowers House?”
Wen Ye rubbed her chin.
“I heard Uncle Black Dog from the west side of the village say that a new brothel called Drunken Fragrance House has opened in neighboring Xindong County. They’re buying lots of girls and paying two or three taels more than other places. Uncle Black Dog keeps talking about selling his daughter there.”
“Really?”
Qian San’s eyes lit up.
He immediately hoisted one of the girls onto his shoulder.
“Come on, let’s try our luck in Xindong County.”
At worst, it meant a little extra travel. They certainly wouldn’t lose out.
Although Wen Ye seemed a bit strange, they couldn’t think of any reason she would lie to them.
After Qian San and Zhao Qiang carried the girls down the mountain, Wen Lan finally emerged from behind the rock.
Her face was pale as she pointed down the mountain and stammered,
“They… they carried Cousin and Li Yue away… to sell them to a brothel?”
“That’s right! Hahaha!”
Wen Ye laughed.
“This is the wonderful future Grandma and Second Uncle prepared for them! Come on, let’s go down the mountain!”