Shen Wanzhou pressed his lips tightly together and said nothing. After finishing the dishes, he left.
Qiao Xihe watched his thin back and quietly sighed.
“Ding! Side quest ‘Feed your younger siblings a full meal’ completed. Reward received: five liters of cooking oil, one koi fragment, one lottery draw. Start the lottery draw now?”
“Start it,” Qiao Xihe said.
She was curious to see what she might get.
“Lottery draw complete. Congratulations, host, you have obtained one Golden Shovel.”
“A Golden Shovel? What’s that?”
“It can easily dig up anything from the ground.”
“I see.” Qiao Xihe nodded.
That kind of thing was actually quite useful out in the countryside.
“Apart from the koi fragments, all rewards can be taken out at any time. Take them out now?”
Qiao Xihe thought about it and said, “No rush.”
If Tang Yifang suddenly saw a barrel of oil appear in the house, she wouldn’t be able to explain it.
“Little Gong, what exactly can the koi fragments be combined into?”
“A grand prize you’ll never regret.”
Having said that, the system went back to playing dead.
There was nothing Qiao Xihe could do about it. She tidied up the kitchen and went to bed.
…
The next morning, Qiao Xihe cooked more porridge.
Even though it was quite watery, the four children still drank it happily.
Watching them, Qiao Xihe felt a bit of an ache, along with a subtle sense of satisfaction.
She resolved that from now on, she would definitely make sure the four children could eat their fill, even have meat with every meal!
Tang Yifang ate her breakfast in her own room, saying the sight of the four children annoyed her. Qiao Xihe didn’t bother stopping her.
What Qiao Xihe was planning now was to try her luck up on Wupeng Mountain.
Wupeng Mountain was at the very eastern edge of the village, not very tall. But Qiao Xihe remembered the book mentioning once that there was treasure on Wupeng Mountain, something the villagers didn’t know about.
She needed to do something, or the food in the house alone wouldn’t last much longer.
Tang Yifang did have some money on hand, but she would absolutely never spend it on the protagonist group.
After the children finished their porridge, they shrank back into the corner again.
Just then, Tang Yifang started cursing loudly from inside her room. “Lazy good-for-nothings, don’t know how to work? Thinking you can eat and drink for free every day, there’s no such good deal in this world! Keep slacking and I’ll break your legs!”
Shen Wanjin and Shen Wanyin were both scared into shaking, Shen Wanzhou’s eyes went dark, and Shen Wanmu clenched his small fists.
Qiao Xihe smiled and said, “Do you want to come to Wupeng Mountain with me?”
Shen Wanyin’s eyes lit up, as if she wanted to say something, but she was still a little afraid, and shrank a bit closer to Shen Wanzhou.
“I’m going to Wupeng Mountain to play. There are lots of fun things there, it’d be such a shame not to go. If you don’t come, you’ll just have to stay home and work.” Qiao Xihe shook her head as if regretful.
Hearing this, Shen Wanyin wanted to go even more, and even Shen Wanjin and Shen Wanmu started to waver.
Only Shen Wanzhou remained thoroughly wary.
It wasn’t as if he’d never been to Wupeng Mountain before, there was nothing but trees and grass, what was fun about it?
Qiao Xihe was definitely up to some scheme again.
“Really not coming? Then I’ll go by myself. You can just stay home with my mother.”
Qiao Xihe turned and walked off as she spoke.
Seeing this, Shen Wanyin panicked a little and quickly tugged at Shen Wanzhou’s sleeve. “Brother…”
“Big brother, should we go?” Shen Wanmu asked quietly.
“Big brother, I want to go.” Shen Wanjin’s pretty eyes were wet. “I’m scared of the stepmother, she’ll hit me.”
Shen Wanzhou hesitated for a moment, then led his younger siblings after her.
He didn’t know why, but Qiao Xihe’s attitude toward them had clearly gotten a lot better than before.
At the very least, they’d had two hot meals now.
So he figured that staying with Qiao Xihe right now was better than staying with that shrewish stepmother.
Qiao Xihe walked out of the house with a basket on her back. She glanced behind her and saw four small figures following her, and she smiled secretly to herself.
If she wanted to improve her relationship with the protagonist group, she naturally needed to spend more time with them.
Sooner or later, they would understand that she wasn’t the same vicious stepsister as before.
Meanwhile, Tang Yifang had been cursing in her room for a while, and hearing no sound at all from outside, she came out to see what was going on.
She looked around and found the house completely empty, not even a shadow of anyone!
Furious, she let loose another string of curses.
…
Qiao Xihe was already up on Wupeng Mountain.
The mountain wasn’t tall, so even a little bean like Shen Wanyin could climb it, though she was a bit out of breath. She was now sitting on a big rock resting, watching curiously as Qiao Xihe poked around everywhere.
“Brother, what’s she doing?” Shen Wanyin asked curiously.
Shen Wanzhou had also been watching Qiao Xihe the whole time, and after a long moment he said, “Don’t know.”
Ever since yesterday, Qiao Xihe had really been acting strange.
At that moment, Qiao Xihe’s eyes were searching all around, and before long, they suddenly lit up.
Because she had spotted a kind of wild vegetable!
When she was little, her grandmother used to often stir-fry this kind of wild vegetable for her, it was especially fragrant.
Right now, a whole large patch of it spread out before her.
The villagers hadn’t come up to dig it out at all?
It seemed they simply didn’t know it was edible.
Excitedly, Qiao Xihe pulled the Golden Shovel out from the system.
Although it was called the Golden Shovel, it looked no different from an ordinary shovel.
She tried digging up a stalk of the wild vegetable with the Golden Shovel, and sure enough, without her even needing to use any strength, it easily lifted the plant right out of the ground.
She set down her basket and dug them up one after another, already picturing a hearty feast in her mind.
Meanwhile, the four members of the protagonist group were watching her without blinking.
“Big brother, why is she digging up grass?” Shen Wanmu asked, puzzled.
Shen Wanzhou frowned and was about to say something when he suddenly saw Qiao Xihe turn around and say to them, “We’re having a feast today! Happy?”
“A feast? Is she going to make us eat grass?” Shen Wanmu was shocked.
“Did she bring a shovel with her when she came out?” Shen Wanzhou suddenly asked.
“Doesn’t seem like it,” Shen Wanjin said.
“Eh, where’s Wanyin?”
Hearing Shen Wanmu’s startled cry, Shen Wanzhou quickly turned to look, and saw that Shen Wanyin had already toddled off on her short little legs, running pit-pat toward Qiao Xihe.
Still, she didn’t dare get too close to Qiao Xihe, only standing off to the side, watching curiously.
Qiao Xihe looked up and gave her a very gentle smile.
But Shen Wanyin looked as if she’d been startled, and turned to run right away.
She ran too fast, and without noticing, tripped over a rock.
Her knee hit the ground, and the pain made her burst into tears she couldn’t hold back. “Wu wu wu, it hurts!”
Everyone else quickly ran toward her, but Qiao Xihe was closest, so she reached her first and swept her up into her arms.
“Where does it hurt?” Qiao Xihe asked anxiously.
“My knee, my knee…”
Qiao Xihe gently rolled up her pant leg and looked, the skin was scraped, but thankfully it wasn’t bleeding.
“It’s okay, Sister will blow on it and it won’t hurt anymore…”