The slap of chopsticks hitting the table rang out sharply. Eldest Brother of the Gu family slammed them down and glared at Gu Sanni, shouting, “Sanni, tell me, did this happen or not?”
Earlier that day, just after noon, the old matriarch had beaten Sanni. After a full day of farm work, everyone was exhausted and resting in bed. Eldest Brother had only vaguely heard some commotion yesterday, but he didn’t care much about Sanni and didn’t get up to check.
Now that Gu Yuan brought it up again, he naturally had to make his stance clear.
Sanni trembled uncontrollably and kept her head down without speaking.
Seeing this, Eldest Brother already understood everything. He immediately announced the punishment: “You’re not eating dinner today. Go back to your room. Tomorrow morning, feed the chickens and pigs at home, then come with me to the threshing ground.”
Among the Gu family children, only the eldest girl, who was already fifteen, worked with the adults. The others—Second Girl and Gu Feifei—were still treated like children and did less work.
Threshing ground work was hard, and Madam Qian couldn’t bear to let her daughter suffer, so she often pushed it off. As Sanni was even younger than Gu Feifei, she naturally benefited from this. Now that Eldest Brother had spoken, she would no longer enjoy that privilege.
Gu Yuan didn’t care about Sanni at all. After seeing Eldest Sister finish eating her meat, she returned to her own meal.
She had been busy all afternoon and was already starving. With meat broth soaking into the rough grain cakes, even the hard food felt delicious.
Compared to her, the rest of the Gu family ate ravenously, making loud slurping sounds.
After the meal, Yang Shi voluntarily stayed behind to wash the dishes while everyone else returned to their rooms. Gu Yuan followed closely behind the old matriarch, holding her jar.
Smiling, she said, “Mother, I want to discuss something with you. Can you give me some salt?”
She felt a little nervous. Salt was extremely important in this era, just like sugar, and even though the old matriarch spoiled her, she might not allow her to waste it. If she found out she wanted to use it to pickle cicada nymphs, she might even slap her.
But the old matriarch didn’t scold her. After closing the door, she simply asked, “What do you need salt for? That stuff can’t be eaten raw.”
Gu Yuan sighed in relief and placed the jar in front of her. “Mother, look. These are cicada nymphs we caught with Nanfeng and the others. Usually when we steam them, they have no flavor, so I want to salt them overnight. Tomorrow we can fry them into a meat dish.”
Then she added softly, “Mother, I know people in the village gossip about us, saying you’re hoarding money and only caring about yourself and me. But I know our family doesn’t have much money, and you’re not like they say. You’ve been so tired during the busy farming season—you’ve become so thin. I can’t control what others say, but I feel sorry for you.”
The old matriarch was silent for a long time as she patted her head.
Those rumors weren’t new to her, and she never cared. As long as her daughter was on her side, that was enough. She hadn’t expected her usually carefree daughter to remember everything and say something like this.
Just salt and oil—what was there to hesitate about?
She opened the cabinet and handed over the salt jar generously. “Take it.”
Gu Yuan smiled brightly. “Thank you, Mother. Tomorrow at noon let Third Sister-in-law cook again. I’ll go up the mountain with Nanfeng to dig more mallows so we can steam them.”
The Gu family’s salt wasn’t refined white salt like in later times—it was coarse and slightly yellowish. It was good for pickling, but not ideal for direct consumption. Still, it was expensive.
In town, salt prices fluctuated between 230 and 250 copper coins per jin, while the system mall only needed 20 copper coins for a bag of refined salt. White rice and flour there also only cost 10 coins per jin.
Thinking of this, Gu Yuan quickly made a decision: she would buy food from the system and pass it off as bought from town to improve their meals.
After cleaning the cicada nymphs, she soaked them in salted water.
Then she began planning: tomorrow she would go up the mountain early, dig wild vegetables for an hour, and go to town afterward. With her “golden finger,” any plant she touched became valuable.
She knocked on Nanfeng’s window at night.
“I’m not asleep, Auntie!” Nanfeng quickly responded.
Gu Yuan told him to wake her early tomorrow and that they would dig more wild vegetables to make buns. The boy immediately got excited.
The next morning, Nanfeng really woke her up.
They went up the mountain together.
Gu Yuan told them to dig anything edible they could find. After separating from the children, she went alone to a quiet area.
Then—
A system prompt sounded:
“Discovered wild dandelion, 20 copper coins per jin… recalibrating… 70 copper coins per jin. Medicinal value high.”
Gu Yuan’s hands trembled.
She began digging furiously.
An hour later, she had several jin of mallows and a little over a jin of dandelion greens. She sold part of them to the system and kept some.
In total, she earned over a hundred copper coins that day.
She also bought flour, coarse grain flour, and salt from the system, then quietly returned home.
At home, she cooked green bean soup using a modern lighter she secretly bought from the system, warming up the Gu household’s dinner once again.