After quietly digging a pit for Gu Liu, Gu Yuan stopped caring about it. In her eyes, nothing in the world mattered more than making money and improving her life.
At noon that day, she had eaten meat buns, so she didn’t let her third sister-in-law fry cicada pupae anymore. Instead, she sold the cicada pupae she had pickled the day before directly to the system’s marketplace.
Fresh cicada pupae could be sold for forty copper coins per jin, but pickled ones only fetched thirty-eight.
After adding extra water and salt, the price actually dropped by two coins. For a moment, Gu Yuan didn’t even know how to complain about how stingy the system was.
If it weren’t for the hot weather making them spoil easily, she wouldn’t have sold them at all.
And as expected, her third brother was indeed skilled at catching cicada pupae. Last night alone he caught over a hundred, weighing about three and a half jin—earning 133 copper coins.
Seeing the copper coins appear in her system wallet, Gu Yuan took out fifty coins and knocked on Gu Lao San’s door.
“Third brother, are you asleep?”
Inside, Gu Lao San was already snoring. It was his wife, Wang Shi, who opened the door. Seeing Gu Yuan, she quickly stepped aside.
“Little sister, come in. It’s hot outside.”
The Gu family house was made of rammed earth, and the roof was wooden. The only advantage compared to modern stone roofs was that it stayed relatively cool in summer.
Relatively—but only slightly better than outside.
Men in farming households only needed to work the fields and didn’t usually help with housework. After meals, they could lie down and rest. Wang Shi didn’t believe that stereotype.
Today it was her turn to cook. After cleaning the kitchen, she was sitting and mending clothes.
Gu Yuan carefully looked around the slightly larger room compared to hers. Like her room, Gu Lao San’s room only had one table, with a sewing basket on it. After inviting Gu Yuan in, Wang Shi sat back down to sew.
She bit off a thread and asked, “Little sister, why aren’t you napping? Looking for your third brother?”
Originally she had planned to wake him, but Gu Yuan didn’t want to disturb his rest. She thought telling Wang Shi would be the same.
Gu Yuan took out a small pouch and placed it on the table.
“Third sister-in-law, I sold the cicada pupae your husband caught yesterday. A traveling peddler in town buys them—twenty copper coins per jin. Here are fifty coins.”
Then she added awkwardly, “Third brother caught three and a half jin. I gave fifteen coins to our mother and kept five as a running fee.”
“What?!” Wang Shi exclaimed, almost pricking her hand with the needle.
Gu Yuan quickly covered her mouth and made a “shh” gesture, lowering her voice. “Third sister-in-law, only mother and I know. Keep it down.”
Fifty coins was not a small amount. If the second brother and second sister-in-law found out, there would be trouble again. But since her third brother caught them, why should she share the money with others?
Wang Shi nodded quickly. After Gu Yuan let go, she sucked on her finger and asked carefully, “Sister, is it true? Something that crawls out of the soil… people actually buy it?”
To Wang Shi, cicada pupae had little meat. Poor families ate them only because they couldn’t afford meat. Who else would want them?
She thought buying them for twenty coins per jin was something only a fool with too much money would do.
Gu Yuan shrugged and continued lying. “Who knows? That peddler didn’t sound local. Maybe he came from the prefectural city. Maybe the rich folks there like it.”
In the countryside around Qingshan Town, there were many hills and trees, and cicada pupae were everywhere. But in the town itself, there were few trees—so no cicadas.
Maybe the city rich really did enjoy them.
“They taste pretty good fried in oil,” Gu Yuan said casually. “City nobles don’t care about money.”
She wasn’t wrong—she just conveniently didn’t mention she was the one selling them.
Then she added, “Third sister-in-law, how about this? From now on, third brother gives me the cicada pupae to sell. I’ll take one coin per two jin as commission.”
Wang Shi immediately shook her head and pushed the pouch back.
“This money should be used to nourish you. We can’t take it. As for selling, one coin is too little. Let’s split it fifty-fifty.”
“Or better—between you, us, and mother. Three-way split.”
She didn’t suggest giving it all to the old madam. She had her own thoughts too. Her second brother’s children were studying; she was envious. Her own son was still young, so she gave up. But if she had extra money, maybe she could send him to school.
Even just learning to read a few words would be enough.
And her daughter—she wanted to save some dowry for her too.
The old madam had always been surprisingly fair: whoever earned private work only needed to hand in half.
Gu Yuan waved her hands repeatedly. “That’s not right, I didn’t do anything…”
But Wang Shi insisted, and in the end Gu Yuan fled, leaving the pouch behind.
In the afternoon, she mentioned the cicada pupae to the old madam, not the price, only saying she would ask the peddler again tomorrow.
Extra income was always welcome, so the old madam agreed immediately—only reminding her to be careful.
That afternoon, Gu Yuan went up the mountain alone again to dig wild vegetables and herbs. She didn’t return until the sun began to set.
Passing by the small house at the foot of the mountain, she glanced as usual—only this time there was a reclining chair in the courtyard, and an old man with white hair was resting with his eyes closed.
At his feet lay a large, fierce wolfdog.
Hearing footsteps, the dog suddenly opened its eyes and barked loudly.
Gu Yuan jumped in fright. What a fierce dog.
The barking woke the old man. He scolded the dog a few times before turning toward her.
“Whose girl are you? What are you doing here? Don’t you know the mountain is dangerous?!”
Gu Yuan cautiously glanced at the dog and shouted back, “Hello, sir! I’m from the west end of the village—Gu family! My eldest brother is Gu Shi Tou!”
Mentioning “Gu Shi Tou” (Gu Stone) made it clear—everyone in the village knew who that was.
After a moment, the old man finally remembered.
“Oh, a Gu family girl. Why are you up the mountain? It’s dangerous, go home quickly.”
He was a mountain guard, responsible for preventing beasts from coming down and also warning villagers not to enter. Especially young girls like her.
And it just so happened—every time Gu Yuan came up the mountain, the old man wasn’t around.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to come up at all.