Chapter 114 - A Profitable Trip (2/2)
[Idiot, stop being so boring!] The little divine stone had been laying in the basket, and absorbing the spiritual energy from the mountain ginseng. It rolled its eyes at Xiaocao’s antics and changed its position. Then, it continued to hug the ginseng and cultivate.
Zhao Han laughed in delight at Xiaocao’s joke but then saw the little golden kitten moving around in the basket. He reminded Xiaocao out of worry, “Xiaocao! That mountain ginseng is quite valuable! Be careful to not have your cat ruin it!”
“Don’t worry! Little Glutinous Dumpling won’t ruin it. That being said, without Little Glutinous Dumpling, I wouldn’t have been able to find this wild mountain ginseng. Since it likes the ginseng so much, then we should just let it hug it!” Yu Xiaocao, on the other hand, wasn’t a bit concerned at all.
Zhao Han took out the two large geese from the basket on his back and placed the game they just caught and the fish into the basket. Luckily, he had brought a large enough basket for this trip!
He held a wild goose in each hand and then glanced at the golden kitten that was dozing with its eyes closed. He smiled, “Your kitten is truly a treasure. It could actually find a ginseng in all of those weeds. I’ve heard of hunters training dogs to catch prey but I’ve never heard of training a kitten to find medicinal herbs!”
“I only recently picked up this little kitten, and it usually gets to freely range at home. So I’m actually not very familiar with this cat. Perhaps this is just a coincidence? Have you ever heard of animals that can specifically find medicinal ingredients?” Yu Xiaocao also placed her bamboo basket on her back. One of her hands still held the pregnant wild hare.
She had already made a decision that she was going to bring this hare back home to be raised. It was said that hares and rabbits multiplied very quickly. In the future, even if she didn’t go into the mountains, she could still have rabbit meat at home to eat!
Zhao Han looked at her for a long moment and then faintly smiled, “How come I have a feeling that every time I’m with you, coincidences seem to happen more often?”
“Haha! That’s because I have a good moral character, ah!” Yu Xiaocao acted as if she had accidentally avoided his gaze and pretended to be extremely happy as she skipped down the road back home.
At home, they found out that Little Shitou hadonly went back to the town to return to school after confirming that his older brother was okay. Yu Hai had gone with his older daughter on the donkey cart to sell pickled fish at the docks. The only person in the courtyard was Madam Liu, who was darning clothes.
When she saw her younger daughter push the gate open, Madam Liu looked up at the sky and the expression on her face immediately changed, “This child, ah, is really disobedient! Didn’t you promise me before you left that you would go on the road that winds at the foot of the mountain, right? How could you be so reckless? What if something happened to you, do you want your mother to live anymore?”
“Auntie, please stop scolding Xiaocao! It was my idea to go into the mountains. I’ve walked on that trail for multiple times and I know there’s nothing dangerous on there. Auntie, if you want to scold someone, scold me instead!” Zhan Han had followed Xiaocao into the courtyard and had heard Madam Liu rebuking her, so he quickly pulled the responsibility onto himself.
The tight expression on Madam Liu’s face relaxed slightly but she was still a bit discontented, “Xiaohan, don’t blame auntie for making a big fuss about nothing. After what happened with your Uncle Yu last time...Auntie is truly afraid now!”
Zhao Han took the basket on his back that was filled with game, placed it on the ground, and replied in an understanding tone, “Auntie, I know you’re trying to do the best for Xiaocao! Don’t worry! In the future, I won’t bring Xiaocao into the mountains without your permission first. This is the game and fish that Xiaocao caught, please quickly put them away!”
“Oh you silly child, why do you always treat yourself like an outsider? In the past, when your Uncle Yu and your father went into the mountains, they always split the game fifty-fifty! We don’t need to get bogged down with who owns what between our two families, okay?”
After receiving Zhao Han’s promise that he wouldn’t secretly bring Xiaocao into the mountains, a smile finally appeared on Madam Liu’s face. She picked up three large fish, two pheasants, and a hare, and stuffed them into Zhao Han’s basket, ignoring his protests.
“Mother, leave the wild hare for me! I want father to weave a basket cage and house this pregnant hare with that male hare together. Hares can give birth to a litter after about a month. In the future, we will always have rabbit meat to eat!” Yu Xiaocao hastily took the male hare out of the basket and swapped it for the badger.
After seeing the mother and daughter pair acting like this, Zhao Han knew that if he continued to refuse it would only make things more awkward. Instead, he smiled and said, “Okay! Then I’ll just politely accept these. Xiaocao has a good hand at raising animals, so I’m going to leave these two geese at auntie’s house. The next time I go into the prefectural city, I will stop buy and pick up the geese to bring to the prefectural magistrate’s residence!”
“Oh right, Xiaocao!” Before Zhao Han exited through the gate, he suddenly asked, “Do you plan on keeping that ginseng for now or do you want to sell it? If you want to sell it now, you may not be able to get a good price in town. You should wait until I go into the prefectural city and I can help you inquire a bit!”
Yu Xiaocao thought that with the mystic-stone water, she probably wouldn’t need to use this old ginseng and said, “Then I’ll have to humbly ask Brother Han to ask around then! You also know our family’s current circumstances. If we sell off the ginseng, I think we should completely redo our house and then buy a few more plots of land. With my mother here, we probably can’t go into the mountains to hunt anymore. We should just settle down and plant fields!”
“Don’t you make good money from selling your food? If you don’t farm, do you really think you guys will starve?” Zhao Han lightly joked.
“Oh that’s true!” Yu Xiaocao lifted her head proudly, “However, as a family of peasants, it’s still better to have more plots of land at hand!”
[1] Xiaocao was using slang when she talked about her 'luck'. In literal terms, it means a 'point'. I couldn't think of a good English equivalent.