Chapter 432: Chapter 419: Feeling Completely Unwell

Receiving so much meat and duck eggs, and all this for an old, porcelain bowl, how could it feel so unreal?

Mrs. Zhang shook her head, eventually reaching out to give herself a hard pinch.

Hiss!

It really hurts.

As Mrs. Zhang rubbed the red spot on the back of her hand where she pinched herself, she finally snapped out of it.

This was real, realer than anything.

“Mom,” Miao Ni leaned in, “stop pinching yourself. I’ve pinched myself several times already.”

“But why does it still feel unreal?” Mrs. Zhang said somewhat helplessly, “Just for an old bowl…”

“We can never tell; it might be something valuable?” Miao Ni suggested, “Don’t people say that sometimes, these old items are hidden in unlikely places, some even buried in the earth? Maybe this is a valuable item that doesn’t seem so valuable at first glance.”

“I noticed Fang Hou treasuring the bowl quite a bit, and I guess it can’t be fake,” Miao Erdan chipped in from the side.

“True. After all, Fang Hou has been working with Manager Cheng and has seen quite a lot of valuable items. He has a sharp eye for these things and he surely wouldn’t get it wrong.”

Mrs. Zhang laughed at Miao Ni and Miao Erdan, “Then, let’s stew some meat for lunch, add this tofu and cabbage to it, and have a good old heap of stew.”

“Okay!” Miao Ni and Miao Erdan happily nodded.

We’ve almost paid off our debts this year and after Mrs. Zhang started working in the glass noodle workshop, we’ve been having enough food at home. But we can barely afford any meat, even at New Year’s.

The kids, naturally, were overjoyed at the idea of having meat.

Seeing Miao Ni and Miao Erdan like this, Mrs. Zhang felt happy but also guilty for the difficulties they had to endure, she touched their cheeks and said, “hurry up and wash the cabbage, get the fire going, let’s stew some meat!”

Upon her command, Miao Ni and Miao Erdan rushed off to prepare.

Soon, the small farmhouse was filled with the aroma of stewing meat.

On his way back, Fang Hou wiped the sweat from his brow and sighed deeply with relief.

These days, it was such a hassle to give a gift to someone else’s family.

However, considering Mrs. Zhang’s concerns about him losing money, he figured she definitely would not have accepted the meat and eggs had they simply been a gift. The only way for her to accept them was by using a roundabout approach.

If he hadn’t been clever, he wasn’t sure he could have sent off the meat and salted duck eggs successfully.

Indeed, as the manager said, only he could pull this off, nobody else could be as eloquent or lie so convincingly as to make the Zhang family believe him.

But on the other hand, did this imply that the manager thought he was good at lying with a straight face?

This…

Fang Hou suddenly felt rather unwell.

—-

For the next few days, everything was peaceful in the village.

No suspicious people appeared, and nothing happened, everything at the workshop was as usual.

“It all seems so odd.” Zhuang Jingye, who has been worried for days, was visibly restless, with dark circles under his eyes.

“It is strange.” Zhuang Qingning agreed, “But nothing has happened so far, it’s possible that their previous reconnaissance was unsuccessful, so when they realized we were onto them, they decided not to bother us.”

“That is a possibility.”

“Indeed.” Zhuang Jingye wholeheartedly agreed with Zhuang Qingning’s reasoning.

He had taken care to ensure that the entire village was tightly guarded during this period, while it wasn’t as impregnable as a fortress, it was well-guarded so as not to give anyone an opportunity to take advantage.

The possibility of them giving up because of the village’s quick response was quite significant.

“Regardless, considering that this has happened once, we must be more watchful from now on to avoid being targeted by those various kinds of people,” Zhuang Jingye said, “By the way, Qingning, I wanted to discuss something with you.”

As he said this, Zhuang Jingye looked somewhat embarrassed, his face filled with a pleasing smile, as if he were a flatterer.

“Uncle Village Chief, just say what you have to say.”

Even though Zhuang Qingning sensed that this might not be an easy matter judging by Zhuang Jingye’s demeanor.

“It’s about time to start planting wheat, and everyone is looking for wheat seeds. I was thinking since you had such good bean seeds before, you could check with the merchant who sold you the bean seeds if they have any good wheat seeds for sale. If they do, maybe our village could buy some.”

“Even if the price is a bit high, it’s okay.”

At the mention of this, Zhuang Qingning raised her eyebrows.

The beans from the last harvest yielded more than half of what they usually do, and the whole village was jubilant. It made sense to think about the wheat seeds now.

Providing better seeds, resulting in a greater harvest which would improve the villagers’ lives, would be a wonderful thing to do. Considering it more broadly, promoting new wheat seeds that result in a greater yield means providing ample food for the common people across the country, and there would be nothing better than that.

However, providing the earlier bean seeds was a task assigned by Miao Wu, and it wasn’t guaranteed that there would be a similar task this time.

Zhuang Qingning thought for a moment and said, “Uncle Village Chief, I really want to help the village, but as the merchant said, the reason I had the bean seeds was because the deal they made fell through and they had some leftover, which they had to sell for money.”

“Setting aside whether such a situation would happen again this time, I don’t even know where the merchant is right now. Even though they left an address for sending letters, it’s uncertain how long the correspondence would take, whether they will be willing to sell wheat seeds to us, it’s all unknown.”

“All I can say is that I will give it a try, but whether I can find that merchant or whether I can acquire the wheat seeds, I can’t guarantee anything at this moment.”

“I understand, I understand.” Zhuang Jingye nodded eagerly, “Everything is uncertain and we all understand that. We’re just saying that if it’s possible, it would be wonderful. If not, it’s not a big deal.”

“We just thought that if possible, we could try our best to do a good deed for everyone in our village.”

“I understand what Uncle Village Chief means, and I will do my best. You can count on me.”

On the whole, Zhuang Qingning didn’t completely deny the possibility nor did she assure it would happen, everything would depend on whether Miao Wu could provide the wheat seeds.

After Zhuang Jingye left, Zhuang Qingning returned to her house, called for Miao Wu to come out and asked about the wheat seeds.

[With regards to the wheat seeds, the system can sell them and the price is not high. However, due to the current large deficit in your diligence points, it’s impossible to continue accruing a large amount of diligence points.]