The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

The concubine, caught off guard and hit by Zhang Yuying a few times and unable to fend her off, immediately began to shriek, “Qiu Ling! Qiu Ling! Come and help!”

Qiu Ling, the niece, hurried out from inside the house. Upon seeing her aunt being beaten up, she quickly grabbed a broom from next to the wall and aimed it at Zhang Yuying’s face.

Seeing their brother being grabbed and hit by two women, Hong Xiao and Zhang Xiaolang bravely put aside their fear and rushed over to shove Qiu Ling.

Thus, the few of them ended up fighting each other.

But Zhang Yuying was only thirteen or fourteen years old, and Hong Xiao was no more than nine years old. The two of them couldn’t beat the two grown women.

As for Zhang Xiaolang, he was just a five-year-old child. He tried to push his aunt away, but being small and all, he was shoved aside by his aunt, left sprawling on the ground for a while before he could get up.

Zhang Jia, who was lying on the door frame, saw this scene. His anger boiled over and he suddenly got up from the ground, stumbled towards the concubine, grabbed her hair, and threw her onto the ground.

The concubine screamed in fright, and tumbled and rolled away. Qiu Ling, too, was almost scared unconscious. It seemed a miracle that she didn’t blurt out cries of a haunting spirit.

You two…” Zhang Jia, trembling from head to toe in rage, had used up all his strength in his furious outburst just now and plopped down onto the ground, fainting in the next moment.

Hong Xiao and Zhang Yuying rushed over to massage the emergency pressure point on his nose.

At that moment, Zhang Yukun came back from outside. Seeing his father lying rigid on the ground, he thought he was dead and collapsed to the ground in fear, crying out in despair.

Zhang Yuying said irritably, “Stop crying! Quickly find a doctor for our father!” He initially thought that his elder brother had gone to look for a doctor for their father, but seeing Yukun coming back alone, he realized that his older brother had not done anything.

Zhang Yukun wiped his tears, intending to nod in agreement, but suddenly heard his wife Qiu Ling’s groaning behind him, “Oh no, husband, my stomach hurts.”

Zhang Yukun turned back to see Qiu Ling already sitting on the floor, wailing in pain, “My stomach hurts. Oh no, husband, your brother and sister just hit me in the stomach.”

“What?” Zhang Yukun panicked, ran over to pick up his wife and said, “I’ll take you to the doctor.” With that, he sped off.

Seeing Zhang Yukun leaving, the concubine gave a spiteful look at Zhang Yuying and Hong Xiao, saying, “You two just wait right here. If anything happens to my niece, you will pay with your lives!”

She then turned to Zhang Xiaolang and started hitting him with the broom, shouting, “You little monster! Ganging up with strangers to bully your own mother, I’ll beat you to death!”

Zhang Xiaolang ran out of the courtyard as fast as he could, all the way to Jiang’s Special Products Store, and sobbingly said to Jiang Yunniang, “Mother, father is dying. They are bullying brother and sister. Please go and have a look.”

Jiang Yunniang was tidying up the yard, preparing to set up the mushroom shed again. Hearing what Xiaolang said, she immediately put down the bamboo in her hand and hurried out.

Yingbao and Erni were also cleaning up. Seeing their aunt so worried, they had no choice but to take out three bottles of medicine and hand them to her, “Aunt, take this.”

Whether it could cure him or not, they didn’t know. But it would definitely keep him alive for today.

Jiang Yunniang took the small porcelain bottles, gave her nieces a grateful look, and ran out.

Xiaolang also rushed out after her.

Erni bent down to pick up the scattered bamboo poles and said to her younger cousin, “Aunt is really something. That man treats her so badly, yet she still cares so much about him. If it were me, I wouldn’t care if he dies! Humph!”

Yingbao was also somewhat puzzled by her aunt’s mercy. But recalling that the man was Zhang Yuying and Hong Xiao’s biological father, she somewhat understood.

She herself had given the medicine to her aunt because Zhang Yuying and Hong Xiao were Zhang Jia’s biological children.

By noon, Aunt, Hong Xiao and the others hadn’t come back yet. Jiang Cheng was worried, so he told his two cousins to watch the shop while he went to Zhang Jia’s house to check.

Outside, a few wisps of drizzle kept falling, and the ground was muddy from the rainstorm the day before.

Yingbao and Erni sat inside the counter, bored, watching the people passing by their shop.

Suddenly, Zhang Min ran in, and in a hushed tone, said to Yingbao, “Little sister, I have news for you. Today a lot of fishermen ran to Pei Shixian’s place, kowtowing and worshipping him. They’re all calling him a heavenly master.”

Yingbao was not surprised at all.

That’s exactly what Pei Shixian wanted. “Our master is also a celestial master, far more powerful than that fake one.”

Zhang Min glanced at his junior sister tangentially, “When has our master ever been called a celestial master?”

“Anyway, our master is the most powerful celestial master!” Even if no one calls him that now, she would make others call him a celestial master in the future.

She would risk everything to elevate her master to the status of a god, otherwise, who knows what shocking words that fake celestial master might utter to harm her and her family.

Zhang Min shook his head, sat down on the stool brought by Erni, looked around and asked, “Is this all the merchandize your family has?”

He didn’t say it, but could the store survive with just these goods?

Yingbao: “It’s the off-season now. At this time, the shop sells the fruits and vegetables produced in our own house. The business will pick up in the fall.”

She could get over two thousand taels of silver at the end of each year, not including the money she made from selling her pills, so she was quite content.

Zhang Min peered into the counter, “Fruits and vegetables? Where are they?”

“My second cousin hasn’t shipped them yet.” There was a storm yesterday, and many roads down the South Slope must have been flooded. She guessed that her second cousin could not drive the horse-drawn cart out, hence his absence.

Zhang Min nodded, “Your family’s grapes are quite good, our master likes them very much. He sent me to buy some today, but I didn’t expect them to be out of stock.”

The two chatted for a while before Zhang Min took his leave.

By evening, Yingbao and Erni had locked up the shop when her eldest cousin and his family returned.

Her aunt went to the kitchen to cook without uttering a word, Hong Xiao lighted the stove for her, and Zhang Yuying was reading with Xiaolang in the room.

Erni quietly asked her eldest cousin, “Why are you back so late? Did something happen?”

Jiang Cheng: “Nothing happened. It was Zhang Yukun’s father-in-law’s family causing trouble. I called several government officials to drive them away.”

Tomorrow, I’ll have to invite those officials over for a meal to repay them for their help.

“How’s Hong Xiao’s dad?” Yingbao was still concerned about the effectiveness of her medicine and whether it worked for Zhang Jia.

Jiang Cheng: “He looked just fine to me. He even stood up to fight.”

“I see.” Yingbao nodded, not caring about the other affairs of the Zhang family.

At noon the next day, Jiang Quan finally drove the carriage to the county town.

He came along with the Li Dao and Li He brothers.

They unloaded the fruits from the carriage into the shop, and then went to the backyard for a meal.

Jiang Quan was very happy to see his little cousin, “Yingbao, when will you go home? Your uncle and aunt were talking about you yesterday.”

“In a few days.” Yingbao had been eager to go home for a while now. Unfortunately, her master was busy these days and asked her to wait a few more days, then they would go to Chuanhe Town together.

“It just happens that Li Dao and Li He will be heading back in the same time too, you can travel together for safety.” Jiang Quan took out a wooden board from the shop, which read: Fresh fruits and vegetables have arrived, welcome to buy.

He inserted the wooden board next to the door of the shop, and then turned back to talk to his little cousin.

“Where all have you been? Did you have fun?”

“Did you travel by boat or carriage? I’ve heard that it’s not safe around here anymore. There are robbers blocking the road in many places. Every time I drive the carriage back and forth, I worry that robbers might jump out from the side of the road.”

Every time Jiang Quan thought about the last robbery, he still felt a lingering fear.