Witty Wife, Better Life

Chapter 184: Chapter 177: The Child King

After the children had gone far away, Shen Yunfang sat up from the bed and laughed when she saw the heaps of wild vegetables at the door.

Once, when Ergouzi and the other children saw Shen Yunfang using a slingshot to hit sparrows with such accuracy—never missing a shot—they insisted on learning from her. This skill couldn’t be acquired simply by wanting to learn it, so after many attempts, the children had to give up for the time being. But seeing the sparrows Shen Yunfang had brought down made them drool, and ultimately it was Ergouzi, with his clever mind, who negotiated with Shen Yunfang to do chores in exchange for eating sparrows.

Shen Yunfang thought it was a good deal since her home had more quails than they could eat; she didn’t care much for a few sparrows. Besides, the wild vegetables she was currently digging up weren’t enough for all the livestock, so if they could help her gather some, that would be beneficial too.

And so, a friendly agreement was reached.

When the children came back to the thatched shed and saw Shen Yunfang had already sat up, they excitedly gathered around her.

"Sister Yunfang, you’re awake."

"Sister Yunfang, we’ve each been here once already."

"Sister Yunfang, how many sparrows did you catch today?"

Shen Yunfang looked at the children gathered around her with a smile, and said, "How many do you plan to exchange for today?"

"Today, each of us gathered two baskets of wild vegetables, enough for ten." After saying this, Ergouzi watched Shen Yunfang closely, worried she would say there weren’t enough sparrows.

"Mhm, okay, there are thirteen sparrows in the field." Shen Yunfang nodded, indicating there were enough.

The children cheered and, without paying any more attention to Shen Yunfang, turned and headed for the field.

Shen Yunfang called out from behind, "Be gentle, if you cause any damage, the team leader is going to beat you." At this time of year, the millet was almost ripe, and if the children were too rough in the field, they could knock the grains off, so caution was necessary.

"We know." That was the children’s response.

Shen Yunfang shook her head, rose from the bed, and walked to the side of the shed. She dragged in the baskets the children had brought over, poured the wild vegetables onto the ground, and started to pick through them.

There were all sorts of wild vegetables, and she specifically picked out the shepherd’s purse. All of these greens were edible, and she liked to eat dumplings and buns with shepherd’s purse filling, but since her family had run out of white flour, she could only make shepherd’s purse-filled dough balls that evening.

Thinking about the taste of the dough balls, Shen Yunfang unconsciously swallowed her saliva. That settled it; she decided to steam a big pot of them that day, put the leftovers in the storage space, and have them ready to eat whenever she craved in the future.

She set the shepherd’s purse aside, sorted through the remaining wild vegetables, grabbed a handful, and knocked them against the ground a few times. Then she took out a wooden board from the side and placed the vegetables on it. She picked up the kitchen knife that was standing nearby, and with a few swift chops, cut the vegetables into small pieces. After a few more horizontal and vertical cuts, when it seemed right, she scraped the chopped greens from the board into a cloth bag.

Then she grabbed another handful of wild vegetables and started chopping on the board again.

About ten minutes later, she had processed all the wild vegetables and then noticed the children running back from the field.

"Sister Yunfang, we found them all."

"Thirteen and not one less."

Shen Yunfang looked around, and saw that each person had a few sparrows in hand, nodded in approval, and said, "Not bad."

"Then let’s start roasting now."

Shen Yunfang could hear the sound of the children slavering.

However, after checking her wristwatch, Shen Yunfang shook her head and said, "No, we don’t have enough time today. You’ll have to find a place to roast them yourselves."

Sometimes the children would start a fire right in the grass shed to roast the sparrows, but on several occasions, others saw them and gossiped about it. They insinuated that Shen Yunfang, rather than working properly during work hours, was roasting birds with the children. Uncle Shen had also reminded her to be cautious. Thus, she now seldom allowed the children to roast sparrows there, reasoning that it made no difference where they did it. Why should she court trouble by doing it right under everyone’s noses?

Ergouzi was the leader among these children and also more worldly than the others. Seeing that some children wanted to dawdle, he waved his hand decisively and said, "Alright, let’s hurry to the riverside."

As they were leaving, he turned back to Shen Yunfang and said, "Sister Yunfang, I’ll bring you your three sparrows later."

There were thirteen sparrows in total – ten for the group of children – leaving three for her. Whenever these kids roasted sparrows, they would always cook the extras as well.

"Fine. Don’t forget to take the basket away," Shen Yunfang said with a smile, pointing to the willow basket at the entrance of the shed and then to the cloth bag in the shed, signaling that she had finished dumping the wild vegetables.

With a shout from Ergouzi, a child picked up the basket, and then the group of kids ran off, giggling and laughing.

Shen Yunfang watched the children scamper away cheerfully and then started to sort out the wild vegetables she had taken out from her storage space.

Soon, the gong signaling the end of work sounded, and many people passed by Shen Yunfang’s little grass shed. She greeted those she knew; for those she didn’t, she acted as if she hadn’t seen them.

Shen Yunfang tidied up the things in the grass shed, donned a straw hat, and packed the bedsheet that covered the vegetable knife – one of the only two valuable items in the shed – and prepared to head home after work.

This year, her household was raising more livestock, necessitating a larger quantity of wild vegetables, so she had to dig more diligently. Although there were some reserves in her storage space, living off stockpiles wasn’t in her nature.

A young wife nearby saw Shen Yunfang coming out of the shed and said flatteringly, "Oh, Yunfang, you’re heading home, huh? That hat looks quite nice on you. With the sun so fierce, it’s definitely good to have a hat for shade."

Shen Yunfang glanced at her, barely familiar, and couldn’t be bothered to respond. She hummed in acknowledgment and walked toward her home.

"Pfft, look at her, acting all high and mighty. Just because she married a man who moved into her family, she thinks she’s something special. Acting like no one else has ever been pregnant before," the young wife complained bitterly about Shen Yunfang’s attitude, deeply dissatisfied. But Shen Yunfang’s uncle-in-law was the head of the production team, her husband was an army company commander, and she had powerful connections. This young wife had many grievances but dared not confront Shen Yunfang directly, so she resorted to sour grapes.

Another young wife nearby disdained such two-faced behavior, seeing the sour words for what they were: envy for someone else’s success. If someone is living well, it means they have the ability. It’s none of her business how they got there. "Enough, stop talking about others. We still have plenty of work to do. Let’s finish quickly so we can go back and rest a bit in this scorching heat," she chided.

The first young wife wanted to say more, but seeing that everyone else in her work group had already crouched down to work, she couldn’t continue to slack off. Reluctantly, she too crouched down, still muttering complaints under her breath.

Shen Yunfang had already walked far away, unaware that anyone harbored such resentment toward her. She reached home, shouldered her carrying basket, took up her sickle, and went up the mountain.