Chapter 39 - 39: Lodging a Complaint_l

Translator: 549690339

The next day, as expected, Yingbao ‘found’ a lot of water chestnuts again.

The water chestnuts were scattered all around the ditch, a few plants here, a few plants there, and even more further out.

She would always manage to pull a few plants out of the water during the times when Dani and Erni were not paying attention.

This confused Dani and Erni quite a bit.

Erni, being young with less experience, thought she did not have the sharp eyesight like her younger cousin, hence she couldn’t find the bare stalks hiding in the ditch.

Puzzled, ten-year-old Dani did not understand how her cousin could pluck out several bare stalks laden with water chestnuts from places in the ditch she had already searched and found nothing.

Oh well, they gave up, figuring since they aren’t finding anything, they might as well let their little cousin do the searching, and they would gather what she found.

So, Dani and Erni collected the bare stalks that Yingbao “uprooted” from behind her, gathering them into a large pile.

After taking out about three-tenths of the water chestnuts from her stash, Yingbao decided it was time to stop.

Just then, Jiang Quan arrived, followed by two boys.

These two boys were the youngest sons of the masons, Li Dayong and Li Eryong, one of them was named Li Dao, aged nine, and the other was Li He, aged eight.

Their father was currently helping the Jiang Family make clay bricks at

Xiaonan Mountain, and their older siblings were there too, helping to cut and dry grass which would be used with the clay.

Being young, they couldn’t provide much help so they followed Jiang Quan to fish and catch shrimp to provide for the family.

“Oh wow, so many water chestnuts.”

Jiang Quan had tasted them yesterday and they were incredibly delicious, seeing his sisters had found such a large pile, he was over the moon.

They tasted much better than the wild cherries and sour apricots from the mountain, and tasted even better when cooked.

“Er Ge, come here quickly and pick these,” Dani called out, “There are so many, we won’t finish picking them.”

“Okay.” Jiang Quan walked over, put down his carrying basket and fishing net, and squatted down to pick the water chestnuts.

The Li brothers, Li Dao and Li He, also came to help.

Yingbao washed a few and handed them to the Li brothers: “Here, try some.”

Last year, she had tasted the food they shared with her, so now it was a great opportunity to repay their kindness.

At first, Li Dao and Li He felt embarrassed to accept. However, seeing Jiang Quan also eating, they took some.

While eating, Jiang Quan asked, “Yingbao, how did you find so many water chestnuts? I never noticed them before?”

He often went fishing and shrimp catching with his friends, and had never noticed that this kind of good stuff grew in the ditch.

Yingbao replied earnestly, “You only think about fishing and catching shrimp, so of course you didn’t notice.”

Jiang Quan scratched his nose and found himself agreeing with his little cousin’s reasoning.

Indeed, he had never paid much attention to the aquatic plants in the ditch.

“Er Gege, we surely can’t finish eating all these water chestnuts. It’s market day tomorrow, why don’t we take them to town to sell?”

Yingbao was wondering how she could use this chance of selling water chestnuts to bring out some more. After all, she still had a lot of them stored in her secret spot, and they were taking up a lot of space.

Jiang Quan’s eyes lit up, and he nodded repeatedly: “Great idea, I’ll carry them to the market tomorrow.”

Being twelve years old now, he understood the importance of money.

Not to mention the money needed for future expenses like starting a family. Even now, he didn’t have any money to buy the things he craved for.

The hundred coins he had were given by his uncle, and he was too reluctant to spend any, so he stashed them all in a hole in the wall.

Yingbao smirked and made a request: “I want to go too.”

She wanted to go to the market to order a leather saddle for Xiaolu, so that she could ride it for longer distances in the future.

“Huh?” Jiang Quan scratched his head, “What are you going for?”

His little cousin was so young, and she walked slowly. It would be a hassle to bring her to the market.

What’s more, if he was there to sell things and something went wrong, it would be bad if he lost track of his little cousin.

“I just want to go.” Yingbao could see his reluctance, so she quickly said: “I can walk myself. I don’t need you to carry me.”

Jiang Quan twitched his lip corners, nodded reluctantly: “Alright then, but don’t complain about being tired when the time comes.”

“Mm.” Yingbao had always been exercising, so running more than ten miles alone was no problem.

Moreover, she ate a handful of the Five Ding Zhi mushroom every day, so now her strength was even greater than Yuanbao’s, and she could run just as fast as him.

Early the next morning, Yingbao got up early, first fed the deer, then scattered some wheat produced in her spirit cave for the chickens.

After hurriedly washing up, she grabbed a freshly baked egg pancake made by her mother and ran towards the front yard.

Upon reaching Uncle’s house in the front yard, she searched everywhere for her second cousin, but could not find him.

When she asked her aunt, she found out that her cousin had already gone to the market with a load of water chestnuts early in the morning.

Yingbao was stunned for a while, before suddenly throwing back her head and wailing at the top of her lungs, causing a huge commotion.

Of course, she wasn’t really crying. She hadn’t faced any heartbreak over her long life, so no tears were shed.

However, she was very angry, angry at the boy for breaking his promise. He had said he would bring her to the market but then reneged on his promise.

She was hell-bent on letting Aunt teach him a good lesson today, or she would not rest easy.

As expected, Aunt was startled and hurriedly comforted her niece, “Baobao, what’s wrong?”

Yingbao kept wailing, but she didn’t stop accusing her second cousin, “Second brother said he would take Baobao to the market, but he ran off alone… wu wu wu… he does not keep his word, he lied to Baobao…”

Aunt helplessly patted and comforted her: “Good girl Baobao, when your second brother returns, Aunt will surely give him a good beating. Now, don’t cry, Aunt just made some water chestnut cake. Once it’s steamed, I’ll give you some to eat.”

Grandma Jiang Liu was also startled by Yingbao’s wails and asked repeatedly what was going on.

Upon learning that her grandson had gone to the market without her granddaughter, she stomped her foot and scolded, “When he comes back,

Grandma will scold him. That cheeky boy dares to bully his younger sister.”

Then she loudly called her eldest grandson, “Dacheng! Dacheng!”

Jiang Cheng was ventilating the bamboo shed when he heard Grandma calling him, so he responded, “What is it?”

“You have no plans today, right? Then take your cousin to the market. Grandma will give you twenty coins. Buy some delicious food from the market.”

Jiang Liu was quite affluent now since her third son had given her a coin last time. She was willing to spend money to make her granddaughter happy.

“Okay!” Jiang Cheng agreed: “I’ll be right there.”

Observing the situation, Yingbao stopped crying and rubbed her eyes.

“What a good girl.” Jiang Liu sat down with Yingbao beside a small table in the yard and wiped her face with a clean cloth.

Jiang Cheng came out of the bamboo shed, smiling, he asked, “Yingbao, do you want to go to the market?”

Yingbao nodded vigorously, “I do.”

“Big cousin will take you.” Jiang Cheng said, “It so happens that Dani also wants to go to the market. You guys go together.”

Yingbao jumped up in joy, hugging Jiang Cheng’s calf. She looked up and complimented him, “Big brother is the best, better than second brother.”

Jiang Cheng picked up Yingbao, smiling, and helped her into a basket to carry her on his back.

Dani ran out cheerfully, even leaving the stove untended. She went back to the room, changed her clothes, and followed her big brother.

Aunt took some freshly steamed water chestnut cakes from the steamer, wrapped them in clean reed leaves, and put them in the basket where Yingbao was sitting, cautioning, “Wait until it cools down before you eat it. Be careful not to burn yourself.”

Yingbao nodded vigorously, “Mmm. Thank you, Aunt.”

She behaved obediently, “Baobao will bring delicious food from the market for

Aunt and Grandma.”

She had a lot of Copper Coins in her pocket, and there was even a five-liang silver ingot left in her spirit cave.

Zhou Shi patted Yingbao’s head and smiled, “Okay.”

Jiang Liu took out twenty coins from the house and handed them to her eldest grandson, reminding him, “Take good care of your sister.”

“I know. Grandma, don’t worry.”

After taking the money, Jiang Cheng with his little cousin on his back, and leading his sister Dani, set off for Chuanhe Town.

Dani very rarely had the chance to go to the market. Today, her big brother was breaking convention by taking her along, so she was ecstatic.

The ordinarily taciturn girl was chirping away on the way to the market, asking big brother and Yingbao all sorts of questions and was extremely happy.

Yingbao smiled brightly as she peeled off the cooled water chestnut cake and handed a piece to Dani, giving another one to big cousin Jiang Cheng..