Becoming the Villain's Discarded Wife
Chapter 39

Chapter 39: Chapter 39

"Someone quick, help!"

Hearing Shen Yuntian’s distant voice, Nanzhi was taken aback. They were the second group to follow up, had something happened?

Upon hearing the commotion, Shen Dashan and Shen Dazhu hurried over.

Nanzhi and Gougou could only stand by. The two of them couldn’t offer much help if they went along.

As the donkey cart slowly approached, they saw blood on Shen Yuntian’s face. Upon seeing her son’s bloodied face, Liu Dame almost fainted.

Aunt Guihua, who was standing nearby, swiftly caught her.

"Mother, I’m fine."

Not being a fool, Shen Yuntian hurried over to support his mother, reassuring her quickly.

Only after hearing his words did Liu Dame breathe a sigh of relief. Taking a close look at Shen Yuntian and confirming that he was indeed unharmed, she slapped him.

"You little rascal, why come home with a bloody face if you’re alright? Did you come back just to scare me?"

Although angry, Liu Dame didn’t slap him too hard. Shen Yuntian just grinned stupidly.

"Mother, can you take a look at me now?" Shen Xing asked somewhat helplessly, clutching an injured arm.

"Eldest, what happened to you?" Only now did Liu Dame notice Shen Xing behind them. Seeing the blood-soaked bandage on his arm, she was skeptical.

"You didn’t get hurt just to scare me, did you?"

"Mother, elder brother got really hurt." Seeing that his mother didn’t believe him, Shen Yuan pulled away Shen Xing’s hand that was covering the wound so his mother could see clearly.

Shen Dazhu, seeing his younger brother’s approach, gave him a kick while scolding, "Boy, have you lost your mind? Why are you pulling at his wounded arm?"

"Ouch! My bad, my bad! But wasn’t it her that didn’t believe you?"

"What exactly happened?" Shen Dashan looked at the three brothers of the Shen family. One was wounded, one had blood on him, and one was bouncing around wildly. He couldn’t figure out what had happened.

Upon seeing everyone staring at them, Shen Yuntian hurriedly narrated today’s events.

"When we arrived, we couldn’t find anyone, so we went to town to ask around. As it turned out, a lot of houses in the town had collapsed, and some places had just been flooded. We figured Brother Tie Niu and his group must have arrived before us, so we directly went to the coffin shop. The shopkeeper said they hadn’t seen anyone, so we went to the herb store. But after asking around in several stores, we still hadn’t found any news of them."

"We thought they couldn’t have gotten lost, so we ran back to the coffin shop. The shopkeeper still said no one had been there, so we went ahead and reserved a coffin. Li Zheng gave us five taels of silver, right? We gave three taels as a deposit and used the remaining two taels to buy herbs. We then waited in town for another hour, but we still didn’t see Brother Tie Niu and his group. We were worried that something happened, so we hurried back. As it turns out, we met them halfway."

"Where are they?" Shen Dashan looked around, but didn’t see any of the people from the first group. He was somewhat puzzled.

"Oh, they’re behind us. When we met them, they had been robbed. Fortunately, Li Zheng advised us to bring weapons. We saw that there were only about eight of them, so we rushed over with our weapons and managed to drive them away after a fight. But they were beaten and injured, so they were walking slowly. We came back to report first."

"Good job!"

Shen Dashan looked at the men and nodded, feeling a bit displeased with Brother Tie Niu and his group. The first group had ten people and four donkey carts, yet they couldn’t even beat eight people?

About a quarter of an hour later, the people from the first group returned, all bruised and beaten.

Seeing that the men from their families were injured, a group of women surrounded them. Meanwhile, Nanzhi held Gougou’s hand and they walked home.

Back in the house, Gougou realised that everything in his house was still intact. He ran around indoors and outdoors several times before confirming that it was just as it was before the earthquake.

"Gougou, what do you want to eat?"

"I want potato cakes! And fragrant porridge!"

Gougou was counting on his fingers: it had been several days since he last ate a potato cake! He also hadn’t had fragrant porridge for a while.

Nanzhi smiled and caressed his little face, promising him that he could go and play in the courtyard.

Fragrant porridge was just porridge with some lard and salt added. It tasted delicious, so Gougou had named it ’fragrant porridge’.

Thinking of how the past few days had gone, Nanzhi rolled up her sleeves. Today, she would make some delicious food to nourish Gougou.

While Nanzhi was busy in the kitchen, Gougou ran to the eaves of the backyard, focusing his attention on the river clams in the wooden basin.

He randomly picked up his small wooden stick and continued to poke the clam shell, asking: "River clam, river clam, can you hear me talking?"

Seeing that the river clam did not respond, Gougou felt a little disappointed, still, he continued to ask: "Where did your legs go?"

The river clam still lay quietly in the wooden basin without any movement. Gougou was completely disappointed and left his stick to go look at the crucian carp in the wooden bucket.

Only then, the river clam slightly opened its shell, spitting out a series of bubbles. How did this little kid know that it had legs?

Was it seen by him?

The river clam was also unsure. But wasn’t this little kid on the embankment at the time?

The more it thought about it, the more flustered it became. The river clam thought that it might need to bribe this little kid. Thinking this, it silently opened its shell a little wider, and pushed out another round pearl with its white flesh that was even more lustrous than the previous five.

It was meant to be hush money.

After about half an hour, Nanzhi finished cooking and carried the food to the small table in the backyard. She saw Gougou pouting next to the wooden bucket, gazing at the fish.

"Gougou, what’s wrong? You don’t look very happy." Seeing the little guy looking not very happy, Nanzhi was a bit puzzled. Didn’t he keep talking about wanting to go home and see the river clam? Why was he holding a bucket and being angry now?

"The river clam is mean! It ignores me when I talk to it." Gougou pouted and pointed at the wooden basin, complaining.

Hearing Gougou’s words, Nanzhi chuckled, picked up Gougou and sat him on a small stool, smiling as she tapped his tiny nose.

"Gougou, if a river clam could talk, wouldn’t it be a goblin? Aren’t you most afraid of goblins?"

Gougou only pouted, still looking unhappy.

The river clam was really annoying.

Only after Nanzhi coaxed the grumpy little guy did she start eating...

Today she made potato cakes, cooked porridge, and stir-fried some dried scallops with chili.

Gougou, who was not afraid of spicy food, was eating mouthfuls of food and quickly forgot about his earlier sulking. Meanwhile, Nanzhi was eating while contemplating their future.

They still had plenty of grain at home, but there wasn’t much fresh vegetables to eat. As for fish, shrimp, and crab, as long as the river at the end of the village didn’t dry up, they could still catch them to eat. In the mountains, they’d have to explore more to see if there were any other wild vegetables. The bitter herbs Ding Taipo gave her, she just couldn’t get used to.

"Mom, can Gougou go play by the river tomorrow?" Gougou saw that Nanzhi was somewhat absent-minded and asked a question.

Nanzhi instinctively nodded. By the time she reacted and met Gougou’s expectant eyes, she did not refuse anymore.

She only shook her head with a smile. Gougou acting like this made him seem more like a child. Thinking back to when she first arrived, Gougou was so obedient that he didn’t look like a child at all.

After eating, Nanzhi heated some water for Gougou to take a bath, lulled him to sleep, and only then did she draw some water to take a cold bath herself.

Feeling that the water level in the well seemed to be higher than before made her a bit puzzled. But water, the more the better for sure.

So she didn’t think much of it.