Becoming the Villain's Discarded Wife
Chapter 54_1

Chapter 54: Chapter 54_1

Lihua Village was becoming bustling once more.

After finishing the funeral proceedings, they had to busy themselves fixing their houses.

Nanzhi watched as early in the morning people in the village started forming a line marching towards the end of the village, curiously.

"Girl, what are you doing?" Aunt Guihua was following her family towards the end of the village when she saw Nanzhi craning her neck at her doorstep.

"Aunt Guihua." Nanzhi felt a bit embarrassed for being caught sneaking a peek, but after a moment’s hesitation, she asked the question that was on her mind.

"What are all of you up to?"

Aunt Guihua looked at Nanzhi’s embarrassed expression, chuckled, and pointed at the long line of people, "We’re going to West Mountain to chop down some trees for beams. The earthquake destroyed more or less all of our houses, we have to do some major repairs. But how is your house? I saw your two brothers came over to help you fix your house a couple of days ago?"

Nanzhi was taken aback, she moved aside slightly so that Aunt Guihua could get a good look at her courtyard, "Our house is okay, only half of the roof collapsed, my two brothers came over and fixed it."

Looking at the house, Aunt Guihua was startled, it took her a while to respond, her face filled with surprise, "Wow, your brothers are so skilled? It seems to me that there’s no difference compared to before."

Nanzhi just chuckled awkwardly and didn’t say anything else.

The more she talks, the higher chance of making mistakes, she might as well just accept that her brothers were talented.

Lin Yicheng, who had just sat down to have breakfast in Stone Village, suddenly sneezed.

Lin’s mother gave him a glare in distaste, "Did you catch a cold in such hot weather? Don’t spread it to Doudou and Maomao."

After being frowned upon by his mother, Lin Yicheng scratched his head, he didn’t know either. With such weather, even if he suffered from heat stroke he shouldn’t be catching a cold.

Just as Lin Ercheng was about to give a sneer, he felt a tickle in his nose and sneezed twice before he could stop.

Seeing his elder brother’s schadenfreude, Lin Ercheng just rolled his eyes and continued to eat his food.

After exchanging a few words, Aunt Guihua also went to West Mountain, and Nanzhi cooked two bowls of potato paste before waking Gougou up.

"Mom, I’ m sleepy." Gougou yawned.

"Does Gougou want to sleep a little longer?" Nanzhi asked Gougou, looking at him.

Anyway, it was still early, it wouldn’t matter if he slept a little longer.

"I want to get up, and, and be with mommy."

Looking at Gougou’s confused appearance, Nanzhi just shook her head, coaxed Gougou back to sleep, and then went to eat the potato paste.

She kept Gougou’s portion in the pot, keeping it warm, then Nanzhi went to the backyard.

The large clams in the wooden basin revealed some white flesh, occasionally spewing out a few bubbles.

Nanzhi checked the clams, and seeing no issues, she went over to the barrel. The prawns in the barrel were considered their meat reserve at home and couldn’t be mishandled.

She removed the wooden board that was covering it, causing the barrel to suddenly brighten up, which triggered the prawns to scatter hither and thither, all of them hiding under the aquatic plants Nanzhi had brought back from the river.

Only after verifying that all the prawns were still alive did Nanzhi wash her hands and check the chestnut paste she had dried the previous afternoon.

The chestnut paste in the winnowing basket had been dried thoroughly and now became a huge piece of brown brittle sheet.

Looking at the color which she felt was somewhat similar to the Chestnut Flour she had eaten before, Nanzhi was somewhat reassured.

It should be done, right?

She carefully broke off a small piece and tasted it. It had a slightly sweet taste. All that was left to do was to grind these brittle sheets into fine powder and it was pretty much done.

When Gougou woke up and found his mom not by his side, he immediately hopped out of bed, butt naked, looking for her.

"Mom! Mom!"

Nanzhi was busy working with the stone mill when she heard Gougou calling for her in a slightly panicked voice.

Knowing that the little guy was quite sensitive, she quickly emerged from the storage room and waved, "Gougou, your mom is here."

As soon as Gougou saw Nanzhi waving at him, he immediately stopped talking and ran over, his bare feet pounding.

"Mom, Gougou thought you didn’t want him anymore."

Hearing Gougou’s affectionate words, Nanzhi wanted to ruffle his hair, but she was afraid the chestnut flour on her hands would stick to his hair, so she only said softly, "How could Mom not want Gougou? Go quickly, wash up. Mom saved some breakfast for you."

"Mmm," Gougou nodded against Nanzhi before loosening his grip and going to the backyard to wash up.

Washing up simply meant using a handkerchief to rub his face. Since they didn’t have toothpaste or toothbrushes here, Nanzhi taught Gougou to use a strip of cotton cloth dipped in salt water to clean his teeth.

After washing, Gougou went back to the room to put on his clothes and trousers, then put on his little cloth shoes and waited in the hall.

Nanzhi was ahead of him, having already served the warmed-up potato paste from the pot. This way, Gougou could start eating breakfast when he finished washing up.

She then returned to the storage room to mill flour.

After quietly eating his food, Gougou took a small stool and went to find Nanzhi.

Gougou felt a pang in his heart watching Nanzhi tirelessly grinding flour while wiping away sweat.

"Do you want some chestnut flour mantou, Gougou?" Nanzhi, worried that Gougou would get bored, asked with a smile.

"I want some." Gougou nodded.

"Alright then, Mom will make chestnut flour mantou for Gougou at noon."

Nanzhi nodded with a smile, then ground for a quarter of an hour before she had finished.

Looking at the somewhat brown chestnut flour, Nanzhi was happy.

She’d try making the chestnut flour mantou at noon. If it worked, she’d tell Li Zheng about it in the afternoon.

Nanzhi surveyed the chestnut flour she’d just produced. She’d used more than ten jins of chestnuts, which would be a little over ten jins without the shell, but now ground into flour, only about five or six jins remained.

The yield was only about a third of the original weight. Nanzhi wasn’t sure if this yield was good or bad, she planned to ask Ms. Liu at noon.

She stored the chestnut flour in the kitchen before heading out with Gougou once more.

Since chestnuts could be ground into chestnut flour, she needed to gather more chestnuts from East Mountain.

Neither she nor Gougou had farm land now, and there was no one at home to earn money. They couldn’t count on supporting the household with pearls spat out by the river clam.

Looking at their current circumstances, having more grains stored would never be wrong.

When asked whether he wanted to go play with Doudou at Mrs. Liu’s house or accompany her to East Mountain, Gougou thought for a moment before saying, "Gougou will go with Mom to gather chestnuts!"

Nanzhi then nodded, carried her basket on her back, and led Gougou into East Mountain.

The weather now was several degrees warmer than when she first arrived. Along the way, Nanzhi was worried that Gougou would get heatstroke. Only after they reached Chestnut Forest in East Mountain did Nanzhi quickly help Gougou remove his outer clothes.

"Behave, Gougou, don’t run out under the sun, alright?"

Nanzhi instructed Gougou, whose little face was red from the sun.

"I know, Mom," Gougou wiped away the sweat on his forehead.

The chestnuts in the outskirts had been thoroughly picked up by the villagers. Even those that had ripened and fallen these past few days were few and far between.

"Nanzhi."

After gathering chestnuts for a while, Nanzhi was already feeling weary in her back and legs. Just as she stretched her body lazily, she heard someone call her name.

As she turned her head to look, wasn’t it Ms. Wu?