The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 101 - 90: Scared (Extra - for 30,000 votes from Yunqi)

Chapter 101: Chapter 90: Scared (Extra Chapter for 30,000 votes from Yunqi)

Manbao and Bai Shanbao were still young after all, and Bai Erlang was also not used to walking such long distances, so Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang took turns carrying the three of them on their backs. In this way, the two elders slowly made their way home, each dragging along three little ones.

From a distance, they saw the smoke from the stoves in their village, and Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang were invigorated. They quickened their pace while carrying Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang, and Manbao, who had been put down not long before, also happily scampered ahead with her little short legs.

But they didn’t know how excited Qili Village was at their appearance.

The Bai Family’s servant, who had been searching on the mountain and keeping watch, was the first to spot them. His eyes were good, and though they were still far away, he still recognized the young master of their family and bellowed down the mountain.

Old Master Bai, who had been comforting his tearful mother, was heartened and dashed over, leaving everyone behind.

Ms. Liu, who had been holding herself together, also stood up immediately and quickly followed Old Master Bai with the help of a maid.

Thus, before Zhou Wulang and the others had reached the entrance to the village, they saw a crowd rushing out from the villagers, with Old Master Bai, his hair somewhat disheveled, running at the forefront and bumping into Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang. He glanced at the two children on their backs, then turned to look at Manbao, who was walking between her two brothers on her little short legs. His anger, which had been building up inside him, somehow couldn’t be unleashed on the two teenagers, and he glared at Bai Erlang, who was so comfortable that he was about to fall asleep.

Zhou Wulang couldn’t help but secretly pinch Bai Erlang, who immediately woke up and cried out, "It’s time for Shanbao to get down!"

As soon as Bai Erlang opened his eyes, he met his father’s gaze, got startled, and immediately started to deflect blame, "It wasn’t on purpose that I led us the wrong way, Dad. Shanbao and Manbao don’t blame me."

Old Master Bai didn’t know what he was talking about, but from his words alone, it was clear his son was the main culprit, and so he let out an "ahh ahh—" and roared, rolling up his sleeves to discipline him.

At that moment, Old Master Bai looked so ferocious that Zhou Wulang got scared and turned to run—obviously still carrying Bai Erlang.

Bai Erlang also panicked, clinging tightly to Zhou Wulang’s neck, and screaming, "Run, run, my dad’s catching up..."

Ms. Liu caught up with them, and without concerning herself with Old Master Bai disciplining his son, she took Bai Shanbao off Zhou Liulang’s back. She crouched down to ask him, "Where did you go?"

Bai Shanbao, also startled, instinctively sensed they had caused trouble and recounted what they had done that day.

In fact, only the Bai Family was in a frantic state in the village; the Zhou Family remained relatively calm because they didn’t think Manbao was missing.

The adults knew that Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang were with Manbao, as all the villagers had been helping the Bai Family search for their missing children, and that’s when the Zhou Family realized that Manbao and her brothers also weren’t in the village.

However, Ms. Qian only thought they had slipped out to the county town again and wasn’t too worried.

She didn’t know exactly what kind of business her daughter and sons were doing, but since they were able to bring meat home, they clearly had some small business going, so she assumed they had gone to the county town to make money again.

But why was the Bai Family so anxious?

Bai Erlang had previously also gone to play with friends in the village, but he would always return home on time for meals.

Not to mention Bai Shanbao, who ran out early in the morning. The servant who usually followed him just went to have breakfast first, and by the time he thought to watch over the young master, he found that the young master was missing.

Upon searching, they discovered Bai Erlang was missing as well.

The Bai Family first thought that strangers must have entered the village and that the children had been abducted.

After questioning the villagers and confirming there were no strangers in the village today, the Bai Family’s hearts pulled tight in worry, fearing the children had fallen into the river while playing with water, or had wandered into the mountains.

That would surely be a disaster.

So, the villagers searched the mountains and scoured the river, causing a huge commotion for half a day, only to find that the two children were with the Zhou Family.

In the end, Bai Erlang still got a spanking from Old Master Bai, but because the chase had gone on for a while and some of his anger had been vented, his reason also returned substantially, and he was more measured in his punishment, which didn’t match his earlier ferocious display.

Then Old Master Bai took all five of them back to the Bai Family to be questioned.

As a result, the notes that Manbao and the others had taken were also taken up by Old Master Bai.

Old Master Bai carefully looked over the notes, looking at those childish characters. After a while, he handed the booklet to Ms. Liu.

Ms. Liu also examined it carefully and asked the three children, "Who came up with these questions?"

Bai Erlang stole a glance toward Bai Shanbao and Manbao.

The two children were honest and raised their hands together.

Old Master Bai looked at his son, who was showing colors of guilt, and his hand twitched, but he didn’t strike. He exhaled and waved his hand, "That’s enough. In the future, if you leave the house, you must tell the adults at home, what is considered a long trip? Going beyond the village gate is a long trip, do you hear?"

With such a mild scolding after all the bluster, even Zhou Wulang standing by could not help but silently scorn Old Master Bai.

After lecturing his two children, Old Master Bai smiled at Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang, "The children are ignorant, thank you both for helping them out."

Zhou Wulang immediately bowed and said, "Please excuse us, Old Master Bai. We did not know that the young master hadn’t informed his home. They said it was homework assigned by their teacher, so we thought..."

Old Master Bai expressed understanding; after all, their little girl had informed her elder brothers, unlike the two naughty boys who hadn’t informed theirs.

Old Master Bai repeatedly thanked them, considering they were the ones who had carried his two children all the way back, even the smallest, Manbao, had walked home on her own.

Latter on, Bai Erlang complained that during the journey, he was only carried twice, and Manbao was carried most of the time, and only walked a little bit.

But whether Old Master Bai believed that was another matter.

When Zhou Wulang brought Manbao back to the Zhou Family, Ms. Qian had already received the news. Seeing her two sons sneaking in with their little sister on tiptoe, she softly coughed from the doorway.

Zhou Wulang felt a chill down his spine and dutifully took the two younger ones to admit their fault.

Ms. Qian wasn’t very angry; unlike the Bai Family, Manbao had been out with her two brothers, and Zhou Wulang, who was almost of marrying age, was seen as quite responsible in her eyes, so this mistake didn’t seem so great to her.

Yet she still needed to be strict, staring at them for a good while before turning to Manbao, "Is it really a homework task assigned by Mr. Zhuang?"

Manbao nodded vigorously, "The teacher told us to write an article that would become famous throughout the world."

Mr. Zhuang: ...I didn’t, I’m wrongly accused!

Ms. Qian thought that her daughter’s words need to strip away the adjectives and adverbs because this child would often exaggerate, so cutting to the core, she concluded that Mr. Zhuang had assigned Manbao to write an essay, and that the essay was related to service, which was why the three children had run off to watch roadwork.

Having sorted out the sequence of events, Ms. Qian waved her hand to interrupt her daughter’s looming lengthy explanation and asked, "So did you finish it after this trip?"

"Almost, we haven’t finished asking people yet. One more trip should do it, but, Mom, can we bring our family’s clay pot next time?"

Ms. Qian asked, "What for?"

"To make soup for Third Brother! Mom, you don’t know, they’re so pitiful. They eat cold buns and drink cold water."