Chapter 8: Forcing Debt Repayment at the Doorstep

  "Alright, let's go." Su Xiaofan took a glance at the spot where they had picked wild vegetables yesterday and continued to climb upwards. It was still early today, so she decided to venture further up to see if they could find some wild mushrooms or something.

  After more than half a time, the two of them finally reached the top of the mountain. Among the trees and bushes, there were many tree stumps, probably cut down by people. On those stumps, several mushrooms grew in twos and threes.

  "Why doesn't anyone come here to pick wild mushrooms?" Su Xiaofan squatted down and picked the wild mushrooms, putting them into her basket. Looking around, she saw that there were mushrooms on all the tree stumps nearby. Although there weren't many people in this village, someone should have come to pick them, after all, the villagers here weren't very rich.

  It's said that a few years ago, someone died from eating wild mushrooms on the mountain, and since then, very few people have come to pick them. Xiao Yimò also came over to help, constantly throwing nearby wild mushrooms into her basket.

  "So that's how it is..." Su Xiao Fan searched through his original body's memories and found that indeed such an event had occurred, and it seemed to be quite severe, with many people dying. However, that was several years ago, so why would Little Treasure know about it? He was only just born back then.

  It seemed like she sensed her confusion, Xiao Yi Mo spoke out with his back facing her: "I heard it from people after I came here."

  "Oh, I said so..." Su Xiao Fan smiled relievedly and glanced at the wild chicken not far away with the corner of her eye. She lowered her voice and said: "Little treasure, don't move for now, crouch down."

  After finishing speaking, he took out the kitchen knife brought from the blue, crouched down, moved a few steps towards the direction of the wild chicken, looked at the distance, calculated the force in his hand, and threw the kitchen knife in his hand.

  A faint wailing sound drifted over...

  Xiao Yimao looked on in shock, only to see that the fat wild chicken's foot had been severed by the kitchen knife she had thrown out. At this moment, it was lying in the grass, wailing incessantly: "You're too cruel."

  "Ah, can't be helped, it's an animal after all." Su Xiaofan walked over, picked up the still struggling pheasant, tied it with a wild grass, put it in the basket, then picked up the vegetable knife and wiped off the blood stains on it in the grass.

  "Just throw a small stone over there." Xiao Yimeng rolled his eyes, suddenly enlightened, and thought to himself that he could have used this trick to deal with the fat rabbit yesterday. He wondered why he had forgotten about it. However, in the past, he was too reliant on his martial arts skills, which he had now lost. He didn't know if throwing a stone would hit an animal or not, so he thought he should find an opportunity to try it out.

  "Hmm, I'm used to using a knife, any kind of knife will do, but nothing else works." Su Xiaofan put it away and continued picking small mushrooms, her heart was overjoyed, tonight she could make chicken soup for them.

  "Why?" Xiao Yimò was puzzled. Her previous move had been quite fierce, whether in terms of strength or accuracy, it had all been just right.

  Su Xiaofan pouted: "This, I don't know either. I've tried it before, but except for knives, nothing else works." In the past when going to bars with friends, she had also played with those small darts, but never hit the target once, no matter what, couldn't figure out where the problem lay.

  "Hmm..." Xiao Yimeng gazed at her with profound meaning, his black eyes sparkling with curiosity. This woman seemed to be more interesting than she appeared on the surface.

  "Alright, let's head back." Su Xiaofan stood up, looked at the basket full of spoils of war, with freshly caught wild chickens still clucking softly, and numerous wild mushrooms, her heart was overjoyed.

  Slowly but surely, there will be a way to improve our current living situation.

  After Su Xiao Fan and the other person left for about an hour or two, a large group of people came to the Su family's courtyard, all of whom were there to collect debts.

  Jia looked at the crowd with suspicion, these people rarely came to press for debt on ordinary days, why did they all come today?

  However, when his gaze fell on that group of people behind the crowd, Jia became even more puzzled. They had just come yesterday, why did they come again today?

  "Big sister, I heard that your younger brother Xiao Fan has gone to be a child bride for the village chief's younger son. The village chief said he would give you some silver, so everyone came over today to ask if they can get some back first."

  Jia looked at the speaker, who was Su Hu from the village end, a cousin of Yi Fu. He had a gentle disposition and had never come to demand debt repayment before: "Sorry, everyone, my mother went to town early in the morning and will be back soon. If there's anything left, I'll pay you all back first."

  "Good." Su Hu also stopped talking and smiled: "Big sister is about to give birth, right?"

  "Ah, it should be soon." Mrs. Jia rubbed her belly and smiled slightly.

  Su Xiaofan carried a basket and held Xiao Yimeng's small hand as they returned, seeing from afar a large group of people standing in the courtyard, she immediately quickened her pace. Grandma wasn't home, if mother was bullied what would happen?

  "As soon as he got money, he went on a buying spree, looks like he has no intention of paying everyone back." Li shouted in a hoarse voice from the back of the crowd.

  As soon as this voice came out, all the people in the courtyard looked at Jia's family, wanting to see what she would say about it.

  "It's not like that..." Jia hesitated, although her second brother and sister had gone too far the day before, but after all, they were family, and if she spoke out about what they did, it would only lead to ridicule.

  "Can't say anything now, let's discuss this, we lent them money with good intentions, but once they have the money, they don't even think about paying it back." Meng said with a pretended sad face to the crowd.

  "Zi Yan, say something!" Yu Shi (Yu Xiaohe), Su Hu's wife, seeing that everyone's faces had changed under the instigation of those two, felt a bit worried and walked forward to pull on Jiashi's arm.

  "Second Aunt and Third Aunt, you two are really noble people who have forgotten many things."

  A clear and cold voice rang out, and everyone looked over.

  "Xiao Fan, are you feeling a bit better?" Yu Xi, Yu Shi's younger sister, smiled and walked towards Su Xiao Fan.

  Su Xiaofan smiled sweetly at her. This person was Su Xiaofan's only friend, and the two often went up the mountain together to pick wild vegetables and so on.

  "What did we forget?" Meng's expression changed instantly after seeing the doll in Su Xiaofan's hand, was that the village chief's grandson? Such an exquisite doll, those words that were originally prepared to mock Su Xiaofan, couldn't be said out loud at this moment.

  The village head's family is not only wealthy, but this young grandson is also born so well, even if he marries a girl from a poor family as a child bride, it won't be a loss.

  Su Xiaofan walked over to Jia's side and handed the basket to Xiao Yiming, saying softly: "Little treasure, help sister carry it in."