Chapter 127 Planning Ahead

Chapter 127 Planning Ahead

Xie Wanniang told Xiaomei, "The rice and eggs are on the bottom shelf of the cupboard. Go get them yourself."

Xiaomei asked in surprise, "Me... I'll take it myself?"

Xie Wanniang nodded, "Go ahead, add more rice, don't cook it into a thin soup with hardly any rice grains."

Xiao Mei vaguely agreed and silently turned to go to the kitchen to get busy.

As soon as she started working, Xiao Yang, who had been sleeping, was awakened by the occasional slight noise. The girl was a diligent person to begin with, and now that Xiao Mei was competing with her, she felt a sense of crisis and worked even harder.

Thanks to the two hardworking snail maidens, Xie Wanniang was able to enjoy a life of luxury with servants again that morning.

Her toiletries were prepared in advance, and Xiaomei and Xiaoyang also prepared and served breakfast together. All she had to do was eat.

Well, strictly speaking, she did do one thing: she forced an egg, two pieces of peach shortbread, and a handful of glutinous rice strips onto Xiaomei's plate.

The little girl, perhaps because she had been mistreated so badly by her heartless uncle and aunt, not only scooped out almost all the rice from the porridge she cooked, but she also put two eggs next to Xie Wan Niang, even though there was clearly one egg for each person.

She didn't dare touch the peach shortbread or glutinous rice strips at all. If Xie Wanniang hadn't forced her to eat them, she would have obviously planned to just fill her stomach with that bowl of thin porridge.

"Eat up. My family isn't rich, but we won't skimp on your food." Xie Wanniang patted Xiao Mei's thin, bewildered hand. "You're too thin. You need to eat more to fill the gaps in your body, or it will definitely affect your lifespan."

Xiaomei was startled by her last sentence. Her mouth, which had been trying to say that she "didn't need to eat so well," was stuck shut as if glued shut, and she couldn't say a single word more.

After settling things off with Xiaomei, Xie Wanniang went to tidy up the semi-dried medicinal herbs she had brought back from Da'ao Village.

They got home late last night, so Xie Wanniang didn't put the herbs back on the drying rack to air them out. Instead, she moved them inside the house in case it rained in the middle of the night.

Now that the sun is out, Xie Wanniang naturally wants to dry the medicinal herbs as soon as possible.

She was busy when Jiang Yuan brought Atai to her house.

Atai came to visit his sister, while Jiang Yuan came to give Xie Wanniang money.

Some of the game he sold was caught with Xie Wanniang's help, and he gave her a share of the profits according to their proportion.

This was rightfully Xie Wanniang's, so she naturally wouldn't be polite with him. She took the money into the house, locked it in a box, and then came out to ask Jiang Yuan, who was helping her with chores, "Where do you plan to go hunting next?"

"Those mountains that are a bit further away."

Xie Wanniang knew which mountains he was referring to. After leaving Mingfu Village and crossing the low hills surrounding the village, those mountains were the ones that Jiang Yuan and Hao Yu liked to go to, where there were more medium to large-sized prey.

She asked Jiang Yuan, "Aren't we going to Da'ao Village?"

Jiang Yuan glanced at Atai, "We'll go when he goes back to the village."

Atai plans to manage his family's land himself, and he also needs to go back to his family's house every now and then for a day or two, otherwise his uncle's family might spread rumors that he and his sister died outside, and then try to seize their house and land.

Xie Wanniang understood what Jiang Yuan was thinking, and she also felt that this arrangement was very reasonable. "Then remember to call me when you go into the mountains."

Jiang Yuan nodded, "Then let's do it tomorrow. Let Atai and Xiaomei stay at home."

Xie Wanniang agreed, and Jiang Yuan took Atai home.

The two pretended not to notice, and Xiaomei secretly slipped something to Atai, while Atai also secretly slipped something to Xiaomei.

What Atai gave Xiaomei was an egg that he hadn't been willing to eat, while what Xiaomei gave Atai was a handful of glutinous rice strips that neither of them had ever eaten.

The brother and sister saved their own food and did not steal anything from Jiang Yuan and Xie Wan's family. Naturally, Jiang Yuan and Xie Wan's mother did not stop them from thinking about each other.

Thinking that Atai had the opportunity to learn martial arts, while Xiaomei could only spend her days doing housework, Xie Wanniang thought for a moment and then called the little girl to her side.

"Is there anything you'd like to learn?" she asked Xiaomei. "Weaving, embroidery, tailoring, sewing, cooking, medicine—is there anything you'd like to learn?"

Xiao Mei stared blankly at her, feeling an uncontrollable mix of nervousness and anticipation, yet also finding it hard to believe the guess that had suddenly popped into her head.

Xie Wanniang pinched her chin, looking somewhat troubled. "Not interested at all? Then..."

"No, no!" Xiaomei waved her hands vigorously as if waking from a dream. "Sister Xie, I... I can't believe it, I..."

Xie Wanniang breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that it wasn't her, otherwise she would have had to think of something else to teach this girl.

She asked Xiaomei, "Which one are you interested in? If you're not sure, I can teach you a little bit of each one first, so you can try them out."

Xiao Mei is Atai's weakness and Achilles' heel. Rather than letting her continue to depend on her brother like a parasitic vine, Xie Wanniang thinks it's better to let the girl learn a skill on her own, and preferably learn to be a little more assertive, so that Atai will feel more at ease.

"I...I want to study medicine." Xiaomei mustered her courage and looked at Xie Wanniang with anticipation. "If my brother...if my brother gets injured in the future, I...I want to save him."

Now that Atai is learning martial arts from Jiang Yuan, whether he becomes a bodyguard, a bodyguard, or a skilled hunter back in the village, he will inevitably encounter bumps and bruises and get injured.

Not to mention the scarcity of doctors these days, and the varying levels of their expertise, the exorbitant cost of sending someone to a county clinic is something that ordinary people can hardly afford.

Xiao Mei wanted to save her brother as soon as possible, and also wanted to save money for her family. As for Xie Wan Niang, who relied on selling medicinal herbs to make money, Xiao Mei was too nervous to think that way right now.

"Alright, then I'll teach you medical principles." Xie Wanniang didn't care what she learned. Except for the fact that she wanted to learn weaving, Xie Wanniang would have to get her a loom. Xie Wanniang could teach other skills at low cost.

However, before officially starting the teaching, Xie Wanniang still repeated the words that Doctor Chen had advised her to say.

“My master told me that being a doctor is very hard work. Not to mention the ten years of apprenticeship, after you graduate, you will encounter all kinds of patients and their families.”

“Boys, when they are out in the world, at most they will suffer some humiliation and occasionally get a beating, but it’s different for girls. Some girls will even risk everything.”

"So, you still want to study medicine?"