"Are you... are you sure you're not joking with me?" Another thunderbolt struck Shen Wuqiu, who almost couldn't stand. What kind of clan uses such a fruit as a sacred object?
Gu Lingyu nodded with utmost sincerity, touching her belly, "So, your belly must be strong."
Shen Wuqiu almost thought that her next sentence was "to give me a big, fat son".
After a moment of stunned silence, Shen Wuqiu stammered, "What if your people find out that the fruit has been eaten?"
“There’s no precedent for this.” Gu Lingyu thought for a moment. “We might have to keep you in the clan.”
"...Oh, so you brought these fruits out and they didn't care about you?"
“These fruits were originally meant for me. I told them that as long as I bring back the cubs, they will be very happy.”
Although she thought the other party's explanation was absurd, Shen Wuqiu still felt that she had made a big mistake by being greedy.
"Don't your parents mind what kind of person you marry?"
"Um?"
"So they don't care who you have children with?"
"Although they arranged a partner for me, it was also so that I could have a baby as soon as possible. For them, the most important thing is having a baby; as long as they have a baby, they don't care about anything else. Of course, I can't have a baby with a close relative of the same clan."
Thank goodness, at least there are still some of the same customs.
Shen Wuqiu breathed a slight sigh of relief and asked again, "Aren't your father and mother worried about you running away from home like this?"
"No. I'm already an adult. If it weren't for the fact that I'm the clan chief, my father and mother would have kicked me out of the house long ago."
Shen Wuqiu was completely disoriented.
Seeing that her expression had softened, Gu Lingyu continued, "So, sister, since you ate my fruit, you have to take responsibility for me. You can't send me away before I have a baby."
"..."
In a daze, Shen Wuqiu's plan to send the person away was shelved.
A note from the author:
You all know this is from eating a fruit that makes you pregnant, that's amazing.
Love you all, muah!
Chapter 23 Zaizai
The family was much more welcoming to this extra guest than Shen Wuqiu was. Even Su Yunzhi greeted this guest, who had slept until noon, with a smile and kept urging him on during the meal.
“You rarely come to our poor, remote village, so you must stay here for a while this time…”
Gu Lingyu, who had no intention of leaving at all, replied without any politeness, "Well, as long as my sister is here, I have no intention of leaving."
"..." Su Yunzhi didn't expect her polite remark to backfire so badly, and her smile froze. However, she quickly grasped the key point, "Sister? You're younger than our Wuqiu?"
"If we calculate based on the age system here, I would definitely be a few years younger than my sister."
Upon hearing this, Su Yunzhi glanced at her son and became enthusiastic again, "A few years younger? How old are you?"
"Eighteen years old, I guess."
"Eighteen?" Su Yunzhi looked her over, her expression becoming somewhat subtle again. "Our Wuqiu is eighteen and just started university. I thought you were a colleague of hers..."
Shen Wuqiu quickly replied, "She is my friend's younger sister."
"Oh, I see." Su Yunzhi smiled, noticing her chopsticks frequently moving towards the plate of pan-fried sturgeon, and deliberately turned the lazy Susan towards her. "Although we don't have anything fancy to offer, we have plenty of chicken, duck, and fish. By the way, this is the age when you should be in school, haven't you started school yet?"
Although Gu Lingyu didn't particularly like her, she was still willing to talk to her a bit more because the fish tasted pretty good. "Generally, only those in the clan who aren't very bright can't finish their studies before adulthood. So, can we eat fish every day?"
"..." It was another instance of polite formalities falling on deaf ears.
“Of course,” Mr. Shen replied cheerfully. “I can’t guarantee anything else in our family, but we’ll have fish every meal.”
Gu Lingyu was satisfied with the assurance. "I'm not picky about food. I'll eat any kind of fish. Of course, my favorite is braised sea bass, and I also like dried anchovies."
Shen Wuqiu's lips twitched.
Mr. Shen really liked the little girl's unpretentious liveliness. "Alright, let Qiuqiu release more fish fry into the reservoir this year. After the rapeseed is harvested and the rice is planted, we'll raise some field fish. Dried field fish taste the best."
As he spoke, Mr. Shen looked at Shen Wuqiu and said, “We released several thousand kilograms of fish fry into the reservoir at the end of the year before last. We haven’t harvested them yet. When we have some free time, we can harvest a batch and buy some more fry to put in. Now we don’t have to worry about our fish going to go to waste. Your cat loves to eat fish too. By the way, didn’t you say last night that the cat was back? I haven’t seen it all day.”
"I guess they've run away again." Shen Wuqiu wasn't too worried. She had her own considerations about the reservoir. "I went to see it last time. I heard that the reservoir on the dam is a backup drinking water reservoir. It's much larger than Linjiawan Reservoir and the environment is also good. I plan to use it to raise a batch of relatively rare fish species."
She has her own ideas about everything she does, which makes her father even more pleased. "Okay, you can arrange it yourself. I just mentioned it casually."
Gu Lingyu, who had been burying her head in her food when the topic of cats came up, suddenly became interested again upon hearing this. "Sister, let's all raise bass."
Shen Wuqiu ignored her words, put down her chopsticks and said, "I'm done eating, you can continue eating."
Seeing that she was about to leave, Gu Lingyu quickly stuffed the last piece of fish into her mouth, saying, "I'm done eating too."
Shen Wuqiu glanced at her: "It's good that you've eaten. It's not raining this afternoon. I'm going to Xishan to help plant tangerine trees. You can come with me to help too."
Mr. Shen: "They rarely come all this way, and instead of showing them around, you expect them to help out?"
Shen Wuqiu: "If we don't plant the trees now, their survival rate will be low once the weather gets hot."
“During the busy farming season, there’s really no time to waste.” Su Yunzhi said, then looked at Shen Wujun, “Why don’t we let Junjun take people out for a walk? He’s always at home with nothing to do anyway.”
Shen Wuqiu refused without even thinking, "No way."
Since we can't get rid of them, let's just let them realize the difficulty and leave on their own.
Shen Wuqiu optimistically thought that the pretty and lively little girl was obviously a little princess who did not know the hardships of life. Once she suffered a little hardship at her home, she would definitely cry and shout to go home to find her mother.
As for the sacred fruits and such that the little girl mentioned, although she couldn't find anything that matched them through various means, she still didn't believe the little girl's story. She figured it was probably just a fabrication by the girl to stay at her house.
Anyway, she won't really believe it.
Therefore, she was determined not to let the little girl think that staying at their house was a fun thing.
However, to her surprise, the little girl actually volunteered to go up the mountain with her to do hard labor. "I don't want to play, I want to help my sister too."
"..." The little girl must have never experienced hardship before. Today, she's determined to teach her a lesson.
So, after the meal, Shen Wuqiu had Gu Lingyu change into some old clothes that she no longer wore, and then took her people to West Mountain.
In the afternoon, the dark clouds dispersed, and the sky brightened again.
These days it's a race against time. Farmers like Uncle Zheng can't stay idle. As soon as the rain stops, they spontaneously come up the mountain to work.
The tangerine tree seeds haven't been delivered yet, and Uncle Zheng is currently fertilizing the pits for the tangerine trees with Mr. and Mrs. Su Zhongmin.
With a shortage of manpower, Shen Wuqiu went to help. Uncle Zheng and the others didn't stand on ceremony and taught her how to do it step by step before letting her do it herself.
Shen Wuqiu brought Gu Lingyu here to experience the hardships of life, so naturally he wouldn't let her have an easy time. He handed her a bucket of fertilizer and said, "Use this cup to sprinkle three cups into each hole."
Gu Lingyu was a little reluctant because she found the dark fertilizer dirty. She stretched out her fair hand in front of Shen Wuqiu and said, "If it gets dirty, my sister will definitely dislike it."
It's not your own hands that are dirty, so what's there to be disgusted about...
Looking at those hands, certain images involuntarily flashed through Shen Wuqiu's mind, making the other person's words seem ambiguous. Shen Wuqiu lowered her eyes, thinking about how those hands had once lingered on her body, and then looking at the dark fertilizer in the bucket, she couldn't bring herself to be ruthless. But thinking that she couldn't let the other person have an easy time, she took the cup and said, "Then you carry the bucket and follow behind."
Gu Lingyu had no objection to this.
The little beast with incredible strength can carry a fertilizer bucket weighing less than 100 pounds as easily as carrying a handbag while shopping.
So, in the end, Shen Wuqiu saw a little girl, trying to save trouble, carrying a bucket in each hand, following behind her and urging her to hurry up and urinate.
"..." Perhaps I don't understand human suffering.
On the way home, Qiu's back ached from bending over and scattering sand for half the day. Looking at the still energetic little girl, she couldn't help but wonder, "How strong are you? How did you lift a bucket in each hand?"
"Would you like to try it, sister?"
"Try something..."
Before Shen Wuqiu could finish speaking, she was lifted into someone's arms. A bright-eyed little girl looked at her and smiled, "Sister, do you want me to carry you home?"
"..." Shen Wuqiu, realizing what was happening, quickly struggled to get down from the ground. She looked around and, thankfully no one was there, then pretended to be calm. "Since you're so strong, why don't you help carry the tree seeds tomorrow?"
The attempt to give up on the first day was a failure.
The next day, the little girl helped plant the trees and did it all by herself, which attracted everyone's attention. Shen Wuqiu, who was trying to set an example and experience the hardships of life, was so tired that she didn't want to move her fingers, but the little girl was still full of energy.
Thus, the plan to back down when faced with difficulties continued to fail.
...
After more than twenty days, Shen Wuqiu wanted to cry and call for her mother, but the little girl still showed no sign of giving up.
That evening, as the two were returning to their respective rooms, Shen Wuqiu stopped Gu Lingyu and said, "Let's talk."
Gu Lingyu, who was just worried about not having a chance to linger a little longer, heard this and quickly walked over to Shen Wuqiu. "What does Sister want to tell me?"
"Let's come in first and talk about it later."
Shen Wuqiu pushed open the door and went in. She was puzzled not to see the white cat in the room, but didn't think much of it. Ever since that little rascal didn't come home all day, she'd developed this habit—only seeing the cat's shadow before she went to bed each night. Besides, she'd been really busy lately, so seeing the cat's shadow each day put her at ease.
Gu Lingyu entered the room and naturally lay down on her bed, her legs dangling off the bed and swinging back and forth, her head slightly turned to look at her.
Whether it was the light above her head or not, Shen Wuqiu felt that the person in front of her was like a tempting red apple, and she couldn't take her eyes off him.
Until the woman parted her red lips slightly: "Does my sister want to kiss me?"
Shen Wuqiu quickly looked away. After being interrupted like this, she was too lazy to be tactful and went straight to the point: "When exactly are you planning to go back?"
Upon hearing this, Gu Lingyu immediately sat up, looking hurt: "Is my sister going to send me away again?"
With that same expression and tone, Shen Wuqiu's heart softened again. "It's not that I'm trying to get rid of you, but... as you can see, I'm very busy. Don't you feel tired following me to the fields every day?"
"Then I can't leave even more, look how capable I am."
"..." Shen Wuqiu was speechless. To be honest, the other party had not caused any trouble in her life. On the contrary, she had helped her a lot. However, she had caused a lot of trouble in her emotions. Just like now, the pretty, bright and sweet-talking girl made her heart pound uncontrollably.
Just like she said—she wanted to kiss her.
This feeling grew stronger and stronger, so strong that...
Shen Wuqiu took a deep breath, "Will you come home once you have a baby?"
Gu Lingyu nodded, "After the baby is born, he must return to the clan to be baptized with holy water, otherwise he will not grow up."
"..." What kind of superstition is this?
Shen Wuqiu once again found that she couldn't communicate with this girl, and the more she looked at the girl, the angrier she became. In the end, she became so frustrated that she sent the girl back home.