C13 Chapter 13

Wan Qiqi watched the two brothers head up the mountain, then followed the system prompt toward where the crabs were.

She’d thought the shop could only sell things like wild greens, but now it looked like the system would take pretty much anything natural and wild—and the price wouldn’t be bad either.

She pushed aside the grass, and a stream came into view.

It had been a narrow little creek, but after the flood it had widened a lot. The plants along the banks had been washed out, and the water was muddy.

A big crab was right by her foot, waving its claws.

Wan Qiqi jumped back, then quickly grabbed it by the shell. Watching it flail in her hand, she couldn’t help grinning.

“Ding! Wild crab, 0.8 lb, value $2.40. Sell?”

Three bucks a pound!

Wan Qiqi’s eyes lit up, and she sold it immediately.

“Ding! Wild stone crab, 0.3 lb, value $0.40. Sell?”

Hearing that, Wan Qiqi wasn’t thrilled. Stone crabs were small and cheap—barely worth the trouble.

After selling a few stone crabs, she decided she’d better focus on the big ones.

Bent over by the creek, she kept turning things over and searching, totally absorbed.

A kid wandered over, curious. Seeing her grab those “bugs” off the ground, his face went pale. “A-Auntie Chen, those big bugs bite! Don’t grab them!”

Wan Qiqi held a big crab in her hand and looked at Zhao Dahu, confused.

Big bugs? What big bugs?

Then she realized he was staring at what she was holding, trembling.

“This is a big bug?” Wan Qiqi shoved the crab toward Zhao Dahu.

Zhao Dahu stumbled back several steps and fell flat on his butt.

Mrs. Zhao came running at the noise. “Which bastard is picking on my son?!”

She took one look, planted her hands on her hips, and started yelling. “Wan Qiqi, have you got no shame? Picking on my kid again!”

Wan Qiqi shrugged helplessly. Somehow she ran into this neighbor everywhere she went.

She slid the river crabs in her hands toward Mrs. Zhao. Before Qiqi could say a word, Mrs. Zhao jumped like she’d been spooked, her face tight with panic.

Mrs. Zhao snapped, “You vicious woman—what are you planning to do with those eight-legged pests that ruin the crops?”

Eight-legged pests?

That was when Qiqi realized that, in this era, people apparently hadn’t figured out crabs were food. They saw them as crop-destroying vermin.

“Eat them,” she said, honestly amazed. These people really didn’t know how to live—passing up something this delicious just to dig up wild greens and tree roots.

Mrs. Zhao shot her a disgusted look. “You’re like a starving stray—you’ll eat anything! Don’t go bringing trouble on the rest of us!”

“Then stay away from me,” Wan Qiqi said, not bothering to argue as she went right back to catching crabs.

A few others glanced over, then lost interest and went back to searching for wild greens.

Just then, a man came charging up from the foot of the hill and stopped in front of Wan Qiqi, kicking away the big crab she was about to grab.

Annoyed, Wan Qiqi looked up at the broad, thickset man.

A second later, she found him in her memory.

Chen Yongnian’s cousin—Chen Ergou.

Bracing one hand against a tree trunk, Chen Ergou gulped air. “Sister-in-law… hurry… go find Yongnian. Yongxing and Chongniang—something happened!”

Something happened? Wan Qiqi frowned up at him.

She looked tired as she stood, asking, “What happened?”

Seeing how calm she was, Chen Ergou thought, Why am I even talking to this shrew? He sucked in two more breaths and started up the mountain.

Wan Qiqi watched him go, her frown deepening. After a brief hesitation, she headed down the hill.

Early that morning, Chen Yongxing and Lee Chongniang were nowhere to be found. While she was out picking mushrooms, Wan Qiqi heard someone say the two of them had taken an ox cart out of the village—looked like they were headed into town.

Had they gotten pushed around in town?

Wan Qiqi walked down the mountain, turning it over in her mind.

As soon as she reached the village entrance, she caught a wave of chatter—voices big and small, all talking at once.

“Who knows what kind of bad luck the Chen Family’s got. They finally scraped together some food, and it still got snatched!”

“I heard it was something like twenty or thirty pounds of brown rice—enough to feed a whole family for a good while.”

“From now on, anyone going out to trade for food better watch their back. With the famine going on, you never know when you’ll run into someone who’ll rob you for it.”

“And Yongxing’s wife is still carrying a Chen baby. Thank God it was only the food that’s gone—at least they’re safe.”

Wan Qiqi agreed. Better to lose food than lose people.

She’d just sold crabs and made a few hundred coins—enough to trade for plenty of grain.