C5 Chapter 5

The villagers could obviously tell water fennel from wild celery.

They looked alike, sure—but one was poisonous and the other wasn’t. If you couldn’t tell the difference, what were you even eating?

But even when everyone recognized it was water fennel, no one wanted to speak up for Wan Qiqi. Nobody wanted to get tangled up with her.

And the flood had just passed. All kinds of bugs from the water had crawled into the water fennel—eat that and you could get sick.

If something contagious spread, the whole town would pay for it.

The more the villagers thought about it, the more they were convinced Wan Qiqi was rotten to the core—she wasn’t just trying to hurt the Chen family, she was trying to drag everyone down with them.

Mrs. Zhao snorted. “It’s not like you don’t have a man who can go up the hill and dig up greens. Why are you out here picking water fennel? Don’t tell me you’re trying to catch something and spread it to the whole town!”

“...” Wan Qiqi was speechless, but she didn’t deny it.

After every flood, sickness ran wild. One wrong move and you could end up with an outbreak—malaria, some kind of plague. If it spread beyond the town, that was the truly terrifying part.

This wasn’t the modern world with miracle drugs and strict containment. Once you got infected, it could be deadly.

Wan Qiqi would never choose to end her life like that.

She looked at the people along the riverbank, her eyes flicking as an idea hit. She smiled and said, “Mrs. Zhao, I don’t want to either, but I’ve got mouths to feed at home—elders and little kids waiting for food. So… could any kind soul lend me some grain? When next year’s harvest comes, I’ll pay you back double.”

The moment she finished, everyone turned their faces away.

“Uh, I’ve still got porridge on the stove. I should get back and check it.”

“My kid’s hungry—I’ve gotta go feed the little one!”

They all scrambled for excuses and left one by one.

These days, you could borrow just about anything—except food. Especially not for Wan Qiqi.

Before long, only Mrs. Zhao was still standing there.

Mrs. Zhao knew that if the Chen family had anything good, it all ended up in Wan Qiqi’s pockets.

Lend grain to raise two kids? In her dreams.

“Yeah, in your dreams!” Mrs. Zhao spat on the ground, turned, and headed back inside, brushing dust off her clothes like she’d just shaken off bad luck.

Qiqi shrugged. Figures—around here, asking to “borrow food” was the fastest way to get shut down.

With a helpless sigh, she picked up the water fennel she’d dropped and headed back toward the river.

It was midday in September, and the sun was brutal. Before long, sweat beaded across her forehead, and her lower back started to ache.

After yanking up another clump of wild water fennel, she dropped down on the ground, ready to rest, when the system’s voice sounded again.

“Ding! Wild water fennel: 7.1 pounds. Value: 32 coins. Sell?”

Qiqi chose to sell without hesitation. She traded the earnings for antibiotics and a bottle of water, then swallowed the pills with a few gulps.

Knowing she wasn’t going to die from a lung infection took a weight off her chest. She sat there, staring blankly at the river.

Even though the flood had been over for a month, the water was still muddy and reeked. She hadn’t seen the disaster with her own eyes, but the aftermath told her how bad it must’ve been.

Now that staying alive was handled, the next problem was food.

Since she was here, she couldn’t live the way the original owner of this body had—and with elderly family above and little ones below, she couldn’t bring herself to be that careless, either.

Her mother-in-law wasn’t that old, but there was still a pregnant woman in the house and two kids. They needed decent meals, at the very least.

She scrolled through the shop and found all kinds of food, with different prices. But how was she supposed to bring any of it out without making people suspicious?

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a leech wriggling along the riverbank and immediately got to her feet to head back.

She wasn’t afraid of much, but she couldn’t stand slimy, wet things—especially something that sucked blood.

A light breeze swept through, stirring the wild grass with a soft rustle.

Rubbing her aching back, Qiqi walked home, still turning over how to trade for supplies without anyone noticing.

As soon as she reached the front gate, she heard voices coming from the main room.

“Third Uncle, do you think Mom didn’t get enough to eat?” Pingping tilted his head up, his dusty face and big eyes fixed on Chen Yongliang.

“It’s fine. Your mom won’t go hungry.” Chen Yongliang patted Pingping on the head and flashed a bright smile.

He figured everyone in the house might starve—except that sister-in-law of his.

She had to have food stashed away in her room and just didn’t want to share it.

As for going back to her parents’ place to borrow grain, that was probably just an excuse to get something good for herself. Otherwise, how would it have turned into a fight where someone shoved her into the river by accident?

“Exactly. She eats more than anyone—how could she be starving?” Lee Chongniang gently rubbed her slightly rounded belly. “If you ask me, Big Brother should just divorce her. She doesn’t have her family backing her anymore, so we can— Honey, don’t pull me. I’m just telling the truth!”

When Chen Yongxing couldn’t stop her, he scolded softly, “She’s our elder. Don’t talk like that—there are kids here!”

“She did it, so why can’t people talk about it?” Lee Chongniang snapped, her face full of indignation. Maybe she’d finally eaten her fill, because her voice rose even louder. “Tell me—when have we ever seen a single good thing from this house? I’m a daughter-in-law of the Chen family too!”