C7 Chapter 7

Lee Chongniang had barely finished speaking when she saw Wan Qiqi walk into the room with the wild greens from the corner. She immediately grabbed Chen Yongxing’s arm. “See? She even hauls wild greens into her own room. Third Brother dug those up—he was saving them for tomorrow!”

Chen Yongxing lounged back in his chair, glanced over, and lightly patted the back of Lee Chongniang’s hand. “It’s just purslane. I’ll dig you some first thing tomorrow morning.”

“I’d sooner believe a pig could climb a tree than believe you’ll dig anything,” Lee Chongniang snapped, shaking him off as she headed outside.

“Ding! Detected 1.4 lbs of fresh purslane, valued at 24 coins. Sell?”

Wan Qiqi stared at the trading panel and fell silent.

She’d busted her butt for half the day digging nearly 2.2 lbs of wild water fennel, and it still wasn’t worth as much as this purslane... she was exhausted, inside and out.

After she chose Sell, the amount in her wallet jumped to 32 coins.

Wan Qiqi checked the grain prices in the shop and froze: white rice, 3 coins per pound; brown rice, 7 coins per pound.

Was this shop out of its mind?

Wild greens sold for that much, but grain was this cheap—was it seriously not scamming her?

Still suspicious, she bought 5 pounds of white rice.

When her wallet dropped to 17 coins and a bag of bright white rice appeared on the table, she finally believed it. It was real—grain really was cheaper than wild greens!

So she could dig wild greens and actually make money?

Maybe she couldn’t get rich off it, but she could at least make sure she wouldn’t go hungry anymore.

Eight people in the house—5 pounds of rice should last two or three days, right?

With a small plan quietly taking shape, she grabbed the rice and stepped out of the room.

She tossed the bag onto the table in the main room, startling Chen Yongxing and Lee Chongniang. They thought Wan Qiqi was about to pull something again.

Lee Chongniang clutched her stomach, ready to let loose, but the moment she met Wan Qiqi’s eyes, she swallowed the words back down.

Even without her family backing her up, he couldn’t help feeling a little afraid of her.

When this woman snapped, nobody could rein her in.

“White rice!” Chen Yongnian’s eyes landed on what was on the table, and he stared at Wan Qiqi in shock. “Honey, where on earth did you get white rice?”

He hadn’t seen white rice in Lotus Village in ages.

Lotus Village sat in the South, where rice paddies were common and rice was the staple. But most families sold their good rice and bought cheaper brown rice instead.

A pound of polished white rice could be traded for three pounds of brown rice. And one look at that bag told him it was top-quality.

No one in the main room had expected that Wan Qiqi would just pull out five pounds of white rice.

Trade it for brown rice, stretch it carefully with some wild greens, and it could last a month.

“I stashed it away myself.” Wan Qiqi turned to Mrs. Wang, who’d come in at the sound of it. “Mom, tonight we’re having white rice.”

Mrs. Wang’s hand jerked. The broom slipped from her fingers and hit the floor. She looked like she couldn’t believe what she’d heard. “W-White rice?”

Forget poor families like theirs—even well-off households didn’t get to eat white rice very often these days. Where had her eldest daughter-in-law gotten it, and she wanted to cook it up like it was nothing?

Wan Qiqi frowned, thinking they were questioning where it came from, and explained, “I know I haven’t been good before. I kept everything to myself. But if I’m going to live properly with this family, then I should bring out the good stuff.”

Mrs. Wang hurried in, put the white rice away, and lowered her voice. “Qiqi, I get what you’re trying to do. But everyone in the village is short on food right now. Don’t go making a show of it, or you’ll bring thieves sniffing around, and they’ll steal what you’ve got!”

Wan Qiqi thought, It’s all in the store—good luck trying to steal that. Still, she nodded obediently. “Okay.”

Everyone watched Wan Qiqi with doubtful looks, wondering if she’d knocked something loose in her head—talking about eating white rice like that.

Wan Qiqi saw the doubt on their faces. She rested a hand lightly on the grain sack and said coldly, “You don’t believe me? Fine. I’ll cook it for myself, and you can keep choking down scraps.”

Lee Chongniang wasn’t about to let that happen. The eldest sister-in-law had finally brought out something good—of course everyone was going to eat. She snatched the rice away at once and called to Chen Yongxing, “Husband, go rinse the rice.”

Watching Lee Chongniang’s reaction, Wan Qiqi’s lips curved into a faint smile.

She knew Lee Chongniang wasn’t exactly harmless. If the original Wan Qiqi hadn’t kept her in check, she would’ve been a real spitfire herself. Still, she wasn’t truly bad-hearted—she just couldn’t stand Wan Qiqi, another daughter-in-law, acting so high and mighty.

Once everyone went off to get things going, Chen Yongliang walked over and sat beside Wan Qiqi. “Sister-in-law, that grain… you really hid it yourself?”

“What else would it be?” Wan Qiqi shot back.

Chen Yongliang pressed on. “If you had grain, why did you go back to borrow some?”

Wan Qiqi lifted an eyebrow. “How many days do you think this will last? Last year it was drought, this year it’s flooding—who knows when any of this will end? Better safe than sorry. Since when is having extra food or extra cash a bad thing?”