Chapter 68: Things to Consider

Next door, Hua Daling pricked up her ears the moment she heard Chu Zhi come home.

Her husband was already in bed, snoring away.

As for her good-for-nothing son, when the family was so poor they could barely put food on the table, not only did he not go out to find work, he even took his wife and child to live off his mother-in-law. He still hadn’t come back.

So now, she was alone in the courtyard, free to eavesdrop by the wall for as long as she wanted—her only worry was that Feng Chunhua and her son might not actually talk.

But she did manage to overhear a few useful things.

After ten at night, Chu Xuan lay in bed, thinking.

If all went as expected, in just over three hours, Mu Chenze would have the lab report on the grilled fish jerky.

Once they got to the city, if the Zhang family tried to cause trouble, the lab report would keep their fish jerky business running smoothly...

The next morning, a little after six, Hua Daling knocked on Chu Xuan’s gate.

She didn’t even bother coming inside, blurting out anxiously, “Xiao Xuan, Feng Chunhua is planning to spread rumors about you and Accountant Wen. You’d better think of a way to deal with it. She’s already gone out to hire Old Lady Jiang from our village to make up stories about you two.”

These days, her family relied on the wages Chu Xuan paid, so she didn’t want anything bad to happen to her.

Chu Xuan knew Hua Daling was genuinely looking out for her. “Aunt Hua, thank you for coming all this way just to tell me!”

“What’s there to thank? I can’t stay and chat, I need to get back and make breakfast for my husband. I’ll come by again when the fish arrive.”

“Alright.”

After watching Hua Daling leave, Chu Xuan greeted Chu Feng and headed straight for Old Lady Jiang’s house.

She absolutely couldn’t let any rumors about her and Accountant Wen spread. If they did, Accountant Wen—who was sensitive about his reputation—would stop teaching Xiao Feng to avoid gossip.

Accountant Wen was the best abacus user in the whole county; there was no one else like him.

Outside Old Lady Jiang’s house, Chu Xuan didn’t go in. Instead, she hid by the wall to listen.

Inside, Feng Chunhua was talking to Old Lady Jiang.

“Sister Jiang, as long as you can spread rumors about Chu Xuan and Accountant Wen all over the village, you’ll get two yuan. But you absolutely can’t let Chu Xuan know I put you up to it. If she finds out, you won’t get a cent.”

Old Lady Jiang had never had any scruples when it came to money. “Don’t worry! I can keep my mouth shut. I’ll just say I saw Accountant Wen sneaking into Chu Xuan’s house late at night with my own eyes. But I am curious—didn’t you and Chu Xuan have nothing to do with each other anymore? Why are you still targeting her?”

Feng Chunhua snorted coldly. “Anyone who’s ever crossed me—I’ll make sure they never have an easy life! I’m off!”

After Feng Chunhua left, Chu Xuan appeared at Old Lady Jiang’s door.

“Granny Jiang, I just happened to be passing by and, what a coincidence, I overheard your conversation with Feng Chunhua. So, you want to spread rumors about me?”

Old Lady Jiang cursed her luck. She hadn’t even started the rumor and the target already knew—there went her two yuan.

But she kept her composure. “Chu Xuan! Since you heard, I won’t hide it. Feng Chunhua hired me, but she hasn’t paid me yet.”

Chu Xuan pulled three yuan from her pocket and waved it in front of Old Lady Jiang. “If you go to the village office and tell everyone Feng Chunhua tried to hire you to slander me, these three yuan are yours.”

Old Lady Jiang’s eyes lit up at the sight of money and she reached for it.

Chu Xuan stepped back and quickly put the money away. “My money isn’t that easy to get. Once you’ve told everyone at the village office, I’ll hand you the three yuan in front of everyone.”

Old Lady Jiang agreed without hesitation. After seeing Chu Xuan off, she headed straight for the village office.

Soon, news that Feng Chunhua had tried to hire someone to slander Chu Xuan spread throughout the village. Everyone—except Chu Zhi—cursed Feng Chunhua for being heartless.

A little after nine in the morning, Chu Xuan publicly rewarded Old Lady Jiang with three yuan.

Old Lady Jiang happily went home with the money.

But as soon as she walked in, Feng Chunhua’s furious voice rang out behind her. “Old Lady Jiang! Look what you’ve done! How dare you go to the village office and rat me out? I’ll teach you a lesson!”

She rushed forward, grabbed Old Lady Jiang, and started hitting her.

Old Lady Jiang took two slaps to the face. Enraged, she bit down hard on Feng Chunhua’s arm.

Feng Chunhua howled like a pig being slaughtered.

The two women started brawling...

In the end, Feng Chunhua had to beg for mercy.

After getting her wounds disinfected and bandaged at the village clinic, Feng Chunhua finally remembered she’d originally gone to Old Lady Jiang’s to get to the bottom of things.

So she headed back to Old Lady Jiang’s house.

Just then, she ran into Chu Xuan, who was carrying a basket and about to go foraging by the sea.

Seeing Feng Chunhua’s bandaged arm, two bloody scratches on her face, and her hair a mess—like a chunk had been torn out—Chu Xuan made no effort to hide her glee.

She spoke up first. “Granny Feng, next time you want to hire someone to spread rumors about me, make sure I don’t find out. And if there are any more rumors about me, no one in the village will believe them—they’ll just think you’re at it again! And if you dare mess with me again, don’t blame me if I accidentally let slip your son Chu Zhi’s little secret!”

That threat hit Feng Chunhua right where it hurt.

Feng Chunhua admitted defeat. “I know I was wrong! I’ll change, I promise!”

Chu Zhi was Feng Chunhua’s Achilles’ heel.

Chu Xuan headed for the beach.

Feng Chunhua ground her teeth in hatred.

She swore to herself that one day, she’d make Chu Xuan pay!

Feng Chunhua set off for Old Lady Jiang’s house again.

Chu Xuan made sure Feng Chunhua wasn’t following her, then changed course and took the mountain path to her secret foraging spot.

By the time she arrived, the tide was already going out, and the razor clam holes were exposed all over the sand—thick as stars.

It looked like she was about to strike it rich.

She took a jar of salt from her basket and quickly sprinkled it around.

As soon as the salt hit, the razor clams would think the tide had come back in and start wriggling out of their holes.

Then Chu Xuan could easily scoop them up.

Half an hour later, her basket held over fifty razor clams, each as thick as her thumb.

She was going to make a killing!

The tide had receded almost completely, and the tide pools were exposed.

Chu Xuan stood up and walked toward the pools.

Just then, a familiar voice called out behind her.

“Not a bad haul, huh?”

It was Mu Chenze.

Chu Xuan turned, surprised and delighted. “Why aren’t you at home catching up on sleep? Are you here to share good news or to help out?”

Mu Chenze pointed at his old clothes. “Of course I’m here to help. Hou Mingliang didn’t place an order for the grilled fish jerky right away—he said he’d think about it and let me know.”

Chu Xuan was optimistic. “As long as he didn’t say no outright, there’s still hope. By the way, did you get the test report?”

“Got it. Good thing you thought ahead. As soon as I set up my stall today, the food safety officers came over. Someone reported that our grilled fish jerky had excessive bacteria and needed to be tested before I could keep selling. I showed them the test report, so they only took a small sample and let me keep selling. But business was slow today—I didn’t finish selling until seven in the morning.”

Chu Xuan knew that without that test report, they’d have been lucky to get their 300 jin of fish jerky back; it might even have been confiscated by the food safety people.

“Mu Chenze, you’ve worked hard!”

“All you’re going to do is say that?”

“I’ll cook you a nice meal at Ji Ping’s house tonight to reward you! But first, let’s finish foraging!”

“Deal!”

There were some blue-scaled fish in every tide pool, but not a big catch.

Chu Xuan took out her hand net, scooped up the blue-scaled fish, then went back to collecting razor clams.

She was counting on these to make money today.

Mu Chenze helped sprinkle salt. “Sell these razor clams to me! I’ll take them to the city tomorrow and get a good price.”

“No problem!”

Before the tide came back in, the two of them caught over eighty more razor clams.

They only had about ten jin of blue-scaled fish—not enough to bother taking to the market—so Chu Xuan split them with Mu Chenze, but he refused.

Chu Xuan didn’t insist.

They took the mountain path back to the village, Mu Chenze carrying the razor clams, Chu Xuan heading home.

Just as she reached her gate, she was stopped by Feng Shuai.

Chu Xuan didn’t bother being polite. “What do you want? Get out of my way!”"