Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 184
Poisonous
The massive order taken by the Sunny Day workshop was obviously a good thing, but the timing was rather unfortunate. The wheat in the fields had already turned a shade of yellow, and could be harvested after a few more sunny days.
Early the next morning, Xiuying and Mrs. Li went over to the Mo family as soon as they had finished their breakfast. Mrs. Liu as well as two other women from the village had come to learn, while Mo Feng earnestly served them from the side.
At the south of the courtyard, Mo Zenian was flattening the land with the donkey and a plough to build the foundations of the house.
Mrs. Li asked, “Is brother Zenian…”
“Feng’er is his son, so he should be expected to help build the foundations for his house. Ignore him, let’s get to learning!”
The other two women said, “Yeah, let’s start learning! After we’ve learnt how to do the work, we can earn money, maybe even more money than the men can! At that point, we can raise our heads and puff out our chests around them!”
All of those housewives knew needlework, so learning how to make the raincoats and backpacks was a piece of cake. As all of them were working together, they could even give each other advice and ask each other for help to prevent any mistakes from happening. Therefore, they decided that they would converge at the Mo family to work together as long as there was nothing urgent happening at home.
At noon, Ms. Liang stopped Mrs. Li and Xiuying to have lunch with them, and they agreed after a slight back-and-forth. She hadn’t made any special preparations, so decided to make egg fried bean sauce noodles.
Ms. Liang made the noodles, Xiuying watched the stove, and when the food was ready, Xiuying called out, “Uncle, the food’s ready, come and eat!”
Mo Zenian had smelt the fragrance of the fried bean sauce a long time ago, and unhitched the plough before agreeing and entering the courtyard. To save face in front of Mrs. Li, Ms. Liang couldn’t drive him away, so allowed him to sit down and eat.
At the dinner table, Mo Zenian asked, “I heard that medicinal herbs were grown in the newly-reclaimed fields. What kind of medicinal herbs are being grown there, and are they worth a lot of money?”
Ms. Liang replied, “We’re growing chinese foxgloves, and they should be able to sell for some money. Last year, we got quite a bit of money just from gathering the chinese foxgloves growing in the wild!”
“Do you need to take care of them?”
“We’ve weeded the place twice, but speaking about that we haven’t been over in a few days, so we should probably take a look.”
Xiuying said, “Then how about we all go over to take a look! I’ve never seen medicinal herbs being grown before!”
Mo Feng smiled disdainfully, “They’re all very common plants, you just didn’t recognise them as medicinal herbs before. If you want to take a look, I’ll accompany you over.”
After having lunch, Xiuying swiftly put away the dishes before calling Mo Feng over so they could go to the medicinal herb fields, while Ms. Liang and Mrs. Li continued to work.
They exited the village and went to the medicinal herb fields. Mo Feng pointed at the chinese foxglove saplings, “These are chinese foxgloves, they can only be harvested after autumn.”
There were some weeds on the fields, but not enough to impact the growth of the chinese foxgloves, so they could be ignored. Xiuying looked at the mandrakes growing at the side of the fields, “Mo Feng, what are these? They’re growing in two orderly rows, and don’t look like weeds.”
Mo Feng furrowed his brow. “These are also medicinal herbs, but I’ve forgotten their names. I’ve heard Yan’er say both this herb’s flowers and leaves can be used for medicine.”
“Then it’s a good medicinal herb!”
“Of course! Anything that can be sold for money is good.”
As the two slowly walked around the fields, Mo Feng bent down to pick up bell flowers, and braided them into a flower wreath while they were walking.
Mo Feng placed the completed flower wreath on Xiuying’s head, and she smiled towards him. The pastel colours of the bell flowers made Xiuying’s face appear even prettier, and Mo Feng couldn’t help but reach out to touch her.
Xiuying grabbed his hand, “I’m not an easy woman, and don’t even dream about taking advantage of me before marriage.”
After saying that, she grabbed his hand and continued walking.
As they were walking, they suddenly saw a few mandrakes with damaged leaves, like they had been chewed on by animals.
Xiuying said, “Who would be so careless to not look after their livestock and destroy these medicinal herbs?”
Mo Feng looked up, and saw a few sheep grazing not far away, “Who else would it be except for the shepherd Lao Wai.”
Lao Wai was an old bachelor in the village, who didn’t have a family despite already being in his forties. There was only him and his mother in his house, and as they didn’t have any land, he made a living as a shepherd.
“Let’s go talk to him and tell him that his sheep had damaged the medicinal herbs, and see how he responds.”
Xiuying dragged Mo Feng closer to the flock of sheep, and only saw that Lao Wai was crying when they approached. In front of him were two sheep lying on the ground. White foam had pooled around their mouths, and they convulsed intermittently.
Mo Feng asked, “Lao Wai, what’s the matter?”
When Lao Wai saw him, his sorrow turned into rage, “It’s your fault, your medicinal herbs have poison in them, they poisoned my sheep! You must pay!”
“You didn’t take care of your sheep and they damaged our medicinal herbs! You’re the one who should pay!”
“You’re the ones who were growing something poisonous in the village. This time the only victims were sheep, so I only want you to pay me back. If you kill a person next, then you’ll have to face a lawsuit!”
When he heard they might have to fight a lawsuit, Mo Feng immediately shut up and whispered to Xiuying, “What kind of things are Mo Yan growing? Why would it be poisonous!”
Xiuying said, “How about you go and ask Mr. Cao?”
She picked up a mandrake leaf and was about to leave with Mo Feng when Lao Wai started crying, “Go, go and find the governing official to enact justice, you must pay for my sheep!”
By this time the sheep had already breathed their last, and he dragged their corpses as he called his flock over and walked towards governing official Wu’s house.
A large number of the housewives in the village were learning from Xiaoyue when they heard the sound of crying and went outside.
When they heard Lao Wai’s tale through his sobs, the villagers all expressed their sympathies, “How could they grow something poisonous?! No one in the village would recognise it, what if someone got poisoned by them.”
When governing official Wu heard that two sheep had been poisoned to death, he was furious and roared, “Where is their family?! Drag Ms. Liang out now!”
At this moment, Mr. Cao, Mo Feng and Xiuying stepped in front of the courtyard, “Governing official Wu, quell your rage, I am knowledgeable about this matter. What they were growing was indeed a medicinal herb known as a mandrake.”
Lao Wai sobbed, “But it poisoned my sheep to death.”
Mo Feng argued, “Who told you not to take care of your sheep? Are you still trying to portray yourself as the victim after destroying our property?”
However, his words made it seem more clear that the medicinal herbs had poisoned Lao Wai’s sheep to death. The villagers discussed amongst themselves, and universally said, “If it could poison a sheep to death, it’s clearly poisonous. We don’t know any medicinal herbs, but if someone accidentally eats this, then they’d lose their life. You should get rid of the mandrakes as soon as possible!”
Lao Wai wanted recompensation for his dead sheep, and the villagers wanted the mandrakes to be removed. Mo Feng didn’t have the authority to act on either matter, so could only ask his mother for help.
Ms. Liang rushed over, and when she heard what was going on, she started to yell about Mo Yan, “That girl, where did she find those seeds from? She grew those infernal things, and I never heard anything about them being poisonous!”
She ordered Mo Feng to get Mo Yan, and he started running.
Since something had happened in the village, governing official Wu had to enact justice, “Lao Wai, how much are your sheep worth? That’s how much they need to recompense you.”
Hearing that they had to repay Lao Wai, Ms. Liang felt extremely reluctant, but she couldn’t contradict governing official Wu.
Ms. Liang was fretting when Xiuying said from the side, “Their medicinal herbs may have poison, but they grew it in their own fields, and never invited Lao Wai’s sheep to graze there. He’s the one who didn’t take care of his sheep, and now they’re dead you want them to compensate him?!”
P.S. I assume most people will be on the side of Lao Wai. Thanks for reading!