CH 11

Chapter 11 – Points credited

Da Ya and Er Ya watched happily at the side. Feng glared at them and immediately tried to persuade Man Bao, “Little sister-in-law, it’s not easy to sell the baskets. If you add the flowers and grass, it’ll be more difficult. These are everywhere on the mountain. No one wants them.”

“But I think they liked them very much. Everyone took them when I handed out the flowers and grass.” Man Bao felt the buyers were just miserly, and weren’t willing to spend any money.

“Of course, you’ll take it if it’s free, but it’s not worth any money.”

Man Bao pondered. She had her own thoughts, “No, if the flowers and grass don’t look nice, they won’t take them even if we offer them for free. So, we should look for people who aren’t stingy and let them see our beautiful flowers and grass. They’ll definitely buy them.”

Feng said, “But everyone at the market is stingy.”

Man Bao’s shoulders drooped, “Well, we won’t sell them today. Let’s give them away for free. We’ll sell them once we find people who aren’t miserly.”

Feng was satisfied and allowed them to decorate the baskets with the flowers and grass.

Da Ya and Er Ya immediately went to help Man Bao.

Indeed, these newly decorated baskets looked a lot more attractive. They were conspicuous, and immediately attracted everyone’s attention.

Even if there was no shortage of baskets at home, the marketgoers would still stop and take a second look. Those who needed baskets would immediately walk up to the stall and asked for the price.

The prices of the things in the market had remained unchanged through the years. Barely anyone increased the prices of their goods.

Therefore, the price of their baskets was the same as the other sellers. Er Lang’s craftsmanship was pretty good. Customers picked and chose. A few paid money, after selecting one that was pleasing to their eyes, while others bartered.

Items which could be bartered at the market were usually eggs, cloth, and grain.

Cloth was very expensive, and they had to hand in a certain amount of cloth as land tax every year. So, most people bartered with eggs and grains.

Of course, a few people paid with money, but that was not the common practice.

After a whirlwind of sales, Feng collected a lot of grains and many eggs, which were sorted into the baskets and pack baskets.

As the sun was high up in the sky (i.e hours passed), Feng worriedly glanced at the end of the street. Her husband and eldest brother-in-law had yet to return.

She noted the children looked weary, and knew they were hungry. She took out two round flat cakes from the basket, and broke them into pieces for them to share, “Just eat some with water. We can go home once your eldest uncle and father are back.”

Wu Lang and Liu Lang also took some of the flat cake. They sat apart and gnawed on the flat cake. While squatting and sighing, they said, “It must be difficult to sell. No one lacks grain since it’s just after the autumn harvest.”

“Nonsense. Children’s words carry no harm (idiom), let the gale blow away these inauspicious words. Husband and eldest brother-in-law’s affairs will go smoothy.”   

Feng advised, “Fifth uncle, you should say more auspicious words.”

“It’s easy to say auspicious words. In my dreams every day, I wish that the God of Wealth will help our family to get filthy rich, but the wish remains unrealised.”

Man Bao was intrigued and asked the system in her heart, “Keke, is the God of Wealth in heaven? Can you meet him?”

System, “…No. There is no God of Wealth in this world.”

“Not possible. We worship him every year, as well as the kitchen god, the local god of the land…”

Keke, “People in the future are firmly atheistic. They believe there are no supernatural beings in the world.”

This was the exact opposite of the stories Man Bao had been told since childhood. She was dumbfounded for a while, and then quickly figured it out, and said excitedly, “There are no gods in your world because they are all here in my world!”

System, “That’s pretty creative thinking.”

Man Bao said, “Are the gods better than you? Swoosh once and make things disappear? Swoosh another time, and make things reappear? Finally, can you make my wishes come true?”

“I can fulfil the host’s wishes, all on the premise that the host completes the tasks I’ve assigned. There is no free lunch in this world.”

Man Bao nodded thoughtfully, “You and the gods are the same. I think the gods must think the same way. But the gods can’t talk to me. How do I know what the tasks are?”

Keke kept quiet.

Man Bao thought about it. She guessed what a god has in mind from her own perspective. She soon felt she had the answer and yelled “I know!” in her heart.

Then, she tugged Wu Lang and said, “You can’t be like this. You make a wish when you go to bed at night, but you are not sincere. You have to help the God of Wealth with his tasks before he’ll fulfil your wish.”

Wu Lang asked, “What can I do for him?”

“For example, clean up after him, serve him tea and deliver food,” Man Bao said with good reason.

“I did these for Mr Zhuang. I cleaned up after him, and he taught me how to read. I served him tea and delivered food, and he gave me paper which he used. You’ve to do the same for the God of Wealth.”

Wu Lang guffawed and asked Man Bao, “Where is the God of Wealth?”

The children looked at the blue sky, and sighed with regret, “He’s in heaven.”

Feng listened to their childish words without any expression on her face and focused on sorting out the things they had exchanged.

However, the villagers who had stalls nearby were envious and praised her, “Sister-in-law, your family’s children are so smart.”

Their children would never think about such things. They would never say these words. Other than playing in the mud, the kids would only think about going up the mountain to search for wild fruits to eat.

Feng smiled to them, “Children, there is something new every day. We’re used to it.  No one knows what is going through their little minds.”

Everyone roared with laughter, “That’s right. When our children were below the age of three, we also couldn’t understand what they were saying.”

Feng didn’t eat the flat cake, and kept one aside for Da Lang and Er Lang.

She observed that while Man Bao was gnawing on her small piece of cake with relish, she couldn’t even finish that small piece even after a long time. She knew Man Bao wasn’t used to the tough and dry cake.

After all, this was the first time the little girl was far from home where she was normally served hot meals.

After thinking about it, Feng asked Wu Lang to look after the stall. She took out two eggs and planned to go to the village. She wanted to look for a villager to cook the eggs for the sister-in-law.

When Feng stepped away, Man Bao quickly took out a handkerchief hidden in Keke. There were sweets wrapped in greased paper inside the handkerchief.

This time, the box thorn submitted received many rewards as the plant was extinct in the future. There were records and photos of the plant in the Encyclopaedia, but there were no records of the plant’s actual condition.

Man Bao recorded its fruit and a seedling, so the Encyclopaedia, for the first time ever, generously gave her 50 points.

Keke deducted her historical debts. In fact, Keke used to exchange his own savings/ points for sweets to lure Man Bao to persist in digging up plants. He had used 18 of his own points.

In the end, she had 32 points left. This was the highest number of points collected in Man Bao’s history. In the past, she would submit various types of flowers and grasses, and only received one point.

Even the one point was thanks to Keke which fought for it. That was because the plants she submitted in the past were already recorded in the Encyclopaedia. Furthermore, those plants existed in the future.

That one point was an encouragement point.

However, Man Bao thought the word “encouragement” was pretty good. She had always been proud of it. Every time she received points, she would exchange them for sweets. She never thought of repaying Keke.

This type of sweets for children was the cheapest. One point can be exchanged for a large bag with around 100 candies. As Keke said, the sweets were sold by catty (0.5kg), and the wholesale price was very cheap.

A variety of colours were available.

At first, Man Bao was particularly fond of the gorgeous coloured sweets, but for her safety, Keke helped her buy yellowish and reddish candies, as those colours were similar to the sweets in her world.

As for gorgeously coloured candies, Keke once bought a package for her, and left them in the system for Man Bao to savour.

She had given away most of the other sweets as she was a generous and kind child.

When Man Bao had sweets, she would never hide them. From time to time, she would stuff one sweet into her brothers, nephews, and nieces’ mouths.

The nieces, Da Ya, Er Ya and San Ya had the best relationship with Man Bao, and the main beneficiaries of these sweets.

In addition, Man Bao always made sugar water for her parents and sisters-in-laws, and so, her sweets depleted speedily.

As soon as the points were credited last night, she bought a bag of sweets, hid in the system, and peeled off many of the wrappers.

She retrieved her world’s greased sweet wrappers from her little treasure box. Her second brother used to buy her candies when he went to the market. Today, she used her little handkerchief to wrap another layer around these sweets.

With the second sister-in-law away, Man Bao quietly took out the sweets, and in a hushed tone, held a group discussion, “Shall we sell these candies?”

When Wu Lang and the rest of them saw the candies, they couldn’t help salivating and asked, “Man Bao, I remembered we ate all the sweets which Second Brother bought for us when he last visited the market. Where did you get these sweets?”

Man Bao had just associated Keke with the gods, so she was very mysterious and proudly proclaimed, “The gods gave them to me.”

They didn’t believe her because she had previously told them her friend, Keke gave her the sweets. She had also said the candies were given by her descendants, and that the sweets were a gift from a thing called a system.

So, no one believed Man Bao.

Although they didn’t believe her, they still had to routinely ask a question. Subsequently, they stared at the sweets, saying, “Too many sweets. Probably can’t sell all of them. How about eating a few first?”

“Yes, it’s probably not easy to sell all of them,” Da Tou also encouraged Man Bao, “Let’s eat a few first. It’ll be easier to sell when there are less sweets.”  

Man Bao was not stupid, she wrapped the sweets and said, “No. The family is going through a tough time. We must learn to endure hardship, so for the time being, there’ll be no sweets for us to eat.”

Disheartened, everyone lowered their heads.

Man Bao comforted them, “Wait till our family have some money. Then, I won’t sell my sweets, and will give all of them to you. Now we have to buy medicine for my mother.”

The reason Man Bao was so anxious to sell sweets was to purchase medicine for her mother. Mrs Zhou’s medicine stopped yesterday. Last night, her mother suffered and gasped for half the night.

Initially, Man Bao was in deep sleep. Later, when her father got up to pour a glass of water for her mother and to pat her mother’s back, she woke up, and then she slipped into Keke’s space to peel off the sweets’ wrappers.

She felt nothing was more important than buying medicine for her mother.

Everyone was quite filial. They immediately agreed upon hearing this and said they would work hard to sell the sweets.

So, everyone scattered about to find suitable buyers who should be accompanied by their children and be well attired.