CH 55

Chapter 55 – Ligustrum

Liu Lang followed Wu Lang’s actions and also gave his money to Man Bao for safekeeping.

Si Lang had the same idea too, but when he looked at the five wen in his hand, he felt it was unnecessary, and so, he tucked the money in his pocket. Man Bao comforted him, “Fourth brother, wait ‘till your wasteland can grow food next year. You will be able to make a lot of money in the autumn harvest.”

Si Lang, “Thank you. Father has been farming all his life, but he has yet to make a lot of money. Furthermore, I just cleared a small patch of wasteland and I’ll be happy as long as there is a harvest.”

Man Bao didn’t expect her fourth brother to be lacking in confidence. “Four brother, Father doesn’t have any money because he has daughters-in-law and children. You don’t have any, so you should be able to make money.

“If you can’t make money, how would you pay off your debts? You owe a lot of money.”

Si Lang was a little heartbroken. He looked at his little sister and said, “Can’t you help me?”

Man Bao patted her chest confidently and said, “Fourth brother, don’t worry, I will definitely help you.”

Da Tou and everyone else also enthusiastically said, “Four uncle, we will also help you.”

Wu Lang and Liu Lang also placed a lot of importance on brotherly affections, placed their arms over Si Lang’s shoulders and said, “Fourth brother, we will also help you. If we get home earlier tomorrow, we will go and help you clear the wasteland.”

Man Bao thought for a while, and felt that her after-school life should be more enriching. The most important thing is to find ways to dig more unique plants for Keke to earn points, so she also said, “Tomorrow, I’ll go and help you too.”

Si Lang …… That’s not the kind of help I want.

However, when he looked at the sincerity in the eyes of his brothers, sister, nephews and nieces, Si Lang secretly thought, forget it, he won’t be able to get much money even if he got involved. The main point is that his parents would not allow him to touch his siblings’ business.

Si Lang sighed sadly.

With things settled, Man Bao took the new sum of money to her mother, and then gave her copper plates to Keke.

Then, she thought she needed a big pocket.

With this in mind, Man Bao’s eyes twinkled, and she typed “money pocket” in the mall, but what came up was a series of beautiful golden circles which looked like copper coins. Man Bao exclaimed and scratched her head, “I want pockets to keep my money.”

The system took a look and said, “It’s better for you to type bag, or more appropriately, hand-made cloth bag.”

Otherwise, even if you type “bag”, many strange and weirds things would appear.

Man Bao followed Keke’s instructions and the search engine listed incredibly beautiful and colourful looking things.

She went “Wah!”, looked at everything enthusiastically, and went, “Oooh, I like this”, “Oooh, I like this too,” and so on. The most important thing is that these cloth bags are so big that they can hold many, many copper plates.

When Man Bao glanced at the points required to purchase the items, her smile froze, her eyes widened and she exclaimed, “Why are the bags so expensive? They actually cost 38 points each, which are much more expensive than paper and sweets.”

In Man Bao’s opinion, paper and sugar should be the more expensive things.

Keke replied, “In the future, materials are abundant. Paper and sugar are not expensive, but craftsmanship and labour are expensive, so handcrafted bags are very expensive.”

Man Bao looked at the bags but was not willing to buy any. However, she didn’t give up. She took out a piece of paper and copied the bag’s design. She planned to let her sister-in-law make it for her. After all, it’s just cloth, right?

Man Bao took her piece of paper with the bag design to her third sister-in-law, and described the bag to her in detail.

He automatically ignored what Man Bao said about the fancy embroidery, which she couldn’t do anyway. In any case, she can make a bag as per the little girl’s description. But they lack the fabric required.

She took the paper and said, “Little aunt, let me have a word with mother-in-law. I’ll get some money to purchase the cloth, after which I’ll make the bag for you.”

Man Bao nodded happily, “Not to worry, I’ll have a word with mother.”

That’s because she was so anxious that she couldn’t wait for He to check in with Mrs Zhou.

Man Bao ran and looked for her mother, and asked her to buy a piece of cloth.

Mrs Zhou saw her running around all evening without resting, so she laughed and said, “All right, I’ll buy it for you, just wait.

She turned around and called old five, but gave him only five wen and said, “When you go to the county tomorrow, go to the cloth shop and ask if they have any fabric scraps in the shop. If they do, buy a few pounds back and remember to pick some big pieces with bright colours.”

That’s right, Mrs Zhou didn’t plan to buy a piece of cloth for her daughter. It was too expensive. She had seen her drawings and that bag required a lot of materials, which was almost enough to make Man Bao a coat, so, it was not worth it. Hence, it was better to buy fabric scraps.

This was the first time ever for Wu Lang to receive money from his mother, and he felt that he was already an adult. He was so excited that he turned around and immediately showed off to Man Bao.

Only then did Man Bao realised that her mother was going to make her a bag out of fabric scraps. She was enthusiastic and envied, “If only I could go to the county tomorrow, I would be able to pick out my own fabric scraps.”

For the first time, Man Bao felt that going to school had its bad moments.

Wu Lang promised her, “Don’t worry, I will choose the prettiest cloth with flowers for you.” 

He also took out two bunches of purple fruits from his pack basket, and gave them to Man Bao, “Here you go, as requested.”

When Man Bao saw this bunch of fruits which Keke called Ligustrum, she was extremely happy, “Thank you, fifth brother!”

The happy Wu Lang said, “I’ll pick more back for you tomorrow, if you like but you can’t eat these things.”

Man Bao nodded, turned around and gave the things to Keke.

The system didn’t ask for all of the Ligustrum and left her a bunch. He recorded the rest into the system. Man Bao thought the fruits were very pretty, she loved eating fruits, and as she sees the accumulating purple fruits, she could not help drooling.

Keke, “This is medicine.”

The drooling Man Bao, “Is this medicine nice to eat?”

System,”……”

Man Bao wiped her mouth and looked at the bunch of fruits repeatedly with regret, “If only my mother takes this type of medicine, she wouldn’t have found her medicine so bitter.”

Keke said, “Your mother’s medicine contains privet.”

Man Bao’s eyes widened slightly. After a moment of stunned silence, she turned around and climbed out of the bed. She was about to run out. Old man Zhou and Mrs Zhou, who were just about to sleep, heard her movements in the cubicle next to them and couldn’t help saying, “Man Bao, you have to go to school tomorrow, be good.”

Man Bao ran over with her little shoes in tow and asked, “Mother, where is your medicine?” 

“What happened?”

“I want to see it.”

It was already dark at this time, but Man Bao insisted on seeing Mrs Zhou’s medicine. The couple tried to persuade her, but it was useless.

When Mrs Zhou saw that the little girl had the attitude that if you didn’t say yes, I would sit on the ground and roll around, Mrs Zhou felt an oncoming headache and waved her hand at her husband, asking him to look for the bag of medicine for Man Bao.

Man Bao opened the bag of medicine and stared wide-eyed at the contents, but she was unable to locate the privet.

Previously, the system also didn’t recognize the privet, but he had scanned Mrs Zhou’s prescription formerly and knew her medicine contained privet. This time, Keke had already recorded the medicine in his system and through technical analysis, he was able to quickly direct Man Bao to the privet.

The bunches of Ligustrum were plump, round, and purple, but the Ligustrum inside the medicine bag was sun-dried. If Keke had not insisted that they were Ligustrum, Man Bao would have never recognize them at all.