Chapter 98 - Chapter 98: Chapter 98: Envy and Jealousy (Requesting Monthly Votes and Recommendation Tickets)_l

Chapter 98: Chapter 98: Envy and Jealousy (Requesting Monthly Votes and Recommendation Tickets)_l

Translator: 549690339

After a short while, Yingbao began hearing exclamations from the crowd.

Her own dad caught two big fishes, each five or six feet long, causing astonishment and excited yelps among the crowd.

“Are these fishes possessed? Why are they coming this way?” A villager yelled.

Chen Yin scorned, “Shut your stupid ass up! Didn’t you see when Third Brother threw out the fish bait?”

The crowd said: “Exactly! Your mouth is nothing but bad luck. It’s almost New Year’s, stop running your damn mouth. Didn’t you see Fairy Child here keeping order?”

The man, feeling embarrassed, rubbed the back of his head and awkwardly laughed: “I spoke without thinking, I’m sorry. Don’t take it to heart.”

He then bowed towards Yingbao and said, “Fairy… Yingbao, don’t be angry. It was Uncle’s potty mouth.”

Yingbao pretended to ignore him and beckoned Youyou to stand higher.

Standing high and looking far, she could see the entire river surface.

Straight after, Jiang Sanlang spread another handful of fish bait along the river bank, for about two feet.

Then, he told the crowd: “You should hurry and get the fish nets ready by the water to catch them, otherwise, once they finish eating the bait, they will swim away.”

“Alright!” About a dozen villagers instantly spread out, each held a scoop net and a bamboo basket, standing next to the fish bait with some even gripping tight onto iron forks.

After a short while, water ripples started to appear on the surface. Several big fishes swam over to eat the bait.

The crowd was screaming and attempting to catch the fish. The scene was total chaos.

The Jiang family captured another two big fish methodically.

These two weren’t as large as the previous ones, but they still weighed about ten pounds each.

The villagers each had their own catch, one even caught a big turtle with the size of a hat.

“Hahaha! I got one!” “I also caught one.”

“Agh, I was so close…”

Some were joyous, some were frustrated, but none of them minded their clothes or pants soaking wet, with shoes filled with cold water.

Two hours later, everyone had something to show for, catching two or three big and small fish each.

The Jiang family caught the most – a total of sixteen four to five feet long big fishes and several ten-pound blue fish.

“Okay, we should head back.”

It was getting dark, and if they didn’t leave soon, it would be hard for the mules to see the paths.

Jiang Sanlang and others loaded all the fish onto the mule cart and changed into the dry cotton clothes and shoes they prepared beforehand.

Last time, they got sick due to being too cold throughout the journey since they were wearing wet clothes. So this time, they brought extra cotton clothes and shoes.

The other villagers didn’t bring anything extra, but they still happily carried their fish back to the village with smiles on their faces.

Along the way, they received countless envious looks from others.

A passerby even asked, “Are you guys clearing a fish pond?”

“What fish pond? We caught these in the river,” a villager proudly replied.

The passerby was surprised, “You managed to catch fish in this weather? Wow, are you selling these fish?”

Li Dayong and his brothers loudly declined: “No, we’re not selling! We’re keeping these for the New Year celebration.”

The passerby wouldn’t give up and asked others.

A few villagers decided to sell one fish each and keep one for themselves after discussing among themselves.

These few hadn’t had their turn to plant golden ears and were financially tight. With these few hundred coins of earnings, they would have a better New Year celebration. At the very least, they could buy a couple of pounds of pork or mutton from the market.

Moreover, they still had a big fish. They would never buy such a large fish to eat in previous years.

On the way, they met several villagers from West Village who were extremely envious.

When Jiang Sanlang and his party left victoriously with large fishes, several villagers from West Village began to complain: “Look at how prosperous East Village is becoming! I really want to punch that Chen Changsheng.”

“What does Chen Changsheng have to do with this?” someone retorted, “The good times in East Village are because they have a Fairy Child watching over them. What does our village have?”

An evil like Chen Ergou, not even an immortal could prevent him from causing disasters.

“Right.” Someone agreed, “The Jiang Family has surely prospered. They were lucky to find such a blessed fairy child, if I had been the one to find her, maybe our West Village would’ve prospered too.”

“Nonsense! What blessed fairy child, you all are just being delusional.” One person scoffed.

“How is it nonsense? Haven’t you seen how Jiang’s third son changed? Not only did they build a house on South Slope, they even grew golden ears and made a fortune out of it. The whole of Quandong Village has benefited.”

“Absolutely! I heard they also grew cotton on South Slope. Cotton, mind you, it’s precious. It makes winter clothes light yet warm, and above all, it does not prick. Do you know who gifted them those cotton seeds? It was the fairy child.”

Everyone fell silent.

Indeed, who other than a blessed fairy child could present such seeds? One person suddenly asked, “Hey, who actually lost the fairy child?”

“Who knows? Maybe she snuck out of the Fairy Palace…”

“Nonsense! Even the Holy Mother has a mortal mother, the fairy child must’ve been born of a mortal woman.” “Well then, who’s her mother? Why would she abandon a blessed fairy child?” “Her mother must be blind.”

“Are you suggesting her mother could be Chen’s second daughter-in-law?”

“Stop joking. How could it be her? She is sinister and malicious, she even drove her eldest daughter to suicide by throwing herself into the river.”

“Exactly! How could such a woman give birth to a fairy child?”

“Hey, I heard the other day that the Government Official questioned Chen’s second daughter-in-law about hiring Chen Ergou to kidnap children, but somehow she got released.”

“My, she’s really relentless, despite everything she still dared to act.”

“Indeed.”

“Which is why the child is not from Chen Changping’s family. You all should stop guessing blindly.”

While they were engaged in their gossip, they suddenly noticed Chen’s old father approaching, quickly they nudged each other. “Keep it down, here comes Chen’s old father.”

“Alright, let’s move.”

The villagers of West Village, immersed in their discussions, noticed Chen’s old father staggering towards them, causing them to scatter in all directions.

Jiang’s third son and his group returned home, dividing the caught fish amongst themselves. Each family took five big fish.

The rest of the slightly smaller fish, were given to Jiang Cheng to take to his in-laws as a new year gift.

Of course, two were kept aside for the Zhang family.

Since Jiang Cheng was betrothed to a girl from Chu Family, it was tradition to exchange gifts at the beginning of the year. Delivering some fish would also add to their prestige.

It was the same with Dani’s side, the man had to give a gift, and Uncle Jiang’s family had to reciprocate.

While scaling the fish, Chunniang lamented, “In past years, due to our poverty, we couldn’t exchange gifts. Now that we have enough, we still can’t afford to.” Jiang’s third son asked, “What do you mean?”

“You see, we need to give gifts to the Twenty-mile Shop, my parents’ house, and even my uncle’s house, your uncle’s house. We have to prepare a gift for everyone.”

Chunniang sighed, “In the past we saved where we could and turned a blind eye to it, but look at us now.”

Jiang’s third son chuckled, “Just put your heart into it, we aren’t obliged to entertain everyone.”

“Easier said than done.” The mere thought of it gave Chunniang a headache.

Just her maternal family alone required several gifts, each elder required a gift, and then the gifts for the younger ones, wouldn’t even fit in a mule cart.

Also, everyone knew that their life was getting better and kept their eyes wide open. If the gifts were a tad mundane, they would have to bear snide remarks. They’d say she had become arrogant since amassing wealth, looking down upon her poverty-stricken relatives, even after acquiring so much wealth, she was giving such gifts.

Alas, the past would’ve been better. At least then, no matter what she brought back, they wouldn’t have said anything about it.

Where there’s no expectation, there’s no resentment..