Farmhouse Green Plum

Chapter 117: Mistaken Picking

Yuan Qing was stunned for a moment, and suddenly remembered that last August when his grandmother Tao took him to Qingshui Academy to study, he met Song Ying coming into the city alone.

His eyes widened in disbelief, "Last year you went to the city alone, were you selling herbs?"

"Yes."

Yuan Qing was so shocked that he was speechless. After a long while, he gave a thumbs up and said, "Great!"

The villagers in several nearby villages have lived in the mountains for generations, and very few of them think of picking herbs to sell for money.

Even if they knew there were herbs in the mountains, they would feel that they were out of reach, and only capable doctors could identify the herbs.

Song Ying smiled and said, "It's not that great. Brother Lin from Jishidiang taught us how to identify herbs.

Later I thought that if I could read, I could read by myself and trouble him less.”

Yuan Qing felt that she was even more amazing: "The herbs in the pharmacy are basically processed dried herbs. He can only teach you by talking. How can ordinary people identify herbs by just oral description?"

In fact, Song Ying felt that he was quite capable from the bottom of his heart. Faced with compliments, he was no longer modest and smiled so hard that the corners of his mouth were about to split behind his ears.

"No wonder you are so anxious to learn to read." Yuan Qing sighed and continued to explain the meaning to her.

Just after she finished a few words, Song Yuan's voice came from far away: "Sister, look! There are really a lot of prickly bubbles!"

Song Ying looked back and found Song Yuan appeared on the mountain road not far away. She had to stand up and quickly wipe the words on the ground with her feet.

Song Yuan rushed over and raised a handful of prickly ash in his hand high up, and said excitedly: "Look! Look! There are so many prickly ash! They are all red!"

Song Ying didn't expect that the reason she made up would lead Song Yuanzhen to find so many thorns.

She looked at Yuan Qing in surprise: "There are so many prickly ash, don't the children in your village pick them?"

"I don't know that."

Song Ying thought so too. Yuan Qing studied hard every day and might not have even been to the mountain many times.

Since Song Yuan was here, she couldn't teach him the characters anymore, so she said, "Little brother, give some of the thorn bubbles to Brother Yuan Qing, we are going back."

Song Yuan had a good impression of Yuan Qing and generously gave Yuan Qing a handful of prickly ash, then he and Song Ying went home.

By the time we got around Songlinpo, it was already completely dark. We could hear Yang's voice calling from the foot of the mountain: "Ying-wa-Yuan-wa--"

Song Ying hurried to the edge of the cliff and shouted to the people below: "Come back immediately!"

Hearing her voice, Yang felt relieved and came to greet them with a torch.

After receiving them, Yang scolded them, "Why are you back so late? Zhao Ziliang and the others came back a long time ago. Where have you been?"

As she was talking, she saw the thorn bubble in Song Yuan's hand, and her expression suddenly became fierce, and she asked fiercely: "Did you skip school to pick thorn bubbles?"

Song Yuan was so frightened that he forgot to explain.

Yang thought he had acquiesced, and was so angry that she turned around and started breaking off branches, cursing as she did so: "It was you who insisted on going to school, and I scraped together money to pay your tuition. But on the first day of school, you skipped school to pick thorns for me. You don't learn the good things, but just followed your brother's example of skipping school. I'll beat you to death!"

"No, no, I picked these prickly ash. It was still early when I went to the community school. I saw the prickly ash on the roadside and just picked them. I walked away while picking them." Song Ying quickly pulled Song Yuan behind him and took all the responsibility on himself.

She had finally managed to get Song Yuan to go to school, and she didn't want to give her family the impression that Song Yuan was also playful. What if Song Yuan was not allowed to study later?

Yang stopped and looked at Song Ying suspiciously: "Did you really pick it? Yingwa, you can't cover up for him."

"No, I really picked the prickly ash." Song Ying said firmly, "I was just afraid that he would miss the prickly ash fruit and not focus on his books. I told my younger brother yesterday that I would help him pick prickly ash every day in the future."

"Is that so?" Yang threw down the branch and looked at Song Ying with a soft look in her eyes. "You are very thoughtful."

Song Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and thought to himself that his sister was still the best. If it were his brother, he would definitely say: Mom, hitting you with branches doesn’t hurt enough, I’ll go back and get you some bamboo strips.

When Li heard about this after returning home, she rolled her eyes at Yang and said, "You got angry without even letting the child explain himself. What if he gets scared?

As long as he doesn't skip school, he can go pick the prickly ash after school if he wants to."

Yang was furious, but she didn't dare to talk back to Li.

"Grandma still loves me!" Song Yuan held Li's hand affectionately, "Grandma, I promise that I will never skip school like my brother did, but after school, I still want to pick prickly ash, and I also want to pick mulberries and prickly ash in the future."

Li hugged him and said, "Roxbear is fine, but forget about mulberries. Let your sister pick them for you. If your hands are stained purple, how can you write? What if you stain your books later?"

Thinking that the mulberry juice would stain his hands and would not be washed off for four or five days, Song Yuan agreed: "Okay then."

Song Ying wanted to say that the juice of green mulberries can remove stains, but after thinking about it, he shut up.

When Song and Yuan people ate mulberries, not only their hands but also their clothes were stained black, which was very troublesome to wash.

On the next morning, Song Ying led Song Yuan and just as they crossed Dongsheng Mountain, they heard a man's voice cursing, "Which immortal picked my prickly ash? I kept it specially. If I find out who it is, I will chop off your hand..."

She looked up and saw a boy about eleven or twelve years old, as skinny as a monkey, standing halfway up the mountain, cursing loudly.

Oops, I picked the prickly ash that someone else had left.

How come no one is picking these red and sweet prickly ash? It turns out this guy has taken them all.

It seems that this boy is quite powerful in Wutong Village, as he can occupy so many prickly bubbles by himself!

Song Yuan suddenly became nervous, leaned closer to Song Ying, and whispered, "Sister, what should I do?"

"Don't panic, keep walking at a normal pace, and pretend that we didn't do this." Song Ying calmly withdrew his gaze, and continued walking towards the community school holding the hand of Song Yuan, who was standing straight.

When they left Dongsheng Mountain and entered a dense forest, Song Yuan shook her off and ran forward, shouting, "Sister, hurry up!"

After sending Song Yuan to school, Song Ying turned back. As soon as he reached the foot of Dongsheng Mountain, he saw the boy who had just cursed standing in the middle of the road with a ferocious look.

Her heart skipped a beat and she walked over without looking away.

Just as they were about to pass by each other, the boy called her, "Hey! Girl from Xinghua Village, did you pick my prickly ash?"

"No."

"No?" the boy said angrily, "I was fine when I came back yesterday afternoon. Later, only you and your brother passed by this area. If it wasn't you, who else could it be?"

Song Ying wanted to deny it, but at that time period, they were indeed the only ones who would pass through Dongsheng Mountain on their way back to the village. She couldn't say that Yuan Qing was also studying here.