Chapter 51
51 The Three Treasures
On the way back, Su Ergou did not say a word. He was so silent that people forgot that he was a little bully who had once followed Father Su.
It was almost afternoon when they arrived at the village. Wei Ting was in the field with Father Su. The three children went to the village to play, and so did Meizi and Niudan.
Because of the formula, Su Ergou did not eat the food Su Xiaoxiao brought with her. He cooped himself in his room and did not come out.
Su Xiaoxiao thought for a moment and decided to make his favorite braised pork with preserved vegetables.
The pork belly and bean paste were ready-made. After braising them, she placed the dried plum vegetables on a tray and quickly prepared them.
Su Xiaoxiao cut the onions and sprinkled them. She wanted to call Su Ergou to eat, but after thinking about it, she brought the preserved vegetables to his room.
Su Ergou sat on the bed alone.
Since she transmigrated to this world, this silly brother had always been carefree. This was the first time Su Xiaoxiao saw him so sad.
Su Xiaoxiao knocked on the door. “Ergou, it’s time to eat.”
Su Ergou turned around and wiped his face with his sleeve.
Su Xiaoxiao walked forward and looked at the back of his head strangely. “Are you… crying?”
“I’m not.”
Su Ergou choked.
He was really crying.
He did not cry when he was beaten up for her. He did not cry when he was pressed to the ground and rubbed against it. He did not cry when he took a cold shower and was so hungry that his eyes turned black. However, he did so when she sold a few formulas.
The child was crying.
Su Xiaoxiao did business for a living, so it didn’t matter to her whether she sold snacks or formulae.
Su Ergou was different. He really liked selling pancakes. When the formulae was snatched away, it felt like someone had cut off his heart.
He stubbornly turned his face away and raised his head, not letting his sister see him crying.
Su Xiaoxiao sat down beside him and hooked his finger. “Are you blaming me for selling the recipes?”
Su Ergou’s tears kept falling. “No, I’m useless! If I hadn’t been caught by them, you wouldn’t have handed over the formula!”
Su Xiaoxiao sighed. “How should I explain it to you? I’d have sold the formula whether you were captured or not. Not wanting you to be hurt at all is one thing. Secondly, I have my own plans.”
Su Ergou cried. “Nonsense! You clearly didn’t want to sell it!”
Su Xiaoxiao said softly, “It’s true. I didn’t give in previously because I was waiting for an opportunity to raise the price. If I sold it easily, the people in Jin Ji would think that they had lost out. If they looked for me to cooperate in the future, they would push the price down. However, if I sold it when I was forced into a corner, no matter what price I shouted, it would seem like my bottom price. There’s no one who doesn’t like to take advantage of others. Just treat it as a means of marketing and negotiation.”
“I just didn’t expect them to attack so quickly… Does it still hurt?” Su Xiaoxiao raised her hand to touch Su Ergou’s cheek.
Su Ergou wiped his tears. “My heart hurts.”
Su Xiaoxiao was speechless.
Su Xiaoxiao said, “Do you understand what I just said?”
“I understand… The recipes are gone… Ah…” Su Ergou wailed.
Su Xiaoxiao, “You’re lonely…”
“There won’t be any pancakes for sale-woo-”
Su Ergou was extremely sad. He felt that he had nothing to live for.
Su Xiaoxiao said patiently, “We can sell them. Jin Ji will sell theirs, and we sell ours. There’s no conflict. Moreover, even if they take the recipe, theirs won’t taste better than ours. Instead, they might bring fame to these snacks. Besides, the market is so big that we can’t split them all. Don’t forget that we still have the academy’s business.”
“But it’ll all be gone soon-we’ll be poor again-”
Su Ergou cried very sadly.
“No.” Su Xiaoxiao quickly diverted his attention. “Don’t you like to eat preserved vegetable braised meat? I made a big plate. It’s all yours.”
“I can’t eat… ” Su Ergou sniffed and looked at his sister with tears in his eyes. “Sister, what did you say you made?”
Su Xiaoxiao smiled and handed him a large plate of preserved vegetable braised meat and a pair of chopsticks. “Eat it while it’s hot. You won’t like it when it’s cold.”
“Sister, eat too.”
“I’m not eating. You eat.” She wanted to lose weight.
“Oh.”
Su Ergou wiped his tears and started eating.
—
After coaxing her brother for a while, Su Xiaoxiao broke out in a sweat.
“Coaxing is a physical job.”
Anyway, who was the kid?
He was even harder to coax than the three children.
Su Xiaoxiao was about to return to her room to change her clothes when she turned around and saw the three children at the door. They were sticking their round heads out and looking in.
She had to stop herself from saying, “Ergou, your image is gone. From now on, you are Uncle Crybaby.”
Su Ergou had cried for so long and had exhausted a lot of energy. At this moment, he was burying his head in the dried meat and did not notice the three little ones eavesdropping in the corner.
Su Xiaoxiao brought the three little ones to the central room. Meizi didn’t go far and watched them from the door. When she saw Su Xiaoxiao, she went back shyly.
The three little ones had gone somewhere to play and were sweating profusely.
Su Xiaoxiao brought over a dry towel and wiped the three of them.
“Are you hungry?” she asked.
In the past, the three of them would have nodded in unison.
This time, they didn’t. The three of them looked straight at her.
“What’s wrong?” she wondered.
The three of them did not speak and ran back to Su Ergou’s room.
Su Xiaoxiao thought that they had gone to look for Su Ergou and did not think too much about it. She returned to the house to change into fresh clothes.
Just as she opened the door to the kitchen, she saw the three children standing at the door with their small bags.
“For Mother,” Dahu said.
“Giving to Mother too,” Erhu said.
“And Xiaohu” Xiao Hu also stuffed his small bag toward Su Xiaoxiao.
Su Xiaoxiao looked confused. “Do you want to leave your luggage with me?”
The first time she saw the three little ones, they were each carrying such a small bag.
They were arranged to stay in Su Ergou’s room, so the luggage was placed at Su Ergou’s side.
The three of them pulled Su Xiaoxiao into the room and gestured for her to open the bag.
Su Xiaoxiao placed the three small bags on the table. “Do you want to change your clothes?”
As she asked, she casually opened the first bundle.
It was Xiaohu’s.
Xiaohu’s stood on his tiptoes and pulled out a small cotton vest from the bag.
Su Xiaoxiao thought that he was going to wear this and was about to bring it over for him to change into when she saw his small hand digging into the small cotton vest.
He dug out a few small silver coins.
He threw away the cotton vest and grabbed a pair of cotton pants. From the pants, he dug out a few more small pieces of silver.
As Xiaohu dug out more than ten pieces of silver, Su Xiaoxiao’s eyes widened.
“Mother, Mother!” Erhu also wanted to open the small bag.
Su Xiaoxiao opened it for him in a daze.
He was not like Xiaohu, who was picking at the seams of his clothes. Instead, he unbuttoned his pocket and took out two golden leaves.
Su Xiaoxiao was speechless.
Dahu’s was even more awesome. His hat had two layers. After taking off the inner layer, he shook out five white banknotes!
Then, he took off his small shoes and dug out a token that was glowing with black light from under his shoe!
Su Xiaoxiao was speechless.
Su Xiaoxiao’s mouth was wide open for a long time.
The case was solved.
Father Su did not find a single copper coin on Wei Ting. So it was in the hands of these little fellows?
No, the scattered money and banknotes of different values did not seem to have been given by Wei Ting. They were more like what the children had hoarded.
Su Xiaoxiao actually didn’t understand why she had made that assumption. It was just her intuition.
Their extraordinary sense of crisis sometimes made people feel that they were not carefree children.
The carefree look was especially obvious on Niudan next door, and Little Meizi, who had always been looking at people’s expressions.
In order to verify her guess, she asked, “Does this money belong to your father?”
The three of them shook their heads.
“Does your father know?”
The three of them shook their heads again. It seemed that they had been hoarding it. She couldn’t help but think that they were three squirrels that hoarded money.
It sounded funny, but Su Xiaoxiao felt sad. What had the three little fellows experienced to have such crisis awareness and the habit of hoarding money?
Did they think that their family was out of money and were worried that she would starve, so they took out all the money they had painstakingly saved for her?
Su Xiaoxiao’s heart felt like it had been rubbed by a warm hand.
She looked at the three little ones who wanted to give her all their belongings and was momentarily at a loss for words.
Of course, she couldn’t take their little money.
Not to mention that she still had money for the time being, even if she didn’t, she couldn’t be greedy for the children’s.
She gently pushed the money back on the table and touched their heads. She said softly, “Dahu, Erhu, Xiaohu, take your money back.”
“For Mother,” Dahu said.
Xiaohu waved his hand seriously. “Mom, I’m not hungry.”
Erhu patted his belly. “Erhu, eat less.”
They wanted to eat less and not let their mother starve.