You Can't Even Climb This Little Mountain?

Zhou Wanwan was furious. This man has money to go out and fool around, but he won't even pay for his own son's medical treatment. He's a complete scumbag.

Lingbao quickly followed and soon retrieved the purse. Zhou Wanwan opened it and said, "One tael for 200 coins. You only thought about spending the night gambling? How interesting."

Zhou Wanwan went straight into the house. The woman was taken aback for a moment and said, "Young lady, you've come to the wrong house, haven't you?"

Zhou Wanwan went straight over, took the child's pulse, and said, "This child is cold. You should at least put a cotton-padded coat on him!"

The woman shook her head and said:

"My family is poor, how could we afford a cotton-padded coat?"

In winter, we wear all our clothes on, but it's not very useful.

Zhou Wanwan looked around and, sure enough, found the house to be bare.

She sighed and said, "Would you like to come with me? At least I can guarantee you enough to eat and wear."

The woman looked at her and said, "What do you need me to do, Miss? Do you intend to sell me?"

Zhou Wanwan shook her head and said, "Come with me to the mountain. You can farm, learn to weave, raise poultry—there's something for you to do..."

The woman nodded without hesitation and said, "I'm willing. I can do any hard or tiring work, as long as I can have enough to eat."

Zhou Wanwan nodded and said, "Pack your things and go! Here's some money for you, take it."

The woman took it and looked at it, saying, "Isn't this my husband's money?"

Zhou Wanwan nodded and said, "Yes, that's where he fell to the ground."

Zhou Wanwan directly instructed Liu Xiuyuan to arrange for the mother and son to be taken to the mountain.

Zhou Wanwan found the people who had dug up the medicinal herbs again, but in fact, there were hardly any medicinal herbs left on the mountain.

However, the entire village is populated by herb gatherers, who collect herbs from deep in the mountains and forests.

Moreover, the herbs they collect are usually the roots and stems; since the locust plague, there are very few herbs with leaves left.

Zhou Wanwan went straight into the village and saw a crowd gathered around a house, saying, "The village chief is probably beyond saving. Prepare for his funeral!"

The villagers wept silently, "Why can't you just give us a way to survive?"

Zhou Wanwan stepped forward, took his pulse, and said, "He can be saved, but he'll need some medicinal herbs."

"Little girl, is there really any hope for my father? What kind of medicinal herbs do you want? Every household in our village has some medicinal herbs."

Zhou Wanwan directly named more than ten kinds of medicinal herbs, and in no time, everyone had gathered all the herbs.

Zhou Wanwan had them brew the medicine directly and then used silver needles to prick several acupoints. After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the village chief opened his eyes.

Zhou Wanwan had someone give him the medicine and said, "Your village has quite a lot of medicinal herbs. I can trade with you for some. What do you want?"

The village chief quickly said:

"We want food, and our village has plenty of medicinal herbs, but we've never dared to sell them."

The current county magistrate is a scoundrel; our medicinal herbs have already been confiscated several times this month, so we dare not take any herbs out of the village at all.

Zhou Wanwan nodded and said, "I'll have a cartload of grain delivered today. Prepare the medicinal herbs."

The village chief looked at her and said, "Young lady, you are very righteous. On behalf of the villagers, I thank you."

"It's really hard to sell things in this village," Zhou Wanwan sighed as she left the village.

How can these ordinary people at the bottom of society possibly survive?

Those officials are utterly incompetent and corrupt.

Gu Sinian looked at her and said, "Wanwan, there are too many unfair things in this world, we can't possibly manage them all, can we?"

Zhou Wanwan looked at him and said:

"It's true that we can't manage everyone, but if no one does anything, these people will really have no way to survive."

These are all innocent people, like the villagers in this village, who have relied on medicinal herbs for generations. What did they do wrong?

As soon as Zhou Wanwan entered the village, she heard the trees in the village crying out, "Save them! These villagers are kind; they shouldn't die!"

Zhou Wanwan sighed and said, "I'm not in the mood to shop anymore, let's go back up the mountain!"

As they walked back, halfway there they saw hundreds of highly skilled martial artists riding tall horses galloping towards them.

The leader of the group let out a "whoosh" and said, "Hey! Do any of you know where Black Wind Stronghold is?"

Zhou Wanwan nodded, looked at them, and said, "It's on that mountain over there."

The man, seated on his horse, looked down at us and said, "Kid, now take us there."

Zhou Wanwan nodded and said, "Okay! We'll take you there now, but we'll have to climb a mountain."

"All of you, get on your horses, we'll take you there."

Those men grabbed them and dragged them onto the horse trail. "Come on, lead the way for us quickly. If you can't get us there, we'll just throw you down the mountain."

Zhou Wanwan looked at them and said:

"Yes, we often go up the mountain to collect medicinal herbs and we know the people of Black Wind Stronghold."

However, Black Wind Stronghold is easy to defend and difficult to attack, so it will be a bit difficult for you to rob it.

The leader scoffed, "We're not here to rob anything."

Zhou Wanwan chuckled and said:

"However, Black Wind Stronghold is quite poor, and there's not much to rob. Just go straight."

I know a shortcut that goes around the back of the mountain. Do you want to try it?

The leader looked at her and said, "You're quite clever. Here's what we'll do! If you lead us to Black Wind Stronghold, we'll give you five taels of silver."

Zhou Wanwan's eyes lit up and she said, "Great! I'll lead you around the mountain."

Zhou Wanwan led them directly to the back mountain and pointed to the path there. "Start climbing from here, and you'll reach the top."

The leader looked at the towering mountain peak and said, "You want us to climb up there? Do you think anyone can climb up there?"

Zhou Wanwan nodded and said, "Sure! We climb up there all the time. I'll show you if you don't believe me!"

The leader chuckled, "Fine, you climb up. If you lead us all the way up today, I'll give you ten taels of silver."

Zhou Wanwan nodded, turned around, and started to get up.

The trees on the mountain saw her and wrapped their roots around her hands, pulling her uphill.

Gu Sinian, Zhou Qingyan, Zhou Qinghe, and Zhou Qingchen did the same. Gu Sinian swallowed hard and climbed up with his head down.

The three Gu Family brothers remained expressionless, but inside they were terrified. They never expected that something inside the mountain would be pulling them up.

Those people took one look and thought, "Hey! This mountain is actually quite easy," and followed suit, climbing step by step.

But after climbing only a dozen meters, the leader was exhausted. "Wait, how did you guys climb this? Why do I feel like climbing mountains is so difficult?"

Zhou Wanwan looked down at them and said, "It's not difficult! It's very simple! Really? You all have internal energy, and you can't even climb this little hill?"