You Must Take Good Care of Our Little Ancestor From Now On

After Zhou Wanwan had taken a nap, Second Uncle finally brought them into town, and she went straight to the pharmacy.

When the pharmacy owner saw her, he smiled and said, "Little girl, you're bringing medicinal herbs over this late?"

Zhou Wanwan bent down and lifted the coarse cloth covering the two bamboo baskets. "Shopkeeper, please take a look. This basket has gastrodia tubers, and that one has rehmannia roots. Please give me a fair price."

The shopkeeper frowned and said:

"The fresh gastrodia tubers come to exactly seven jin, and the fresh rehmannia roots come to eleven jin.

"Seven jin of fresh gastrodia tubers, at the market price of three qian and two fen per jin, comes to two taels, two qian, and four fen.

"Eleven jin of fresh rehmannia roots, at one qian and six fen per jin, comes to one tael, seven qian, and six fen.

"The two together come to exactly four taels."

Zhou Wanwan nodded. "Then would you take a look at this wood too? See if you'll buy it?"

The shopkeeper crouched down and examined it for quite a while before saying:

"Oh! This is huanghuali! It's very rare in the mountains around here. I didn't expect you to come across one.

"I'll give you five taels of silver. That's already the highest price I can offer."

Zhou Wanwan frowned at him. "Shopkeeper, you know it's huanghuali too? Isn't five taels of silver a little too cheap?"

The shopkeeper coughed and said:

"Whether this tree will survive is still uncertain. Besides, I'll have to transport it to the capital, and that carries risks too. How about this?

"The most I can give you is six taels of silver. This is a remote place, so getting six taels for it is already a good deal."

Zhou Wanwan thought for a moment. "All right, then give me two packets of medicinal herbs as well. Those two packets will do."

The shopkeeper smiled. "You mean these two packets of herbs? They're all worthless herbs. If you want them, take them!"

Zhou Wanwan did not stand on ceremony. She tossed the two packets of herbs straight into her back basket and said, "Many thanks, Shopkeeper."

Second Uncle felt as though he were dreaming. He pinched himself hard and said:

"Ow, ouch! Wanwan, I'm not dreaming, am I? They actually sold for that much money-ten taels of silver...

"Heavens! The things from these mountains can actually sell for so much?"

Zhou Wanwan grinned and said:

"Second Uncle, don't think too much about it. We need to buy more grain now. I'll give you an address.

"Go to this place and exchange all eight taels of silver for grain. I'll go to the cloth shop and buy some clothes."

Second Uncle nodded. "Oh, all right."

Zhou Wanwan looked at him. "Never mind, I'll go with you! I want to exchange it all for fine grain."

"Huh? Why buy fine grain? If we bought coarse grain, it would last us a long time!"

That was how people in ancient times thought. They figured it was enough that food could be eaten, without caring whether it tasted good or what its texture was like.

But Zhou Wanwan really could not get used to the coarse grain here. It scratched her throat terribly, and she really was not just being picky.

She shook her head. "I want fine grain. Second Uncle, help me buy fine grain, please!"

Second Uncle gently pinched her cheek. "You little girl, you really are particular. All right, we'll do as you say and buy nothing but fine grain, okay?"

Only then did Zhou Wanwan nod. She looked at him and said, "Eldest Brother, I'm worried. Go inside and keep an eye on things."

It took quite a while before they had loaded more than twenty full sacks of grain onto the ox cart.

Zhou Wanwan, meanwhile, went to the cloth shop and bought eight outfits, all thick padded cotton clothes, along with eight pairs of padded cotton shoes and ten cotton quilts.

All of these were for the Liu family. She also bought another outfit for each member of her own family, and just like that, she was left with only a few hundred copper coins again.

The group did not reach the Liu home until midnight. Old Liu stared dumbfounded at the cart piled high with grain and clothes. "You... what on earth did you go and do? Where did you get so much grain?"

Second Uncle coughed. "We just went into the mountains and found a treasure. Father, don't ask. I'll take them back."

Old Liu looked at Zhou Wanwan. "Your family's place is more or less in order now. I'll have your uncles take this grain over to you in a little while."

Zhou Wanwan smiled. "I picked out these outfits for you, and these quilts are for you too."

Zhou Wanwan left two sacks of grain behind, and the Liu brothers worked with even greater enthusiasm.

When Old Liu saw them return, he asked quietly, "Did you take the grain up there?"

Second Uncle nodded. "Yes, we took it up there. I still have to go relieve my brother in a little while. I don't know what Wanwan is tinkering with."

Old Liu looked at him and said:

"What do you care what she's tinkering with? Just do whatever she tells you. She's our family's little ancestor now, understand?

"And you lot, did you hear that? From now on, do whatever Wanwan tells you to do. If anyone dares bully her, I'll kill her myself."

Sixth Uncle gave a snort of laughter and said:

"Father, who in our family would dare bully her now? I've seen it for myself. She took us into the woods today and had us climb straight up into the trees.

"We'd only just climbed up when we saw a lot of tigers. They scared me half to death.

"Then, somehow, she came out of the bushes carrying two tiger cubs. Oh, they were so cute.

"After that, we started digging up all sorts of things. Whatever Wanwan told us to dig up, we dug up.

"Hey, Father, guess what happened?"

Old Liu looked at him. "Get on with it. What are you dawdling for?"

"Anyway, we dug up two baskets of medicinal herbs and another big basket of mushrooms. We didn't know what kind of herbs they were.

"We also dug up a tree. Tell me, how could a tree be worth anything?

"At first, the two of us thought she was playing.

"But we went to the pharmacy and sold everything for ten taels of silver. Mother of mine! I've never seen so much silver in my life," Liu Liulang said quietly.

Old Liu looked at them and said:

"From now on, you must take good care of our little ancestor. And whatever she has you do, you must never tell anyone outside the family.

"If you make her angry, she might not take you along anymore."

"We know, we know..."

The Liu family knew perfectly well which things should be said outside the family and which should not.

Liu Su'e and Zhou Fusheng had spent the whole afternoon cleaning up the house.

Liu Su'e sighed and said:

"I used to come here to play when I was little. Wanwan, don't we have a house of our own?

"Why do we need to tidy this one up too?"

Zhou Wanwan said calmly:

"There's no problem staying in Wild Field Village for the time being, but you know the neighbors on both sides of us aren't easy to deal with.

"When a real famine comes, it'll be terrifying. It's not impossible for people to eat people.

"We don't have particularly close ties with the people of Wild Field Village. If that day really comes, I'm afraid even the village chief won't be able to protect us."

Liu Su'e was startled. "Surely it won't come to that? I think the people of Wild Field Village are all right."

Zhou Wanwan said calmly, "The human heart is hard to fathom. We'll get this house ready. I wonder if there's a cellar here?"

Liu Su'e nodded. "There's a cellar, and it's quite big. It just needs tidying up."