SWNOVELS Chapter 25: Dab Hand
Special Thanks to these patrons for their support!
S T E L L A R C L O U D
[Celeste S.] [Azurixa] [Robert K.]
O R A N G E S T A R
[Talia R.] [K.Rom]
Y E L L O W S T A R
[Camille] [Linds] [Esther D.]
G O L D S T A R
[Nem]
Just then, Gu Jiao came from the direction of the backyard with the basket on her back.
"Who takes so long to use the latrine?!" Feng Lin muttered in a low voice.
Xiao Liulang's gaze fell on Gu Jiao. When she approached, he asked her, "Do you feel unwell? Let the physician have a look."
"I don’t. Let’s go." Gu Jiao said.
Indeed, she did not look sick at all. Xiao Liulang then went to get the medicinal herbs listed on the prescription. When he paid the bill, he found that the package of medicinal herbs was cheaper by a silver or two compared to half a month ago. He asked, "Is there a mistake?"
"No, this is the price." The staff replied.
"I told you earlier, their business is not doing well, so they dropped the prices." Feng Lin whispered in his ear.
But this drop was also... Outrageous.
But apart from this, Xiao Liulang could not think of any other reason. It was even more unlikely for some distinguished personage to help him in the dark.
A group of people went out of Rejuvenation Hall.
Second Owner personally sent people to the door. When he brushed past Gu Jiao, Second Owner smiled and held out five fingers at her.
The cost of medicinal herbs, five taels of silver. He was going to charge it to her account!
Gu Jiao threw him a domineering glance. From the treatment fee she would earn… Deduct it!
But then again, Second Owner had yet to ask her to treat someone else. She didn’t know what kind of patient she would receive when the time came.
"Brother Xiao, I will send you back." Feng Lin said.
Xiao Liulang replied, "No need. Second Uncle Luo’s oxcart is there. Go back to the academy and study hard. You still have an examination to take next year."
Feng Lin felt a headache as soon as this was mentioned. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t very knowledgeable. His teacher always said that his articles were too rigid and lacked new ideas. It would still be fine if he were to meet an old-school examiner, but if he ran into the innovative ones, he would probably fail to get into the list.
Feng Lin sighed and said, "All right, I'll go back to the academy now. Be careful on the road."
After saying that, he glared at Gu Jiao again, as if worried that Gu Jiao would get Xiao Liulang into trouble. However, after Xiao Liulang told him she had a name, he never called her a wicked woman again.
After Feng Lin left, Gu Jiao and Xiao Liulang did not return to the village immediately, but went to a shop to buy something first.
Gu Jiao bought some candied fruits and peanut seeds. She found that the elderly woman was rather easy to coax. She could stay in the house all day as long as she was given the food she liked.
Xiao Liulang bought some brown sugar. Last time, he borrowed brown sugar from Aunt Zhang’s family, but hadn’t returned it to her yet.
When the two of them went to put their things on the cart, Second Uncle Luo smilingly said, "What about the new year's goods? It's about time to buy them too. The end of the year is coming soon."
The two people paused at the same time.
They suddenly realized that the end of the year was approaching.
It wasn’t that they lived their life ignorant of the days, they just didn't have the habit nor the plan to celebrate New Year in their hearts. New Year’s Eve was when a family reunited under the myriad twinkling lights. It would always be the loneliest day for them.
In her previous life, Gu Jiao left home at the age of eight and lived in the experimental base of the organization ever since. During New Year’s Eve, the organization would have a collective holiday, and then she would be left all alone in the empty base.
Gu Jiao didn’t know much about Xiao Liulang’s circumstances. Maybe it was also full of bustle around him once, but later people passed away one after another.
She was a lonely soul in another world, and he was a lonely guest in a foreign land.
Second Uncle Luo's words made them suddenly confused about what to do.
But in the end, they didn't say anything and just got into the oxcart silently with the things in their hands.
The oxcart drove slowly. It was already dark when it arrived at the village.
Second Uncle Luo drove the cart back to his home, and Gu Jiao threw everything into her back basket then walked towards the direction of their house with Xiao Liulang.
When they were halfway through, they saw from afar that something was going on in their front yard. People crowded the inside and outside of their yard that not even a single drop of water could trickle through, and there were faint cursing voices coming from within.
Just then, Aunt Zhang, who was at the doorway of her house and unable to leave because she was feeding her two grandsons, yelled at the two people, "Aiya! Liulang, why are you back just now? Something has happened to your family!"
"What's the matter, Aunt Zhang?" Xiao Liulang asked.
"The Gu Family came to your door and... quarrelled... with your grandaunt!"
Grandaunt?contemporary romance
When did such a person come to their house?
It couldn’t be… The elderly woman, right?
The elderly woman had Alzheimer’s disease. She would be bullied miserably in this case!
Gu Jiao turned to Xiao Liulang and said, "I'll go first and have a look."
Aunt Zhang said hurriedly, "Go quickly! Your grandma is not someone easy to deal with!"
Gu Jiao had been here for such a long time but had never met the original soul’s grandmother. She only knew that her surname was Wu and she was a shrewish woman when she was young. Later, she married Old Mister Gu. Old Mister Gu was a scholar, and later he became a Village Chief. Ordinarily, Wu shi should have curbed her temper after getting married to him, but she had become more and more arrogant instead.
Wu shi was the number one person difficult to deal with in the village, which was why Aunt Zhang was worried that Xiao Liulang's ‘grandaunt’ would be bullied.
When Gu Jiao arrived at their front yard, she found that all the women of the Gu Family, namely Wu shi and her two daughter-in-laws, Zhou shi and Liu shi, had come.
Of course, Gu Xiaoshun and Gu Ershun were there as well.
Ershun stood by her mother, while Gu Xiaoshun stood by the elderly woman.
However, there was something different from Aunt Zhang's description... Apparently, the ones who had been abused badly to the point of having their faces flushed with anger was Wu shi’s three-man group!
"You, you, you, you, you... Say what you just said again if you have the guts!" Wu shi put one hand on her waist and pointed a finger to the elderly woman.
No one knew when the elderly woman asked someone to move a stool for her. She sat boldly on the stool with her legs crossed and grabbed a handful of melon seeds. While cracking them, she said casually, "For what reason should I say it again? Is your brain so bad that you can’t comprehend my words? Or are you deaf and couldn’t hear clearly? "
Wu shi had been tyrannizing the village for so many years and had never been so humiliated by anyone before.
Her two daughters-in-law couldn’t be blamed for asking her to come and confront this old woman. It was simply impossible for her two daughters-in-law to cope with this old woman's means.
"I don't care what you say! He must bring me these taels of silver tonight!" Seeing that she couldn’t win the argument, Wu shi began to act shamelessly.
The elderly woman spat the melon seed shells towards her face and said, "Ptui! Did he eat your rice or drink your porridge? Brothel women have more sense of shame than you! Not to mention one or two silvers, don’t even think of getting even a single copper coin!"
She actually compared her to those unscrupulous women in the brothel. Wu shi was bursting with rage!
Wu shi: "You, you, you, you..."
The elderly woman completely refused to give Wu shi a chance to talk back, "Also, don't say that my family’s JiaoJiao ate your food. How much did she eat, and how much money did you get from Liulang in return? My family’s JiaoJiao originally should have married her husband into the Gu Family, but you people didn’t honor it and drove them out instead. Since they had been driven out, they have nothing to do with your Gu Family anymore!"
Wu shi trembled with anger, "That... that's called a family division!” She was alarmed. If such words got out, did they still want the Gu Family's reputation?
The elderly woman took another melon seed and said, "Oh, you admit that it’s a family division! Since they’re already living separately from you, why do you still have Liulang provide you with money? Where’s your sense of shame? Must’ve used it to decorate your walls!"
Wu shi choked up and her eyes nearly rolled back.
Where did this crazy woman come from? She was simply, simply... simply infuriating ah!
The villagers watching the bustle were dying of laughter.
Wu shi had never once lost an argument in the village, but today she was turned into a gourd that had its mouth sawed[1].
The division was originally the doing of the Gu Family, but at that time the Gu Family claimed it was Xiao Liulang's idea, and Xiao Liulang himself was also unwilling to live with the Gu Family, so the villagers couldn't say much.
Everyone in the village knew that Gu Jiao always had her meals at the Gu Family, but they didn't expect that the Gu Family was receiving money for it.
Gu Jiao was only a fourteen-year-old girl. How much food could she eat? But the Gu Family actually asked Xiao Liulang to give them a silver or two a month!
Wasn't this extortion?
A silver or two was enough for a large family to eat for two months!
Originally, Zhou shi and Liu shi came here just to ask for the money after finding that Xiao Liulang didn't give it to the family this month. How could they expect the situation to get so out of hand?
What should they do now?
1. ↑ — someone unable to retort or make a comeback.
Click me if you want to read advance GSPW chapters! Schedule update is 5x a week (Monday to Friday).
You can read up to 15 advance chapters in our patreon so you should go check it out. ^^
OR if you can't support us in money, you can always support us emotionally -just hope into our discord server. Hehehe~
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also, please also have a look at our other translations!
Everyone But Me Is Reborn
Her father is a coward and senselessly filial. Her mother is weak and gullible. Her elder brother is a wastrel.
When she married into the Wangfu, she suffered and was coldly treated. And by the time she was in labour, she was fated to die with the unborn child in her belly.
This was supposed to be Ning Nuan's life.
However this time, everyone but her is reborn.
Ning Nuan is at a loss. She felt that her dad has suddenly become the pillar of the family, her mother’s temper became fierce, and even her elder brother, who would only walk the dogs and play with birds all day, has begun picking up books and reading them carefully.
There is also that juvenile that shows up at the wall of her courtyard everyday, calling her “Ah Nuan, Ah Nuan” with an honest face.
done.co