A husband found in the village? I bought a regent for a penny!

"No." Gu Xixi's tone was low, but decisive.

"Huh?" Upon hearing the negative answer, Liu Shi not only wasn't angry, but instead burst out laughing. "Oh my, I say, you're still silly, aren't you?"

"Now it's just that your uncle and I care about you and are willing to help you farm, even if it's hard work."

"Without our help, you'll starve to death next year. Why don't you agree quickly? It'll all be good for you!"

Liu was so presumptuous because she never took Gu Xixi seriously.

An orphan girl with no parents, spoiled by her father since childhood, who was lazy and ignorant of farming.

She was born with the fate of a country bumpkin, but she acted like a rich city lady. Who in the village didn't laugh at her behind her back?

Liu chuckled a few more times, then noticed that Gu Xixi was staring at her coldly, her face devoid of any smile.

Feeling awkward, she stopped laughing, frowned, and asked, "Why are you glaring at me?"

Gu Xixi said in a deep voice, "Did you say no, Auntie? Can't you hear me? Or do you not understand me?!"

Liu's mouth dropped open in astonishment.

Gu Xixi didn't have time to waste with her. She pointed to the front door and said, "I'm busy. Auntie knows we're short of food, so we can't keep you for dinner. Please leave if you have nothing else to do!"

Liu snapped out of her daze, her face flushed with anger, "You don't think you can talk to your elders like that just because you have a man backing you up!"

She took a few steps forward, tilted her head back, and shouted loudly.

"Bring him out here! He must have instigated you to disrespect your family!"

"I bought this stuff for a penny, and I'll make him work as an animal or a farmhand. If he dares to say no, I'll take it all the way to the county government!"

Gu Xixi was about to retort when she suddenly realized with a pang of heartache that Liu's big foot had stepped on a sand pile!

Before Liu could stomp her foot a second time, Xixi's body moved faster than her mind, and she used all her strength to push Liu away.

Liu staggered back a few steps and fell hard on her buttocks on the brick ground, wincing in pain.

But Gu Xixi didn't care how badly Liu had fallen; she first bent down to check what was in the sand.

Looking at Gu Xixi's retreating figure without turning her head, Liu almost fainted from anger. She pointed at her and began to curse:

"You little bitch! Your father's only been dead for a short time and you've already gone too far!"

"When I get back, I'll tell your third uncle to tell the elders in the clan that you not only laid a hand on me, your aunt, but you're also helping that bastard to squander the Gu family's fortune!"

Just as Liu was spitting as he spoke, a thick black and yellow rope flew over from nowhere.

It fell onto her skirt with a thud.

In her fury, she grabbed it and was about to throw it away when she suddenly felt that the thing was wet, slippery, and cold, and seemed to be moving.

Liu looked down and saw a pair of brown snake eyes staring back at her. The snake opened its mouth and hissed as it flicked its tongue.

She froze, only her lips trembled, and a gurgling sound came from deep in her throat.

Gu Xixi breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that the treasure she had buried was undamaged.

Only then did I realize that the noise behind me had stopped sometime earlier.

She turned around in confusion, just in time to see Liu Shi spring up from the ground like a firecracker.

"Snake! Snake! I've been bitten by a snake!"

Gu Xixi calmly watched as a snake fell to the ground and quickly slithered into the grass at the base of the wall.

At the same time, Liu clutched her head and rushed out the door, leaving behind a trail of wailing and howling.

Gu Xixi shook her head. "It's just a yellow-banded snake. It only bites once; it won't kill you with its poison."

When collecting in the wild, we often encounter all kinds of snakes, so we're used to it.

She walked toward the west room.

Unsurprisingly, Mu Nanzhao was seen standing inside the door.

"What did you do?"

Mu Nanzhao said indifferently, "The snake is in the house; it's just an eyesore."

Xixi thought for a moment and said, "You can rest assured about one thing: I am the only one in charge of my family, and it has nothing to do with them."

"So they have no right to tell you what to do."

"If someone makes things difficult for you again next time, you can continue to do so to them, or even go further, without any problem."

Mu Nanzhao raised his eyes, his gaze mocking. "Use me to help you get rid of those meddlesome and greedy relatives?"

Gu Xixi smiled and met his gaze. "That's up to you how you interpret it."

In the evening, at the home of Gu Laosan in the west of the village.

Liu lay stiffly on the kang (a heated brick bed), wondering, "Am I about to die?"

"I knew it! Men who are too handsome must be reincarnated foxes; they attract evil spirits!"

"It's all your fault for making me go alone. Ouch, it hurts so much, I'm going to die..."

Old Gu picked up his white copper pipe and banged it hard on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) a few times. "It's been all afternoon, and you're still alive and well, aren't you?"

"If you keep whining, believe me, I'll slap you!"

Gu Qingye brought in water and hurriedly comforted him, "Father, don't be angry."

"Don't be afraid, Mother. The dirty blood from the wound was squeezed out right away."

“I heard that if the area around the wound doesn’t turn black, it’s not a snake bite.”

Upon hearing this, Liu felt that apart from the slight pain in her bitten wrist, she didn't seem to be in any other discomfort.

As if she had been given a reassurance, she immediately regained her spirits.

"Dad, Gu Xixi is so disobedient, you have to stand up for me!"

"Especially those fields, we can't let them fall into the hands of that exiled outsider!"

Old Gu San, his face grim, puffed on his cigarette. "The wheat on our seven mu of land isn't ripe yet."

Gu Qingye covered her mouth and chuckled, "Don't worry, Father, Sister Xixi never cares about this, she doesn't know."

Gu Laosan shook his head and sighed, "That girl is probably not someone to be trifled with now."

Gu Qingye curled her lip in disdain, "So what if she knows?"

"The land may be hers, but the wheat belongs to us. What can she do about it?"

After a moment of silence, Gu Laosan said, "Tomorrow I'll go talk to a few of my uncles and brothers."

Liu suddenly recalled the strong reaction Gu Xixi had when she stepped on the sand pile.

She recounted the story with a smug and greedy look in her eyes, "When Xixi's father was alive, he always said that he hadn't saved any money, but I never believed him."

"Do you think his wealth and treasures might all be buried under the sand?"

As midnight approached, Gu Xixi was so sleepy that her eyelids were drooping before she got up to wash up.

The long table by the window in her bedroom was filled with bottles and jars.

Agricultural pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, seed soaking agents...

They all use natural materials that they have collected to prepare water-soluble solutions.

Its strength is far inferior to that of modern agricultural chemicals.

However, since ancient pests and diseases had low resistance to pesticides, the actual effects of using them were still quite good.

Xi Xi lay down on the bed, thinking about her thirty-two acres of land, and fell asleep in the blink of an eye.

The clouds obscured the moon, and two dark figures climbed over the courtyard wall and ran together toward the sand pile.

But they didn't notice that a pair of eyes, bright as a hawk's, were watching them from the darkness...

Early in the morning, Aunt Zhang rushed into Xixi's room, glanced mysteriously outside, and then closed the door tightly.

"This morning someone saw Gu Laosan and his wife tied up and hanging from the big locust tree at the entrance of the village."

"It looks like it was hung up overnight."

Gu Xixi glanced sideways, "Hanging in a tree?"

Aunt Zhang nodded, "Nothing serious happened, but what they said... it's related to our family."