The peasant woman quickly calculated that the entire village had been preparing for a mass exodus th

All that could be heard from inside was Grandma Sun's voice saying:

"Lotus's reputation is ruined, and she can't get married in the surrounding villages. Rather than keeping her at home for the rest of her life, it would be better to marry her off to Master Li to bring him good luck."

Now, Master Li wants a girl born on the fifteenth of July to bring him good fortune, and he's willing to pay a dowry of forty taels of silver!

Then, a brief silence came from the main room.

Forty taels of silver was an astronomical figure for every household in Zhao Family Village. Who could receive forty taels of silver as a bride price when their daughter got married?

Even a village beauty like Zhang Caixia only dared to ask for an exorbitant price of twelve taels.

"!!!"

Zhao Lianhua was so frightened that she covered her mouth tightly.

She never expected to hear this!

Grandma wants to sell her to Master Li for forty taels of silver?

Zhao Lianhua carefully backed away, then opened the courtyard gate and ran out without looking back.

……

When Zhao Taohua arrived at the medicinal herb field, sure enough, most of the leaves were either curled or yellowed.

Some leaves have irregular holes, which are caused by pests eating them.

Zhao Ershu, Qian Shi, and Durian Spirit all bent down to catch the insects from leaf to leaf, and soon their backs ached from bending over.

Every time I look up, I feel despair. The medicinal herb field stretches as far as the eye can see, and there are so many herbs that need to be caught and the insects removed.

Zhao Taohua walked up to a motherwort plant, squatted down, and saw countless yellow-green aphids on the tender leaves, sucking sap with their mouthparts.

There are many pests on a motherwort plant; aphids on the upper leaves and spider mites on the lower leaves.

It spins a web on the back of the leaves and then sucks the sap from the leaves. Over time, the leaves will turn yellow, wither, and even fall off, thus weakening the plant's growth.

Looking around, there were only a few normal plants on the ten acres of land.

Zhao Taohua frowned. How could there be so many? It made her scalp tingle.

She looked down at the snail spirit and saw it stretching out its tentacles and looking around as if it were looking for something.

Zhao Taohua carried it and walked in the direction it was looking.

"Peach Blossom, where are you going?" Madam Qian called out as soon as she saw Zhao Taohua enter someone else's medicinal herb field.

As Zhao Taohua walked in the direction the snail spirit was looking, she gradually sensed something.

She turned around and replied, "Mother, I'm going for a walk, I'll be back in a bit."

After saying that, she led the snail spirit forward.

Just as Zhao Taohua walked to the middle of the hundreds of acres of medicinal fields, she suddenly noticed a strange phenomenon: there was a small bulge on the ground.

Furthermore, at the entrance to the bulge, she sensed a great deal of malevolent energy.

Zhao Taohua frowned and cursed, "Damn it, so you're the one who caused these pests on hundreds of acres of land?"

The snail spirit was so excited in her palm that its four tentacles swayed in different directions, and even its shell began to tremble slightly.

Although the snail spirit couldn't speak, Zhao Taohua seemed to understand from its body language that it was saying: The time to hunt has come!

Just as the snail spirit was about to make its move, Zhao Taohua suddenly heard a scream from not far away: "Help!"

At that moment, most of the villagers were catching pests in the medicinal herb fields, and few were chatting idly, so this cry for help came as a complete surprise.

Everyone straightened up and looked in the direction of the sound. They saw Zhao Lianhua running towards them as if she were being chased by a pack of wolves.

"Lotus, what's wrong?"

"Lotus, what happened?"

The villagers expressed their concern.

As Zhao Lianhua ran closer, she glanced at the villagers standing in the medicinal herb field, then looked past Zhao Sanshi and his wife before turning and running directly towards Zhao Taohua.

"You brat, where do you think you're going!"

Grandma Sun cursed as she ran.

She hadn't expected that this girl was so clever; she had actually eavesdropped on their conversation and then run away.

I should have just left Lianhua in the room and then told Daqiang and Guai Sun about it.

"Lotus, I'm doing this for your own good. You'll have a hard time getting married in this lifetime."

Zhou tried to persuade them from behind.

Since she can't get married anyway, she might as well become a concubine to Master Li and earn forty taels of silver for her family.

Besides, the Li family mansion is a golden palace. Lianhua went there to live a good life, no longer having to wear tattered clothes, having a nice house to live in, and having fish, meat, and rice every meal. It was practically the life of a god.

"Lotus, for your brother's sake, just agree!" Zhao Feng also advised.

Zhao Daqiang chased after him, cursing, "You don't want your whole family to freeze to death this winter, do you?"

The Zhao family's old house is so old, it needs replacing the roof and plastering the walls. All of that costs money.

If they had forty taels, they might be able to build a new brick house like the second wife!

When Zhao Lianhua ran behind Zhao Taohua, she cried out:

"Peach Blossom, please save me! I don't want to be Master Li's ninth concubine in a marriage to ward off bad luck!"

"what?"

Zhao Taohua was shocked. She never expected that Old Lady Sun had not given up on this idea.

However, the focus shifted to Zhao Lianhua.

Zhao Taohua looked coldly at Granny Sun and the others who had come after her.

"Peach Blossom, step aside. This has nothing to do with you. This time, we're marrying Lotus!" Old Mrs. Sun said to Zhao Peach Blossom.

Looking at Granny Sun, Zhao Daqiang, Zhou Shi, and Zhao Feng, Zhao Lianhua felt as if they had gone mad!

She hid behind Zhao Taohua and shook her head frantically: "No, I don't want to go and marry into the Li family to bring them good luck."

The other villagers who were catching insects in the medicinal herb field heard the noise and cursed:

"Madam Sun, have some decency! Your granddaughter is a person too, and you know perfectly well what kind of person Master Li is!"

Grandma Sun said to the man in an annoyed tone, "So what if you know? Can accumulating good deeds put food on the table?"

Winter is approaching, the house hasn't been repaired, and the herbs haven't been grown. We're on the verge of starvation. What's the use of accumulating good deeds?

Are we really going to wait to starve or freeze to death?

Anyway, this girl ruined her own reputation and can't get married now, so I'm just helping her find a good husband!

After Grandma Sun finished speaking, half of the villagers fell silent.

Because not only did Grandma Sun lose money growing medicinal herbs, they all lost money too, losing everything.

Now, the only thing we can do is try to catch the bugs and see if we can salvage the situation and recover some of the losses.

The village chief and Zhao Xiangping were also helpless, never expecting the medicinal herbs to turn out like this.

Originally, they were worried that with the whole village growing medicinal herbs, the town's clinic wouldn't be able to handle so many herbs.

So the two used their connections to go to nearby towns to discuss and sign contracts with others, promising to buy their medicinal herbs once they were planted.

Zhao Taohua said to Grandma Sun, "Who said medicinal herbs can't be grown? The reason there are so many pests in the medicinal herb field is because there is a grub monster in the field."

Its entrance is right where you are, Grandma.

what?

Upon hearing this, Grandma Sun was so frightened that she quickly backed away. In her haste to chase after Lotus, she hadn't noticed that the mud beneath her feet was a little higher.

"boom!"

As she retreated, the entrance to the grub monster's cave suddenly collapsed.