Chapter 8: The "Irritable" Wife Knows How to Show Affection (8)

Seeing Su Qiruo risking her life to earn money like this, Lu Dasheng couldn't help but offer a word of advice.

After all, they had grown up together since childhood. Aside from having a bit of a bad temper, Su Qiruo was good-natured at heart; otherwise, Lu Dasheng wouldn't have been friends with her.

As for Su Qiruo beating the husband she had at home, it couldn't be blamed entirely on her. When someone spends their entire fortune to buy a man, only for that man to refuse to let them touch him, anyone would be annoyed.

However, Lu Dasheng couldn't stand such things either. No matter what, one shouldn't lay hands on a man, right?

"Dasheng-jie is right. We aren't children anymore, and we've passed the age of acting recklessly. From now on, we need to live our lives properly."

Su Qiruo responded with a smile, shocking the other three so much that their eyes widened.

While they were talking, the rope was already tied.

The group used all their strength to finally pull the large black bear up, and Su Qiruo felt as if she were about to collapse from exhaustion.

"Hoo... hoo..."

After taking a few deep breaths, Lu Qimei said,

"A big thing like this should sell for at least thirty taels, right!"

Su Qiruo squinted her eyes as she calculated, then curled her lips and said, "Fifty taels."

"What? It can sell for fifty taels?"

Lu Ziping suddenly sat up, staring blankly at Su Qiruo as she asked.

"This bear is a treasure from head to toe—the bear gall, the bear paws, and the fur. You don't understand. I guarantee you sisters won't be shortchanged this time."

Su Qiruo patted Lu Ziping on the shoulder and said with a smile.

She needed to renovate the house and build a courtyard wall so that Yun Zimu wouldn't be afraid when he was home alone, and that would cost quite a bit of silver.

On top of that, she had to buy vegetables and grain, buy Yun Zimu a new set of clothes and a new pair of shoes, and replace the bedding at home...

Calculating it all, she feared this silver wouldn't even be enough.

The three of them were quite loyal; even though the moon was already high in the sky, none of them complained about it being too late.

"Should we take this bear to your house first?"

Lu Dasheng asked.

Su Qiruo was about to nod, but then she thought of something and said, "Better have Qimei bring the cart out and put it directly on the cart. I'll keep watch overnight."

Yun Zimu was timid by nature; if he saw something like this, there was no telling how frightened he might be!

Seeming to see through her worries, Lu Qimei couldn't help but tease, "Since when did Qiruo-jie learn to be so tender and protective?"

That was a phrase Su Qiruo had taught her in the past, and now she was using it on Su Qiruo herself.

"If I don't cherish my own husband, who will? You'll understand when you get married in the future."

Su Qiruo gave Lu Qimei a sharp look before urging her to go get the cart.

"Forget it, it's already midnight anyway. We won't go back to sleep. Let's just transport this thing to town directly; otherwise, we might run into people during the day and it'll be hard to explain."

Aside from Su Qiruo, who had bought a little husband, Lu Dasheng was the only one among the remaining three who was married.

Now that even she had said so, Lu Qimei and Lu Ziping had no objections.

"Wait for me a moment, I'm going home to get some things."

After saying that, Su Qiruo didn't wait for their agreement and ran toward her home like a gust of wind.

Lu Ziping curled her lips and said, "Dasheng-jie, do you feel like Qiruo-jie has been bewitched by that little husband she bought? Could he be a fox spirit?"

Wasn't such a beautiful man exactly like the fox spirits the storytellers talked about?

"Don't talk nonsense. Your Qiruo-jie has just learned how to live a proper life. Stop saying those random things in front of her. If she hits her husband again, I won't spare you."

Lu Dasheng glared at Lu Ziping. Previously, Su Qiruo's beatings of her husband were all thanks to the loose tongues of Lu Ziping and Lu Qimei, who spent all day saying inappropriate things that made people irritable.

"Got it, got it. You've said that a hundred times already."

Lu Ziping shrank her neck and grumbled. She was just joking with Qiruo-jie; who knew she was so thin-skinned and would take her anger out on that little fox spirit!

Su Qiruo returned home on tiptoe. Seeing the door was closed, she didn't wake Yun Zimu, but simply grabbed the bag she had left by the wall during the day and left.

When the four of them reached town, pushing and pulling, it was already dawn. Their stomachs were growling with hunger, so Su Qiruo told them to wait at the entrance of the shop that bought wild game while she went to buy food.

Finding a pharmacy that was already open, Su Qiruo went inside. Although the medicinal herbs she had gathered weren't very precious, they still fetched half a tael of silver.

She went out and found a steamed bun shop, spending forty wen to buy twenty buns. With four hundred and sixty wen left, Su Qiruo tucked it all away.

The four of them leaned against the wall and finished the buns in a few bites. Lu Ziping covered her mouth to yawn and then leaned against the wall and fell asleep.

When she woke up, there was no one else around, and the cart and the black bear on it were gone.

Just as Lu Ziping's face turned pale with fear, Su Qiruo walked over with a smiling Lu Dasheng and Lu Qimei.

"Awake?"

Su Qiruo smiled, took an ingot of silver from her pocket, handed it to Lu Ziping, and said to the three of them,

"Because I'm in urgent need of money at home, I'm returning the silver I borrowed from you sisters last time, plus one tael of 'hard work' money for each of you. I'll thank you all properly in a few days."

Su Qiruo cupped her hands in a salute to the three. She had borrowed four taels from each of them last time, and this time she gave them five taels each, leaving herself with thirty-five taels.

She would use this money to fix the roof first, add some food, and keep some in reserve. Yun Zimu's injuries still needed to be looked at, after all.

Calculating it this way, even ten more big bears wouldn't be enough.

"Qiruo-jie, what are you doing? How could I take your hard-earned money for helping you out? Just treat me to a drink another day."

Lu Ziping was on her own and didn't care much about the money; to her, Su Qiruo was much more important than silver.

"Take it if I give it to you; I'll surely need your help again in the future. My grain jar at home is empty, and I'm going to buy grain in a moment. Is there anything you need to buy?"

"I'm not buying anything. I'm taking this silver back to my mother so she stops saying I'm like a worm, only eating and not working."

Lu Qimei shook her head hurriedly. Last time she said she hunted a wild boar and got four taels of silver, her mother said she was bragging. Today, she would show them that she, Lu Qimei, didn't bother with such bragging.

"I'm going to buy some snacks for my two children at home. They've been pestering me for them for a long time."

Whenever Lu Dasheng spoke of her two children, her face was full of smiles, an unstoppable happiness.

"Then I'll go with Qiruo-jie to buy grain and help her carry things. Qimei, you watch the cart!"

Lu Ziping followed Su Qiruo to the grain shop, and Lu Dasheng went to the snack shop, leaving only Lu Qimei sitting by the cart, arms crossed and grinning foolishly. Anyone who didn't know better would think there was something wrong with the girl.