Chapter 79: Chapter 79: Fear from the Unusual Situation

Worried that her children would be frightened, Zhou Anran told the twins to keep watch over their youngest sister while she went to the riverside with Aunt Dong and Aunt Li.

She was truly stunned when she found out the corpse’s identity, Qiu Mu. The Sun family lived just a few houses away from their house.

Although Qiu Mu was a sarcastic woman with sharp words, she wasn’t really a bad person. All her sons were diligent and filial.

Now, seeing Sun Tiezhu, one of her sons sobbing in a heartbreaking way, her heart clenched. He was still too young, even younger than Xiao Fenghao.

"What a poor child. Where is his father?" Aunt Dong muttered, gripping the edge of her clothes tightly.

Sun Tiezhu was hysterically hugging and shouting for his mother to wake up. People around him were trying to console him, and Old Su waited for Sun Tiezhu to calm down a little before discussing with him how to handle things.

Certain matters still needed the consent of Qiu Mu’s family, like reporting to the yamen. Because it meant that the burial process would be postponed.

Zhou Anran returned with a distraught feeling. She couldn’t really imagine it.

What if she someday also leaves her children behind? Their father was nowhere to be found, and they would have no one to take care of them...

"What am I thinking about?" She slapped her own cheeks and walked fast toward the house as if someone was chasing after her.

Upon arriving home, she didn’t hesitate to burn some paper at the doorway, hoping to ward off bad luck. Most of the people who had gone to the riverside today would most likely do the same.

They usually wouldn’t crowd around a deceased like that, but Qiu Mu’s case was truly unusual, which prompted people’s curiosity about what had truly happened.

"Mother, what happened?" Xiao Fenghao asked as he lounged on the chair. Xiao Qingya sat beside him, feeding him some walnuts.

Xiao Yuxi and Xiao Yuyan also hurriedly emerged from the kitchen, waiting for their mother to speak. Although they were also curious, they obediently stayed home. Some superstition was still deeply rooted in their hearts, including bad luck for witnessing death.

"The Sun family’s wife passed away," Zhou Anran muttered slowly.

They all sucked in a deep breath, faces painted in disbelief. "The Sun family... our neighbour?"

Zhou Anran nodded and didn’t say anything more. All of her children were quite perceptive. They noticed the worry lines on her forehead.

[Mother looks so sad.] Xiao Qingya muttered in her heart. She stuffed the bowl of walnuts to her second brother’s lap and climbed down from the chair. [Let me hug her.]

She waddled over to Zhou Anran’s direction and hugged her hand. Zhou Anran sighed, and a smile made its way to her face. The gloominess in her heart faded slightly.

The other siblings fell silent for a moment. They knew what their mother was thinking. After all, the Sun family’s situation was somewhat similar to theirs.

A father who was still alive but absent from their lives, and a mother who tried to raise her children by herself.

A heavy mood settled on their chests.

People from the yamen came to their village a few hours later to do an investigation. However, due to privacy, only the family members knew about the result of the investigation.

The Sun family had no adult present, so Old Su helped Sun Tiezhu.

For the next few days, people didn’t dare to go out after the sky turned dark. They locked the door of their house tightly, and refused any visitor unless it was an urgent matter.

Everyone was wary and quite afraid.

When Zhou Anran warned Shun Zi about the latest situation at their village, he had a troubled look on his face.

"Mrs. Zhou, we suddenly have a surge of customers..." he trailed off. "We only took a hundred jin in the previous batch, and the customers already bought them."

Zhou Anran furrowed her brows. She had just told Shun Zi that she was going to lock the door to the grain room since it wouldn’t be safe for them.

The door inside the house that led to the grain room wasn’t that sturdy anymore.

Shun Zi coughed. "I think some of these customers are from your village. For certain people, I have lowered the price as you requested."

She nodded, and finally made a decision. "How about you go to our house in the morning and transport a lot of the paddy rice at once?"

They could cover the paddy rice so that people wouldn’t know the Xiao family was the supplier.

Shun Zi’s eyes lit up. "That’s a good idea."

They just needed to rent an ox cart for that. People would only think that the Xiao family was selling their paddy rice to Merchant Yang. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Why didn’t the other neighbours realize that the paddy rice seeds were from the Xiao family even though their fields were open for all eyes to see?

That was because the closest neighbouring fields didn’t belong to fellow villagers. They were mostly the fields belonging to people from other villages.

At most, they would praise the decent quality, but most of them were only focusing on their own fields. They wouldn’t have time to pay much attention to other people’s fields.

They would only think that Xiao Fenghao’s numerous scarecrows had worked.

Although Shun Zi’s business didn’t instantly do well, it had begun to show a promising start. Once they had determined the quality of the seeds, the farmers would definitely come to buy more.

He was playing the long game, Zhou Anran realized.

Days passed quickly, and the fear from the unusual state of the Sun family’s wife slowly subsided. Two weeks later, Xiao Fenghao’s wounds all had scabbed over, just leaving his broken left arm as an inconvenience.

He could already run around freely, even outside the house.

Zhou Wenzhi also kept his promise. Chen Huayun and Liu Hua finally left the yamen, and they also never bothered their little family again.

Xiao Qingya felt like she had forgotten something, but she couldn’t quite recall what it was.

"Little Ya, do you want to go to the fields with us?"

Today was the day they would transplant the rice sprouts from the tray nursery to the fields, and she planned to put pesticide into the water, so she nodded.

[Little Ya, I finally remember what you have forgotten!]

The System’s voice echoed in her mind.