Jiang Sheng was right, none of them had parents, so why should others support them? There should be no free riders here.
Deep in the cold and secluded mountains, three people worked faster than two. In just half a morning, they had gathered two armfuls of mushrooms.
With a bamboo basket on his back, Zheng Ruqian and Fang Heng carrying bags, Jiang Sheng didn't have to carry anything for once, which made her feel uneasy. After some thought, she picked over a dozen mushrooms and bundled them carefully in her clothes, following the two brothers timidly.
On the road, they met some villagers they knew. Seeing the three children wide-eyed, they asked, "Little Jiang Sheng, who are those two ahead of you?"
"They're my brothers," Jiang Sheng answered loudly.
The villagers were even more puzzled. This little girl had wandered the village for five or six years. When did she get brothers?
"They really are my brothers. This is my second brother, this is my third brother." Jiang Sheng introduced them proudly. "I also have an eldest brother, but he is sick."
"Oh, four kids huh." The villager sighed. "To abandon such lovely children, what a sin."
But sigh as they may, no one was well-off enough to feed an extra mouth.
Hopefully the girl's brothers would treat her well.
Back at the broken-down temple, Zheng Ruqian couldn't help but grumble, "When did you decide our order?"
"Of course it's in the order I met you all," Jiang Sheng justified reasonably. "Calling your names sounds awful. From now on, eldest brother, second brother, third brother."
"But, didn't you meet me first?" Zheng Ruqian protested. "I should be the eldest brother."
Jiang Sheng didn't speak, stealing a glance at Xu Mo who was copying books.
In righteous and cultured temperament, Xu Mo outshone Zheng Ruqian by miles as a qualified eldest brother.
"You..." Zheng Ruqian was quite indignant at first, but had to forcibly comfort himself, "Nevermind, at least I'm not the youngest."
Fang Heng: "..."
His expressionless face cracked with fine lines.
Jiang Sheng had planned to dry the mushrooms for three more days, but Xu Mo finished copying the books in just two days and needed new ones.
With no other choice, Jiang Sheng packed the mushrooms into the bamboo baskets to sell at the market.
Last time, drying for three days filled over half the baskets. This time, around the same amount completely filled a whole basket.
Jiang Sheng contemplated this finding.
After selling all the mushrooms, she calculated the coins and found twenty of them, four more than last time.
"We sold four coins more just from drying one day less?" Zheng Ruqian exclaimed in surprise. The siblings exchanged a glance, as if discovering a new world.
Adding the money from the copied books, their earnings today totaled twenty-eight coins.
Jiang Sheng was extremely excited. She had never seen so much money before and was at a momentary loss on how to distribute it.
"Let's buy some rice and flour," Fang Heng uncharacteristically suggested. "Mushrooms seem more expensive than rice and flour. Eating just mushrooms feels wasteful."
Actually it was because he felt dizzy from eating mushrooms for three straight days and never wanted to see one again.
"Good idea," Jiang Sheng nodded vigorously.
After asking around at the market, rice and flour were indeed cheaper. Jiang Sheng excitedly bought five pounds each of rice and flour for just five coins.
They didn't need to buy leafy greens, which grew abundantly around the village.
Passing the meat stall, Jiang Sheng's mouth flooded with saliva.
She hadn't eaten meat for a very long time, initially too ashamed to steal, and later knowing the brothers wouldn't accept food scraps. So she obediently cooked mushrooms.
But Jiang Sheng still craved meat, even just some meat broth would do.
They had earned twenty-eight coins today, saving twenty, so could only spend eight.
Five coins already went towards rice and flour, leaving three. Probably not even enough for a pig's tail.
Jiang Sheng sized up the meat stall, finally settling her gaze on a pig thigh bone in the corner with hardly any meat left. "Boss, I'd like that pig bone."
"Little girl, what do you want that bone for?" The boss was baffled. "There's barely enough meat scraps on it to get stuck in your teeth."
Jiang Sheng swallowed. "I just like gnawing bones."
The boss didn't say anything more. He weighed out five pounds of bone according to the price of two pounds for one coin. "That's five pounds, so two coins."
Jiang Sheng happily paid and carried off her prized pig bone.
Fang Heng followed behind and took it from her arms.
So Jiang Sheng's hands were freed again.
She looked at the ten pounds of mushrooms Zheng Ruqian carried on his back, then the pig thigh bone in Fang Heng's arms, happiness welled up inside her.
If she had taken them in initially out of pity, or perhaps a desire for protection, at this moment, Jiang Sheng suddenly understood the meaning of companionship.
"Jiang Sheng, how do you plan to eat this pig bone?" Zheng Ruqian suddenly turned his head, mouth pooling with saliva.
Jiang Sheng: "..."
Half of her earlier joy disappeared.
"Boiling it plain won't be good," Fang Heng rarely spoke a full sentence.
All her happiness gone now. Turns out they were picky eaters, actually disdaining her cooking.
Jiang Sheng huffed angrily, but still passed by the seasoning shop and carefully bought one coin's worth of salt.
One coin could buy two buns, half a pig bone, but only a tiny pinch of salt.
Jiang Sheng was sincerely heartbroken.
Back at the broken temple, Xu Mo was still fast asleep.
Jiang Sheng rushed over, about to shake him awake, when Xu Mo's eyes suddenly flew open.
Seeing the familiar children, he relaxed his guard with relief. "You're back."
"Mhmm, we bought a pig bone today, so we're having bone broth noodles," Jiang Sheng presented her treasure. "Eldest brother, you're in for a treat."
Not Brother Xu Mo, but the more intimate Eldest Brother.
Xu Mo's heart skipped a beat as he froze in place, stunned.
As an only child, he had always wished for a younger sibling, but his mother's belly never swelled.
He never expected to gain two younger brothers and a younger sister after his family's sudden misfortune.
This feeling...was quite nice.
Xu Mo slowly curved his lips. "I look forward to it."
However, that anticipation transformed into astonishment upon seeing the mushy, sticky huge bowl.
"Eldest brother, I'm not very good at making noodles," Jiang Sheng rubbed her hands still covered in dough lumps and admitted bashfully. "I've only seen Auntie Zhang do it before."
Unexpectedly, the dough wouldn't cooperate as soon as she tried herself.
Either too much water or too much flour.
What was meant to be one meal's worth gradually turned into three.
That wasn't even the worst of it. The dough was kneaded too soft and fell apart when cut, without sprinkling flour to reduce stickiness. So the originally chewy long noodles turned into a mushy dough clump.
The broth wasn't boiled down thick and white either, still gamey. With everything thrown together in the pot, one could imagine the taste.
At least there was salt now.
Xu Mo didn't complain and quietly finished the bowl. After eating salt-less mushrooms and boiled stale vegetable leaves, this was a delicacy to him.
Fang Heng and Zheng Ruqian also ate obediently without fuss, and washed their bowls afterwards.
Jiang Sheng took out the twenty copper coins from her clothes, adding them to the previous coins and two gold beans, hiding them under the Buddha's feet.
Counting the days, it had been ten since returning from the medicine hall. Another five days would make it half a month, time to change Xu Mo's medicine again.
