After I traveled through the book, I gained a humanoid pendant

Chapter 209

When they arrived at the market, the market was just getting more and more people. The wild vegetables and herbs that Qi Yicai had picked were taken away by an apprentice from a small pharmacy. In consideration of the age of the herbs, the apprentice gave them a few more copper coins.

Qi Yiyi had been worried all morning. When the apprentice who had collected the medicine was about to turn around and leave, Qi Yiyi asked:

"Doctor, I have trouble sleeping at night recently. Is there any way to treat it?"

The apprentice was only a little over ten years old, and was in charge of collecting some common herbs. He was overjoyed to be called "Doctor" at this time. He turned around and looked at Qi Yi's face carefully, and answered seriously: "Maybe it's the stagnation of liver qi that caused the restlessness. There were also several children in the hall who cried at night. Most of them are like this. If you are worried, come to my shop and let the master take a look at you."

After hearing this, Qi Yi bowed and thanked him, "You are so kind. I will give you fresh herbs next time. Thank you."

The apprentice also knew that the family was poor and it was difficult for them to have money to see a doctor. He was just afraid that his ability to see and smell was not good enough and he would say something wrong. So he scratched his head and said with a smile, "It's okay, it's okay."

The boy gathered the few remaining leftovers and went home carrying the basket on his back. Before reaching home, he first went to the back mountain, counted out six copper coins from his string and placed them under the stone in the tree hole. Under the stone was an oil paper bag with a dozen or so coins scattered inside. These were the money Qi Yi had saved up on a daily basis and were hidden very secretly.

When they got home, it was already past noon. My stepfather had gone to work in the fields and my mother had gone to deliver food. Only my sister was still sleeping on the bed. Qi Yi went over to take a look. The child had grown much prettier than before, and had thinner hair. She was sleeping soundly.

Qi Yi first scooped a mouthful of the millet porridge that his mother had prepared for him in a large pot, then hurriedly ran twice to fetch water from a large vat. Then he went quickly to the field. When he got there, he saw that his mother was indeed working in the field with her clothes rolled up.

"mother--"

Qi Yi ran over and pulled his sweaty mother to the edge of the field.

"You should go back and rest. You are not feeling well. If you stay here for too long, I am afraid your sister will be hungry."

Stepfather Qi Jing glanced over and started to curse, "Where have you been hiding, you little bastard? Why don't you come to work?"

Jing Xiaocui nodded in agreement. Just as she was about to reply, Qi Yi called out, "I went to sell vegetables! I just came back!"

The dark and strong man in the east field heard the sound and stopped weeding. He looked up at the discordant family of three. There was also an old man resting under the shade of the tree. He smiled and patted his palm-leaf fan, saying, "The kid is capable and can make some money."

Qi Jing couldn't bring himself to curse again, so he swallowed it back. Qi Yi said, "Mom, please go back soon. My sister must be awake by now."

Jing Xiaocui wiped her sweat and said, "Mom is not tired, Mom..."

The old man under the shade of the tree didn't like Qi Jing asking his wife, who was still in confinement after giving birth, to work. It wasn't harvest time, it was just weeding in late spring, and working harder for two days would be enough. He said, "Yes, go back. The baby's crying will hurt her lungs and she'll get sick easily!"

Qi Jing looked at the old man's tall and strong son, and did not stop Jing Xiaocui. He just shouted at the boy, "Don't dawdle, you bastard. Come and work."

Qi Yi said "Oh" and coaxed and persuaded his mother to go back home. Jing Xiaocui supported her waist and moved towards the house little by little.

They all got down to the ground and started pulling weeds without raising their heads. It was not a difficult job, but it was hard to lift your heads. They pulled the weeds up with their roots. If there were any broken ones in the middle, they had to dig them into the soil to prevent them from taking up the fertility of the crops.

After pulling for a while, a pair of muddy feet appeared in Qi Yi's sight. Qi Jing stretched out a hand and asked, "Where's the money?"

The young man raised his head, feeling a little dizzy. There was no sound around him. The neighbor's uncle and son had already gone home. Qi Yi took out four cents from his pocket, but they were snatched away by the other party.

"Hurry up and do it. Don't even think about going home until you're done!"

Qi Jing put the copper coins in his arms, staggered to the edge of the field, tapped his shoes against the tree trunk that the old man was leaning against, shook off the mud on the soles of his shoes, and went to the tavern outside the village along the path.

Qi Yi looked at the field where most of the grass was still not weeded, and resigned himself to his fate and continued to bend down.

There is no such thing as dinner in a poor family. By the time Qi Yi finished pulling the weeds with a sore back, it was already dark. The boy was not in a hurry to go home and walked back to the mountain.

There was a nest of birds living on a tree in the back mountain. The adult birds were still there during the day and would peck at people, but in the evening they would go out to catch insects. Qi Yi looked at the nest for a while, then quickly climbed up the tree, reached out his hand to touch it, and took out three small bird eggs.

At this moment, there was a sudden smell of paper ash coming from not far away, with a choking dry smell, which seemed particularly strange in the lush forest.

The back mountain is gentle in front and steep in the back, stretching for dozens of miles. The mountain god cave is still very far away, located in the largest and highest stone cave on the gentle slope. If people from the villages want to worship there, they have to go through the front of the village. The back mountain is so steep that few people come here except Qi Yi, who is nimble and has been hiking for many years. This is why the young man is confident in hiding his money here.

Who would burn paper here?

The two bird eggs in Qi Yi's arms seemed to be warming up. In the dim forest, the boy saw smoke rising slowly.

A forest fire at this time of year was no small matter. Qi Yi suppressed the thoughts in his mind and walked quietly towards the smoke.

After walking around a huge rock, Qi Yi stopped and saw an old lady in a gray cloth coat and with gray hair, who was cutting something with a pair of scissors.

The young man looked closely and saw that it was a stack of yellow paper. He cut it with the scissors and folded it in the middle, making it into the shape of a coin.

Ghost money, burned for the dead.

Qi looked around and saw no grave, only a large, lonely rock with protruding edges.

The person cutting the yellow paper was Li Mancang's grandma.

Grandma Li had a hard life when she was young. One of her eyes was a little blind. I heard that she was beaten by her ex-mother-in-law. Her situation at home did not get better until she gave birth to Li Mancang's father. At this time, I didn't know what she was fiddling with in her mouth, and her voice was very low and difficult to hear clearly.

His hands kept moving. After cutting a stack of paper, he opened them one by one and continued to put them into the circle of fire. The flames licked a piece of yellow paper and it was instantly burned clean, almost burning Grandma Li's hand.

But the elderly man seemed not to feel the heat. He continued to cut the papers in stacks and burn them one by one, muttering to himself as he burned them. The white hair on his temples looked like a dancing nematode in the light of the fire.

Qi Yi leaned forward to listen to what he was mumbling about, but his foot slipped and several pieces of gravel rolled down.

A pair of cloudy eyes immediately stared over upon hearing the sound, and the old man shouted in a hoarse voice:

"Who's there?"