CHAPTER 202: CHAPTER 202 ORIGINAL SIN 11

After applying ointment to the mosquito bites, Shuangshuang dressed her mother in the new clothes she had bought for her. Clothes priced at ten yuan a piece weren’t particularly cheap, as most clothes at the time were selling for five yuan each.

Shuangshuang had excellent taste, and the clothes weren’t the flashy, trendy kind but rather simple and clean. When worn by Feng Jinyan, they restored some of her graceful beauty.

The entire day, Shuangshuang was busy with things related to Feng Jinyan, and she didn’t have time to pick mushrooms. It was only in the afternoon that Shuangshuang found an opportunity to go up the mountain to pick mushrooms.

This time, Shuangshuang almost ran to pick the mushrooms quickly and hurried back home. When she got home, Feng Jinyan had listened to Shuangshuang’s instructions and stayed inside the house, but Shuangshuang didn’t close the door.

She didn’t want her mother to feel like she was still trapped, and she was also afraid that if Feng Jinyan went into the courtyard, the Yun Family might bully her, so she reminded Feng Jinyan to wait for her in the house when she wasn’t around.

This time, Shuangshuang rushed so quickly that she didn’t manage to find wild eggs for Feng Jinyan. Instead, she directly served a bowl of bone soup filled with lots of pieces of meat for Feng Jinyan to eat. Shuangshuang wasn’t worried that the Yun Family would be angry about her giving meat to her mom. She could now buy back ten pounds of bulk bones every day; the Yun Family might be reluctant, but they wouldn’t be too distressed.

As long as Shuangshuang could keep earning money and didn’t make any excessive demands, her standing in the family wouldn’t be so low; at least she would have the right to let her mother eat some meat.

Thus, Shuangshuang no longer needed to be overly patient and tolerant. The Yun Family’s greed would lower their baseline for her! Of course, as long as Shuangshuang could earn more money, her status in the Yun Family would surely rise.

However, Shuangshuang wasn’t going to do that. She was earning money to escape with her mother Feng Jinyan, not to let the Yun Family lead comfortable lives.

Shuangshuang didn’t dare to give Feng Jinyan too much food. Her mother, who had been malnourished and not eating meat for too long, couldn’t suddenly consume too much rich food as it could upset her stomach. That would be troublesome since Shuangshuang alone couldn’t take Feng Jinyan to the hospital, and they certainly couldn’t rely on the Yun Family.

Shuangshuang sat in the courtyard, letting Feng Jinyan sit nearby to soak up the sun. Meanwhile, she quickly wove baskets from wild grass. Yesterday, when she was selling mushrooms, someone even asked if she was selling the woven wild grass baskets, indicating that the more affluent people in town were starting to pay attention to these somewhat refined handicrafts.

Indeed, Shuangshuang wasn’t just boasting; she learned the craft of weaving wild grass baskets from a folk artisan, and they were beautiful enough to be used as decorations. So this time, Shuangshuang planned to weave more of them if possible, selling them at fifty cents each. She would sell them if someone bought them, and if not, she’d use them for carrying mushrooms.

Early the next morning, after thinking it over for a long time, Shuangshuang decided to leave Feng Jinyan at home. Mainly because Feng Jinyan’s legs, having been inactive for so long, couldn’t bear any weight. Just getting a little exercise yesterday made her legs hurt so much that she couldn’t get out of bed today!

Before leaving, Shuangshuang repeatedly instructed Feng Jinyan not to leave the house except for going to the toilet, and to wait for her return to do anything else. Shuangshuang had only one purpose in doing this: to guard against the Yun Family!

She hadn’t forgotten what the villagers had told her: the original Feng Jinyan was just a punching bag in the Yun Family, the type anyone would slap twice if they were in a bad mood, which was why Feng Jinyan became increasingly crazy.

Before, when Feng Jinyan was locked up and too filthy to look at, no one would hit her. Now that Feng Jinyan was being taken care of by Shuangshuang and was clean, accompanied by her mental dullness, if she were to be hit by someone, she might not even be able to tell Shuangshuang about it!

Shuangshuang was worried all the way down the road, sometimes fearing that the Yun Family, upon returning home, might beat Feng Jinyan, and at other times worrying about what would happen if Feng Jinyan didn’t obey and stay inside but ran outside and got lost!

While selling mushrooms, Shuangshuang was in a hurry. When people tried to haggle, she gave them the lowest price to save trouble. If they wanted to buy, they’d buy; if not, so be it. She was firm on her price.

The prices Shuangshuang set were really good value. Those who could afford such expensive mushrooms didn’t mind the extra expense, and after Shuangshuang gave her bottom price, very few continued to haggle. Even those who did, upon seeing her unwilling to lower it further, mostly paid up promptly.

Today, Shuangshuang had quite a lot of mushrooms, a total of fifteen baskets, but there were only two types. However, the yield was pretty good; she sold four of the little flower baskets, earning two yuan, covering the stall fee.

Fifteen baskets of mushrooms, each weighing a pound and a half, at six yuan per basket, netted her ninety yuan. This time, Shuangshuang openly went to buy two sets of autumn clothes for her mom, as Feng Jinyan’s current clothes were fine during the day but a bit chilly at night.

This time it was fifteen yuan for a set of clothes. Thirty yuan for two sets, decently made and quite nice looking, and in hand. As she paid, Shuangshuang couldn’t help but marvel internally at how valuable money was in those days.

But seeing the sixty yuan remaining in her hand, she sighed a bit discontentedly. It was really hard to earn money in those days; those mushrooms could easily fetch twenty yuan a basket ten years later, but now she could only sell them cheaply.

As usual, she bought bones again. Shuangshuang had come so often that the butcher knew her well. Every time she finished buying, he would give Shuangshuang the remaining bones.

During those days, people were all about fat meat, thinking its thickness and greasiness were satisfying and could save on cooking oil. The notion that meat on the bones was the tastiest hadn’t caught on yet.

Back then, small vendors couldn’t afford refrigerators to store meat, so many times the butcher’s bones would spoil because no one wanted them. Seeing Shuangshuang, a small person coming out to earn money, the butcher took pity on her, and gave all the extras to Shuangshuang.

Carrying a fully loaded bamboo basket, Shuangshuang finally felt better. Roughly estimating, these bones weighed at least twelve or thirteen pounds, enough to cook a big pot of bone soup that would last a day.

Thinking about how the Yun Family would also benefit from this, Shuangshuang felt a little annoyed, but she could only bear it. After all, the benefit wouldn’t last long. Once she saved enough money to escape with her mother, the Yun Family would be back to square one!

Thinking this way made Shuangshuang cheerful again. This time, after much deliberation, she also bought ten pounds of fine rice, which was a pricey grain, two and a half pounds for one yuan. The Yun Family rarely splurged on it, and when they did, it mostly went to Yun Chen. Even Wang Guixiang and Yun Zheng wouldn’t indulge in it.

Carrying a basket weighing over twenty pounds, Shuangshuang walked home with some effort but in high spirits. But who knew that upon entering the courtyard, she would see a teenager sneaking into her mother Feng Jinyan’s room!