Transmigrated as A Farm Girl Making Her Family Rich

Chapter 37: Chapter 37 Sweet Taste

“Oh, right.” Ye Shuzhen pulled a silver hairpin from her hair and inserted the sharp end into the keyhole of the lock, “click,” and the door unlocked.

“Little sister, not bad at all!” Ye Shuzhi looked on with admiration.

Ye Shuzhen turned to glance at Mrs. Lai and, seeing that her mother wasn’t paying attention to her and her sisters, gently pushed the door open. “Ah,” as she opened the door, Ye Shuzhen tiptoed inside.

Ye Shuzhi followed her into the room, her gaze fixating on the place where their parents stored their belongings.

Mrs. Lai, busy with her work, flinched as she sensed something and turned to look in the direction of the room.

She held the power of the housekeeper tightly in her hands; the money earned by her son and husband from their work, as well as the money her daughters-in-law made, was hidden away after taking care of the family’s expenses.

...

She guarded not only against her husband finding the money she hid, but also distrusted her daughters, and even more so, the children in the house.

She always carried the room key in her pocket and locked the door whether she was at home or not, especially when she went out, not only would she take the key, but she would also hide the money even more securely.

Once, she allowed her three daughters to search her room, but her hiding place was secure, and they did not find the money she had concealed.

Mrs. Lai turned and was shocked by the scene she encountered, screaming, “Er Niu, San Niu, what are you doing in my room?”

Mrs. Lai, while speaking, grabbed a stick in her hand and rushed toward the room, at this moment not caring about her aching waist and hands, worried that her two daughters might have found and taken her money.

“Not good, what do we do if Mother found out?” Ye Shuzhen felt guilty as a thief, terrified and out of ideas by being discovered by her mother.

“What’s there to fear? Just directly ask Mother for something to eat!” Ye Shuzhi, on the other hand, had a fearless demeanor. She was to be married off to another family and wasn’t worried about her reputation or the prospect of no one wanting to marry her.

Moreover, she was confident that her mother wouldn’t be so foolish as to spread the events happening at home to the outside.

Mrs. Lai, holding a stick, ran to the doorway and saw her two daughters inside her room. She nervously checked their hands and seeing that they were empty, her heart relaxed a bit, yet she still scolded them:

“Well done, it’s hard to guard against a thief within the family. When did you start learning such bad behavior? Two girls learning to open doors and steal.”

Ye Shuzhi glared at Mrs. Lai with the resolve of a pig undaunted by scalding water and said, “Mother, don’t speak so unpleasantly about stealing… Be careful the walls have ears and ruin our reputation, where would that leave you as our mother? Sneaking around buying treats and hiding them from us.”

“Exactly, Mother, your words are harsh; you don’t treat us as daughters. You bought honey and didn’t even let us have any,” Ye Shuzhen said, her mouth watering a bit at the mention of the sweet scent that was too tempting. @@novelbin@@

“What? Honey? I didn’t buy any honey!” Mrs. Lai felt wronged, as her disobedient daughters also accused her of buying treats without sharing with them.

Ye Shuzhen countered in disbelief:

“Mother, you still deny it, but smell the sweet scent of honey in the air. If you didn’t go to the town to buy honey, then who else in our family would have gone out?”

“You really are wronging me, I truly didn’t buy any honey. Honey is so expensive, it would be better to buy sugar. A sweet scent in the air?”

Mrs. Lai initially thought her daughters were falsely accusing her, but as she talked, her nose also detected the sweet scent.

“This… really does smell like honey! But I didn’t buy honey!”

Observing their mother speak, Ye Shuzhen and Ye Shuzhi could tell she wasn’t lying; the innocent expression on her face didn’t seem like an act.

“Then how come our courtyard has this sweet scent?” Ye Shuzhen, not quite believing, sniffed again around each corner of the room.

“It seems like the scent is drifting in from the courtyard,” Ye Shuzhi realized, following the sweet scent out of the courtyard.

“Surely our yard doesn’t have a bee nest?” Ye Shuzhen also walked out.

Mrs. Lai, regardless of whether her two daughters found the bee nest or honey, thought about how her daughters could pick locks. She took out a large padlock from a chest, locked the wooden door with it, and added an extra lock for good measure.

The sudden sound from the courtyard was heard by Ye Shiqi inside the room; she had already eaten the honey.

Ye Shiqi discovered a secret that she hadn’t known for months: her two aunts possessed the skill of lock-picking, which in her previous life would have been a profession.

In this era, there seemed to be no need for locksmiths, as only blacksmiths who made locks might also know the skill. She had not expected a carpenter in the family to learn such craft as well.

It was fortunate that the family members were all honest people; otherwise, resorting to underhanded means of livelihood would lead to unimaginable consequences.

She glanced at Siwa, who was carefully licking the honey, one small bite at a time. It was good that the child valued her food, but if Second Aunt, San Niu, or Granny found out, not only would they beat them, there’d be no way to explain where the honey came from.

Only then did Ye Shiqi feel a bit scared; taking the honey to eat might have been reckless. It was a danger that could lead to the discovery of her “space.” If she were to be considered a monster at such a young age, that would be trouble.

She knew aside from her parents, the rest of the family had rather ruthless hearts and might kill her as a suspected monster.

To be revived and live within a book was a blessing in itself, no matter how hard life was; she certainly didn’t want to die again.

Anxious, Ye Shiqi crawled over, grabbed Wuwa’s hand, and stuffed the honey in her mouth.

“Be careful, be careful,” she said urgently.

“Sister, the honey is so delicious, I want to savor it,” Wuwa replied, who had been too preoccupied with eating to notice the commotion outside.

Ye Shiqi was so anxious that she began sweating. Siwa was unwilling to finish the honey fast, and she couldn’t understand what Ye Shiqi was trying to say, which was torturous because she couldn’t clearly voice her actual concerns.

That was the frustration every child felt, longing to grow up and speak clearly, and Ye Shiqi had harbored that same frustration for a very long time.

“Dudu, nainai…” In her urgency, Ye Shiqi spoke imperfectly, but Wuwa understood anyway.

Wuwa got it: their aunts were saying that there was honey in the courtyard, so she chewed the piece of honeycomb rapidly in her mouth and even licked her fingers.

“Second Sister, there’s not a single bee in sight in the yard, where could the bee nest be?” Ye Shuzhen surveyed the entire yard, which apart from some fruit trellises and the eaves of the house, lacked not just bees, but also bird nests.

“That’s strange; we can still smell the scent in the yard,” Ye Shuzhi said, unable to help but swallow her saliva.

“Did you find it?” Mrs. Lai, after locking up the room, joined her two daughters.

“Mother, there’s a fragrance in our yard, could it have drifted over from another house? Did Granny Li’s family next door go to town yesterday?”

Ye Shuzhen, unable to find the bee nest, shifted her suspicions to the neighboring house.

“No way. Yesterday, I was in the ox cart and didn’t see Sister-in-law Li, nor did I see her in town or her family members. Could it be that they found bees in the mountains?”

Mrs. Lai felt her heart ache at that thought, as if someone else had stumbled upon a road to riches.