Chapter 49: Entering the town in exchange for food
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
On the carriage, Jiang Xia moved closer to Jiang Gu and whispered, “Did you do what I asked you to do?”
“Yes! 1 said that you told me to say. But do you really think it will work? That woman had ruined our family’s reputation.”
Jiang Gu knew a lot despite being so young. She had realized a lot from hearing what the children she was playing with had been saying about her family. She felt so wronged.
Jiang Xia had asked her sister to let spread the information about their family’s willingness to share the location of the harvest but was later stopped because of what Madam Sun had said.
Jiang Xia patted Jiang Gu’s little head and said, “It’s okay. Reputation is something that can be built up over time. The villagers have long known what kind of person that woman is. She just gossips a lot because she is psychologically unbalanced and does not have much contact with our family. Everyone will come to realize what kind of a person she is.”
“Also, Xiao Gu, don’t worry too much about what others think. People who live their entire life listening to others’ opinions of them will become weak. They will eventually get killed from words.”
Jiang Gu nodded while looking at her sister with admiration.
…..
“Jiang Xia, you are so smart.”
Jiang Xia chuckled and did not say a word. She had once been almost killed by words, but those things were just fleeting clouds to her now.
The two sisters were chatting behind the carriage while Xiao Wu, Jiang Chuan, and Zhou Lan were talking in front.
“Brother Jiang, Sister-inlaw, you don’t have to care much about the gossip going on in the village. You didn’t do anything wrong. They are just jealous.” Xiao Wu comforted while looking at Jiang Chuan and his wife.
Jiang Chuan smiled, “Thank you for your concern brother. We are fine. They can say whatever they want, we will just pretend we heard nothing.
brother Jiang, sister-in-law, you don’t have to care about the gossip in the village. You didn’t do anything wrong. They’re just jealous, so they gossip for no reason. Xiao Wu looked at Jiang Chuan and his wife with a comforting look.
Jiang Chuan smiled, thank you for your concern, brother. We’re fine. They can say whatever they want. We’ll pretend we didn’t hear anything.
“Brother Jiang, you are right to think this way! We cannot control people’s mouths but we can block our ears from hearing things that are not important.”
In addition to having a good mindset, they just wanted to see if reverse psychology would work. They would never let themselves be manipulated by others.
The carriage Jiang Chuan’s family was on led the way followed by two other carriages with the other neighbors. Each of the carriages had four people sitting on them with the vegetables filled up in the middle.
Jiang Xia was afraid that the donkeys would run out of energy halfway pulling the carriage that she had secretly fed them some wild vegetables before they set off.
It was Jiang Gu’s first time in town, so she was very excited. She kept talking to Jiang Xia along the way and Jiang Xia felt sorry for her sister the more she heard what Jiang Gu was excited about.
“Sister, is the town far from our house? Was it lively? There are a lot of people, how long will it take us to get there?”
Jiang Gu threw a series of questions at Jiang Xia, who couldn’t bear to dampen her enthusiasm.
“You will see when you get there” Jiang Xia replied.
“Jiang Xia, when we were at Grandpa and Grandma’s place, mom and auntie went to the town once. I wanted to go too much I was beaten up by grandma. She said that girls shouldn’t travel too far. If they did, their heart would be elsewhere. She also said that girls were not worth much and I would eventually be sold for money.”
Jiang Xia had no impression of Jiang Gu’s words. She assumed that Jiang Gu must have pestered her when her family was not around.
Jiang Xia patted Jiang Gu’s head to comfort her, “It’s all in the past now that we’ve moved out of the family. When we’re better off, I’ll take you wherever you want to go. Don’t listen to that old woman’s nonsense. Girls will not be easily deceived even if we were to see the world. When the tough days are over, we still have to study and go to school. Once we’ve gained knowledge, there’s nothing that can stop us.”
Jiang Gu’s eyes were filled with anticipation at the life that Jiang Xia had mentioned. Would the future really be that good?
“Jiang Xia, I-I can go to school too?” Jiang Gu asked hesitantly.
“Of course!”
After receiving Jiang Xia’s approval, Jiang Gu immediately threw herself into her arms.
Grandma had said before that it was a waste of money to send a girl to school. They had eaten so much food from the Jiang family that they should be married off for betrothal