HWTSCFM Chapter 72

Hundred Ways To Save Cannon Fodder Mom [Quick Transmigration Arc 5] Chapter 72: The Mother Plagued by “Misfortune”(2)

Before dawn, the rooster crowed, “Cock-a-doodle-doo!”

Ling Xiu got up in the dark, packed the food and necessary luggage she needed to take to the market that day, and finally put some self-defense items into her luggage.

Ten years into the reform and opening up, many young people were unemployed outside. The outside world was chaotic and unsafe. She also had a child to take care of, so she had to be extra careful.

After packing up, she pulled Zizi out of the blanket and wiped her face. There were already neighbors outside calling out to her that they were about to leave for the market.

In those days, it was rare for a village to have even one piece of modern machinery. The only means of transportation was a donkey cart, and you had to arrange a spot with someone else in advance.

After loading everything onto the car and putting her daughter in the cart, Lingxiu was about to get in when someone ran out of the main house, which had been quiet all along.

“Wait…wait…” Jiang Yuan said breathlessly, waving his hand as he put on his clothes.

He hadn’t gotten up this early in a long time, and hurriedly got ready, barely managing to make it in time.

Everyone ignored him, looking up at the sky, creating an extremely awkward atmosphere.

Jiang Yuan’s actions haven’t even been going on for more than a few days! He’s shameless enough to show up in front of Ling Xiu like this. Doesn’t he have any shame?

However, the villagers, mindful of saving face, didn’t tell him not to come, to avoid embarrassment.

Ling Xiu glanced at Jiang Yuan indifferently: “There are no seats left.”

Jiang Yuan, with his head down, finally managed to fasten the buttons on his clothes in the dark, when he heard Ling Xiu’s words. Looking at her indifferent expression, Jiang Yuan looked at Ling Xiu with confusion, as if asking her why she was being unreasonable.

“Hey! Jiang Yuan, are you out of your mind? No job? Why are you looking at Ling Xiu? You two are divorced, and you heartless bastard, you ruined her good job and sold it, even giving the money to some other woman. If it weren’t for Ling Xiu’s strength in getting the money back, she’d be crying somewhere right now! And you still have the nerve to hang around Ling Xiu? Have you no shame?!”

The donkey cart owner had brought a flashlight. Under the light, the old woman sitting next to the child got angry when she saw Jiang Yuan acting as if nothing had happened. She pointed at Jiang Yuan and started cursing.

“Let’s go!”

Ling Xiu grasped the hand of the old woman who had spoken up for her and said in a calm tone.

She had already secured the best possible outcome for herself and didn’t want to argue with the person in front of her. Since they wouldn’t have many more chances to meet, there was nothing worth arguing about.

As the donkey cart gradually drove away, and the white lights slowly disappeared into the night, Jiang Yuan finally snapped out of his shock.

He and his ex-wife had been divorced for over thirty years before his rebirth, and he could no longer remember or had selectively forgotten the reasons for their divorce.

The insults he had just heard brought his memory back to sharp focus.

Yes, he sold Lingxiu’s job at the county machinery factory for 1,800 yuan under the guise of being her husband. Lingxiu disagreed? He had already prepared a consent form with her fingerprint on it, given it to the factory manager, and even had the other party’s family cause trouble. In just one month, he had the matter settled.

Later, having developed feelings for someone else, in order to avoid being forced to reveal the money by Ling Xiu, he put the money at his lover’s house, and then stole some money from Ling Xiu so that the two could elope.

Unfortunately, Ling Xiu was not someone to be trifled with. She had no family on her side and couldn’t beat the other party’s entire family of more than ten people, but could she not defeat him? She interrogated, beat, and confronted him, and then snatched the money that had already fallen into the hands of his lover.

Next came the divorce and separation of assets.

He completely severed all ties with the future richest woman in China.

Later, he went to a big city, worked odd jobs and made a living. More than 30 years passed in the blink of an eye. During that time, he had many relationships with women, and eventually died of cancer.

On the television in the hospital before he died, he saw Ling Xiu, who was radiant with light, for the last time. He was filled with regret and resentment. He wanted to start over and he would never give up on this towering tree.

Then, he was reborn…

Unfortunately, it was too late.

He missed his chance.

…

After a bumpy ride of an hour and a half by donkey cart, the group finally arrived at the market. Along the way, everyone chatted about happy topics to keep Ling Xiu from feeling too depressed.

After getting off the bus, Ling Xiu carefully found a stall and set up her things, while her daughter obediently helped her.

After setting everything up, it was already dawn.

Newly harvested rice that has been carefully dried to remove the husks is the most popular, and soon three or five people gather around it.

Seeing her mother busy weighing clothes, the little girl stood in front of the clothing stall, picked up the clothes, and shouted in a very serious manner.

“Wow, such a big girl can already sell clothes! How does she do it?”

A middle-aged woman in her forties walked up to Zizi’s stall with a smile and asked with great interest.

When the little one was setting things up, she asked about the price of each item and confidently introduced the price, style, and fabric of the clothes to others.

The middle-aged woman picked up two pairs of boys’ thermal underwear from the stall and continued to ask about the price.

The child answered fluently and directly mentioned the discount.

Finally, the story ends with the middle-aged woman buying two pieces of clothing.

A crowd of seven or eight onlookers gathered around and came forward to ask questions, but the little one calmly dealt with them.

After Ling Xiu finished trading the new rice in her hand, she looked back and saw that Zizii had already sold more than ten pieces of clothing, and there was only half left on the stall.

“What a clever little brat!”

Ling Xiu looked at the little brat who was holding the money and trying to curry favor with her, and excitedly picked her up and kissed her hard on the cheek.

With her ears turning red, the little boy proudly stuffed the five-cent coin in her hand into her mother’s hand.

The mother and daughter worked together, and in two or three hours, Ling Xiu cleared out all the goods in her hands. To reward her daughter, she made an exception and bought her her favorite popsicle.

Ling Xiu handed the remaining burlap sack to the old woman who had spoken up for her that morning, and then took Zizi on the bus to the provincial capital.

After getting into the car, Ling Xiu touched the money hidden in the inner pocket of her clothes, felt the vibration of the car engine, and her heart was filled with hope.

…

After a bumpy five-hour journey, we finally arrived at Nanshi Bus Station at 6 p.m.

As soon as she got off the car, she was greeted by a cacophony of noises.

“Selling steamed buns…selling steamed buns…”

“Make way, don’t push!”

“The hotel is one dollar now! One dollar now!”

…

This wasn’t Ling Xiu’s first time in the provincial capital. As soon as she got off the bus, she picked up her baby to keep her from being crowded with others or being stared at.

In the transition from the 1980s to the 1990s, many poorly performing factories went bankrupt, and society was full of idle and penniless loafers. Without a source of income, some of them went astray; the better ones stole chickens and dogs, while the worse ones did all sorts of things.

Ling Xiu holding the child at least lets people know that she cares about the child, and some people won’t provoke such a person.

After walking through several streets, Ling Xiu stopped in front of a small building. This was the building she had specifically looked for. It belonged to an old lady and could be rented out for short or long periods. Most importantly, the lady was very reliable.

After settling in, Ling Xiu took Zizi out.

She wanted to inquire about nearby house prices, prepare to settle down, and find out if there was anything new or interesting in Nanshi recently.

The child was full of energy, and after sleeping for two or three hours in the car, she was bound to be jumping around.

On the street, some laid-off workers had already started setting up stalls. Ling Xiu looked over and carefully considered what she should do.

All she wanted was to live a peaceful life with her daughter in this city and give her a good future. She didn’t even dare to dream of things like getting rich.

Soon, the two arrived at a stall. The little boy looked at the white plastic dolls displayed at the back and smiled happily, pointing at the dolls and saying he wanted to put one on.

Ling Xiu nodded, bought a few rings from the seller, and handed two to Zizi.

Ling Xiu stood there, holding a ring and throwing it to try and snag the small object in front of her.

One, two, three, four—Ling Xiu only managed to snag one wooden comb.

The two men’s ring toss game attracted a large crowd, with people pointing and commenting on their actions.

Seeing that her mother’s attempt had failed, the little one stood in front of the line, threw the wooden ring in her hand, and the ring accurately landed on the doll that the little one had her eye on.

There was another ring, and amidst everyone’s gasps, the little one successfully looped it onto another doll.

The seller, with a pained expression, placed the doll in the child’s hands. This kid is too lucky; she got all the circles right.

“Aaaaaaah! My doll! This thief stole it!”

Just as everyone was admiring the adorable sight of the little girl holding the doll in her arms, a spoiled female voice came from the crowd.

Everyone looked over and saw a six or seven-year-old girl wearing a pink dress, with pigtails and bright brown curly hair adorned with bright artificial flowers. She pointed at the doll in the little girl’s hands and said…

The little girl quickly clutched the doll in her hands and loudly retorted, “I’m not a thief!”

Before the adults could speak, the little girl heard the girl’s rebuttal and rushed forward to snatch the doll from the girl’s hand, saying that it was hers and that the girl was a thief.

Seeing that things were not going well, Ling Xiu quickly pulled Zizi behind her to protect her.

Unable to catch Zizi, the girl became furious and started yelling, repeatedly pounding on Ling Xiu’s stomach.

Upon seeing this, the onlookers became dissatisfied, having never seen such an unreasonable person.

“What’s wrong?”

Just then, a male voice came.

Actually, the man already knew what was going on before the conversation even started. However, if the other party explained the situation first, given how thick-skinned people are these days, they wouldn’t say anything bad about the child. They might even act as peacemakers, saying it was just a misunderstanding and that the children were just playing around.

However, the man was wrong. Ling Xiu said directly, “Are you the little girl’s father? Your daughter falsely accused my daughter of stealing, tried to snatch the doll from my daughter’s hand, and even hit her. I’d like to see what you have to say about that.”

“This…” The man was stunned. This was showing absolutely no mercy!

“Make your daughter apologize to my daughter!”

Ling Xiu was straightforward.

“I’m not apologizing! She’s a thief, and that doll was mine to begin with!”

The little girl, upon hearing Ling Xiu’s words, became arrogant.

Zizi looked at the little girl who was furious, stuck her head out and made a face: “It’s mine! I won it with ring toss, you stole it from me! You’re a robber! You should be shot!”

Hearing Zizi’s words, the little girl’s face flushed red, and she retorted with her hands on her hips,

“I didn’t, I ……”

“That’s it! You are!”

A man standing nearby, witnessing the scene, shouted, “Aren’t you going to do anything about your daughter? She’s so young and she’s already calling people robbers!”

“That’s right, she took other people’s things, isn’t that robbery? Did my daughter say anything wrong?”

Ling Xiu stood unmoved in front of the child, her expression indifferent.

“You…you are Ling Xiu?!” the man suddenly said.

When Ling Xiu heard the other person call her name, she looked up. She didn’t recognize the person; how did they know her name?

“This…this…I…I’ve heard of it…” the man stammered, trying to cover it up.

“This is my second time visiting the provincial capital,”

Ling Xiu looked coldly at the man in front of her and said, the meaning of which was self-evident.

The atmosphere suddenly became tense. When the little girl saw that her father actually knew the barbarian in front of her, she immediately became furious and prepared to hit her again. Before she could even make a move, her panicked father pulled her away.

Ling Xiu stared at the man who was practically fleeing in panic, lost in thought.

When the people around realized that the two sides knew each other, they dispersed.

The little one watched the person walking away quickly: another reborn person.