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Yingbao and her two younger brothers went to pick chickweed, and Yuanbao, Huzi, and Wei Zhan came along for the fun.

Jiang Jie, Huzi, and Wei Zhan lacked patience and often ran around aimlessly instead of participating seriously. The two puppies followed them around, running and barking, enjoying themselves immensely.

Xiaolu, on the other hand, stayed close to Yingbao, following her wherever she went.

The woods were dense with a few scattered fruit trees, but unfortunately, there were no fruits on them.

Yingbao walked around with her basket, searching for chickweed, wondering how she could get the ripe melon out of her secret hideout.

These few days, the melons had started to ripen one by one, filling the entire hideout with their fragrance.

Yingbao’s mouth watered in temptation, but she didn’t dare eat them, afraid that the lingering scent might cause suspicion.

Nor could she bear to hog the melons all to herself, while leaving her family out.

After thinking it through, she decided to take some out when they were outdoors.

She turned her head and saw her younger brother, Jiang Wu, bending over to pick chickweed. His earnestness was heart-wrenching.

Seeing that no one else was around, Yingbao slipped behind a tree and pulled out two melon vines from their secret hideout, quickly burying the roots in the soil.

“Jiang Wu, come here, there’s something good!”

Yingbao shouted in a hushed voice, careful not to be too loud to attract other children.

Jiang Wu jumped up and ran over. He stared in disbelief and gasped, “What’s this? It smells so good!”

“Hush!” Yingbao gestured for him to be quiet, she picked the melons one by one and put them into her basket.

Though Jiang Wu had never seen a melon, the sweet smell confirmed that it was something delicious, and he couldn’t help but salivate.

“What is this?” he asked again, picking one and putting it into his own basket.

Yingbao replied solemnly, “It’s a melon, I’ve seen it in town, it tastes great.”

In truth, she hadn’t, but her brother wouldn’t know.

Upon hearing that it was tasty, Jiang Wu excitedly started to fill his basket with the rest of the melons hanging from the vines.

The two vines had eight large melons in total. There were an additional couple of unripe little ones, but Yingbao didn’t care about them. In her mission to taste the melons, the sacrifice of a couple of small ones didn’t matter.

Yingbao and her brother started to call for the others, “Huzi! Yuanbao! Come here quickly!”

After calling twice, the children finally ran over with the two delighted puppies in tow.

“Wow! It’s honeydew melon!” Yuanbao, who had eaten green melons before, picked up one and started sniffing it, “It smells amazing!”

Wei Zhan had also eaten sweet melons before, curious; he asked, “Where did you find this? You didn’t steal it from someone’s field, did you?”

Yingbao shot him a sideways glance, “If you think so, don’t eat!”

Did he think she wasn’t aware that he was accusing her of stealing fruits?

Wei Zhan didn’t get upset but laughed, “Sharing is caring.”

Yuanbao then used his fingernail to make a circle around the melon and gave it a few hard taps until it cracked open.

He broke off pieces and gave them to Wei Zhan, Huzi, Jiang Jie, Jiang Wu and Yingbao, then took the biggest portion for himself. He took a huge bite and exclaimed, “Sweet! Delicious!”

Finally, Yingbao got to taste the melons that she had been longing for, she even ate the skin, finishing it up in a few bites.

Yuanbao and Huzi also ate everything, including the skin and seeds, only Wei Zhan ate off the flesh and left the skin for Youyou, who had squeezed in next to them.

Dahuang and Xiaohei felt left out seeing their owners eat and started whining. Their almond-shaped eyes were filled with complaints.

Yingbao simply brought out another melon and shared it with them, then gave the rest of the fruit to the two dogs.

After eating the cantaloupes, the children stopped picking grasses, and Yuanbao and Huzi voluntarily carried the basket back.

When they handed the basket to Chunniang, she was utterly astonished.

“Where did you get the cantaloupes?” Few people in their mountain village grew such fruits, and if they did, they sold out quickly. Unless you went to the market daily, you might not even come across them.

Jiang Wu took the initiative to explain, “We found them behind the big tree! My sister and I picked them all!”

Upon seeing a few scattered flowers and two undeveloped fruits on the vines, Chunniang regretfully said, “Why did you pull the vines out? Wouldn’t it have been better to let them continue growing?”

Jiang Wu quickly closed his mouth, refraining from further comment.

News of the Jiang children finding cantaloupes soon spread throughout the village as Chunniang offered one to Madam Wen and another to Clan Leader Chen.

They were left with four large and two small cantaloupes, more than enough for themselves.

This caused a flurry of adults and children to scramble around, also hoping to find cantaloupes, but the results were predictable.

Xiu Zhenniang divided the cantaloupe Chunniang brought into six parts, keeping one for herself and Nanny, then giving the remaining three to the Wen sisters, Tian and Jiao.

Seeing this from her bamboo shelter, Lin frowned and complained to Xiu Zhenniang when she returned, “That third wife Jiang really doesn’t know etiquette. I’m also the teacher of her children, yet she only sent one melon.”

Xiu Zhenniang ignored her, and after eating the cantaloupe, she and her daughter started sewing shoe straps onto their shoes.

Hiking in the muddy terrain was causing the shoes to come off, necessitating the need for shoe straps for secure footing.

Seeing that her sisters were ignoring her, Lin became even more frustrated. Suddenly, she turned around and kicked over the ceramic pot in the bamboo shelter.

The pot had contained half of the rice porridge that the Jiang family had brought over. Xiu Zhenniang had meant to save it for her children to eat in the evening, but now it was spilled all over, and the pot was shattered.

Upon hearing the noise, Xiu Zhenniang looked over but said nothing, deciding there and then.

Since Lin was so inconsiderate, she needn’t bother about her anymore. In the future, everyone would just mind their own business.

The only pity was the limited living space; she and her daughter had no choice but to share with Lin and her daughter, which was quite vexing.

Seeing the shattered pot, Nanny was heartbroken. She quickly scraped the spilled rice porridge into the broken pot shards and took it outside for the horse to eat.

Having vented her anger, Lin lay down on the grass and pretended to nap, regretting coming to this god-forsaken place.

The incident when they had almost been caught by the bandits was still fresh in her mind, nearly breaking her courage. Her daughters had also been badly frightened and were still stricken, often having nightmares at night.

Once the bandit trouble was over, she resolved to take her daughters back to Yuzhou. She would never stay in this place again.

To hell with those folk remedies and secret medicines! Nothing was more important than herself and her family’s lives.

In the evening, Jiang Erlang and his two older brothers each dragged back a large bundle of bamboo.

Jiang Lao and his grandsons had already shaved a pile of bamboo arrows.

Meanwhile, Chen Zhu and a few others who could make bows were busy making longbows out of special wood by heating and bending the wood over a fire and fastening them with hemp fibers.

They had made more than ten longbows that day. Jiang Erlang tested them and found them to be extremely resilient.

Unfortunately, they had no iron arrowheads. Otherwise, these bows and arrows would definitely be a major weapon.

Yet, bamboo arrows could also inflict serious injury, as long as the enemy wasn’t wearing cowhide armor. The sharpened bamboo arrows could easily pierce their chests.

“The food is ready. Come and eat,” Chunniang said.

Chunniang and her sisters-in-law had already prepared the meal, which consisted of a pot of wild vegetable and grass stew, a basket of thin pancakes, a pot of rice porridge, and a plate of sliced cantaloupe.

“Huh? Where did this cantaloupe come from?” Jiang Erlang asked.

Yanru answered, “Yingbao and the others found them while they were picking grass.”

Jiang Erlang let out a hearty laugh, “I didn’t expect to find cantaloupes up in the mountain. Could it be from someone else’s melon field?”

“My sister and I found them in the woods,” Jiang Wu stated loudly, “It’s not from anyone’s melon field.”