Chapter 52: Huan Ya, Did You Find Some Treasure?

As soon as they heard this, several people crowded around, no longer minding being brushed aside by Huan Ya.

“Huan Ya, did you really find a treasure?”

“What kind of treasure? Hurry up and show us!”

“I’m not showing you anything—that’s something Huan Ya found herself,” Aunt Xu intervened, blocking the group. “Huan Ya, you should leave first! Don’t let them steal your business!”

Huan Ya understood perfectly well upon hearing that.

Aunt Xu seemed to be helping her, but if she had truly discovered something valuable today, people would definitely come to share in the spoils.

The way they looked at her was exactly the same as when the young aunt came to pick her up.

Lowering her eyes, Huan Ya kept smiling. “No, Aunt Xu, I didn’t find any treasure. I just dug up some medicinal herbs.”

“That’s impossible! Even Little Guiying said you found a treasure in the mountains!”

Sure enough!

Huan Ya realized then—she had said that no one but Aunt Xu knew about her trip up the mountain, so how did the rumor suddenly spread that she had discovered treasure there?

Of course, Aunt Xu wouldn’t say anything. Brother Tiancheng stayed home all day, so who would he have told?

The only other person who saw her coming down that day was Sister Guiying.

That person was truly scheming; no wonder Aunt Xu disliked her!

Huan Ya felt a surge of anger but maintained her smile. “Aunt Xu, you’ve misunderstood. I really only collected some medicinal herbs. If you don’t believe me, I can take you to see them. But I have to warn you, it’s a bit far, and if anything happens on the way, don’t blame me.”

She glanced at Aunt Xu. “Aunt Xu, you have to vouch for me.”

Aunt Xu thought: Vouch for you? I told you to leave, but you wouldn’t. Now you want me to vouch for you?

Still, she was also curious about the “treasure” Guiying mentioned. If she didn’t come along, she’d regret it if she missed out.

Gritting her teeth, Aunt Xu said, “Fine, I’ll come with you to take a look.”

Huan Ya nodded and decisively led the way.

This path was the same one she had taken with Aunt Xu a few days earlier, marked by the signs she had left.

She had thought it would make the return trip easier, but now she truly understood how much truth there was in Aunt Xu’s words.

Leading the group forward, they finally arrived at a patch of perilla leaves.

Pointing at the perilla, Huan Ya said proudly, “These are perilla leaves. Aunties should recognize them, right? I found these the day before yesterday, so I cut some to bring back, waiting for the herb dealers to come collect them.”

Seeing the perilla patch, the group was stunned. One of them, skeptical, said, “No way, Huan Ya? This is the treasure you found?”

Huan Ya nodded earnestly. “Yes!”

She even counted on her fingers. “Herb dealers pay two wen per jin for these perilla leaves! I picked twenty to thirty jin a couple of days ago. Isn’t that treasure?”

A few wen per jin, twenty or thirty jin—that’s forty or fifty wen. Working a whole day only earns twenty or thirty wen now.

But for the aunties before her, it was not enough.

Not that they looked down on the forty or fifty wen, but they had come with high hopes.

They had imagined Huan Ya had discovered some rare medicinal herb or wild delicacy—but perilla leaves? Who hasn’t seen those before?

Seeing their lack of enthusiasm, Huan Ya said, “Aunties, isn’t this why you came?”

“We… it’s nothing. Huan Ya, aren’t you going to chop firewood? Go ahead, go ahead.”

Huan Ya blinked, glanced at the patch of perilla leaves, and asked again, “Aunties, are you really not interested?”