Zhang Ying gave Mu Wanzhao a playful, reproachful look. "You silly child, it's just a common stray puppy. If you hadn't taken it back, it would've just been thrown out on the street with no one to care for it anyway. Why are you offering money?"
Mu Wanzhao chuckled as she teased the puppy. "All right then, the next time I come over, I'll bring you some wild fruit."
Thinking that wild fruit wasn't worth much, Zhang Ying didn't give it another thought.
In no time at all, the little black puppy warmed up to Mu Wanzhao and stuck close to her.
"Yang Dapeng, what are you staring at by my doorway?" As Jin Aiping finished washing her clothes and was sweeping the courtyard, she noticed Yang Dapeng standing at the entrance, craning his neck to peer inside.
Yang Dapeng was a notorious hoodlum in Rong Village. He had dropped out of junior high school and spent his days idling about the village, doing nothing.
Ignoring Jin Aiping's question, Yang Dapeng caught Mu Wanzhao looking at him and instantly dropped his cocky, slouching demeanor. He brushed back the long lock of hair that covered his eyes and adopted an ingratiating tone. "Xiaowan, you're in Rong Village? You must be on vacation, right? Are you staying here for a few days?"
Mu Wanzhao still had some recollection of Yang Dapeng. He liked her, but his affection went no further than her looks.
In her past life, Yang Dapeng was too lazy to earn a living and never managed to take a wife, so he ended up bullying a mentally impaired young girl in the village.
She remembered the girl's name was Xiao Yu. Everyone in the village called her the fool. Her parents were gone, and she lived with her grandmother in a dilapidated shack at the edge of the village.
Xiao Yu's grandmother was getting old and could no longer work the fields, so the grandmother and granddaughter survived entirely on relief aid from the village.
Mu Wanzhao remembered that once Xiao Yu reached fifteen or sixteen, she was frequently victimized by several men in the village, and Yang Dapeng was one of them.
Xiao Yu later gave birth to a child whose father was unknown, and rumor had it that the child also had mental health issues.Faced with such a scoundrel, Mu Wanzhao naturally ignored him. In her past life, the fact that she rarely came to her maternal grandparents' house had a lot to do with this Yang Dapeng.
Jin Aiping rolled her eyes toward the sky, stepped forward, and moved to close the courtyard gate to keep him from harassing her niece.
Somehow, Yang Dapeng always managed to show up the moment Mu Wanzhao came to Rong Village.
Yet Yang Dapeng didn't take Jin Aiping seriously at all; he stepped forward and kicked the half-closed courtyard gate wide open.
"Xiaowan, you look even prettier than before. Come out for a second, I have something to say to you."
The loud commotion startled everyone inside the house, and Wang Jianguo, Zhang Ying, and Zhao Li all came out.
"What's going on here?"
Seeing Yang Dapeng at the doorway, Wang Jianguo knew immediately that he was after Mu Wanzhao. He snatched the large broom from Jin Aiping's hands and swung it straight at him.
"If you bastard ever come looking for Xiaowan again, I'll break your legs."
Yang Dapeng leaped out of the way, but refused to give up. "Grandpa Wang, listen to me. I really like Xiaowan. I've already planned it out—in a little while, I'm going out to make money with my buddies. We're all from the same village and know each other inside and out, isn't that great?"
Wang Jianguo took several swings without hitting him and was so furious he was practically fuming. Mu Wanzhao stepped forward to stop him. "Don't be angry, Grandpa. Let me talk to him."
Wang Jianguo still wanted to pull Mu Wanzhao back and keep his granddaughter from getting too close to this scoundrel, but Mu Wanzhao told her grandfather not to worry.
Seeing that Mu Wanzhao was willing to speak with him, Yang Dapeng hurried forward, wanting to get closer to her.
Mu Wanzhao took a step back to keep her distance and held up a hand to stop Yang Dapeng from coming any closer."Yang Dapeng, if you really like me, why are you still involved with Guo Xiaofang and Li Lan? Didn't you even have a child with one of them?"
Yang Dapeng's eyes were filled with shock. "You, how do you...?"
Fortunately, in her past life, Mu Wanzhao had heard people gossiping about him.
"How do I know? I can tell fortunes. I can also see that your glabella is darkened; something major is going to happen at your home soon—a major matter involving human lives, and it has to do with your father. Instead of having the leisure for this, you'd better worry more about your family's affairs."
The elderly women nearby who loved watching the excitement chimed in one after another, "Dapeng, a toad like you still wants to eat swan meat? You're not even as tall as Xiaowan's books."
"Ha ha, exactly, Dapeng! You even dare to provoke Old Man Wang's grandson's granddaughter? He'd genuinely break your legs."
Yang Dapeng didn't care what the villagers said, but he hadn't expected Mu Wanzhao to know about the things he had done, which made him feel he had lost face. And for some reason, he believed her when she said something major was going to happen. He turned around and hurried away in the direction of his home.
The commotion at the doorway had just dispersed when the younger maternal uncle, Wang Haiyong, came back.
Upon learning that Yang Dapeng had just been there, he grabbed a hoe and was about to go beat him up, but he was stopped by Mu Wanzhao.
After the matter was explained clearly, Wang Haiyong finally dropped the idea of beating the man up.
Jin Aiping curiously pursued the question, "Xiaowan, how did you know about those things concerning Yang Dapeng? Did you really figure it out by fortune-telling?"
Hearing the question, no one else in the family took it seriously; how could a young child know how to tell fortunes?
Mu Wanzhao's eyes held a smile. "Of course. My fortune-telling is extremely accurate."
Jin Aiping mysteriously pulled Mu Wanzhao over and asked in a low voice, "Then Xiaowan, tell your aunt's fortune—when will I be able to make some money?"
Mu Wanzhao thought of her past life; although her eldest uncle and aunt's family had not become immensely wealthy, they were a comfortable, middle-class family.
They had two sons: one studied up through high school and went to work in a factory, while the other attended a secondary specialized school and came out to repair cars. Their lives had been relatively smooth.
Mu Wanzhao looked at Jin Aiping's right palm, thought for a moment, and said, "Auntie, your financial luck follows Little Uncle's. Whenever Little Uncle gets rich, Auntie, you'll get rich right after him."
Wang Haiyong grew spirited. "Xiaowan, then tell my fortune—when will your little uncle get rich?"
Mu Wanzhao put on a pretense of closing her eyes, tapped her right thumb against her various finger joints a few times, and said with an air of solemn conviction, "Little Uncle, your financial luck is related to water. I see that if you go into the aquatic products business in the future, you'll make a lot of money."
"Aquatic products? You want me to sell fish? Although I like fishing and raising fish, I've never sold fish before. Don't they say that different trades are like separate mountains? Can I do it? How did you think of this?"
Why did she think of this? Naturally, it was because in her past life, Benzi Country discharged polluted water into the ocean, affecting seafood worldwide, to the point where there was no safe seafood left to eat.
If her little uncle went into the aquatic products business now, and expanded and strengthened inland seafood over the next few years, it would at least allow more people to eat safe aquatic products. That way, he could both make money and accumulate more good karma—wasn't that even better?
Mu Wanzhao gave him a definitive look. "Little Uncle, I've already calculated it. Your wealth is brought by water, and since you already know how to raise fish, the aquatic products business is the most suitable choice. Listen to me, and you won't go wrong. I guarantee you'll make a fortune from this in the future."