Chapter 326: Golden-Red Pearls?
Chapter 326: Chapter 326: Golden-Red Pearls?
Seeing Village Chief Mei’s agitation, the villagers of Xiangyun Village immediately swarmed forward, forming a protective circle around Shen Ningning.
"What are you shouting about? You want to start a fight?" The people of Xiangyun Village grew indignant.
They were already furious about Village Chief Mei’s malicious intentions.
Now he wanted to bully a child? Unacceptable!
United, they began to shove Village Chief Mei and the villagers from Xitai Village away.
Sister-in-law Liu raised her voice and cursed, "Get out! Get lost! Xiangyun Village doesn’t welcome you!"
Hearing the commotion, the wolf pack on the mountain came bounding down.
The Black Wolf King walked to Shen Ningning’s side, its lupine eyes fixed on the other group as it let out a low, warning growl.
Shen Ningning patted its fur with her small hand, her voice soft and soothing. "It’s okay, Langlang. I can handle this myself."
With that, she lifted her watery eyes and stared at the defiant Village Chief Mei.
"Village Chief Mei, there’s no need for you to come back. We can’t reach an agreement, so there’s no point in talking further."
Village Chief Mei gritted his teeth and pointed at Shen Ningning. "You just wait! You’re so cold and heartless, the heavens will punish you! You don’t deserve to be a blessed girl!"
Leaning on her cane, Grandma Qin parted the crowd and hurried out.
She raised her cane as if to strike, and Village Chief Mei’s face changed in fear as his own villagers pulled him back a few steps.
Full of righteous anger, Grandma Qin said sternly, "If you like the title ’blessed girl’ so much, you can have it! Our Ningning doesn’t care."
"Besides, she’s done so many good deeds. Whether she’s a blessed girl or not isn’t for you to decide."
The villagers chimed in, "That’s right."
Grandma Qin turned, taking Shen Ningning’s hand with one of hers and patting the Black Wolf King with the other.
"Let’s go. We’re going home. Grandma will make you two some steamed meat buns."
The villagers followed them back into the village.
A few children from Xiangyun Village, still indignant, packed some snowballs and threw them at Village Chief Mei.
"Still not leaving? We’ll teach you a lesson for bullying our big sister, the blessed girl!" the children shouted, chasing after them relentlessly.
The hard-packed snowballs smacked against their faces with a stinging, icy pain!
Having failed to get what he wanted and getting beaten instead, Village Chief Mei fled in disarray with his villagers.
「Back at home.」
Sipping a cup of hot brown sugar and egg soup, Shen Ningning felt warm and comfortable in both body and soul.
Her small, chubby face was filled with a happy, contented smile.
But Grandma Qin seemed worried. "Sigh."
The Black Wolf King pricked up its ears and looked at Grandma Qin.
The little girl also asked, "Grandma, what’s wrong?"
Grandma Qin forced a smile. "Ningning, I don’t think that Mei Zhijian will give up so easily. I’m afraid he’ll try to make trouble for you."
"For the next few days, after your classes at the National Academy, don’t linger outside. Come straight home, and don’t be alone. Have Chen Ye stay with you. If that’s not enough, take the Black Wolf King with you, too. Only then will Grandma be at ease."
Shen Ningning wasn’t afraid at all.
Her voice was soft, and her eyes were clear and bright.
"Grandma, I’m not a helpless three-year-old anymore."
"If he dares to mess with me now, I’ll make him regret it!" The little girl clenched her small, rosy fists.
Grandma Qin’s worries were not unfounded.
Over the next few days, people were constantly causing trouble at Shen Ningning’s shop in the city.
They would either complain that the food was unclean or claim they got diarrhea after eating the shop’s sweet soup.
At first, Aunt Yun was reasonable and offered compensation.
Later, she realized this group was just malicious and deliberately stirring up trouble.
She ended up in a conflict with the troublemakers, and the young shop assistant nearly got into a fight with them.
A constable on patrol nearby rushed over and put a stop to the farce.
When Shen Ningning found out, she decided to go to the shop and oversee things for a couple of days.
She had to find an opportunity to deal with the troublemakers once and for all to prevent future problems.
On this day, the National Academy was on break, so Shen Ningning went to the shop to help out.
The weather was freezing. A heavy snow had fallen the night before, and it was so cold that even two layers of quilted clothes weren’t enough to stop people from shivering.
As a result, there were few pedestrians on the street, and even the shop’s business was a bit bleak.
Inside the shop, Shen Ningning sat by the fire, rocking gently in a lounge chair.
Blinking her large eyes, she glanced into the courtyard where Wuer and the others were busy preparing the soup base for the next day.
Not far away, Uncle Zhong was meticulously doing the accounts. At times like this, not even a clap of thunder outside could break his concentration.
Seizing the opportunity, Shen Ningning slipped away in a flash and entered her Immortal Realm.
The little girl had been diligently tilling the soil around the golden tree for the past few days, hoping it would grow strong quickly and give her a surprise.
And sure enough, just as she walked under the four golden trees and looked up, she was stunned!
The four chestnut-like fruits seemed to have ripened.
They had transformed into perfectly round, golden-red pearls the size of a baby’s fist.
One of them, apparently overripe, had fallen to the ground.
Shen Ningning picked it up, her cute little eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she examined it.
’What is this thing?’
She was afraid that if she disappeared for too long, the people in the shop would notice.
So she took the strange pearl and left the Immortal Realm.
Fortunately, everyone was still busy with their own tasks, and no one noticed that Shen Ningning had vanished and reappeared.
The little girl leaned back in her lounge chair, looking at the pearl in her hand.
It was very warm to the touch, like holding a ball of gentle fire.
Shen Ningning felt a luster flowing within the pearl.
She couldn’t resist opening her little mouth and taking a small bite.
"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!" ’It’s disgusting! It tastes like hot oil.’
Shen Ningning wiped her little mouth with her sleeve.
Suddenly!
She realized that she had actually bitten through the "pearl"!
A golden-red liquid flowed out from inside. A gust of wind blew past, and it transformed into a sky full of sparkling crystalline dust.
It glittered brightly.
Quite startled, Shen Ningning quickly reached out her small hands to catch the motes of light blooming in the air.
However, they dissipated quickly.
The little girl’s eyes widened, completely clueless as to what had just happened.
’What in the world was that pearl for?’
’And where did it go?’
She looked down at her empty little hands, utterly bewildered.
Just then, a harsh shout came from the doorway. "Princess Funing, you must come out and give us an explanation!"
Shen Ningning snapped out of her thoughts and looked outside.
She saw a group of thinly-clad commoners gathered together, all with indignant expressions, standing outside the shop demanding an explanation.
Protected by Wuer and the others, Shen Ningning walked out.
"What explanation do you want?"
The man in the lead said, "And you call yourself a Commandery Princess? How can you be so dishonest? You promised to set up a stall to give out congee and soup every five days, but last time, on the day you were supposed to do it, you just closed the shop."
"Did you regret it? Did you decide you don’t want to help us anymore? If you can’t keep your promise, you shouldn’t have made such a grand boast in the first place, pretending to be some great philanthropist. Ptooey!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the commoners behind him also began to shout angrily.
Aunt Yun and a group of shop assistants started arguing with them.
Shen Ningning’s clear, dark eyes swept over the crowd of troublemakers.
She glanced sideways, giving Chen Ye a meaningful look.
Chen Ye quietly slipped out of the shop through a side door.
Just then, Aunt Yun said, "We already told you last time! We closed the shop that day because we didn’t have enough ingredients. We had nothing, so how could we give you soup?"
That day, Mo Lingwei had suffered a relapse of an old ailment and was in urgent need of a large quantity of Spirit Grass.
Therefore, Shen Ningning had taken all the Spirit Grass stored at the shop to the palace for the emergency, which was why the shop had been closed.
She never expected it would become an excuse for these malicious people to cause trouble.