USWHC -Chapter 286 Old Madam Ji Gets Tricked (Part 6)

“Mother, did you steal Father’s money?” As soon as Old Madam Ji entered the house, Ji Laoda asked bluntly.

“Steal money? Why would I need to steal? When has your father’s money not been mine?” Old Madam Ji replied confidently.

Ji Mei had already noticed the thing Old Madam Ji was carefully holding in her arms. She hurried over excitedly and asked, “Mother, did you buy meat buns?”

Hearing this, Old Madam Ji chuckled smugly and said, “I bought something even better than meat buns!”

“Mother, did you buy meat?” Ji Mei’s eyes nearly popped out from excitement as she reached out to take it.

But Old Madam Ji immediately cried out, “Oh! Be careful! Don’t damage it!”

When she said that, everyone was stunned. How could a piece of meat be damaged just by holding it?

Yet Old Madam Ji handled it with extreme care. She slowly stretched out her hands and said cautiously, “Look, what treasure did I bring back?”

Ji Mei, who was closest, quickly leaned over to look. When Old Madam Ji opened the bundle, it revealed… a tree branch—an old, dried tree branch.

“Mother, what is this?” Ji Mei asked.

“This is ginseng! You wouldn’t understand. Such a big ginseng root is worth a thousand taels of silver!” Old Madam Ji’s face immediately bloomed with joy. “I bought it for a hundred taels. Worth it, right?”

“Ginseng? That’s a good thing! Mother, how did you buy it?” Ji Mei asked excitedly. Although she didn’t recognize ginseng herself, she had at least heard of it.

Old Madam Ji proudly replied, “Two country bumpkins dug it up in the mountains. They didn’t know its value and got fooled!”

What? There were actually people more rustic and ignorant than Old Madam Ji? Listening from afar, Zhu Jie couldn’t help thinking, Oh my, is fortune really falling from the sky? But somehow she just couldn’t quite believe it.

Almost at the same time, everyone crowded around to look. Sister-in-law You chattered away, saying, “Mother, you really know your stuff! If it were me, I definitely wouldn’t dare buy it!”

“Ah, actually I don’t really know much either. But the person standing nearby—hehe—he was really unlucky. Such a good opportunity and he just handed it over! You don’t know this, but when I bought it and walked away, he even followed behind me, sighing the whole time!” Old Madam Ji said while laughing smugly.

Speaking of which, after Old Madam Ji stole that hundred-tael banknote today, what was the first thing she did?

She really did go buy several big meat buns—many of them—buying enough to follow the standard of eat one and throw away two. As a newly rich person, she was simply too happy!

But unexpectedly, when luck comes, good things just keep arriving one after another.

Just as she arrived in town, she was stopped by an elderly couple dressed in extremely shabby clothes. As a newly minted upstart, she originally didn’t want to deal with such poor people. Just when she was about to leave, however, she saw the old man carefully take out a cloth bundle from his chest.

The bundle itself looked quite nice. The old man then opened it with great caution.

When Old Madam Ji saw that it contained nothing more than a broken tree branch, she immediately became annoyed. Was this fellow joking with her? She was a wealthy person now!

But the old man kept insisting that what was wrapped inside was ginseng, a valuable treasure. At that moment, Old Madam Ji didn’t even want to pay him any attention.

Just then, however, a gorgeously dressed woman walked over. The moment she saw what the old man was holding, she cried out excitedly.

“Ginseng! This is a fine piece of ginseng!”

The richly dressed woman’s eyes lit up. “Sir, how much are you planning to sell it for?”

“Well, I don’t really know,” the old man said honestly. “The two of us old folks just rescued a ginseng spirit in the mountains.”

“The ginseng spirit wanted to thank us, so it gave us this old mountain ginseng. If you like it, just name a price and take it!”

“Oh my! If a ginseng has turned into a spirit, that must mean it has at least a thousand years of cultivation. The one it gave you looks like it’s at least two or three hundred years old! Eating something like this can prolong life. You two must have done great deeds to receive such fortune!” the richly dressed woman praised admiringly.