The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

But Yingbao could only dream.

As it seems right now, the money she earned from selling her goods wouldn’t even cover the costs of hiring a songstress, let alone hiring a full band.

The three of them arrived at a theater platform, peering over the railing at the inside.

From afar, they could see a few people wearing bright costumes performing on the stage.

“Do you want to go in and see?” Jiang Quan turned to his younger cousin and asked, “It’s cheap, only ten coins per person.”

Ernini asked in curiosity, “How do you know?”

Jiang Quan pointed his mouth at a sign, “It’s written on the sign.”

“Alright, let’s go in and take a look,” Yingbao had intended to take Ernini out for a good time, besides this was the busiest area in the county seat, it wouldn’t do to not take a look.

So, they paid thirty coins, found a table and sat down.

Soon, a vendor came and tried to sell food. Jiang Quan ordered large portions of crispy, salty and fragrant toasted bread slices, three bowls of tofu pudding, and three red bean glutinous rice balls.

The rice balls were even wrapped in a layer of deliciously sauced diced meat.

All three of them enjoyed their meal while watching the performance.

Ernini and Jiang Quan watched the dancers and the singing on stage, while Yingbao observed the surroundings.

These places were all variety show venues, there were storytelling and songs performances inside the nearby teahouses, outside the brothel there were even acrobats and knife dancers. Accompanied by the varied hoarse voices of the vendors, it was extremely lively.

That Gao Lifan was a storyteller, and his wife, of the Zhang family, sang and played the drum along with him.

When she had met Gao Lifan and his wife in her previous life, they were in the same line of work. At that time, their only daughter, Dongmei, had been dead for many years.

She recalled them adopting a child from the Gao Family Clan, over time, the adopted son became very nefarious, not only being outrageous rude to the couple, but also often stealing from them and giving their belongings to his birth parents.

“Yingbao, Yingbao!” Ernini tugged at her cousin and pointed at the stage in a hush, “Doesn’t that woman on stage look like the eldest daughter from the Chen family?”

Yingbao looked up, and indeed, a dancing girl on stage looked a lot like Chen Wan.

Even though her face was heavily painted with rouge, that figure and face undoubtedly belonged to Chen Wan.

Unexpectedly, she had ended up dancing in a troupe.

Ernini leaned in next to Yingbao’s ear and asked excitedly, “Should we tell the Chen clan leader?”

“Up to you.” Yingbao didn’t want to get involved.

On the stage, Chen Wan danced clumsily, waving her sleeves, spinning her body. Her face bore no expression, her gaze was fixated outside the brothel, as though she was searching for something.

Here, the three Jiang siblings finished their snacks, feeling quite relieved, and got up to leave as soon as the servant came to collect their appreciation money.

On the way, Ernini chatteringly began to talk about Chen Wan, expressing both sympathy and schadenfreude.

Just when they were about to reach their shop, they saw many people gathering around, all of them pointing and talking about their shop from a distance.

Jiang Quan and Yingbao were startled and immediately started running towards their shop.

In the shop, a few fierce-looking street ruffians were beating up Jiang Cheng.

Yingbao was furious, but she remained rational. She turned to Erquan and ordered, “Go get help! Get someone from the government office!” After saying that, she dashed forward like a bullet.

After a moment’s hesitation, Jiang Quan immediately started running towards the nearby patrol post.

Ernini followed Yingbao into the shop, and saw that it was a complete mess, with several gourds also smashed and scattered all over the ground.

Thankfully, the fruits and chestnuts had already been moved to the backyard for packing, and hence were not ruined.

“Help! Murder!” Yingbao shouted as she charged into the shop and kicked a thug in the leg.

In her hand, a thick steel needle appeared instantly, and she thrust it straight into the thug’s lower body. He howled in agony and immediately crumpled to the ground, curling up and shrieking incessantly.

After stabbing that man, Yingbao quickly moved aside and pushed Ernini towards the back yard, “Quick, get inside!”

After all, Ernini was already a ten-year-old girl, she couldn’t afford to be touched by these street thugs.

One of the local ruffians was stabbed and fell over, leaving the other two dumbfounded, but they quickly snapped out of it and tried to seize Yingbao.

However, Jiang Cheng wouldn’t let them have their way. He swung a stick he picked off the ground at them.

Earlier, he couldn’t beat all three of them on his own, but now there were only two left. He had trained every day and, in a fit of rage, brutally attacked the now two ruffians, leaving them crying out in pain.

Then the two ruffians turned back and started to grapple with him.

Seeing this, Yingbao pounced forward to ambush them. She took them by surprise by stabbing their backs, thighs, and buttocks with her needle. She stabbed them wherever she could, eliciting screams from the two ruffians.

One of the ruffians, furious, turned around and grabbed Yingbao, plunging a dagger towards her head.

“Stop!”

A loud shout was heard as a figure rushed forward, and with a swift kick, knocked the ruffian over. “How dare you commit violence in the streets! Someone! Arrest them all!”

Several government officials rushed in, quickly knocking the ruffians to the ground and chaining their necks.

Jiang Quan ran back to the store, panting heavily. He held his brother, who was covered in blood, and began to wail, “Brother! Brother! Are you okay?”

Jiang Cheng, now exhausted and sitting on the ground, shook his head at him: “I’m fine”

Yingbao, standing to the side, tilted her head back to thank the leading government official, “Thank you for saving me, Uncle Jin.”

Jin Wu patted her on the head, laughing, “What are you thanking me for? I should apologize for coming late and letting little Yingbao get frightened.”

He turned and pointed at the ruffians, cursing, “Are you blind? How dare you bully anyone under my protection?”

The three ruffians knelt on the ground begging for mercy, “We are sorry, Boss Jin. We didn’t knowit was our gang leader who sent us…”

Before they could finish speaking, a government official slapped one of them and shouted, “Shut up!”

Jin Wu waved them off, “Take them away! Take them back to the government office for trial. They dared to assault others with weapons in broad daylight. They must be tired of living!”

The two main gangs in the county have connections with the government officials and patrollers; their relationships were mutually beneficial.

Yet these local ruffians dared to cause nuisance under the name of their gang, it’s clear they didn’t value their lives.

Jiang’s Specialties Store had been explicitly ordered by the adults to be well-protected. Even if Jin Wu and the others had the guts, they dared not slack off.

Now that these dogs happened to create a ruckus, they had no one to blame but themselves for Jin Wu using them to set an example.

The officials led the three ruffians away. Jin Wu even stood at the door and loudly announced, “Anybody who dares to commit violence and disturb the peace will have their premises raided!”

He was addressing the gangsters among the crowd, letting them know that this store was off-limits.

Sure enough, someone in the crowd quickly ran off, presumably to go warn others.

After Jin Wu and the officials left, Erni, who was still in shock, hugged Yingbao with teary eyes, “The people in this county are so frightening.”

“Those were just a few local thugs, don’t be afraid. We’ve paid our business tax, and the patrol post is looking after us. They wouldn’t dare to kill. At most they would try to create chaos.”

However, after Jin Wu’s declaration earlier, their shop should be much safer in the future.

Yingbao opened the medicine box and applied a medicinal paste on her cousin’s face, then gave him a pill to swallow.

Jiang Cheng’s injuries were only skin deep, not critical, and he should recover after a few days.

As the spectators gradually dispersed, Jiang Quan, still feeling regretful and upset, began to clean up the store. He set aside a few usable gourds and swept the rest of the debris out.

Erni collected the seeds from the broken gourds and gave them to her younger cousin to handle.

At this point, Jiang Yunniang walked in, looked around, and asked, “Erquan, what happened here?”

“Aunt,” Jiang Quan called out, “Some local ruffians caused trouble, but they’ve been taken away by the government officials.”

Jiang Yunniang frowned and said, “Erquan, you’ve offended the Tiger Head Gang. What are we going to do? Even the government officials can’t do anything about them.”

She continued, addressing Jiang Cheng, “I told you, running a store is not easy. You were trying too hard to prove yourselves, and now you’ve got yourself into unnecessary trouble.”

Yingbao turned her head to look at her aunt, “Auntie, how did you know those people were from the Tiger Head Gang?”

The three local ruffians had already been taken away by the government officials. Could it be that her aunt could predict the future?