Headache. Headache. Big headache!
Looking at her mother's serious look, Cheng Xiao Xiao just wanted to turn around and run away. She is getting a splitting headache from this!
"Mom, there's no rush. Why don't we discuss this when dad is home?"
"Okay, wait till he is back and I will bring it up to him!" Mrs. Cheng smiled. She thought she had successfully convinced her daughter to listen to her. She didn't know that her daughter was just too lazy to respond.
Cheng Xiao Xiao did not wish to continue the topic. She looked at the steam from the boiling pot and asked, "Mom, do we have more tea leaves in the house? Dad is going to get some villagers to come and help us out. We are going to need to prepare more tea to serve everyone!"
"Asking the villagers to help? Oh yes, I vaguely heard part of your conversation about the bamboo forest. What is going on?"
The mother was not yet looped into this, so Cheng Xiao Xiao had no choice but to explain the whole bamboo forest idea to her. Mrs. Cheng was ecstatic afterward. She nodded in support, "This is great! Okay, we will steep more tea. Oh, and we should slaughter a few more chickens and ducks for them!"
"Okay, whatever you like mom!" Cheng Xiao Xiao responded with a smile, "Mom, I will go get more tea leaves."
"Go!' Mrs. Cheng looked on tenderly at the back of her fair daughter and mumbled to herself, "If we were still with the family, we would be able to find her a good husband. Being where we are now, it will be difficult to find someone that Xiao Xiao will be happy with. I will definitely need to have a talk with ye when he gets back. I wonder if the was serious when he talked about the match with the Gu's."
She sighed when she got here, "Aye, even if he was, I'm sure the Gu's have regretted. Our family's current situation..."
"Mom, mom, we don't have a lot of tea leaves left!" shouted Cheng Xiao Xiao from outside of the kitchen. Mrs. Cheng paused for a second and got up.
The two met up just outside of the kitchen. Cheng Xiao Xiao shook the ceramic container in her hand, "Mom, we have maybe enough for two more servings. That's not enough to serve all the guests!"
"No more tea leaves? That's a problem. Even if we collect more from the mountain we will still need to fry them. Unless we go and buy them from the town!"
Collect tea leaves from the mountain?
Cheng Xiao Xiao's eyes brightened, if she can transfer tea trees to the dimension...
Thinking of that, Cheng Xiao Xiao was very excited. She handed the ceramic container to her mother and said, "Mom, I am going to collect tea leaves from the mountain. I will have Zheng Yuan come back to help you out!"
Immediately acting upon her thoughts, Cheng Xiao Xiao left the house empty handed.
"This kid, going into the mountain again?" Mrs. Cheng shook her head, she didn't know what was on her daughter's mind. But she wasn't go to stop her either, so she just let her go and do her thing.
When Cheng Xiao Xiao passed by the bamboo forest, she had the younger brothers and sister go home to help out and went into the mountain alone. She had heard her parents mentioned the location of the tea leaves before so she headed straight there.At the same time, Innkeeper Zhu of Lai Yue Inn was getting worried. The server just saw him walking around in circles and was very confused. It was almost like he was failing on something big.
He certainly had no idea what was going on. Innkeeper Zhu was crazy worried for others. He couldn't imagine how the two deacons, who left in the middle of the night, had never returned.
He had a pretty good idea where they had gone, but, with their skills in martial arts, how was it possible that they have not yet returned? Unless they had left Qing'an Province after the mission was accomplished?
That's impossible!
Innkeeper Zhu shot down that idea. No matter what, they wouldn't have left before the situation with the Cheng's had been resolved. Unless, there was an accident?
***