Chapter 416 The Wild Child Who Stole the Offerings
Because Pujiang County has many mountains and little land, the per capita arable land area is less than one acre.

In order to encourage the people to reclaim wasteland, the government encouraged farmers to reclaim wasteland and expand cultivation as early as the early 1960s.

It is precisely because the people have their own piece of land that the agricultural and sideline products they have are relatively abundant.

When Su Mingzhe arrived at the materials exchange conference, many town residents had already taken their seats.

Many market brokers, seeing Su Mingzhe, a child, carrying a thick bundle of furs, immediately became interested and came over to say hello.

Su Mingzhe asked a few, but the brokers all lowered the price very low.

In the end, Su Mingzhe was too lazy to pay attention to them and went straight to the fur stall area. He spread a layer of blue floral cloth on the ground, then put the best-looking deerskin on the top, waiting for the recipient to come.

He came to the material exchange conference not really to make money by selling furs.

If Su Mingzhe really wanted to make money, he could earn millions in minutes.

The reason why he came to the materials exchange conference was actually to find an excuse to spend money in the future.

After the morning passed, many people came to ask about the price, but because of the price, Su Mingzhe didn't sell a single fur.

It was almost noon when someone came and gave a fair price.

Su Mingzhe has more than 30 furs in his hands, including rabbit skin, deerskin, musk deer skin, suede skin, sheepskin and so on.

The other party took out a small abacus and calculated for a while, and finally gave a total of two hundred and twenty yuan.

This price is similar to the two hundred yuan that my grandfather had estimated before.

Since the prices were similar, Su Mingzhe made his move.

After the payment and goods were settled, Su Mingzhe was about to leave, but was stopped by the other party:

"Little brother, my last name is Zheng, and everyone around here calls me 'Zheng Wu'. I want to ask, do you have any fox fur at home?"

"No."

Su Mingzhe glanced at the guy and was about to turn around and leave, but he was stopped by him again. He smiled and said, "Little brother, I'm buying fox skins at a high price. A complete and high-quality fox skin is fifty-one. Even if it's an ordinary fox skin, as long as the skin is the same as your other furs, the minimum price is twenty-one."

"I see."

Su Mingzhe glanced at him again, as if responding, but in fact he didn't take it to heart.

Every industry has its own taboos.

Hunters are more reluctant to hunt five kinds of animals: Hu, Huang, Bai, Liu and Hui.

The first type of 'Hu' is fox.

The other four are: yellow – weasel, white – hedgehog, willow – snake, grey – mouse.

Relying on his powerful strength, Su Mingzhe didn't have to care about these taboos.

However, he may not care, but his grandfather Su Shitou cares very much.

At the beginning, when Su Mingzhe went up the mountain to hunt, Su Shitou repeatedly warned him not to break the old rules and to avoid the "Five Immortals" if he met them.

Su Mingzhe would definitely not make his grandfather worry just for a little money.

After leaving the fur area, Su Mingzhe walked from the foot of Tashan Mountain to the water gate, walked back and forth, and bought some things he needed for his home.

When he felt there was nothing left to buy, Su Mingzhe came to the entrance of the Chinese Medicine Hospital.

Pujiang’s Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital is now called Puyang Town Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital.

Su Mingzhe took the prescription he had written long ago and went in to get the medicine.

The people at the Chinese medicine hospital will naturally check the prescription, and after checking the prescription, they will also ask if you want them to help prepare it.

The Chinese medicine hospital can also help you decoct Chinese medicine, of course, there is a charge for this.

Su Mingzhe simply shook his head.

He bought the Chinese medicine with the intention of boiling it into pills, preserving them, and letting his grandfather take them slowly every day.

The process of making pills is just very cumbersome, but it is actually not difficult.

Su Mingzhe returned home and spent more than a day boiling all the medicinal herbs into several bottles of pills before the elementary school started.

These pills are enough for Su Shitou to take for three to five months.

Seeing his grandson working so hard to take care of him, Su Shitou felt both gratified and touched, yet also a little sad and distressed.

He had been injured many times when he was young, which caused his health to deteriorate significantly as he got older. Even his daily activities could only be done slowly and cautiously.

It's just that my body can't die. I have to endure it myself and take care of my loved ones.

Naturally, Su Mingzhe would have no complaints about taking care of his grandfather.

It is nonsense that there is no filial son by the bedside of a patient who has been ill for a long time.

There are countless families taking care of bedridden elderly people. Many of them complain, but there are even more who have no regrets.

Su Mingzhe cares particularly about his grandfather.

After all, grandpa is the last relative he has in this world.

If his grandfather were gone, Su Mingzhe would be a real 'lonely man' in this world.

Therefore, no matter it is physical emotion or spiritual need, Su Mingzhe is willing to take care of his grandfather without any regrets.

What Su Mingzhe didn't expect was that his grandfather's worry had never been cured.

He made a pill for his grandfather to calm his nerves and expel evil spirits, which he took for more than three years. In the summer of 73, Su Mingzhe, who was only years old, was admitted to Pujiang High School.

At this time, my grandfather, who was over 70 years old, was aging and becoming ill at an increasingly rapid rate.

Even though Su Mingzhe used all his abilities, he could only maintain it for more than a year.

In the last few months, Grandpa was in a daze 90% of the time out of 24 hours.

Even when he was awake, he did not recognize his grandson Su Mingzhe, and kept muttering the names of his two sons and three daughters.

Grandpa ultimately did not survive the winter of 74.

The funeral held by the Su family for Su Shitou was particularly grand. More than a hundred people were dressed in mourning and buried in the Su family's ancestral tomb with great ceremony.

I don't know why, but in this world, Su Mingzhe has particularly rich emotions, and his tears seem to be free. If he is a little sad, his tears will burst out and cannot be stopped no matter what.

Su Mingzhe also didn't want to suppress his feelings.

If a person cannot cry and laugh freely, what is the difference between him and a piece of wood?

At the funeral, Su Mingzhe cried wildly without any intention of concealing his feelings.

In a daze, Su Mingzhe opened his eyes again and it was already dawn the next day.

After having a quick breakfast, Su Mingzhe ran to the Su family’s ancestral tomb.

This time, Su Mingzhe did not cry. Instead, he knelt in front of the grave where his father and mother were buried together and started to talk:
"Dad, Mom, Grandpa has come to find you. I have taken care of Grandpa at home for five years. Now it is your turn to take care of Grandpa. This is the food I brought for you. Please accept it. I was ignorant and didn't visit you often before. I will come often in the future..."

Su Mingzhe kept talking on and on, and before he knew it, he started to cry again.

When the sun was high in the sky, Su Mingzhe finally calmed down. He kowtowed several times towards the two graves, wiped his tears, and then turned and left.

For the next three weeks, Su Mingzhe did the same thing: after breakfast, he would come to place offerings in front of the two graves.

The offerings he placed in front of the grave would always disappear the next day, as if his father, mother, and grandfather had really taken the offerings away.

On this day, the school was on winter vacation.

Su Mingzhe no longer needed to go to school after school, so he specially prepared rich offerings and came to the ancestral grave to worship.

But when he arrived at his parents' grave, he saw a thin figure circling around the grave.

When the figure noticed Su Mingzhe coming, it ran into the jungle behind the mountain in the distance like a frightened rabbit.

"Where did this wild child come from?"

When the figure turned around, Su Mingzhe had already seen the other person clearly.

His hair was messy, his face was dirty, and his clothes were torn and covered in dirt.

However, Su Mingzhe could tell that this was a young child.

Su Mingzhe arranged the offerings and was about to chat with his parents and grandfather for a while, when he was suddenly shocked: "Damn, the offerings I made to my parents and grandfather before, could they have been eaten by that wild kid just now?"

In order to verify what he was thinking, Su Mingzhe frowned, put down the offerings, and left the ancestral tomb.

However, he left openly but returned secretly.

Sure enough, the wild child who had just escaped came back, picked up the offerings on the ground, and stuffed them all into his arms. After all the offerings were in his arms, he ran towards the forest without looking back.

"This brat!"

Su Mingzhe looked at the wild boy's back as he left, feeling both angry and ridiculous. In the end, he could only sigh and let him go.

There are no ghosts or gods in this world, no underworld, and no heaven.

Su Mingzhe came to place offerings every day just to comfort himself.

As for whether the offerings were taken away by wild children or eaten by wild beasts and birds in the mountains, Su Mingzhe didn't really care.

After the wild child ran away without a trace, Su Mingzhe came out again, paid his respects to his parents and grandfather, and then left.

On the second day.

Su Mingzhe got up and had breakfast. When he was preparing offerings as usual, he paused for a moment.

Afterwards, Su Mingzhe still brought offerings to the ancestral tomb and continued to offer sacrifices to his parents and grandfather.

"Dad, Mom, Grandpa, I'm sorry, I didn't know that the previous offerings were stolen by the wild child."

Su Mingzhe arranged all the offerings and then apologized:
"I know you are all good people. You will definitely not blame that wild child, so I won't blame him either. I will stay with you for a while. If you have time, eat quickly and let that wild child eat your mouths..."

Su Mingzhe chattered on for a while, and as he spoke, he began to laugh.

This time, he stayed at the ancestral tomb for a particularly long time, and only left after the offerings had cooled down, picking up the basket.

Not long after he left, the ragged wild child came over again and, just like yesterday, took the offerings and left.

"This brat ate the food provided by my father, mother and grandfather, but he didn't even kowtow to them. He is so rude."

Su Mingzhe, who was hiding not far away, saw the wild child running away and returned home in a hurry.

When he had calmed down from his anger, he smiled and said self-deprecatingly:
"I'm just asking for trouble. Why am I getting angry with a wild child who has no one to discipline him? When spring comes and everything starts to grow, I'll stop sending him food."

I have made up my mind.

Su Mingzhe suddenly realized that he had unknowingly come out of the sadness of his grandfather's passing.

(End of this chapter)