Accidentally Found a Huge Sum of Money While Spraying Pesticides, but Half a Month Later It Brought Disaster to Her Son

Author of the daily story app: Muzi Lanlan | Reproduction prohibited

1

When the sky showed the first pale light of dawn, Yuxiu got up, bolted down two mouthfuls of leftover rice, put on a dark black long coat, poured the prepared pesticide dose into the sprayer, and headed toward her five mu of cornfield.

The village was completely silent, with only the occasional cry of a nursing baby and the barking of dogs drifting by. It was midsummer, there was not much farm work, and everyone got up late.

Yuxiu walked fast, the pesticide solution in the sprayer on her back sloshing violently and giving off a slightly bitter, pungent smell. In the countryside, pest-killing work like this was generally done by men, but Yuxiu's husband Huzi worked at a construction site in the neighboring province and only came back once every two or three months. With her man too far away to count on, Yuxiu could only feel her way through many seemingly complicated and arduous tasks. From her initial cautiousness to her present competence, Yuxiu had become the hardworking and enduring role model that the villagers all praised.

When Huzi came back last month, he brought her a stack of masks, soft white gauze ones. Her man knew the corn was about to tassel and that pest prevention would be needed, so he specially reminded her to wear a mask and rainproof clothing when spraying pesticide to guard against poisoning. Yuxiu felt that going fully armed was a bit pretentious; once the sun was high, she would be so stifled she would collapse from exhaustion. Early in the morning, before the bugs had crawled back into their holes, she put on the worn-out long coat Huzi had discarded and went out.

As for that pack of masks, she thought she would save them for her grandson to use as drool pads later; they should work quite well.

The rain had been good earlier this year, and the early-summer sun was plentiful. Along the way, the cornfields were a dark green, and on stalks a head taller than an adult hung several clusters of chopstick-length corn ears. After passing Sankua Field and stepping over the small stream, she would soon reach her family's cornfield by the main road. Yuxiu thought that if only every year could have such favorable weather, every household would have a bumper harvest.

At the water storage pool by the field, Yuxiu filled a jug with water using a wooden ladle, a good twenty or thirty jin of it. She crouched on the ground, put the straps over her shoulders, and stood up easily. With one hand she raised the spray rod, and with the other she rhythmically pumped the liquid pump, sending locusts and moths scattering in all directions. There was no wind, so the branches, leaves, and ears were sprayed evenly. After finishing the corner, Yuxiu prepared to stand by the main road and spray in a straight line, which would be much faster. The main road was a foot higher than the field ridge, and cobblestones were scattered all over it.

Stepping up onto the main road, she saw that a large patch of corn seedlings had all been flattened, with two car tire tracks deeply embedded in them.

Furious, she ran over and tried to lift a few of the corn seedlings crushed down by the tires. Their leaves hung limply, and the ears had fallen off. The car must have gone off the road and charged straight into the cornfield, only braking to a stop after more than ten meters, exactly ruining eight or nine corn plants along the edge of each row. By rough count, at least two hundred corn plants would yield nothing.

Damn it! Driving without eyes, rushing off to be reborn! Yuxiu could not hold back and cursed. This was the only road from the provincial capital running from south to north, with cars coming and going all the time. When she had been pulling weeds yesterday afternoon, the corn had still been alive and well, so it must have been ruined by a car accident in the middle of the night.

Yuxiu hoisted the sprayer onto her shoulder and walked to the central spot, where she saw a white sneaker pressing down on a black plastic bag, stained with spots of blood. Yuxiu picked up the shoe and threw it toward the main road. When she picked up the bag, it felt somewhat heavy, as if it contained something block-shaped. Yuxiu opened the bag, took one look, and almost cried out in shock. Her body lurched, the sprayer tipped over, and half the pesticide solution spilled out.

Villagers gradually began heading to the fields, birds sang brightly, and the sun dazzled the eyes. The five mu of corn had not been fully sprayed because there was not enough pesticide solution. Yuxiu took off the long-sleeved coat she was wearing and folded it into a bundle shape, picked a few slightly plump ears of corn from the fallen plants and threw them into the clothes, then carried the sprayer in one hand as she walked along the country path.

2

Back home, Yuxiu took out the corn and peeled off the leaves, then fetched a wooden bucket of water from the pond and poured the corn in all at once. Afraid that pesticide contamination might poison the chickens and ducks, she let it soak first. The tattered long-sleeved clothes were covered with corn silk, and after the sweat dried, white salty stains formed circles on them. She walked to the stone steps by the pond and scrubbed hard, since she would still need to wear them for spraying pesticide tomorrow.

Yuxiu watched TV for a while, then fished out the corn cobs and called, "Cluck cluck cluck." The chickens and ducks under the pomelo tree rushed over and competed to peck at the tender corn.

Her son was coming home for his monthly break and would arrive just in time for dinner. Thinking it over, there was not much to eat at home. The ducks had only just grown wings, the chickens had just started laying eggs, there were fish in the pond but the woman of the house did not know how to cast a net, and the butcher Zhang Mazi had gone to his son's home in the city. If she wanted meat, she would have to take a bus to the county town, and going back and forth would waste half a day. These past few days she had been busy pulling weeds and killing pests, so she could not spare the time.

If her son graduated smoothly from the normal school, he could come back and become a teacher. Yuxiu did not dare hope her child would go far or climb high; living a quiet life right before her eyes was enough. By then Huzi would no longer have to sell his hard labor, and the whole family would be happy together. It was hard now, but there would always be a sweet day. A smile spread across Yuxiu's face.

At the village entrance came the cry, "Tofu, dried tofu, fried tofu puffs!" Sandezi, with a white towel hanging around his neck, came swaying over with his tofu stall. Yuxiu got up, took a winnowing basket, scooped out some of last year's late rice from the granary, and sat down at the doorway to pick out sand and insect pupae.

"Yuxiu, is your son coming back! Usually you can't bear to eat anything. You really do live frugally, woman." Sandezi took the rice, poured it into a woven plastic bag, and hung the weight on the scale beam.

"You're the one with too much mouth and a smart tongue! Weigh it accurately, don't shortchange me, I just weighed it at home."

"You still don't trust me? Then you come weigh it!"

"All right, all right, I'm joking with you."

"What are you swapping for today?" Sandezi lifted the white cloth covering the stall. The water tofu was so tender it seemed to drip.

"A little of each. Take more dried tofu, it keeps longer." Taking a basin to receive three pieces of tofu and a bag of dried tofu and fried tofu puffs, Yuxiu went inside satisfied.

Yuxiu prepared the meal early and kept looking back and forth at the doorway. By the time the chickens and ducks had gone into their pens and the news broadcast had just finished, her son arrived home with his bag on his back. Summer days were long, and it had only just begun to get dark. Seeing that her son seemed taller but a little thinner, and that the glasses perched on his eyes were a little thicker, Yuxiu felt a pang of heartache.

Her son put down his backpack and complained nonstop: the green-skin train was crowded and packed, his seat was right by the toilet, and the smell of urine and body odor was enough to knock a person out. The lunch he bought at noon had no appeal, so he threw it away. The older women chatted without caring whether others lived or died, and the chain smokers smoked nonstop. He did not want to come home next month.

"Huh, didn't you eat at school when you set out at noon? If the train was at one o'clock, you should have had time." Yuxiu filled a full bowl of rice for her son.

"The school food is awful, basically swill boiled in water. The 10-yuan meals on the train smell good, but eating them makes you want to throw up."

The first time Yuxiu accompanied her son to college, she had eaten there once at noon: three dishes and a soup, with all the rice you could eat. She had found it quite to her taste.

"Son, I have to say something to you. How many steel bars does your dad have to tie and how many bags of cement does he have to carry to earn back 10 yuan! Selling corn, you'd have to snap at least twenty or thirty ears to trade for it! If you ate it, fine, but throwing it away is wasteful..."

"What do you mean by that? You yourselves have no ability, so you blame me. It's just a boxed meal, is it worth this?" Her son did not wait for Yuxiu to finish and shouted loudly.

Yuxiu's hand holding the chopsticks trembled, and she looked at her son in fear.

Her son shoveled at his rice bowl, picked up a little tofu and dried tofu, and ate in big mouthfuls with his head down. The light bulb in the middle of the room cast a dim halo, and mosquitoes buzzed around their ears. Her son put down his chopsticks, got up abruptly, walked straight to the bed, and lay down without undressing.

Yuxiu reached out, took the bowl her son had left, and used her chopsticks to scrape the rice grains stuck around the rim into her own bowl.

"Every drop of grain is a hundred drops of sweat. You have to know sweetness and bitterness," she murmured to herself in a low voice.

At night, Yuxiu put the family's only electric fan at her son's bedside and got up several times to chase mosquitoes out of the mosquito net. Her son slept very deeply, snoring like thunder.

Before dawn, Yuxiu carried the sprayer toward the cornfield. Yesterday she had killed half the pests. After finishing the remaining two mu, she would go back and cook egg noodles for her son.

By midmorning, Yuxiu was soaked through with sweat. Standing by the roadside where the corn had been flattened, she pondered for five or six minutes, then took the sprayer and picked a few fresh tender loofahs and bitter melons from the vegetable trellis by the stream before heading back.

Her son lay lazily in bed. Yuxiu stole a glance at him, and when her son met her gaze, he turned over with extreme impatience, facing the wall.

"Dongliang, get up. I'm going to cook noodles. If they sit too long, they won't taste good." Yuxiu washed her hands three times with soap, then took three eggs still warm from the chicken nest.

Under the kitchen cabinet was a small basin of eggs she had picked earlier, kept for selling, while the freshest ones were for her son. Since childhood, her son had loved fried eggs, cooked until crisp outside and tender inside, with the yolk running as a soft center.

A big bowl of noodles topped with three fried eggs. When Yuxiu brought it to the table, her son only then got up leisurely to brush his teeth and wash his face.

The noodle broth in the pot, mixed with last night's leftover rice and tofu, was Yuxiu's breakfast. After eating, she fed the chickens and ducks, washed the dishes, swept the floor, and did the laundry.

"Your college student is back, but I haven't seen him come out." Neighbor Auntie Gao looked at the jeans Yuxiu had hung up to dry and asked.

"Mm, he came back last night."

"You two have good fortune. Your son studies well, so just wait to enjoy your blessings." Auntie Gao's eyes were full of envy.

"It's still early. After he graduates and starts working, I'll still have to help him get married and take care of the children."

"What are those? Sweet burdens."

…………

Over the next few days, Yuxiu looked for chances to talk with her son. She took out the letter Huzi had sent and said, "Your father wants you to study hard. Once you make something of yourself, he won't have to travel all over the country. He just wants to come home and farm." Her son responded with absent-minded uh-huhs, opened the letter paper, read for less than two minutes, and put it back in the envelope.

Before he set out, Yuxiu handed her son two hundred yuan. "It's not much, so spend it sparingly." She reminded him. Her son seemed about to speak, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he did not say it.

3

Huzi had not come back for more than three months. In his letter he said the construction site was rushing the project schedule and was very busy, tying steel bars during the day and pouring concrete at night. Being busier meant earning a little more money. Everything was fine, he said, and Yuxiu should not worry.

Once, Yuxiu had gone to the city and seen high-rise buildings being built, with concrete poured by pump truck and laborers holding the pump pipe while standing in steel forms, their whole bodies covered in cement slurry. She did not know whether Huzi also did that kind of work, unable even to wear a set of clean clothes. Huzi had asthma and stomach problems, so he truly suffered a great deal out there.

After another year or so, once her son was teaching, Huzi would stay at home idle, and she would not let him do anything, just let him rest and recover. Yuxiu was full of confidence about the days ahead.

Half a month later, her son came home empty-handed, and Yuxiu was a little surprised.

"Mom, the two hundred yuan you gave me was pickpocketed on the train." Dongliang adjusted his glasses and said it lightly.

"I borrowed money from classmates to buy the ticket. The school has an exchange activity. It costs six hundred yuan, and everyone has to take part."

"How is it that much? I don't have enough money. In a little while I'll go borrow some from the village chief."

When it came to expenses for her son's education, Yuxiu never argued, but as these fees rose from two or three hundred to six or eight hundred, she began to feel unable to manage.

Huzi wrote back saying he wanted to send money home, but Yuxiu told him to deposit it in the bank. She could still scrape together their son's monthly pocket money: selling some eggs and vegetables, and with the corn about to be harvested soon, borrowing a little from the village chief first should not be difficult.

The village chief readily gave Yuxiu six hundred, and with the loose change at home it came to just over one thousand.

"Son, you must work hard. Don't worry about money." Yuxiu was afraid her son would feel burdened and be distracted from his studies.

Dongliang, having gotten the money, was all smiles and, for the first time ever, washed the dishes after the meal.

Near the end of the month, a heavy rain fell, which conveniently washed away the pesticide sprayed earlier. As long as there were another ten-odd sunny days, the corn could be snapped off and sold. Yuxiu did not idle for a moment. She washed the woven plastic bags, tore the binding straps, and on market day went to sell eggs, loofahs, eggplants, and peppers.

Dongliang came back again, exactly ten days after the last time.

"Mom, I signed up for a famous-teacher tutoring course. The fee is one thousand six hundred." He got straight to the point.

Yuxiu had just come back from digging wild vegetables in the field. The villagers all thought the price was too low and that they could not sell for much, so they could not be bothered to dig.

"Can it wait a little? The corn hasn't been sold yet, and the family really can't come up with the money." Yuxiu put down the bamboo basket in her hand, her tone betraying pleading.

"Mom, don't lie to me! That black bag in the granary has several stacks of money in it. It's not like I'm spending it recklessly."

"That money can't be touched!"

"Why???"

Her son did not get the money and went back to school in a rage.

"Brother Dong, tonight let's go eat skewers and hot pot. A new shop opened on the pedestrian street, the food's good, and Tingting is going too." Li Wei from the same dorm put an arm around Dongliang's shoulder after class.

"I have a headache tonight. You all have fun." Dongliang touched his empty pocket, utterly dispirited.

"Brother Dong, let's go play billiards."

"Not going. I'll rest early; there's an exam tomorrow."

"Brother Dong, let's go play video games. It's so exciting."

"Not in the mood."

"Brother Dong, you've been absent so much lately. Aren't you afraid some rich kid from another class will chase after Tingting?" Another dormmate complained too.

Tingting from the neighboring class had not shown up for a week. The reply to the message he sent said Tingting was very busy. Dongliang felt it was necessary to go home again. He took several advertisements for famous-teacher extracurricular tutoring from the academic affairs office and stuffed them into his backpack.

4

Passing by his family's cornfield, Dongliang saw from afar a sign standing by the roadside. Walking closer, he saw a piece of paper pasted on the sign, and on the paper was written:

Claim Notice

One month ago, someone lost something in the cornfield. Please come quickly to claim it. The address is Zhang Yuxiu, Group Six, Hongfeng Village.

The writing was crooked and misspelled. Dongliang recognized the handwriting at once; it was written by his mother, who had only an elementary school education. He ran all the way home. Yuxiu was just holding a bowl, with white rice topped by a piece of fermented tofu and mixed with chopped red chili, so spicy that the corners of her mouth were red and she kept sucking in air.

"Dongdong, you're back. You haven't eaten yet, right?" Yuxiu put down her bowl and chopsticks.

"That sign in our field was put up by you, wasn't it!"

"That's someone else's money, so it should be returned to them!"

"So noble of you. The family is poor as can be, and you act noble in front of me."

"Dongdong, I wrote to your dad and told him to send money back. Wait a little longer, don't worry."

"Why didn't you take it out and hand it over to the authorities when you first found it?"

"With that much money, of course I didn't dare make a fuss about it. I was just waiting for the person who lost it to come claim it on their own."

"Just say it plainly. Are you giving me this money or not?"

"This money cannot be touched. It simply cannot be touched." Yuxiu was very firm.

"You said that. Don't regret it!" Dongliang took the advertisement papers from his backpack, tore them to pieces, and left without looking back.

Yuxiu returned to the cornfield and put the sign back by the roadside. Sitting in the earthen hollow, she fell into deep thought. Facing such a large sum of money, it would be false to say she had no selfish thoughts; she and Huzi could not earn that much even after several hard years. She had just wanted to wait for Huzi to come back and discuss and calculate it together.

Piecing together the advertisement papers her son had torn up, Yuxiu could still understand seventy or eighty percent of the content. Those eye-catching 800 yuan and 1,600 yuan filled her eyes. She wondered whether she really had misunderstood her son, and whether she should first take part of that money to relieve the emergency. Her son's education was bigger than anything under heaven.

But in the next instant, she felt again that she had done right. If you pick something up, you should return it as it was. Parents are the best teachers for their children by words and example. One day, her son would understand her intentions.

In the evening, passing by the big pagoda tree, old and young were enjoying the cool. Seeing Yuxiu coming over, they chattered and started asking.

"Yuxiu, did you pick up treasure?"

"Your luck is really good. If I'd known, I would have gotten up early that day."

"Take it out and let everyone see. Don't be stingy."

Yuxiu scratched her scalp, at a loss. "If I'd picked up treasure, would I go around shouting about it? I'm not that foolish. There was only a worn-out ID card. The driver crushed more than a hundred corn seedlings. When he comes to the door, I still have to ask him for compensation."

In desperation, she blurted out that sentence, and even she admired her own quick wit.

"This is an unlucky matter. That person definitely won't come to claim it."

"That's right, an ID card can be reissued anytime." Everyone started talking one after another. Now she was relieved, and Yuxiu walked back into the house with light steps.

5

After selling two rounds of corn in small batches, Yuxiu noted down 145 + 216. She had the habit of keeping accounts. There was a good old saying in the countryside: you won't go poor from eating or wearing, but you'll be poor for a lifetime if you can't plan. At the end of the year, the reckoning would be clear at a glance.

A dealer came to the door to buy. Because the corn Yuxiu grew was plump and full, two clusters of her corn weighed more than three clusters from other families. One day two dealers even came, pushing handcarts and rushing to pick in the field, which made Yuxiu quite embarrassed. Others teased her, "This is free labor, so use them as much as you like." At noon Yuxiu cooked a few simple dishes to entertain them; they were all small businesspeople, and others had it hard too.

After the corn harvest was finished, she remembered that her son had not come home for a month and a half. After waiting another week, she would go to the school to bring her son money. Studying was hard on the brain, so she needed to prepare something tasty and nutritious, Yuxiu thought.

The village held a meeting to promote agricultural technology, and the village chief asked Yuxiu to speak on stage. Her family's corn was grown even better than that of the grown men. Yuxiu covered her face, shaking her head like a rattle drum.

"Yuxiu, hurry up on stage and tell everyone. Your family grows corn well, your son studies well, and your man works desperately to earn money and never fools around. What's the secret?"

"Exactly, exactly. The village should produce a few more college students."

Everyone burst into laughter. It was so lively that Yuxiu blushed to the roots of her neck.

"Excuse me, which one is Zhang Yuxiu?" At the doorway stood a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses, neatly dressed, with a briefcase tucked under his arm.

"That's me, it's me." Yuxiu recognized him at once. There had been several certificates in the black bag, and the photo on them was exactly this man.

After greeting the village chief, Yuxiu and the man walked home one after the other.

The man's whole family did business elsewhere. Last month he had returned to his hometown to visit relatives, and late at night he had driven too fast and plunged into the cornfield. His leg and forehead were scraped, and the scars were still faintly visible.

After losing the money, the man had not expected to get it back. It was just that there was a small pack of business cards, all from partners he dealt with in business, and losing them would be a bit troublesome. Just think: by the main road with people and cars coming and going, who would return what they picked up?

A few days ago he heard a fellow townsman say that someone had posted a notice in the cornfield, so he came looking.

"This is your bag. Count it and see if anything is missing!" Yuxiu handed the bag to the man.

The money and the business card were both there, and the man could not believe his eyes.

"Sister, you really are an honest person. This ten thousand yuan is a token of my thanks." The man with glasses held a stack of cash and tried to stuff it into Yuxiu's hand.

Yuxiu refused to accept it no matter what, but the man with glasses was very persistent, and the money was pushed back and forth between their two hands.

"Yuxiu, Yuxiu, come out quick, a classmate from your son's school is here." Behind the village chief stood a young man.

"Why hasn't my Dongliang come back? Child, what's the matter?" (Original title: "Fortune and Misfortune", author: Muzi Lanlan. From: Read a Story Every Day APP<公号：dudiangushi>, see more exciting content)