The Fake Daughter Want to Be Villainess - Chapter 52

Jiang Shu purposely didn’t look at what Pei Wang had chosen for his task.

Holding her own card for helping an elderly woman knit a sweater, she squeezed her way out from among the other guests.

The other guests were also gradually picking their tasks, and the Director watched them with satisfaction, as if observing a group of piglets rooting around in a trough.

Ren Lishu squeezed her card and asked, “Can we go do our tasks now?”

The Director held out his hands, saying, “Of course.”

He watched as the guests began to walk toward the village and slowly picked up the megaphone: “Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention one thing: the money can accumulate.”

The guests turned back, and the Director smiled, saying, “For example, the money you have left this time will become your starting funds for the next episode.”

Jiang Shu frowned.

The Director definitely wouldn’t have set this rule without reason; most likely, they would encounter pitfalls in the next two episodes of filming, whether through manipulating the tasks or finding other uses for the accumulated money.

The Director waved his small red flag, urging everyone, “Alright, alright, why are you all crowding here? Go do your tasks!”

The guests started to disperse in small groups, and Pei Wang followed the crowd into the village. Jiang Shu glanced at the card in her hand, then slowly walked inside.

The back of the card provided the elderly woman’s address. It was the fourth house in the first row of the village. Jiang Shu counted as she walked over, and at the door, she found the elderly woman from the task.

The elderly woman had gray hair and was sitting outside on a small wooden stool, her wrist wrapped with layers of prayer beads, her head bent as she continuously played with the beads.

Jiang Shu raised a hand and gently tapped on the nearby tree, calling softly, “Grandmother Lin.”

This was the information given by the Program Team.

Seeing the elderly woman look up, she instinctively flashed a smile and introduced herself, “Hello, Grandma, I’m here from the Program Team to help you knit a sweater.”

The elderly woman glanced at her, and the action of her fingers rubbing the beads came to a stop.

She examined Jiang Shu slowly, then reached out and pulled out two balls of yarn from a basket beside her.

One was pink, and the other was white, with a few thick knitting needles stuck in them, one needle hanging a mostly finished small sweater.

The elderly woman held the balls of yarn but didn’t immediately hand them over. Instead, she squinted and sharply asked, “Do you know how to knit a sweater? Do you know how to crochet?”

Jiang Shu replied softly, “I learned a little by following video tutorials.”

Before her phone was confiscated by the Program Team, she had specifically searched for the simplest knitting techniques and even cut two strands of her own hair to try following the tutorials.

The elderly woman stared at her for a long moment before finally handing over the balls of yarn and the small sweater: “Knit twenty-five stitches per row.”

She meticulously explained the technique to Jiang Shu, then raised her foot and kicked the small low stool nearby: “You can sit here.”

The stool wobbled, and Jiang Shu crouched down to steady it before carefully taking the sweater from the elderly woman’s hand and starting to knit.

The sweater was clearly intended for a child, and Jiang Shu worried that if she knitted it incorrectly, it would be uncomfortable for the child later. So she knitted a little and then brought it to the elderly woman for her to check: “Please take a look.”

At first, the elderly woman examined it, but soon grew impatient: “Stop bothering me all the time.”

She squinted as she leaned against the wall, complaining, “You’re already grown, can’t you make your own judgments?”

Jiang Shu unconsciously tightened her grip on the sweater, biting her lip as she quietly defended herself, “I’m afraid the child will be uncomfortable later.”

“It’s for the dead,” the elderly woman said coldly. “What does comfort have to do with it? Just knit.”

Jiang Shu was stunned; she didn’t dare to knit anymore, clutching the ball of yarn pitifully and stuttering, “Wh-what?”

The elderly woman impatiently lifted her eyelids and gave her a glance from the corner of her eye: “It’s for my little granddaughter.”

“Isn’t the Ghost Festival coming up?” she grumbled. “She’s been dead for over ten years, still haunting me in dreams, so just burn something and send her off.”

Jiang Shu, for once, didn’t respond.

She was a firm materialist, but that didn’t prevent her from being afraid of ghosts. The elderly woman’s words, combined with the sweater, made her a bit scared.

Jiang Shu couldn’t help but quicken her pace in knitting the sweater.The sweater wasn’t too difficult to finish. Jiang Shu quickly completed the last stitch, tidied it up for the elderly woman, and then, clutching the stamped card, hurried towards the village entrance.

The elderly woman watched her leave, then touched the small sweater and sighed deeply.

She felt around in her pocket and pulled out a small cloth bag. It was a drawstring bag, which she easily opened, retrieving a photograph from inside.

The photo was slightly yellowed, showing a woman holding an infant.

The elderly woman tucked the photo into the small pocket of the sweater, slowly stood up from the stool, and mumbled, “I’ll burn this for you. After that, don’t come looking for me again; I had no choice.”

Jiang Shu arrived at the village entrance.

A small table was still set up at the village’s gate, with a large umbrella beside it. The Director and a staff member were sitting at the table.

Jiang Shu handed them her card. The Director pretended to verify it, then opened a drawer and handed her a ten yuan bill.

Jiang Shu carefully placed her earnings into her pocket and flipped through the remaining cards. “Has someone already submitted their tasks before?” she asked.

The task she wanted to water the vegetable garden was no longer available.

The Director nodded, and Jiang Shu was a bit surprised. “They’re so fast.”

This task wasn’t difficult, and the work location was nearby. She had thought she would be the first to complete it.

The Director glanced at her and scoffed, “You really can praise your partner, can’t you?”

Her partner was Pei Wang.

Pei Wang was the first to finish his task and took the watering task card.

A strange, subtle feeling suddenly surged within Jiang Shu. She smiled at the Director but didn’t engage with his remark. Following the prompt on her card, she began her next task.

Her new task was to weed the rice field.

The area to be weeded was not large, about the size of a bedroom, but—

The village had planted a rice paddy, and the seedlings had only been in the ground for a short time, the field still covered with water to the depth of her calves. The mixture of water and mud looked quite murky.

Jiang Shu gently pressed her lips together.

It wasn’t just the murkiness that concerned her; she was more afraid of the insects in the rice field. Insects like the rice borer, leafhoppers, and leeches could all be found in rice paddies.

After a long mental preparation, Jiang Shu finally mustered the courage to lift her foot and headed towards the field.But before she could step into the field, someone shouted at her, “What are you doing! You little kid, go play elsewhere and don’t come over here messing with the rice paddy!”

Jiang Shu instinctively looked towards the source of the voice.

A middle-aged man appeared, carrying a woven basket on his back, wearing a straw hat, and his skin was tanned from the sun.

Jiang Shu had no choice but to explain to him, “I’m not here to play; I’m a member of the program team, and I need to get into the field to weed.”

The Uncle realized, “Oh, that’s why you look so unfamiliar to me.” He glanced at Jiang Shu and then chuckled, “You’re really going to enter the field like this?”

He looked at the sneakers on Jiang Shu’s feet, then slapped his thigh and sighed, “Your program team is really naughty.”

The author has something to say:

This old grandmother has a bit more screen time.