Reborn As Super Heiress

This Cousin Xiao spoke very honestly, and Huo Sining also understood that what he said made sense, so she nodded and didn’t ask any more.

On the other side, Liao Song hadn’t known about this part at all. When he heard his cousin say that they had planted more than a dozen collectible walnut trees, he was instantly stunned:

"Bro, how come you never told me? I really didn’t know Uncle went out like that. And you never mentioned you’d planted walnut trees either."

Cousin Xiao looked a bit embarrassed at once: "It’s kind of shameful. My mom’s the competitive type, she wouldn’t let us talk about it, so most of the relatives don’t know. They all think my dad died of illness. Sigh, those ten‑plus walnut trees are on the back hill behind my place. If you want to check them out, I can take you there."

Liao Song nodded: "Sure, sure, since we’re already here, we might as well go have a look. And don’t carry too much psychological burden over this. None of this is your fault, it’s just that my luck was lousy."

Cousin Xiao led the way in front, taking Huo Sining and the others all the way to the Xiao Family’s house. He pushed the door open and stepped into the yard, and saw an Old Granny feeding chickens there, though her expression didn’t look too good.

Seeing someone push the door open, the Old Granny lifted her head and started complaining to Cousin Xiao:

"Shanzi, that damned old man of yours, even dead he won’t let us live in peace. I heard from Sixth Aunt today that their walnut trees brought in over three hundred thousand this year, they really hit the jackpot. If only your dad hadn’t got hot‑headed and chopped those trees down back then, we wouldn’t be..."

Before she finished, the Old Granny finally noticed the other people behind Cousin Xiao. Her expression froze on the spot, and she hurriedly swallowed the rest of her words.

Cousin Xiao’s face also looked a bit awkward. He pointed to Liao Song at the side and said, "Mom, look who I brought."

The Old Granny was taken aback, following her son’s finger. When she saw Liao Song, her face turned slightly hesitant. She stared straight at him for three or four seconds before asking uncertainly, "You’re... Song Boy?"

Liao Song nodded: "Auntie, it’s me."

The Old Granny hurriedly tossed aside the feed bowl in her hand and rushed over toward Liao Song: "Oh, so it’s you, you brat. It’s been so many years since we last met. How’d you end up coming all the way here?"

Liao Song smiled: "I got in touch with Cousin before. I came this time for that walnut business, but my timing was off. Someone beat me to it and bought everything. Since we’re here anyway, we thought we’d come see you. I heard Cousin planted more than a dozen walnut trees, so my friends and I all want to take a look."

When the Old Granny heard that Liao Song had come for the walnut trees, she immediately got a bit depressed:

"Don’t even bring it up. Just mentioning it gets my blood boiling. What’s the point of him planting ten‑plus trees? This stuff takes forever—no money to be made for the first decade or so. By the time it starts making money, who knows if collectible walnuts will still be worth anything. It’s all just pointless tossing about. In those ten‑plus years, we’re going to earn a few million less than other people!"

Hearing that, Cousin Xiao got unhappy: "Mom, quit dredging up the past all the time. You can’t force this kind of thing. The trees are gone, that just means our family doesn’t have that kind of luck."

The Old Granny knew she shouldn’t be like this, but whenever she thought of how other families got tens of thousands a year for free, no need to work outside and they still had money to spend, could just sit at home and eat and wait for death, it left her feeling seriously unbalanced. She let out a long sigh and said:

"Forget it, forget it. Say any more and your cousin’ll start feeling bad. These are all your friends, right? And this girl’s pregnant? Song Boy, she’s not your wife, is she?"

When Liao Song heard that, his face flushed red at once, and he said awkwardly, "No, no, she’s a friend too. She lives in the Imperial Capital. When she heard I was planning to get into the collectible walnut business, she wanted to tag along for the fun."

The Old Granny chuckled: "If she’s not, she’s not—what are you blushing for? You’re at that age too; you ought to be finding yourself a wife."

The moment the Old Granny brought up marriage, Liao Song knew she’d go on forever, so he quickly cut in: "Cousin, where do we go up to the back hill? Take us to see your trees."

Cousin Xiao hurriedly replied: "Go out through the back gate of the yard. I’ve got some free‑range chickens—they run around on the back hill. So the yard and the back hill are connected; I fenced it in with a protective net. Come with me."

The Old Granny was sharp. Seeing how anxious Liao Song was, she knew he definitely didn’t want to listen to her nagging, so she couldn’t help saying:

"Fine, if you don’t want to hear me, I won’t nag. Since you’re here, stay for lunch. I’ll go cook now. When you finish looking at the trees, come back to the house to eat, alright?"

As long as it wasn’t about marrying and having kids, Liao Song was happy with everything else. He quickly nodded: "Alright, got it."

With that, he exchanged a few meaningful looks with Cousin Xiao and headed toward the back hill.

Huo Sining and Yingzi followed as well. Fortunately, the Xiao Family’s back hill had been specially worked on; they’d even built steps. As Huo Sining walked up, her pace was slow, but there was no real danger.

They went all the way up the back hill, and sure enough, from a distance they saw a patch of walnut trees.

A rough count showed at least fifteen or sixteen trees, and every single walnut tree was covered in blossoms.

"Cousin, your trees are blooming a lot!" Seeing the flowers on the walnut trees, Liao Song couldn’t help commenting.

Cousin Xiao just gave a bitter smile: "What good is it if they only bloom? Looks good but it’s useless. They always flower a lot every year, but once the blossoms fall, they don’t set fruit. In the end, each tree only bears a few dozen nuts, and the shape and quality don’t meet the standards for collectible walnuts at all. They’re all misshapen junk that nobody wants."

"Collectible walnuts are just like that—if the trees aren’t old enough, nothing works. These first ten‑plus years are just a dead wait. All we can do is hope that when the trees finally reach age, the price of walnuts hasn’t crashed. Otherwise, planting them was for nothing."

Liao Song nodded slightly and walked up to one of the walnut trees, carefully examining it.

With that look, he did see the difference between the young trees and the old ones. The trunk of the new trees wasn’t twisted and gnarled like the old ones; it looked very tender.

Over there, Huo Sining and Zhong Zifan also walked up, but unlike Liao Song’s disappointment, after staring at these ten‑plus walnut trees for quite a while, a thought suddenly flashed through Huo Sining’s mind.

Back then, Huo Sining had saved plenty of plants and accelerated lots of seedlings—orchids, peonies, and some old tea trees. She’d even tried it on Golden Lotus Seeds. You could say that using the Azure Pearl’s Spiritual Energy to accelerate plants was something that had never failed her.

So, looking at these ten‑plus juvenile walnut trees, Huo Sining suddenly came up with a ridiculous idea.

Maybe the Azure Pearl’s Spiritual Energy... would work on these walnut trees too?