10

Chapter 10

The weather in the lunar month of July is the hottest time of the year. People look at the increasingly empty kitchen, and one by one, they grow anxious. Since the beginning of the year, the supply of grain has been even scarcer than the previous year. In the past, they could buy half of the grain each month, but by July this year, they had only received grain twice, and in very small amounts. Apart from Zhenzhen, who is still nursing, everyone in the Li family has to tighten their belts once again and taste the bitterness of hunger.

Li Muwu and Li Musen sat at the door of the grain shop's warehouse, looking at the empty yard and couldn't help but sigh. Both worked as laborers carrying sacks in the warehouse, and their wages were calculated based on the number of items handled. In previous years, they could bring home forty or fifty yuan a month. Even last year, when things were difficult, they still managed to earn about thirty yuan a month. But this year, after the new year, they had only earned forty yuan in total.

Money wasn't a huge concern, as they had saved some before, but what worried them was that if no more grain came, their family would soon run out.

Li Muwu frowned, and the hardships made him look even older: "If the grain doesn't arrive, we won't make it. Tomorrow we should take a leave and go up the mountain to gather wild vegetables. Anyway, the grain shop has no work."

But Li Musen hesitated: "What if the grain arrives? If we're here, we might be able to get some. If we miss it, we don't know when the next supply will come. The women and kids can gather wild vegetables. We need to stay here and wait for the grain."

Li Muwu sighed, scratching his head, not knowing what to do. The Beicha district is a forested area, and besides the families in the mountain valleys who plant a bit of land, most of the food for the town is brought in from outside. Even if they wanted to trade for grain, they had nowhere to go. The two of them exchanged helpless glances and lowered their heads, sighing once more.

At home, Li Laotai opened the cupboard and looked at the small amount of grain, sighing deeply. With summer vacation now in full swing, Li Mingdong and Li Mingxi were hauling wood from the forest for money, and Li Mingnan and Li Mingbei were also busy. Guihua took the two children into the mountains every day, gathering wild vegetables and even taking the family's hunting rifle to see if they could catch any game.

Wang Sufen had washed and hung out the clothes, and quickly came in to check on Zhenzhen to make sure she hadn't fallen onto the floor. Seeing her come in, Li Laotai walked out of the kitchen: "Has Zhenzhen woken up? If she has, let's take her to see our land."

At that moment, Zhenzhen was sitting on the kang, propped up on the windowsill, looking outside. Wang Sufen was startled and hurried over to pick her up. Li Laotai, entering at that moment, quickly reminded her: "I don't know how she got over to the windowsill. After she crawls, make sure to close the window tightly. Our windows are low; if she crawls out and falls, it will be a big problem."

Wang Sufen responded, then put Zhenzhen on her back with a cloth pouch, put a cloth hat on her, grabbed a military water bottle, and locked the door before following Li Laotai out.

This was the first time Zhenzhen had ever left the house. When the weather was good before, Wang Sufen and Guihua would only carry her around in the yard for a while. Red Pine Mountain was not far from the Li family; it took about twenty minutes to walk there. As soon as they entered the forest, the oppressive heat that had clung to them disappeared. The towering larches and birches shaded the sky and dispersed the summer heat. Li Laotai put a small cotton jacket on Zhenzhen and waved a flyswatter from time to time to keep the mosquitoes away from her.

After walking another twenty minutes up the mountain, they finally reached the Li family's cleared land, a slightly flat area where they had planted corn, sorghum, sweet potatoes, soybeans, and other crops.

The soil on the mountain was much more moist than below, but because of the cold shade, the crops didn't grow very vigorously. Li Laotai walked around the patch where she had planted cabbage seeds ten days ago. Seeing that there was only grass and no cabbage sprouts, she sighed: "I wonder if the seeds I planted last time will survive. Find a place to put Zhenzhen down. Let's pull out the grass."

Wang Sufen found a soft patch of grass to place Zhenzhen on. Zhenzhen sat down and patted the grass with both hands. Suddenly, a strange sensation filled her heart. She touched the damp earth, and she could feel the presence of every tree, every blade of grass, the birds, and insects hiding in the forest. She could even sense their thoughts.

Zhenzhen was shocked by this strange feeling. She closed her eyes and felt the breeze in the forest, trying to experience this mysterious sensation. Her perception extended along the moist earth, passing through the grass and reaching the patch where the cabbage seeds had been sown…

"I want sunlight..."

"It feels cold and damp..."

"I'm so close to breaking through the soil..."

Zhenzhen poured all her attention into the land, as if she could feel the coldness. She couldn't help but imagine the warmth of the sun. As her thoughts shifted, rays of sunlight broke through the thick treetops, shining down on every plant in the area.

The warm sunlight bathed her, and Zhenzhen's face, which had been tightly closed, broke into a happy smile. She seemed to see tender little sprouts emerging from the seeds, breaking through the soil, and quickly growing under the sunlight and the nourishment of the earth.

Li Laotai and Wang Sufen were pulling weeds when suddenly a bright beam of light rose from beside them. They turned to look and were stunned to see that Zhenzhen was surrounded by a golden light.

"Zhenzhen..." Wang Sufen thought something dangerous had happened, and instinctively ran over. But after only two steps, Li Laotai grabbed her arm. At that moment, cabbage sprouts broke through the soil, growing quickly as if they were being blown by the wind, maturing almost instantly.

Looking at the field full of cabbage, even Li Laotai, who had been calm, was stunned. Her eyes fixed on the ground, her mind blank.

Sensing the satisfaction of the cabbages, Zhenzhen smiled with joy. Her thoughts extended beyond the cabbage field, reaching the corn, sorghum, and sweet potato fields...

Wang Sufen was dumbfounded as she watched the corn stalks that had been wilting suddenly shoot up, with corn ears forming and growing heavy on the stalks. Next, the sorghum, soybeans, sweet potatoes, and potatoes also matured rapidly. In just a moment, the flat area of the mountain transformed into a flourishing scene of harvest.

The crops had matured, and Zhenzhen felt their joy, her smile deepening. When the sunlight faded, Zhenzhen slowly opened her eyes.

She thought she had just had a dream, but when she opened her eyes, she was shocked by the sight in front of her: heavy ears of sorghum, large corn, and fresh, shiny cabbages… Zhenzhen blinked and looked up at the sky: was this still a dream?

Seeing Zhenzhen curiously glancing around, Wang Sufen finally came to her senses, stumbling over the cabbages to run to her. She picked up Zhenzhen, checked her from head to toe, and, finding nothing unusual, let out a sigh of relief.

In Wang Sufen's arms, Zhenzhen couldn't help but look back at the fields of ripened crops. The shock in her heart was no less than that of Li Laotai and Wang Sufen. Hadn't she just taken a nap and had a dream? How had it turned into autumn?

"Mom, Mom..." Wang Sufen, though recovering, was still shaken and stuttered: "W-what... what happened...?"

Li Laotai instinctively reached for her tobacco pouch, clumsily took out some tobacco leaves, stuffed them in, and lit it. After taking a few deep puffs, she calmed down. Blowing out a puff of smoke, Li Laotai looked at Zhenzhen and quietly said, "This child may not be ordinary."

Wang Sufen, hearing this, was almost in tears: "How can she not be ordinary? She's the child I carried for ten months, just a regular child, no different from Mingnan and Mingbei."

"I mean, this child might be a reincarnation of a deity. Don't you remember the legends about gods visiting us?" Li Laotai took a puff of smoke and, seeing Wang Sufen's puzzled look, couldn't help but explain more: "Think about it. When you gave birth to Mingbei, you had no milk, and your body wasn't in good shape. But after Zhenzhen was born, your health improved, and you even had more milk than when you gave birth to Dongzi. And look at Mingnan and Mingbei, the fish they've caught these past few months are more than they caught in the previous years. I reckon it's a gift from heaven for Zhenzhen."

Hearing Li Laotai's words, Zhenzhen finally realized that everything that had happened before was real. She couldn't help but close her eyes again. Sure enough, everything around her appeared clearly in her mind again: the wild rabbit hiding behind a tree, the wild chicken perched on a branch, the ganoderma on the tree trunk, and the ginseng buried underground—everything was crystal clear. She tried calling the wild rabbit in her mind, and sure enough, it looked around confusedly, then quickly ran toward her.

Zhenzhen opened her eyes, and the large gray rabbit hopped into view, but it was quite agile. It stopped about ten meters away, nibbling on some grass while keeping a wary eye on her, as if it would flee at the slightest movement.

Zhenzhen thought her family hadn't eaten well for a long time. If she could catch this rabbit, they could have a good meal. Just as she was pondering, long vines suddenly appeared from nowhere and quickly tied up the rabbit tightly.

Zhenzhen was startled and couldn't help but swallow nervously. But seeing the rabbit struggle fiercely, she was afraid it would escape, so she pointed at it and kept calling out "Ah! Ah!"

Li Laotai, following Zhenzhen's finger, turned around and was shocked to see a seven or eight jin (14-16 lbs) fat rabbit lying in the grass. Immediately, she dashed over and picked it up by the ears.

"See? I told you, our Zhenzhen must have some special origins." Li Laotai tied up the rabbit with vines, threw it into a backpack, and asked Wang Sufen, "Did you have any strange dreams when you were pregnant with Zhenzhen? Something about gods or anything?"

Wang Sufen looked a bit strange: "Once I dreamed that there was an ancient goddess called the Mother of Earth. She didn't know how she got injured, but left behind a drop of golden blood and a soul. In the dream, another god told her that if this blood found its soul, it could awaken the Mother of Earth. Unfortunately, I woke up when the blood found the soul. I never knew what happened to the Mother of Earth."

Li Laotai listened with great interest. After Wang Sufen finished, she couldn't help but click her tongue: "Interesting, but a bit far-fetched." She glanced at Wang Sufen and joked, "Forget about ancient gods. Can't you think of anything from the past few hundred years?"

Wang Sufen thought for a long time but couldn't remember anything, so she helplessly shook her head.

Seeing that Wang Sufen couldn't come up with anything, Li Laotai no longer pressed the issue. At that moment, she looked at the harvest and began to worry: "This is too strange. We can't let anyone else know. When we get home, I'll quietly tell Zhenzhen's father. The three of us need to think of a way to secretly harvest these crops."

The two women whispered to each other, and Zhenzhen couldn't help but touch her forehead, lost in deep thought: "Could it be that the golden bead that sent me back to the 1960s was the blood of the Mother of Earth? If that's the case, my time travel wasn't because of bad luck but actually a big stroke of luck? This sounds so fantastical!"

Author's Note: This is a fantasy novel, haha. Did you get scared by these muscular golden arms?

The female lead's first miraculous talent has emerged.

Glossary:

"Bao mi" is corn.

"Bird qiao" means quietly.