Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Shepherd's Purse _1
"What on earth are you doing!" A roar of anger echoed from a distance.
The owner of the rice field was angrily rushing towards them.
"Run!" Dani quickly picked up her shoes and grabbed Yingbao's hand to make a quick dash.
Yuanbao followed suit, within seconds all three children had run far away.
"If I see you guys again, I'll break your dog-legs! You little troublemakers!"
The field owner didn't really chase them, he just needed to shoo these naughty kids away.
There's no day when those mischievous kids don't pull a stunt or two. Can he possibly scold them every single time?
Besides, all these kids are part of the same village, every household has a few rascals of their own.
Together with her cousins, Yingbao ran all the way home and even scored a small handful of water chestnuts.
She was delighted, secretly stashing away a few as seeds in her secret space, and gave the rest to her mother.
Reluctantly accepting, the mother scolded, "Why did you go to the rice field? What if you trod on and damaged someone's rice seedlings?"
Yingbao confidently said, "I didn't break anything."
Sighing, her mother took the water chestnuts to wash them. She culled the rotten and shriveled ones, leaving only about a dozen fresh ones to eat.
By now, Dani and Yuanbao had already gone home with their spoils. Yingbao divided the dozen of small water chestnuts into three parts — one for her father, one for her mother, and one for herself.
Her mother couldn't possibly accept her daughter's small treat and made an excuse that she didn't like it, asking her daughter to keep it for herself.
Yingbao didn't insist, she ate one and then took the rest into her room, placing them on her kang bed-stove.
Kicking off her shoes, she climbed onto the bed and closed her eyes, her consciousness entering into her secret space.
There she saw a pile of dirt next to the pool, crawling with earthworms, all heading toward the pool. It was quite a frightful sight.
What's going on?
What are these earthworms in the dirt pile doing going towards the pool? If they pollute the water it will be a disaster.
Yingbao quickly picked up a couple of sticks to catch the earthworms, ensnaring all of them into a mostly broken pottery jar.
She had found this jar outside, despite being damaged, it was still usable, so she had brought it into her secret space.
She had originally planned to use it to scoop water, now it came in great use to hold the earthworms.
Having gathered up all the earthworms, Yingbao packed a bit more dirt into the jar to prevent them from escaping.
After some thought, she pulled out an earthworm, scratched off a bit of the Five Cauldron Fungus from the stone wall, crushed it and smeared it onto the earthworm.
For a long time, the earthworm showed no reaction, nor did it struggle.
It seems the fungus is not poisonous, but she's not sure if it's edible for humans.
Maybe she'll bring some out to test on the hen next day.
A while ago, she only gave the hen some of the pool water to drink, but hadn't fed them the Five Cauldron Fungus. Instead she gave them some herbs that grew in her secret space.
The herb seeds she had taken from outside and sprinkled some onto the dark soil in her space. Surprisingly, in a few days, a large patch of herbs had sprouted, green and fresh, each plant larger than her own head.
The fast-growing herbs almost filled up the dark soil next to the pool. So she had to dig some out quietly to feed the chickens.
From the laying frequency of the hen recently, it seems that crops produced from the dark soil are quite good.
Therefore, she enjoyed sneaking out alone, to come back with half a basket of herbs to give to her mother.
Her mother initially found it strange, wondering how her daughter could always find such fresh and plump wild herbs.
After all, it's summer now, most herbs are flowering, their stems and leaves are too old and tough to eat.
Yet her daughter managed to bring back a half-basket of tender herbs each time, which was indeed impressive.
Luckily, her mother didn't think too much about it, unaware of the existence of such secret space cheat. She just thought her daughter was smarter and luckier than the other children.
Inspired by the herbs, Yingbao set her sights on the bare rock space next to the pool.
She planned to cover it with dirt and plant various vegetables.
Although perennial fruit trees couldn't grow much, these annual or biannual leafy vegetables could grow normally, and quite fast at that.
After the vegetables grow, what the humans don't eat can be given to chickens, sheep, and pigs.
She plans to have the hen incubate some chicks next spring, and feed them with the produce from her secret space.
This way, when her little brother grows up, there will be plenty of eggs to eat, and if there are extras, they can be sold for money or bartered in the market.
That's why she has been collecting a variety of things lately.
She did not reject any seeds like shepherd's purse, shepherd's cress, dandelion seeds, mustard seeds, and so on. She collected a little bit of all of them and placed them on a broken pottery shard that she had picked up earlier.
Unfortunately, the variety of vegetables in the small mountain village was pitifully scarce. Apart from amaranth, greens, winter melon and turnips, there were no other vegetables in the villagers' fields.
This was unlike Prefecture City, where the rich families' dinner tables had an extraordinary variety of vegetables and some aristocratic families even had species from foreign lands in their farms.
These foreign crops were rare and precious, utterly unreachable for ordinary people. All Yingbao could do was to yearn for them in her heart.
After squatting down and digging up a few shepherd's purse plants, enough for tomorrow's lunch, Yingbao stopped.
She then scattered the recently harvested little water chestnuts on a pile of black soil and watered it heavily.
Only then did she feel a little tired. Yingbao quickly left the cave dwelling and plunged into sleep.
When she woke up, her father had already returned home, and her mother had just finished making dinner, ready to call her.
"Baobao, come and eat."
Yingbao rolled over, sat up, rubbed her eyes, and slid off the kangs, or platform beds.
She put on her shoes by herself, reached out for her mother's hand, and walked out of the room with her.
By now, the sun was setting in the west. There was a mild breeze outside, and it was much cooler than inside the house.
The table was set up in the center of the courtyard and had a big pot of amaranth corn porridge, a stack of black bread and pickled turnip shreds.
Jiang Sanlang, after washing his face and hands, hung his sweat towel on the drying line and sat down at the table.
The family of three gathered around and started eating.
"Sanlang, are you going to weed the field tomorrow?" Spring Lady asked.
Jiang Sanlang shook his head, "Our bean field is already weeded. The eldest brother has two paddies left, but he said he doesn't need my help."
The three brothers of the Jiang family had divided their fields but not their households. Each was farming his own land separately, but since their parents were still around, the elder's field and allocated fields were under the eldest brother's name. So, whenever things got busy around the farms, the brothers would help out.
Jiang Sanlang picked up a clay bowl bigger than his head and drank his veggie porridge, scooping huge mouthfuls, then slowly chewing on a few strands of pickles. "Tomorrow, I'm going to North Mountain. I guess it's time to harvest the ramie."
Ramie could be harvested thrice a year, and the end of July was just the right time for the second harvest. It shouldn't be postponed.
"You planted lots of ramie in North Mountain. Can you handle it by yourself? Why not ask your two elder brothers for help?" Spring Lady worried that her husband was working too hard, and she couldn't provide any help, which made her uneasy.
Jiang Sanlang shook his head, "No need to ask them, I can handle it. It will be done in just a few days."
Yingbao blinked at her father, then suddenly said, "Dad, I want to go too."
North Mountain had many wild fruit trees. Even if those trees did not yield good fruit, she had her black soil. She could cultivate them first, then transfer them out for a try.
Jiang Sanlang reached out to pinch her small nose and chuckled, "What are you going there for? Dad will be busy with his work and can't take care of you."
Yingbao wrinkled her nose and murmured, "Baobao wants to go. Baobao doesn't need daddy."
"Oh! You've got guts." Her father fondly rubbed her small head. "Be good and listen. Dad will bring you wild apricots when I come back."
After dinner, they washed the bowls and chopsticks. Jiang Sanlang then boiled some water for the family to wash up. By the time they finished their chores, it was already dark outside.
Jiang Sanlang grabbed a papyrus fan and shooed away the mosquitoes in the mosquito net. After dropping the net door, the three of them climbed onto the kangs to rest.
Yingbao slept on the innermost side, cuddled against her mother. She feigned sleep with her eyes shut, but her ears were erect, listening to her parents whisper to each other.
Helpless, she had slept too much in the afternoon, and was too excited to fall asleep now.
"Has Baobao fallen asleep?" Dad Jiang asked.
Yingbao didn't make a sound, pretending to be asleep.
She knew, whenever her father asked this question, it meant he wanted to talk about something with her mother that he didn't want her to hear.
In the darkness, her mother reached out and touched her eyes.
"She's asleep," said Spring Lady. "I guess she's tired today. She picked water chestnuts in the paddy fields with Dani at noon, and said she was saving them for you. After eating dinner, she was fussing over her two apple seedlings, watering and enriching the soil. To prevent chickens from pecking the seedlings, she even looked for a basket to cover them."
Jiang Sanlang chuckled lightly, asking, "Where did she get the apple seedlings from?"
"They're from the apple you brought back last time. Baobao kept the seeds. And guess what, she actually managed to germinate two seedlings."
Spring Lady sighed, "You see, she's so young, but she's already adept in saving seeds for planting and has even succeeded in growing them."
Jiang Sanlang was silent for a while before he said, "Spring Lady, don't mention these things to others in the future."
Upon catching the seriousness in her husband's voice, Spring Lady hurriedly asked, "What's wrong? Did someone say something?"
"Yeah," Jiang Sanlang said, "I ran into Second Aunt Wang today. She said that people in the village were saying that Yingbao is a god-given child. I worry that someone might harbor ill intentions."
Could such a small child carry the weight of these titles? If the rumors got out of hand, given their humble status, they wouldn't be able to protect their daughter.
Spring Lady fell silent too.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone