Chapter 8: Bringing Peaches Back to the Ancient Times
Unlike the lush, green mountain forests on the master sister’s side, Taoya’s homeland had no waist-high wild grass. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but barren, yellow earth.
If even a shred of green appeared, it would immediately be dug up by someone.
Taoya gathered the “wild vegetables” on top of the peaches together. Still feeling they weren’t hidden well enough, she simply took off her outer tunic, which had been patched countless times, and carefully draped it over them.
Even so, she didn’t dare linger outside. Even with the cover, if anyone saw a half-grown girl carrying a bamboo basket, they wouldn’t just look past her out of the goodness of their hearts.
Taoya didn’t dare dwell on the aching pain in her arms. Holding the bamboo basket tight, she didn’t dare slow her pace for a single step as she dashed straight home.
Along the way, people glanced at her from time to time. Two idle loafers, who were looking for odd jobs and begging for food by the roadside, saw her and actually stood up. Terrified, Taoya immediately called out loudly to a man walking ahead.
“Father! Did you come to find me? Quick, come help me carry this.”
The man ahead turned his head. Taoya quickened her steps to catch up, walking alongside him and talking to him as they went. Seeing this, the two loafers sat back down listlessly.
The middle-aged man was utterly perplexed. “I’m not your father. You’ve recognized the wrong person.”
Without batting an eye, Taoya said, “Oh, I wasn’t calling you. My father is the one further ahead.”
With that, before the man could react, she hurriedly rushed forward to trail behind someone else. Continuing along the base of the walls, she used her own body to shield the peaches until she successfully reached home.
Once inside the courtyard, she heard her younger brother and sister ask, “Is that Elder Sister back?” Yet she still didn’t dare answer.
When her younger sister came to unbolt the door, Taoya slipped inside, immediately set down the peach basket, and relocked the door.
“Elder Sister, what did you bring back?”
Standing beside her, her sister had already caught the fragrance of the peaches, but she still couldn’t believe it. She assumed she was so hungry she was dreaming in broad daylight.
Her younger brother ran out too. Seeing the peach basket, he didn’t dare stretch out his hand, terrified that the anticipation swelling in his chest would shatter into nothingness the moment the cover cloth was lifted.
Having been keyed up the whole way, only now did Taoya dare to let her guard down. She carried the bamboo basket into the room. “How is Mother?”
Her sister shook her head. “She’s still burning with fever. I’ve changed her cloth more than ten times this morning, and she just spoke a few words of delirium.”
Xingya was deeply frightened in her heart—afraid that her mother wouldn’t wake up, and afraid that her sister wouldn’t return. At a time like this, when a half-grown girl went out, she was essentially surrounded by a pack of wolves; getting abducted, robbed, or eaten were all real possibilities.
Five-year-old Shu-ger was a bit more carefree. He reached out to help support the bamboo basket, secretly sticking out a finger through a gap in the tattered cloth to poke at an opening in the weave.
The bamboo basket was set on the floor. Shu-ger withdrew his hand, looked at it, then put it into his mouth to taste it.
It was sweet.
Shu-ger’s eyes instantly went wide.
Taoya didn’t have time to explain the peaches just yet. She threw herself beside Lin Sanniang’s pallet, reaching out to test her forehead.
It was scorching to the touch.
Lin Sanniang’s eyes were half-open, yet she seemed unable to see anyone, frowning in sheer agony.
Xingya’s nose tingled with sorrow. “She’s even worse than yesterday. I went to beg the physician, but he said no credit.”
She didn’t dare tell Taoya that she had even gone to inquire with a human trafficker about becoming a servant girl, but people didn’t want someone like her. From nine years old until she grew into adulthood, there were still several years left; no household had spare grain to raise a half-grown child like that. Xingya felt a sense of bitter reluctance, but she also let out a sigh of relief—at least she wouldn’t have to leave home.
But her mother’s condition was growing more severe by the hour. Without her mother, she would be a child without a home all the same.
As they spoke, Lin Sanniang summoned a breath of strength to open her eyes. Seeing it was Taoya in front of her, her skeletal hand gripped the girl.
“Taoya, when Mother passes, take good care of your brother and sister… If, if… cough, cough—”
But looking at Taoya, who was only twelve or thirteen herself, Lin Sanniang’s words caught on the tip of her tongue; she couldn’t voice any further instructions no matter what. In a world like this, even adults found it hard to survive, let alone a group of children.
Lin Sanniang weakly dropped her arm, closed her eyes, and a single tear rolled down her face.
Taoya didn’t have time to answer Lin Sanniang’s final words. She extended her right hand to unroll her left sleeve.
“Mother, don’t worry, I brought medicine back!”
Xingya and Shu-ger hurriedly looked over. “Elder Sister, there’s medicine?”
But their sister’s sleeve looked completely flat, unable to hide even a single copper coin. How could there be medicine? She couldn’t just conjure it out of thin air.
Yet in the next instant, Taoya actually shook a pile of brown powder out from her sleeve.
“What is this?”
Looking at the brown medicinal powder in the clay bowl, Xingya did indeed smell a faint, herbal fragrance, but she had never seen medicine like this before.
Taoya gathered the small granules together, and seeing that the amount looked about right, she felt relieved. Before she entered the cave, the Mountain Goddess had told her that the shiny, slippery wrapper on the outside of the powder couldn’t be taken across, so she had hastily torn it open and rolled the medicine into her sleeve.
Taoya divided the powder into three piles and carefully poured one pile out. Xingya fetched hot water and, following the instructions, poured it in to dissolve the medicine.
Taoya helped Lin Sanniang up. “Mother, this is medicine given by the Mountain Goddess and the Master Sister. You’ll get better once you drink it.”
How could Lin Sanniang possibly believe that? She wanted to press Taoya on what kind of master this was, but she was so terribly ill that the moment she opened her mouth, the wind caught her throat and set her coughing.
Smelling the herbal fragrance in the bowl, which carried a subtle, fleeting hint of sweetness, her desire for survival ultimately won out. Leaning against Xingya’s hand, Lin Sanniang drank it down, mouthful by mouthful.
This medicine wasn’t bitter like the decoctions brewed from herbs; it was actually quite sweet. Lin Sanniang’s bodily instincts drove her to swallow it down in large gulps.
Smelling the scent of the granules, Xingya and Shu-ger couldn’t help but swallow hard, their throats moving in sync as they gulped down the air, even though they knew it was medicine.
And it was truly miraculous.
When Lin Sanniang had first sat up, her vision was swimming with blackness, and she had been so devoid of strength that she kept sliding downward. But once this sweet, syrup-like medicine entered her stomach—whether it was the effect of the hot water, the medicine, or the sugar taking hold—Lin Sanniang actually felt a sudden surge of strength return to her body.
She leaned against the bedside, recovered her wits for a brief moment, and asked Taoya, “Taoya, whose household did you go to help? What kind of chores did the master have you do that they were willing to give you medicine?”
This wasn’t something copper coins or wild vegetables could compare to. Lin Sanniang was worried to her core, but she didn’t dare voice the dark suspicions in her heart, terrified of hurting Taoya’s feelings.
Yet Taoya’s face bore none of the misery or pain of being mistreated; on the contrary, she looked exceptionally excited.
“It’s a farm in the mountains! The manor owner is a sister with an immensely kind heart!”
Jian Xingxia had forbidden Taoya from calling her “Fairy Sister,” as it was simply too embarrassing. But Taoya refused to disrupt the proper boundaries of status by calling her “Sister” or “Sister Xiaxia.” After the two brainstormed together, Jian Xingxia ultimately had Taoya call her “Manor Owner Sister.” However, if anyone else was present, she had to call her “Sister Xiaxia.” Otherwise, if they actually ran into anyone else, the embarrassment of shouting “Manor Owner Sister” wouldn’t be much less than “Fairy Sister.”
Taoya said, “That day I fainted from hunger near the Goddess Temple. When I was half-awake, I heard the Mountain Goddess speaking to me, telling me to go into the mountains to find work.”
Xingya’s eyes went wide. “There’s really a farm beyond that cave?”
“More than just a farm!” Taoya couldn’t help but marvel. “How is that a farm? It’s practically a grand manor! The manor’s house is tall and massive, and the courtyard walls are made entirely of iron!”
Heaven knew how expensive ironware was! If a normal household could own one or two pieces of ironware—an iron pot, a sickle, or a hoe—it meant their family estate was still intact. The only iron pot in Taoya’s house had long been pawned; they now used clay pots to boil water and wild vegetables.
Because her description sounded so far-fetched, neither Xingya nor Shu-ger would believe it.
Shu-ger said, “I’ve never seen anyone use iron to make courtyard walls. Even the imperial palace wouldn’t have that.”
Xingya rolled her eyes at him. “Are you stupid? The imperial palace is huge! How much iron would that take? A farm isn’t that big. However—” She turned to Taoya. “I don’t believe it either, hehe.”
Watching her children bicker, Lin Sanniang felt that their childish, innocent words had chased away the stale, lingering gloom that had long hung over the house. Her nose seemed to catch the sweet fragrance of summer peaches.
Shu-ger could no longer hold back. Sucking on his finger, he asked Taoya timidly. The family was poor and often did laundry chores for others; though his mouth watered from the fragrance, Shu-ger understood proper manners and didn’t touch things recklessly.
“Sister, what’s inside the bamboo basket? It smells so good, like fruit.”
Taoya gave a sudden start and jumped up from the bedside. “Oh dear, I forgot!”
As she spoke, she checked the doors and windows. Even though the courtyard gate was already locked, she still carefully closed the doors and windows tight, leaving only a tiny sliver of a gap to let in a bit of light.
She lifted the tattered cloth on the bamboo basket, revealing a basket filled to the brim with cut peach chunks.
Having been carried all the way home, the cut peach flesh had already turned yellow, and the edges of the cuts were slightly wilted. The juice secreted by the fruit had condensed, looking exactly like sugar syrup.
“It’s peaches!” Xingya leaped three feet in the air.
Last summer, there had first been severe flooding that drowned more than half the crops. When autumn finally arrived, the weather turned unnaturally hot and dry. The ground was filled with massive cracks, and the harvest was less than thirty percent of previous years. On top of that, the imperial court had collected next year’s flood prevention tax ahead of schedule.
Lin Sanniang lived in the suburbs with her three children, painstakingly guarding the two mu of poor land left behind by her deceased husband. When they calculated their accounts in the autumn, not only had they reaped absolutely nothing, but they also owed the court’s flood prevention tax and the grain seed money borrowed from her husband’s elder brother. The family of four couldn’t get by, so they pawned everything that could be pawned, barely scraping through the winter.
As a result, by March and April, right during the lean spring season before the next harvest, Lin Sanniang fell ill as well.
The thick fragrance of peaches filling the room set Lin Sanniang coughing continuously. “Cough, cough… Taoya, where did these peaches come from?”
“The Master Sister gave them to me! The peach trees at her place produce so much fruit they can’t finish them all; they fell to the ground in heaps and were completely rotten!”
Taoya brought the peaches over for Lin Sanniang and Xingya to see.
“They’re rotten peaches. I helped the master gather them up. The master only wanted the good peaches, so she let me bring back the rotten ones.”
Xingya poked at the fruit flesh. “They really are rotten, there are even wormholes here.” Those wormholes were deep, and Taoya had been loath to slice away all the flesh.
Shu-ger focused on the critical point. “Elder Sister, then are these peaches ours now? Can we eat them?”
Taoya gave a proud nod, and Shu-ger’s mouth practically started watering.
Xingya and Shu-ger held the peaches and began to munch on them. Reluctant to wash away the syrupy juice on the cut edges of the flesh, they merely wiped them against their clothes before stuffing them into their mouths.
Lin Sanniang held a peach, her eyes filled with sorrow.
The children didn’t understand, but how could she not? In this season, where would one get peaches like these, and perfectly ripe and soft at that? She recalled a story she had heard in her childhood about someone who was starving to death and entered the mountains, only to find a table filled with fine food and drink. They ate a hearty meal and returned to call their family along, but when they got there, what fine food and drink was it? It was clearly nothing but insects and stones.
Lin Sanniang felt that Taoya had been bewitched by a spirit in the mountains.
Yet, watching her children, who hadn’t eaten a full meal in ages, cradling the peaches and eating them with such sweet relish, Lin Sanniang couldn’t bear to shatter the illusion.
Ah, whatever. Let them eat. At least they could have a full meal before they died.
Lin Sanniang also lowered her head and took a bite of the peach.
The peaches that had fallen to the ground were fully ripe, their flesh soft and smooth. Biting past the slightly wilted outer edge, the inside was as ripe as sweet syrup, melting the moment it hit the tongue.
This peach was actually more delicious than any peach she had ever tasted in her life.
Lin Sanniang felt more and more certain that this was the work of a spirit. She slowly ate her peach, entirely failing to notice that her high fever was gradually breaking…
