Chapter 17: Do You Believe It?
Today is the middle of the dog days.
It is auspicious for planting, livestock, adopting children, and receiving gifts; avoid repairing graves.
Mother has gone into the mountains.
Jiang Yu carried her younger sister on her back, holding a small golden bucket in her hand—that is to say, a chamber pot.
Its shape looked a bit like a wooden flower basket; the bottom was a round wooden basin, and a vine handle was made on top of the basin, like an arched bridge.
Taking advantage of the fact that the sun wasn’t too strong yet, she wanted to water the newly planted trees.
She couldn’t water them directly; watering them directly would burn the trees to death.
She had to add water, about a one-to-nine ratio would be best.
Jiang Mianmian covered her eyes; this little golden bucket was for her exclusive use.
At the same time, she was a little curious—would this, this pee of hers, after being diluted, added with water, and used to water the trees, have any special effects…
If it did…
Tsk tsk.
After watering the trees, her older sister carried her back to the room.
Her older sister continued with her needlework.
Because the sun was a bit strong, she sat under the eaves.
Jiang Mianmian was put back into the wooden basin, forced to cultivate a relationship with her pet little ant.
Other transmigrators wielded spiritual springs to dominate the world, while she held a spiritual spring but couldn’t even defeat a single ant.
Cowardly, too cowardly.
As Jiang Mianmian lay down, she saw that excellent black ant at the edge of the wooden basin, its familiar old spot. The spot was even slightly concave, and she didn’t know if it had dug it out, but it fit its body perfectly.
Jiang Mianmian silently reached out, made a fist, reached out, made a fist. The difference between a human and an animal was that humans could use tools. If she could grab a stick, she would dare to poke the ant around.
Jiang Mianmian practiced gripping while watching the ant; if it dared to approach, she would immediately… burst into tears.
Seeing that the ant had no movement for a long time and was nestling obediently, she shifted her attention back to her older sister.
Her older sister’s needlework was the very ordinary kind, not embroidery, without any flashy threads.
It was likely making shoe soles; poor families went through shoes quickly.
Stitch by stitch, circle by circle, threading the needle through layers upon layers, making the shoe sole sturdy yet soft, so one could walk further, reach further places, and also be able to walk back home from very far away.
As long as one didn’t look directly at the needle tip, it was quite stress-relieving.
Swish, swish, swish—a circle was done, much faster than the cross-stitch or whatever she had seen before.
With this hand speed, her older sister must be quite adept at sewing.
Crisp and decisive, yet steady; the gaps between the stitches were even, the turns were very natural, and the knots were quite good too.
After watching for a while, Jiang Mianmian felt hungry.
Mother was away, so she should be eating rice paste.
But she remembered seeing only a small handful of rice paste that day, and she had been eating it for a few days now; it should be running out.
Sure enough, she let out a few “yi-ya-ya” cries, and saw her older sister put down her needlework, first check her bottom to find she hadn’t wet herself, and then carry her on her back to get the fine grain powder from the pottery jar in the room.
It seemed she hadn’t washed her hands during this process??
Her older sister picked up the pottery jar and shook it; it was light, with only a tiny bit left.
Jiang Yu poured the pottery jar vigorously, patting it with a “bang, bang, bang” sound until not a single speck of powder came out.
Jiang Mianmian was worried her older sister would break the pottery jar.
After pouring for a long time, there was only a small half-bowl of fine grain powder.
She watched her older sister carefully add water and stir, not letting a single speck of powder fly out.
It was probably the last bit in the jar, and it had rained for the past two days, so it didn’t smell fragrant at all and had a strange odor.
Jiang Mianmian ate two bites and didn’t want to eat anymore.
Then, just like last time, her older sister took advantage of her lack of attention, pinched her mouth open, and fed her a spoonful.
A person cannot stumble in the same place three times.
Jiang Mianmian prepared to resist; this time she was ready and would definitely not open her mouth.
Her mouth was pinched open again, and another spoonful was poured in.
She… felt so aggrieved; she felt that even interrogation and torture weren’t as miserable as her experience.
She didn’t even dare to open her mouth to cry, worried that if she did, her older sister would pour the rest into her mouth.
She pressed her lips together, tears streaming down.
Jiang Yu looked puzzled; fine grains were so delicious and fragrant, why didn’t her younger sister like to eat them? She dreamed of eating them herself.
Because her younger sister was resisting resolutely, she couldn’t use any finesse and dared not pinch her chin again, worried about hurting her.
She felt her younger sister’s skull was a bit hard…
Jiang Yu then switched to verbal persuasion: “Let’s finish these last two bites, be good. Look, before you ate fine grains, you were dark and thin, just like a cicada nymph on a tree…”
Hearing her older sister’s words, Jiang Mianmian looked horrified. What the hell was a cicada nymph? Just how hideous was she exactly?
“Look, after eating fine grains, you’ve suddenly become fair and tender; fine grains are nourishing. Just think of that someone yesterday, that Jiang Wan, although she puts on airs, she grew up eating fine grains, pretty right? Our younger sister will also eat fine grains and grow up to be just as pretty—no, even prettier.”
The more Jiang Mianmian listened, the more tears she shed.
It wasn’t just because the rice paste didn’t taste good; she also felt inexplicably sad.
She really couldn’t help it and opened her mouth to cry.
Then, her older sister fed the very last bit of rice paste into her mouth.
Even more miserable was that because there was so little rice paste today, her older sister couldn’t bear to drink the water used to rinse the bowl and brought it for her to drink instead.
Jiang Mianmian drank the water, large drops of tears falling into the bowl.
After drinking half, she let out a big burp.
It wasn’t because she was full; it was probably because she was both angry and anxious.
Seeing that her younger sister was burping, Jiang Yu didn’t feed her any more water; Mother said that burping meant she was full.
She then decided to drink the remaining half-bowl of rice-paste-rinsing water herself.
Because the weather was hot, it wouldn’t keep.
The dietary upbringing of the Jiang Family was not to waste food; one should eat what one could.
Only after the first sip, Jiang Yu’s eyes widened.
She felt it was so fragrant and delicious.
“Hiss,” Jiang Yu gasped, the same way she did when she peeled the dead skin off her feet.
Could it be because she hadn’t scraped the bowl clean just now? But this water was already quite clear.
Jiang Yu drank the water in the bowl in one go and poured another bowl to drink.
After one sip, it didn’t have much taste.
Jiang Yu suddenly brought the bowl to her younger sister’s lips and coaxed: “Xiangxiang, take a sip, just one sip, it’s especially fragrant.”
Jiang Mianmian wanted to roll her eyes on the spot.
One shouldn’t underestimate the wisdom of the ancients; even her big-hearted older sister wanted to trick her.
Jiang Mianmian cooperatively took a sip and then closed her mouth.
Jiang Yu devoutly held the bowl and then took a sip of the water in the bowl.
She took a sip and smacked her lips; it seemed there was no taste left.
Sure enough… it was just water, without any fragrance.
She had just thought she had discovered something magical, that the bowl her younger sister had touched would taste better.
Jiang Mianmian felt her older sister was too idle.
So she peed.
After peeing, she looked triumphant; she was only a month or so old and already had such strong control—her future was boundless, her future was promising; she could pee whenever she wanted…
Then she let out two cries, sucked on her own finger, and watched her older sister change her diaper with a silly, sweet expression.
After Jiang Yu finished changing her younger sister’s diaper and saw her cutely sucking on her finger, she couldn’t help but lean over and kiss her on the cheek.
It caught Jiang Mianmian off guard, and her little face turned red.
This older sister was actually quite nice.
In the mountains.
Qin Luoxia walked along, tapping and hitting with a long stick.
Whenever she saw suitable wild vegetables, she put them into her basket.
She met another villager and exchanged greetings.
Gradually, she walked deeper and deeper.
The grass on the road became increasingly dense.
Only then did Qin Luoxia take out the spearhead from the bottom of her basket and assemble it.
The spear was sharp, hollow in the middle, and had a blood groove; it was about the length of her forearm. It didn’t look like a spear from a hunting family, but rather a standard military issue. Looking closely, there was an inscription inside.
When she got her hands on the assembled spear, Qin Luoxia seemed to transform from a Mother who had just given birth into a fierce soldier in the army, exuding a powerful aura.
Although she clearly had a round, bodhisattva-like face, at this moment, she was full of murderous aura, just like a ferocious beast.
Her speed also increased, and soon she disappeared into the dense forest.
Only occasionally did birds fly up in alarm in the forest, indicating that something was passing by below.
Evening.
Birds flew up in alarm one after another again.
Qin Luoxia appeared, carrying a black, long-haired wild boar on her shoulder.
The spear had drawn blood, and the web of her hand was a bit sore.
She kept a straight face, looking exceptionally serious.
In reality, she was also a bit bewildered.
She remembered that when her Mother was alive, she always mentioned her biological father, saying that her biological father was an unrivaled hero, charging into battle and sweeping across armies. She said she was guilty of not leaving him a son, otherwise, he would definitely have been able to inherit his abilities.
Could it be that after giving birth to her third child, she had suddenly inherited her biological father’s invincibility and bravery?
She had originally just wanted to go into the dense forest to hunt some pheasants or something; she had never expected to encounter a wild boar.
She was so scared that she held up the spear and poked it around randomly.
Even more unexpectedly, the wild boar was poked to death by her.
She kept a straight face, feeling extremely worried—how was she supposed to explain this to her husband when she got back?
Last time, she said the little black bear had run into her on its own, and her husband hadn’t really believed it…
If she said this wild boar had run into her on its own, would her husband believe it?
