Chapter 1: Inheriting Grandma’s Little Farm
“Xiaxia, the three-wheeler can’t get through the road ahead. Take your things down; I’ll carry them over for you, lass.”
It had rained just yesterday, and the yellow-mud mountain path was rugged and uneven. After the three-wheeler nearly tipped over yet again, Uncle Lu, who was over sixty, looked thoroughly helpless and had no choice but to stop.
“No need, thank you, Uncle Lu! I can carry them over myself.”
Jian Xingxia, carrying a large backpack, climbed out of the back of the three-wheeler and hauled down her suitcase.
“Uncle Lu, you’ve already helped me so much. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have been able to get into the mountains at all.”
Jian Xingxia had just graduated from university and hadn’t found a job yet. Just as she was worrying about being kicked out of the dorms with no home to return to, a letter had arrived at her school.
It was from the grandmother she hadn’t seen in over a decade.
When she was a child, her parents were going through a divorce, and she had lived at her grandmother’s house for a while. However, after the divorce was finalized, she was granted to her father’s custody. She had followed her father through various cities, gradually losing touch with her mother’s side of the family.
The last phone call was during her sixth year of primary school. Her mother had said she might be going on a very long business trip and told Jian Xingxia to take care of herself, but after that, her mother never called again.
After entering middle school, her father remarried and had a younger brother and sister in quick succession. The financial pressure had increased dramatically.
Her stepmother wasn’t a bad person, but naturally, she took better care of her own biological children.
Returning home during winter break of her sophomore year, Jian Xingxia discovered that there was no longer any room for her in their small two-bedroom apartment.
Her stepmother had asked her to share a room with her younger sister, while her younger brother slept in the living room temporarily. But over the course of that one winter, her brother caught colds twice and nearly developed pneumonia.
From then on, she stayed at school during every winter and summer break, finding part-time jobs to earn living expenses.
Before graduating senior year, Jian Xingxia called her father to say she had found a job, would report for duty after graduation, and wouldn’t be coming home.
On the other end of the line, her father and stepmother had offered many words of advice, but both were clearly relieved.
Just as Jian Xingxia was frantically searching for “youth hostels” and “cheap rentals,” a letter was delivered to her.
To be precise, it was a will.
Her grandmother had passed away a year ago, and only then did Jian Xingxia learn that her mother had gone missing back when she was in sixth grade.
Uncle Lu and the villagers had spent a year tracking her down, only to finally deliver her grandmother’s will and the keys to the old house to her.
The old house in the mountains wasn’t worth much.
But for Jian Xingxia, who had nowhere else to go, it was an island of safety.
Finally, ignoring the dorm warden’s troubled expression, she packed up everything she owned and left the school.
“Packed up” was an exaggeration; she didn’t have much.
One suitcase, one backpack, and one small handbag.
Jian Xingxia had traveled through green-skinned trains, switched to long-distance buses, then public buses, village minibuses, and finally arrived at Lu’an Village outside the mountains. From there, she had to switch to a human-powered three-wheeler, traversing a sheep-track path through the mountain crevices just to enter the mountain range.
Even then, there was still a several-hundred-meter stretch of mud road left.
The yellow-mud path was rugged and muddy, lined with overgrown weeds. Even the three-wheeler couldn’t pass; she had to rely on her own two feet.
Uncle Lu was getting old and was wary of the slippery mountain paths, but looking at the old house a few hundred meters away, he couldn’t put his mind at ease.
“Xiaxia, why don’t you stay outside the mountains for now? Wait until your father and the others arrive, then go back to the old house.”
Uncle Lu said, “The old house hasn’t been lived in for over a year. While bad people can’t get into the mountains, there are plenty of snakes, insects, rats, and ants. You’re a young girl—it’s not safe.”
Jian Xingxia politely declined Uncle Lu’s kind intention with a smile: “It’s alright, Uncle Lu. I majored in Agronomy in university; I often went to the countryside to farm, so I’m very familiar with these things. I’m not afraid of snakes, insects, rats, or ants.”
She had tricked Uncle Lu by saying her father and relatives would follow, which convinced him to bring her into the mountains first.
But she hadn’t called anyone, so naturally, no one was coming.
“Sigh, no, aside from that, there are also… wild beasts. You have to be careful.”
Uncle Lu hesitated, leaving his sentence unfinished.
There was something on his mind he wanted to warn Jian Xingxia about, but he was afraid that saying too much would only frighten her.
After hesitating for a long while, Uncle Lu found a bamboo pole and a sickle in his three-wheeler and told Jian Xingxia to keep them.
“When walking the mountain path, first beat the grass on both sides. Wait two minutes, let them leave, then you go.”
He spoke vaguely, and Jian Xingxia assumed he meant snakes and insects, so she wasn’t afraid.
“Alright, thank you, Uncle Lu. I’ll hold onto these for now and return them once I’ve cleaned up.”
Jian Xingxia knew Uncle Lu wouldn’t take money, so she could only offer her deepest thanks.
“Uncle Lu, I just got out of school and didn’t bring anything. In a couple of days, once I’ve settled in, I’ll come down the mountain to thank you personally.”
Uncle Lu immediately waved his hand to refuse. “Xiaxia, what are you saying? No need to thank me for such a small thing.”
Uncle Lu was only worried about Jian Xingxia’s safety. “Take good care of yourself. Once your father and the others arrive, if you’re afraid, come to the village and stay at Uncle’s house.”
Jian Xingxia said goodbye to Uncle Lu with a smile.
She carried her backpack, tucked the sickle into the handle of her suitcase, gripped the bamboo pole in one hand, and tapped against the weeds that had completely obscured the mountain path.
Uncle Lu watched Jian Xingxia walk a short distance, shook his head, and sighed: “Just like her grandmother—bold.”
Only then did he pedal his three-wheeler away, disappearing through the craggy mountain path toward the outside world.
…
On this side, Jian Xingxia held the bamboo pole, tapping and hitting, slowly feeling her way forward.
The mountain path looked close, but it was not easy to walk.
The several hundred meters of mountain road were full of stops and starts for Jian Xingxia, taking her over half an hour to finish.
Fortunately, she had worn long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, otherwise, the sharp edges of the wild grass would have scratched her.
When she arrived at the gate of the old courtyard, memories instantly flooded back to Jian Xingxia.
She knew what Uncle Lu had been hesitant to say.
It was about spirits and monsters.
When she briefly lived at her grandmother’s house, she knew that people outside the mountains said there were spirits and monsters in the range, which was why no one dared to enter.
Only her grandmother dared.
Her grandmother wasn’t afraid of those things. Jian Xingxia had even seen her grandmother neatly put leftover food in a bowl and place it by the back courtyard door, as if it were prepared specifically for something.
When she was a child, Jian Xingxia was a bit afraid, but as she grew up, she realized there were too many scary things in the world. As for spirits and monsters—if you don’t harm them, they won’t have time to bother harming you.
The most surprising thing in her grandmother’s will was that her grandmother, who previously only had one hill, had purchased five or six hills surrounding the old house before she passed away.
In other words, aside from the mountain between Lu’an Village and the old house, all the hills surrounding the old house after entering the range also belonged to her grandmother.
There were even some hills with long-term leases signed for decades.
Jian Xingxia had inherited them all.
