Yingbao has died once and reincarnated, reincarnated back to when Daddy Jiang first found her.
She felt both fortunate and fearful.
She was glad to be back with her parents, once again being a worry-free and cherished baby.
But she was afraid that, in a few years, she'd be claimed by that family again and forced once more down the path of her previous life.
In this era of ceremonial laws binding monarchs and ministers, fathers and sons, she was just a woman with no rights, restrained by kinship, filial piety, and societal norms, with no way to protect herself.
Even if her biological father had once abandoned her and never raised her, as long as they came to claim her, everyone would take morality as their high ground, accuse her with blood ties, suppress her with filial piety, and even the Prefectural Government Office sided with them.
In her previous life, she had already seen those people's true colors. If she had to live again, she vowed not to compromise even if she had to die once more.
What nonsense about the debt of life being greater than the sky!
What kind of favor did she owe to people who schemed against her and intended to harm her?
Yingbao closed her eyes, and her consciousness instantly entered a cave.
This was her territory, a magical place she accidentally discovered in her previous life, a mysterious cave.
The cave was about ten square feet in size, with an almond-shaped large pool in the middle that took up about six or seven tenths of the cave.
The pool water was clear, sweet and slightly blue. In the middle of the pool was a large spherical object emitting a golden light like the sun.
This was completely different from the cave in her previous life.
She remembered when she was eighteen years old, just escaped from the army commander's residence, disguised as a beggar, hiding everywhere.
One day, she was shivering inside a statue niche in a dilapidated temple. The temple was draughty and chilling to the bone.
She was feverish and somewhat delirious. Pictures flitted through her delirium, consciousness suddenly entered this strange cave.
Back then the cave had nothing but thick ice, making her think she had fallen into an ice hole.
Unexpectedly, in this rebirth, the ice in the cave melted and disappeared. There was an additional pool in the cave, and there was a glowing sphere in the center of the pool. It looked extraordinary at a glance.
Yingbao came to the edge of the pool and buried the apple seeds she had brought in yesterday into the soft black soil by the pool.
This black soil, three feet wide, circled the pool. At a glance, it looked like someone had drawn a black eyeliner around the pool with a brush.
This strange place perfectly matched the description of the mysterious caves in the storybooks.
So Yingbao wanted to test whether this black soil was also as described in the storybooks, possessing magical functions and able to grow anything planted within.
If one day an apple tree truly grew from it, then her family would have sweet, big apples to eat in the future.
After burying the seeds and watering them several times, Yingbao's consciousness began to blur and soon fell asleep.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in the midwife's house, with the midwife taking her mother's pulse.
Zhang the midwife was over seventy, her white hair neatly tied behind her head. A silver hairpin was inserted in her bun, the tassel on the head of the pin swaying gently with her movements.
It was said that this old woman had worked at the county government office when she was young, doing the work of a midwife. Later, when she got older, she returned to her hometown to retire.
She was very skilled at handling pregnancies and childbirth, as well as treating some complex diseases in women, so many people respected her and sought her for treatment.
"How is it?" Jiang Sanlang couldn't help but ask.
Zhang the midwife released her pulse-taking fingers and turned to smile, "Congratulations, your wife has a happy pulse. She's about three months pregnant."
"Ah? Really? You're not joking with me, are you?" Jiang Sanlang spoke excitedly and incoherently, somewhat incredulous.
"Would I joke about this?" The midwife stood with a smile, took out a stethoscope from her medical box, and said to Xu Family's wife, "Third Mistress, follow me. I will let you listen to the baby's breath."
"Oh." Xu's wife got up, glanced at her husband, and followed the midwife into the back room.
Before long, the midwife emerged, cheerful, and said, "Oh my, Sanlang, your wife is carrying twins."
"Ah?" Jiang Sanlang exclaimed in surprise, "This... is it really twins?"
"Yes." The midwife put away her stethoscope and, with a glance at Jiang Sanlang, advised him in a soft voice, "Your wife is almost thirty, isn't she? And this being her first pregnancy, you must take extra precautions."
"Yes, yes." Jiang Sanlang grew even more anxious, stuttering, "Well... what precautions should I take? What... What should I do?"
The midwife wiped her hands on a cloth and, upon seeing that the lady from the Xu family had finished tidying her clothes and was coming out from the inner room, she continued, "Let your wife eat well, including meat and eggs, and do not strain herself with heavy duties. When she is seven or eight months along, she should eat less rice and more vegetables to facilitate delivery."
"Oh, I see." Jiang Sanlang hastily acknowledged.
"And remember, when she is nearing full term, find a competent midwife in good time. Don't leave it until it's too late. Twins are a different matter entirely from a single baby, you mustn't be careless," cautioned the midwife, her tone solemn and earnest.
"Yes, yes!" Jiang Sanlang fervently nodded his head in agreement.
Upon leaving the midwife's abode, Jiang Sanlang was still somewhat dazed. Carrying one daughter in one arm, he held his wife's hand with the other and spoke softly, "Let's go buy two pounds of brown sugar, and measure out some rice to make porridge for you."
Unfortunately, there was no market today and the butcher shops in the town had closed early; otherwise, he could have bought some pork to take home.
"Rice is expensive, we have only a bit of money left at home. Let's not waste it unnecessarily." Chunniang grumbled, "It's just the beginning of spring, there are still several months until harvest."
Jiang Sanlang looked at his wife sympathetically and reassured her, "Don't worry, once we finish planting our fields, I will go to the county to find work. I'm sure I can find something."
"It's not as easy as that." Chunniang sighed, "The county is a long way away. Where will you stay? Will you end up sleeping in a dilapidated temple like last time?"
Last year after the harvest, Sanlang and two other villagers went to the county in search of work. They couldn't find anything and were nearly beaten to death by a gang of local ruffians.
Chen Cunzheng's nephew had been the worst off, he still couldn't do heavy work to this day.
Jiang Sanlang scratched his head, "We definitely need to purchase rice and brown sugar. The midwife said that you should eat fine nutritious food... And when we get home, we can slaughter one of our old hens to make soup."
"We only have two hens left, and they're laying eggs now. We can't afford to slaughter one."
The Xu family wife interrupted her husband's incessant rambling, "Without hens to lay eggs, what will Tiantian eat?"
"Ah yes, hehehe, Tiantian does need to have an egg custard every day, I forgot." Jiang Sanlang scratched his head and laughed foolishly.
Tiantian blinked her eyes, too, was at a loss.
Their home was poor, comprised of three thatch huts and a small kitchen, with a bamboo fence enclosing it. Just like in their previous lives, there was barely any furniture in the house.
As for food, they had just enough to eat.
She had once looked inside the jar where they kept their food. There was only a thin layer of wheat in there.
Even the least appetizing millet, they only had about one stone measurement left, just enough to sustain the family until the harvest.
The two hens at home were probably their most valuable possessions right now.
Being small and delicate herself, with weak legs and speech difficulties, she couldn't help her parents and depended on them to look after her.
Tiantian was worried, her little face creased with concern.
Her mother was pregnant with her brother and needed more nutrition. How could she eat only wheat and millet?
Suddenly, an idea flashed through her mind.
Wasn't there a river to the west of the village? Even though the current was strong, there would be fish in the river.
"Daddy, fishing!" she decided to give her doting father a hint.
Without meat, mommy can eat fish.
As long as they could borrow a fishing net, they should be able to catch some fish and shrimp.