"What?" Jiang Sanlang, as ever, was puzzled by his daughter's speech.
"Fish, fish!" Yingbao was exhausted. "Fish fish."
Spring Lady laughed and acted as a translator, "The little miss is asking for fish."
Yingbao kept nodding in agreement. Her beautiful mother was indeed intelligent.
"Ha, ha, so Yingbao wants to eat fish," Jiang Sanlang suddenly understood, "Once daddy is home, I will go and catch one from the river!"
Yingbao: ...
Having bought brown sugar and a measure of rice, and spent ten coins on a bamboo basket to hold things, he had spent almost all of his remaining money.
Jiang Sanlang put his daughter in the bamboo basket on his back, held his wife's hand and happily rushed home.
Once home, he placed the little miss on the kang bed, and the couple started a fire and began kneading dough, ready to reward themselves with pancakes.
Yingbao on the kang bed was rather bored, rolling around several times, she eventually lay down pretending to sleep.
From her little pouch, she took out a handful of rice in its husk, secretly brought it into the cave and placed it next to the stone wall with the various seeds she had collected earlier.
These were all grains she had secretly taken a few days ago from their storage of home.
Upon inspection by Yingbao, there were a few soybeans, a handful of wheat grains, a handful of millet, and the rice she had just brought in.
It was a pity that she was too young and had insufficient energy. She couldn't stay in this space for long, otherwise, she would certainly have planted them all by now.
While she still had the energy, Yingbao looked intently around the cave.
The cave ceiling, the surrounding walls, and the ground, all were made of hard rock, and she felt as if she were in a closed-off space made from rock.
There was no apparent passage to enter or leave, yet she was clearly standing here, which was indeed magical.
Yingbao also found that some crystal clear white plants were growing in the cracks of the rock. They looked a bit like Ganoderma lucidum.
The crystal white leaves were only the size of soybeans, plump and thick. Clustered together, they looked like palm-sized hydrangeas. If you pinch the leaves, they burst into a sticky juice, akin to cactus juice.
The juice had a faint fragrance that was invigorating, and it would dry quickly when applied to the skin.
The skin it was applied to became as smooth as if it had been coated with snow cream, and the lingering fragrance persisted.
It seemed harmless, but she couldn't confirm if it was edible.
However, according to the logic of the story scripts, some treasures of heaven and earth were indeed grown in mysterious caves or secret realms. Hence, this crystal white plant could be a kind of treasure from heaven and earth.
Yingbao, lost in her thoughts, decided to take some out when she had the chance to feed it to the animals for observation, and see what their reactions would be.
Unfortunately, there had not been a suitable opportunity recently, and she had not encountered any animals she could feed.
Of course, she couldn't use her own hens for testing. What if they died, or stopped laying eggs because of it? That would certainly break her and her parents' hearts.
Yingbao lingered in the cave a bit longer, but soon she was unable to keep her eyes open, and unknowingly fell asleep.
In her dream, she seemed to be walking through a mist, suddenly a golden light flashed in front of her, bringing up a giant book as large as a table, a few majestic characters on the book cover: Qian Palace Sweet Charming.
Oh, this...
Perhaps it was because she had not been reading script stories for a while, so even her dreams contained a book with such a familiar title.
She turned to the first page, and Yingbao looked closely, several familiar terms jumped out from the paper.
Chuanhe Town, Xichen Village, Qinchuan County, Chen Tiantian.
Yingbao was taken aback.
The place she was in now, wasn't it Chuanhe Town in Qinchuan County?
Across the river, wasn't that Xichen Village?
And Chen Tiantian, this name sounded so familiar, but she just couldn't remember where she had heard it before.
As he was deep in thought, a sudden gust of wind blew, turning the book in his hands into paper butterflies scattering in all directions, impossible to catch.
It's a pity, he had almost finished the second chapter, and now he didn't know what would happen next.
The two chapters were actually quite simple, mainly depicting Chen Tiantian's beautiful and charming appearance and cleverness. It also mentioned that she was a well-known beauty in Qinchuan County and the little lucky star who was doted on by her entire family.
One day, a group of poor relatives from the countryside suddenly arrived at the beauty's home.
It was said that Chuanhe had experienced a great flood, destroying many houses and estates. These relatives escaped from their village and sought refuge with Chen Tiantian's mother, Mrs. Han.
Yingbao frowned.
Xichen Village, a flood, and going to the county seat to seek refuge with relatives surnamed Han.
This was what happened when she was nine.
Mentioning it, the town where she lived, Chuanhe Town, was right next to the Chuan River, and every few years there would be a flood.
However, because the Chen Village was located at a higher elevation, each time a flood occurred only the crops and farmlands were flooded, the village homes were not affected.
But at the age of six and nine, Chuan River experienced two serious floods.
The year when she was six, she remembered that heavy rain started in early summer, followed by the rising water level of the Chuan River, flooding both villages and the surrounding villages.
People took their cattle and sheep and fled to the higher terrains of Houbei Mountain or Xiaonan Mountain, only after over ten days, the water level gradually receded.
The water in the village receded, but the ripening crops were lost. The farmland was filled with silt from the flood, and it was not possible to replant for a while, so many villagers took their families and fled.
The summer of the year she was nine, there was also a lot of heavy rain, Jhelum flood came rushing, not only breaking the stone bridge between the two villages, but the houses in the village were also almost completely washed away. Many villagers died in that unprecedented flood.
Yingbao remembered that she went with the Chen Changping's family to the county town for refuge, and stayed in the house of Aunt Han, the younger sister of her birth mother, Han.
The situation of Aunt Han's family was good. Her husband's surname was also Chen, and he was said to be a trusted adviser of the County Magistrate, and was quite respected in the county town. Even the clerks in the government office addressed him cordially.
Aunt Han had two sons and three daughters. Usually she called her daughters Big Yaya, Second Yaya, and Third Yaya, but which one of them was Chen Tiantian, she did not know.
Before she could think more about it, her consciousness began to blur.
When she woke up the next day, her head was still filled with the dream she had last night, and she felt listless.
Sigh, it would have been nice if she could continue the story, the feeling of being left hanging, was really annoying.
"Baobao, time to eat."
Chunniang cooked sticky sweet white rice porridge and also made a steamed egg custard, mixed together to feed her daughter.
Yingbao ate it spoon by spoon, soon finishing a small bowl.
She had to grow up fast, so she could start running and jumping without needing her mother's constant care.
"Baobao is really obedient today, she ate a whole bowl."
Chunniang put down the bowl and smilingly rubbed her daughter's stomach, "Let mother see, is your little belly full?"
Yingbao was ticklish, and she giggled away to dodge her mother's hand.
The mother and daughter were having fun when Grandma Jiang walked in with a basket.
"Mother is here." Chunniang quickly got up to greet her.
After the division of the family, even though they lived in the same village with Grandmother Jiang Liu, she seldom visited. But today was unusual as she came early in the morning.
However, Chunniang knew clearly that her pregnancy must have been told to her mother-in-law by her husband.
Grandmother placed the basket on the table, scanned her daughter-in-law up and down, her gaze lingering on her daughter-in-law's abdomen.
"Sanlang told me you were pregnant, so I came to see. I've brought some chicken eggs from home. Your sister-in-law asked me to bring them to you."
Grandmother and her husband lived with their eldest son and all household affairs were managed by her eldest daughter-in-law.
Luckily, the eldest daughter-in-law was virtuous and sensible, and she had picked some egg early in the morning and asked her to give it to her third son's wife.