Daily Life in the Countryside After Being Reborn
Chapter 63 - 60: The Magical Rice

Chapter 63: Chapter 60: The Magical Rice

Zhu Shijun took some time to take Xiao Xian to the Dongnan Miao Village, bringing a few pounds of pears as a gift to try, for the Great Wizard and the Li Family.

The old man didn’t give away pears for nothing; when surveying the mountain terrain and dealing with the rice fields, Zhu Shijun became even more convinced of one principle: if Ge Village wanted to overcome poverty, it still had to start with agriculture.

The village’s natural environment was poor; during years with plenty of rain, they couldn’t hold the water, and during dry spells, it was easy for fields to become parched. The villagers’ past crop failures and the low survival rate of plants were all related to uneven precipitation.

Unfortunately, no matter how softly or vehemently the old man pleaded, the Red Locust Great Wizard, who truly made the decisions in Miao Village, firmly refused to allow the villagers of Ge Village to build a nearby dam.

Zhu Shijun and the village chief visited several times, only to be turned away by Red Locust. However, Zhu Shijun also noticed that the Great Wizard seemed to be quite fond of Xiao Xian, occasionally "asking after" his little granddaughter and praising Xiao Xian as clever and adorable, insisting he come to visit more often. After hearing this many times, Zhu Shijun felt a bit jealous; after all, she was his own granddaughter, and he was uncomfortable with the idea of Xiao Xian being close to an eccentric Miao clan old woman, worrying she might be led astray.

Aside from that visit before the New Year, subsequent trips to the Miao Village didn’t give Zhu Shijun a chance to see Li Ye; this time, when they went to deliver pears, Yezi’s mother also said that Yezi had gone to the temple to study.

Xiao Xian, listening on the side, thought to himself that this wasn’t good; wasn’t this a veiled reminder to Zhu Shijun that it was also time for Xiao Xian to go to school? Sure enough, his grandfather then inquired about the condition of the temple where the children of the village and hamlet went to school.

Many Miao people in Dongnan Miao Village disliked associating with Han people, but the villagers did not reject the temple at the other end of Black Mountain. That temple was funded and built by the ancestors of the Miao, and during times of war, it sheltered many local Miao people. After liberation, the temple was deserted when the monks left.

About a decade ago, a monk who graduated from the Emei Mountain Buddhist College became the head of that temple, and he had some interaction with the village. The monk, in his forties, went by the name Monk Shanyin, well-learned and with excellent calligraphy skills, and was much revered by the mountain folk.

"Yezi started school at the beginning of spring, and several kids from the village went along. If Xiao Xian went too, he would likely be the youngest student in the class," commented Yezi’s mother, who truly liked Xiao Xian. This time, Li Quqi had finished crafting the engraved plum bracelet, and even Yezi’s mother, accustomed to her husband’s handiwork, couldn’t help but praise it.

The bracelet was thin, with fifty to sixty engraved plums of various sizes and in varying stages of bloom, the silver carvings of plum flowers simple and elegant. Considering Xiao Xian was still a child, Li Quqi took her future into account and altered the design to be an open bangle. It could freely open at the joint, allowing its size to be adjusted as she grew. Instead of ordinary round beads, the opening featured two butterflies that fittingly echoed the beauty of butterflies frolicking among plum blossoms.

What troubled Zhu Shijun was that neither of the Li Quqi couple were willing to accept payment for the bracelet, insisting it was a gift for Xiao Xian.

When leaving Southeast Mountain Village, they chanced upon Li Ye and his friends returning from book study at the temple. Li Ye carried a backpack embroidered by Miao artisans and upon seeing Xiao Xian, shyly kept his distance, as if afraid of being teased by her. His behavior, however, made Zhu Shijun think that Li Ye had grown polite and mature at the temple, solidifying his decision to send Xiao Xian to the temple to study alongside them in a few days.

On the way back to Miao Village, Xiao Xian deliberately lingered near White Dragon Pond, looking down at the clear, sparkling surface of the lake, but as usual, there were no traces of the Evil Flood Dragon. Just as the grandfather and grandson were entering the territory of Ge Village, they saw a figure waiting at the village entrance from afar.

Seeing the person, with hair tousled by the wind and a smile streaming across their face, wasn’t it San Gouzi who had just headed into town that morning? Upon seeing the duo, San Gouzi cheerfully waved his hands, "Old man, Xiao Xian, you’re back!"

"Uncle San Gouzi, how come you’re back so soon?" Xiao Xian knew that San Gouzi had taken a truckload of pears down the mountain that day. Before leaving, he mentioned that with Bai Family Ancient Town being small and sparse in population, he feared he wouldn’t fetch a good price for the pears and planned to sell them in the city—that would certainly not allow for a quick return.

"I was only halfway there when my pears were all bought off," San Gouzi said, grinning from ear to ear.

To avoid damaging the pears, San Gouzi drove cautiously. When he reached the stretch of road by the Chishui River, he encountered several liquor transport trucks. Zhu Shijun had once mentioned that Moutai Wine used water from the Chishui River, and indeed there was no shortage of vehicles coming and going to Guizhou to purchase liquor.