Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Finding gold didn't change their life, at least not outwardly. They went on living just as they always had.

Although the matter wasn't openly discussed, the brothers in the family were all in the know and had been warned not to breathe a word to outsiders, knowing that such knowledge would surely invite disaster.

The family were old hands at keeping secrets. They were quite content with their current life, especially the daughters-in-law. Although the Zhao Family scraped by, the family got along well. The brothers had no major conflicts, the sisters-in-law got on well, the mother-in-law wasn't harsh, and the father-in-law was good-natured. With the whole family pulling together, even eating wild vegetable gruel for every meal felt satisfying.

So, as for the gold, since they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, it always felt somewhat unreal. After hearing about it, they simply put it out of their minds.

On the contrary, they became even more dedicated to clearing the land.

During this period, the three Zhao brothers took turns going to Shenxian Land every few days to till the new land, keeping themselves so busy their feet barely touched the ground. Rumors even started circulating in the village, saying Zhao Sandi was a good-for-nothing, who knows what he gets up to at night, yawning incessantly during the day, and even being seen falling asleep right in the field while working.

Amidst the hustle and bustle, time flew by.

By late autumn, Heaven finally showed some mercy, sending down intermittent light rain over several days. During that time, young and old in Wanxia Village ran outside to laugh in the rain, as if welcoming a long-awaited sweet shower, their worried faces finally breaking into rare smiles.

The drought had persisted since May. The fields lacked water, relying entirely on the whole family carrying water from the river day after day for irrigation. If not for that, this year's harvest would likely have been a total crop failure.

But it was more than just a poor harvest looming.

Later, as the riverbed visibly dropped, nearly exposing the sand, the villagers could no longer sit still. They sent several young men to check the situation upstream, worried that neighboring villages had cut off their water source. In drought years, everyone only cared for their own fields; who would bother about others' survival? Upstream villages cutting off water to those downstream happened often, and fights and feuds had broken out between villages over it before.

They only found out after they got there that the upstream areas were also parched. The entire Tongjiang Town, and even the whole Guangping County, was short of water. It wasn't just their Wanxia Village where the riverbeds were drying up.

If people weren't to blame, then the culprit was Heaven itself.

There was nothing to be done but to pray day and night, finally receiving rain by late autumn.

After the autumn rain, winter seemed to arrive overnight, with the weather turning sharply cold.

The Zhao brothers spent all their time going up into the mountains, gathering all the firewood needed for the entire winter by early winter. It was stacked neatly under the eaves and in the backyard, enough to last until early spring without issue.

Once the firewood was prepared, Old Man Zhao took Zhao Dashan back into the mountains to search for trees, specifically the good timber needed for building a house. This caused quite a stir in the village, leading people to think their family was planning to build a new house. Over the years, the Zhao family had welcomed one grandson after another. In a few more years, Zhao Xiaowu would be old enough to get married. With the whole large family crammed into a few dilapidated old rooms, where turning around meant stepping on someone else's foot, taking advantage of the winter farming lull to build a house seemed perfectly reasonable.

Some even volunteered to help. In the village, when any family had a major undertaking, they would call on others for assistance. While no wages were paid, meals were provided.

Nowadays, every household was stretching their food. Using a little elbow grease to save your family two meals' worth of food was a bargain any way you looked at it.

Old Man Zhao felt a bit of regret. He should have carried the trees down from the mountain at night. The other day, he was spotted in the mountains by Zhou Damao from the same village. Not only did Zhou pester him with endless questions, but he also went around the village blabbing that the Zhao family was building a house, causing quite a commotion and leaving the family with little peace lately.

Sure enough, someone else asked about it again today.

Old Man Zhao was in the yard tidying up the logs he had felled—thick and straight, a real find. The man speaking had just come down from the back mountain, holding a wild chicken. As soon as he opened his mouth, Old Man Zhao turned the tables: "Liu Laosi, you caught a wild chicken? Where'd you set the snare? I'll go try my luck there tomorrow."

Liu Laosi was immediately alarmed. The old Zhao family was like a plague of locusts; places they scavenged were left without even a blade of wild grass. This wild chicken was his hard-won catch from a hidden spot where he planned to set more snares.

He stammered, "Just over in the back mountain gully. Uncle Da Gen, my wife is waiting for me at home, I'd better head back." With that, he hurried off.

Old Man Zhao scratched his head and chuckled twice. "The back mountain gully, huh? Heh, still trying to keep it from me."

"Where did you two cut these two trees?" Wang Shi sat under the eaves sewing shoe soles, glancing at the two thick logs in the yard. To find suitable timber for building the house, the father and son had scoured the mountains these past days, finally finding two pine trees that looked twenty or thirty years old.

Thinking it was for their daughter, naturally they wanted to use good wood.

After months of diligent land clearing, three *mu* of land had been reclaimed in Shenxian Land. Recently, they had been busy diverting water from the small stream for irrigation, finally finishing just yesterday. Now, the three men planned to build the long-delayed house and, while at it, keep an eye on the weather conditions there to prepare for sowing seedlings.

The reason for such caution was that the situation inside was utterly baffling.

Even Old Man Zhao, who had farmed all his life, couldn't make sense of the seasonal shifts there. It was completely unpredictable!

They could only proceed step by step, treading carefully. After all, grain seeds were precious. In famine years, when people were starving enough to eat tree bark, many still couldn't bear to touch their seed grain. Keeping the seeds meant hope for the next year; eating them meant losing everything.

Old Man Zhao didn't dare gamble either. At least half of the family's seed grain had to be saved for next spring's planting.

...

Throughout the winter, the Zhao family was busy building the house and working on the three newly reclaimed fertile *mu* of land.

Of course, outsiders knew nothing of this. Villagers privately gossiped about how the men of the old Zhao family seemed lazier than ever this year. Every time someone passed their house, even at high noon, one day it was Zhao Dashan dead to the world, the next day Zhao Ertian, and the day after that, Zhao Sandi.

The three brothers seemed to be competing over who could be lazier.

Some even said the old Zhao family was probably headed for a split, that the three Zhao Dashan brothers were dissatisfied and were protesting through their actions against Old Man Zhao Dagen and his wife.

As for the reason? That went without asking—it must be because of Zhao Xiaobao!

Who in the village didn't know how much Old Man Zhao Dagen and his wife favored their youngest daughter? Even their grandsons took a back seat to Zhao Xiaobao. Over time, the daughters-in-law were bound to have grievances.

Some had even seen with their own eyes that Zhao Xiaobao ate rice porridge three times a day—not stored grain, but this year's fresh new grain!

Which family wouldn't make a fuss over that?

Some even said Zhao Dashan was searching for timber in the mountains precisely to prepare for the family split, to build a house later.

The village gossip naturally reached the ears of the old Zhao family living at the foot of the mountain at the village's end. Old Man Zhao was so angry he took off his cotton shoe in the middle of winter, wanting to throw it at their heads, cursing and grumbling at home: "It's your families that are splitting up! Your sons are splitting up, and your grandsons will split up too!"

What elderly man could bear hearing such words? A son wanting to split the family was no different from cursing him to death!

Old Man Zhao, truly unable to swallow his anger, went door-to-door the next day with his hands tucked in his sleeves. Relying on his senior status—even the elderly Clan Elders in the village had to call him 'younger brother'—he made a scene, and no one really dared to do anything about it.

His elderly peers couldn't restrain him, and the younger generation could only stand there and take the scolding. Getting a thorough dressing-down from him was considered mild. If anyone dared talk back, Old Man Zhao would snap: "Can't even sort out your own family's messes, yet you gossip about others! If you're so bored at home, why not go shovel the snow off your front step? That way your father won't slip and fall on his backside when he goes out. Wouldn't want you brothers to start fighting over who gets to take care of the old man, arguing so badly it leads to splitting the family—that wouldn't be pretty, now would it?"

Well, after that, who dared gossip about his family behind his back?

They didn't dare utter a single peep.

By deep winter, every household began hunkering down at home to wait out the cold. The entire village grew quiet, and even the old yellow dog at Zhao Youcai's house was unwilling to bark.

Tongjiang Town rarely saw snow. According to the village elders, the last time it snowed here was over a decade ago. That year, heavy snow sealed the mountains. After the long winter ended, many households' doors remained shut. When forced open, it was discovered that entire families of over a dozen people had frozen to death.

Poor common folk greatly feared heavy snowfall. Scholars and poets wrote poems about snow; the pure white snow was a crystalline scene in their eyes. But for the common people, who lacked adequate clothing and food, the endless expanse of white meant bone-chilling cold that could freeze off toes and ears.

After many years, Wanxia Village was once again blanketed by goose-feather snow.

With ample firewood prepared at home, as soon as the snow started falling outside, Wang Shi forbade the young children from going out. She kept them cooped up indoors all day by the fire, not allowing them to go anywhere.

Especially Zhao Xiaobao. Even dressed in a thick cotton-padded jacket, Wang Shi wouldn't let her get out of bed, keeping her curled under the quilts all day, fearing she might catch a chill or contract a cold if left unattended for a moment.

"The snow outside seems to be getting heavier. Once the eldest and the others return, they shouldn't go out anymore. Stay put peacefully until spring." Wang Shi put the sewing basket aside, a trace of worry appearing on her face.

These past few days, the weather had turned cold. Zhao Dashan and his two younger brothers insisted on cutting firewood to carry to town and sell to wealthy families. They said that while a bundle of firewood usually only fetched a dozen or so copper coins, now with the snow, the price was sure to be higher.

The three brothers couldn't stand being idle. Men had strong constitutions and weren't afraid of the cold; they'd rather walk the extra distance to earn those few extra coins.

Wang Shi wasn't worried about their safety. If nothing else, the men in their family were all broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, with fierce-looking faces. If they encountered ruffians, it would be the others who came off worse.

What worried her was the weather. This snowfall filled her with dread.

Old Man Zhao, sitting cross-legged on the bed, nodded, feeling a chill in his knees. He tugged at the blanket and glanced at his daughter, who was peering out the window. Hesitantly, he said, "Well, I went in to check yesterday, and the seedlings are just about ready. We can start transplanting them in a couple of days."

Hearing this, Wang-shi no longer felt cold; her heart instantly warmed up.

Little Treasure's spot was truly miraculous. Outside, the cold wind howled and snow fell heavily, but inside, it felt like a day in April.

A while back, the old man had coaxed Little Treasure Fairy into showing herself, taking the specially saved rice seeds to soak inside. Unexpectedly, they sprouted the very next day. After that, the eldest son went in to level the field for seedling cultivation, and the day after, the old man went in to sow the seeds.

Going by the time outside, it would take at least thirty days for the seedlings to grow properly after sowing.

But something strange happened.

In just a few days, the third son went in to check and came out shouting that they could start transplanting!

Old Man Zhao was so startled he thought his son had gone mad. How could they transplant already? The seeds had just been sown! Had Third Son failed to amuse Little Treasure that day, and now the playful sprite was using her magic in a dream to tease her third brother?

He didn't believe a word of it, but he couldn't resist Zhao Sandi's earnest chest-thumping and foot-stomping assurances.

So the next day, Old Man Zhao went in to see for himself. Good grief, he was so shocked on the spot that his legs went weak, and he nearly took a tumble.

Not far away, lush green seedlings swayed in the breeze. It was a scene straight out of spring.

Up close, he saw each seedling in the seedbed had four leaves, growing uniformly.

The seedlings, which should have taken a month to mature, had gone and fully grown in just three to five days!

They really were ready for transplanting.