Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Zhao Xiaobao, bundled in a thick padded jacket, was sprawled against the half-open window, her plump body looking even rounder in the bulky clothing.

Ever since it started snowing outside, her mother hadn't allowed her to go out. She really wanted to go into the yard and build a snowman. The other day, when Xiao Wu and the others had a snowball fight, she could only watch longingly from the side. She wanted to join them, but her mother had grabbed her by the ear and hauled her back inside.

"Dad, Mom, Big Brother and Second Brother are back!"

The kid had sharp eyes. Through the snowy haze, she could vaguely make out two tall, burly figures walking along the path.

Old Mrs. Wang slightly hunched her back, craning her neck and squinting out the window. The figures looked just like her eldest and second son.

Their bamboo hats were covered in snow, making them look like two moving, human-shaped snow mountains.

The courtyard gate creaked open. Zhao Dashan and Zhao Ertian, wearing straw rain capes, walked in one after the other. Hearing the noise from inside the house, Zhao Deng kept calling out "Dad!" over and over and, getting a response, started making a racket that could shake the roof beams.

"Dad, Mom, we're back." Zhao Dashan spoke, each word accompanied by a puff of white mist, his lips trembling from the cold.

The families of the eldest and second sons reacted even faster than those in the main room. Originally huddled inside for warmth, upon hearing the voices, Zhu Shi and Luo Shi simultaneously pushed their doors open and came out. The sisters-in-law, one carrying a basin, the other heading to the kitchen for hot water. As the Zhao Dashan brothers shed their rain capes under the eaves and had barely sat down in the main room to catch their breath before the whole family, young and old, gathered around.

Zhu Shi came out of the kitchen carrying a large basin of hot water with a clean cloth inside. She said to the brothers, who were rubbing their hands to warm them, "Hurry and wash your faces, then soak your feet to get the weariness out. You've worked hard these past few days."

Zhao Xiaobao, who had been clinging to her eldest brother's knee and holding her second brother's finger, obediently scooted aside. "Big Brother, Second Brother, hurry and soak your feet."

Two days ago, Zhao Dashan and Zhao Ertian, with twenty copper coins tucked away and two chopping knives at their belts, had told Third Brother—who wanted to go—to look after the house. Taking two hemp ropes, they went to town, saying they would go to the nearby mountains to cut more firewood. If it sold well, they would find a rundown temple to spend a couple of nights.

After all, with the heavy snow outside, no one would bother them. As long as they could endure the bitter cold, dared to think and dared to act, they could naturally earn money.

But, holed up in the village, they didn't know the situation outside. These days, the town was bustling. Quite a few men were doing the same as the brothers. Unlike the quiet winter hibernation in the village, outside, people were bustling with activity.

After washing their faces, the brothers took off their straw sandals. Their big feet, red from the cold, rested on the edge of the wooden basin, feeling the heat rush to the soles. Once their feet had warmed up a bit, they slowly submerged them into the hot water.

So warm.

After freezing outside for two days, Zhao Dashan and Zhao Ertian finally relaxed completely once they got home.

Holding a large sea bowl filled with rice and dishes, Zhao Dashan shoveled food into his mouth while pulling out the money pouch tucked inside his clothes. He handed it to Wang Shi, mumbling through a mouthful of food, "Right now, a bundle of good dry firewood sells for fifteen wen. This is what Ertian and I earned over the past two days, a total of three hundred and thirty wen. Mom, you take it and put it away."

"It's been snowing every day, dry firewood is hard to find. We could only earn this much," Zhao Ertian added from the side.

In previous years, the brothers would also go to town to sell firewood during the winter. They weren't afraid of hard work, as long as they could earn money. Perhaps everything has its pros and cons. In years without snow, the price of firewood wouldn't go up. A bundle of good firewood could fetch ten wen at most, and they had to say endless pleasantries and bow countless times just to sell it.

This year, they didn't need to sweet-talk anyone, and they could stand straight. They could sell it as soon as they carried it to town, and the price was fair. It was just that with the constant snow, the woods were wet. Finding dry firewood all over the mountains was truly difficult, but not impossible—it just required more effort.

One brother searched for and chopped the wood, the other carried it to town to sell. Working round the clock for two days, they only earned this three hundred-odd wen. It sounded like a lot, but it was all hard-earned money.

"You've done wonderfully. You brothers have worked hard these past two days," Wang Shi said, taking the money pouch. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at her two daughters-in-law. Seeing their full attention was on their own husbands, she couldn't help but smile.

Over the years, whether it was the eldest, second, or third son, all the money they earned from odd jobs outside was handed over to the common family fund. In earlier years, the daughters-in-law would sometimes make a fuss privately. But ever since Xiaobao was born, perhaps because the entire family's fate was completely tied together, sharing the same secret, they actually got along more harmoniously and intimately in daily life. No one bothered to fuss over those few trifles anymore.

The three daughters-in-law weren't troublemakers; they were all clear-headed and understood priorities. The Dashan brothers had a strong bond. As long as she and the old man didn't favor any particular son or grandson, this family wouldn't have discord or split up.

Of course, Xiaobao was an exception. No one dared, nor would they, compare themselves to her.

"You two rest well for a few days, regain your strength. Our family also has work to start preparing for," Wang Shi said, her eyes glancing at her daughter sitting on the third son's lap, eating maltose candy. Her old face crinkled into a smile.

At these words, except for the forewarned Zhao Sandi, everyone else's eyes lit up, eagerly looking at the clueless Zhao Xiaobao.

"Mom, is it about inside there…?" Zhao Dashan couldn't help but scoop his little sister from his third brother's arms. Holding her, he looked expectantly at Wang Shi, afraid he had misunderstood.

"Mhm, we can start preparing to transplant the rice seedlings!" Wang Shi reached out and took her daughter back from his arms, gently patting the mud spots off Zhao Xiaobao's clothes. Honestly, the eldest didn't realize how dirty he was? How dare he hug Xiaobao covered in filth.

"Hahahaha…"

Zhao Dashan's boisterous laughter echoed in the main room, lingering for a long time.

…

The fact that things could grow in the immortal land, and grow even better than outside, made the Zhao Family happier than if they had dug up gold.

It was Wang Shi who suggested reclaiming land inside. It was during the autumn harvest. Seeing how the whole family had toiled all year, exhausting themselves carrying water from the river every day for irrigation, only to have the harvested grain, after taxes deducted, leave so little that it wasn't enough to feed over a dozen mouths for a year?

Even tightening their belts and drinking thin porridge every meal probably wouldn't be enough!

The Zhao Family had been honest, simple farmers for generations, especially Old Man Zhao. Even though he had an immortal daughter, he only wanted to enshrine her. Stepping onto that land, he felt he had received the blessings of the immortals, his heart full of gratitude, and absolutely dared not harbor any other thoughts.

It was Wang Shi, seeing her grandchildren so hungry they kept gulping down water to fill their bellies, who hardened her heart and proposed the idea of reclaiming land in the immortal realm.

The soil inside was countless times more fertile than outside; even wild grass grew vigorously. The only issue was the indistinct seasons and day/night cycle. Other than that, it was perfect in every way.

No snow disasters, no droughts, no need to pay taxes to the court… You have to try things to know if they're good or bad. So they tried.

Now they had the results. Not only could they farm there, but things grew even better and faster than outside!

Tonight was destined to be an extraordinary night.

Some people huddled under their quilts, snoring away. Others, however, were bent over in the fields, working with a huff and a puff, transplanting seedlings. The whole family took turns transplanting, the whole family took turns experiencing a different kind of transplanting!

They were transplanting immortal seedlings in immortal fields reclaimed from the immortal land!

The Zhao Family lacked many things, but they didn't lack strong laborers. A mere three *mu* of paddy fields—Zhao Dashan felt he could finish transplanting them all in one night, completely without his second and third brothers' help.

But his second and third brothers weren't having it! They wanted to transplant those seedlings too. They had reclaimed the wasteland together, they had irrigated the water together. There was no reason only the eldest brother should get to transplant the seedlings!

No matter what was said, it wouldn't do. Zhao Dashan had no choice. Work he could have finished alone ended up being divided among the three brothers. The three *mu* took six days to transplant, exactly one *mu* per person, transplanting one day and resting the next. It was a slow, steady process, almost making their old man so angry he wanted to take off his shoe and beat his sons.

Whoever heard of transplanting seedlings or harvesting rice not being done according to the season, neither too early nor too late? But these brothers of theirs were actually competing over this. Fortunately, the immortal land was different from their mortal land. How things grew depended entirely on mood. According to the eldest brother, the seedlings transplanted on the first day and those transplanted on the sixth day looked no different. It wasn't like when they sowed the seeds, where you could see the growth with the naked eye.

After hearing this, Old Man Zhao felt both joy and worry. He was happy that this unpredictable immortal paddy field was so considerate, not afraid of missing the right time. He worried that since the seedlings from the first and sixth day showed no change, could the transplanted seedlings still grow into grain in a month?

Well, he admitted he was being greedy.

The rice seeds had given him dream-like hope, but transplanting the seedlings brought him back to reality.

He no longer dared to hope for the heaven-sent good fortune of seeds sprouting in a day, seedlings maturing in three to five days, and harvesting rice in a month. He only hoped that the seedlings in the three *mu* of land, which carried the hopes of their entire family, could grow normally and be successfully harvested in a few months.

…

Having something weighing on your mind really makes eating and sleeping unenjoyable.

Zhao Xiaobao, with her hands clasped behind her back, followed behind Old Man Zhao, who also had his hands behind his back as he walked along the field ridge.

"Dad, let's go back, go back."

"Let me look, let Dad take another look."

Father and daughter walked one after the other, one urging, the other delaying. The older one wasn't the least bit hurried.

Old Man Zhao had been going to the immortal land every few days recently. He couldn't help it; he was just too anxious, thinking about his three *mu* of land, thinking about the seedlings in those three *mu*.

The good news is that the fields don’t seem to grow weeds, and there’s no need to worry about fertilizing. Not that worrying would help anyway—Xiaobao’s way of bringing things in is unreliable. Occasionally, she sleeps so soundly that even calling her "little ancestor" won’t get a response. He doesn’t dare carry two buckets of manure in either, afraid he’d get zapped by lightning for it.

The bad news is that the dream of rice ripening in a month has completely shattered. He admits he hadn’t given up hope before.

But now, his heart is deader than dead.

"Xiaobao."

"Xiaobao is here."

The father and daughter walked to the enormous peach tree and looked up at the three peaches on its branches.

Old Man Zhao took a deep sniff. Was his nose playing tricks on him? Why did the peaches smell so fragrant today? So good it made his mouth water.

The peaches had also grown much larger, their tips tinged with a tender pinkish-red, looking nice and plump and utterly delightful.

Staring at the three peaches, Old Man Zhao’s mouth watered uncontrollably. He couldn’t resist saying, "Daughter, when these peaches ripen, you must share a bite with your dad. Your old man's got a real craving..."