The next morning, before the sky had fully brightened, He Mingyu was already busy in the kitchen.
She took out the two small steaming baskets that had been thrown in as a bonus by Old Man Chen the day before. These baskets were a size larger than the ones she had ordered, but the bamboo was warm and smooth to the touch, clearly crafted with excellent skill. However, the most urgent task wasn’t steaming buns, but preparing the baskets.
He Mingyu first rinsed the baskets thoroughly inside and out with clear water, then instructed Shitou to fill the large iron pot with enough water and sprinkle in a pinch of salt. Yingzi, leaning against the stove and watching her sister’s movements, saw her previously cheerful little face crinkle in confusion: “Big Sister, why are you adding salt to the water?”
He Mingyu didn’t stop, explaining with a smile: “Adding salt makes the bamboo baskets more durable.” She then placed the washed baskets into the pot, covered it with a large, old lid, and had Shitou stoke the fire.
Gurgle, gurgle… As the steam rose, a strange scent began to permeate the air. After steaming them empty for about a quarter of an hour, she had Shitou extinguish the fire and carefully removed the baskets to air-dry in a well-ventilated spot.
Once the baskets were merely warm to the touch, she took out the jar of lard, dipped a clean piece of cotton cloth into it, and patiently coated every corner of the baskets. Under the sheen of the grease, the bamboo appeared increasingly lustrous and beautiful.
“Big Sister! The grease! That’s lard!” Yingzi was truly anxious now, stamping her feet. She wanted to dash over and scrape the grease back off—think of how many pancakes that could have fried!
Even Shitou, usually so silent, couldn’t help but speak up: “Big Sister, is it… too wasteful?”
He Mingyu was amused by their reaction. Before she could explain, Wu Chunlan, who was leaning against the wooden door, let her gaze drift far away, as if seeing a gentle figure through the swirling steam. With shimmering, teary eyes, she spoke softly: “Good bamboo needs to be treated with oil so it won’t crack easily. Your father… he used to say the same thing. Making bamboo crafts is just like living life and doing things: if you put heart into the beginning, things will last a long time.”
Seeing her melancholic expression, Yingzi quickly went over and hugged her: “Mother, don’t cry…”
He Mingyu paused at these words. She had never met this so-called father, but Wu Chunlan’s longing for him was so intense—even the original owner of this body had committed suicide in his memory—that he must have been a good man.
The oiled baskets needed to sit for two hours. During this interval, He Mingyu directed the two little ones to process the peanuts they had obtained yesterday.
Yingzi, following her instructions, sat obediently on a small stool, the bag of precious “foreign beans” in front of her. She mimicked He Mingyu’s movements, carefully shelling them, while Shitou squatted nearby, dividing the peanuts into two small piles: one of shriveled ones, and one that looked relatively plump.
“Big Sister, is this right?” Shitou tilted his head to look at his pile, clearly lacking confidence in his sorting work.
He Mingyu examined them closely. Shitou’s expression became increasingly tense until she smiled: “Exactly right, you sorted them very well!” Shitou’s heart finally dropped back into his chest, and he gave a shy smile.
Yingzi wasn’t as quiet as he was; as she shelled, she counted: “One, two, three… fifty-seven. Big Sister, did I count right?”
She blinked those large eyes, looking toward He Mingyu with great anticipation. Yesterday, while basking in the sun, He Mingyu had felt a sudden whim and used a wooden stick to teach them how to count in the dirt.
She had done it on a whim and hadn’t been very diligent—it was practically a casual mutter—but He Mingyu was now secretly stunned: in her memories, there were no fragments of Shitou or Yingzi attending private school. She couldn’t tell if Yingzi was truly talented, or if it was simply that at ten years old, she had reached the age where she should know these things.
Seeing that He Mingyu didn’t answer right away, Yingzi looked down and helped Shitou sort the peanuts, her movements becoming increasingly quick and agile. While sorting, she suddenly blurted out: “Big Sister, are these beans delicious?”
Only then did He Mingyu snap back to reality, laughing as she rubbed her hair: “These are seeds, they can’t be eaten. Once we harvest them in the autumn, Big Sister will make you even more delicious things.”
Even so, looking at the small number of peanuts, she felt a headache coming on. In her past life, she only ever used them—how could she have ever planted them herself?
Just as she was worrying, Wu Chunlan walked over, looked at the peanuts in her hand, and asked curiously: “Yuniang, these are…?”
“Mother, these are called ‘Fan-dou’ (foreign beans), also known as peanuts. They are a kind of… vegetable? In any case, they are planted in the soil; the fruit grows underground, and you dig them up once they’re ready.” He Mingyu couldn’t explain it clearly at the moment and could only offer a simple explanation: “I want to try planting some in the courtyard.”
Hearing her want to plant this rare item, Wu Chunlan subconsciously recoiled: “This… can it succeed? What if they rot… wouldn’t it be a waste?”
“It should succeed… I think…” He Mingyu lacked confidence, resting her chin in her hands and trying to imagine the correct process for growing peanuts from thin air.
She figured they were just buried in the soil and watered, but she didn’t know if they needed to sprout first? How deep should they be buried? Should they be planted now or was it not too late to wait for summer? Did they like shade or sun? Did they need constant watering? The more she thought, the more muddled she became.
Seeing this, Wu Chunlan hesitated for a moment before picking up a peanut, examining it carefully, and weighing it in her hand: “Why does this feel similar to the taro we grow here? They both feed from the soil. At this time of year, it’s just about the right season for sowing.”
He Mingyu’s eyes lit up—it was like falling asleep and someone bringing a pillow!
They acted immediately. Wu Chunlan was clearly an expert at household management; she directed Shitou to clear the small, barren, weed-filled patch of land behind the main house. She then found some wooden sticks and old bamboo strips left by the previous tenant, and by piecing them together, managed to enclose a decent-looking vegetable garden and a small chicken coop.
Shitou carefully loosened the soil with a hoe, while Wu Chunlan used the method for planting taro, digging shallow holes at appropriate intervals. She placed the peanuts, which carried He Mingyu’s hopes, one by one into the soil, covered them with a thin layer of earth, and gently pressed it down.
He Mingyu, meanwhile, turned her attention to Yingzi. She furtively pulled her sister aside, away from Wu Chunlan and Shitou, who were concentrating on “opening up new territory” in the backyard.
“Yingzi.” He Mingyu lowered her voice, bending down to look her sister in the eye with curiosity. She picked up a small wooden stick and drew on the ground. “Come, Big Sister will test you. Look, if Big Sister has three copper coins, and then picks up two more, how many are there in total?”
Yingzi had been a bit nervous about her sister’s mysterious behavior, but when she realized what the question was, she immediately relaxed and answered without a second thought: “Five!” Her eyes were bright, clearly thinking, this is too simple.
He Mingyu was slightly surprised and gave a few more addition problems under ten, which Yingzi answered quickly and accurately.
“Then… what is twenty-five plus forty-one?” she asked, increasing the difficulty.
Yingzi didn’t answer immediately this time. She stretched out her fingers, tapping the air rapidly, her mouth moving silently as if performing rapid mental calculations. After only two breaths, she looked up, her tone certain: “Sixty-six!”
He Mingyu was truly shocked now—this speed far exceeded that of a normal child! She couldn’t help asking: “Yingzi, who taught you these…?”
Yingzi puffed out her chest with pride, her face revealing pure happiness: “No one taught me! Back in the village, when I went to wash clothes by the river, I had nothing to do while waiting for the clothes to soak. I watched the little fish and shrimp in the river. A group would swim by, and I would count them in my head, one group after another, and after watching for a while, I just learned it!”
Her eyes curved as she smiled, her tone filled with pride. “Big Sister, the other kids don’t know how, only I know!”
Before He Mingyu could answer, Yingzi seemed to remember something, her little face dropping in frustration: “It’s just that sometimes, for example, if I have to calculate… six little fish, six little fish, and another six little fish… adding the same number over and over takes a lot of trouble. If only it could be faster.”
Adding the same number over and over?
He Mingyu froze at these words, then suddenly realized: Isn’t this the most primitive meaning of multiplication!
Excited, she used the stick to draw a simple grid on the ground: “Yingzi, look, for adding the same numbers like this, there’s a faster way to calculate.”
He Mingyu pointed at the table, her voice growing involuntarily brisk. “For example, three sixes added together can be called ‘three sixes are eighteen,’ meaning three times six equals eighteen. Come, repeat after me: ‘One one is one, one two is two…'”
Yingzi was confused at first, but those large eyes were full of curiosity and focus. Once He Mingyu explained a few more examples, it was as if Yingzi’s meridians had been opened—her speed of understanding was astonishing!
He Mingyu grew more and more delighted as she taught, and she was just about to share the entire table when her peripheral vision caught sight of the heap of yellow clay and broken tiles in the corner of the yard, and she suddenly remembered she had an important task left.
“Alright.” She patted Yingzi’s head affectionately. “Learn half today, from ‘one one is one’ to ‘five five twenty-five.’ Once you’ve memorized these and can use them well, Big Sister will teach you the rest.”
Yingzi was extremely excited. She nodded vigorously, picked up the little wooden stick like a treasure, and squatted on the ground, reciting the table to herself, her small face glowing with the excitement of having discovered a new world.
Watching her concentrated profile, He Mingyu couldn’t help but think: in this family, besides herself, the transmigrator, there was such a hidden treasure!
Seeing Yingzi immersed in her work, He Mingyu rolled up her sleeves and began mixing the clay. She added chopped rice straw to the yellow clay, then added water and beat it repeatedly until it became thick.
She planned to make a mud stove that could be embedded into the small pushcart. Following the dimensions of the cart frame Zhang Hu had described, she used the tile shards and yellow clay to carefully thicken the inside of the broken vat and smooth out the outside. She also had Shitou help knock out a furnace chamber and vents, and reserved space at the bottom for firewood.
The thick mud layer could store heat while insulating it, ensuring the wooden pushcart would be safe. It was meticulous, tiring work, and He Mingyu performed it with careful focus. Soon, fine beads of sweat were dripping from her forehead.
By the time the mud stove looked somewhat like a stove and was moved to the stone room to dry, the messy, barren backyard had undergone a dramatic transformation. A small, neat vegetable garden lay peacefully in the center, next to the small chicken coop enclosed by bamboo strips, where four old hens were leisurely inspecting their territory. The evening sun cast a warm golden glow over them.
Wu Chunlan wiped the sweat from her forehead and, seeing the look of surprise on He Mingyu’s face, gave the first truly heartfelt smile she had worn in days.
The baskets were prepared, the stove was in place, and the seeds of hope had been sown—everything was ready, just waiting for the east wind!