“Mommy~ I’m hungry~”
“Good girl~ Close your eyes, you won’t feel hungry when you fall asleep. Mommy will go up the mountain tomorrow to find something for you to eat.”
Ruan Jinxiang wrapped her daughter’s thin little body tighter in her arms and snuggled deeper into the straw pile.
Winter had already set in, and the thatched hut was drafty from all sides. She was frozen stiff.
A wave of sorrow washed over her heart.
Three years ago, her husband had gone to perform corvée labor, repairing roads. While carrying stones up the mountain, he fell into a ravine. Villagers sent word back that her husband had died.
A few months later, the northern border was breached. The Northern Rong soldiers swept through, burning, killing, and looting. Stone Fort Village also suffered disaster.
The Northern Rong occupied the area. The family’s copper coins, cotton-padded clothes and quilts, and iron tools like hoes were all looted clean.
The slightest resistance was seen as disobedience to the Northern Rong emperor, and they would be stabbed to death.
Even the chickens and ducks raised at home were all driven away to feed the Northern Rong soldiers.
After several villagers were hacked to death, the villagers no longer dared to resist.
Various taxes and corvée labor, exploitation never ceased.
The grain they grew was only allowed to keep the coarse chaff; the rest was all seized as military provisions.
Later, the Daqi soldiers fought their way back.
Over these three years, this land was plagued by constant warfare.
Every household hung white funeral banners.
Families endured hunger and cold, not even daring to close their eyes at night for fear of bandit soldiers suddenly bursting in.
Finally, a young general emerged in Daqi, driving the enemy out of the border in one fell swoop.
But her husband, who had died three years ago, suddenly returned.
It turned out he had been rescued back then and followed his savior to the border. Over the years, he had even earned some merit.
Now that the border was stable, he returned to his hometown, secured a position at the county office, and became an official.
He also brought back a delicate woman he had rescued on the way, who was already three months pregnant.
Her mother-in-law said that as the principal wife, she should be magnanimous—that woman was just a concubine.
But before she could do anything, that woman slipped and fell in the kitchen, bleeding.
She cried and threw herself into her husband’s arms, claiming she had pushed her.
In a rage, her husband banished her to the dilapidated thatched hut at the village’s edge as punishment.
He even said that if she did not repent, he would divorce her and send her back to her parents’ home on grounds of jealousy.
Her daughter cried and screamed, refusing to let her father drive her mother away, even hitting the woman with her little fists. Her husband threw them both out.
She had no choice but to take her daughter and live together in the broken hut as punishment.
Once her husband’s anger subsided, she would plead with him properly, and he would let them both return home.
Thinking of how her son, Tiedan, hid behind his grandmother when she was driven out, not even glancing at her.
Ruan Jinxiang felt a pang of sadness.
Moonlight leaking through the torn window paper fell on her face, cold as ice. She had long been in tears.
Tonight was the third night since her husband had banished her as punishment. Over the past few days, she had gathered some firewood in the mountains, barely warming the hut.
Only Dog-Sheng’s mother had brought her a bowl of thin cornmeal porridge. She and Yaya had held on until now, already weak with hunger.
She raised her hand to wipe the tears from her face. The copper bracelet on her wrist touched her cheek, feeling even colder.
She had found this bracelet in a large crack of the earthen kang on the very day she was driven out and arrived at the broken hut.
This dilapidated thatched hut used to be occupied by an old hunter. Last year, he suddenly said he was going on a long journey and would never return. Before leaving, he distributed everything in the hut to the villagers.
This copper bracelet—she didn’t know if the old hunter had left it behind or if someone else had rested in the hut and dropped it later.
She picked it up and wore it on her wrist, waiting for someone to claim it so she could return it.
Tears fell onto the copper bracelet. A glimmer of light flashed briefly and vanished.
The next day.
As dawn gradually brightened, Ruan Jinxiang prepared to go into the mountains to find something to eat.
A faint patter of footsteps sounded at the door, followed by a tender, childish voice.
“Mommy, Yaya~”
A small figure darted inside, then peeked sneakily behind.
Seeing no one had spotted him, he let out a tiny sigh of relief.
Ruan Jinxiang was taken aback. “Tiedan, what are you doing here?”
Yaya was also awakened.
Seeing it was her brother, she scrambled up in an instant, her little face immediately flushing with anger as she planted her hands on her hips.
“You don’t want Mommy—you’re a stinky egg!”
Tiedan lifted his chin proudly. “Yaya is so silly. If I came out with Mommy too, who would bring her food?”
He planned to stay with their father, then secretly take his food to support their mother—and this little fool, Yaya.
Yaya clenched her tiny fists. “Call me silly again, and I’ll hit you!”
“Mommy~ Look, Yaya wants to hit me again~”
Tiedan threw himself into Ruan Jinxiang’s arms, wrapping his arms around her neck as he whined and tattled.
His small, grubby hand reached into his bulging shirt and pulled out a coarse-grain steamed bun.
He held it out to her like a treasure. “Mommy, I took this from the kitchen this morning. You and Yaya eat it.
There’s even some white flour inside~
Grandma steamed so many yesterday~”
As he spoke, he stretched his little arms wide to show just how many.
Yaya swallowed her drool. She had almost forgotten what white flour tasted like.
Ruan Jinxiang hugged Tiedan’s thin yet sturdy little body, tears streaming down her face once more.
“Tiedan is such a good boy~” You still want your mommy.
“Mommy~” Yaya also rushed over, competing with her brother for a spot in their mother’s warm embrace.
“Yaya is such a good girl too~”
Holding her pair of twins in her arms, Ruan Jinxiang’s heart melted into a soft puddle.
No matter how difficult or bitter things got, she felt she could endure it all, waiting for the day her husband would allow her to return home.
The mother and her two children shared a quiet, intimate moment.
Ruan Jinxiang broke a steamed bun in half for Yaya, letting her eat it slowly, while saving the other half for her next meal.
Yaya held the bun in her tiny hands and swallowed a small gulp of saliva.
Ever since Father came back, the family even had white flour at home—it was just that Father was too mean.
She sniffed hard with her little nose.
She was very hungry, but instead of eating it herself, she kept pushing it toward Ruan Jinxiang’s mouth. “Mama, eat~”
Ruan Jinxiang took a small bite. “Mama is full. Yaya, eat it yourself.”
“Mama, eat it~”
Mama was lying to her again.
Before, Mama had even lied, saying: “Yaya eats the porridge, Mama drinks water and feels full.”
She was already five years old now, not a three-year-old child anymore, hmph! Mama couldn’t fool her.
Ruan Jinxiang took another small bite. “Mama isn’t hungry. Yaya, eat.”
“Mama~” Yaya whined and fussed in Ruan Jinxiang’s arms, feeding her several more bites.
Seeing her mother press her lips tightly together and refuse to eat any more, Yaya finally took a big bite herself and began eating happily.
Steamed buns made with white flour were just so delicious.
Ruan Jinxiang gently stroked Yaya’s soft hair and released the two children from her embrace.
“Tiedan, you and Yaya play nicely. Mama is going up the mountain to look for food.
You two stay in the village and play, don’t run off too far, understand?”
The two children usually played around the village, so they would be fine.
The little ones obediently replied, “We know, Mama~”
Ruan Jinxiang left the thatched hut, tightened her belt, and headed up the mountain.
The dilapidated hut had only one room. Besides a stove near the entrance and an earthen kang bed against the southern wall, the four corners of the room were empty.
She only found a broken basket in the northern corner.
Once she reached the mountain, she broke off some thin branches and patched up the basket, making it barely usable.
Winter had already arrived, and there were no wild fruits left on the mountain. The mountain’s bounty had long been picked clean by the villagers.
She could only search around, hoping to find some overlooked chestnuts or walnuts to fill their stomachs.
She headed straight for the wild walnut trees she knew.
After searching for a long time, she only found a few walnuts and picked a small handful of dried wild jujubes still clinging to the branches.
Ruan Jinxiang grew worried.
This little bit of food wasn’t even enough for Yaya.
Without food and with the thatched hut so cold, how many more days could she and Yaya hold on?
These past few years had been unbearably hard—enslaved by bandit soldiers, forced to labor without enough food, living in constant fear.
Worry seemed etched into the lines of her brows.
Just as her husband’s return had eased her expression for a few days, sorrow now clouded her features again.
Distracted, she didn’t notice the ground beneath her feet, slipped, and landed hard on her bottom.
Her wrist scraped against the dry, cracked bark of a tree, and a string of blood droplets welled up.
The fine droplets of blood were slowly absorbed, strand by strand, by her copper bracelet.
The tarnished color of the copper bracelet faded away, instantly taking on the warm, lustrous sheen of a jade bracelet. Then, the copper bracelet slowly vanished completely from Ruan Jinxiang’s wrist.
Ruan Jinxiang let out a startled cry. After her fall, a blinding white light flashed before her eyes, and the scenery suddenly changed.
“Beep beep beep~”
“Your order is about to be overdue~”
A person wearing a helmet like a soldier’s, riding something she couldn’t identify, whooshed past right in front of her.
Startled, Ruan Jinxiang screamed “Ah~” and nearly fell to the ground again.
Wh-where was this?
Her eyes wide with terror, she scanned her surroundings in confusion.
She was standing on a wide road, still holding the broken basket in her hand, which contained the few wild walnuts and dried jujubes she had just gathered.
However, this road was neither dirt nor paved with bluestone slabs; it was so wide, so smooth, and so clean.
Across the road, a cacophony of hawking and selling filled the air—it seemed to be a marketplace.
But this marketplace was enormous; she couldn’t see either end of it.
Turning around, she looked at the buildings behind her. Were these even houses?
They weren’t made of wood, nor of mud bricks, stone, or tiles.
Ruan Jinxiang tilted her head back. How could these buildings be so tall!
It was as if six or seven houses were stacked on top of each other, towering even higher than the city gate of Fuzhou.
The people coming and going were dressed so strangely.
The men had their hair cut extremely short, not a single one wore it tied up. The women didn’t wear their hair in buns either; their hair varied in length, some tied back at the nape, others left loose and flowing.
Even stranger, the clothes these people wore didn’t have a single patch on them!
And there were so many colors, all bright and vibrant.
Regardless of age or gender, not a single person looked sallow or emaciated; everyone appeared energetic and full of vitality.
Even the slender women had a healthy glow on their faces.
Where on earth was this?
Food and clothing were so abundant here.
Had she stumbled and fallen into a realm of immortals!