When the iron block beneath the Chinese banyan tree began to ring, everyone in Jiang Village heard it.
The thing was nothing more than a broken iron plowshare hanging from a tree branch. When struck with a stone, it produced a dull, heavy sound that could carry for two li.
For decades, the people of Jiang Village had relied on it to spread important news.
The iron block rang seven times.
Seven strikes meant something serious, something of the utmost importance. Everyone was to gather at the Jiang family’s ancestral hall.
Jiang Wanning and the Old Clan Leader arrived at the ancestral hall together.
The first to arrive was Jiang Yu and her family, who lived next door to the ancestral hall. Jiang Yu was the Old Clan Leader’s biological niece and was a little over thirty.
These days, there are far more men than women, and women from families with decent circumstances could marry two or three husbands. Jiang Yu was considered to be living quite well in the village.
“Aunt, what happened?” Jiang Yu asked, slightly out of breath.
The Old Clan Leader was crouching beneath the Chinese banyan tree, still holding the stone she had used to strike the iron block. Without even raising her head, she said, “Wait! We’ll talk when everyone is here.”
Gradually, more and more people gathered.
There were more than one hundred and thirty people in Jiang Village, and after hearing the iron block ring, not a single person failed to come.
The crowd buzzed with speculation as everyone tried to guess what had happened.
“Did the authorities come to collect taxes again?”
“That can’t be it. The crops aren’t even ready to harvest yet.”
“Then what could be important enough for seven strikes?”
Jiang Wanning stood at the entrance of the ancestral hall and watched the villagers.
She didn’t recognize all of them, but most seemed familiar. The vague faces from her dreams now stood before her, alive and real.
Several women around her age were accompanied by two men each.
One of them was named Jiang Wanmei. A tall, muscular man stood on her left, while a fair, refined looking man stood on her right. Both stood half a step behind her with perfect respect, not even daring to let their eyes wander.
Jiang Wanxing leaned close to Jiang Wanning and whispered, “Wanmei married her second husband last year.”
Jiang Wanning nodded.
That brat was certainly eating well.
Once almost everyone had arrived, the Old Clan Leader finally stood.
She didn’t speak immediately and instead glanced at Jiang Wanning, who gave her a slight nod.
The Old Clan Leader cleared her throat. Her voice wasn’t loud, but the entire crowd gradually fell silent.
“I called everyone here because there’s something we need to discuss.”
She paused, as though considering how best to explain it.
“You all know Jiang Wanning. She was foolish and confused for fifteen years, but she recovered a few days ago.”
Someone in the crowd quietly said, “We heard,” while most remained silent, waiting for her to continue.
The Old Clan Leader took a deep breath.
“She didn’t recover on her own. Her soul was summoned away by an immortal, and she spent many years in that immortal’s world. A few days ago, the immortal sent her back.”
The entrance to the ancestral hall immediately erupted into chaos.
“Her soul?”
“An immortal?”
“What does that even mean?”
The Old Clan Leader raised her hand and pressed it downward.
As the clan leader, she was both the eldest and one of the most respected people in the village. Although everyone continued whispering among themselves, the crowd slowly quieted.
“I’ve said what I needed to say.”
The Old Clan Leader stepped aside.
“Wanning can explain the rest herself.”
Every pair of eyes turned toward Jiang Wanning.
Those gazes held curiosity, suspicion, and scrutiny.
A girl who had been foolish and confused for fifteen years suddenly claiming that she had been chosen by an immortal? Who would believe that?
Jiang Wanning stepped out from the entrance of the ancestral hall and stood on the stone steps.
She didn’t rush to speak. Instead, her gaze slowly swept across every face in the crowd, from left to right and then back again.
Only after looking over the crowd twice did she finally speak.
“I showed Clan Leader Grandma something earlier,” she said. Her voice wasn’t loud, but the area in front of the ancestral hall was quiet enough for everyone to hear clearly. “Now, I’ll show it to all of you as well.”
She extended her right hand, palm facing upward.
With a thought, a piece of pork appeared in her hand.
It weighed four or five jin, and its thick layer of white fat glistened beneath the sunlight.
The crowd reacted as though they had been burned, collectively taking a step back.
“This…”
“Where did she get that from?”
“I was staring right at her hand! There was nothing there, and then it suddenly appeared!”
Jiang Wanning raised the pork slightly higher so that everyone could see it.
“This meat was bestowed by the immortal.”
Then she put the pork back into the Realm of Ningyuan and took out the bag of white rice instead. Untying its opening, she revealed the gleaming grains, so white beneath the sunlight that they were almost dazzling.
“Have any of you ever seen rice like this?”
No one answered.
Everyone stared at the bag of rice with wide eyes.
Jiang Wanning put it away and dusted off her hands.
“The immortal sent me back.”
Her voice grew solemn.
“The immortal said that this land is about to suffer great disasters. The earth will shake, heavenly fire will scorch the wilderness, floods will rise to the skies, and after that, there will be a long period of extreme cold.”
She raised a finger.
“On the seventh day of the eighth month, the earth will shake. There are only twenty days left.”
The crowd erupted once more.
“Will the earth shake?”
“Twenty days?”
“How could anyone possibly know that?”
Jiang Wanning ignored the voices and continued.
“From now on, everyone must harvest their crops. Whether they’re ripe or not, everything must be harvested within the next twenty days.”
“But the crops aren’t fully ripe yet,” someone in the crowd said quietly.
After all, food was what kept people alive.
“I know some of you still don’t believe me,” Jiang Wanning said. “That’s fine. I don’t need you to believe me right now. But the crops must be harvested. There is no room for discussion on this matter.”
The area before the ancestral hall gradually quieted.
Some people whispered to one another, but they kept their voices low. In truth, most of them did believe her. They simply couldn’t bear to give up food that had not yet fully ripened.
At that moment, the Old Clan Leader stepped forward.
“I believe everything Wanning says.”
Her voice was hoarse but powerful.
“I’ve lived for most of my life, but I’ve never seen rice like that, medicine like that, or anyone who could make things appear out of thin air. Have any of you?”
No one spoke.
“If you don’t believe her, do you believe me?” the Old Clan Leader asked.
After a moment of silence, someone finally answered.
“We believe you, Clan Leader.”
“Then listen to her,” the Old Clan Leader said. “Harvest every crop. If anyone has objections, step forward and tell me now.”
No one stepped forward.
The Old Clan Leader waited for a moment before nodding.
“There is one more thing.”
Her expression suddenly became extremely serious.
“Everything said here today, especially the fact that Wanning possesses things bestowed by the immortal, must remain a secret. If anyone tells people outside the village…”
She paused, her gaze sweeping across every face like a blade.
“May heaven strike you down.”
The moment her words fell, thunder suddenly boomed overhead.
Everyone jumped.
Several timid villagers immediately crouched down, covering their mouths to keep themselves from screaming.
The sky, which had been clear only moments earlier, had somehow become covered by a dark cloud, and the thunder had erupted from within it.
After the thunder faded, the silence before the ancestral hall was so complete that the rustling of leaves in the wind could be heard.
Even Jiang Wanning was stunned.
She certainly hadn’t arranged that.
But she reacted quickly.
She raised her head and looked at the dark cloud, then turned to the crowd, whose faces had gone pale with fright. The corners of her lips twitched slightly before she quickly composed herself.
“The immortal is watching.”
Her voice wasn’t loud, but every word seemed to fall from the heavens.
“You all heard that just now.”
Someone in the crowd began trembling.
The Old Clan Leader was the first to recover.
She turned toward the ancestral hall, where the ancestral tablets were enshrined, and raised her right hand.
“I, Jiang Shufen, swear to heaven that if I reveal even a single word of what happened today, may heaven strike me down and deny me a peaceful death.”
Another clap of thunder followed.
It was even louder than the first, shaking the paper windows of the ancestral hall.
This time, no one needed the Old Clan Leader to urge them.
One after another, every villager raised a hand and swore the same oath.
After the last person had finished, the dark clouds in the sky gradually dispersed, though they did not disappear completely. Several rays of sunlight slipped through the gaps and fell brightly across the muddy ground in front of the ancestral hall.
Someone quietly whispered, “The immortal has revealed herself.”
The words spread through the crowd like a gust of wind.
Every face was filled with both awe and excitement, and the way they looked at Jiang Wanning had completely changed.
Earlier, their eyes had been filled with suspicion and scrutiny.
Now, there was something else.
Reverence!
Jiang Wanning stood on the steps with an expressionless face, but her thoughts were racing.
That thunder had come at exactly the right moment.
She hadn’t arranged it, so the only explanation was that it was the will of heaven.
Heaven was on her side, and that was more useful than making a hundred bags of white rice appear out of thin air.
“Alright.”
Her voice drew everyone’s attention back to her.
“We’ll begin dealing with the crops today. Every household will harvest its own fields.”
She glanced at the Old Clan Leader, who nodded.
No one said anything, but several people had already begun heading toward their homes, walking much faster than when they had arrived.
Jiang Wanning turned and entered the ancestral hall.
Jiang Wanxing followed behind her. The moment they stepped inside, she grabbed Jiang Wanning’s arm tightly.
“Wanwan,” Jiang Wanxing whispered, her hand trembling, “that thunder just now…”
“I didn’t expect it either,” Jiang Wanning replied truthfully.
“But it was useful,” she added.
Jiang Wanxing looked at her, her lips moving as though she wanted to say something. In the end, she merely nodded.
The Old Clan Leader entered from outside and closed the doors of the ancestral hall.
The door panels were much thicker than those of Jiang Wanning’s home. Once they were firmly shut, the room became dark, with only two oil lamps flickering on the altar table.
“Wanning,” the Old Clan Leader said quietly, “that thunder just now…”
“I didn’t call it,” Jiang Wanning said. “But since it happened, it’s a good thing.”
The Old Clan Leader stared at her for a long while before suddenly smiling.
This smile was different from all her previous ones. It wasn’t the toothless smile that revealed the gaps in her mouth, but a relaxed smile, as though a heavy burden had finally been lifted from her shoulders.
“Girl, even if you told me you weren’t sent by the immortal, I wouldn’t believe you.”
Jiang Wanning didn’t respond.
She walked over to the altar table and looked at the wooden ancestral tablets resting upon it.
The names of generations of the Jiang family’s ancestors were carved into them. Some names she recognized, while others were unfamiliar.
No one knew whether those ancestral tablets would still be standing there twenty days from now.
“Clan Leader Grandma.”
Jiang Wanning turned around.
“If any household is struggling to finish harvesting, those who have already completed their own work should go and help them. We may all have to share meals together in the end.”
The Old Clan Leader nodded.
“And another thing.”
Jiang Wanning paused to think.
“The elderly people in the village who live alone and those without anyone capable of working, arrange for others to help harvest their fields as well. We can’t leave anyone behind.”
She paused briefly before continuing.
“After the crops are harvested, everyone should sell their land. Once everything falls into chaos, land will be useless. It would be better to exchange it for money and stockpile supplies.”
The Old Clan Leader nodded again, this time firmly.
After saying everything she needed to say, Jiang Wanning pushed open the door and walked outside.
The sky beyond the ancestral hall had already cleared.
The dark cloud had disappeared at some point, and the sun hung brightly overhead, hot enough to make her forehead burn.