Dark storm clouds gathered from every direction, swallowing the sky until daylight vanished almost completely.
Not long after, torrential rain came crashing down from the heavens. Several bolts of lightning split across the sky, followed by deafening thunder that seemed powerful enough to shatter the clouds and split the earth apart.
Even with her ears covered, Li Xiyue still trembled in fright.
Zhu Qingshan immediately pulled her into his arms and gently comforted her.
Doudou had apparently been playing somewhere outside earlier. Now, terrified by the thunder, the little dog scratched frantically at the door while whining pitifully.
Suppressing her own fear, Zhu Qinghe cracked the door open just enough to let Doudou inside. By the time she shut it again, fierce wind and rain had already splashed her entire face.
She quickly dried the puppy off and hugged him tightly in her arms.
One girl and one dog comforted each other miserably.
The rainstorm lasted for three full days and nights.
Rainwater surged into the mountain streams and roared through the valleys, crashing violently against rocks and creating thunderous echoes throughout the wilderness.
When the skies finally cleared, the sunlight felt soft and warm once more.
But hundreds of kilometers away, what had once been fertile plains had already turned into a vast sea of floodwater. Countless people would never again see such beautiful sunlight.
Zhu Qingshan silently continued chopping firewood in the yard.
Each swing of the axe was heavier than the last until the woodshed could no longer hold another piece.
Li Xiyue could only let out a quiet sigh.
Everything in this world seemed to follow a predetermined fate.
He had been reborn.
She had transmigrated.
Yet even two tiny butterflies like them still could not completely alter destiny itself.
That night, the couple slept wrapped in each other’s arms. Outside, the fields and forests gradually came alive again with the sounds of insects and birds after days of silence.
Li Xiyue gently rubbed Zhu Qingshan’s stiff muscles.
“Zhu Qingshan, you already did everything you could,” she whispered softly. “Don’t blame yourself for this tragedy. Sometimes humans simply cannot defeat heaven itself. You already saved many people by giving them advance warning. That alone is a tremendous act of kindness.”
“Go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a new day.”
The tension Zhu Qingshan had been carrying finally loosened.
That was right.
Whether he existed or not, this disaster still would have happened.
Even after being given a second chance at life, he was not some savior capable of rescuing the entire world.
As for those who lost their lives…
He could only hope that somewhere, somehow, they too might awaken once more from a long dream, just as he had.
The next morning, Li Xiyue asked Zhu Qingshan to till the soil in the courtyard and scatter wood ash across it.
After letting the ground dry beneath the sun for half a day, she carefully divided the soil into neat rows and planted fast-growing vegetables such as water spinach, chives, and baby greens.
Then she transplanted the tomato seedlings from her space.
The seedlings had already grown as tall as chopsticks inside the medicinal field. After watering them with spiritual spring water, she figured there was a good chance they would bear fruit long before two or three months passed.
After thinking about it, she also planted a small patch of scallions and cilantro.
Normally, this season was not suitable for growing them, but the mountain temperatures were relatively cool, and with regular watering from the spiritual spring, they would probably thrive just fine.
The corners of the courtyard still looked a little empty.
At some point, she planned to buy flowers from the county and plant them there as decoration.
“Sister Li, what are you planting? I’ve never seen those before. Where did the seedlings come from?”
Zhu Qinghe had just returned after delivering one of the wild rabbits Zhu Qingshan caught to their eldest uncle’s family.
“I’m not really sure either,” Li Xiyue answered casually. “Your brother brought back the seeds. We kept them warm indoors for half a month before they finally grew this tall.”
Once they matured, wouldn’t they naturally find out what they were?
She answered vaguely on purpose.
Thanks to Zhu Qingshan and the protection of their relatives, Zhu Qinghe had grown up without hardship and had rarely worked in the fields. At most, she planted a few common vegetables in the yard, so fooling her was fairly easy.
As soon as she heard the seeds came from her brother, Zhu Qinghe immediately accepted the explanation.
After all, Zhu Qingshan traveled all over the country. He had even visited deserts and coastal regions before. No matter what strange things he brought back, she would not find it surprising.
“Let’s eat pickled pepper rabbit tonight! I’ll go ask Brother to butcher the rabbits!”
Zhu Qinghe’s eyes sparkled with excitement.
Not long ago, the pickled peppers in their jars had finally fermented properly, and after Li Xiyue made pickled pepper rabbit once, the siblings completely fell in love with the spicy and sour flavor.
As a result, Zhu Qingshan had started going up the mountain more often to hunt.
“Alright, you two little gluttons,” Li Xiyue laughed.
Zhu Qinghe happily ran off to find her brother.
The rabbits, meanwhile, probably had strong opinions about all this.
After busying themselves for most of the day, Zhu Qinghe finally got her long-awaited pickled pepper rabbit for dinner.
While eating, she once again deeply felt that her brother must have accumulated immense blessings in his previous life to marry someone as amazing as her sister-in-law.
Only after dinner did Zhu Qingshan finally speak.
“I’ll be heading to the county tomorrow,” he said. “I’ve rested long enough. The escort agency will probably start getting busy again.”
Zhu Qinghe immediately turned to glance at Li Xiyue.
She herself was already used to this sort of thing, but the couple had only recently gotten married…
Li Xiyue stayed silent.
She understood very well that Zhu Qingshan had spent years traveling through dangerous places in search of his kidnapped younger brother, Zhu Qingsen.
She could not ask him to give that up.
That night, Li Xiyue dug through her space and pulled out a compact dagger and a sharp Tang saber she had once purchased while traveling in Tibet.
After that came flashlights, lighters, compressed biscuits, thermoses, umbrellas, wound medicine, gauze, iodine solution, fever medication, and nearly every useful item she could think of.
Zhu Qingshan wrapped his arms around her from behind.
“I thought you didn’t want me to go,” he murmured softly.
After a pause, he added, “This trip will take at least two months.”
Li Xiyue turned around to look at him.
“If I said I didn’t want you to go, would you stay?”
Zhu Qingshan said nothing.
Looking into his eyes, Li Xiyue sighed softly.
“I know the escort agency isn’t just work for you. It’s also your way of searching for Qing sen. Without traveling for escort missions, you’d have even fewer opportunities to look for him.”
“So go without worries. Only by staying healthy can your family truly reunite one day.”
Zhu Qingshan silently pulled her into his embrace and held her tightly for a very long time.
The next morning, after seeing Zhu Qingshan off, Li Xiyue deliberately kept herself busy to avoid dwelling on her emotions.
She and Zhu Qinghe invited their eldest aunt, Madam Chen, to head into the mountains to gather mushrooms again.
After the heavy rain, mushrooms had sprouted everywhere once more.
Their supply of mountain delicacy sauce was running low, so they planned to gather more ingredients. Any leftovers could simply be dried for later use.
As expected, experience truly mattered.
The place Madam Chen brought them to was covered with mushrooms from one end of the mountain to the other.
Before noon even arrived, all three of their baskets were already full.
After making another batch of mountain delicacy sauce, they continued going up the mountain several more times until the entire courtyard was covered in drying mushrooms.
Doudou tried running wildly through the piles of mushrooms, only to be scolded by Li Xiyue.
The wronged little dog immediately ran off to seek comfort from Zhu Qinghe.
Time slowly passed beneath the deliberate busyness of the two women.
Half a month later, the baby greens in the garden had already grown several inches tall.
After washing them clean, Li Xiyue briefly blanched the vegetables in boiling water before placing them into noodle bowls.
A little salt, some noodle seasoning, a splash of vinegar, a spoonful of pork lard, chopped scallions, and finally a fried egg on top.
The result was a simple but delicious bowl of clear soup noodles.
The two women finished every bite in no time and even drank the soup clean.
Meanwhile, Doudou spent his days happily eating and sleeping.
He had already grown noticeably bigger, so much so that Zhu Qinghe could no longer carry him around easily.
One day, on a whim, the two decided to visit the county town.
Before they left, Madam Chen stopped them outside the eldest uncle’s house and asked them to bring back a pound of meat.
The two readily agreed.
Along the road, villagers bent over in the fields planting late-season corn.
The drought would not arrive until next spring, around February or March, so nobody wanted to leave their land empty for now.
“Xiyue, where are you two headed?” Fourth Aunt Li called out after finishing a row of planting.
“Just heading to the county for a stroll,” Li Xiyue replied with a smile. “Do you need us to bring anything back?”
“Help me buy two sewing needles. Mine snapped.” Fourth Aunt Li handed over ten copper coins.
“Qinghe, buy me a packet of mung bean cakes. My grandson keeps asking for them!”
“Bring me a block of tofu too, my husband’s craving it!”
The villagers all started calling out requests one after another.
Fortunately, most of the items were light.
Otherwise, the two women would never have managed to carry everything back.