However, no one’s guess even came close to the truth.
The next day, Yun Xiu woke up bright and early.
Snowflakes danced in the air outside, though fortunately, there was no howling wind.
He washed a few vegetable leaves, cooked a pot of rice porridge, and added a dollop of lard.
The resulting porridge carried a rich, meaty aroma.
After downing a large bowl himself, he woke up his wife and granddaughter.
“Old lady, Xiaobao, get up and have some rice porridge.
You won’t feel so cold once you eat.”
“Rice porridge?” Yun Old Lady was momentarily stunned before remembering that their daughter had brought back refined rice and pork fat the previous night.
She hurriedly got up, drank a bowl, and fed some to Xiaobao.
Outside, the sky was just barely beginning to lighten.
“It’s still early,” she said.
“I reckon the Village Chief’s family isn’t even awake yet.
You should go a bit later.”
“I can’t.
We ate fragrant noodles the day before yesterday and rendered lard last night.
The smell has long since drifted through the village.
The villagers aren’t fools.
Everyone is starving and freezing, so why is our family the only one eating meat?
Someone will definitely come to investigate.
I need to tell the Village Chief about this early on so he can explain it to the rest of the village.” Yun Xiu was afraid that if he went any later, his doorway would be blocked by a mob.
“Take your time on the road,” Yun Old Lady said, no longer trying to stop him.
“I will.” Yun Xiu grabbed three oranges and ten plump, juicy dark-purple grapes.
He poured the rice porridge into a clay pot, sealed it tightly, and tucked both the pot and the fruit into the breast of his coat before hurrying toward the Village Chief’s home.
Along the way, he repeatedly rehearsed what he was going to say.
Zhen Niang had been taken in as a disciple by an immortal!
She was now a Goddess, sent by the immortal to deliver them from suffering!
Whether the Village Chief believed him or not didn’t matter.
Once he saw the white rice porridge and the fresh fruit, he would have no choice but to believe.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
He pounded on the Village Chief’s door.
“Brother Li, open up!
It’s me, Yun Xiu.”
Inside the house, Li Zheng and his wife were huddled together, each holding a granddaughter in their arms.
Unlike the Yun Family’s simple household of four, the Li Family was large and thriving.
Li Zheng had five sons and two daughters.
Aside from his youngest son, who was an apprentice at the town clinic, and his eldest daughter, who had married into a family in the county town, the rest were all at home.
Counting their five grandchildren, there were sixteen mouths to feed under one roof.
More people meant more food consumed.
Their grain reserves had been entirely wiped out, leaving not even the seeds for the next harvest.
Now, with nothing left to eat, he was too worried to sleep.
The villagers were suffering from both the biting cold and gnawing hunger, yet as the Village Chief, he was completely helpless.
The Village Chief’s wife was dizzy with hunger.
“Old man, someone’s knocking.
Is that Yun Xiu?”
At the mention of Yun Xiu, one couldn’t help but think of the meaty aroma from the night before.
Originally, they had planned to go over and check on his family once it was fully light out, convinced that Yun Xiu must have sliced off his own flesh to feed his wife and child.
Yet his voice sounded full of vigor, and the force behind his pounding on the door was substantial.
He didn’t sound weak in the slightest.
“I’ll go open the door.” Shoving his granddaughter into his wife’s arms, he headed outside.
CREAAAK.
The heavy wooden door opened.
Li Zheng saw snow resting on Yun Xiu’s hair, eyebrows, and shoulders.
“Hurry, come inside.”
Yun Xiu looked as if he had something important to say, which was perfect, because Li Zheng had plenty of questions of his own—like the meaty smell from last night.
He discreetly sized Yun Xiu up but couldn’t see any signs of injury.
On the contrary, Yun Xiu somehow looked like a man who had eaten his fill and drank to his heart’s content.
“Brother Li, where are the kids?” Yun Xiu asked.
Li Zheng’s face was filled with bitterness.
“With the snow this heavy, they’re all hunkered down inside.
Do you need the boys for something?”
“No, I’m only looking for you.” He stepped into the room and saw the Village Chief’s wife.
“Mrs.
Li, I’m sorry for disturbing your rest so early in the morning.”
The Village Chief’s wife huddled her freezing body.
“You wouldn’t have come over so early unless it was something urgent.”
Yun Xiu’s expression turned grave.
“Brother Li, what I’m about to say might shock you both.”
“What is it?” Li Zheng pressed.
The Village Chief’s wife tucked her two groggy granddaughters back under the covers and leaned in closer as well.
Taking a deep breath, Yun Xiu cut straight to the chase.
He pulled the items from his coat and set them on the bare table.
“Take a look at this first.” He removed the lid from the clay pot, and the rich scent of rice instantly filled the air.
Then, he pulled three oranges and ten grapes from his cloth bundle.
An intoxicating, fresh, and sweet fragrance exploded in the room.
GRUMBLE GRUMBLE!
GRUMBLE!
BOOM!
Li Zheng’s mind went entirely blank as he stared at the items on the table in absolute shock.
“Rice porridge!
It’s rice porridge!” The Village Chief’s wife shrieked, her voice so sharp it sounded as if she had just suffered a massive fright.
“Mother!
What’s wrong?” Hearing the commotion, their sons, daughters-in-law, daughters, and grandsons all rushed over from the next room.
Hearing her terrified, piercing scream so early in the morning, they assumed something terrible had happened.
“What smells so good?” Without a doubt, they had all caught the scent of the rice and fruit.
The aroma was simply too enticing, and one by one, their stomachs began to growl.
“Rice porridge!
And fruit!”
The items on the table were incredibly eye-catching.
Everyone present was so astonished their jaws dropped.
The children shot wolfish glares at the food, staring hungrily at the porridge.
Even the two granddaughters, jolted awake by the noise, joined the ranks of the stunned onlookers.
“Brother Li, this is exactly why I came to find you so early,” Yun Xiu said.
The Village Chief eagerly asked him, “Refined rice and fresh fruit—where on earth did all this come from?” The porridge in the pot was gleaming and pristine white; one look was enough to tell it was made from the finest grain.
Meanwhile, the pile of fruit was sweet and tantalizing, looking as though it had just been plucked from the vine.
Where could anyone find fresh fruit in the middle of a blizzard?
The Village Chief’s wife shook her head in disbelief.
“The night before last, and again last night, the villagers smelled meat coming from your house.
We all assumed you couldn’t bear to watch your wife and child starve and had sliced off your own flesh!
But with these things sitting right here on the table…
that means your family actually had real meat to eat, as well as refined rice and fresh fruit!”
“Good heavens!
Never mind this famine, even in peaceful years I’ve never seen rice porridge this white!
And the scent of these fruits is entirely unique.
Could they be Immortal Fruit?” Li Dahu, the Village Chief’s eldest son, was a few years younger than Yun Xiu.
Looking at the Uncle Yun he had known for twenty-odd years, he suddenly found the man somewhat unfamiliar.
“Uncle Yun, the yellow fruit smells so good,” second son Li Er Bao said, licking his lips.
“I’m so hungry.
I want to eat,” the children chimed in, clinging to the edge of the table, their eyes brimming with desperation.
“Let the kids eat first, and then we’ll talk,” Yun Xiu said.
The Village Chief’s wife and her two daughters-in-law hurriedly grabbed several bowls.
There wasn’t much porridge—only enough for half a bowl per person—but for the children, whose ribs were practically touching their backbones, it was a tremendous, joyous surprise.
“The white rice porridge is so soft and sticky.
If only we could eat this every day,” the Village Chief’s youngest grandson murmured as he shoveled the food into his mouth.
Yun Xiu handed each of the children a single grape.
Since there weren’t enough for Li Zheng and his wife, he peeled an orange and gave them two wedges each.
The large clay pot of hot porridge was completely wiped clean in no time at all.
The taste of the grapes and oranges was simply divine.
Once they finished eating, the Village Chief anxiously broke the silence.
“Yun Xiu, can you explain now?”
The rest of the family held their breath.
Yun Xiu’s expression turned entirely solemn.
“These things were actually acquired by Zhen Niang.”
“Zhen Niang?” the crowd repeated, completely confused.
Yun Xiu fell back on the story he had prepared.
“Zhen Niang caught the eye of an immortal and was taken in as a disciple.
She is now a Goddess.
The immortal specifically sent her back to deliver us from suffering.”
An immortal?
A Goddess?
The Village Chief’s family was left utterly bewildered.
Yun Xiu let out an earnest sigh.
“I’m not making up stories to deceive you.
Do you really think an ordinary mortal could get their hands on refined rice and fresh fruit when a blizzard has sealed off the mountains?”
Obviously, it was impossible.
Compared to the others, the Village Chief’s wife was more inclined to believe this explanation.
“How did Zhen Niang encounter this immortal?”
“I went out to gather firewood yesterday,” Yun Xiu answered.
“When Zhen Niang went to the foot of the mountain to look for me, she accidentally slipped and fell into the snow.
According to her, that was how she caught the immortal’s eye.
The immortal transported her to a miraculous realm.
The people there never have to worry about food or drink, and they wear clothes made of pure cotton!
They have so much food that whatever they can’t finish, they just throw away.
And goods there are incredibly cheap!
This refined white rice would cost over a hundred cents a catty in the county town during a famine, but there, it only costs one cent a catty!
“The meaty smell you all caught yesterday was from rendering lard out of pork fat.
Pork fat is a luxury we wouldn’t get to taste even once a year!
It goes for forty to fifty cents a catty here, nearly rivaling the price of refined grain, but over there, it only costs five cents a catty!
“Zhen Niang is currently doing work for the immortal.
Every day, the immortal gives her one hundred and ten cents.
That’s enough to buy one hundred and ten catties of refined white rice, or even a hefty pile of pork fat!”