Buy one herself?
That’s a bicycle we’re talking about! There aren’t even ten households in the village that own bicycles, and don’t you need industrial coupons to buy one?
Seeing Jiang Manman walking swiftly ahead, Wang Guihua couldn’t even catch up.
By the time she caught up, Jiang Manman had already ridden the bicycle out from her house. Wang Guihua stamped her feet in anger.
She rushed inside and confronted Jiang Weiguo, who was resting at home at noon.
“Are you dead or what? How could you let her take the bicycle away?”
Jiang Weiguo stood at the door and sighed.
“She’s my sister. That bicycle was originally part of the betrothal gifts Tang Intellectual Youth gave her. We’ve been using it all these years, and it’s not right to keep using it indefinitely. If she wants to take it, let her take it.”
Hearing her husband say this, Wang Guihua could only seethe with helpless anger.
“But if she takes it away, it’ll be inconvenient for us to go to town or anywhere else in the future. You’re really something. What kind of sister is she? She’s not even born from the same mother as you. You acknowledge her, but she doesn’t acknowledge you. Now that she’s climbed up the social ladder, she turns her back and doesn’t recognize anyone.”
“Enough of that!”
Tangxin Tangyuan was waiting for Jiang Manman at home. This time, Jiang Manman gave each of them a Vajra amulet and a Tracking amulet.
The Vajra amulet could defend against attacks.
The Tracking amulet ensured that no matter where they went, she could always find them.
Not to mention, there was also that useless turtle, Xuanwu.
The two little ones happily ran up to her when they saw her returning on the bicycle.
“Mom, you brought the bicycle back!”
“Mom, I want to ride, I want to ride!”
Tangxin clapped her little hands excitedly and tried to climb onto the bicycle. Jiang Manman got off, picked up the little one, and placed her on the crossbar at the front of the bicycle.
She then picked up the other one and placed them on the crossbar as well. Fortunately, the bicycle’s front crossbar was sturdy enough to hold two small children without any issue.
Jiang Manman took the two little ones for a short ride on the flat ground near their home.
However, the rural roads were full of bumps and uneven patches, making the ride uncomfortable. So, she simply took the two children to the town’s supply and marketing cooperative.
Although many items required coupons, if she only had money, she could always engage in some speculative trading at the Black Market to exchange for coupons.
After obtaining various coupons, she took the two little ones to buy sugar, rice, flour, and cooking oil.
Even though they rarely cooked at home, it was necessary to have these essentials.
She deliberately brought back a lot of goods on the bicycle to make sure the villagers saw it.
In the days to come, she planned to stay at home with the children and retreat into her Dimension to cultivate.
She was already at the seventh level of Qi Training and needed to consolidate her cultivation and nourish her meridians, all of which required time.
Otherwise, those old-timers in the World of Cultivation wouldn’t go into seclusion for centuries at a time, only to emerge and find the sky still as blue as ever, with half the people no longer the same.
The villagers might see her, but the local customs were still simple and honest at this time. Even if they were envious, they would only gossip behind her back.
Of course, if any troublemakers tried to bully a widow and her orphans, they would undoubtedly face condemnation from the entire village.
There were still thieves and scoundrels around, but if you tried to find Jiang Manman’s house at night, you’d be out of luck.
You might see her house right in front of you, but no matter how long you walked, you’d get nowhere.
And along the way, you might encounter some unknown creatures, like ghosts or monsters.
You could tell by checking if there were any raving madmen near their house in the morning—those would be the ones who had tried to scheme against them during the night.
To match everyone’s daily routine and avoid giving the impression that her household was empty, she would fill the pot with water and have the Black Tortoise light the fire morning, noon, and night.
As a water-attributed Divine Turtle, it could simply spray water into the pot whenever it dried out.
A pile of firewood was also prepared. For a Divine Turtle, tending a fire was no trouble at all.
This ensured that people outside would see smoke rising from their chimney, making it seem as though the mother and her two children had already begun “winter nesting” even though it wasn’t yet winter.
In reality, she took the two little ones to the seventh level of the Dimension to cultivate, striving to help them break through to the second layer of Qi Training as soon as possible.
Given their exceptional Single Spiritual Root aptitude, rapid progress in cultivation was only natural.
For over ten consecutive days, no one disturbed them. Then one day, Tang Yumin came again, and Jiang Manman emerged from the Dimension to deal with him.
After seeing him off, Jiang Manman continued cultivating in the Dimension with the two children.
She approached matters from a cultivator’s perspective but forgot that humans are social creatures.
Children are naturally inclined to play, and being confined to closed-door cultivation with her for extended periods was bound to cause issues.
Fortunately, before a month had passed, the Village Chief visited. It turned out the town was establishing a primary school.
Before primary school, there was a preschool class—children started school at six and attended preschool at five.
However, enrollment was initially low, so the Village Chief came to ask if her two children would attend preschool.
“They won’t turn four until September. Isn’t it too early for them to start preschool now?”
When the Village Chief arrived, the turtle responsible for tending the fire in the kitchen sent Jiang Manman a message.
She promptly emerged from the Dimension and, upon hearing the Village Chief’s purpose, hesitated.
In truth, it wouldn’t be a problem for them to attend—the children were genuinely clever and had already learned around a hundred characters from Jiang Manman’s teachings.
The Village Chief nodded, not insisting they must go.
“I noticed your two children don’t often come out to play. Last time, I heard you teaching them characters, and they’d learned quite a few. That’s why I came to ask. You can’t always keep them cooped up without letting them play outside. Otherwise, they’ll become too isolated from the other village children, won’t they?”
Jiang Manman took the Village Chief’s words to heart, reflecting that the children were indeed young and perhaps she shouldn’t force their growth.
“Village Chief, let them go then! Should they come home for lunch or bring their own meals?”
“They’ll definitely come home for meals. Since you’re not working anyway, be diligent about picking them up and dropping them off. It’s not far from our village—right at the border between Beishan Village and Xizhou Village. You can see it from the rooftop. If your two are going, I’ll register them for now.”
“Go ahead and register them!”
School wouldn’t start until September 1st, by which time they would be nearly four.
With two months still to go, Jiang Manman informed the children and continued urging them to cultivate.
The two months passed quickly. Jiang Manman fully stabilized her Cultivation at the seventh layer of Qi Training.
The two little ones had yet to break through to the second layer of Qi Training, remaining at the first layer.
Truth be told, the children struggled to sit still and often ran off to play.
In her seventh-level small world, there were many low-level Demon Beasts. Since the two youngsters often stayed with Jiang Manman, they carried her aura.
In this small world, Jiang Manman was the master, the heavenly law—a being who could move mountains and seas with a single thought.
Thus, the low-level Demon Beasts in this small world, even when toyed with by the two human children, dared not resist.
After two months of letting the two little ones indulge their freedom, they couldn’t rein themselves in when it was time to start school.