Suisui didn’t cry, and Bian Yun secretly breathed a sigh of relief. If the child had been crying and fussing incessantly, she truly wouldn’t have known how to coax her; after all, she had zero experience in raising children.
“I’m going to earn spirit stones. Mother is in charge of cultivating and protecting Suisui, and Suisui is in charge of earning spirit stones to raise Mother. I have to earn lots and lots of spirit stones, otherwise, we won’t have money to eat food-food.”
Bian Yun: “…”
Is this the ‘little task’ belonging to Suisui that Ye Wan mentioned? Making a three-year-old child earn money to support the family?
Although it diverted the child’s attention, wasn’t this a bit… inhuman?
Then again, if I made Suisui start body-tempering right now, would that be even more inhuman?
On the way to the Library, the scenes flashing through Ye Wan’s mind were all those modern short videos of mothers sending their children to kindergarten for the first time.
Worried the child wouldn’t adapt, or that the child would cry because they couldn’t find their mother, the mothers would linger at the school gate, reluctant to leave.
When she was almost at the Library, Ye Wan decided to head back and take a look to see if her daughter was indeed crying.
With the little Divine Tree as a companion, it wasn’t hard at all to find out where Suisui was.
Suisui had already taken the “little task” assigned by her mother and gone to the small plaza on the east side of the sect to set up a stall.
The sect had an area specifically for disciples to set up stalls to help each other out. They could barter goods or purchase things with contribution points or spirit stones.
As soon as Ye Wan reached the plaza, she heard her daughter’s babbling, milky voice.
“My name is Suisui. Sister, you are just as pwetty as my Mother… I’m almost a big child eating four-year-old meals!”
“Daddy? Mother says she doesn’t know which corner Daddy is digging wild vegetables in. If Sister sees my Daddy, wemember to tell him to come home!”
Mother said I can’t let people know Daddy is in the sky, otherwise, lots of people will make wishes to Daddy, and then Daddy won’t have time to look at Suisui. If I swap him for a wild vegetable-digging Daddy, no one will snatch him from Suisui.
Ye Wan stopped not far away, watching Suisui with the little Ice Phoenix perched on her head. While answering the questions of the surrounding older brothers and sisters, Suisui fished things out of her little storage bag and laid them out haphazardly.
Lang Xuan helped straighten them from time to time—well, they weren’t exactly very straight.
Those were all things Ye Wan had knitted for Suisui to play house with when she was idle: a cute little duck wearing a sunflower, a little rabbit wearing a dress and a backpack, a pink pig with a small crossbody bag, and various other charming knitted dolls.
Suisui had insisted on keeping these herself once she got a storage bag.
Besides those, there was a strawberry hair clip that Ye Wan had knitted this morning after many attempts at incorporating spiritual power into the weaving—knitting and unraveling, unraveling and knitting.
Because Suisui’s crying had been so sudden, she had set it aside and forgotten to put it away. Naturally, she hadn’t verified if it was a success.
Ye Wan saw at a glance that Suisui was setting up a “ring toss” stall. This was something she used to keep Suisui entertained back in the village. Later, it evolved into playing with the other village children. She hadn’t expected Suisui to think of using this to earn spirit stones. The “old mother” felt a bit proud.
In the eyes of others, these were just ordinary small dolls, clearly meant for children. They were knitted from common materials and had unique, charming shapes, winning people over with their novelty.
Suisui emptied her storage bag, even pulling out the bear-shaped biscuits her mother had made.
“Suisui, are you going to sell these small dolls?” a female disciple nearby, who had been watching the little milk-dumpling work, asked in a soft, cooing voice.
“No, oh! Ah! I’m still missing one thing.” Suisui pitter-pattered over to Bian Yun, grabbed the hem of her clothes, and tilted her little head back. “Master Bian Yun, I want ten circles this big…”
As Suisui spoke, she looked at the dolls of various sizes on the ground and silently shrank the circle she was gesturing. “Ten circles this big, the kind that can catch things.”
Bian Yun immediately understood Suisui’s meaning. She plucked some willow branches from nearby, gauged the size of the dolls, and in a few moves, crafted ten small rings.
Once Suisui got the rings, she felt like something was missing, but since she couldn’t remember what, she ignored it.
She scooped the little Ice Phoenix off her head and stuffed it into Lang Xuan’s arms to hold. Holding the ten small rings herself, she began to hawk her wares.
“Ring toss! Ring toss! Ten… no, five rings for one copper coin. Whichever one you catch, you take home!”
Suisui looked at the small dolls on the ground and felt a bit reluctant to part with them, so she changed the ten rings she originally thought of to five. This way, they wouldn’t be won away so quickly.
“Suisui, the cultivation world doesn’t use copper coins anymore; we use spirit stones,” the female disciple reminded her with a smile.
“Then, one spirit stone!” Suisui held up one small finger. “Sister, do you want to play? One spirit stone for five rings. You can take away whatever you catch.”
The female disciple finally couldn’t help but reach out and pinch her little hair bun. “And what if I catch you?”
Suisui hurriedly waved her hands. “Suisui is not for sale.”
“Haha, then I’ll play once. When I catch something later, you’re not allowed to cry,” the female disciple said. She was doing this purely because Suisui was beautiful and excessively likable, so she wanted to show special care.
Suisui took the spirit stone handed over by the sister. It was “bling-bling.” She took a look, put it in her small crossbody bag, and counted out five rings for the pretty sister. Just as the sister was about to throw, Suisui remembered what she had forgotten.
She forgot to draw the line!
Suisui pitter-pattered back to ask Bian Yun for help, letting Bian Yun draw the line.
Bian Yun used her spiritual power to draw a line quite a bit further out than the distance Suisui had estimated. If the line were drawn from a child’s perspective, even a dog throwing a ring could land one.
The female disciple was only playing to accompany the cute Suisui. She chose the small hair clip, which seemed to have the lowest value, and caught it, deliberately throwing the rest wide.
“Sister, this is a small hair clip my Mother knitted for me. You will look very, very pwetty wearing it!” Suisui brought the clip over, stood on her tiptoes, and pinned it on the sister. “Sister is weally pwetty, and you’re even pwettier wearing the hair clip!”
The female disciple finally couldn’t help but pinch her little cheek. How can a child be so good-looking and such a smooth talker?
Ye Wan saw that Suisui was adapting well and felt relieved. With Bian Yun watching over her and the little Divine Tree along for the ride, there seemed to be nothing to worry about.
Returning to the Library, Ye Wan saw True Person Shouzhuo, the gatekeeper, brewing tea. He looked exactly like a security guard uncle at a modern residential complex.
“Elder.” Ye Wan stepped forward, bowed, and explained her purpose.
Shouzhuo knew this had been personally promised by the Supreme Elder, so he said nothing and simply gave her a token with a three-day limit.
Ye Wan took the token. Before entering, she couldn’t help but ask, “Elder, are there any ‘quick-fix’ cultivation techniques? Or ones that can cause an instant explosion of power to win against higher-level opponents?”
Shouzhuo’s mouth twitched. “Why don’t you just ask if there’s a way to ascend to heaven on the spot?”
Ye Wan looked serious. “Is there?”
Shouzhuo: “…”
Shouzhuo simply raised his hand and waved, sweeping her up to the second floor of the Library.
Ye Wan staggered but managed to stand firm. Looking at the rows of neat bookshelves before her, it seemed like she could see everything at once, but in reality, it was a vast sea of books. On the shelves, everything from ancient bamboo slips to soft silk manuscripts, and from heavy stone tablets to light scrolls, was available.
Ye Wan walked in, her gaze scanning the rows of shelves. She was mainly looking for anecdotes and lore, hoping to find information related to Suisui’s constitution.
By the third day of setting up the stall, Suisui was sitting cross-legged in front of it, the little Ice Phoenix on her lap. Her round eyes watched the adults passing by. Her neck was sore from looking up, but no one stopped at her stall.
Why don’t these brothers and sisters like Suisui’s little playmates? Sister Dahua wanted to swap a handful of wild fruits for these, and I wouldn’t even do it.
Sigh! What if Mother comes back and finds I haven’t earned any spirit stones yet? I don’t know where Tree Brother went again.
Bored from waiting, Suisui took out a “Milk Fruit” to eat. Her chubby, dimpled hands held the milky-white fruit, and she took a big “Awoo” bite.
The thin skin of the fruit was bitten through, revealing the milky-white pulp inside. it looked like solidified milk, and the pulp melted away with a gentle press in the mouth.
“So sweet! It’s chilly just like ice cweam! Xiao Huang-huang, have you ever eaten ice cweam? Ice cweam is weally, weally yummy. When Mother makes it again, I’ll share some with you.”
“Mother says I’m still small and can only eat one at a time. You are even smaller than me, so you can only eat a tiny bit. Then I’ll be able to eat two!”
The jade-exquisite little dumpling held the milk fruit and nibbled slowly like a little squirrel, a look of satisfaction and happiness on her small face. While nibbling the fruit, she didn’t forget to pick off a tiny bit to stuff into the mouth of the spirit pet on her lap.
The spirit pet didn’t want to eat, but its mouth was pried open for forced feeding. Those who saw this could almost feel the spirit pet’s desire to give up on life.
At the very least, Bian Yun felt that if this Ice Phoenix cub was raised this way and didn’t die, it must be due to the Heavenly Dao’s blatantly obvious favoritism.
Suisui nibbled the fruit while waiting for someone to come and toss rings. At that moment, Lang Xuan, who had left earlier, returned carrying a small basket woven from vine roots on his back.