The village head nearly shed tears when he heard this: “A cave is so coldhow could you possibly live there? You’d freeze to death in a single night. Even though I have the authority to let you stay in Grandma Li’s old house, it’s been empty for too long. I’m afraid it’s unlivable right now.”
“Uncle, it doesn’t matter if the house has been empty for a long time. I’ve got plenty of strength; I can go up the mountain to chop firewood, and after burning a fire for two days, it’ll warm right up.”
With no other recourse left, the village head said, “Come on, I’ll walk over with you and see if it’s still habitable.”
The two of them walked briskly to Grandma Li’s front door and pushed the courtyard gate open. The courtyard itself was quite tidy; aside from some leaves blown into the corner by the wind, there was nothing else at all.
Stepping inside the house, it felt even more like an ice cellar. Apart from a brick kang bed, there wasn’t a single other thing left. All of Grandma Li’s daily living utensils from when she was alive had been taken away by the villagers, and not even half a straw mat was left on the kang. The paper pasted on the windows was also tattered and torn, letting cold wind howl right into the room.
Seeing this situation, the village head’s heart sank by halfthis place couldn’t possibly house a living person!
Yet when he turned his head, he saw Xiaonuan place the half-bag of potatoes she had been carrying down in the corner of the room, actually wearing a smile as she said:
“Uncle, this room is great and perfectly livable. From now on, this is my home. The room I stayed in at my second uncle’s house wasn’t much better than this anyway; I’ll just slowly clean it up and make it nice.”
Having no other options, the village head told her he would head home first and let Xiaonuan tidy up on her own for a bit.
After the village head left, Xiaonuan felt no grief at all. Fearing that the half-bag of potatoes might freeze, she put the potatoes away into her spatial dimension, while she herself looked around the inside and outside of the house, pondering how to fix up her new home.
After a while, the village head’s eldest son, Zhao Feng, pushed over a cartload of firewood, followed by the village head’s wife, Xiao Mei, carrying a small pouch behind him.
Seeing Xiao Mei and Zhao Feng arrive as she was standing inside calculating things, Xiaonuan hurried out.
Seeing Xiaonuan emerge, Xiao Mei sighed inwardly for this ill-fated child and said:
“Xiaonuan, your uncle asked me to bring you a cartload of firewood. Go ahead and get the stove pit started to warm up the kang. Once the kang heats up, the room will at least have some warmth to it.”
As she spoke, Xiao Mei handed over the small pouch: “Here is ten jin of cornmeal. Go ahead and eat this first; when you run out, just come to your uncle’s house to get more, or I can bring it overeither way is fine. This is a flint striker; light the stove pit with it in a bit. And here are a chopping knife and ropeyour uncle told me to give these to you. Just use them; you don’t need to return them.”
Xiaonuan accepted them one by one, continuously expressing her thanks over and over again!
Xiao Mei didn’t stay long either. After delivering the items and exchanging a few brief words, she led her son back home.
After Xiao Mei left, Xiaonuan went out into the courtyard to fetch some firewood. Because the villagers had already taken away the iron cooking pot from the kitchen, lighting a fire in the kitchen stove pit would cause smoke to blow straight out into the room. Therefore, she brought the firewood directly inside the house and lit the fire in the auxiliary stove pit underneath the kang. This kind of stove pit was specially designed to heat the kang up quickly, and most households had one.
After burning two large bundles of firewood and adding some thicker branches, she cleaned up the area in front of the stove pit. Then she stood up, picked up the ten jin of cornmeal, and stored it inside her spatial dimension as well.
Glancing around to see that there was nothing else left, she picked up the chopping knife and rope, stepped outside, closed the courtyard gate securely, and headed straight up the mountain to chop firewood.
Xiaonuan quickly chopped two extremely large bundles of firewood, yet she didn’t feel the slightest bit tired. Ever since eating those two fruits last night, she had discovered that morning that she had become possessed of superhuman strength, which filled her with delight over and over again.
She sat down leaning against the firewood. Although she wasn’t tired, she was a bit hungrythe last thing she had eaten was half a corn cake yesterday morning. If not for those two fruits last night, her stomach would probably have been rumbling with hunger long ago.
Sitting against the firewood, she knew that with such bitter cold outside, she wouldn’t find anything edible on the mountain. So she entered her spatial dimension and looked around, but there wasn’t any food in there either.
Just as disappointment set in, she suddenly noticed many trees in the distance. While the outside world was a frozen wasteland, the trees here were lush and green. Could there be wild fruits on the trees?
With this thought, she immediately ran toward those trees. Drawing closer, she saw that indeed, many of the trees were heavily laden with fruit, but unfortunately, they were all far too high up, and there was no way she could climb them.
However, in the grass beneath the trees, there were plenty of ripe fruits that had fallen off on their own. She hurriedly gathered a handful, cupped them in the front of her ragged cotton jacket, and sat down under a tree to eat quite a few of them. She didn’t know what kind of fruit they were, only hoping they would fill her stomach. After eating several in one go and feeling much less hungry, she stood up, ready to head back out and carry her firewood home.
Suddenly, a clever idea struck her: why not chop as much firewood as possible and throw it into her spatial dimension, continuing to chop until dark and only carrying a single bundle back home? Wouldn’t that allow her to harvest a huge amount of firewood in a single day?
This thought made her happy, so she exited the spatial dimension and chopped furiously, tossing wood into the space as she worked. She kept at it until the sky was almost pitch black, at which point she strapped on her final bundle and headed down the mountain. The reason she carried one visible bundle was to avoid suspicion if she ran into villagers, so she walked home carrying just that single load.
When she got home, she found that the fire in the stove pit had long since gone out. She dragged the bundle she had just carried back inside from the courtyard, squatted down on the ground, and relit the stove pit. She had no lamp, so she sat in the dark tending the fire. The glow from the stove pit reflected off her rosy little face, making her look exceptionally pretty.
The kang gradually warmed up, but because there was no straw mat spread across the top and it was just a raw mud-brick kang, sleeping directly on it wasn’t feasible. So she tossed her last few branches into the stove pit and then entered her spatial dimension to sleep.
She slept soundly through the night. Waking up in the morning, she felt refreshed and in high spirits. She hurried over to the stream, bent down to scoop up some water to wash her face, and felt an instant jolt of energy. Afterwards, she scooped up a few mouthfuls to drinkthe water tasted faintly sweet and felt wonderfully refreshing.
Xiaonuan decided she would wash her face in this stream every day, because the well water outside was far too freezing to touch unless boiled. But she didn’t have any pots or kettles to boil water with yet, nor did she have any containers to hold regular water. Therefore, aside from washing her face, she didn’t even have anything to store drinking water in, meaning her new home currently lacked any water storage.
Emerging from the spatial dimension, she picked up her chopping knife and rope, preparing to head up the mountain to chop firewood. Xiaonuan decided to skip breakfast since she only had ten jin of cornmeal and half a bag of potatoes, and she needed to ration them carefully. Her plan was to chop wood until noon, enter the space to eat the fallen tree fruits, and then roast a single potato as dinner when she returned to heat the kang in the evening. If she got thirsty, she could just pop into the space and drink a few handfuls of stream waterthat would take care of everything.
Xiaonuan pushed open the door and stepped out into the courtyardand instantly froze in her tracks.
When she arrived home last night, she had taken the firewood out of her spatial dimension and stacked it very neatly right on top of the pile the village head had sent, leaning against the courtyard wall.
Yet now, not a single bundle of firewood was left. Every single piece of firewood had vanished.
She stood there in a daze for a long time, her thoughts drifting far away…
When she finally lifted her foot to move again, she had grown remarkably calm, and a firm resolution formed in her heart:
“Since you are heartless enough to steal my firewood and leave me not a single scrap, you’re deliberately trying to freeze me to death! In that case, whoever the thief turns out to be, let’s just see how well you can take a beating!”