Li Chengcai, being held back by Wang shi, was panting hard as he pointed at Wang shi’s nose. “But that family’s well-off now! That Chen Xuan is a scholar, it’s already good of him to give five taels of silver, what more do you want? Don’t tell me you think your daughter is a match for the county registrar’s precious daughter?”
Wang shi gritted her teeth. “But now that our Jiaojiao’s engagement is broken off, what family will be willing to take her in the future?”
Li Chengcai instantly wilted. Li Jiaojiao was good-looking, and last year she’d gotten engaged to the Chen family, back then, going out, people respected him. But once Chen Xuan married the registrar’s daughter and their Jiaojiao was jilted, however many people pointed fingers behind his back when he went out.
“It’s all your fault!” Li Chengcai pointed at Wang shi. “You have the nerve to say that, how did you raise your daughter? Look at what she’s become now. If she can’t get married in the future, it’ll all be because you, her mother, didn’t raise her properly!”
Li Jiaojiao was nearly furious to death at this man, he acted like a total outsider rather than Wang shi’s husband, rather than the original body’s father, shirking responsibility and blaming his wife and daughter. A man like that was nothing but a useless coward, and she couldn’t stand him at all!
Wang shi’s eyes grew moist, and she bit down hard on her lip just to keep from crying.
Li Jiaojiao, unable to contain her anger, pointed at Li Chengcai. “That’s strange indeed, am I not also my mother’s child alone? You make it sound like my mother had me all by herself! If I wasn’t raised properly, that’s partly your fault too! What kind of father are you? The Chen family gets engaged whenever they want and breaks it off whenever they want, to put it bluntly, that’s also because you’re useless. Otherwise, could they have tossed me aside like garbage?”
Wang shi panicked and grabbed hold of Li Jiaojiao. “Stop talking, just stop!”
Li Chengcai flew into a rage. “Well, well, you dead girl, you dare talk back! Have I been too indulgent with you?”
With that, Li Chengcai picked up the broom again and struck at Li Jiaojiao.
Li Jiaojiao dodged nimbly. Li Qiao rushed forward and hugged Li Chengcai’s leg, and in his fury Li Chengcai kicked him straight to the ground.
Seeing this, Li Jiaojiao stopped dodging. Wang shi gripped Li Chengcai’s hand tightly. “What are you trying to do? Do you find the three of us, mother and children, too much of an eyesore? Li Chengcai, look how bold you’ve become, go on, hit us, hit us! Just beat the three of us to death right now!”
Li Jiaojiao hurried forward and held Li Qiao. “Qiaoqiao, are you all right?”
Li Qiao clutched his stomach. “Sis, get inside, quick!”
Li Jiaojiao carried Li Qiao into the room. Li Qiao held his stomach for a good while before he sat up. “Sis, I’m fine! Father hits me all the time, it’ll be fine in a bit!”
Li Jiaojiao’s heart ached badly. Outside, Li Chengcai struck Wang shi twice more, then, furious, threw down the broom, slammed the door shut, and went inside to sleep.
Hearing the sounds outside, Li Jiaojiao felt some regret. But her temper was fiery, the kind that exploded at the smallest thing, and she couldn’t hold it in. Yet, with her brother and mother beaten twice in a row because of her, however unbearable it was, she had no choice but to clench her fists and bite down hard on her lip.
Once things outside had quieted down, Wang shi came in carrying a basin of water. She first asked after Li Qiao with concern. “Qiaoqiao, let Mother look?”
Wang shi lifted Li Qiao’s clothes, there was a dark bruise on his stomach. Wang shi rubbed it gently. Li Qiao gritted his teeth. “Mother, it doesn’t hurt! It’ll be fine in a few days!”
Looking at her sensible son, Wang shi couldn’t stop tears welling up in her eyes. Li Jiaojiao lowered her head. “Mother…”
Hearing Li Jiaojiao’s voice, Wang shi pulled her into her arms. “Don’t talk back to your father from now on!”
Li Jiaojiao was reluctant, but still gave an “mm” in response.
That night, Wang shi settled Li Qiao and Li Jiaojiao, held the two siblings in her arms, and fell asleep.
Once Wang shi had fallen asleep, Li Jiaojiao couldn’t sleep. She’d already slept for a few hours that afternoon, and so much had happened that night. Unable to sleep, she gazed at the sleeping faces of Wang shi and Li Qiao, and couldn’t help sinking into thought.
The original body’s death was a mystery. As she recalled, when word came that Chen Xuan and the others were coming back, the original body had shut herself in the room, taken out the letters Chen Xuan had written her over that period, and while reading them, that was it, she was gone. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have possessed this body.
Could the original body really have died of grief?
However she thought about it, Li Jiaojiao couldn’t make sense of it. She thought of the fragrance on that letter paper, thought of the new bride’s maid appearing near their house in the middle of the night, all of this pointed to something not being right!
Unable to sleep, Li Jiaojiao thought a great deal. Since she wasn’t very familiar with the rules of this era, she only planned out her immediate situation. First, the three of them, mother and children, had to break free of the Li family, break free of Li Chengcai, or else they’d never have a good life.
Second was money, that is, silver!
No matter the era, without money, without silver, nothing could be done at all!
Outside the window, the moonlight was hazy, filtering in through the narrow window. On the uneven ground, the shadows of swaying branches outside could be faintly seen.
“Vessel spirit, vessel spirit!”
Once Li Qiao beside her had fallen asleep, Li Jiaojiao quietly called out to the vessel spirit. Such a marvelous thing, she itched with curiosity, always wanting to understand it fully!
“What do you want?”
The vessel spirit sounded a bit annoyed. “I’m telling you, my lady, in a place this poor in spiritual energy, could you please not call me? I need to rest!”
Li Jiaojiao pulled the blanket over herself and said quietly, “Is this storage space big? Can I put anything into it in the future? Wherever I want to take something out, can I just think of it…”
Question after question wore down the already irritated vessel spirit, and it snapped back impatiently, “See for yourself!”
Li Jiaojiao only felt a wave of dizziness pass over her, and then she was standing in a gray, misty place. All around seemed to be thick fog. At her feet, a few wild chicken feathers lay scattered here and there. The gray mist was so thick she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face.
Li Jiaojiao jumped up and down a few times, confirming that what she was standing on was solid ground like the earth, and only then did she call out loudly, “Vessel spirit, vessel spirit, is this the storage space?”
“Ugh, why are you so annoying?”
Suddenly, a small, fluffy white creature appeared before Li Jiaojiao’s eyes. It wasn’t much bigger than a cat, with two fluffy ears and two small horns in front of them, the horns looked like deer antlers, yet not quite. It had a pair of eyes like black grapes and a small black nose, it was simply too adorable!
Li Jiaojiao instantly fell in love with this little creature, it looked so much like the pet she’d kept in her past life, and she couldn’t resist wanting to pet it.
Before Li Jiaojiao’s hand even touched it, she saw the little thing’s fur puff up. Its tail shot up high, and it shouted fiercely at Li Jiaojiao, “What are you doing, what are you doing? I’m warning you, I am, I am the vessel spirit! On our continent, this one could kill countless mortals with a single slap, you’d better be careful with me!”
“You’re the vessel spirit?”
Such an adorable vessel spirit, Li Jiaojiao couldn’t help but marvel, my god, this is way too cute. She couldn’t resist crouching down and pulling the puffed-up furball into a hug, rubbing it vigorously, only then letting out a satisfied sigh.
“How dare you, how insolent, how dare you touch this one! This one could slap you dead with one paw…”
Li Jiaojiao looked at the adorable little thing in front of her and waved her hand impatiently. “All right, all right. Is this the space? Can I come in here?”
From the vessel spirit’s own mouth, Li Jiaojiao learned roughly how to use this space. At the moment, because it lacked spiritual energy, the space could only store lifeless things, that is, dead things.
Coming out of the space, Li Jiaojiao went back to sleep. Early the next morning, she got up ahead of everyone, put a bamboo basket on her back, and while Wang shi and Li Qiao were still asleep, took a hoe and went up the mountain.
Li Qiao had been kicked the night before. He himself said he was fine, but Li Qiao was so small, and she wasn’t at ease. She remembered that when she was little, whenever she went to her grandfather’s house and got bumped, bruised, or fell and hurt herself, her grandfather would always find her a few kinds of medicinal herbs, red peony root, chuanxiong.
In her past life, Li Jiaojiao’s grandfather had been an old country doctor practicing traditional Chinese medicine, treating the common folk of the surrounding villages for miles around, rarely taking payment. As a child, she often went to her grandfather’s house and would go up the mountain with him to gather herbs.
The back mountain of Xunshui Village was a tall, towering mountain, one side faced the sun, so its plants and trees grew lush, while the other side faced away from the sun, covered in strange, jagged rocks.
In her memory, the original body had often gone up the mountain, so she knew where the medicinal herbs were.
On the sunlit side, many villagers went every day, gathering firewood, cutting pig fodder, working on the mountain, so Li Jiaojiao chose the shaded side instead.
The mountain path was hard to walk. She hadn’t gone far before she had to stop and wipe her sweat. When she got thirsty, she’d look around to see if there was anything edible nearby. It was now the eighth or ninth month, when the mountain had plenty of wild fruit, and under a thicket of thorny bushes, she found several ripe kiwifruits.
Peeling off the skin, Li Jiaojiao ate the sweet kiwifruit and couldn’t help thinking, talk about a stroke of luck the moment you need one, she really was lucky!
After finishing the kiwifruit, she looked up and spotted some red peony root.
Without bothering to wipe her mouth, she hurried over and dug it up.
Right after that, she also found chuanxiong, motherwort, and Chinese gallnut…
By the time her basket was packed so full nothing more would fit, Li Jiaojiao muttered to herself, “Isn’t my luck… a little too good?”
She found a rock to sit on, took a few kiwifruits out of her pocket, and while eating them, stared intently at a plant not far off, which looked familiar but she wasn’t sure.
The kiwifruit was sweet and juicy, but Li Jiaojiao couldn’t eat any more. She set down her basket, placed the kiwifruit on top of it, and then took her knife and hoe and walked over!
Right in the middle of a large rock, a plant as tall as a person grew up beautifully. Li Jiaojiao circled around it and exclaimed in surprise, “It really is! My god, this luck of mine… if I’d known, why would I even bother working a job, I should’ve just bought lottery tickets!”