The path from Doctor Jiao’s house to the Xu family’s home ran straight through the entire village. After Xu Huaiyi hurriedly ran back, news that he had bought medicine quickly spread far and wide.
The villagers all speculated about where the money for the medicine had come from—surely he hadn’t actually spent ten taels of silver?
Some of the more curious ones even went to Doctor Jiao’s house to inquire. Doctor Jiao sighed with great emotion, saying, “Where would the Xu family get silver? Huaiyi pawned his wife’s last piece of dowry to me in exchange for seven doses of medicine. Sigh, I heard it was something her father left her as a keepsake, but now…”
The listener caught the implication, his eyes darting as he slapped his thigh in agreement. “Huaiyi really cares for his wife. Scholar Gu didn’t make a mistake when he chose him as his son-in-law. It’s just this Xu family—their hearts are truly hard. They’ve taken so much advantage of the Gu family! Those five large rooms, Xu Huaiyu’s studies in town—weren’t they all funded by Scholar Gu’s silver? And now, when their only daughter is giving birth, hanging between life and death, they won’t lift a finger to help. Instead, they force her to sell her dowry. Sigh, they really are despicable…”
Doctor Jiao smiled without saying a word.
The clever listener went around the village as a messenger, spreading the story from one person to two, from two to three. By the time it reached the Xu family, Gu Huanxi had already finished her medicine and was sleeping peacefully and comfortably.
Xu Huaiyi sat by the bed, his eyes fixed unwaveringly on the precious daughter in the cradle. The more he looked, the more delighted and excited he became, his heart melting with tenderness.
This was his daughter—connected by blood, the beloved child he had longed for so deeply!
She was tiny and delicate. Though she looked thin and frail, her hair was thick and jet-black, and her face wasn’t sallow. Instead, it was fine and fair, like soft tofu that might crumble at a touch.
Xu Huaiyi didn’t dare touch her, yet he couldn’t contain his adoration. He could only call out her nickname over and over, his voice sweet enough to drip honey. “A’Li, A’Li…”
The origin of this nickname lay in a pregnancy dream Gu Huanxi had. She dreamed of a large red carp leaping into her arms. When she woke up, the couple decided that, whether the child was a boy or a girl, their nickname would be A’Li. The formal name would be Xu Zhao, meaning “as bright as the sun and moon”—an excellent and auspicious meaning.
“A’Li, A’Li, open your eyes and look—I’m your daddy…”
Remembering that this was ancient times, he reluctantly corrected himself. “I’m your father…”
Little A’Li smacked her petal-like lips, her two hands clenched into tiny fists raised above her head. Her long, curly eyelashes fluttered as she slept sweetly, unaware of what she was dreaming about, her lips curling into a smile.
The sight made her doting father beside her wish he could pick her up and give her two playful nibbles out of sheer affection.
But his daughter showed no sign of waking, sleeping as soundly as her mother. Xu Huaiyi had no chance to express his feelings, so he turned to other tasks instead.
He took a bath and changed into clean clothes—clean in the sense that they weren’t dirty, though they were still patched. The dark blue coarse linen felt uncomfortable against his skin.
What he found most difficult to adjust to was the long hair of ancient people. After washing and drying it, he struggled to tie it up on top of his head, but the result was less than satisfactory—loose and messy. Only after inserting a polished wooden hairpin did it look somewhat presentable.
Next came the great cleanup. He tossed all the clothes they had changed out of into the washing machine, along with the bedsheets and everything else. After finishing the chores, he took another walk around the car, organizing all the food, drinks, and supplies—mainly to get a clear idea of what they had. Little did he expect that this tidying up would lead him to discover a shocking secret, one that nearly made him jump for joy.
If he weren’t afraid of getting a beating for disturbing his wife’s sleep, he would have woken her up right then and there.
But holding it in was pure agony. Xu Huaiyi rummaged through the refrigerator and pulled out a whole chicken—free-range from the mountains, far more fragrant than those raised on feed. He swiftly cleaned it, chopped it into small pieces, placed it in a clay pot filled with cold water, and set it to boil. Once large bubbles appeared, he skimmed off the foam, added some scallions and ginger to remove the gaminess, threw in a few red dates and a handful of goji berries, then turned the heat down to low, letting it simmer slowly.
The longer a chicken soup simmers, the richer and more fragrant it becomes.
Seeing that his wife and daughter were still asleep, he scooped out two bowls of flour, added half a bowl of water, rolled up his sleeves, and began kneading the dough. His wife loved hand-pulled noodles, and he had long since mastered the skill. Without exaggeration, his noodle-pulling technique was now good enough to set up a street stall.
With clean hands, a clean bowl, and smooth dough, Xu Huaiyi nodded in satisfaction. He brushed a little oil over the dough, wrapped it in plastic wrap, and let it rest for a while. For chewy, smooth noodles, repeated kneading and resting were key.
Just as he finished, he turned around and met his wife’s gaze. He immediately rushed over eagerly, unable to wait to share the news. “Wife, did you know? The things in our car—they don’t decrease after we eat them! Isn’t it surprising? Isn’t it amazing? Does it feel like a dream, all hazy and dazzling…”
Gu Huanxi replied flatly, “I noticed it when you went to Doctor Jiao’s to get the medicine.”
Xu Huaiyi was dumbfounded. “Then why didn’t you tell me when I came back?”
Gu Huanxi said casually, “I thought you’d noticed it too. Who knew you were so clueless?”
Xu Huaiyi, “…”
Why did his wife always have to test his intelligence?
Gu Huanxi caught a whiff of the fragrance in the air and sniffed. “You started stewing chicken?”
Xu Huaiyi nodded immediately, with a hint of pride. “Isn’t the aroma intoxicating? Free-range mountain chickens are just so fragrant. That hundred-something yuan wasn’t wasted. Later, drink a few more bowls of soup, and I’ll give you the wings and drumsticks. You need to nourish yourself properly…”
Gu Huanxi reminded him helplessly, “With the bodies we have now, we’ve been eating coarse food and wild vegetables, sometimes full, sometimes hungry. Even a little millet is considered a great tonic. And you want to drink chicken soup? Can your stomach handle it?”
“Ah? So I did all this for nothing?”
“…Take it step by step. Just drink a little at a time.” Unable to bear seeing him so dejected, Gu Huanxi comforted him for a moment. Once he perked up again, she asked seriously, “Do you know why we transmigrated here?”
Transmigration usually has a trigger—like a car accident or a serious injury. In short, both parties are usually on the brink of death. But she and Xu Huaiyi hadn’t encountered any danger at all…
Sure enough, Xu Huaiyi was even more bewildered than she was. "I don't know either. Weren't we just thinking that since your due date was approaching, staying in our rural hometown would be inconvenient? If you suddenly went into labor, we might not make it to the hospital in time. That’s why we planned to drive the RV and temporarily move to the city. That way, after you gave birth, the heating would be turned on just in time, and you wouldn’t suffer during your postpartum confinement. But who would’ve thought—we hadn’t even started driving yet when we ended up here. What kind of mess is this…"
Gu Huanxi fell into thought. After a moment, she murmured suspiciously, "Could it be because of our daughter?"
"A’Li? What does this have to do with A’Li? Before the transmigration, she was still in your belly…" Speaking of their daughter, Xu Huaiyi once again wore the mysterious smile of a doting father as he gazed at the little bun in the cradle.
His expression was so adoring it was almost sickening.
Gu Huanxi couldn’t bear to look. He was already a bit of a blockhead, and now that he’d become a father, he was probably going to be even sillier. Even she, who was supposed to suffer from "pregnancy brain" for three years, was sharper than him. Sighing, she reminded him, "I think I went into labor early after getting into the RV. I vaguely remember something flowing down my leg—it must’ve been my water breaking…"
Xu Huaiyi stared blankly. "So you’re saying our daughter was the trigger for our transmigration?"
Gu Huanxi hummed in agreement.
Xu Huaiyi asked again, "Does that mean our daughter wanted to come here but couldn’t bear to leave us behind, so she brought us along?"
Gu Huanxi reluctantly nodded. That was probably it.
Xu Huaiyi grew excited. "Then do you think our daughter could send us back?"
Gu Huanxi, "…"
What kind of wishful thinking was that? Transmigration was a one-way ticket. If you could come and go as you pleased, wouldn’t you end up being transmigrated through like a sieve?