Ning Xin sat in the kitchen, chatting with her grandmother as she slowly finished her water.
Pleased by her granddaughter’s coaxing, the old woman generously cracked two eggs into the flour and announced that she would make egg pancakes for lunch.
The two were still talking when a familiar voice came from outside the courtyard: “Xiao Xin, are you back?”
“It’s Auntie Wang.” Ning Xin quickly set down her cup and went out to greet her.
Hearing Ning Xin’s voice, Wang Jinying came around from behind the screen wall.
She wasn’t alone, with her was her three-year-old granddaughter, Yingying.
In Wang Jinying’s hand was a bowl containing several washed peaches.
The peaches weren’t very large, but they were a vibrant red and looked quite lovely.
“Your sister Xiaomei brought these over. She said her mother-in-law had them sent from the countryside. Don’t let their small size fool you, I just tasted one, and it’s very sweet.”
Wang Jinying smiled as she handed over the bowl.
“Thank you, Auntie Wang. Wait a moment, I’ll go get you some water.” Ning Xin took the bowl and headed toward the kitchen.
“Don’t bother. We’re not thirsty. We both had water before coming.” Wang Jinying called out after her.
Ning Xin acknowledged her but still went to the kitchen.
She emptied the bowl, then took two cups and poured each of them a serving of the remaining water from the enamel mug.
When she brought out the mint and jasmine tea, Wang Jinying was pleasantly surprised.
She held the glass cup up to the sunlight, smiled, and said, “You really take after your father, such a clever mind. Everyone has these flowers and herbs in their yard, but who would think to brew them into tea? And it looks so beautiful!”
Ning Xin wasn’t conceited by the praise. Instead, she smiled, touched Yingying’s little face, and said, “It’s not just pretty, it’s delicious too! Auntie, this isn’t just jasmine and mint. There are also other medicinal herbs prescribed by a doctor. Those herbs are very precious. My father got them from an old traditional Chinese medicine doctor specifically for me when I was weak and frail.”
She crouched down, brought the glass cup to Yingying’s lips, and fed her a sip herself.
Then she continued, “This herbal tea clears heat, reduces internal fire, and is gently nourishing. I can see Yingying is also suffering a bit from summer heat, isn’t she? This tea is just right for her.”
Hearing that the water contained precious medicine that Ning Xin’s father had specially obtained for her, Wang Jinying immediately set aside her casual demeanor.
Everyone knew how much Master Ning adored his daughter. If even he said it was precious, then the medicine must have been expensive.
Startled, she didn’t dare drink it anymore and quickly tried to stop her. “Oh, don’t give it to her. It would be a waste.”
“Drinking it is the opposite of waste,” Ning Xin countered with a smile.
Meanwhile, Yingying had already downed the entire cup, drinking from Ning Xin’s hand in big gulps.
After finishing, she smacked her lips with lingering satisfaction and said, “So good. Auntie, Yingying wants more.”
Wang Jinying could hardly believe it.
Her little granddaughter had been born premature and had been frail ever since. The whole family had been worried sick about her.
Summer had only just begun, and the girl was already suffering from the heat, she wouldn’t eat properly, couldn’t sleep soundly, and whined and fussed all day long. It was heartbreaking to see.
Her eldest daughter had been at her wit’s end with the little one and had sent her to stay with Wang Jinying for a few days.
But even though Wang Jinying had been cooking all sorts of delicious things for her, chasing after her to feed her, the little girl still hadn’t eaten with any real appetite.
As for actually asking for something to eat or drink, that had never happened.
Seeing Yingying like this, Wang Jinying truly believed that this herbal tea was something special.
“Drink Grandma’s,” she said quickly, moving to feed her own cup to her granddaughter. But Ning Xin stopped her.
“Auntie, really? We can’t even offer a cup of water in our own home? I’ll take Yingying inside. You drink that cup yourself. This water is good for your health too.”
With that, Ning Xin ignored Wang Jinying’s protests, took Yingying’s hand, and led her into the kitchen.
The little girl was usually shy around strangers, but the power of that water was so strong that, once Ning Xin took her hand, she didn’t even want her grandmother anymore. She trotted happily along beside her.
Wang Jinying watched them go, caught between exasperation and amusement.
She raised the cup to her lips. Before she even drank, the fragrance wafted into her nose. Her hand stopped in midair.
If drinking this was good for her health, then shouldn’t her husband, Old Liu, also be able to drink it?
Wang Jinying thought for a moment, but in the end, she couldn’t bring herself to drink it.
She poured the water into the empty bowl she had brought.
Seeing Ning Xin come back out with Yingying, Wang Jinying took a brown paper envelope from her pocket and pressed it into Ning Xin’s hand.
“Xiao Xin, here’s the money for the job. Eight hundred yuan in total. Count it.”
Ning Xin quickly tried to refuse. “Auntie, that’s too much. My brother and I talked it over. You only need to give us six hundred.”
“Nonsense.”
Wang Jinying shot her a reproachful glare. “Do you take your aunt for someone who doesn’t know what’s what? Don’t listen to your brother’s nonsense. No matter what people outside are saying the job is worth, that’s all just rumors. I know in my heart, your brother Sheng has benefited from your kindness. Our whole family is grateful. Take the money. This is the amount your Uncle Liu and I agreed on. We didn’t overpay.”
With that, she pressed the envelope further into Ning Xin’s hand and instructed, “Put it away quickly.”
Ning Yi had mentioned this matter to Ning Xin before. He said that a job like this was indeed being priced at eight hundred yuan on the open market.
And even at that price, there were no takers because none were available.
But their family and the Liu family had been close friends for many years.
So when Wang Jinying had come to discuss it with Ning Yi and asked if eight hundred was enough, he had refused.
Yet now, Wang Jinying was still delivering the money at that same price.
She had also deliberately chosen a time when Ning Yi wasn’t around, clearly not wanting to give the siblings a chance to refuse again.
Ning Xin had no choice but to take the money.
She glanced at the porcelain bowl containing half a bowl of water, picked it up, and said, “Auntie, let me pour you some more tea to take home. You and Uncle Liu can both have some. This tea really is good for you.”
Wang Jinying beamed and agreed.
After seeing the Wang family grandmother and granddaughter off, Ning Xin and her grandmother each grabbed a small stool and sat under the grape arbor to trim mung bean sprouts.
The old woman kept her head down in silence. After a long while, she couldn’t help but let out a heavy sigh.
Earlier, when she had heard that her grandchildren were planning to sell the job, she had been furious.
But after hearing Ning Yi repeat Ning Xin’s words, the old woman had remained silent for a long time and finally decided not to interfere.
She knew her granddaughter was frightened by what Zhu Chunhong had done.
Although Old Madam Ning felt that as long as she was here, the unruly members of the family wouldn’t dare cause too much trouble, she also knew that she was old, after all.
They listened to her now, but what about in a few years?
This job was a real prize. Aside from Ning Ling, none of her other grandchildren, the boys included, had a state-supplied grain ration yet.
If any of them got bad ideas in the future and something like this happened again, Old Madam Ning felt she might not survive it.
So, when Wang Jinying had come over with the money earlier, she hadn’t even stepped out of the kitchen. She had hidden inside, wiping away tears, but in the end, she hadn’t spoken a word of objection.
Seeing her grandmother like this, Ning Xin’s heart ached a little. She moved her stool closer to the old woman and rubbed her cheek against her grandmother’s arm.
“Grandma, don’t worry. My brother and I will make our lives better. Even better than when Dad was alive. And don’t go back home. Stay and live with us from now on. I promise that if you stay with us, you’ll eat well, drink well, and live to be a hundred!”
Her words made the old woman laugh out loud despite herself.
She took her hands out of the water basin, poked her granddaughter on the forehead, and said, “You’re just trying to sweet-talk me. Live to be a hundred? I’d be an old monster!”
Then she sighed again, her voice full of affection. “I don’t want to live to be a hundred. I just want all of you to be well. That way, when I go down to see your father, I won’t have any regrets. That would be enough for me.”
Ning Xin quickly reassured her. “Grandma, don’t worry. With me here, I promise that when you go down to see Dad after a hundred years, you’ll be able to puff out your chest and say, ‘I raised Xiao Xin well, better than when you were here!'”
The little girl’s words brought tears to the old woman’s eyes, but her lips curved into a wide smile.
That evening, when Ning Yi came home, he downed the remaining half-enamel mug of water in one go.
After finishing, he exclaimed “Refreshing!” several times and ate an extra bowl of rice compared to usual.
Ning Xin couldn’t stop staring at his belly, unable to believe how such a flat stomach could hold so much.
The spiritual spring that Ning Xin possessed wasn’t some miraculous cure-all.
Its greatest benefits, aside from strengthening the body, were enhancing the properties of food and medicine.
In other words, it could multiply the effectiveness of ordinary medicinal meals many times over.
The magnitude of this effect was directly proportional to the amount of spiritual spring water used.
Ning Xin felt that there was a space within her mind.
That space was a bit of a letdown, aside from containing a few bottles and jars that could store the spiritual spring water she hadn’t yet used, it couldn’t hold anything else.
And forget about her being able to enter or exit it herself.
But despite its limitations, this space and the spiritual spring water had already given Ning Xin a great deal of help.
In her previous life, the reason she had been able to become the most renowned physician of the Dahong Dynasty in her teens, aside from having truly mastered all of her master’s skills, was thanks in no small part to these two things.
Ever since arriving in this era, Ning Xin had been thinking about what she wanted to do.
Even though she had been dealt a terrible hand from the start, and according to the original story, she might not even survive past the end of this month—
She wasn’t about to be intimidated by the difficulties right in front of her.
After much thought, Ning Xin concluded that the most reliable and useful assets she had were precisely these treasures she had brought with her.
But how to make use of them, that, she felt, required careful planning.
Ning Xin fell asleep with these thoughts on her mind.
But it felt like she had barely been asleep for a moment when a knock came at her bedroom door.
“Xiao Xin, wake up. Xiao Xin?”
Hearing her brother’s voice, Ning Xin groggily opened her eyes. “Hmm? What is it?”
Seeing that his sister was awake, Ning Yi brightened up.
He rubbed his hands together excitedly and said in a low voice from outside the door, “Xiao Xin, do you still have any of that tea you made yesterday? Could you brew me another batch? I feel like it’s more thirst-quenching than regular water. I’d like to take a bottle with me.”
Ning Xin rubbed her eyes and sat up.
She instinctively glanced at the small alarm clock on her nightstand, five in the morning!
She let out a groan and flopped back onto the bed.
“Xiao Xin?” Ning Yi called out softly again from the doorway.
Ning Xin sat up once more. “Fine. But I have one condition.”