When Old Man Shen and Old Lady Shen saw the large iron pot little Xihe was holding in her hands, knowing that with little Xihe’s strength she definitely could not lift it, they immediately had their eldest son, Shen Qiang, scoop the iron pot out of the water.
Once all the members of the Shen family had swum ashore, Old Lady Shen scooped some water into the iron pot with her hand and found that it did not leak, indicating that the iron pot was not broken.
She immediately held little Xihe and kissed her, praising her happily, “Wonderful! Thanks to Guibao finding this iron pot!”
“With this iron pot, we won’t have to worry about cooking in the future!”
Hearing this, Wang Juhua could not help chiming in to spoil the mood, “What’s the use of having a pot when there’s no rice to cook!”
Old Lady Shen glared fiercely at the third brother’s wife and said, “Even with no rice to cook, we can boil water to take a warm bath!”
When the Shen family went up the mountain, they had only carried bamboo baskets, firewood knives, and hoes with them, bringing nothing else at all.
Now that everyone had just swum out of the floodwaters, they were all trembling with cold because their clothes were soaked through.
Even little Xihe, who had been held in Old Lady Shen’s arms all along, could not help shivering all over from the cold.
Seeing a ruined temple not far away, Old Lady Shen pointed at it and said, “Let’s first go rest in that ruined temple ahead. We’ll use the iron pot to boil some hot water, take turns bathing, dry our wet clothes over the fire, and then continue on our way.”
“If we travel in wet clothes, someone will definitely catch cold and fall ill. Right now, there’s no doctor to be found to treat any illness!”
Hearing Old Lady Shen’s words, Old Man Shen agreed wholeheartedly, mainly because he too had seen his little granddaughter’s pitiable state with her lips turned dark blue from the cold, aching with distress for her.
Inside the ruined temple.
Holding little Xihe, Old Lady Shen directed her eldest son and youngest son to carry the iron pot inside the ruined temple, finding a few large stones to cushion beneath the iron pot so that it would not wobble.
Next, Old Lady Shen had her youngest daughter-in-law add some cold water into it.
Only after Old Lady Shen was sure that the warm water in the iron pot would not scald little Xihe did she put little Xihe inside the iron pot, and then took the clothes stripped from little Xihe over to the side of the campfire to dry.
Sitting inside the iron pot, little Xihe cupped the water in the iron pot with her two chubby little hands to splash over herself, obediently giving herself a bath.
Just as she was happily bathing, she suddenly felt that something extra had appeared inside the iron pot.
Little Xihe reached out her small hand to grab it, bringing it before her eyes to take a look, only to discover that it was… a strange thing she did not recognize at all.
Immediately after, she heard a voice echoing out from inside the iron pot.
“Where did my Ultraman go?”
Little Xihe: “?” What is an Ultraman?
Just as little Xihe was feeling puzzled, Old Lady Shen had already dried little Xihe’s clothes.
While scooping little Xihe out of the iron pot and helping her put on the dried clothes, she looked at the object in little Xihe’s hand that resembled a puppet and asked in confusion, “Guibao, where did that thing in your hand come from?”
Little Xihe shook her head truthfully, “Don’t know.” It just suddenly appeared inside the iron pot.
Hearing this answer, Old Lady Shen did not ask any further, because she knew little Xihe would not lie to her; if she didn’t know, she simply didn’t know.
…
Only after all the members of the Shen family had taken turns bathing and changed into dried clothes did little Xihe hold the Ultraman again, taking short little steps to quietly run back to the side of the iron pot, whispering toward it, “Are you an iron pot spirit?”
Little Xihe had once followed Old Man Shen to the teahouse in the county seat and heard the teahouse storyteller say that all things in the world possessed spirituality and could cultivate to transform into spirits.
Hearing the voice coming from inside the iron pot, she subconsciously felt that the iron pot had turned into a spirit!
No voice came from inside the iron pot as before. Little Xihe hesitated for a moment, then put the Ultraman she was holding back inside the iron pot.
“Regardless of whether you are an iron pot spirit or not, I’m returning this Ultraman of yours to you. Please don’t hurt me, and don’t hurt my family either, okay?”
There was still no sound from inside the iron pot.
Little Xihe squatted beside the iron pot for a little while longer until Old Lady Shen lost sight of her and called out her name loudly, only then turning around to leave.
After little Xihe left, the Ultraman toy that was originally inside the iron pot suddenly vanished without a trace.