The morning sun was warm and bright, chasing away winter’s stillness and gloom. Even the dry, barren ground seemed to be slowly changing color.
Song Yuanxiang was up early. After buying so many things the day before, she planned to give their thatched hut—simple as it was, their only home—a thorough cleaning.
When they’d first moved in, everything had been rushed and chaotic, but now that initial strangeness and panic had faded a little. With time to really look at where they lived, she realized just how dirty and messy the place was, even beyond its obvious shabbiness.
First, she and Erguo and Sanxi moved the makeshift stove they’d built inside the hut outside. Without a chimney, cooking indoors filled the space with choking smoke that made their eyes water. It was simply too inconvenient.
She rebuilt the stove outside using stones, this time leaving a larger air inlet by adding extra stones on either side. More air would flow through, making the fire burn more efficiently and producing far less smoke.
This primitive way of life made her feel like she was surviving in the wild—though she’d always enjoyed watching survival shows where people faced extreme challenges in the wilderness or on deserted islands, seeing how they adapted to stay alive. Those programs had sparked her love of the outdoors and fitness; after all, a strong body was essential for overcoming difficulties.
But she’d never imagined she’d end up somewhere with nothing at all—and that the experience would be this immersive.
Letting out a sigh, she kept working, moving everything she could outside to make space for cleaning.
The broom was one she’d made herself. She’d had Erguo and Sanxi find branches that were both stiff and flexible, trimmed off the extra twigs, bound them tightly together, and there it was—a proper broom. Following her example, the two children made a second broom from the remaining branches. At last, they could sweep the floor properly!
With two brooms and three people working together, they swept out all the accumulated dirt and debris from the hut in a swish-swish-swish rhythm. Yuanxiang scraped off stains and spider webs from the mud walls, then wiped everything down with a tattered cloth, hauling out basin after basin of dirty water.
It took great effort to get the place clean, but the difference was striking. They put away all their new purchases from the peddler, taking special care with the grain—storing it properly was crucial. She placed stones under the grain sack to keep it off the ground, preventing the rice from getting damp and spoiling.
The weather was less cold than it had been a few days earlier, so Yuanxiang opened a crack in the window to let in fresh air. Sunlight streamed through, casting golden streaks across the clean floor, walls, and bed frame.
Looking out from inside, she saw the pale blue sky above and a small river winding through Xu Village. Sunlight danced on the water’s surface, turning it into a sheet of shimmering gold in the breeze. What beautiful spring scenery—she’d been here several days now, but this was the first time she’d stopped to appreciate the gentle mountains and clear waters around her.
If only life weren’t so hard, she thought, this pastoral landscape would be perfect!
She glanced down at the still-unconscious man. The sunlight gilded his face, and his complexion had clearly improved since they’d found him, thanks to the medicine Doctor Xu had prescribed. His breathing was steady now—anyone who didn’t know better would think he was just asleep.
She sighed. “When will you wake up?”
With the inside tidied up quickly, Yuanxiang turned her attention to the empty ground outside the hut. The area had been unoccupied for so long that weeds grew everywhere, some nearly waist-high. To make use of the land, they’d need to clear and cultivate it first.
She took the hoe and began digging up the weeds on the right side of the hut, working methodically to clear them away. The makeshift hoes the children had made came in handy again, and the three of them took turns tilling the soil.
After nearly an hour of weeding while crouched on the ground, their backs ached, but the area in front of their door looked much cleaner. They piled up the pulled weeds and set them ablaze—flames danced and spiraled upward, sending up clouds of smoke. Soon, only black ash remained on the ground.
Burning the weeds not only killed pests in the soil but also provided fertilizer from the ash, which would help any vegetables they planted grow better. In the modern world, open burning was banned in farmlands, so Yuanxiang never thought she’d experience the slash-and-burn farming methods of ancient times.
The vegetable seeds they’d planted were actually wild plants Yuanxiang and the children had transplanted from the mountain. As the weather warmed, wild vegetables were growing everywhere—on the mountain slopes, by the roadsides, in thickets of grass. She’d dug up shepherd’s purse, wild chives, and garlic mustard to plant in their new garden, so they wouldn’t have to hike up the mountain every time they wanted fresh greens.
She’d chosen shepherd’s purse deliberately—most wild vegetables had a bitter taste that couldn’t be cooked away, but shepherd’s purse was one of the least bitter varieties. She thought of all the dishes she could make: scrambled eggs with shepherd’s purse, shepherd’s purse and pork dumplings, shepherd’s purse and mushroom soup… She loved them all, especially a bowl of shepherd’s purse and mushroom soup in spring—it was so fresh it would make your taste buds sing! Tasty and hardy, no wonder it was called the “king of wild vegetables!”
She used the hoe to prepare several rows of soil, watered them well, then carefully planted the shepherd’s purse by hand, pinching the roots and placing each plant in a small hole before gently patting the soil down. Wild chives and garlic mustard were resilient too—though they’d originally grown in the mountains, they’d thrive here once transplanted. Then they could have scrambled eggs with wild chives and garlic mustard pancakes…
But we don’t have any eggs right now! she groaned inwardly. I really want to eat eggs. She decided that once they had more money, she’d raise a flock of chickens and make them lay lots of eggs.
Her thoughts drifting further afield, she realized she was tired and hungry. The sun was nearly at midday, so she set down the hoe and headed back to prepare lunch.
Erguo and Sanxi were sitting at the doorway, grunting and straining as they used a thick wooden club to pound something up and down. When Erguo got tired, Sanxi took over, and when her arms ached, Erguo took his turn again. This was the task Yuanxiang had given them: husking rice.
The mortar was made from a wooden stake—she’d burned a deep hollow in the top, creating something like a medicine grinder, then filled it with unhusked rice. Holding the wooden pestle with both hands and pounding repeatedly separated the grain from the husk, which became rice bran. Watching them work so hard, she understood why “cheng dan chong”—a punishment involving hard labor like husking rice—had been used as a form of imprisonment in ancient times.
When Yuanxiang saw there was enough husked rice for their meal, she told them to stop: “Alright, that’s enough for today. You two take a rest.”
“A-Jie, look how clean we made it!” Sanxi proudly showed off their work.
Yuanxiang smiled. “Yes, you did a great job!”
……
After finishing lunch at a leisurely pace, washing up, and tidying everything away, they rolled up their sleeves and went back to clear the remaining weeds. Another hour passed before the area in front of the hut was completely clean. She wasn’t sure what to do with the plot on the left yet, so she left it empty for now.
As for the large patch of grass behind the hut, she decided to leave it for later—they were all exhausted, and the children looked ready to collapse from tiredness. Besides, few people went back there anyway, so out of sight, out of mind.
The three of them sat at the doorway resting for a good while. With the sun still high and nothing else pressing to do, Yuanxiang called to her siblings: “Come on—let’s go fetch water. Today we’re going to give our hair a proper wash.”
What she really wanted was a full bath, but even at midday the temperature wasn’t high enough—she was afraid they’d catch a chill and get sick, which would be worse than being dirty.
Erguo and Sanxi tugged at their messy hair when they heard this. A hair wash? They realized it had been quite a while since their last one.
Having survived on wild vegetables for so long, the children were malnourished, their hair thin and yellow. When Yuanxiang had fetched water from the pond earlier, she’d caught a glimpse of her reflection in the original body—she looked like a thin, frail girl with frizzy hair and a small, sharp chin, though her skin was fair and her features delicate. Looking at her two “little yellow-haired” siblings, she thought that with proper care, all three of them would be quite good-looking.
Erguo was reluctant—he’d never liked washing his hair and always dragged his feet about it. He found it a hassle: a bath only required wiping down and dried quickly, but wet hair took ages to dry and felt sticky and uncomfortable against his skin.
“A-Jie, you and Sanxi go ahead—I’ll skip it, heh heh…” He scratched his head. His hair didn’t feel dirty, so why bother?
Sanxi looked from her sister to her brother, scratching her head too. Should she wash hers or not?
Yuanxiang narrowed her eyes, ready to play a trick on them. “You know, if you don’t wash your hair for too long, lice will grow in it. Do you know what lice do? If there are enough of them, they’ll eat your brain!”
Sanxi’s eyes went wide with alarm. Erguo was only half-convinced.
Seeing they weren’t fully persuaded, Yuanxiang added more fuel to the fire: “You were both scratching your heads just now, weren’t you? That means they’re itchy—and why itchy? Most likely because lice are biting you…”
“Hey! I haven’t finished talking yet!”
Erguo suddenly felt his scalp itching more than ever—it had never been this bad before. Could there really be something biting him? The more he thought about it, the itchier he felt, and the more convinced he became there were lice. He grabbed the water bucket and dashed off to fetch water.
“Brother, wait for me—I’m coming too!” Sanxi called as she chased after him.
With her plan working, Yuanxiang started a fire to heat water for washing hair.
Soon enough, the two were back.
“A-Jie, quick—look and see if I have lice!” Erguo bent over with his hair soaking in hot water, anxiously parting his locks to show her.
“A-Jie, check me too!” Sanxi pleaded.
With only one basin, they sat facing opposite directions, their heads in the same tub.
From the weed-burning earlier, they had plenty of wood ash, so Yuanxiang mixed it with water to use as shampoo. She carefully examined their hair—much of it was tangled and matted, so she had to work it loose first before scrubbing away the dirt.
“No lice, but look how dirty your hair is.” The clear water in the basin had turned murky brown in an instant.
The two lifted their heads and wiped water from their faces. When they saw how dirty the water was, they laughed sheepishly in embarrassment.
After changing the water twice, their hair was finally clean enough. While they sat by the stove drying their hair by the fire, Yuanxiang began to get herself ready to wash up.