Ye Qingyun carried the freshly cooked stone frog porridge to the table, ready to call the children for dinner.
The moment she looked up, she saw all four children clinging to her master.
Two were pulling on his arms, the other two hanging onto his legs, shaking him back and forth while pleading,
“Grandpa Wang, please turn another yellow bird into one!”
Wang Tiezhu looked perfectly composed as he chuckled.
“My magical powers are limited. I can only conjure one yellow bird each month. If you want to see another one, you’ll have to wait until next month.”
Then he added,
“But I’d like to ask something first. From now on… can I eat with your family?”
The four children didn’t even have to think.
“Yes! Yes! Just turn another yellow bird into one next month!”
Wang Tiezhu instinctively reached up to stroke his beard to look dignified.
Only when his hand touched his chin did he remember that his magnificent beard had long since disappeared.
He coughed awkwardly twice and prepared to continue fooling the children.
Ye Qingyun called out helplessly,
“Dinner’s ready!”
The eyes of the old man and the four children lit up simultaneously.
Like starving ghosts reborn, they all rushed to the table, sat obediently in their seats, and waited to be fed.
Shaking her head with another helpless smile, Ye Qingyun filled bowls of porridge for the five of them before serving herself an extra-large bowl.
The six of them enjoyed a hearty meal together.
After dinner, Wang Tiezhu was just about to slip away.
He had barely lifted himself from his seat when Ye Qingyun caught him with a glance.
“You wash the dishes.”
Wang Tiezhu stared at her in disbelief and pointed at himself.
You’re ordering your master around?
Ye Qingyun simply nodded.
She gathered up the bowls and chopsticks, placed them in the wooden washbasin, and stuffed the whole thing into his arms.
Wang Tiezhu took a deep breath.
In a fit of anger…
…he got angry for about a second.
Then, with a mournful face, he muttered,
“The world has truly gone downhill… people don’t respect their elders anymore…”
and shuffled off to wash the dishes.
Of course, he wasn’t lonely.
Now convinced that Wang Tiezhu was some kind of immortal sage, Fu Min and the other three children eagerly crowded around him.
Poor Wang Tiezhu.
Not only did he have to wash the dishes…
He also had to keep entertaining four children.
If he had known earlier…
Well…
Children really were rather adorable.
A curious little hand suddenly reached toward the top of Wang Tiezhu’s head and yanked out one of his gray hairs.
“Oww!”
He let out a howl before spinning around furiously.
“Who? Who did that?”
Fu Min and the twins immediately took one synchronized step backward and pointed straight at the innocent-looking Fu Xiangdong.
Still clutching the incriminating strand of hair, the little boy explained in his soft, childish voice,
“Hair… make lots of monkeys… wanted to try…”
The little rascal had genuinely mistaken him for Sun Wukong’s immortal master, thinking a single hair might transform into three thousand little monkeys.
Wang Tiezhu was speechless.
In the end, Fu Xiangdong learned through firsthand experience that Grandpa Wang wasn’t Patriarch Subhuti…
But he could make yellow birds appear.
Which was pretty amazing too.
That night, before going to sleep, Ye Qingyun overheard the four little heads huddled together making exactly that conclusion.
…
A rooster crowed.
The eastern sky was only beginning to brighten.
Since she was going to Hongyan Commune to sell the stone frogs today and would most likely not make it back by noon, Ye Qingyun got up early and even prepared lunch in advance, leaving it warming in the pot.
She pulled the remaining firewood from the stove and extinguished it, leaving only a few glowing coals behind.
The fire would burn out on its own in another half hour, eliminating any fire hazard.
Although she had already told the children yesterday that she would be going out today…
She had no intention of sneaking away.
She set breakfast on the table, woke all four children, and told them she was leaving.
“Lunch is in the pot. If you’re hungry at noon, remember to heat it up and eat.”
Still half asleep, the children mumbled a few responses before collapsing back into bed.
Ye Qingyun carried Fu Xiangdong back onto the kang, tucked the thin blankets around all four children, picked up the basket she would use as camouflage, gently closed the door behind her, and headed toward the village.
Still feeling uneasy, she stopped by her elder brother’s house to let him know before continuing deeper into the village.
Wang Tiezhu wasn’t even awake yet.
Yawning, he shuffled over to open the door for her.
All twenty stone frogs were still alive.
With a thought, Ye Qingyun instantly transferred every frog from the washbasin into her storage space.
Without oxygen, they would die within ten minutes.
To keep them as fresh as possible, she planned to leave the village quickly before they suffocated, take them back out and place them in the basket covered with cloth, then hide them inside her storage space again once they reached the crowded commune.
Naturally, Wang Tiezhu insisted on coming along.
He was worried his straightforward little disciple might get taken advantage of.
It was still early enough that they encountered almost no one on the road.
Because she had to match her master’s slower pace, Ye Qingyun deliberately slowed down.
The master and disciple walked for two hours before finally reaching Hongyan Commune.
The sun had already risen.
It was around nine in the morning.
The streets were bustling with people.
There were plenty of pedestrians, but very few shops were open, and not a single street vendor could be seen.
The busiest place by far was the Hongyan Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
Its three-bay storefront was packed with customers.
Apparently, a new shipment of polyester fabric that didn’t require ration coupons had just arrived.
Compared with previous years, the atmosphere this year was noticeably more relaxed.
On the twentieth of every month, a special marketplace was held at a designated location where farmers could exchange vegetables, eggs, and other produce from their private plots for daily necessities.
However, the armband patrols of the commune still cracked down relentlessly on unauthorized private trading, which they considered capitalist speculation.
No matter the reason, nothing could be allowed to undermine the socialist economy.
Yet as the contradiction between growing public demand and the severe shortage of goods became increasingly obvious…
Underground free trade quietly emerged.
In the inconspicuous back alleys, people carrying baskets or backpacks wandered from house to house under the pretense of visiting relatives.
Whenever they happened upon someone interested in buying, both sides quickly whispered out a price.
Money changed hands.
So did the goods.
Afterward, the homeowner might carry a chicken or a basket of free-range eggs back inside while cheerfully thanking their “relative” for the generous gift.
References like “my sixth uncle” or “her third aunt” were the most common.
Occasionally, someone would become “my sister-in-law” or “his great-uncle.”
Watching these scenes of people “visiting relatives,” Ye Qingyun felt strangely excited.
But her master said they weren’t visiting relatives today.
Wang Tiezhu lowered his voice mysteriously.
“We’re going to visit patients at the hospital.”
Stone frogs were highly nutritious.
For women who had recently given birth and patients recovering from surgery, they were considered excellent nourishment.
Selling them simply as meat would be a terrible waste.
Ye Qingyun had only recently arrived in this era, and the original owner had spent most of her life in the city, rarely encountering this sort of thing.
Wang Tiezhu, on the other hand, had been reborn six months earlier.
He was clearly an experienced hand.
Listening to him couldn’t be wrong.
The master and disciple arrived near the commune clinic.
Wang Tiezhu signaled for Ye Qingyun to wait in the alley and not wander off while he went inside.
She nodded, watched him disappear into the clinic lobby, then found a shady spot to sit and wait.
Taking off the military-style canteen hanging at her side, she sprinkled a little water into the basket.
Perhaps they were still under some sort of beginner’s luck.
The entire journey had passed without anyone inspecting them.
They had even walked past two young patrol members wearing armbands.
Neither had spared them a second glance.
As a result, the stone frogs had remained in the basket the whole time instead of being hidden in her storage space.
They were still lively and energetic.
Living frogs would certainly fetch a better price than dead ones.
Ye Qingyun couldn’t help looking forward to it.
After waiting for more than ten minutes, she finally saw Wang Tiezhu returning with a middle-aged man and woman.
Immediately becoming alert, she stood up.
Receiving her master’s subtle signal, she lifted one corner of the cloth covering the basket.
The couple hurried over to take a look.
The woman gasped.
She frowned at first…
Then her face lit up with delight.