After the move, aside from the one tael of silver Qianhua had recovered from the Jiang family, the three members of Liang Lao’er’s household were completely penniless.
Qianhua did not hand the silver over to Liu-shi, nor did Liu-shi intend to take it.
In Liu-shi’s view, her daughter had truly liked Jiang Lin, and the broken engagement must have hurt her deeply.
That one tael of silver had come from the engagement’s cancellation, and no matter what, she would never bring herself to ask her daughter for it.
Qianhua planned to go to Carpenter Sun’s place again today to order another wooden bucket.
Some daily necessities had to be purchased when needed; as for everything else, they would have to wait until she earned money and slowly add to them later.
Just as dawn broke, thin wisps of smoke rose from the kitchen of Qianhua’s home—Liu-shi was already up making breakfast.
She prepared a pot of coarse rice porridge with leafy greens.
The greens had been given to them yesterday by Cui-shi from the neighboring Zhang household. Liu-shi took a small handful, snapped off the stems, washed them clean, and tossed them into the porridge once the coarse rice was about seventy to eighty percent cooked.
By the time the vegetable porridge was ready, the sky was fully light.
Liu-shi went to the west room to wake Qianhua for breakfast.
Qianhua had always been a night owl in her modern life, and after coming to this era she still slept late, making it impossible for her to get up early in the mornings.
Every day, it was only after Liu-shi finished cooking and came to wake her that she would slowly get out of bed.
The original owner of the body used to rise very early. Now that Qianhua got up late every day, her parents assumed it was a lingering aftereffect from falling into the water.
They never scolded her, nor did they suspect that their daughter’s soul had been replaced.
“Mother, after breakfast I’m going to Carpenter Sun’s to order another wooden bucket,” Qianhua said while drinking her porridge.
“Don’t we already have a bucket at home? Why buy another?” Liu-shi objected.
“We only have one bucket. Every time you fetch water from the stream, you have to carry it back by hand—it’s too exhausting. If we buy another one, you can carry water with a shoulder pole instead. You’ll be able to fetch more water in one trip and save strength.”
“It’s fine if I’m a bit tired. There’s no need to buy another one. You need to be careful with that one tael of silver,” Liu-shi said, feeling sorry about spending money.
“Mother, the wooden bathtub I ordered yesterday only cost five copper coins. A bucket will probably cost about the same. We don’t need to be that frugal with this amount,” Qianhua persuaded her.
“Chunxiang, our daughter is right. Let’s buy another bucket. It’s all my fault—my leg hasn’t healed, and these kinds of labor should’ve been done by me. Instead, you’ve been suffering,” Liang Lao’er said guiltily.
“Jun-ge, I’m not suffering. Don’t blame yourself. I’ll listen to you both—we’ll buy another bucket,” Liu-shi quickly agreed, afraid her husband would feel even worse.
After finishing her porridge, Qianhua went to Carpenter Sun’s place. Just as she expected, the wooden bucket cost the same as the bathtub—five copper coins.
After taking her payment, Carpenter Sun promised to finish it and deliver it that evening.
Yesterday, Liu-shi had already tilled more than half of the vegetable plot in their backyard.
Now she was scattering seeds into the loosened soil—planting a day earlier meant harvesting a day sooner.
Liang Lao’er sat by the back gate, weaving a broom out of bamboo branches. When the family split, there hadn’t been any spare brooms to give them. Fortunately, he still had his bamboo-weaving skills.
For months, while recovering from his injury, he had been confined to bed, unable to help at all.
Now that he could move again and do what he could, he felt much better.
“Dad, the chestnut trees next to our yard have all ripened. Lots of chestnuts have already burst open and fallen to the ground. I’m going to knock down the ones on the branches and bring them home.”
Having just returned from Carpenter Sun’s house, Qianhua noticed the chestnut trees by the yard were fully ripe. As soon as she entered, she happily told her father.
“Good. Knock them all down. My broom is almost finished anyway. Once you bring them back, crack some open—I’ll help peel them, and we’ll cook chestnut rice again tonight,” Liang Lao’er replied, his hands still busy as he spoke.
“Alright! I’ll go right now.”
With that, Qianhua went to the kitchen to fetch a bamboo basket and found a long bamboo pole to knock down the chestnuts.
Those old chestnut trees were at least several decades old. Each tree could yield over a hundred jin of chestnuts.
During the house construction, they had already harvested and eaten dozens of jin. She knocked down all the remaining ones and piled them in the main room—there were probably still two to three hundred jin of raw chestnuts left.
Qianhua cracked open two or three jin with a hammer. When Liu-shi finished sowing the seeds and came inside, she saw father and daughter sitting at the old table in the main room peeling chestnuts, and she joined them.
“Dad, Mom, is chestnut rice the only way people eat chestnuts here? Are there any other ways?”
Qianhua was curious. Every time, it was chestnut rice—did people here really not know there were many other ways to eat chestnuts?
“Of course not. Peeled chestnuts can be cooked in rice as a staple, or stir-fried as a dish. Chestnut-braised chicken and chestnut-stir-fried pork are both common—it’s just that our family has neither chicken nor pork, so we can’t make those. You can also stir-fry chestnuts alone, but that requires a lot of oil. Without enough oil, it doesn’t taste good, so it’s better to cook them with rice. You can also boil chestnuts whole in water and eat them as a snack. Some pastry shops even make chestnut cakes to sell,” Liu-shi explained while peeling shells.
“Mom, isn’t there a way to make sugar-roasted chestnuts?” Qianhua asked.
She listened carefully but only heard about boiling, stir-frying, and making cakes—never sugar-roasted chestnuts.
“What? Sugar-roasted chestnuts? You can fry chestnuts with sugar?” Liu-shi looked shocked. “I’ve never heard of that. Husband, have you?”
“No. Sugar is precious—common folk rarely get to eat it. Who would waste it on chestnuts? Could that be something wealthy households do? Qianhua, who did you hear this from?” Liang Lao’er shook his head repeatedly.
Qianhua secretly rejoiced. It seemed that this dynasty might not have invented sugar-roasted chestnuts yet. At last, she knew how she could make money.
The key question now was how to explain to her parents that she knew how to make sugar-roasted chestnuts.
She fell silent for a moment, then finally came up with a perfect explanation—one that would not only explain this, but also everything she might know in the future. A one-time solution.
“Dad, Mom, didn’t I fall into the water some time ago? Back then, Black and White Impermanence really did drag my soul to the underworld. But the Lord of Hell said my lifespan wasn’t over yet—it was a mistake. He said he would compensate me. Ever since then, whenever I sleep, I keep having strange dreams. In those dreams, I learn many things. Sugar-roasted chestnuts are just one of them.”
She spun the tale smoothly, without the slightest blush. She had no choice—this excuse was simply too useful.
“Qianhua, is that true? You really learned sugar-roasted chestnuts in a dream? What else did you learn?” Liu-shi asked, half-believing, half-doubting.
“Yes, tell us quickly—what else did you learn in your dreams?” Liang Lao’er urged eagerly.
“Dad, Mom, I also learned how to read and memorize texts, as well as sing and dance. Every time I dream, I gain a new skill.”
Qianhua continued her fabrication.
From now on, whenever she produced something unheard of in this era, she could simply say she learned it in a dream.
“There’s no paper or brush at home, and your father and I can’t read. If you say you can read, we wouldn’t recognize it even if you wrote it. But since you say you can recite texts—can you recite the Three Character Classic?” Liu-shi said, eager to confirm whether this “dream teaching” was real.
“Yes, Mom, I can.” In modern times, even elementary school students memorized the Three Character Classic, let alone her, a college graduate.
“Then hurry and recite a section for your father and me.” Though they couldn’t recite it themselves, their nephew Wenzhi often read it aloud at home, so they recognized parts of it.
Knowing it would be hard to convince them all at once, Qianhua immediately began reciting:
“When people are born, their nature is good.Their natures are similar; habits make them different…If teaching is neglected, nature will change…Failure to teach is the father’s fault;Lack of strictness is the teacher’s laziness…”
After hearing just a portion, Liu-shi and Liang Lao’er were overjoyed.
Qianhua’s recitation was almost exactly the same as what Wenzhi had read when he first began learning.
Their daughter had never studied, let alone learned the Three Character Classic, yet now she could recite it fluently.
It seemed her story was very likely true.
The couple believed her seven or eight parts out of ten.
They felt what Qianhua described must be the legendary “heavenly impartation.” They never imagined their daughter would receive such a great blessing.
Overcome with joy, the couple immediately knelt and kowtowed to Heaven in thanks.
“Qianhua, kneel down and thank Heaven as well. This is an enormous blessing,” Liu-shi said, pulling her daughter down with her.
Qianhua could only kneel and kowtow along. People of this era deeply believed in gods, and Liu-shi and Liang Lao’er were no exception.
“Qianhua, this matter of heavenly impartation must never be spoken of to outsiders, or it could invite jealousy,” Liu-shi warned solemnly after they finished.
“Your mother is right. Aside from our family, absolutely no third person can know,” Liang Lao’er agreed.
“Don’t worry, Dad, Mom. I understand. I won’t tell anyone else,” Qianhua nodded repeatedly.
She actually hoped her parents would believe she had received divine guidance and keep it secret for her. After all, the truth—that her soul had possessed this body—was something that absolutely could not be discovered by anyone, including Liu Shi and Liang Er.
“Father, Mother, since I’ve already learned how to make sugar-roasted chestnuts, I plan to make some and take them out to sell,” Qianhua said, revealing her plan.
“Even if you learned this sugar-roasted chestnut recipe through divine inspiration, you’ve never actually made it before,” Liang Er said. “We don’t know whether it’ll taste good or not. Chestnuts aren’t anything rare in Yunfeng Village. If this sugar-roasted chestnut of yours isn’t anything special, I doubt anyone would buy it.”
Having often gone to town to sell hunted game, Liang Er was more clear-headed than most.
He immediately grasped the key issue.
“Father, you’re absolutely right. That’s why I plan to fry up a batch first and let our family taste it. If you and Mother both think it’s good, then I’ll take it out to sell.”
Qianhua was very confident about sugar-roasted chestnuts. This was a delicacy even Emperor Qianlong had loved.
“Alright, we’ll do it your way. If it doesn’t taste good or has nothing special about it, then we won’t sell it. We’ll just keep it for ourselves,” Liang Er said, immediately voicing his support.
“Qianhua, sugar-roasted chestnuts need sugar, don’t they?” Liu Shi asked. “Sugar costs ten copper coins more than salt. If it doesn’t turn out well and can’t be sold, wouldn’t the money spent on sugar be wasted?”
Liu Shi, being a woman, naturally worried more about immediate losses.
“Mother, it does need sugar, but not very much. One jin of sugar can be melted into syrup and used to roast dozens of jin of chestnuts. Besides, even if we can’t sell them, our own family can eat them. That wouldn’t be a waste at all,” Qianhua said, feeling her mother’s worry was unnecessary.
When she was a teenager, she had pushed a cart to sell sugar-roasted chestnuts to help support her family.
Her chestnut-roasting skills had long since reached perfection.
The only problem was that roasting chestnuts was physically demanding.
She was only thirteen now, and this body was thin and weak, without much strength.
For the time being, she could only guide her parents and let them do the stirring and frying.