Although grilling fish was now an open secret at home, with her mother even saying she wouldn’t interfere, the old woman still couldn’t help but glance over every time Yuan Si started cooking.
Staring at their dwindling supply of firewood, she said nothing, but her heart grew heavy with worry.
The main symptom was that she would toss and turn in bed at night, unable to sleep.
Yuan Si knew this couldn’t go on.
Her mother was extremely frugal; if she actually got sick with worry over something so trivial, Yuan Si would become an orphan, and life in this world would become even harder.
So, taking advantage of the time before the wheat harvest, she made another trip to the reservoir.
Of course, she told her mother she was going to see her Immortal Master.
Her main purpose for visiting the reservoir this time wasn’t to catch fish, but to gather firewood from a small grove she passed along the way.
However, she soon discovered that all the small groves were owned by someone.
She was almost caught as a thief while gathering wood and only got away thanks to her quick feet.
Only then did she realize that with no mountains nearby, firewood was truly a major problem.
She walked all the way to the reservoir without seeing any more groves.
In the end, she had no choice but to take out her dagger and start hacking at the bushes by the water’s edge.
Thanks to the dagger’s sharpness, she could cut the shrubs right at their roots.
She then straightened out the green branches and laid them aside to dry in the sun, knowing they wouldn’t burn until all the moisture was gone.
She cut down a great many shrubs by the shore, laying them out on the bank to dry.
Afterward, she noticed the lush waterweeds growing at the water’s edge and couldn’t resist harvesting a large amount of those as well.
She stored them in her pocket dimension.
Now she wouldn’t have to search all over for fodder each day before work; she could just pull a few pounds from her space to meet her quota.
She was busy all day, cutting several hundred pounds of both firewood and green fodder.
A single day wasn’t enough to dry the shrubs completely, so they would need more time in the sun after she brought them home.
When her mother saw that her little girl had returned from a day out with enough firewood to fill a room, her face crinkled into a huge smile.
“Your master is far too generous!” she chided gently.
“How could you bother him with such a trivial matter?
You silly child, you really don’t know any better.
From now on, don’t mention every little problem to your master, you hear?”
Yuan Si could only laugh to herself.
‘If your face hadn’t been getting longer and longer every day, do you think I would have worked this hard?’
“Yuan Si, dear, does your master have a lot of bushes like these where he is?” Her mother truly treasured this firewood.
After all, it was difficult to gather even a few spare twigs around here, so how could she not be delighted with such a huge haul of branches?
“I suppose so,” Yuan Si replied vaguely.
Her mother’s eyes lit up.
“So there really are more!
That’s wonderful!
Do you remember where to find them? New chapters come out on g.com first.
One of these days, I’ll go with you, and the two of us can bring some more back.” The old woman’s mind was consumed with one thought: save, save, save.
Everything was a treasure, and she wanted to bring it all home.
This time, Yuan Si was truly at a loss for words.
‘If I take her with me, my cover will be blown!’
As soon as the words were out, her mother realized her mistake and quickly backtracked.
“Oh, I was just kidding.
Your master is an Immortal; a place where he resides isn’t somewhere I can just casually visit.
Besides, I’m busy with work every day, I don’t have the time to be running about.
The wheat harvest is starting in a few days, so I won’t be able to go anywhere.” Feeling like she’d lost a bit of face, she quickly added a few more excuses to cover her tracks.
“Yeah, my master really doesn’t let me bring people over,” Yuan Si said, seizing the opportunity.
“He says he doesn’t like outsiders in his territory.
Besides, without his permission, I wouldn’t be able to find the way to his home even if I tried to take someone there.” ‘I have to make it clear now,’ she thought.
‘Heaven forbid she gets a sudden whim to have me take her for a tour of an Immortal’s home.
I can’t just pull something like that out of a hat.’
“Well, that just proves he’s an old immortal,” her mother said with deep earnestness.
“He’s not someone an ordinary person could ever hope to meet.
Yuan Si, the fact that you not only met your master but that he was willing to take you as his disciple…
that is a stroke of incredible fate.
You must study his skills diligently and serve him with proper filial respect in the future.”
“I know, Mom,” Yuan Si said, turning on the charm.
“And I’ll take good care of you, too.”
“Heh, of course you will.
You’re my daughter, Zuo Daya’s daughter.
If you don’t take care of me, who will?” her mother said, tilting her head back proudly.
Zuo Daya had been strong-willed her entire life.
She was that way as a girl, and she was the same after getting married and having children.
But with a good-for-nothing husband, her only choice was to focus all her energy on raising her children right.
She had given birth to many children in her life, but only five had survived.
The first three were girls; the eldest and the third were both mild-mannered, taking after their father.
The second daughter resembled her a bit more, but Zuo Daya hadn’t realized it until after she was married and had shown her true colors as an ungrateful wretch.
As for her only son, although Zuo Daya had personally raised him from a young age, his personality, truth be told, also took after his father.
Still, he was her only son, her sole support for the latter half of her life.
She never thought she would have another little girl in her old age. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
Now, it seemed only this youngest daughter grew more and more like her by the day.
She was pretty, with a strong-willed personality, and her luck was just as incredible as her own.
I mean, her daughter had actually met an Immortal—someone most people couldn’t even dream of meeting in a lifetime.
Thinking of all this, Zuo Daya’s heart swelled with immense pride.
After mother and daughter exchanged a pile of nauseatingly sweet words, they finally settled down and got to work.
A few mornings later, Yuan Si awoke to find an earthenware pot of steaming hot fish congee waiting for her.
Of course, her mother had also brought back two fine items, which she presented as if they were treasures.
“Yuan Si, dear, get up quick!
Come and see if these are the things you wanted.” Her mother showed her the items her nephew had brought back from the supply-and-demand co-op the day before.
‘Getting a master has really made her something special,’ she thought.
‘Coming home and demanding toothpaste and a toothbrush, of all things.
She said her master uses them and that his teeth are white and healthy.
I don’t get it.
I’ve never brushed my teeth a day in my life, and they’re perfectly fine.
I can eat anything and everything.’
‘So at first, I refused.
Why waste money like that?
But this girl is stubborn.
When I said no, she declared she’d save up her own money to buy them.
That stuff is so expensive!
With the few pennies she earns here and there, it would take ’til kingdom come to save enough for a toothbrush.
I thought about it for a few days.
My Yuan Si has a master now; she has to maintain her dignity in front of the Immortal Master.
If he uses one, it really is a loss of face for his disciple not to have one.
And so, after mulling it over for days, I finally gritted my teeth and had someone buy them for her.’
Yuan Si saw the surprise her mother had prepared for her, and she was genuinely stunned.
She never would have imagined her mother spending “so much” money to buy her a toothbrush and toothpaste.
“Alright now, hurry up and wash your face.
I’ll make the bed,” her mother said, nudging her blissfully grinning daughter aside and bending over to fold the bedding.
“Okay!” ‘Her mother is such a contradiction,’ Yuan Si thought.
‘Sometimes she’s so stingy you’d think asking her for a single penny was a life-or-death matter, even for her own daughter.
But other times, she spoils me rotten, with no limits at all.
Like right now—I’m a big girl of six, and she still won’t let me make my own bed.’