Miao Qing happily continued accelerating and harvesting.
In the blink of an eye, she had a small pouch full of soybeans. She estimated there was at least half a catty. Feeling tired, she stopped.
Sure enough, this ability had to be used often—the more she used it, the smoother it became.
When she first started accelerating hawthorns, it had been agonizing.
Using the ability felt like pulling tendons out of her flesh—excruciatingly painful. At most, she could accelerate three at a time before she had to stop, or else the pain would wrack her entire body and her head would feel like it was about to explode.
Miao Qing analyzed that it was partly because her ability was too weak, and partly because her physical condition was too poor—especially since her meridians were extremely blocked.
Since the ability was channeled through the eight extraordinary meridians, any stagnation would inevitably affect it, which was why it hurt so much when she used it.
Later, she worked hard to cultivate herself, strengthening her ability and repairing her meridians. Accelerating hawthorns became much easier after that, but even before she left, her maximum at one time was only twenty or thirty hawthorns.
Now she had accelerated over a dozen soybean plants in a row and only felt a little tired—no soreness in her meridians, no headache. Her ability had clearly improved significantly.
This made Miao Qing want to test her limits. She also wanted to accelerate some soybeans for Taohua—first, to repay what Taohua had given her earlier, and second, to have a convenient explanation for where the beans came from.
She directly dropped three soybeans into the weeds and channeled her ability…
Germination, growth, maturity, decline—the soybean plant completed its brief life cycle in less than two minutes.
She repeated this cycle over and over until her temples throbbed with pain.
Miao Qing stopped and looked at the soybean plants she had accelerated. She smiled.
She could now accelerate seventy-two soybean plants at once. If she kept working at it, she wouldn’t be far from being able to wave her hand and accelerate an entire field.
The sun had climbed to its zenith by the time Taohua and the others returned.
The little girl was running with a sweaty forehead, her cheeks red and chapped from the wind. As soon as she arrived, she opened her cloth pouch to show Miao Qing.
“Sis, I picked a lot of soybeans—enough to share with you.”
“No need. I have some.”
Miao Qing opened her own satchel. Finally, she could hold her head up high.
Taohua stared in shock at the soybeans in Miao Qing’s satchel. But what shocked her even more came next—Miao Qing pointed to a patch of weeds not far away and said,
“Over there… there’s more… I left them… for you.”
Taohua rubbed her eyes, then rubbed them again.
Oh my god—she wasn’t seeing things. They really were soybeans.
So many of them, and they hadn’t been cut down—so many pods, and they hadn’t even noticed them earlier!
Taohua was overjoyed. She dashed over and started picking frantically. Just as she was getting into it, she heard her friends calling her to go home.
She answered and shouted happily,
“My sister found a whole bunch of soybeans! Wait for me to finish picking and then we’ll go.”
Let’s see who dares call her sister stupid from now on—her sister was amazing!
The kids all came running over. Seeing Taohua’s lap full of plump pods, they were green with envy and hurried to grab some for themselves.
Gouwa, with his short little legs, didn’t manage to get any. Sniffling his runny nose, he looked at Miao Qing with pleading eyes.
“Any more?”
Miao Qing forcibly restrained herself from looking at the snot about to drip into his mouth and ruthlessly shook her head.
“No more.”
Gouwa licked his lips with regret. Miao Qing couldn’t take it anymore.
“Hey… how about… you wipe your nose.”
Gouwa blankly raised his sleeve and gave his nose a vigorous wipe, leaving a long shiny streak on his already filthy cuff.
Miao Qing…
Mission accomplished. But when she went to turn in her harvest, she was stopped.
The warehouse keeper was an extremely serious and stern auntie. She pawed through the soybeans Miao Qing had handed in, examining them closely, then frowned and asked,
“Did you really pick these from the field?”
Miao Qing nodded. The auntie found it hard not to be suspicious.
“Every single one of these is big and round—even better than the seeds we specially keep in storage. Where exactly did you pick them?”
Miao Qing was stunned. She had overdone the acceleration and forgotten that picked soybeans were usually small, and some were even shriveled.
How was she going to fix this?
Think, stupid brain, think!
Taohua eagerly jumped in and started chattering.
“Auntie, my sister really did find them under the slope south of the east field.
Down there it’s all weeds, and they grow really tall. The soybeans were growing inside—you couldn’t even see them unless you got up close.
When I went over, I found a bunch too—they were all growing really well.
The stalks were nice and tall too—I pulled them all up and brought them back. Do you take those here? If not, I’ll just take them home for firewood.”
The auntie looked at the bundle of soybean stalks tied up at Taohua’s feet, then at the soybeans in her cloth pouch. Though she still found it hard to believe, she reluctantly accepted it.
She just made a heavy note in her little notebook, in crooked handwriting:
East slope soybean field—sloppy planting, careless harvesting. Send someone to conduct a thorough re-inspection later.
Because the soybeans Miao Qing had picked were of excellent quality, even though they didn’t quite make a full catty, she was still credited with three work points.
Taohua, on the other hand, had exceeded her quota and brought back a bundle of stalks, earning an extra work point as a bonus.
Taohua was overjoyed, hopping and skipping all the way.
Miao Qing watched with envious eyes. When would she ever be that agile and energetic? When would this pathetic existence finally come to an end?
She looked up at the blazing sun overhead, then thought about how far she still had to go to reach Taohua’s home. Tired, hungry, and thirsty, she felt darkness creeping in at the edges of her vision.
Wait—why was she feeling lightheaded and unsteady, like she was about to topple over?
Was she having a low blood sugar episode?
Taohua also noticed something was wrong with Miao Qing and quickly ran back to her.
Miao Qing fished out a piece of fruit candy and popped it into her mouth. After a moment, she recovered and let out a sigh of relief.
Seeing Taohua watching her with a worried expression, she smiled and handed her a piece of candy.
Taohua waved her hands so fast they became a blur.
“No, no—candy is so expensive! Keep it for yourself, Sis!”
“Take it, just eat it.”
Miao Qing unwrapped the candy directly and popped it into Taohua’s mouth.
Taohua’s eyes went wide with wonder—so this was what her mother meant by the taste of candy. It was so sweet—how could there be anything this sweet in the world?
She couldn’t bear to eat it all by herself and tried to spit it out, but Miao Qing covered her mouth.
“Eat yours. I have more.”
Lowering her hand, Miao Qing pulled out two more pieces of candy and pressed them into Taohua’s palm.
“One for your brother, one for your mother.”
“Sis, this is too expensive. I… I can’t take this. You should keep them for yourself.”
Though she really wanted them, Taohua still tried to give them back.
Her mother had said that having her cousin eat with them was already taking advantage—they needed to take good care of her and not take any more.
Miao Qing pushed them back and patted her chest with bravado.
“Not expensive. Sister has money.”
Seeing that Miao Qing insisted, Taohua carefully tucked the candies into her inner pocket.
Even so, she couldn’t help patting it every few steps, afraid her treasures might fall out.
Her mouth held not just sweetness but a fragrant flavor—one she had never tasted before, only heard her mother talk about. This was what candy was supposed to taste like.
It was so delicious!
Having a cousin was wonderful.
Taohua, now overflowing with goodwill toward Miao Qing, not only stir-fried a big bowl of cabbage with lard for lunch but also cooked sweet red potato porridge.
Miao Qing took a bite of coarse-grain steamed bun, a bite of cabbage, and a big gulp of sweet potato porridge, squinting in pure contentment.
Yang Xiaomei also ate a coarse-grain steamed bun and drank a big bowl of sweet potato porridge.
Having eaten well these past two days and being in good spirits, her complexion had improved considerably. Unfortunately, she still had no breast milk. But at least the baby could eat thick rice oil and was starting to put on weight.
Taohua didn’t have a steamed bun, but she did have a big bowl of porridge with lots of sweet potatoes, leaving her belly round and full—she was utterly satisfied.
In the village right now, aside from her family, who else could eat this well at noon?
Tietui didn’t come home for lunch. Though he was still just a half-grown boy, he had gone to the fields with the educated youth to chop corn stalks, earning eight work points for a full day’s work, all to bring in more for the family.
He had gotten up before dawn to steam a big batch of coarse-grain steamed buns, bought some sweet potatoes and vegetables from other households, and made sure everything at home was arranged before he left.
After lunch, Miao Qing took her washed and dried clothes and headed back to the educated youth dormitory for a nap.
Taohua, however, still had no time to rest. She had to wash diapers, gather firewood, dig for wild vegetables, water the vegetables in their private plot, then go home to watch her little sister and help her mother turn over and massage her legs…
Just hearing about it made Miao Qing feel exhausted—she wouldn’t be able to handle all that even if she were fully recovered.
But that private plot—she should go take a look at it when she had time.
The vegetables she bought from others were nowhere near as good as the ones she could accelerate herself—they grew fast, produced a lot, and cost nothing.
With these idle thoughts drifting through her mind, Miao Qing fell asleep.
No one was at the educated youth dormitory right now—it was perfectly quiet. She was too tired today to bother with cultivation.
An occasional lazy break was just what life needed to add a little sweetness.
Miao Qing slept soundly, unaware that back home, a thousand miles away, another commotion had broken out.