After two days of hard work, Madam Liu and Gu Nian’an had cleared the weeds behind the house.
Gu Nianzhi knew that eating only meat and wild vegetables wasn’t enough, so she planned to plant a small vegetable garden in the backyard.
“Mother, I bought some seeds on the road yesterday. Let’s turn over that patch of land and plant them—soon we’ll have vegetables to eat,” she said.
Madam Liu brightened at the mention of seeds and readily agreed. But the family didn’t own a hoe. She had been about to go to the village to borrow one when Gu Nianzhi pulled out a hundred coins.
“Mother, let’s buy a hoe, and some wooden basins and buckets too. If the village has them for sale, bring them back—we’ll need them soon enough.”
Gu Nianzhi had checked her space the day before. It only contained plastic and iron containers, which would be far too conspicuous if brought out, so she wanted Madam Liu to buy the wooden tools herself.
A hoe in this era cost just over twenty coins, and basins and buckets were cheap. Madam Liu agreed, feeling it improper to always borrow from neighbors, and went into town.
Seizing the opportunity, Gu Nianzhi pulled out seeds from her space: greens, cabbage, garlic, onion, plus tomato, eggplant, small pumpkin, and green beans—everything she planned to plant together. Though tomatoes didn’t exist in this era, she loved scrambled eggs with tomatoes and wanted to try growing some herself.
When Madam Liu returned, Gu Nianzhi was already marking the plots for planting.
“Mother, I bought several types of seeds. Let’s dedicate a patch to each kind,” she suggested.
“All right,” Madam Liu agreed.
Madam Liu had bought a hoe, two wooden buckets, and two basins. She was about to start digging when she saw Gu Nianzhi had already rolled up her sleeves and begun turning the soil.
“Let me dig, Mother—you just gather the roots with Nian’an over there,” she said.
“No need, I can do it. It’ll be done quickly.”
With her strong build, Gu Nianzhi finished what would have taken Madam Liu a whole day in just over an hour. Then she had Madam Liu and Nian’an sow the seeds while she rested.
After a short break, she carried the buckets to the river.
The mountain foot was a bit far from the river. Normally, villagers drew water from the village well, but living so far away, neither the river nor the village was convenient. She decided to look for a nearby water source.
By afternoon, she had finished watering the vegetable patch.
“I thought this would take two days, but it’s done in just one,” she said with satisfaction.
“Yes! Big sister, you’re amazing!”
Gu Nian’an, though too young to help dig, was cheerful and full of energy all day, soaking up the emotional value of working alongside his sister.
The night before, they had finished the leftover vegetables for breakfast. For dinner, they cooked a simple porridge with oil scraps and wild vegetables. Compared to other households eating plain wild-vegetable gruel, they felt satisfied with this modest meal.
The next morning, Madam Liu went to dig for more wild vegetables while Gu Nianzhi led Gu Nian’an to a small water puddle less than two hundred meters from home.
She lifted her hoe and began enlarging the puddle.
Before long, the small puddle had become a tiny pond about a meter wide and half a meter deep, with a trickle of underground water slowly flowing in.
“Water! From now on, we don’t need to go to the village well!”
Village wells were always crowded, and arguments broke out easily when people queued for cooking water. Now, with their own water at the mountain’s edge, they were free.
When Madam Liu returned with a basket of wild vegetables, Gu Nian’an excitedly reported the news.
Madam Liu went to see—the water was clear, cool even in the summer heat, and very refreshing.
“This is wonderful! Washing clothes and cooking will be so much easier!”
They had no fear of anyone coming to steal the water; the path to the deep mountain was rarely traveled, and the pond was well hidden.
“Gu Nianzhi, this is all thanks to you,” Madam Liu said. She knew the recent comfort in their lives was all because of her daughter. Without her, they’d either have starved at the village entrance or survived only on wild vegetables.
“Mother! This is just the beginning. One day, the three of us will live even better lives!” Gu Nianzhi said.
“Yes, yes,” Madam Liu replied, delighted.
That evening, they enjoyed another simple meal of porridge with wild vegetables and oil scraps.
Gu Nianzhi didn’t venture into the deep mountain the previous day. Eating only wild vegetables and oil scraps wouldn’t suffice, so today she planned to go further in.
Gu Nian’an wanted to accompany her, but she preferred to go deeper alone, letting him stay with Madam Liu to dig more wild vegetables.
At the spot where they had caught the big snake, she drank a few sips from the mountain spring and pressed onward into the deeper forest.
Her space contained weapons, but she couldn’t take them with her while Gu Nian’an was around. Today, she wanted to do something significant.
Suddenly, her foot landed on a sticky, wet patch. Looking down, she saw she’d stepped in fresh wild pig droppings. The pig must be nearby!
Quickly climbing a tree to scout, she spotted a juvenile wild pig rooting in the ground a short distance away.
She considered her options, then carefully lowered herself and grabbed a massive hundred-pound stone, approaching the pig.
When she was directly above it, she swung the stone hard at the pig’s head.
The pig reeled, dizzy, staggering as if the world had turned upside down.
Seizing the moment, Gu Nianzhi brought the stone down again. The pig finally lay still.
It had never expected to encounter such a fierce human.
Estimating its weight at over a hundred pounds, she lifted the pig and carried it down the mountain.
To avoid trouble, she again took a detour straight for town.
As soon as she arrived, a crowd had gathered.
“My goodness! What girl can carry a whole wild pig?”
“All that blood—she isn’t scared at all?”
“I remember! She’s the girl who sold the snake last time!”
“Oh, it’s her. Poor thing…”
Gu Nianzhi: …Poor? She didn’t see anything pitiable about herself. Maybe it was just her ragged, threadbare appearance—the shoes full of holes, patched clothes, waxy skin, and thin frame that made her look worse than the beggars by the city gate.
She reached the tavern she had intended to sell the pig to but was stopped by a familiar figure.
“Little girl, is that really you?”
It was the middle-aged man from before. Apparently, the snake and chicken they had sold last time had been memorable.
“My master loves wild game! The snake and chicken you brought last time left quite an impression. Fancy meeting you here!”
Master? Gu Nianzhi realized he had bought it for someone else, not himself.
“I’m the steward of Master Chen’s household. Call me Uncle Song. How much do you want for this pig?”
Gu Nianzhi searched her memory—she had never heard of Master Chen. But business required awareness and adaptability.
“Ah, Uncle Song, my apologies! What do you think this pig is worth?” she said warmly.
Song looked at the pig, noticing its crushed head, assuming it had fallen into a trap. He didn’t ask further.
“This pig looks about a hundred pounds. Town pigs sell for thirty-five coins per pound. I’ll give you fifty coins per pound. How’s that?”
Gu Nianzhi hesitated. The crowd murmured:
“Girl, Master Chen treats people well. Uncle Song’s offer is fair.”
“Yes, you couldn’t get this at a tavern!”
Hearing the villagers’ approval, she followed Uncle Song to Chen’s household, finally selling the pig for fifty-five taels.
With money in hand, Gu Nianzhi hurried home.
Near her house, she retrieved bedding from her space, along with one hundred pounds of rice, ten pounds of pork, a handful of cabbage, and a block of tofu—returning with her arms full.