C14 Chapter 14

Without giving it much thought, Liu Wenmei gathered every ripe piece of fruit she saw and tucked it into her space. Luckily, it was big enough to hold it all. She absolutely loved fruit—resources were scarce these days, and fruit was rarer than just about anything.

As she was about to head down the mountain, Liu Wenmei pulled out a handwoven basket from her space and filled it with some fruit, a wild rabbit, and a slightly younger wild ginseng root. She casually picked a few wild greens off the ground, then carried everything home.

She took the shortest route back, the one closest to her house, and didn’t run into anyone along the way. As soon as she got home, Huang Guihua looked her over from head to toe. Near noon, Liu Wenbing came back with half a sack of cotton bollworms. Worried Mei might be worn out, Huang Guihua took the basket from Liu Wenmei’s hands. “Mei, are you tired today?”

“Not tired, Grandma. Let me show you something good.” Liu Wenmei lifted the grass covering the basket, revealing the wild rabbit and the ginseng.

“You little troublemaker—you went up the mountain by yourself? Are you hurt?” Liu Wenmei thought Huang Guihua would be happy, but instead Huang Guihua grabbed her hand and started checking her over.

“No, Grandma. I’ve got this.” Liu Wenmei picked up a rock and gave it a light squeeze. It crumbled in her hand.

Huang Guihua just stared. She quickly slapped the rock out of Liu Wenmei’s hand and examined her fingers again and again, only relaxing once she was sure there wasn’t a scratch.

Huang Guihua picked up the basket Liu Wenmei had just set down and looked through what was inside. When she pulled out the ginseng, she could hardly believe it. “Mei… this isn’t ginseng, is it?”

There was ginseng in the area, but it was rare. She’d only seen it once, decades ago—when Liu Mingde had spotted it by accident while up in the mountains.

That one root was the reason they didn’t freeze to death after the family split them off.

Back then, it was the third year of her marriage to Liu Mingde. The household was crowded, and Liu Mingde was the second son—overlooked and treated like he didn’t matter. The family worked them to the bone, and she swallowed it all for his sake, until the winter her oldest daughter, Liu Xianhong, was ordered to wash clothes by the river when it was iced over. Her sister-in-law shoved her into the freezing water, and she nearly didn’t make it. Huang Guihua and Liu Mingde went back to demand money for medicine, but the old woman not only refused—she threw them out with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

In the middle of a blizzard, their family of four huddled inside a crumbling old temple, wind cutting in from every direction. Liu Mingde could see Huang Guihua wasn’t going to make it. He finally steeled himself and, braving the snow, went to dig up a wild ginseng root he’d stumbled across earlier and took it into town to sell.

But even with a doctor in tow on the way back, he was too late. Their oldest daughter passed just like that, and after that, Huang Guihua never again went to visit those relatives on holidays.

Later, Liu Mingde bought an empty house from the village head and picked up a few plots of farmland. Only then did they finally start to crawl out of it.

Seeing wild ginseng again, Huang Guihua’s tears slipped out before she could stop them.

“Grandma, are you okay?” Liu Wenmei panicked when she saw her crying.

“I’m fine. Grandma’s just happy,” Huang Guihua said. “This is a real treasure. I’ll hold on to it for now, and once we turn it into cash, I’ll buy my Mei something good to eat.” She turned the ginseng over in her hands again and again before putting it away in her room.

When she came back out, she said, “Mei, you eat some fruit first. Grandma’s going to make you something tasty.”

Looking at the wild rabbit and the basket of berries, Huang Guihua finally steadied herself. Her Mei really was blessed—one trip up the mountain, and she’d brought back so many good things.