The weather in the seventh month of the lunar calendar is the hottest of the four seasons. People are getting anxious as they see the kitchen becoming emptier and emptier. Since the first month of the lunar year, the food supply has become even more scarce than the previous year. In the past, they could buy back half of the food every month, but this year, it is already July, and they have only bought back two rations of food, and the amount is very small. Except for Zhenzhen, who is still breastfeeding, everyone in the Li family has to tighten their belts and taste the taste of hunger again.
Li Muwu and Li Musen sat at the door of the grain store's warehouse, looking at the empty yard and couldn't help sighing. They were both sack-carrying workers in the warehouse, and were usually paid by piece. In previous years, they could take home at least 40 to 50 yuan a month. Last year, even though it was difficult, they could only make about 30 yuan a month. But this year, after the New Year, they only took home 40 yuan in total.
Money didn't matter, as they had saved some in the past, so it wasn't too difficult. What worried them was that if no more food was delivered, the family would run out of food.
Li Muwu frowned, his hardship made him look even older. "If no more food comes, our family will not be able to survive. Let's take a day off tomorrow and go up the mountain to pick wild vegetables. The grain store is out of business anyway."
Li Musen was a little hesitant: "What if food comes? We can still grab some here. If we miss it, we don't know when we can get food again. There are boys and women at home who can help us pick wild vegetables. It is important for us to wait for food here."
Li Muwu sighed and scratched his head, not knowing what to do. Beicha District is a forest area. Except for the people in the ravines who planted some land, most of the food in the town was shipped from outside. Even if they wanted to exchange food, there was nowhere to go. The two looked at each other helplessly, lowered their heads and continued to sigh.
At this time, at home, Mrs. Li opened the cabinet and looked at the little food, and couldn't help sighing. It was summer vacation now, Li Mingdong and Li Mingxi went to the forest management office to pull wood to make money, Mingnan and Mingbei were not idle either. Guihua took the two of them to the mountains all day long. In addition to picking wild vegetables, they also carried the hunting rifle at home to see if they could shoot any wild animals.
Wang Sufen washed and dried the clothes at home and hurried in to see if Zhenzhen had woken up, fearing that she would roll onto the ground. When Mrs. Li saw her daughter-in-law coming in from outside, she also walked out of the kitchen: "Is Zhenzhen awake? If she is awake, let's take her to see our land."
At this time, Zhenzhen was sitting on the kang, leaning on the windowsill and looking out. Wang Sufen was so scared that she ran over and hugged her. Old Mrs. Li came in and saw it, and hurriedly said, "I don't know how she got to the windowsill. After she climbs up, you must close the window tightly. Our windows are low, and it will be terrible if she climbs up the windowsill and falls out."
Wang Sufen responded, put Zhenzhen on her back in a cloth bag, put a cloth hat on her, took a military water bottle, locked the door, and followed Old Lady Li out.
This was the first time Zhenzhen had walked out of the house since she was a child. Before, when the weather was good, Wang Sufen and Guihua would just hold her in the yard and play for a while. Hongsong Mountain was not far from the Li family, and it took about 20 minutes to walk there. As soon as she stepped into the forest, the heat that lingered on her body disappeared instantly. The towering larch and birch trees covered the sky and dispelled the summer heat. Old Mrs. Li put the cotton clothes she brought on Zhenzhen, and waved the fly swatter beside her from time to time, for fear that mosquitoes would come and bite Zhenzhen.
After walking on the mountain for another twenty minutes, we finally arrived at the land reclaimed by the Li family. It was a slightly flat area where crops such as corn, sorghum, sweet potatoes, and soybeans were planted.
The soil on the mountain is much wetter than that at the foot of the mountain, but because it is cold and gloomy here, the cabbage does not grow well. Old Mrs. Li walked around the field where she planted the cabbage seeds ten days ago, and looked at the field with only grass and no cabbage seedlings. She was a little worried: "I don't know if the seeds I planted last time can survive. Find a place to put Zhenzhen, and we will pull out the grass."
Wang Sufen found a flat and soft grass and put Zhenzhen on it. Zhenzhen sat on the ground and patted the grass with her two little hands. Suddenly, a wonderful feeling came over her. She touched the wet ground and could feel the presence of every tree, every blade of grass, birds, insects and animals hidden in the forest. She could even detect what they were thinking.
Zhenzhen was shocked by this wonderful feeling. She closed her eyes and felt the breeze in the forest, trying to experience all this mysterious feeling with her heart. Her senses extended outward along the moist soil, through the grass and came to the wasteland where the cabbage seeds were sown...
"I want sunshine..."
"Feeling cold..."
"I'm almost there..."
Zhenzhen put her mind on the land and seemed to feel the coldness as well. She couldn't help but imagine the warmth of the sun. As Zhenzhen's thoughts changed, beams of sunlight passed through the dense treetops, trying to illuminate every plant on this piece of land.
The warm sunshine sprinkled on her body, and Zhenzhen's little face with her eyes closed showed a happy smile. She seemed to see tender seedlings emerging from the seeds and breaking through the soil, growing rapidly under the sunshine and the nourishment of the soil.
Old Lady Li and Wang Sufen were pulling weeds when suddenly a dazzling light rose from beside them. They looked back involuntarily and were surprised to find that Zhenzhen had been enveloped by a beam of golden light without them noticing.
"Zhenzhen..." Wang Sufen thought Zhenzhen was in danger and was about to rush over. However, she had just taken two steps when Old Lady Li grabbed her arm. At this moment, cabbage seedlings broke through the soil and grew in the wind, maturing in almost an instant.
Looking at the cabbages all over the ground, even the originally calm Old Lady Li was shocked. She stared at the ground with her mind blank.
Sensing the cabbage's satisfaction, Zhenzhen smiled happily. Her thoughts went beyond the cabbage field and continued to extend outward to the corn field, the sorghum field...
Wang Sufen stared in amazement as the wilted corn suddenly grew taller, and the ears grew, with each large corn kernel hanging heavily on the stalk. Then came sorghum, soybeans, sweet potatoes, potatoes... After just a quarter of an hour, the flat land in the mountains became a thriving harvest scene.
The crops were ripe, and Zhenzhen felt their joy, and the smile on her face deepened. When the sun faded, Zhenzhen collected her thoughts and slowly opened her eyes.
Zhenzhen thought she had just had a dream, but when she opened her eyes, she was shocked by the scene in front of her: heavy sorghum ears, huge corn, juicy cabbage... Zhenzhen blinked and couldn't help but look up at the sky: Am I still dreaming and haven't woken up yet
Seeing Zhenzhen blinking her eyes and looking at everything around her curiously, Wang Sufen finally came to her senses, stumbled over the cabbages and ran over, hugged Zhenzhen in her arms, checked her up and down for a long time, and finally breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that there was nothing wrong with her.
Leaning in Wang Sufen's arms, Zhenzhen still couldn't help looking back at the ripe crops. She was no less shocked than Old Lady Li and Wang Sufen. She just dozed off and had a dream, so how could it be autumn already
“My queen…” Although Wang Sufen had come to her senses, she was still a little frightened and couldn’t speak: “What…what’s going on…what’s going on?”
Old Lady Li subconsciously wanted to touch the big pipe at her waist, and took out a tobacco leaf from the cloth bag and stuffed it into her mouth. She lit it and took two deep puffs before she calmed down. After blowing out a string of smoke rings, Old Lady Li glanced at Zhenzhen and whispered, "I'm afraid this child is not an ordinary person."
Wang Sufen almost cried when she heard this: "How can she not be a normal person? She was born after ten months of pregnancy. She has a mortal body, and she is no different from Mingnan, Mingbei and the others."
"What I mean is that this child might be the reincarnation of a god. Didn't we have legends about gods coming here before?" Mrs. Li took a puff of her cigarette and couldn't help but explain a few more words when she saw Wang Sufen's bewildered look: "Think about it, when you gave birth to Mingbei, you had no milk and your body was not in good condition. But after giving birth to Zhenzhen, not only did you become stronger, but you also had more milk than when you gave birth to Dongzi. And Mingnan and Mingbei have caught more fish in the past few months than they did in the previous several years. I guess this is a gift from God to Zhenzhen."
After hearing what Old Lady Li said, Zhen Zhen realized that everything that happened before was real. She couldn't help but close her eyes again. Sure enough, everything around her appeared clearly in her mind again. The hare hiding behind the tree, the pheasant squatting on the branch, the ganoderma growing on the tree trunk, and the ginseng buried underground were all clearly visible. She tried to call the hare gently in her mind, only to see the hare look around in confusion, and then ran over.
Zhenzhen opened her eyes, and sure enough, a big fat gray rabbit appeared in front of her, jumping left and right. However, this rabbit was extremely agile. It stopped about ten meters away, eating grass while looking over here cleverly, as if it would run away immediately at the slightest disturbance.
Zhenzhen thought that her family had not had a full meal for a long time. If she could catch this rabbit, she could give her family a good meal. While she was thinking about it, suddenly long vines emerged from nowhere and tied up the rabbit tightly in an instant.
Zhenzhen was startled and couldn't help swallowing, but seeing the rabbit struggling violently, Zhenzhen was afraid it would run away, so she quickly pointed in that direction, screaming non-stop.
Old Mrs. Li looked back following Zhenzhen's finger and saw a big fat rabbit weighing seven or eight kilograms lying in the haystack. Immediately, Old Mrs. Li ran as fast as her small feet and picked up the rabbit by its ears in the blink of an eye.
"Look at what I say. Our Zhenzhen is probably a real person with a good background." Old Lady Li tied the rabbit tightly with vines and threw it into the basket. She then asked Wang Sufen, "Did you have any strange dreams when you were pregnant with Zhenzhen? Did you dream about gods or something?"
Wang Sufen looked a little strange when she heard this: "I once dreamed that there was an ancient fairy called Mother Earth. She was seriously injured somehow, leaving only a drop of golden blood and a soul. In the dream, a fairy pointed to the drop of blood and said that as long as it could find the soul that fell into the human world, it would have a chance to awaken Mother Earth. Unfortunately, I woke up just when I dreamed that the blood had found the soul. I don't know what happened to Mother Earth?"
Old Lady Li listened with great interest. When her daughter-in-law finished, she couldn't help smacking her lips: "It sounds good, but it's a bit far-fetched." She couldn't help but roll her eyes at Wang Sufen: "Don't talk about those ancient things. Think about it, have the gods in the past few hundred years ever dreamed of it?"
Wang Sufen thought about it carefully for a long time, but unfortunately she couldn't remember anything, so she could only shake her head helplessly.
Seeing that her daughter-in-law couldn't say anything, Mrs. Li stopped worrying about it. She looked at the harvested crops on the ground and said, "This is too mysterious. We can't let outsiders know. I'll go home and tell Zhenzhen's father quietly. The three of us have to find a way to quietly bring the crops home."
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were discussing a solution in a low voice. Zhenzhen couldn't help but touch her forehead and fell into deep thought: Could it be that the golden bead that sent me back to the 1960s was the essence of the Earth Mother? If so, my time travel this time was not due to bad luck but a great bargain? Why does this sound so fantastic!