For You to Eat

Gao Yiye pressed her forehead against the ground, her bent knees pushed against her chest. Curled up and prostrate like a helpless little animal, she quietly awaited the Heavenly Deity's gift.

Yet she waited for quite some time, and nothing happened.

When she raised her head, she discovered that the man's face among the clouds had vanished without a trace.

Was the Heavenly Deity unwilling to help me?

Gao Yiye bit her lower lip hard enough to leave a row of white tooth marks.

Perhaps he only helped me kill those utterly wicked bandits yesterday on a passing whim. If he answered every prayer, how could there be any suffering in the world?

Besides, I've never offered him anything. Have I built him a temple? Burned incense for him? Lit candles for him? Why should he help me?

She gritted her teeth. She would keep searching for grass roots.

Dragging her weak, exhausted body onward, she continued searching for a chance to survive amid the yellow sand.

Li Daoxuan had not abandoned her. He was merely considering how he could help.

He had heard every word of the girl's plea. Though her voice was as faint as an ant's murmur, he could hear her clearly as long as there was no other noise around and he listened carefully.

She needed food!

But how could I give her any?

Li Daoxuan rose from beside the Scenery Box and walked into the kitchen.

The stove was lit, and the water in the pot was boiling. The two eggs he had put in a little earlier were nearly cooked.

Li Daoxuan's eyes lit up. "Huh? If I put an egg in front of her, would she be able to pick it up?"

Why not try it and find out!

He quickly turned off the heat, scooped the two boiled eggs out of the pot, and rinsed them in cold water to cool them down. Then, holding an egg in each hand, he walked over to the Scenery Box.

The tiny girl inside the box was still laboriously searching the yellow sand...

Li Daoxuan said softly, "Miss, let me try giving you something to eat."

The tiny girl stiffened all over and looked up at the sky, her eyes filled with delighted surprise.

Li Daoxuan slowly lowered an egg into the box and set it in front of her.

Gao Yiye had thought the Heavenly Deity was unwilling to help her. She had never expected to hear that gentle yet majestic voice again as she walked. She snapped her head up and once more met his gaze. His eyes were filled with tenderness and compassion.

Then the clouds parted, and an enormous hand reached down to place an enormous egg on the yellow sand in front of her.

Gao Yiye gaped at the egg before her.

It was a gigantic egg, terrifyingly large.

Over thirty feet long and twenty feet high, it sat before Gao Yiye like the egg of some ancient beast, frightening her into stumbling several steps backward.

"This... is... an egg?"

Gao Yiye spoke in disbelief.

Li Daoxuan said, "Yes, an egg. For you to eat."

Gao Yiye looked up, stammering, "This is for me to eat?"

Li Daoxuan said, "I've already boiled it. You can eat it as it is."

Hearing the Heavenly Deity's gentle words, Gao Yiye finally gathered her courage and approached the egg. She reached out and knocked on its shell, which gave a dull sound as though she were knocking on a massive rock.

She picked up a stone and brought it down on the shell with all her strength.

Bang!

The stone bounced off, leaving the shell completely unscathed.

The recoil knocked Gao Yiye onto her bottom, and she sat on the ground panting.

Li Daoxuan realized that this egg was a burden to the girl. She simply did not have the strength to break the shell. She was too small, less than a centimeter tall, and looked so tiny beside this five-centimeter-long egg.

Li Daoxuan said gently, "Let me peel the shell off for you."

He reached into the box again and took out the egg. Tapping it against the nearby wall, he quickly peeled off the shell, then placed it back in front of the tiny girl.

The girl's eyes widened. Before he peeled it, she had not been entirely sure, but now that the shell was gone, she recognized it. This really was an egg, an egg boiled in plain water. It was just far too big, over thirty feet long.

This... really was for me to eat?

Li Daoxuan said, "Go ahead!"

Gao Yiye could hardly believe it. "You're really... giving this... to me to eat?"

Li Daoxuan let out a long sigh. "Eat, you poor girl."

Gao Yiye lunged forward and sank her teeth into the snowy-white boiled egg.

Delicious. So good.

This was a treat only a landlord's young master got to eat, yet now there was such a huuuge one, and I could eat as much as I wanted.

In just a few bites, Gao Yiye gnawed a large hollow into the boiled egg. She ate through the white, exposing the yolk inside, then stuck her entire head into the egg and devoured mouthful after mouthful of yolk, making muffled sounds of satisfaction.

She ate happily, and Li Daoxuan was happy too. At last, he had managed to help this poor girl.

But...

Was the egg I provided a little too big?

This girl from the Little People Kingdom was less than a centimeter tall, while my egg was five centimeters long. Surely she couldn't finish it no matter how much she ate? It was July, too. Left overnight, the egg would spoil and become inedible.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, the tiny girl raised her head and asked timidly, "Could I... ask the other villagers to come eat too? I can't... finish it by myself... If we leave it until tomorrow... it'll spoil..."

Li Daoxuan spoke as gently as he could. "Of course. Ask all the villagers to come and eat."

Gao Yiye bowed her forehead to the ground again. "Th-thank you... Heavenly Deity..."

Now that she had eaten her fill, she had her strength back. She took off running toward the village, but as she ran, she began to worry. Yesterday, when the Heavenly Deity helped us kill those bandits, only I could see his hand. None of the other villagers could.

Would I be the only one who could eat that enormous egg, too? If I brought the villagers over to eat it and they couldn't see it, wouldn't they think I was a liar?

At that thought, she ran back to the egg and broke off a fist-sized piece of yolk. Holding it in both hands, she raced back to the village and called out to the first villager she encountered, "Brother Chu Wu, can you see what I'm holding?"

The man's surname was also Gao, and his name was Gao Chuwu. He took a close look and froze. "Such... such a big piece of egg yolk? Where did you get something this good?"

Gao Yiye was overjoyed. "You can see it? You can see it! Wonderful, that's wonderful! Try a bite."

Gao Chuwu was a little bewildered. She was actually giving me something this good to eat? Little Sister One Leaf never even knew where her next meal was coming from. What was going on today?

But he was ravenous too, so hungry that he had forgotten all about courtesy and yielding to others. He took the yolk and bit into it, happiness and satisfaction spreading through his mouth. "Ah, delicious. I haven't eaten anything this good in ages."

Gao Yiye raised her voice and shouted toward the village, "Uncles, aunties, sisters-in-law, brothers and sisters, young and old! Come with me! There's something good to eat! Everyone can fill their bellies!"