Let's raise them

It took little time for all forty-two villagers to gather around the enormous boiled egg.

Forty-two pairs of bewildered eyes stared at the enormous boiled egg.

It was a colossal egg, thirty feet long and over ten feet high.

Standing before it felt like standing before a small house.

If not for the hole in the egg, through which they could clearly see the yolk, they would never have dared believe this was a shelled boiled egg.

The Village Chief of Gao Family Village stood at the front, his deeply wrinkled face full of puzzlement. "One Leaf, did you just say this enormous boiled egg was bestowed upon us by the Heavenly Deity?"

Gao Yiye nodded and pointed at the sky. "The same Heavenly Deity who helped us kill the bandits yesterday."

The villagers of Gao Family Village exchanged bewildered looks.

The scene from yesterday still seemed to linger before their eyes. That gang of utterly depraved bandits had been crushed into bloody pulp by an invisible weight, blood splattering everywhere. It had been a truly staggering sight.

Afterward, only Gao Yiye had said she saw a heavenly deity reach down from the clouds and slap the bandits to death, one by one.

No one else had seen him.

The villagers had not known whether to believe her.

Yet only a day later, Gao Yiye had produced this enormous egg, again claiming it was a gift from the Heavenly Deity.

The Village Chief sighed. "Think about it carefully. Who besides the Heavenly Deity could have done what happened yesterday? And who else could have produced this enormous egg today? Even if an egg this big truly existed in the world, there wouldn't be a pot big enough to boil it."

Everyone nodded.

"One Leaf," the Village Chief said, "it seems the Heavenly Deity favors you in particular. He appears only before you, while the rest of us lack the good fortune to behold his venerable self."

Gao Yiye sounded a little surprised. "The Heavenly Deity favors me in particular?"

The Village Chief nodded. "Did his venerable self give you any other instructions?"

Gao Yiye thought carefully. "He only told me to eat. Oh, right! He also told me to call all the villagers over to eat."

Gao Chuwu smacked his lips beside them. He had just eaten a fist-sized chunk of yolk, and a few crumbs still clung around his mouth. His tongue kept darting over his lips, unwilling to waste even the tiniest crumb. "I've already had a piece. It's delicious."

Seeing that both youngsters had already eaten some and seemed perfectly fine, the Village Chief stopped hesitating. He pointed at the enormous egg before them and said solemnly, "Since the Heavenly Deity gave it to us to eat, let's eat. But no grabbing! You'll scatter it all over the ground and waste precious food. Chu Wu, go get a knife to cut it!"

"I reckon this egg weighs about fifty jin. There are forty-two people in the village, so everyone gets one jin. Whatever's left belongs to One Leaf."

With the Village Chief's basic allocation settled, Gao Chuwu brought over a knife. Everyone cut and weighed their portions with great care, terrified of dropping even a piece of white or yolk. Once each person had received half a jin of yolk and half a jin of white, they put it in a bowl and wolfed it down.

As for the several jin left over, the villagers helped Gao Yiye put it in a large basin, carried it to her house, and left it in a cool spot. Boiled eggs did not keep well in the summer heat, but when people were on the verge of starving to death, who cared whether the food had spoiled? They would have to eat it anyway.

After eating their fill, the villagers all knelt on the ground and bowed to the sky, thanking the Heavenly Deity for his gift. They also prayed for his blessing, asking that the drought end soon, that the winds and rains return in season, and that the harvests be plentiful.

Peace returned to the Scenery Box, and the little people resumed their usual work. They had only one kind of work: finding food! They searched the hillsides for food, searched the riverbed for food, dug deep into the ground for food...

Though they had just eaten one full meal, they already had to start worrying about tomorrow's survival.

Gao Yiye picked up her bamboo basket again and searched for grass roots across the endless yellow, sandy soil as usual. Perhaps because she had just eaten her fill, there was a little strength in her steps now. She no longer looked quite as pitiful as before.

Li Daoxuan sat outside the Scenery Box, silently watching the little people go about their tasks. A jumble of emotions stirred inside him, leaving him deeply unsettled.

One egg couldn't save them!

Then what if I gave them an egg every day?

Eating nothing but eggs wouldn't give them enough nutrients, would it?

I'd have to get them some rice and vegetables, and a little meat now and then.

Right, they'd need salt too. Humans couldn't go without salt, and little people counted as humans, didn't they?

The more he thought about it, the more complicated it seemed.

Doesn't this feel like keeping a whole box of little hamsters? Li Daoxuan thought.

At the rate these forty-two little people eat, it'd cost at least a hundred or two hundred yuan a month to feed them. It's not like I can't afford that much. Fine, fine. I'll raise them.

He opened Baidu and searched, "How do you raise little people from the Little People Kingdom?"

Baidu had no answers.

Then he opened the military history forum he frequented and posted anonymously: "If you had a group of little people from the Little People Kingdom, how would you raise them?"

Reply 1: "Are there any female little people? Grab one every day and lift her skirt."

Reply 2: "Peep on her bathing every day."

Li Daoxuan said, "A bunch of fucking idiots."

There was no reasoning with those useless clowns.

It seemed he could only learn how to raise little people from scratch, feeling his way forward one step at a time.

Li Daoxuan went into the kitchen and checked his food supplies...

Well, he basically had no supplies!

Like most young city dwellers, he lived on takeout most of the time. Only rarely did he cook some noodles or boil a couple of eggs, so his fridge was empty. Apart from a few eggs, half a handful of dried noodles, and some oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, he had practically nothing.

This definitely wouldn't do.

Li Daoxuan glanced at the Scenery Box and confirmed that the little people did not need his attention for the moment. Then he hurried out and dashed to the nearest supermarket, where he picked up a sack of rice, two pieces of pork, a bag of vegetables, and a large bag of salt. It cost him over a hundred yuan.

After returning home, Li Daoxuan leaned over the Scenery Box and counted. All forty-two little people were still there, diligently searching for food.

A mischievous idea suddenly occurred to him. He cut open the rice sack and scooped out a handful.

The snowy-white rice from northeastern China gave off a rich fragrance.

He found the little girl's home in the village and peered inside with a magnifying glass. It was little more than four bare walls, empty and almost entirely devoid of furniture.

It would be a shame not to put something in such an empty house.

Li Daoxuan cupped his hand into the shape of a winnowing basket, aimed it at the little girl's window, and slowly, ever so slowly, poured the handful of rice into her home, until it filled half the room.

Only then did he clap the dust from his hands and wait happily. She would surely be delighted when she came home and saw all that rice.