People said animals couldn't become spirits after the founding of the nation, but Jin Shanyao was an exception. She was a ginkgo tree, known as a living fossil.
A nationally protected plant of the first class.
It had been five thousand years since the time of Fuxi. Today was the day she ascended to godhood, and after withstanding several bolts of heavenly lightning, she finally stood before the Southern Heavenly Gate.
A tree, a cat, and a dog.
All dumbfounded...
"What's this supposed to mean? Why's the gate closed?"
She scratched her pitch-black arm, brushed aside the hair the lightning had scorched to a crisp, and clung to the crack in the gate as she tried a trick. "Open up! I can see you!"
With that, she pressed her ear against the Southern Heavenly Gate and listened closely. A long while passed, but no one opened it for her.
She was puzzled. That wasn't right, was it? Taishang Laojun had said that ascended immortals could swagger straight through the Southern Heavenly Gate. Why had it been closed when her turn came?
Could it be that wild plants... weren't welcome?
That wouldn't do. If she let herself be bullied by "people" the moment she arrived, what would happen later?
Jin Shanyao put on a fierce face, slapped the gate hard, and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Open up! Open up! Don't hide in there without making a sound! I know you're in there!"
"Open up! Open up..." Just as she was shouting with gusto, the Southern Heavenly Gate finally opened.
Taishang Laojun approached with a horsetail whisk in his arms, muttering, "A little patience..." His words caught in his throat halfway through, and he looked as though he had seen a ghost in broad daylight.
Seeing an old acquaintance, Jin Shanyao didn't stand on ceremony. She walked past him and headed inside, with the cat and dog following, bundles on their backs and their heads held high.
By the time Taishang Laojun came to his senses, the little lightning-struck person had already entered the Southern Heavenly Gate. He slapped his forehead.
This was bad...
"Jin Shanyao, Shanyao..." He hurried forward to block her path, smiling with disarming good nature. "Shanyao... although you succeeded in passing your tribulation, you can't be granted a divine position."
Jin Shanyao stopped. "What's that supposed to mean? I've completed my cultivation and passed the lightning tribulation. Why can't I have a divine position? Besides, I brought all my belongings with me. Am I supposed to live in your Tushita Palace?"
The cat and dog instantly glared at Taishang Laojun, waiting for an explanation.
Taishang Laojun shook his horsetail whisk and smiled. "Your ties to the mortal world remain unresolved. You still owe a karmic debt."
Jin Shanyao thought the old man was stirring up trouble for no reason. She was a tree who had spent years cultivating and could only bear ginkgo nuts. What karmic debt could she possibly have? As she wondered, a scene appeared in the air.
Several thousand years ago, Jin Shanyao had been injured while undergoing a tribulation and had been saved by a wild woman. The woman had watered her, banked earth around her roots, and tended her carefully every day. She had even given Jin Shanyao her name.
Grateful for having her life saved, Jin Shanyao had promised to repay the kindness once she took human form.
But the years had stretched on and mountains and rivers had changed shape. Her benefactor had long since vanished into the river of time, and the world around her had turned over again and again. Her determination to repay that kindness had gradually been buried deep in her memory, almost forgotten.
Now, seeing the scene again, it felt as though it had happened only yesterday.
Seeing that she remembered, Taishang Laojun secretly breathed a sigh of relief. This ginkgo tree was clumsy with words, and through a fortuitous opportunity, she had developed Divine Sense. He had guided her to godhood.
But because he had let drinking make him careless, he had overlooked this karmic debt and allowed her to ascend. Now he could only pull the wool over everyone's eyes and have her secretly descend to the mortal world to settle the matter.
Taishang Laojun looked around. Seeing no one, he whispered, "That woman was reborn in another world. Go ask her what she wants. Hurry there and back; I'll wait for you here."
As he spoke, he drew a rift in the void, revealing a small country courtyard. "In this life, her surname is Wen, and her name is Wen Jingshu. Her husband's family name is Meng, and she has two children.
"The girl is Meng Anzhi, six years old this year. The boy is Meng Anci, four years old this year. Don't get the wrong person."
"Got it." With her lightning-struck hair still on her head, Jin Shanyao leaped down to the mortal world. Taishang Laojun was quick to react, grabbing the cat and dog and tossing them in after her.
The Sheng Dynasty, Little River Village.
Jin Shanyao stood before a fresh grave, her head fit to split in two.
She was too late...
Her benefactor was dead, and before dying, she had entrusted her two children to her care.
Repaying the kindness should have been a matter of a few words. Now it had turned into an indefinite sentence.
Before the grave, two little tots were crying hysterically. Jin Shanyao tilted her head at a forty-five-degree angle and gazed at the sky... her heart was dead as ashes...
If she'd known repaying the kindness meant raising human young, she should have spent more time in the human world instead of holing up in a primeval forest to cultivate. And now look at her: she couldn't even speak a human word to comfort a "person."
Meng Anzhi held her younger brother's hand tightly, tears hanging on her little face as she looked up at Jin Shanyao.
"Auntie, do we not have a mother anymore?"
Jin Shanyao calmly looked back at her. "Mm. She died."
Waaah...
Well, they were crying again. Bored out of her mind, Jin Shanyao gave the cat and dog at her feet a kick.
It was about time, so she picked up the two little tots and headed back.
The Meng household.
The courtyard gate stood wide open, its latch broken in two. Bedding and clothes had been tossed everywhere, and the sounds of people rummaging through chests and cupboards mingled with voices from inside the house.
"Husband, be careful! The fabric on that jacket is still good. I can take it apart and use it to make shoe soles for our child!"
"I know. Look, can you wear this?"
"Yes, yes! I've had my eye on that piece of clothing for ages."
Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci were still dangling from Jin Shanyao's hands. Seeing their home turned upside down, they were so frightened their little hearts nearly leaped out of their chests.
Just then, Meng Anzhi's eldest uncle, Meng Hongde, came out of the house with an armful of looted clothes.
He had just stepped over the threshold when he came face-to-face with Jin Shanyao. He froze for a moment, then showed undisguised disgust.
Meng Hongde's wife, Diao Siniang, came out of the house carrying two large bundles on her back and dragging a kang mat in her hand.
"Husband, look at this kang mat. Could we put it in the chicken coop?"
When Meng Hongde didn't answer, she turned to look, a sneer curling her lips.
"Well, well, who did I think it was? It's Third Brother's wife's poor relative! Your sister's dead, so why are you still hanging around the Meng household instead of leaving?
"Little sister, times are hard for every family in this famine. I didn't say anything when your sister took you in before, but now only the two children are left in Third Brother's household, and we're taking them back to raise. And you?"
Diao Siniang covered her mouth and chuckled. "Take your sister-in-law's advice: go find yourself a cool place to stay, and stop planting yourself in our Meng household."
With that, she glanced at the little tots.
"Anzhi, Anci, do you know what your surname is? Your eldest aunt will tell you: it's Meng..." As she spoke, she looked at Jin Shanyao, her voice rising a couple of notches.
Then she said to the two children, "Be good and come home with your eldest aunt. I'll raise you from now on."
Meng Anci puffed up angrily. "Mother told us to stay with Auntie. We're not going with you. You're a bad person."
A hint of approval showed at the corners of Jin Shanyao's eyes. Although she wasn't human... she couldn't let anyone ruin her reputation. The little brat was pretty good; he knew to stand up for her.
But in the next instant, he shattered her understanding of human young.
Meng Anci kicked out his little legs, dropped to the ground with a thump, and rolled around.
As he rolled, he cried out, "Damn you to heaven, you bunch of bastards! When my father died, you came to our house to steal things and beat and kicked my mother.
"Now Mother's only just died, and you've come to steal things again! You're trying to drive a little baby like me to death!"
With that, he rolled over and sat up, pounding his chest and slapping his legs as he wailed, "Oh... heavens above, how am I supposed to live? I might as well die. This family doesn't want me anyway."
Old Woman Li from next door saw that the four-year-old toddler had learned every last word she used when throwing a tantrum, rolling on the ground, and cursing people out.
She was both angry and amused, and her face burned red with embarrassment.
Pointing at Meng Anci, she said, "He-those are all my words!"
Pfft... The villagers watching the spectacle couldn't hold back their laughter. "No wonder it sounded so familiar. He learned it from you! Old Woman Li, you ought to make less trouble from now on.
"Look what you've taught the child. Look what he's turned into!"
When the Third Son of the Meng Household died, the Meng family had said his wife looked like a fox seductress, couldn't bear being lonely, and would find a stepfather for the children sooner or later.
Then the Meng family's property would take another surname, so they had to take it back in advance.
Though the villagers couldn't stand to watch, they hadn't said anything. After all, both children were Mengs.
The children and the two branches of the Meng family were bound by blood, like broken bones joined by tendons. No one wanted to go to the trouble only to earn resentment.
As for the children's aunt, she was a perfectly good young woman, yet she insisted on raising two children with a different surname. How would she ever get married?