After Meng Anci finished bathing, he came out of the room soaking wet. Holding a cloth, he said in his babyish voice, "Auntie, dry my hair."
He was little, and his arms were short. He had rubbed his hair into a tangled mess.
Jin Shanyao took the cloth, drew him in front of her, and gently dried his hair bit by bit. When it was mostly dry, she picked up a wooden comb and worked out the tangles. "We'll put it up once it's completely dry."
Meng Anci nodded obediently and sat beside Jin Shanyao with his hair loose, his little legs swinging. All the fear he had felt that day had vanished the moment he saw his aunt.
Before long, Meng Anzhi came out too. She had dried her hair, but she didn't know how to put it in a bun, so she could only ask Jin Shanyao for help.
Jin Shanyao carried her over beside Meng Anci. The two little tots sat in the courtyard with their hair loose, letting it dry in the sun.
The little ones were so thin that a gust of wind looked like it could blow them over. They needed plenty of nourishment, lest they die young while repaying their debt of gratitude. Jin Shanyao casually conjured two ginkgo leaves.
"Have a taste." Her ginkgo leaves contained Spiritual Power. Eating one a day would strengthen the body and ward off illness.
Meng Anci and Meng Anzhi looked surprised, peering around Jin Shanyao from front to back. "Auntie, where did you pull those from?"
Smiling, Jin Shanyao gave their little noses a light tap. "I picked them on White Head Mountain."
The two little tots believed her. Each took a leaf and put it in their mouth, and sweetness spread throughout their mouths.
"Auntie, every time I eat a ginkgo leaf, I feel full of strength."
Meng Anzhi said, "Me too. And I sleep really well and don't have nightmares anymore."
Ever since her father had left, she had kept dreaming that her eldest and second uncles came to take their things, and that her eldest aunt beat her mother.
She dreamed that her older male and female cousins snatched away the wild greens she had dug up. Though she was so young, she had never had a peaceful night's sleep.
Jin Shanyao touched their hair and found it was nearly dry. She picked up the comb and began putting it into buns for them. "These ginkgo leaves of mine have been treated, so you can eat them as they are.
"You can't eat the ginkgo leaves on the mountain, especially the nuts. They're poisonous raw, and even when cooked, children and old people shouldn't eat too many."
Meng Anzhi listened, enthralled. "Auntie, I want to be as capable as you when I grow up."
Jin Shanyao smiled and agreed, holding her soft hair as she tied the ribbon in place.
Once Meng Anzhi's bun was done, it was Meng Anci's turn. Nestled in Jin Shanyao's arms, he asked, "Auntie, we were so nice to the villagers and even sold them pork to eat. Why did they still curse us?"
"Not everything you give in this world is repaid. It's better to see a group of people for what they are over one meal of meat than to suffer a huge loss later..."
Jin Shanyao planned to leave Little River Village and find a better place for the two children to live.
She changed the subject. "Do you like going up the mountain? There are countless plants in the mountains, and each kind has its own particular properties. Some can save people, and some can kill."
"I know!" Meng Anci whipped his head around, then yelped and clutched his head where his hair had been tugged. "The ones that cure illnesses are called medicinal herbs, right?"
Jin Shanyao steadied him and sat him upright. "Right, they're called medicinal herbs."
Meng Anci's eyes flickered. He leaned softly against Jin Shanyao and coaxed, "Auntie, can you teach my sister to recognize herbs? She wants to be a physician."
"Don't move, your hair's all crooked." Jin Shanyao tied his ribbon, sat him on her lap, and turned to Meng Anzhi. "Do you really want to study medicine?"
Meng Anzhi nodded obediently. Jin Shanyao wasn't afraid of her studying; she was afraid she wouldn't study anything at all. "Studying medicine is hard. You have to learn to recognize lots of herbs and spend every day tucked away in the mountains.
"Aren't you afraid of going up the mountain?"
Meng Anzhi's gaze was firm. "I'm not afraid. I can take Dahuang and Xiaoli up the mountain with me. Auntie, please teach me."
Jin Shanyao saw that she was serious, not joking around like a child. "All right, I'll teach you."
"Ah, that's wonderful!"
Surprised and delighted, Meng Anzhi threw herself into Jin Shanyao's arms without holding back, knocking her slightly backward.
Jin Shanyao took the chance to gather both children into her arms, and the three hugged and laughed together.
Jin Shanyao firmly believed that the answers to every problem could be found in books.
So that evening, the three each held a book and crammed in knowledge. The two little tots applied themselves fiercely, determined to gain a foothold in the village and not be bullied anymore.
Jin Shanyao, meanwhile, held the Record of Admonishing Evil, determined to take on a whole crowd of scholars in verbal battle.
From then on, she also began teaching the little ones to read every night. They learned quickly and had good memories, but their writing was crooked and not very pretty.
After that incident, the villagers began to see Jin Shanyao differently. They were less inclined to speak to her and even told their children not to play with Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci.
Jin Shanyao didn't notice she was being shunned at all. She continued taking the children up the mountain every day to pick mushrooms and dig up wild greens, and sometimes brought back pine nuts to roast.
During this time, a few people always followed her furtively when she went up the mountain, but Jin Shanyao paid them no attention.
After coming down the mountain empty-handed for several days in a row, some villagers could no longer sit still. They all went up the same mountain, so how could Jin Shanyao find things when they couldn't?
If the whole village had been going hungry, they would have accepted it. But the smell of meat drifted from Jin Shanyao's house every day, and even the two little brats had put on weight.
That day, Matchmaker Gao and her neighbor, Lady Qin of the Yu Family, came down the mountain carrying empty baskets on their arms. When they saw Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci sitting outside their house, eating roasted mushrooms from bowls, their tempers flared.
"I was wondering why there were so few mushrooms on the mountain. Turns out you picked them all clean."
Lady Qin of the Yu Family said, "Exactly. That mountain belongs to everyone, yet your family's hogged all the benefits. So young, and already so vicious! Eating it all yourselves, aren't you afraid you'll choke to death?"
Matchmaker Gao said, "Little wretches born to a mother who never raised you! You brought your parents to their deaths, and now you're bringing misfortune on our whole village!"
Meng Anci held his bowl and looked coldly at the two women, then took Meng Anzhi's hand and went into the courtyard without a word.
Meng Anzhi went to the kitchen, while Meng Anci went to the storeroom.
When they came out again, Meng Anzhi had a knife in her hand, and Meng Anci held that rope. The two went out through the courtyard gate and past the loose-tongued gossips.
They went straight to Matchmaker Gao's house. Meng Anci scrambled laboriously onto the wall, bent down to take the hemp rope his sister handed him, and threw it over the door beam with all his might. He tied a loop and put it around his neck.
The whole process was silent and swift, with a resolve that made one's scalp tingle.
At first, Matchmaker Gao didn't realize what was happening. Only when she saw him about to kick off did her face turn deathly pale. "Oh, you little beast, get down here right now!"
"Don't come any closer! If anyone dares come forward, I'll stab myself to death!" Meng Anzhi pressed the knife against her neck and stared fiercely at the crowd.
The onlookers were all dumbfounded. What was this supposed to be?
Meng Anci looked calmly at Matchmaker Gao. "You use your age to bully me because I'm young, cursing me every time you open your mouth. If you curse me one more time, I'll hang myself from your door beam."
"You little... you..." Matchmaker Gao forcibly swallowed the curse she had been about to hurl. "Oh... my little ancestor, please come down. I won't curse you ever again."
Meng Anci didn't believe her. He gripped the hemp rope and blinked. "Do you really mean that?"
"Yes, yes, now come down." Matchmaker Gao gritted her teeth in anger, thinking, Just wait until you come down. See if I don't beat you to death.
"Then swear it. If you curse us again, you're a beast."
Matchmaker Gao's face went red with anger. She had barely taken a step toward Meng Anci when she saw that Meng Anzhi's knife had already pressed into her flesh. Frightened, she stumbled back several steps.
"Anzhi, listen to Grandma. Put the knife down."
Meng Anzhi said nothing, just stared at her in silence until Matchmaker Gao shuddered.
Meng Anci said in a clear little voice, "Since you don't dare swear, you must be planning to curse me. I might as well die and let the villagers see how you drove two children without a father or mother to their deaths."
As he spoke, he made to kick off.
Matchmaker Gao was so frightened that she begged for mercy over and over. "Oh, little ancestor, I swear, if I curse you again, I'm a beast."
At that, Meng Anci smiled sweetly. "I'll believe you this once." He pulled the hemp rope free, bundled it up, and stuffed it inside his clothes, then turned and headed for another house.
Lady Qin of the Yu Family cried out.
"Anzhi, Anci, calm down! Auntie won't say bad things about you ever again. Please don't go hanging yourselves at my house!"
The two stopped and looked at Lady Qin of the Yu Family. She raised her hand and swore, "If I ever curse you two again, I'm a beast."
Meng Anci nodded in satisfaction, then turned his gaze to the crowd, as though searching for his next target.
The gesture frightened everyone into raising their hands and swearing they would never curse the children again. If they drove children without a father or mother to their deaths, the villagers' spit alone could drown them.
Only then were Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci satisfied. They exchanged a glance and marched proudly out of the circle.
But as soon as they emerged from the crowd, they saw their aunt leaning against a tree with her arms folded, watching them with the hint of a smile.
With a crash of thunder... the two children felt as though the sky had fallen.