After dinner, Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci lay down on a large rock. With the breeze brushing their faces, they soon fell asleep, the two little ones sleeping like piglets.
Their bellies rose and fell, and the necklaces around their necks gave off a faint golden glow. Not only did mosquitoes, insects, mice, and ants keep away, even the birds flying overhead went around them, afraid they might fail to hold in their droppings and bring trouble upon themselves.
Yesterday, she had seen Old Woman Li planting her garden and learned that human young couldn't live on meat alone; they also needed vegetables and grain. Jin Shanyao wanted to dig up more herbs and buy vegetable seeds to plant.
She put the schisandra berries in her basket, then made a couple more rounds nearby, digging up some dandelions to eat with dipping sauce that evening.
Once the basket was full, Jin Shanyao sat on a rock and cleaned the dirt off the herbs, waiting for the children to wake and the cat and dog to return from hunting.
"Auntie, how did I fall asleep?" Meng Anzhi's voice woke Meng Anci. The two little tots climbed down from the rock and obediently squatted beside Jin Shanyao.
They picked up the astragalus roots, shook the dirt off bit by bit, and put them in the basket. After the three of them had worked for a while, Dahuang and Xiaoli came running down with a deer in their mouths.
Dahuang had a powerful bite, and the deer was already dead. Jin Shanyao braided a rope from vines, tied one end around the deer, and handed the other to Dahuang and Xiaoli.
After returning home, she cut off the antlers. Deer antlers could warm kidney yang, strengthen the sinews and bones, promote blood circulation, and reduce swelling; venison could replenish Qi and Blood and benefit the spleen and stomach.
She kept the essence, then cut off a haunch and hung it in the well, intending to give it to the teacher as tuition.
She had heard the villagers say that a shipment of grain had arrived in the county town, so Jin Shanyao planned to buy some after selling the herbs.
It was rather late today, so she could only go to the county town tomorrow.
The village head had said that reading ten thousand books was no match for traveling ten thousand miles. Jin Shanyao planned to take the two children out to see the world tomorrow. They shouldn't be like her, holed up in a primeval forest for thousands of years, growing older but none the wiser.
Only after leaving the mountains had she realized she was a foolish tree.
That evening, Jin Shanyao gave the Compendium of Herbs to Meng Anzhi. The little girl hugged the book and delighted in it for a long time. When she saw the ginseng, lingzhi, astragalus, and schisandra in particular, she tugged at Jin Shanyao and asked her to explain them.
Jin Shanyao sat on the kang, with the two little tots pressed against her, one on either side. A tung-oil lamp burned on the kang table, casting the shadows of all three onto the earthen wall.
Just as she was explaining the effects of schisandra, loud gong strikes rang out beyond the courtyard, accompanied by Old Woman Li's cries. "Choudan, Choudan, where have you gone? Don't frighten Grandma..."
Jin Shanyao put down the book and went outside, puzzled. The neighboring Li Household's courtyard was crowded with people, but it didn't look like a quarrel.
She poked the villager nearest her over the wall. "What happened?"
"Choudan's missing. The village head has had people looking for him all afternoon. You didn't know?"
Jin Shanyao said, "I went up the mountain today, so I don't know what happened in the village." No sooner had she finished than she heard the village head say, "Light all the torches. Let's go into the mountains and look."
"Go up the mountain in the dead of night? Do you have a death wish?"
"That's right. We've been looking all afternoon. A kidnapper has probably carried Choudan off by now."
At that, Old Woman Li collapsed to the ground with a thud, slapping her thigh and wailing, "Heavens, are you going to let me live or not? He's the only shoot left of our family line!"
"Mother, can you stop making things worse?"
Old Woman Li immediately reached out to hit her daughter-in-law. "It's all your fault, you harbinger of misfortune! You've disliked Choudan ever since you married into the family. There really isn't a single good stepmother. Give me back my grandson!"
Listening made Jin Shanyao's eardrums ache. Ever since she came to Little River Village, the Li Household had never stopped quarreling and shouting, all because Old Woman Li's son had disobeyed her and married a woman who brought death to her husband.
She was always comparing her to her dead daughter-in-law, too. Who could stand that?
"Mother, you should have a conscience when you speak. Ever since I married into the family, I've cherished Choudan as if he were my own son. How can you think that of me?"
"Enough, stop arguing, all of you. Finding the child is what matters now."
By now, the village head had lit the torches. He caught sight of Jin Shanyao out of the corner of his eye. "Auntie Meng, you know the mountains. Lead us in to look for him."
Jin Shanyao had a more efficient method than going into the mountains: communicating with the plants on White Head Mountain. But she didn't dare use too much Spiritual Power, for fear the crack in her Spirit Core would widen again.
While she was hesitating, Old Woman Li crawled unsteadily to the courtyard wall and struggled to her feet, supporting herself against it.
"Auntie Meng, I know you're kindhearted. I'm begging you, please help me. I'm old and don't know how many days I have left. I only want to stay by my grandson's side." Tears fell from her eyes again as she spoke.
Standing outside the courtyard, Diao Siniang sneered, "You'd be better off begging me than her. We've known each other for over ten years, after all. How long has she even been in the village?
"Maybe she's the one who sold Choudan."
"Shut up!" the village head barked.
Diao Siniang rolled her eyes, turned around, and went home to sleep. The Li brat was lost, so what? Was it worth going to all this trouble?
Jin Shanyao pursed her lips. "Auntie, to tell you the truth, ever since I was struck by lightning, I've had the Heavenly Eye. Wait while I go inside and calculate. I might be able to find out where Choudan is."
Someone immediately chimed in, "I saw Jin Shanyao get struck by lightning with my own eyes. There's no mistake."
"What do you mean, no mistake? You saw her get struck by lightning, but did you see her gain the Heavenly Eye? I think she just doesn't want to go into the mountains to save him."
"Right. The Heavenly Eye, my foot. I say she got her just deserts."
"If you don't want to go into the mountains, just say so. It's not like we can hold a knife to your throat and force you. Why make up all this nonsense about gods and ghosts to fool us? You're wasting time we could spend looking for the child."
Jin Shanyao was so angry she couldn't speak. She pulled the Record of Admonishing Evil from inside her robes and flipped through a couple of pages. Without caring what was written there, she followed it and began to curse.
"Shut up, you bunch of little bastards! Haven't you flapped your gums enough? Go do whatever you're supposed to be doing. I don't have time to stand here shooting the shit with you."
With that, she followed the book's instructions and struck the courtyard wall with her palm. A five-fingered imprint appeared in the wall at once. The villagers, noisy just a moment before, fell instantly silent and stepped back several paces as one, frightened.
Jin Shanyao looked at the crowd, who resembled startled quails, and felt pleased with herself. She tucked the Record of Admonishing Evil into her robes and returned to the house with her head held high and her chest out.
She'd said reading was useful, hadn't she? Hadn't she just won that battle?
Jin Shanyao sat cross-legged on the kang and slowly released her Spiritual Power. Ignoring the pain in her abdomen, she spread it over all the vegetation, from near to far.
Some grass said Choudan had gone south; a tree said it had seen him to the west. Following the clues the plants gave her, Jin Shanyao soon found him in an old, abandoned house.
She withdrew her Spiritual Power and endured the discomfort as she went outside. All the villagers watched her expectantly.
Jin Shanyao cleared her throat. "Go fifty meters south, then seventy meters west. There's an abandoned house there. Choudan has fallen into the cellar."
As soon as she finished, a villager realized where she meant. "Isn't that Widow Wang's house? Widow Wang's been dead for years. What would he be doing there?"
Old Woman Li pushed through the crowd. Without stopping to consider whether Jin Shanyao was right, she rushed toward Widow Wang's house like a madwoman.
"Mother, are you stupid? We've searched there several times already. There's nobody there. Jin Shanyao is lying to you."
"Forget it. Let your mother go. Only when she sees it for herself will she know whether it's true."
After saying that, he shot Jin Shanyao a displeased glare. If she didn't want to go into the mountains, she didn't have to. Why lie to an old woman?
The villagers who wanted to watch the spectacle gathered at the Li Household and refused to leave. They wanted to see how Jin Shanyao would get herself out of this.