Chapter 17: The Tree Has Spirit

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The two children untied Tang Ailian and looked around in a frantic manner. They even took off Tang Ailian's clothes to search, but they couldn't find a single leaf of ginseng.

"It's not here. Let's quickly retrace our steps and look for it," Little Huaxin lied.

Aishu, on the other hand, sighed like a little adult. "This is the market, Auntie Xiaohua. Such a good thing that fell on the ground should have been picked up by someone already." Even if it wasn't picked up, it must have been trampled to pieces, right?

The two of them searched in a mess but couldn't find the ginseng seedling. They both became disheartened.

Tang Ailian felt a bit guilty. Naturally, she had sent the ginseng seedling into the medicinal well space along with the tiny Lingzhi mushroom and Silver Heart Grass. She had planted them using her psychic powers in various colored brick chambers within the medicinal well space.

Among them, the Silver Heart Grass was planted in the green brick chamber, the Lingzhi mushroom was planted in the gold brick chamber, and the ginseng was planted in the earthy yellow brick chamber. Don't ask her why she planted them this way; as soon as she received those medicinal herbs, she felt that this was the way to plant them.

She even used her psychic powers to condense spiritual water into cups and watered the three medicinal plants at their roots.

She noticed that when the Silver Heart Grass, tiny Lingzhi mushroom, and small ginseng were watered with the well water in the medicinal well chamber, they immediately revived.

She even had a feeling that when the spiritual water was poured on them, these three medicinal plants grew a little bit.

Tang Ailian was a bit skeptical if the spiritual water had the effect of promoting the growth of medicinal herbs. However, with only a little over 5,000 psychic power points, her mental energy was almost depleted after controlling the planting process with her psychic powers. She had no strength left to water them again after using the root-setting water. She hurriedly withdrew her mental energy and felt her mind becoming heavy. She had no choice but to fall into a deep sleep—she could only try again once her mental energy had recovered.

Aishu carried Ailian back home, but she didn't dare to tell her family that they had accidentally lost the ginseng given by Uncle Xiaodad. Fortunately, her grandmother and stepmother didn't get along, so they hardly interacted. Little Huaxin was also one of the responsible parties, and she actively helped keep it a secret, successfully hiding it from everyone.

The first day of the lunar calendar was a day when knives could not be used, so all the knives in the house were hidden. On this day, they ate leftovers from New Year's Eve.

The children went to the market to play, while the adults stayed home making caramelized popcorn and various fried foods. It was a lively start to the year!

The second day of the lunar calendar was the day when married daughters returned to their parents' homes. The third and fourth days were for paying respects to maternal aunts, and the fifth day was a day when no one could leave the house or use needles. On the sixth day, scissors couldn't be used, and even the fire tongs were hidden.

These were customs in southern rural areas that had to be strictly followed.

On the second day of the lunar calendar, Tang Ailian went with her mother, Liu Xiujuan, and her siblings Aishi and Aiwu to visit their maternal grandmother's house.

Their maternal grandmother lived in a different village, called Matou Village. She was Tang Ailian's mother's stepmother, and their relationship was not particularly close, but they maintained a facade of civility.

Tang Ailian had never really liked going to her maternal grandmother's house in her previous life. She had heard that her maternal grandfather was very kind, but she hadn't understood when she was still a child. By the time she was old enough to understand, her maternal grandfather had already passed away. Besides, her maternal grandmother was a stepmother, so at most, their relationship was superficial.

Their maternal uncle was named Liu Yiping, and he was the half-brother of Tang Ailian's mother, Liu Xiujuan. He had been raised by Liu Xiujuan from a young age, and she had heard that even his education had been funded by their father.

In her previous life, after getting married, her uncle had changed, becoming very selfish.

When her mother didn't have money to give to her maternal grandfather, she had taken out a cat's eye ring and asked her maternal grandfather to sell it. However, the cat's eye ring was too precious, and her maternal grandfather borrowed money from someone else and didn't sell the ring. This angered her uncle, who took advantage of a small disagreement with her mother to prevent her from returning to her maternal family. Her mother was deeply hurt.

However, at this time, Yiping uncle was still a student, and he hadn't had a falling out with her mother yet.

Seeing her maternal grandfather, Tang Ailian found him to be very kind. He was very good to her and her siblings, but in relative terms, she felt that her maternal grandfather held her brother in higher regard—he seemed to favor boys. He gave Tang Ailian some candy and spoke gently to her, "Call me Grandpa."

Tang Ailian almost rolled her eyes. She was only five months old. Could she really call him Grandpa? She was afraid her stepmother would find some black dog's blood to pour on her if she did.

Although her stepmother was polite and had a smile on her face, her eyes lacked warmth, making it hard to feel close to her. This was one of the reasons why Tang Ailian had never liked her. Because her maternal grandfather favored Liu Xiujuan so much, and because this stepdaughter was too smart and outshone her own son by far, her stepmother didn't like Liu Xiujuan and, by extension, Liu Xiujuan's children.

Due to her grandmother's compromise, Tang Ailian and her siblings had all received new clothes this year. Seeing Tang Ailian dressed up nicely and looking clean and tidy, her uncle immediately reached out to hug her. "Oh, isn't this our Ailian? She's so pretty. Come, let Uncle hug you!"

Although he said that, he knew that a child who was less than six months old wouldn't understand. So, as he spoke, he reached out to pick up Tang Ailian.

To his surprise, Tang Ailian didn't cooperate and shrank behind her mother, refusing to let him pick her up. She could feel a lot of impurities in his body, and she didn't like him.

Liu Yiping was surprised. "Does Ailian understand what I'm saying?"

Aishi gave him a skeptical look. "Ailian is smart; she understands everything."

Liu Yiping felt a bit embarrassed because although he sensed Tang Ailian's intelligence, he was a bit embarrassed when his niece didn't

 give him face. He immediately turned around and went to play with Aiwu.

At this moment, Tang Ailian's attention was drawn to an old pomelo tree in the courtyard. The old pomelo tree was quite large and provided a lot of shade. She secretly extended her psychic power to connect with the old pomelo tree behind the house.

"Pomelo tree, oh, pomelo tree, can you hear me? If you can, please respond."

Tang Ailian called for the third time when she suddenly heard a child's voice in her mind. "Who are you?"

Tang Ailian quickly looked around, but there were no other children besides herself. Could it be that this was the voice of the pomelo tree? Did it really respond to her? She felt excited. This was the first time she had received information from a plant. Before this, she had tried to communicate with various plants and flowers in front and behind the house, but had never succeeded. Unexpectedly, as soon as she extended her psychic power into the pomelo tree, it transmitted information.

The book is not fully developed yet. If you like my writing, please check out "Cultivating the Female Immortal."

(End of this chapter)