Chapter 6: Uncle Stole the Rice Cake

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Because Tang Grandma favored boys over girls, she didn't even want to slaughter a chicken when Tang's mother, Liu Xiujuan, was in confinement. During childbirth in rural areas of the South, it was customary for the bride's family to send several chickens, and more affluent families even sent a dozen or more chickens to ensure that their daughter could eat well and recover. However, due to Liu Xiujuan's stepmother status in her own family, they only sent twenty eggs, using the excuse that everyone was eating cafeteria food now. Even those twenty eggs were mixed with the eggs laid by the hens at home and taken to the market to be sold by Tang Grandma.

If it weren't for Tang Ailian occasionally using the spiritual water in the medicine well space when her mother was drinking water, her mother's health would have deteriorated quickly.

Tang Ailian had just turned one month old, and Liu Xiujuan had already gone back to work. Her little brother, Aiwu, who was not yet three years old, stood by his sister's crib and said, "Sister, don't roll around, okay? Big brother is going to catch grasshoppers and roast them. I'll catch two, and give you one, okay?" He had been assigned by their grandmother to watch over his sister.

Tang Ailian really wanted to say, "Brother, are you sure a baby who is only a little over a month old can understand your words and eat the grasshoppers you mentioned?" In rural areas, children lacked meat, but there were still many things they could eat, such as roasted grasshoppers, cicadas from trees, four-legged snakes on the ground, and field mice. After skinning them and removing their heads and legs, sprinkling some salt and roasting them over a fire made them quite delicious.

Tang Ailian wanted to say it was not good, but she couldn't say it, so she just nodded.

Her brother, thinking she had agreed, happily said, "Sister agreed, then big brother is off. Remember, don't tell grandma, or I'll spank your little butt."

Tang Ailian continued to nod and make affirmative sounds as her brother ran off like the wind.

Finally, she was alone. Tang Ailian was about to enter the medicine well space when she heard soft footsteps outside the door. She quickly pretended to be asleep again.

The person who entered was her fourteen-year-old uncle, Tang Erlong. He looked around and, seeing that there was no one in the kitchen, opened the iron pot on the stove. From inside, he took out a bowl, and in the bowl was the rice cake that Liu Xiujuan had prepared for Tang Ailian in case she got hungry.

Erlong quickly devoured the rice cake and placed the empty bowl on the stove before quietly leaving.

Tang Ailian couldn't help but despise her uncle for stealing even his niece's rice cake. This uncle had no decency at all, she thought.

With no more sounds around, Tang Ailian looked around and, seeing no one, her body flickered, and she appeared in the medicine well space.

While she was still in her mother's womb, she couldn't enter the medicine well space in her physical form because she was connected by the umbilical cord. After she was born, she had always been held by her mother, so she couldn't enter the medicine well space physically either, even though her consciousness could enter and she could use her mental powers to draw spiritual water from the well. This was the first time she had entered the medicine well space in her physical form.

The medicine well space looked similar to what she had seen in her consciousness, but there was an additional sense of touch. She could feel the green jade bricks beneath her, but she could only touch them lightly. She wondered how she could move in this state since her body was still bound.

It took a great deal of effort to free her hands from their bindings. She then removed the blanket tied around her body. When she tried to stand up, she realized her bones were still soft, and she couldn't stand.

Tang Ailian forced a smile and thought, "I guess I'll have to crawl."

Because she had innate energy and had been drinking the spiritual water, Tang Ailian's body had some strength. So, she managed to crawl to a standing position with some ease.

It took a lot of effort, but she finally managed to climb onto the edge of the well.

She didn't know how deep the well was or if the spiritual water inside it was endless. Tang Ailian struggled to reach her head into the well to take a look, but the well's 90-centimeter-high white jade enclosure blocked her view—her body wasn't tall enough to see over it.

The ground between the enclosure and the well platform was paved with four different colors of jade bricks. Tang Ailian was standing on green jade bricks, which looked like emeralds. She easily flipped one over with her hand and noticed that it didn't quite resemble emerald and was more translucent and beautiful than the best jade she had seen in her previous life.

Tang Ailian could sense that these jade bricks contained incredibly dense energy. This energy was even stronger than the celestial source energy she had absorbed.

She thought that she could probably sell these treasures for a high price.

Tang Ailian was excited. She counted the palm-sized green jade bricks and found there were a hundred of them.

There were also a hundred bricks of each of the other colored jade, and the central earth-yellow well platform was also constructed with yellow jade bricks. The surrounding yellow jade bricks numbered a hundred as well.

The well platform itself was made up of ninety-nine white jade bricks. The white jade appeared as though it had condensed from oil, but it was even more translucent than ordinary oil. It was even better than the best mutton fat jade Tang Ailian had seen in her previous life.

What puzzled Tang Ailian was why there were holes in the middle of each brick, which had a diameter of about two inches.

She couldn't understand why such fine bricks needed to have holes. Moreover, there was at least ten centimeters of space between each brick, explaining why there were so few bricks in over an acre of land.

Though she didn't know what material these "jade bricks" were made of, Tang Ailian could feel that they were all treasures. She even had a sense that the formation of this well might be related to these various colored jades.

She couldn't see inside the well but could sense that the spiritual water, while appearing level with the ground, was deep and mysterious. She had no idea how deep it actually was; it just seemed very deep.

After exploring for a while, Tang Ailian tried using her body cultivation technique in the medicine well space. She recited the incantation and made a few hand seals, and the celestial source energy immediately rushed toward her. The celestial source energy in the medicine well space was even denser!

Seeing the celestial source energy enveloping her like an undispersed mist, entering her body, Tang Ailian understood that this medicine well space was specifically designed for cultivation.

With this medicine well space, her cultivation speed would undoubtedly be much faster.

After absorbing a large amount of celestial source energy into her body, her bones gradually hardened, and her body could finally stand. She took a few steps, holding onto the half-meter-high well platform, and after walking in circles for a bit, she let go of the well railing and walked like an ordinary child.

If someone saw a one-month-old baby walking, they might be surprised.

Tang Ailian was about to practice the witch doctor's dance again when she suddenly heard her brother crying. She thought, "This is not good." She had lost track of time while practicing in the medicine well space, and her brother was probably crying because he couldn't find her after catching the grasshoppers.

She quickly extended her mental powers and found her brother sitting on the ground, covering his eyes, and crying. He still tightly held two grasshoppers, each missing a leg, in his hands.

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(End of this chapter)