Chapter 19 My granddaughter is a little lucky charm

Ningbao, held in Li Guizhi's arms, looked around and, finding no one paying attention, immediately whispered in Li Guizhi's ear.

"Grandma, Grandma, Ningbao has something to tell you. Ningbao brought lots of food with her..."

Li Guizhi was startled. She straightened Ning Bao and looked her over carefully from head to toe.

"No, baby, you're just a little baby. I've looked you over from head to toe the moment I saw you."

You only had a coarse cloth satchel and a small wooden sword on you; there was no other luggage.

"Honey, are you hallucinating because you haven't eaten enough?"

Ning Bao shook her head.

"Grandma, don't worry, Ningbao isn't hallucinating. Ningbao is fine. Please wait a moment."

Ning Bao looked around again, then reached into her bag and took out a steamed bun, handing it to Li Guizhi.

Li Guizhi stared in surprise at the cornbread in her hand. Although she was shocked, she quickly hid it.

Ningbao didn't stop because her hands were too small to hold one at a time. She took one several times in a row, and kept taking Li Guizhi and putting her down until there was enough for the whole family to have one each.

Ningbao clapped her little hands, tilted her head back, and looked at Li Guizhi with a proud expression.

"Grandma, Ningbao really didn't lie to you."

Li Guizhi nervously held Ningbao in her arms and looked Ningbao up and down again.

"Ningbao, tell Grandma, is there anything that's bothering you?"

Ningbao smiled and hugged Li Guizhi's neck, snuggling into her arms and acting spoiled.

"Grandma, don't worry, Ningbao is really fine. All this food is hidden in the storage talisman that Master gave me."

Speaking of his master, Ning Bao sighed softly.

"Sigh! My master is all talk and no action. He always complains that I eat too much, but he puts a lot of food in his storage talisman."

My master must have been worried that I would go hungry, which is why he put so much food in the storage talisman.

I suspect he must have given me all the food in the Taoist temple. I wonder how the temple is doing now? Is my master having any food?

Ugh! This is really worrying!

Seeing Ningbao's tightly furrowed brows, Li Guizhi couldn't help but soften her voice.

"Okay, don't worry anymore. Worrying will stunt your growth."

Upon hearing her grandmother express her worry that she wouldn't grow tall, Ningbao immediately took a deep breath and silently muttered to herself:

Don't worry, grow tall! Don't worry, grow tall!

Li Guizhi composed herself and looked at Ning Bao seriously.

"Ningbao, Grandma has something to tell you. All that food was given to you by your master. Don't take it out easily in the future."

It's a famine year now. Human life is worthless, but food is very valuable. A human life might not even be worth a single cornbread.

If someone finds out you have food on you, it will be a curse, not a blessing. From now on, when you're hungry, eat it secretly, and never let anyone see you.

“But Ningbao doesn’t want to eat alone. Ningbao wants to eat with everyone. Ningbao doesn’t want everyone to go hungry. Going hungry is very, very uncomfortable…”

…………

Finally, Ningbao and Li Guizhi reached an agreement: they would try not to take the food out of the storage talisman, and would only take it out slowly if they really ran out of food at home.

However, Ningbao can't go hungry; when Ningbao is hungry, she has to find a way to fill her stomach herself...

Ning Bao was right; her master really did give her all the food and drink in the Taoist temple.

Master Sanqing himself only took some dry food with him and led Lao Fan, the gatekeeper of Sanqing Temple, south to escape the famine.

Old Fan used to be a beggar. Once, he was injured by a group of young beggars while fighting for food, but by chance, he was saved by the Taoist priest Sanqing.

Seeing that Lao Fan was pitiful, Master Sanqing took him back to the Taoist temple. Coincidentally, the temple was short of a gatekeeper, so Lao Fan volunteered to be the gatekeeper, and he did so for many years.

Before this trip to escape famine, Master Sanqing had dismissed everyone else in the temple, leaving Lao Fan and his companion alone to form their own team.

After seeing off Daoist Ningbao Sanqing, they set off together with Lao Fan, who was waiting at the foot of Sanqing Mountain.

Old Fan gnawed on his dry cornbread, looking at Master Sanqing with resentment.

"Look at you, you clearly had so much food but you couldn't bear to take it with you, and in the end you gave it all to the little chubby girl."