Chapter 7: Sister, you've grown taller at eighteen!
She patted their heads and whispered, "On the sixth and ninth days of the lunar month, eat a big meal and sleep well tonight. When you wake up tomorrow, you must be smarter, okay?"
"Uh-huh!"
Zhao Yunjing hadn't returned yet, so Zhou Mujiao took the opportunity to wash Shiba clean as well. The little girl's face was fair and clean, and she spoke in a childish voice. Zhou Mujiao liked her more and more as she looked at her.
When Zhao Yunjing returned, he saw several children, all clean and tidy, surrounding Zhou Mujiao, who was smiling at them.
A warm feeling flowed through his heart, and he quickly went into the kitchen to prepare dinner as fast as he could.
The meal consisted of stir-fried pheasant with mushrooms, fried eggs, and a mushroom and chicken soup. The staple food was brown rice borrowed from Doctor Li, which he cooked with wild vegetables.
The three children, once they smelled the delicious aroma, lost all interest in listening to Zhou Mujiao. Their three heads crowded around the kitchen doorway: "Big brother, can we eat now? Can we eat now?"
Uncle Zhao was paralyzed in bed, and Aunt Zhao was seriously ill and unable to get up. Zhao Yunjing left a message saying, "You eat first," and brought the food to his parents. Zhou Mujiao fed Xiao Wu chicken soup and shredded chicken.
She expected to find the table a mess when she came out, but to her surprise, the three children didn't touch their chopsticks. They sat obediently around the table, looking at her expectantly: "Pretty sister, can we eat now?"
"Wait for your older brother."
A quarter of an hour later, Zhao Yunjing came out with an empty bowl and found everyone waiting for him. He subconsciously looked at Zhou Mujiao.
Zhou Mujiao smiled brightly: "Alright, big brother's out, let's eat!"
The three children cheered and started eating.
Eighteen kept munching and exclaiming, "So delicious! So delicious! Big brother, you eat!"
On the sixth and ninth days of the lunar new year, someone grabbed a piece of chicken for Zhao Yunjing, mumbling incoherently, "Big brother, eat! Big brother, eat! Pretty sister, eat!"
The three children ate to their hearts' content, and as soon as they put down their chopsticks, they tilted their heads and fell asleep.
Zhao Yunjing, holding one in each arm, said to Zhou Mujiao, "Miss Zhou, please sleep with Shiba for the next few days."
Zhou Mujiao picked up the fast-sleeping Eighteen and said with a faint smile, "My name is Zhou Mujiao. Brother Zhao can call me Ajiao or Liuya."
"Ah Jiao," Zhao Yunjing murmured to himself several times before leaving with a flushed face.
After settling Shiba in, Zhou Mujiao took a quick shower. When she came out, she saw Zhao Yunjing still busy, and a thought struck her: "Brother Zhao, let's go hunting together tomorrow."
“No need,” Zhao Yunjing said in a deep voice. “I’m in the mountains for a whole day. Your brother needs to be fed medicine, and you haven’t recovered yet.”
Zhou Mujiao wanted to say that if she followed him, she wouldn't have to go so far to hunt, but after thinking about it, she decided not to say it for now.
The fact that she possesses mystical abilities should not be discovered yet. Zhao Yunjing is a good person, but who can guarantee that he will remain true to himself after learning about her mystical abilities?
That night, Zhou Mujiao slept very well and even had a good dream. However, at the end of the dream, she dreamed of her grandfather and the upcoming list of the world's richest people, which made the dream slightly flawed.
"Aaaaaaah!!!"
Early in the morning, Zhou Mujiao was awakened by a series of screams. She quickly went outside and saw Shiba jumping around excitedly.
"Big brother! My pants are too short! My pants are too short! I've grown taller at eighteen! I've grown taller at eighteen!"
The little girl's face was flushed, and she was shouting at the top of her lungs, almost going crazy. She turned her head and saw Zhou Mujiao, so she rushed over and cried out, "Sister! Eighteen has grown taller! Eighteen ate a lot yesterday and grew taller today!"
Then she pulled Chuliu and Chujiu to jump and skip with her, shouting, "Chuliu! Chujiu! You've grown taller on Chuliu! You've grown taller!"
When Zhou Mujiao helped her get dressed last night, she noticed that the girl's pants were all above her ankles and the sleeves were just the right length. But now, her ankles were exposed, and the sleeves were too short, revealing a thin and slender wrist.
If it's not that the clothes shrank, then eighteen really did grow taller.
Zhao Yunjing pulled Shiba to the corridor of the main hall. There was a horizontal line drawn on the wall of the corridor with charcoal. The line was very thick and long, and it was obvious that it was drawn frequently. It was very conspicuous. Shiba had just approached and hadn't even made a move yet, but Zhao Yunjing saw the clue at a glance.
He suppressed his excitement, pressed Shiba's back against the wall, and used charcoal to draw a deep horizontal line across it.
Above the thick, long horizontal line, a new horizontal line appeared. When Shiba turned around and saw the new horizontal line, she didn't go crazy. Instead, she asked in a daze, "Big brother, Shiba has grown taller, hasn't she?"
"Yes, he's grown taller at eighteen."
The little girl sat down quietly on the steps. Zhou Mujiao sat down next to her and patted her shoulder: "Eighteen, congratulations, you've grown taller."
Eighteen suddenly threw herself into Zhou Mujiao's arms: "Sister, I've grown taller, waaaaah..."
Chu Liu and Chu Jiu, with their messy hair, also sat down in front of the steps, keeping their heads down and not making a sound.
Zhou Mujiao patted each of their heads, telling them to digest the information properly, and then went back to her room to check on Xiao Wu.
Xiao Wu had just woken up and was about to get up when Zhou Mujiao went to help him. The little guy avoided her, his pale face showing stubbornness: "Sister, I can do it."
Although she walked unsteadily, she arrived safely in the courtyard. Zhou Mujiao breathed a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, the Zhao siblings, having finished their excitement, went about their work and play.
On a crisp early summer morning, the air was fresh, and a gentle breeze carried the fragrance of earth. Zhou Mujiao took a deep breath, and the gloom in her heart dissipated.
After a quick breakfast, Zhao Yunjing set up the medicine pot, took his hunting tools, and went into the mountains. Zhou Mujiao led the children in a water-skimming version of "Dragon Fist," working up a sweat and feeling completely rejuvenated.
There were still half a mushroom, thirty eggs, a pheasant, and an old hen that could hardly walk. Zhou Mujiao thought for a moment and took half of the eggs to incubate for the two chickens.
In front of the Zhao family's house was a neatly leveled flat area. To the left were several vegetable plots, barren of any vegetation, and to the right were also vegetable plots, similarly barren of any vegetation. In the corner of the house were several bundles of firewood.
It seems the number eighteen wasn't an exaggeration; this vegetable garden really doesn't grow any vegetables.
Zhou Mujiao squatted down, dug up some soil, and examined it carefully.
The soil was a deep, damp color. She gently crushed it, and the mud crumbled into sand, which she then tossed aside.
She dug deeper with the tile and found several small earthworms.
Strange, this is clearly fertile soil, so why can't vegetables grow here?
"Sister, what are you doing?" Shiba asked as she came over.
Do you have rapeseed?
Eighteen thought for a moment, then ran back into the house and brought out a handful of vegetable seeds: "Sister, do you want to plant vegetables?"
"Um."
"It won't grow." Eighteen sighed. "My older brother used to plant every day, but not a single vegetable would grow."
"Give it a try, what if it grows this time?"
Zhou Mujiao had done farm work before, but that was before she was fifteen. Many years later, in a different time and in a different body, she was very rusty. However, with four children by her side, she managed to sow the rapeseed despite all the stumbling and falling.
After filling a basin with water, Zhou Mujiao had the children wash their hands one by one. She then washed herself in the same basin of water. Just as she was about to pour it away, a thought struck her, and she poured the water onto the vegetable patch.
As the sun rose higher, a strong smell of Chinese medicine filled the room. As soon as Xiao Wu smelled the medicine, he wanted to hide, his little face scrunched up. Zhou Mujiao found it amusing and said, "Xiao Wu, come inside and drink your medicine."
"Okay, sister."
Xiao Wu agreed verbally, but secretly moved to the side, pressed against the wall. Zhou Mujiao called out again, and Xiao Wu whispered, "Sister, can we wait until the medicine cools down a bit?"
Zhou Mujiao brought out the medicine and spread it out until it was warm. When she got to the door, she saw that Xiao Wu was even further away from the gate. She was both angry and heartbroken. This child had been drinking medicine since birth, every day for seven years. Even an adult would find it unbearable, let alone a child.
I hope my mystical constitution will work on Xiao Wu and help him get healthy as soon as possible.
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