Chapter 6: Spiritual Spring Appears
Mother Zhang handed the keychain to Zhang Wanwan and said, "I'm going to get some water. Open the door first and go to the side to fold the gold and silver. Don't get in the way here."
Zhang Wanwan: “.”
Because of Zhang's mother's request, Zhang Wanwan pinched her nose and resigned herself to opening the door. There were eight rooms in total, all of which were locked. She simply tried one by one and opened all the doors.
Zhang's mother was fetching water for the evening. She had just torn off a piece of dry rag to clean the stone bench when she discovered Zhang Wanwan's stupid behavior. She laughed and scolded, "I asked you to open the two rows of doors in the hall and the kitchen. Why did you go to open the door of the room? If you have nothing to do, go and work quickly. Don't waste time!"
Zhang Wanwan was still curious about the room where she lived as a child. Her mother yelled at her and she had to run back to the yard to work. She didn't know where her mother got two or three large dusty baskets from. Zhang Wanwan sat on the washed stone bench and resigned herself to folding gold and silver.
The sound of wood colliding could be heard from the room, and Zhang's mother went in and out. Before Zhang Wanwan finished folding a basket, she had already arranged the items for ancestor worship. She lit the incense and immediately called Zhang Wanwan over to worship. Zhang Wanwan looked at her hands covered with silver flakes and ran in without bothering to wash them. She bowed three times respectfully to the ancestors of the Zhang family. Zhang's mother took the incense from Zhang Wanwan and bowed a few more times, muttering to herself.
Zhang Wanwan went out to continue working. After Zhang's mother finished her worship, she threw two coins and saw one heads and one tails, so she immediately went to burn gold and silver.
Zhang Wanwan also breathed a sigh of relief. The gold and silver they bought could not be put into these three large baskets. If they really folded them all, it would probably be dark by then.
The place where gold and silver were burned was just outside the sacrificial room. Thick smoke billowed and waves of heat came one after another. Zhang's mother asked Zhang Wanwan to move away. Zhang Wanwan wanted to help, so she held the basket tightly and moved closer from time to time. She didn't know if she was too nervous, but after the gold and silver were burned, she found that her fingers were scratched by the sharp edge of the basket.
Zhang's mother looked at her hands and frowned, "I'm going to the village store to buy some Band-Aids. Go wash your hands."
After saying that, Zhang's mother turned around, opened the door and ran away.
Zhang Wanwan frowned slightly and washed her hands obediently. Thinking that her mother would not be back soon, she simply ran into the room to look for something. In her memory, her grandfather always kept adhesive tape. In the past, people in the village would just use adhesive tape to cover the wound when they were injured, and no one would use Band-Aids or anything like that.
No one has been in this room for many years. The room was covered with so much dust that the original colors of the furniture could not be seen. The familiar step-out bed was empty, with nothing else but the bed board. There was an old-fashioned table next to it, which, from its style, was from the Republic of China period. Zhang Wanwan casually pulled out the top drawer and found that there were still some things in it, but most of them were used by her grandfather when he was alive. They were not valuable and no one dealt with them.
In order to find the tape but not to get dust around, Zhang Wanwan had to pull out the entire drawer. There were four drawers on the table, and at the bottom were two opening cabinets, which were usually used to store larger objects. Things like tape would definitely not be in them. Zhang Wanwan didn't even open any of the drawers, but just stared at the four drawers.
"Huh? What is this?"
There were only a few small things in the antique drawer. What surprised Zhang Wanwan was that there was a vivid landscape painting carved on the innermost side of one of the drawers. The gurgling spring water in the mountain stream seemed alive, which stunned Zhang Wanwan. She blinked her eyes and looked over again. She found that she was not dazzled. The painting was really weird. If you look closely, you can find that the wood used to carve the landscape painting is different from the others, as if it was specially glued on.
Zhang Wanwan stretched out her hand curiously, wanting to brush off the dust, but a dazzling light flashed by, scaring her so much that she subconsciously withdrew her hand and looked at the painting again. However, this time, it did not feel lifelike. It was as if it was just an ordinary landscape painting carved on a drawer.
"It really is a ghost!" Zhang Wanwan murmured. She suddenly felt the house was a little cold and quickly put everything back in place. She couldn't find any tape and her hands were covered in dust. Looking at her fingers that were still bleeding, she felt so sad that she had no tears. She even locked her grandfather's room when she went out.
Not long after, Zhang's mother came back. When she entered the door, she had a transparent plastic bag in her hand. It was obvious that it contained two packets of instant noodles and two duck eggs.
"Mom, does the store have Band-Aids?" Zhang Wanwan waved her paw in front of her mother.
Zhang's mother took a deep breath and scolded angrily, "I told you to go wash your hands, but did you go to dig coal? You are such a grown-up and yet you are still so worrying!"
Zhang Wanwan sniffed, looking depressed. She waited for her mother to bring up another bucket of clean water before she came over and explained aggrievedly, "Mom, I washed it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have used up all the water you just left for me. Who knew that after going to the room, this would happen!"
"Alright, alright, you know that the house is not suitable for living, but you still want to move in. Who can you blame?" Zhang's mother scolded her while tearing off the Band-Aid. After Zhang Wanwan washed her hands, she wanted to put a Band-Aid on her. After looking for a long time, she couldn't find the wound. "Where is the wound?"
"Here!" Zhang Wanwan handed her index finger to her mother, only to find that there was no trace of anything on her fingertips except water droplets, let alone a wound.
Zhang Wanwan was stunned for a moment. Her mother thought she was joking with her, but she saw with her own eyes that her daughter's finger was bleeding.
The mother and daughter both had the same confused look on their faces. Zhang's mother was straightforward. She was relieved when she couldn't find the wound and smiled, "I think the bleeding has stopped. You can fix it yourself. I'll go make you some food."
Zhang Wanwan was stunned. Apply it? You need to have a wound to apply it! Where should she apply it now? Then she thought, since the Band-Aid had been torn, she might as well apply it directly to the injured area without any hesitation.
I have to say that both mother and daughter are extremely generous in this regard.
The kitchen still used a large wood-burning stove, and the bowls, chopsticks and other items were all in the cupboard. They could be used after being washed with detergent. Zhang's mother simply cooked some instant noodles and squeezed two duck eggs for their lunch.
It was just past one in the afternoon after lunch, and they had to rush back to Pu City without stopping.
After a day of such an exhaustion, Zhang Wanwan was exhausted when she returned home. She lay down on the bed with her whole body limp. She fell asleep unknowingly while listening to the noises made by her mother in the kitchen.
In her dream, Zhang Wanwan found herself entering a landscape painting. The gurgling spring was less than twenty meters away from her. There was a stone tablet on the shore, engraved with words that Zhang Wanwan did not recognize at all. Fortunately, there were small traditional Chinese explanations next to each word, probably marked by someone later. Based on those traditional Chinese characters, she roughly understood the spring.
This spring is a spiritual spring. A drop of spiritual spring water can bring spring back to dead trees and prolong people's life and make them immune to all diseases. However, the spiritual power of the spiritual spring water is too strong and it needs to be diluted before it can be used. However, the spiritual spring water does not have the effect of immortality. Its previous owner was a carpenter in the Republic of China. After the carpenter died, his contract with the spiritual spring was terminated. The spiritual spring was directly attached to a landscape painting carved by the carpenter waiting for the next destined person. No one knows who used the wood carving to make a drawer, so that it has not seen the light for almost a century. By accident, it became hers.
(End of this chapter)
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