"No! No! He can't die! He can't die!" A child is always a mother's weakness. As soon as Jiang Ling finished speaking, the white-haired woman pulled the little boy in front of her into her arms with a look of horror.
"So, take me to see the water source. I know there's water here! As for your secret, don't worry, I'll keep it for you!" Jiang Ling sensed that the white-haired woman's resolve was wavering, so she pressed her advantage.
The white-haired woman glanced at the little boy in her arms, bit her lip, and nodded with a conflicted expression. She reached for a candle on the candlestick and led Jiang Ling deeper into the cave.
Jiang Ling proceeded with extreme caution, as the ground was already slippery and wet, and further in, the path was covered in moss.
Moss always prefers dark and damp environments, and Jiang Ling glanced at the ground, becoming even more certain that there was a water source in this place.
After walking for about two or three minutes, the white-haired woman stopped in front of a "wall," and Jiang Ling, who was following behind her, almost bumped into her.
Jiang Ling didn't understand why she suddenly stopped, so she quickly went to her side.
In the dim moonlight, Jiang Ling felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over her from head to toe, extinguishing all her hopes.
What was in front of them wasn't a wall at all, but a huge rock, which was blocking the water flow perfectly. Now, only a small amount of water was dripping out through the cracks.
"As you can see, the boulder has blocked the outlet. The sparse water can't even reach the back mountain, let alone the farmland of your Lujia Village!" the white-haired woman said to Jiang Ling.
Jiang Ling's mood plummeted, and this feeling made her feel very uncomfortable.
"I...I'm going back now. You take this and eat it, don't let the child go hungry!" Jiang Ling sadly stuffed the buckwheat pancake into the white-haired woman's hand and walked out of the cave dejectedly.
That afternoon, Jiang Ling's mind was entirely focused on the water source, and she almost completely neglected her potato-digging work.
As the sun set, everyone returned home laden with their bounty, except for Jiang Ling, whose basket was pitifully empty. The village chief wanted to ask her about it, but remembering what had happened that morning, he ultimately kept quiet and shook his head.
When she arrived at the front of her old family home, Jiang Ling stood outside the door for a moment to calm herself down before gently pushing the door open and going inside.
The three children were playing happily in the yard. Their cheerful laughter reached Jiang Ling's ears, and her originally gloomy mood improved a bit.
"Mother!" The three children all ran over when they saw Jiang Ling appear.
Jiang Yaojie deftly took the basket from Jiang Ling's back, while Jiang Suihe and Jiang Wenxi held Jiang Ling's hands on either side, creating a harmonious and joyful scene for the mother and her two children.
For dinner, Jiang Ling secretly mixed two handfuls of rice with brown rice, made a mushroom soup with the mushrooms she had picked during the day, and also made a cold potato salad, which served as dinner for the family of four.
After dinner, Jiang Ling returned to her room and secretly opened the system, bought two anti-inflammatory pills, and then mixed them into the external application powder prescribed by Doctor Zhu.
Medical facilities in ancient times were extremely poor, and even a common cold could take many lives. Now that the weather is hot, Jiang Ling does not want her two daughters' wounds to become infected and inflamed.
After the children fell asleep, Jiang Ling carefully got out of bed, went outside, and opened the system shop. She searched around but found that the stone-moving tools were either ridiculously expensive or products that didn't belong to this era. The only usable ones were sulfur and saltpeter.
Unfortunately, Jiang Ling wasn't a science student in high school, and she hadn't done very well in chemistry before. She had no idea how much of these two things to buy, what the ratio was, or how to use them.
The sudden explosion startled Jiang Ling, who was deep in thought. She looked at the fire and saw that a section of bamboo, about the length of her index finger, had been burned black.
Jiang Ling got up, took a piece of wood from the pile of firewood next to her, and dug the charred bamboo out of the fire.
Looking at the cracks on the bamboo, an idea suddenly popped into Jiang Ling's mind.
"That's right! We can put some sulfur and saltpeter inside the bamboo. That way, it will be powerful but won't blow people up! Why didn't I think of that sooner!" Jiang Ling suddenly realized.
"However, these two items are extremely inconvenient to store, so I can only buy them when the experiment is conducted locally!" Jiang Ling thought for a moment but ultimately decided not to open the store.
After glancing at the sky, Jiang Ling finally quietly pushed open her door and headed towards the White-Haired Goddess Cave.
When she came in again, Jiang Ling was no longer nervous or uneasy. She stood at the entrance of the cave and called out softly, "It's me, Jiang Shi. May I come in?"
After agreeing, Jiang Ling carefully walked in, supporting herself against the wall.
"I..." Jiang Ling was about to speak when the white-haired woman gestured for her to be quiet.
She glanced at the boy, who was already fast asleep beside her, with eyes full of affection, and quietly stepped out of the cave.
"What's wrong?" The white-haired woman seemed particularly curious about Jiang Ling's arrival.
"I...I've thought of a way to destroy the boulder, but...but you and your son might not be able to stay here anymore." Jiang Ling didn't want to disturb the peace of this mother and son, but she didn't want to see the horrific scene of starving people and cannibalism even more, so she said apologetically.
After hearing this, the white-haired woman glanced in the direction of the cave and replied, "I can agree to your request, but there's a condition." She visibly choked up at this point.
Jiang Ling looked at the white-haired woman and seemed to see two lines of clear tears on the woman's face.
Jiang Ling did not urge the white-haired woman to continue speaking.
After a few minutes, the white-haired woman gently wiped away her tears and said to Jiang Ling in a choked voice, "On the condition that you take him away!"
Jiang Ling was shocked upon hearing this. She opened her mouth to ask a question, but the white-haired woman waved her hand and continued, "There are some things you shouldn't ask. Even if you ask, I won't tell you. It will only benefit you if I don't tell you now. If you agree to this condition, I will naturally give up the cave."
“But…but why don’t you ask for his opinion? He may look young, but he’s still a person and has the ability to think independently!” Jiang Ling said, biting her lip.
"No need. If you agree, I will handle it myself. If you don't agree, then please leave!" The white-haired woman said, turning to walk into the cave.
Jiang Ling didn't know what the white-haired woman was up to, but the woman didn't seem to be lying. Jiang Ling hesitated for a moment and then said, "Okay, I promise you!"
"Alright, bring your men over during the day, but what do you want to do with him? You can't just suddenly have a grown son out of nowhere, can you?"
When the white-haired woman asked this question, her body trembled slightly, and Jiang Ling could hear the woman's choked voice.
She didn't expose the white-haired woman. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Since you are the white-haired goddess they recognize, I can say that the white-haired goddess appeared to me in a dream. Tomorrow I will only bring the village chief. At that time, your son will be the little fairy I mentioned. With water, the crops will not fail, and raising your son will not be a problem."
"Wait here for me a moment, I'll be right back!" The white-haired woman seemed to have thought of something, turned around and went into the cave.
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