Courtyard House: Rebirth of a Shopkeeper in 1937

Because he had stayed up too late thinking last night, Xingbao was woken up this morning by Guixiang shaking him by the arm. Rubbing his sleepy eyes, he followed the little girl through his groggy washing up, feeling a void in his heart, as if he had forgotten something important. It wasn't until he turned into the main room and saw Guixiang clinging to the counter, pestering her mother and shaking her arm incessantly: "Mommy, Mommy, give me another piece of candy! Yesterday's candy was so sweet!" that Xingbao suddenly slapped his forehead—he hadn't even tasted a single blood peach he bought from Yongfeng!

Unable to resist Gui Xiang's persistent pestering, Mother had no choice but to take out two fruit candies from the tin box in the corner of the cabinet, unwrap them, and give them to the siblings: "These are the only two left. If you keep making a fuss, there won't be any left." The candies glistened on her fingertips, and their sweet aroma immediately filled her nose.

With a candy in his mouth, Xingbao asked indistinctly, "Mom, where did you put the blood peaches we bought the day before yesterday? Can I have one?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Gui Xiang, who had been clamoring for candy, suddenly blushed as if she had been pricked by a needle. Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, she turned around and ran to the backyard, almost twisting her heel in the process.

The mother gave Gui Xiang's retreating figure a strange look, then turned to Xing Bao: "You finished eating yesterday evening, didn't Gui Xiang save one for you?"

Xingbao's heart skipped a beat, then he remembered how precious the blood peach was—this fruit was rarely seen outside of Xiangxiang, its flesh was crimson and juicy, much more delicate than ordinary peaches. Undeterred, he pressed on, "What about the peach pit? Mother, where did you throw it?" He was still thinking of planting the pit in his spatial dimension so he could eat it more often in the future.

Mother leaned against the counter with one hand, thought for a moment, and casually said, "You're going to plant it? I threw it away casually when I was cleaning up yesterday, I think I threw it into the ditch by the door."

"Then I'll go find my sister!" Xingbao turned around and left in a hurry, feeling very upset: he bought the fruit himself, but in the end he didn't even see the peach pit. There was really no way to complain!

After searching around, they found Gui Xiang hiding in her room, which was slightly ajar. They could hear soft sobbing and the sound of her body pushing against the door.

"Sister!" Xingbao called out softly.

There was silence behind the door for a moment, and then Gui Xiang’s voice came through, choked with sobs: “Xing Bao… I gave your blood peach to Xiao Hua… She’s never eaten such a sweet peach before. I’ll definitely save some for you next time, really!” Her voice was full of panic, as if she was terrified of making him angry.

Xingbao sighed helplessly and softened his tone: "Sister, I'm not asking you for blood peaches. I just want to ask where you threw away the peach pits after you ate them?"

The door creaked open a crack, and Gui Xiang's red eyes peeked out, tears still clinging to her eyelashes: "Xing Bao, are you really just looking for the peach pit? Or are you going to scold me?"

"Yes!" Xingbao nodded emphatically, his tone exceptionally certain. "I want to plant the peach pits. If they grow into a tree, we can eat blood peaches every year."

Gui Xiang finally breathed a sigh of relief, flung open the door and ran out, her face still streaked with tears but beaming with a bright smile: "We threw them all into the field across the street! I threw them much farther than Xiao Hua, I'll go find them for you right now!" She then rushed toward the door.

Xingbao quickly grabbed her arm: "Don't rush, sister. The kitchen smells of sweet potato porridge, it's almost time to eat. After school this morning, I'll go with you, and we'll see who finds it first." Guixiang blinked, looked at Xingbao's serious expression, and nodded vigorously. Her previous grievances had long been washed away by the anticipation of finding the peach pit.

Soon, the aroma of sweet potato porridge wafting from the kitchen filled the entire main room. Everyone sat around the table, and after just one sip, the second brother couldn't help but put down his chopsticks, his eyes lighting up: "Mom, why is today's sweet potato porridge so much tastier than usual? It's so fragrant and sweet, it warms my heart!"

"That's right, that's right!" Gui Xiang mumbled in agreement, her mouth still full of rice, nodding her head repeatedly. "My tummy feels warm."

The eldest brother and Brother Ding nodded in agreement, and even Brother Qianjin, who had just sat down, looked at Xingbao's mother with curiosity in his eyes. Of all the people at the table, only Xingbao and his father kept their heads down and ate their food silently, picking at the porridge in their bowls with their chopsticks, afraid of accidentally giving themselves away—these sweet potatoes were grown with spiritual spring water from the space, so they naturally tasted much sweeter than ordinary sweet potatoes, but this was something that couldn't be told to outsiders.

Xingbao's mother explained with a smile, "There's no secret to it. It's just the bag of sweet potatoes your dad brought back from Yongfeng the day before yesterday. Those sweet potatoes were especially big. Today, I only put one sweet potato in this pot, plus a little half a bowl of rice, and it was enough for all of us. I didn't expect it to taste so good."

"Bought in Yongfeng?" Qianjin stroked his chin thoughtfully and muttered to himself, "When I come back to deliver the letter, I'll take some time to go to Yongfeng and look for this kind of sweet potato so my family can try it."

Upon hearing this, Xingbao inwardly groaned, but outwardly pretended to be nonchalant—the sweet potatoes were thanks to the spirit spring water; Yongfeng had no such good stuff. He secretly made up his mind: from now on, crops grown with spirit spring water could only be eaten by his family, and could not be served to guests casually, otherwise he would be exposed sooner or later.

After the meal, Qianjin got up to say goodbye. Xingbao's mother specially picked out a few large sweet potatoes from the bag and stuffed them into his hands: "Take them with you to eat on the road, or let your family try them." Qianjin couldn't refuse and accepted them with a smile. Xingbao stood aside, looking at the sweet potatoes, feeling a black line appear on his forehead—if Qianjin couldn't find the same sweet potatoes in Yongfeng, that would be a real mess!

As soon as Brother Qianjin left, Captain Li came looking for Dad. It turned out that this morning, when Dad was practicing boxing with his eldest and second eldest brothers in the backyard, Captain Li, who got up early, saw them. Because he had to entertain guests in the morning, Captain Li was too embarrassed to mention it, but now that he was going to the threshing ground to practice, he kept following Dad around, earnestly wanting to become his student and learn boxing.

Helpless, Father had no choice but to stop and tell the truth: "I practice Bajiquan, which was taught in the army back then. It only has fighting techniques, no corresponding training methods, and no medicinal bath recipes to nourish the body. Practicing this style too harshly can easily injure your muscles and bones. If you don't mind, you can practice with us in the morning as a way to strengthen your body. If possible, find an old traditional Chinese medicine doctor to prescribe some Chinese medicine." Captain Li nodded in agreement, and the two walked side by side toward the threshing ground.

Before they knew it, school was over at noon. Xingbao and Guixiang, without even eating, dragged their mother to help them put on their straw hats and took a detour from the threshing ground to the field in front of the house—they were still thinking about finding the blood peach pits! At the end of class, Xingbao took a special look at the wooden bridge his father was building: the simple wooden arch used mortise and tenon joints, making it very sturdy. Long pillars had been added to the arch, clearly intended to be a walkway connected to the eaves of the schoolhouse. The bridge was only a little over two meters long; judging by the progress, it would be finished in the next few days, and then they wouldn't have to take the detour anymore.

The siblings hurried to the field. Guixiang, with her good memory, quickly found two peach pits in the soil, recalling how she had thrown them away the day before. The midday sun was blazing, and the dampness from yesterday's rain hadn't dissipated, making the field feel like a sauna. In just fifteen minutes, their clothes were soaked with sweat and clung to their bodies.

Back home, Xingbao threw off his straw hat, ran quickly to the tea barrel, poured two bowls of cool tea, and secretly added a little spiritual spring water to each bowl. He picked up one bowl and drank it first. Guixiang also ran over, picked up the other bowl, and drank it all in one gulp. After finishing, she wiped her mouth with satisfaction.

Just then, Xingbao suddenly remembered something—the jar of spiritual spring water he had used to soak herbs in his space the day before yesterday should already have a faint medicinal smell by now. He thought to himself: later, I'll find those five small bottles, fill them with the medicinal water, and give them to my father so he can decide how to distribute them and help the family members improve their health.

Before long, it was lunchtime. Captain Li, along with the other five members of the wolf-hunting team, came to the mess hall to invite Dad and the eight young men from the village who had joined the team to eat together. Three of these eight were notorious idlers and hooligans in the village, and the rest often hung out with them. Now that they were willing to join the wolf-hunting team and learn to make a living honestly, this was exactly what everyone in the village wanted to see—it provided more strength to protect the village and also guided these young men onto the right path. As for the other twenty-odd young men who were only there for training and hadn't yet joined the wolf-hunting team, they weren't specially invited.

At the dinner table, Captain Li chatted warmly with everyone, discussing the training plan and inquiring about the village's situation. Dad occasionally chimed in, creating a particularly harmonious atmosphere. Even the usual rascals put away their nonchalant attitude and listened attentively, clearly genuinely wanting to do a good job.

After lunch, everyone in the family was busy cleaning up the dishes or going back to their rooms for a nap. Xingbao took the opportunity to sneak back to his room, lay on the bed, and used the nap as a pretext to enter the space again. Looking at the crops planted haphazardly in the space—a few fruit trees here, a patch of vegetables there—Xingbao felt it was time to plan things out properly.

He carefully considered his options: he didn't need many fruit trees, just one of each kind, choosing common ones like apples, pears, and peaches; the same went for vegetables, since they already had common ones like cabbage, radishes, and bok choy, so he could plant a little of each to feed his family. He would reserve some of the remaining land for planting rare medicinal herbs, and divide the rest into three parts to cultivate sweet potatoes, potatoes, and rice—these three were staple foods, high-yielding, and filling crops, and cultivating them well would be of the greatest help to his family.

Having set the general direction, Xingbao further refined the zoning: each crop area was divided into three sub-areas. The first sub-area was a breeding zone irrigated entirely with spiritual spring water, specifically for cultivating high-quality seedlings; the second sub-area used a small amount of spiritual spring water mixed with external well water, serving as an area for accelerating growth and observing the effects; and the third sub-area used entirely with external water, to compare and test the effects of the spiritual spring water. After planning, he began transplanting scattered fruit trees and vegetables between the three large areas, both separating them and making the space look much neater.

Next, he carefully transplanted about ten potato seedlings into the potato breeding area, and then took out a plump sweet potato from the thatched hut to start a new seedling. As for rice, he couldn't cultivate it in his space for the time being, so he could only wait a few days to find an opportunity to go to his grandfather's rice paddy and pull a few back—he didn't dare use the rice from his family's fields. He wasn't an agricultural student, and who knew what variety of rice his family had? If he accidentally cultivated exceptionally high-quality rice, he wouldn't be able to explain its origin after achieving success, which would only cause trouble.

After finishing these tasks, Xingbao remembered the blood peach pits, so he planted two of the pits he had found in a corner of the orchard, planning to transplant one of them to his yard after they sprouted. Finally, he took five small porcelain bottles from the thatched hut, went outside to the jar for soaking herbs, carefully filled the bottles with the faintly medicinal spring water, and sealed them tightly, intending to give them to his father when he had time, so that his father could distribute them to the family to help them recover.

After everything was tidied up, Xingbao exited the space. When he opened his eyes, the bed beside him was empty—Guixiang had woken up sometime earlier and, instead of waking him as usual, had quietly gone out to play, saving him the trouble of explaining.

In the afternoon, Xingbao played with his friends at the door, occasionally glancing to see if his grandfather and uncle had taken their buckets and ladles out. Around dusk, he saw Brother Dashan, empty-handed and barefoot (something I've omitted earlier—most men and children in the village go barefoot in the summer, only wearing shoes when going up the mountain, walking long distances, or out of politeness!), preparing to leave the village. Xingbao thought to himself, "Brother Dashan caught a soft-shelled turtle in the river a while ago; he's probably going to catch one again." "Brother Dashan, are you catching soft-shelled turtles again today?"

Upon hearing this, Brother Dashan's face immediately darkened, and he waved his hand helplessly: "Where would there be so many turtles to catch! I'm going to water the rice paddies; the sun has been blazing these past few days, and the seedlings are short of water."

"Isn't your rice paddy in a crevice halfway up the mountain? It's inconvenient to get water from there. Don't you have to carry water up there?" Xingbao asked in confusion—the terrain halfway up the mountain is high, and he really couldn't think of where the water source would come from.

Brother Dashan's face showed a hint of pride as he raised his voice and said, "There's a spring on that mountain with a huge flow of water! It was your uncle who came up with the idea. He dug a small ditch along the crack in the rock, which just happens to bring the water from the spring into the rice paddies, so we don't have to carry water at all."

Xingbao's eyes lit up—wasn't this the perfect excuse to go to the mountains to find rice seedlings? He quickly stepped forward, tugging at Brother Shan's sleeve and pleading, "Brother Shan, take me to see that spring! I've never seen a spring in the mountains before!"

"That won't do!" Brother Dashan refused without even thinking. "There's a waterfall not far from the spring, and it's very windy there. You're too young; what if you get caught in the wind?"

Upon hearing about the waterfall, Xingbao's anticipation grew even stronger. He was determined not to give up. His eyes darted around, and he deliberately lowered his voice, "Brother Shan, please take me there! I promise I won't tell Guixiang there's a waterfall, otherwise... if Guixiang finds out, she'll definitely pester you to take her there every day."

Brother Dashan was at a loss, blaming himself for letting slip the waterfall information. He sighed helplessly, "Alright, alright, I give up! But it's a deal: you can't get close to the spring, and you can only look at the waterfall from afar on the riverbank."

Xingbao nodded quickly in agreement and followed Brother Dashan around the threshing ground, across the stone bridge, and along the tributary south of the dam into the mountains. They hadn't walked a mile when they heard a booming sound of water ahead, growing clearer and clearer. Brother Dashan pointed to the open riverbed covered in pebbles and cautioned, "The water's shallow up ahead. After we see the waterfall, I'll carry you across here. Don't wander off."

Turning another bend, Xingbao saw a massive torrent of water cascading down the mountainside, carving a deep ravine into the cliff face. The water, like a silver dragon, plunged into a small pool below with a deafening roar before flowing into the dammed river. The river, already weakened by the damming upstream, was revitalized by the waterfall, its flow becoming rapid and powerful.

Xingbao was so engrossed in watching that he only snapped out of his reverie when Dashan urged him on. As it was getting late, Dashan carried Xingbao across the shallow water and then pulled him up the hillside. Soon, a lush green rice paddy appeared before them—a field that his grandfather and uncle had painstakingly dug out from the cracks in the rocks over half a month. The seedlings were enough for two acres of paddy fields, and now, with water drawn from the spring, it was indeed an ideal place for raising rice seedlings.

Brother Dashan skillfully opened the gap in the ditch, letting the water flow into the rice paddy. He then pulled a water ladle from the grass and watered the seedlings. Xingbao looked at the seedlings, which were only a dozen centimeters tall and hadn't yet started to separate, and secretly planned to take advantage of Brother Dashan's inattention to gently pull out about ten seedlings from the ones that had just been watered and plant them in the breeding area of ​​the space. This way, new seedlings could be cultivated in late July and transplanted to the experimental plot in front of the door, without missing the planting season (in Hunan, the transplanting time for early rice is no later than May 1st, and for late rice, no later than August 1st).

Looking at the rice seedlings in the space, Xingbao was secretly pleased—his breeding plan had finally officially begun.