The little one's purse connects the two worlds, turning a desolate village into a paradise.

Water celery grows quickly and will sprout again in a few days. As Grandma Liu pulls it up, she secretly memorizes its location.

"When we call the village chief over to collect the eggs later, we'll tell him to pick a lot to take back," she muttered. "That black chicken should be stewed too, with water celery, it'll make a delicious pot of soup."

"Even the stir-fried meat is crispy."

"Grandma, pick more for Auntie, and also for Uncle Manager and Sister Hemiao." Ya Ya stood far away, still supervising the work.

Grandma Liu picked two large handfuls and then stopped. She would have to soak them in salt water when she got home, otherwise there might be leeches in the stalks.

I also cut two bundles of cattails, tied them with straw rope, and carried them on my back.

Ya Ya also had two small bunches of water celery in her little basket. Her little face was tense, as if she was afraid that some insects would crawl out of the basket.

Having estimated that she had enough cattails, Granny Liu straightened up and shook the cattails off her shoulders.

The leaves were long, covering most of Grandma Liu's thin body.

She took Ya Ya's little hand and slowly walked back to the village.

Zhao Hu came down from the mountain in high spirits, carrying two fat rabbits in his hands. These two were even stronger than the last ones.

Unfortunately, he was injured when he fell into the trap and won't last much longer.

Ya Ya just happened to have bought some sauce, so she used the sauce from the chicken stir-fry to stir-fry the rabbit. Mmm, it's sure to be delicious.

Rabbit skin is also a valuable item; tanned skin can be used to make earmuffs, hand warmers, or sewn into clothing for warmth.

People in that area probably buy these things too, right?

The rabbit skins from the last hunt used up the last bit of saltpeter in his house. Now, Zhao Hu was squatting at the base of the old wall, scraping away the whitish frost from the cracks in the wall with a short blade.

It was saltpeter that had solidified over many years, white with a hint of grayish-yellow. When scraped, it would fall off in a flurry, leaving behind a series of scratches of varying depths on the stone wall, a dense mix of old and new.

These marks were not left by him alone.

In the past, many people in the village had come here to suffer from this kind of illness, but if they didn't eat this stuff, they would only lack strength, but if they ate it, it would be fatal.

He recalled that in the twelfth lunar month, Old Liu couldn't bear it any longer and felt weak all over, so he secretly chopped off some of the herbs and mixed them into the wild vegetable soup.

Within half an hour, he was rolling on the ground clutching his stomach, vomiting and having diarrhea.

He was later given strong ginger soup and wood ash water by the crowd, which barely saved his life, but he never regained his strength.

Thank goodness for my daughter...

Zhao Hu carried a small jar of saltpeter back into the yard, just as the village chief came over holding an egg.

He can't hatch this egg, so let's just boil it and eat it.

He tried everything—body heat, wood ash, folk methods—but he couldn't hold on any longer. It wasn't that the eggs were bad; it was that human incubation was no match for a mother hen.

When a hen is brooding, it maintains a stable body temperature, stays close to the nest, and frequently turns the eggs over—that's an innate skill.

No matter how hard people try to protect you, it's impossible to stay by your side for a single moment and maintain the exact same temperature.

The village chief gently put the egg down and let out a long sigh.

"Grandpa Village Chief!" Ya Ya's voice came from outside. The two turned around and saw Granny Liu carrying two large bundles of cattails on her back and two handfuls of water celery in her hands. Ya Ya was also carrying a small basket of emerald green vegetables as she walked into the yard.

"Wow, you found so much watercress?"

"My daughter found it, a huge pile. I've memorized the location. I'll go get some more later and take it to the morning market to sell," Grandma Liu said with a smile.

Ya Ya quietly raised her chin, a smile playing on her lips: "Grandpa Village Chief, Grandma also found a nest of duck eggs! Grandma said you should take those chicken eggs over there so the wild ducks can incubate them together."

"Really? There are brooding ducks?" The village chief's voice unconsciously rose.

This egg can finally be saved.

"Really? I even found two duck eggs here." Ya Ya said, wanting to check the eggs in the basket to prove it, but when she saw the green leaf, she didn't dare to reach out and grab it, afraid of catching that ugly and sticky bug.

The village chief couldn't wait any longer. He grabbed the eggs and stood up. "Grandma Liu, come on, take me there! I'll deliver the eggs right now!"

Grandma Liu still had the cattails on her back when Ya Ya saw her and tugged at the village chief's sleeve, "I'll take you there, I know the way. Grandma's tired, she's resting in the yard. I'll lead Grandpa Village Chief there!"

Ya Ya tugged at the village chief's sleeve and walked towards the river.

Before long, the village chief spotted a hidden nest in the grass with several duck eggs inside. A wild duck that had gone out to forage happened to come over, saw the eggs in its nest, and immediately raised its neck and quacked at the two of them.

The village chief quickly stopped and gently placed the egg in his hand into the duck's nest. "Don't be angry, don't be angry. I'm not taking your egg. I'm giving you one to help incubate. I'll bring you some small fish to eat later."

The wild duck tilted its head and looked at it, then quacked twice as if it understood, before slowly returning to its nest and gathering its eggs under its body.

The village chief, with his shallow eyes, was a little teary-eyed; there was hope for raising chickens in the village…

Once Ya Ya saw that the eggs were placed properly, she took the village chief's hand and walked to the back.

"Grandpa Village Chief, there's a lot of water celery here, could you help me pick some?"

"Okay, okay, I'll listen to Ya Ya and pick more."

The village chief was happily bending down to pick vegetables, while Ya Ya stood by to supervise, saying, "There are small bugs, Grandpa Village Chief, you should be careful."

After picking two large bundles, we slowly started to walk back.

When they returned to the courtyard, the villagers who had gone up into the mountains also came down one after another.

Everyone gained something.

Some carried half a basket of shepherd's purse, but there were no mushrooms to be seen today.

Several baskets were filled with bamboo shoots, their husks a brownish-red with a hint of green, covered in damp mud.

Just a few days later, the spring rain softened the soil, and the bamboo shoots burst out all at once, hiding under fallen leaves and beside tree roots, each one showing its pointed head.

"I reckon we can pick the fragrant spring flowers next week," Granny Li said to the village chief, carrying her basket.

On the stove, in front of Aunt Lin, there was a black chicken stewing in a pot. Her eyes lit up when she saw the water celery and bamboo shoots, thinking that she could add some in later.

The rabbits hunted by Zhao Hu can also be stir-fried with bamboo shoots.