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

As Ya Ya listened, her eyes grew brighter and brighter, and she felt a surge of excitement. Seeds!

The village's vegetable gardens were all destroyed, and everyone was eating wild vegetables every day. The only seeds they had were the wheat seeds they had saved. Grandma Liu said that she would have to wait until the road was repaired before she could go out to buy seeds, but now they were actually selling them here!

With seeds, we can grow a lush green vegetable patch in the future, and we'll never have to worry about going hungry when we can't find wild vegetables again. We can also change up our diet.

"Do you want to buy seeds?" The proprietress asked, a little curious as she saw the girl's excited expression.

Ya Ya nodded like a chick pecking at rice. "Auntie, I want to buy some! The vegetable fields in our village were destroyed by the mudslide, and we don't have any vegetable seeds. I want to buy more seeds to take back to my grandparents."

Upon hearing this, the proprietress felt a lump in her throat. "How much land do you have in your village? What kinds of vegetables do you want to grow?"

Ya Ya scratched her head; she didn't know either.

"There are 21 people in our village, all of them are grandparents. The uncles have all been taken away. The vegetable garden at the entrance of our village and behind the old lady's house has been destroyed."

The landlady was a bit confused by what she heard, but she could glean some useful information: their village was small, with only 21 people. Were the able-bodied men taken away? Perhaps they went to work in the south; the children wouldn't understand. If it were human traffickers, there was no way they wouldn't have heard anything from the entire village.

Alas, they are also pitiful left-behind children.

The old man and woman wouldn't be farming too much, she thought, and went to the store to find a few packets of seeds: "Auntie will pick out some that grow fast and are easy to grow for you: bok choy, Chinese cabbage, white radish, and corn. Take them home and plant them first. If you have any more space, come back to Auntie and she'll recommend some others."

After saying that, she took out a few sheets of paper with instructions on planting different seeds, neatly folded them, and handed them to Ya Ya: "These are the methods for planting seeds. Take them back and show them to your grandparents. Just plant them according to these instructions."

"Vegetable seeds are one yuan a pack, radish seeds are nine yuan and ninety cents a pack, and glutinous corn seeds are also nine yuan and ninety cents. Give me twenty yuan for all of them."

The auntie generously rounded down the price for Ya Ya.

Ya Ya rummaged around for a while and found there were no more 10-yuan bills left, so she was given a red bill instead.

Then I neatly arranged the paper and loose change the proprietress had given me, carefully stuffed them back into the small bag, and tied it with a string.

"Thank you, Auntie. I'll bring some for you to try when the vegetables grow!"

"Okay, Auntie is looking forward to eating the vegetables you grew. Drive carefully on the road, don't fall, and push the cart steadily."

Ya Ya nodded vigorously and pushed the stroller further inside. She had plenty of time to shop today.

Behind that was a stall selling miscellaneous goods, including pots and pans, needles and thread, and all sorts of odds and ends.

As Ya Ya walked, she saw a stall in front of her surrounded by a lot of people. She quickly walked over. The stall was covered with a large plastic sheet, on which were piled many black, cylindrical things, as well as some shiny, round silver rings. Various decorations, small square and cylindrical things of various colors were hanging below.

She didn't recognize any of them.

The stall owner, wearing a black cotton-padded coat, sat on a small stool opposite, scrolling through his phone, with a sign next to him that read: "Large-scale clearance of prohibited items in the scenic area."

Then I saw an uncle pick up a black tube, press his finger on it, and a beam of light shone straight out of the tube. He pressed it again and the light disappeared.

The other uncles were picking out the small rectangular object. One of them picked one with a car pattern printed on it, and then pressed it on top of the square object, and a small flame shot up.

Ya Ya's eyes lit up instantly!

She carefully slipped into the crowd, reached out her little hand, gently picked up an identical black tube, and, imitating the uncle, found a small protrusion on the tube and pressed it lightly with her finger.

A beam of light immediately shot out from the front of the black tube.

With a gentle wave of her little hand, Ya Ya caused the light to sway back and forth. She pointed the tube at the ground, and a round spot of light appeared on the ground.

This is good.

It can emit light, so it can be used at night without having to fumble in the dark to light a torch in the stove.

If Grandpa Village Chief and Uncle Zhao have something to do at night, they won't have to walk in the dark anymore.

She reached through the gap between the adults in front of her and pulled out a rectangular, transparent object. She pressed it like they did, and with a snap, a warm little flame emerged from the top of the object.

"Hey, little kid, don't play with the lighter, you might burn someone's clothes!" The stall owner had just stood up to stretch his legs when he saw a little kid squatting behind the crowd, playing with a lighter.

Quickly speak up to remind them.

Startled, Ya Ya pulled her hand back, and the flame went out with a snap. Her face flushed, and she apologized to the stall owner in a soft voice, "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to."

Seeing that she was dressed neatly and looked well-behaved, the stall owner couldn't bring himself to be harsh. He simply said gently, "Children shouldn't touch this. It's dangerous. You could burn your hands or even yourself."

Ya Ya nodded vigorously, then turned her attention back to the glowing black tube she was holding in her other hand: "Uncle, what's this... glowing thing called? How much does it cost?"

Seeing that she was reluctant to put it down, the stall owner smiled and said, "This is a flashlight, made of lithium batteries, it's durable, five yuan each."

Five yuan, two for ten yuan, four for twenty yuan, I can afford it.

After Ya Ya finished calculating, she exclaimed, "Uncle, I want four!"

"And this one can shoot fire, how much does it cost?"

"Children shouldn't play with lighters," the stall owner reminded them earnestly again.

"I bought it for my grandparents. They always have a hard time lighting firewood," Ya Ya explained in a low voice. She already knew that children shouldn't touch things randomly, but this looked really convenient; a light press would produce a small flame.

"The windproof ones are two yuan each, and the regular ones are one yuan for two. The ones you have are regular ones, how many do you want?" After hearing the child's explanation, the stall owner felt a little relieved, seeing that she was an obedient child who didn't seem like she would lie.

"Ten of them!" Ya Ya's wallet was bulging; they were cheap, so she bought a few more.

The stall owner didn't let Ya Ya choose herself because there were too many people at the stall. She picked out nine items, plus three flashlights, and put them all in a small bag.

"Twenty-five."

Ya Ya didn't even look at the colors or patterns; she just happily took the small plastic bag, put her own bag in, and readily paid the money.

The stall owner was even more relieved to see that she didn't care about the style. He figured it was probably for an adult; if she were playing with it herself, she would definitely choose a pattern she liked.

Ya Ya slowly squeezed out of the crowd, while the little car remained in the same spot.

She put the small bag into the cart, looked at the still steaming corn, thought for a moment, moved the meat over, put the corn next to the meat, and put the flashlight and other items in a corner separately.

She didn't know that lighters could explode if they overheated; she just thought that these things should be padded with soft flesh so that they wouldn't get bumped or knocked over.