Chapter 7

Wang Rouhua asked the guard on the imperial city wall to keep an eye on Tie Xinyuan, then hurriedly went to Horse Street.

Today’s task was heavy; the family needed to buy a water jar and a rice jar.

In recent days, the price of grain in the capital had suddenly dropped, and it was very cheap. She decided to buy more.

Having food at home brings peace of mind.

This was what her seventh brother had taught her. He once said that among clothing, food, shelter, and travel, eating should be the top priority. As for clothes, as long as one’s stomach is full, even wrapping oneself in tree leaves can sustain life.

When her seventh brother was forging iron, he wore nothing but a pair of short pants.

In the blazing blacksmith shop, it was often just the two of them. Every hammer blow from her seventh brother sent sparks flying, and the iron on the anvil would flicker. The sparks would bounce off his oily, muscular chest and fall to the ground.

He was a strong man, seemingly capable of carrying a mountain...

Wang Rouhua shook her head, sniffled, and looked at her son babbling in the bathtub. She wiped her damp eyes, tied a handkerchief around her nose, and joined the crowd outside.

Living and dead people traveled on this bustling road, but one walked while the other was carried on a cart.

An epidemic had broken out...

This was why the price of grain had dropped. The streets leading out of the city were crowded, but the shops in the city were deserted.

Anyone who still had food at home would never go out onto the streets, fearing they might catch the deadly aura.

A chicken cart could be bought for five coins, which was a great deal. The shop selling water jars was empty.

Wang Rouhua shouted several times, but no one came to serve her. When she entered the shop, she saw a pair of black and white merchant shoes lying outside the inner room’s threshold.

Wang Rouhua was shocked and quickly retreated.

After regaining her composure on the empty street, she returned to the shop, rolled out a large black jar, and tied it to the chicken cart with great effort. Seeing no one around, she went back in and carried out two large grain jars.

Before leaving, she placed ten coins on the counter.

After pushing the chicken cart for a hundred steps, she turned back, took six coins from the ten, and whispered to the shopkeeper lying in the inner room, “I forgot to haggle...”

Tie Xinyuan, trapped in the bathtub, envied how the little fox could jump in and out of the bathtub and play to his heart’s content.

Ever since the little fox urinated in the bathtub, Tie Xinyuan had made it so the fox wouldn’t dare urinate near the house. Whenever Wang Rouhua wasn’t around, Tie Xinyuan would grab the little fox and talk to it.

Today, Tie Xinyuan wanted to explore. He pushed the mat in the bathtub to one side, used it as a stepping stone, and climbed out.

After falling flat on his back, he was helped to his feet by the little fox and began his first journey in this world, leaning against the city wall.

The base of the imperial city wall was covered in moss and fallen leaves. After taking just a few steps, Tie Xinyuan realized his legs were not yet strong enough for such a journey.

He plopped down on the ground, leaned against the wall, and gazed at the distant street.

Since his legs couldn’t take him far, he decided to use his eyes to explore this new world.

The little fox brought a mushroom from somewhere and dropped it next to Tie Xinyuan. He picked it up and examined it. It was a rare straw mushroom.

The little fox, seeing Tie Xinyuan pick up the mushroom, jumped around excitedly, ran a few steps ahead, and then came back to tug at his pants.

Tie Xinyuan stood up, leaning against the wall, and followed the fox, stumbling along.

After taking another dozen steps, he saw a large patch of straw mushrooms, or rather, a large patch of mushrooms.

The mushroom patch was split in two by a stream of clear water, and occasionally, broken lotus leaves could be seen floating out of the water outlet. This stream was undoubtedly the outlet for the wastewater from the imperial lotus pond.

Tie Xinyuan lay on the ground to collect the mushrooms.

Collecting mushrooms was a delicate task. He didn’t know if the mushrooms in the Song Dynasty were different from those in the future, but he was certain that he wouldn’t eat any of these mushrooms until someone else had tried them.

The domestication of wild mushrooms was essentially a process of detoxification. Many mushrooms that people ate in the future were actually poisonous, but they had been detoxified through long-term cultivation.

Who knew if the straw mushrooms in the Song Dynasty were poisonous.

Tie Xinyuan wasn’t sure if the straw mushrooms were poisonous, but he was certain that the bright red mushrooms in front of him were toxic. He couldn’t understand why the deadly fly agaric, which grew in the far north, would be found at the outlet of the imperial lotus pond.

In the future, people in Northeast China used this mushroom to poison flies by crushing it and mixing it with leftover rice. Its strong toxicity was its most significant benefit.

The most interesting thing was that consuming a small amount of this mushroom could induce hallucinations. He had heard that before performing rituals, the Tungus shamans would eat this mushroom to force themselves into a divine state, though he wasn’t sure if it was true.

Tie Xinyuan felt he couldn’t let such a good thing go.

As for whether there were more of these mushrooms in the palace or if someone had been poisoned or hallucinated from them, he didn’t care.

It was normal for strange things and events to occur in the palace.

Soon, Tie Xinyuan realized that he was like a bear picking corn, as the task of collecting toxic plants was too delicate for his small, undeveloped hands.

Looking at the sun, Tie Xinyuan felt that his mother was about to return, so he decided to end his journey.

Although he crawled back, he was in high spirits. People said that within ten steps, there must be fragrant grass, and today, he had indeed proven this true.

Living next to the royal family was indeed a good thing. Just look at them; even by the sewer, there were essential items for travel and daily life.

Tie Xinyuan believed that as long as he kept his eyes open and waited carefully, he would gain countless benefits from this vast palace...

The guard on the city wall watched worriedly as a child in green clothes crawled along, laughing strangely, but he didn’t dare shout loudly for fear of scaring the child.

When the child placed something under his feet and fell headfirst into the bathtub, the guards watching finally breathed a sigh of relief.

When Wang Rouhua returned with the heavy chicken cart, she first checked on her precious child. Seeing him and the little fox sleeping soundly together, her tense heart relaxed.

The child was covered in mud, clearly the work of the fox. Anger rising, Wang Rouhua pulled the little fox out of the bathtub and threw it far away to the base of the city wall.

The little fox flipped in the air, landed on all fours, and called out in distress, then lay on a pile of dry earth, watching Wang Rouhua carry things into the house.

Wang Rouhua first moved the grain into the house, then found some stones to prop up the branches under the large jars and jars to prepare for a fire.

A big fire could burn away all impurities, as her seventh brother had said long ago.

The sweet water well was nearby, and Wang Rouhua filled the water jar and the large jars with water, then lit a fire to boil the water. Tie Xinyuan had woken up and was watching his mother from the edge of the bathtub.

To avoid passing the disease to her son, Wang Rouhua decided not to touch him until she had thoroughly washed herself.

As the sun set, the water, which had taken a lot of firewood to boil, gradually cooled. Wang Rouhua poured it into the bathtub and bathed in the low, dark house...

After thoroughly washing herself, Wang Rouhua drained the water, refilled the bathtub, and washed Tie Xinyuan. Only when both mother and son were very clean did she frown and look at the fox cowering in the corner...

A guard on the city wall threw a pear to Wang Rouhua. She cut it into small pieces and fed it to Tie Xinyuan bit by bit.

However, she carefully buried the pear core in a sunny spot. A woman from a farming family knew that pears were delicious, and with the core, planting the seeds would yield endless pears in a few years. For crops and fruit trees, a farmer’s wife had the patience to wait for them to grow.

"Peaches in three years, apricots in four, pears in five."

"In five years, Yuan will have endless pears to eat."

"Ya ya, you’re a greedy child."

"You can’t keep drinking milk, can you? You already have two teeth, aren’t you ashamed?"

Wang Rouhua held Tie Xinyuan in her dim house, looking at the dim light of the oil lamp, contentedly teasing the child. The fox curled up under the small bed, half-closed its eyes, and secretly watched a small piece of cured meat hanging from the ceiling.

With this house, Wang Rouhua had the confidence to raise her child to adulthood. Although the family’s money had been halved, what could she, a widow, ask for in such a great disaster?

In her youth, she had enjoyed wealth and honor, but when the smoke cleared, everyone went their separate ways. Whether it was parental love, marital affection, or sibling loyalty, none could withstand the slightest lie. It was better not to think about such a world.

Her seventh brother had fished her out of the water and sent her back into the water. Was everything predestined?

Thinking of her seventh brother, Wang Rouhua puffed out her chest, feeling a sense of achievement as she looked at her plump son.

On their wedding night, her seventh brother spat into the sky and laughed, "What nonsense about a barren fate? I don’t believe it!"

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