Madam Wang's eyelids peeled open a sliver.
"Go, get a spiritual peach from your mother, and I'll tell you."
A Jiu's lips twitched. "You've eaten so many, you must be stuffed. Still want more?"
As she spoke, A Jiu didn't hold back. She got up and rummaged in the basket, grabbing two peaches and stuffing them into her embrace. She then took one and handed it to Aunt Wu.
"Thank you, girl. You're the best person I've ever met. When I'm better, I won't be a burden to your family anymore."
As she stood up, she noticed the rolled-away Madam Wu watching her with wide eyes.
Her gaze then dropped to the basket.
A Jiu could see clearly that if her legs and feet were good, she would have stolen them long ago.
"Here, tell me, Grandma," A Jiu said, placing the peach into Madam Wang's hand.
She sat down and took a bite of the peach. "Hmm, it's quite good. Picked last night and left for a day and a night, it's even sweeter now."
"This is simple," Madam Wang replied, opening her eyes and ceasing her meditation. She took a bite of the peach and said mysteriously,
"All things have spirits. Without a spirit, they cannot survive. Take that tree, for instance. It absorbs the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to grow. The only difference is that plants have a life spirit, but animals have not only a life spirit but also a soul..."
"Grandma," A Jiu said, looking at Madam Wang with distress. "Can you say something I can understand?"
"Fine, fine. Let me put it plainly. That snake not only has a life spirit but also a soul. It already possesses the three souls and seven spirits of a human. If I weren't in my current state, I would have captured it to nourish my body."
A Jiu chewed the peach with suspicion.
She didn't understand the rest, but when it came to having the three souls and seven spirits of a human, that meant it was as intelligent as Aunt Wu had said.
"Grandma, so you mean that snake didn't eat our hawk meat because it knew we had nothing to eat?" A Jiu asked with a foolish smile.
"There's some truth to that. I'm already afraid of you, let alone a hundred-year-old mystical snake."
Madam Wang's face contorted as she recalled the incident.
The secret of the spiritual energy A Jiu possessed meant that even she herself had to obey. Ah... her liver hurt.
If she could complete her heavenly cycle, activate the functioning of her internal organs, and open her own small universe, she could connect with heaven and earth. Would she fear a mere snake?
She would capture it, crush it, and eat its gall. How nourishing that would be.
"A hundred years? And it's only this small?"
"How big do you want it to be? Pigs grow big, but can they possess sentience? That only means this snake has been cultivating its spirit, not its physical body. You wouldn't understand."
Madam Wang finished the last bite with a crunch and tucked the peach pit into her embrace.
"Grandma? You... plan to keep it to eat the pit when you're hungry later? That thing is harder to chew than the peach tree itself."
A Jiu kindly reminded her.
"I intend to plant it myself, so I don't have to look at your face every time I want a taste of your good things."
Madam Wang snorted and soon began to form hand seals and meditate with her eyes closed.
"Hey, Grandma, you've reminded me," A Jiu said, looking at the peach, which had been gnawed down to the pit. If she kept it, wouldn't it multiply a hundredfold, a thousandfold, a millionfold?
No, she had to keep it too.
A Jiu ate heartily, and soon the peach pit was clean.
To preserve it, she placed it on a rock to dry.
Evening had fallen. The night was pitch black, the opposite of yesterday's full moon.
To avoid attracting attention, both families could only light a bonfire in a cave, thankfully shielded by a bamboo forest.
When A Jiu entered, she was stunned. The cave was indeed large, but the crevices in the cave rocks were hung with numerous snake skins.
The sight of a snake skin as thick as a bowl's rim startled her greatly.
"A Jiu, quickly help your mother sort the snake molts. These are rare wild medicinal ingredients for dietary therapy."
A Jiu stared, dumbfounded. Her mother had already gathered a large pile of snake skins slung over her arm.