"What's wrong, Grandma?"
Ajium scrambled on all fours up the steep slope and into the woods, instantly understanding.
"Haha, Grandma, yours didn't sprout."
It wasn't just a quick glance. Her own peach tree had grown a meter tall, and the watermelon vines sprawled several meters.
Looking at her grandmother's patch, oh my, apart from a pit that smelled of urine from the sun, there was nothing.
"You're still laughing?" Madam Wang's face was as dark as it had been the day she was bitten by the little earth dragon.
"I'm not laughing." Ajium covered her mouth with the watermelon rind in her hand, stifling her laughter.
"Tell me the truth, what's going on? Why do yours grow so big and round, and why haven't mine even sprouted?"
Madam Wang put on her grandmotherly air, pointing to her own plot, then to Ajium's seedlings.
It was as if the evidence was irrefutable, and Ajium had to provide an explanation.
Ajium looked at her grandmother. She could tell she was genuinely angry.
"I... I used spirit spring water, and you used urine. Can it be the same?"
Ajium realized it was true. She thought, even if it wasn't urine but plain water, there was no reason for it to grow so fast. It must be the spring water.
"Ah?" Madam Wang was a little unconvinced. She bent down and dug out the seeds she had planted with her bare hands.
She didn't care about the urine smell anymore. She brought them close to her nose and looked intently, finding that the seeds hadn't even cracked open.
"Aren't these spirit fruit seeds?" she muttered to herself.
But this child's seeds had grown so vigorously. Was the difference really this huge?
In the short time they were talking, the small yellow flowers on the watermelon vines were visibly blooming, and the tiny watermelons they supported were the size of a thumb's tip.
On the peach tree, over a meter tall, the flowers grew rapidly in the wind, and soon a few petals drifted down.
Madam Wang stomped her foot in anger and turned to leave.
Still a bit unwilling, she looked back. The girl was squatting in her own plot, admiringly touching the watermelon flowers.
"How about this, I'll make a deal with you." Madam Wang had given up, but she couldn't let her ideals be completely ruined. It was better to be pragmatic.
"Grandma, what deal?" Ajium knew her little old lady was upset, so she decided to go along with her.
"Give me at least a waterskin of spirit spring water every day, and I'll naturally make it rain all over the world."
Madam Wang walked away with her hands behind her back, huffing.
Ajium's smile vanished. Here we go again.
"Then why don't you do it."
"I don't have any spiritual energy. If you don't give me water, how can I make it rain?" Madam Wang was so angry she was puffing out her chest, though she had no beard to speak of.
"Grandma, so you mean I have to give you water, and then you can make water fall from the sky again?"
Ajium seemed to understand.
"Mom, Jiu'er, it's time to eat..." Cai Lihua's voice called from a distance.
"Grandma, you mean my water can also be planted? Just planted in the sky? And that's why it rains? But Grandma, you can't go to the sky."
Ajium rolled her eyes, sure she had figured it out.
"I... If I didn't think you were my own granddaughter, I'd crack you on the head with a single finger."
Saying that, she raised her hand to flick Ajium's forehead.
Ajium yelped, covered her head, and ran, "Mom, Grandma's going to hit me... Mom..."
Madam Wang's face darkened. This stupid girl, how could she be so dense?
When she followed Ajium back to where the carriage was, with her hands behind her back.
Cai Lihua had already served her daughter a bowl of soup, with two whole sparrows in it.
"Mother, you're old. If Ajium makes you unhappy, you don't have to hit her. You can hit me."
As soon as Cai Lihua said this, Madam Wang's face stretched out like the sole of a shoe.