"Fell down,"
A Jiu smiled and said, but now her father and mother doted on her, so the past didn't matter:
"I accidentally tripped. There were a lot of firewood and branches in the woodshed, and they pricked me. I thought it would heal later, but it never did, so I got this red spot."
"Then you have to be careful next time. It would be bad if you poked your eye." Tuoba Yan looked up at the sky—your cinnabar mole is like my home.
Her eyesight had indeed declined since then, but the spiritual spring water not only restored it to its original state but also gave her night vision.
"We're here, Sister A Jiu. I still need to go up the mountain tonight to find clues."
"Mm, be careful. Since the poisoned meat was deliberately placed, it means the enemy is in the dark and you are in the light."
A Jiu finished speaking and knocked on the wooden door.
"Jiu'er, you're back?" Cai Lihua's face was filled with joy as if she had found money. She quickly pulled her daughter close.
She saw Hai following Tuoba Yan.
"Xiao Yan, you're not staying here tonight, are you?" How obvious were those words?
"No, Auntie, I still have official duties." Tuoba Yan glanced at A Jiu, turned his horse, and said, "Giddy up!"
A Jiu could understand what her mother meant.
Before they could say anything more, her mother pulled her into the courtyard.
Meng Shaode was threshing wheat, which had spread across the entire courtyard.
"Jiu'er, look, the wheat grains are very plump." Cai Lihua quickly secured the wooden bar across the courtyard gate.
"Indeed, Jiu'er. Thanks to you this time, these grains can be ground into a hundred catties of flour." Meng Shaode kept threshing the wheat:
"Your mother roasted that young wheat with fire, and the peeled wheat kernels are delicious."
A Jiu smiled. No wonder her parents were so happy, working so hard so late at night.
"Jiu'er, you should go to sleep. Tomorrow morning, Mother will make you super sweet young wheat soup." Cai Lihua's mouth was wide open with joy as she looked at so much wheat being shelled.
The sound of grain being tidied up came from the courtyard. After the oil lamp was extinguished, A Jiu got up and went out.
She carefully lowered the wooden bar of the large wooden door, holding her breath, and quietly opened the door.
A Jiu looked around.
"Grandma?" she whispered, cupping her hands around her mouth to form a makeshift megaphone. Where was she? She hadn't seen her for days.
"What are you doing if you're not sleeping?"
A voice came from the roof.
A Jiu twisted her neck and took a few steps back before she could clearly see her grandmother sitting on the roof. Why had she moved her spot to the roof again?
"Grandma, hurry down. Jiu'er needs your help."
Wang Shi heard that this little girl finally had something to ask of her. She got up, chest out, and walked along the roof ridge to the gable wall, then leaped down.
A Jiu's heart skipped a beat: "Grandma, be careful."
"Don't worry about me. Tell me, what do you need my help with?" Wang Shi sat cross-legged on the roller stone at the door. The only reason he went to meditate on the roof ridge was that sitting at the door made him look like a guard dog.
"Can you heal my little earth dragon?" As she spoke, A Jiu took out the listless, coiled-up little earth dragon from her embrace.
"Whoa! Take it away." Wang Shi's condition changed, and he immediately retreated a good distance. He was truly bitten by a snake once and feared the well rope for ten years.
He looked closely and saw that the little thing was as limp as a noodle, its head barely able to lift:
"What's wrong with this thing?"
A Jiu explained the whole story.
"Why save a poisonous snake?" Wang Shi wished this thing would die and reincarnate soon. Moreover, he would rather save a dog than waste his spiritual power on it.
"It has immense merit and has saved countless people. If you save it, wouldn't that be even more beneficial than saving a person, which is said to be like building a seven-story pagoda? Besides... if you don't save it, I won't give you any spiritual spring water."
A Jiu tried both soft and hard tactics.
"Here we go again." Wang Shi gritted his teeth in anger. This was not how one asked for a favor: "It's not that I'm bragging, but I can heal people with this spiritual energy without any problem. You ask me to save a snake that hurt me, and then you threaten me. I'm very unhappy. Unless you give me six pouches of spiritual spring water every day, we won't discuss it."
"You save it first, and then I'll give it to you," A Jiu said through gritted teeth.
Well, this damned girl was playing hardball with him?
He gritted his teeth and stamped his foot:
"You... Why don't you trust me, you girl? Fine, fine, fine. Take it inside and don't let anyone else know."
Wang Shi turned his neck and entered the courtyard.
All the side rooms of the Niu family were occupied, leaving only the main hall quiet and empty.