Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.
\n
Chapter 12: Spirit Spring\n“Fifth, are you going to wash and clean your clothes? Don’t go, wait for Grandmother to finish washing them! Want to rest?”\n
When Grandmother Li Ciying saw that Bailian was holding a basin of dirty laundry and preparing to head out, she hurriedly rushed to take the basin out of Bailian’s hands.\n
Bailian dodged Grandmother Li Ciying’s attempt to grab the basin, and good-naturedly grinned, “It’s okay, I’m perfectly fine! I’ll just go and do some laundry.”\n
Indeed, Bailian had mostly already recovered and had been restlessly waiting for a chance to go out, find a deserted area and inspect her dimensional space. There were just too many bodies moving about in the Third Branch’s rooms ah!\n
“But…” Grandmother Li Ciying frowned a bit, and carefully examined the scabbing wound on Bailian’s forehead.\n
The wound had already started scabbing, but just how could it regenerate and heal so fast after all that blood loss from yesterday?\n
“It’s fine, I’m really alright.” Bailian kindly beamed with a wide smile. Holding a basin full of dirty laundry, she playfully skirted her Grandmother’s worried hands and headed outside.\n
“Fifth, Mother will wash these for you!” Madam Zhao, even with her big belly, had come to stop Bailian.\n
Madam Zhao was worried that yesterday’s events would cause others to make fun and gossip about her daughter. She understood her daughter’s personality very well. Bailian was a very well-behaved and sensitive child on the inside. She didn’t want her daughter to hear bad things and feel hurt.\n
“Mother, don’t go, you should be taking good care of your health.” Bailian firmly shook her head. Madam Zhao looked like she would give birth any day now, how could she let her do hard labor like doing the laundry?\n
Moreover, one would have to constantly crouch and bend over while washing the clothes in the cold shallows of the river. It would be very difficult for Madam Zhao to bend over in her state.\n
“Still….” Madam Zhao thought that the villagers would recognize Bailian and couldn’t bear let others rub salt on Bailian’s wound.\n
“Is everyone from the Third Branch dead?! Still not going out to do work? The food isn’t even ready yet! Do you want my scholar to go hungry ah?” A screechy voice yelled from the direction of the Main Branch’s rooms.\n
Madam Zhao’s body stiffened and she quickly replied, “Matriarch, I’ll go cook the food right away!”\n
“No Mother! Let me go instead!” Bailian patted Madam Zhao’s frail hands, took a calm glance at the direction of the main house, and then trodded out the room, holding a basin of unwashed clothes.\n
It wasn’t the right time to enact her plan just yet, so it was best if she went to scout the situation herself! Once she figured things out, she could meticulously come up with a foolproof plan for the matter of the Third Branch splitting in the future.\n
However, one would need an opportunity.\n
An opportunity for the Third Branch to personally choose and take a stand to separate from the family. \n
The people of the Third Branch implicitly knew that the Li Family was overly biased against them and carried some resentment in their hearts. However, over the years, their powerlessness and low status in the family had already been ingrained so deep into their hearts that they did not dare to entertain the idea of going against the Li Family.\n
In terms of family honor and wellbeing, people in this era believed that upholding and keeping family peace was more important than their own lives.\n
Following the original owner’s memory, Bailian walked for a while before a small stream came into view. It was very remote and in an obscure place surrounded by plenty of dense, burly vegetation and rocks.\n
The original owner had been very introverted and did not like to wash clothes with the other Madams of the village. When Madams gathered to wash clothes together, more often than not, it became a place for them to socialize and exchange gossip about other families. They loved to lecture and offer advice to the shy Bailian.\n
The Third Branch of the Li Family was infamous in the Wuming Village because it was the village’s only “concubine-born” family. Although the Third Branch was clearly written in the family’s genealogy records and Grandmother Li Ciying had married as the Secondary Equal wife, many still looked down upon the Third Branch.\n
After so many years, Matriarch Wang’s callous reminders and obvious discrimination towards the “concubine-born” family had unconsciously influenced the other villagers to adopt the same mindset.\n
Bailian set the heavy basin down, and went to find a Chinese Honey Locust tree, picked some of its thorns, and started to clean the dirty clothes.\n
The Honey Locust tree itself had natural detergent-like properties and was commonly used in medicine as an antibacterial ingredient. It could be used as soap when washing laundry and one wouldn’t need to worry if the clothes would be cleaned. After all, in ancient times, cooking oil was a precious and rare ingredient. Clothes rarely had oil stains, so you could just wash the fabric with some freshwater and thorns from the Honey Locust tree. Next, one would just need to hang the clothes and let it air dry. \n
Bailian casually scrubbed and rinsed the clothes rather quickly. Although Bailian’s body was very thin, she felt much better after eating the nourishing dragon fruit yesterday, so she finished doing the laundry in half the time the original owner would have taken.\n
What’s more, the clothes she was washing were all those of the Li Family. Bailian didn’t feel the need to be so meticulous and careful in her work, merely adding some honey locust thorns and then bleaching the clothes again. Bailian wasn’t afraid of others discovering her lazy handiwork as the Li Family changed their clothes very frequently, almost every day. Most importantly, since they didn’t work or do the chores in the family, they wouldn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.\n
As a result, the clothes in the laundry weren’t even dirty, but the LI Family prided themselves on maintaining a fresh, scholarly air and frequently changed clothes.\n
Besides….they didn’t need to worry about the laundry, there was always the Third Branch doing the work.\n
As she was washing, Bailian beat the clothes even harder wanting to go and beat up the Li Family right now. But, it wasn’t the right time yet! Otherwise, if she caused a ruckus now, she would probably be killed and burned to the stake by the Li Family!\n
After bleaching the clothes with one more round of detergent from the honey locust tree, she wrung the water out of the clothes and set it down into the basin. She cautiously looked around and seeing that the surrounding areas were quiet, mentally thinking of her dimensional space, transporting into her space.\n
“Squeak, Squeak, Master~” Li Shu, seeing that his master had appeared, scampered down the chestnut tree and quickly climbed onto Bailian’s shoulder.\n
Bailian plunked the basin on the ground and thoughtfully admired the space. The most conspicuous thing in the entire space was that floating waterfall. Under its cascading, foamy rapids, a river stream languidly flowed about, with many lotus flowers floating on the surface of the clear water.\n
LI Shu deftly nibbled a fresh chestnut open with his teeth and graciously handed it to Bailian, “Master, eat this!”\n
Bailian took the chestnut fragments from the cute, white mouse and looked at the meager, already bitten kernels offered to her. Her mouth twitched. This…shouldn’t be eaten!\n
It wasn’t that Bailian disliked chestnuts, but a mouse had already chewed on it!\n
Can you eat what a mouse has already pecked at?\n
Would there be a plague?\n
“You can have it, I’ll…just eat that red dragon fruit instead!” Bailian hastily refused and skipped towards the dragon fruit tree.\n
“Nibble, nibble~” Li Shu did not notice his Master’s disgust and happily chewed on the chestnut.\n
As soon as Bailian mentally wished for a verdant dragon fruit to be picked, one of the dragon fruits flew out from the tree and directly into Bailian’s hand.\n
Bailian curiously stared and examined the dragon fruit, entranced by what just had happened. She felt like she had discovered a new world! Looking up towards the plush green field in front of the small wooden cabin, she began to use her imagination.\n
The most miraculous thing occurred, the green field had been uprooted and the lush green grass had been moved to the other side of the wooden cabin.\n
After trying to move some more plots of grass, Bailian felt a wave of exhaustion pour over her before stopping to catch her breath. She had overused her mental energy, but only about one acre of land had been cleared out through her efforts.\n
“Li Shu, just where are the rest of your brothers?” Bailian clearly remembers that Li Shu had said that he had eleven brothers just as powerful as he was.\n
Hmmm…so far I haven’t really thought that Li Shu was all that powerful though.\n
“On the other side of the riverbank, the seals on my brothers have not been lifted yet. Just wait when they are lifted!” Li Shu looked at the opposite side of the river with expectant and proud eyes.\n
Bailian followed the mouse’s gaze, but could only see a dense, roiling fog. She could see nothing within that heavy and mysterious looking mist.\n
Bailian happily ate the dragon fruit and walked until she reached where the floating waterfall was. The water gurgled and eddied in many places, but the strangest thing was that it was very quiet, with no sounds of trickling water.\n
“Master, this is a spirit spring. It’s very good for mortals.” Li Shu lazily floated on his back, paddling around in the crystalline water with a very comfortable, relaxed expression.\n
The corners of Bailian’s mouth turned up slightly. She almost wanted to laugh at Li Shu, whose fluffy body had become very thin after entering the water. He was quite literally a drowned rat ah!\n
Bailian traced the surface of the water and plunged her hand into the spirit spring. Cupping a handful of its luminous water, she took a tiny sip. It tasted very sweet and fresh, and she could feel that her mental power was slowly being replenished after being drained by her using it to move grass earlier. \n
She eyeballed the wondrous waterfall, feeling inwardly amazed. Behind the cascading curtain of the waterfall, milky, white water vapor hovered all around the waterfall. The murkiness of the mist veiled the back of the waterfall, creating a water film that distort one’s view. The entire pool under the waterfall was surrounded by this ethereal mist. It really looked like those immortal’s garden in the legends!\n