Lingsu politely declined the goodwill from the clan.
The autumn harvest had failed this year, and the two great-uncles' families from her own branch could already be considered to have it good. Plus, since they were within five degrees of kinship, taking things from those two households wasn't a big problem to Lingsu. But most of the clan was truly struggling—how could she accept the food they'd saved by cutting back themselves?
Their family wasn't at that point yet.
Once they'd seen off both groups, Lingsu pulled a head of napa cabbage from their own vegetable plot: "How about we make vegetable porridge tonight, cook it a bit thicker? There are still two cakes left from what Granny Zuo sent. Later, we can heat them up and save them for Second Brother and Mom?"
Granny Zuo had brought six cakes; the three of them ate four, two were left.
But each cake was only palm-sized. Second Brother and Mom had to walk back and forth on muddy roads to town, and they needed to buy things too—they were bound to be starving.
Spirit Jade hadn't spoken yet when Qixun said, "Let's cook vegetable rice instead. I'm afraid even a whole cake won't be enough for Second Brother."
Lingsu considered it: "That works too. Our Little Xun knows how to care about others now."
What a thing to say.
Qixun froze for a moment, but to be fair, she actually had been kind of careless before.
Afraid Third Sister would notice her change, she shifted the topic, a little guilty: "Sis, Little Five, why do you both look unhappy today? Worried about home? Actually, there's no need. It's not like we don't have a place to stay now. Soon, I'll find a way to earn us some silver for the family—I definitely won't let you go hungry."
Lingsu and Spirit Jade couldn't help but laugh at her.
Lingsu said: "You're still so little, and already talking about earning silver? Don't worry, with your Second Brother, Mom, and me here, you and Little Five just take care of yourselves."
That's what she said, but Lingsu was thinking, last night she'd inexplicably remembered her past life. If she were still the twelve-year-old girl she'd been yesterday, maybe she really would have to worry about their days ahead.
With the memories from her past life, she had panicked at first, but after most of a day, she'd already adapted.
Though she'd died young—only sixteen—in her past life, she was a renowned Divine Doctor in the Jianghu. She also knew martial arts. Even if she had to start over in this life, regaining her skills wasn't a big deal. As for medicine, aside from acupuncture, there wasn't really any need to relearn the rest. Someone like her—how could she be afraid of not supporting her family?
She was no longer the orphan of her past life.
Back then, when she saw no meaning in life and ended it, she hadn't really felt any regrets. But in this life, as Lingsu of the Yan Family with parents and siblings, she had responsibilities here.
Maybe heaven pitied her loneliness in her past life and gave her this family now.
This time, she would live well, as the person she once hoped to be.
Someone like Qixun easily forgot what didn't interest her, rarely leaving a trace in her mind, but she had an animal-like intuition, so she sensed Lingsu's hidden sadness almost instantly.
"Sis, are you sad?"
Lingsu's eyes instantly reddened at the question. She rubbed Qixun's head but smiled brightly: "No, Sis is very happy to have you all."
The words sounded odd, and Qixun gave her a confused look.
To be honest, she'd never really understood other people's emotions. Her little uncle's favorite phrase was, "Our Yan Xiaosong is a total blockhead."
Qixun totally disagreed with her little uncle's judgment. First of all, she wasn't a coward, and second, she thought she was emotionally rich inside.
It's just… sometimes she found other people's emotions too complicated, and she didn't want to waste her precious time analyzing them. Most of the time, she felt like other people's feelings had nothing to do with her.
But when it came to people she was close to, she was willing to spend some time caring.
Lingsu was actually charmed by her puzzled little look, patted Qixun on the head, and all the sorrow from her past life seemed instantly healed. She turned to Spirit Jade: "Little Five, you've been busy half the day too. Go play with Little Xun. I'll go wash the veggies down by the well and be right back."
Spirit Jade nodded gently at her words. Once Lingsu had taken the basket of vegetables to the well, she climbed up on the bed, but didn't say a word to Qixun, just sat leaning against the wall, zoning out.
Seeing her quiet, Qixun tried reaching out to her space.
All morning and afternoon, she'd been sensing for her supernatural space and could already feel its existence, but there always seemed to be some barrier keeping her out.
As long as it's still there, it's fine. She instinctively felt she'd be able to access the space eventually—it just needed time.
Her space was about three hundred mu, with three sets of connected buildings: one for experiments and work, one as a library, and one for storage.
The three buildings were modular units she'd bought in her previous life over more than twenty years and assembled herself, covering a huge area—about 1,300 square meters, around two mu of land.
The rest of the land was mostly planted with the fruits, vegetables, grains, medicinal herbs, and flowers she'd collected herself, plus some chickens, ducks, geese, and pigeons.
Outside of work in the previous life, she'd basically spent all her time in that space. With all that land, she was half an agriculture expert herself.
She had no idea how time passed in the space—after years between her death in her last life and being reborn, if time moved the same in there, the fields must be a total mess by now.
Hopefully, she could open the space soon.
As long as she could get in, daily life was absolutely no problem.
You know, all her valuables since childhood were kept in there. Just the gold, silver, jade, and jewelry alone was quite a lot.
Her little uncle doted on her and got her several sets of jewelry every year. Hanfu had been trendy back then—she received several sets of different dynastic costumes and accessories annually since she was little. She'd almost never actually worn them, but as for fur items, she never lacked those either.
As for daily necessities—she had practically everything.
She was thinking all this when Spirit Jade let out a long sigh beside her.
This girl isn't right, Qixun glanced at her.
Twin sisters especially picked up on each other's moods. If it were someone else, Qixun would've been too lazy to care, but her own twin sister was different.
Sensing she was really upset, Qixun's own mood dropped too: "Little Five?"
Spirit Jade forced a weak smile: "Fourth Sister, I'm fine, just… I had a dream last night, where I became another girl, and that girl's life wasn't very good. Remembering it made me a bit sad, that's all."
What the heck?
What does she mean, dreamt she became another girl?
Could she, like me, have awakened memories of a past life?
Qixun scratched her head. If Little Five's situation was like hers, judging from her mood, her past life probably hadn't been happy.
Otherwise, as her twin sister, she wouldn't feel this sudden heaviness in her chest.
Qixun couldn't help feeling a little distressed.
In her past life, she'd had no siblings; her little cousin came too late. She'd been a true genius, so she'd never even attended school with peers, let alone had siblings or friends of the same age.
Of course, she'd never had the time or need for friends, anyway.
But she'd never felt in her thirty-eight years that there was anything missing from her life.