A Leisurely and Extravagant Life - Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Blossoming Peach and Plum in the Snow

“Is Tianwang asleep?” Xiao Chunxiu asked Luo Baolin, who had just come out of Luo Tianwang’s room.

Luo Baolin nodded. “He’s asleep. This child—don’t be fooled into thinking he acts carefree. He actually keeps everything in his heart. He’s grown sensible.”

“Zhengjiang and his wife also have no choice. With Hongmei heavily pregnant, it really isn’t safe for her to come back now. They’ll wait until after the baby is born.” Xiao Chunxiu understood the difficulties her son and daughter-in-law were facing.

“But Tianwang has been longing for his parents’ return for a whole year. Now the New Year is nearly here, and they still aren’t coming back. Sigh…” Luo Baolin let out a heavy sigh.

In the faraway city, not every corner was bustling and prosperous. The places where outsiders like Luo Zhengjiang and Zeng Hongmei lived were far from bright or comfortable. They stayed in a makeshift shed at a construction site.

When they had first arrived early that year, Luo Zhengjiang had worked for a boss who appreciated his diligence. The boss entrusted him with a few small projects, allowing him to become a small subcontractor.

From then on, Luo Zhengjiang gathered a group of fellow villagers to take on jobs at the construction site. Zeng Hongmei cooked for the crew and, before her pregnancy, had even helped with labor. Once she discovered she was expecting, she stopped working on-site.

With only a dozen or so workers under him, Zhengjiang couldn’t take on big projects, so the year’s earnings were modest—just a little better than before when he and his wife worked for others. His plan was to secure a bigger project over the New Year, bring more men from the village, and really get things rolling after the holiday. Opportunities abounded in the southern cities, and he was determined to seize them.

“Zhengjiang, I wonder how Tianwang is doing. Honestly, we really ought to go home once.” Zeng Hongmei said.

“Father said Tianwang is mostly fine now. Of course I want to go back. But with your big belly, the road isn’t safe. What if the crowds in the buses bump into you? Besides, I need to use this time to build good ties with Boss Xiao and his people. As long as I can get a few projects from them next year, we’ll be set. You can also tell your Zeng family relatives to come work with me next year. I’ll give them a good wage.” Luo Zhengjiang was constantly calculating his business prospects.

Being a subcontractor was a prestigious title in those days—it meant money. With this new title, Zeng Hongmei, as the subcontractor’s wife, enjoyed some reflected status.

“Fine, but I’ll tell you this—once I’ve given birth, I’m going back home. I haven’t seen Tianwang in so long. Who knows if he’s grown taller?” At the thought of her son, Hongmei’s eyes reddened.

“Woman, don’t be so weak! If we make money, we can buy a house here and bring Tianwang over. Isn’t that better than staying in Hemawan? When he grows up, he’ll have to come here to work anyway. If we had come earlier, we’d already be like Boss Xiao and his lot. Don’t look up to him driving a car now—just a few years ago, he was like us.” Zhengjiang said.

“Buy a house in the city? Bring Tianwang here?” The idea shocked Zeng Hongmei.

The construction site was quiet at night, with only the wind howling and rattling the tin roof above their shed.

***

By the next morning, Hemawan was draped in a silver-white blanket. Children woke excitedly, rushing out to stamp fresh footprints into the untouched snow.

Luo Tianwang opened his eyes. The light outside was dazzling, and the world seemed different.

The little sparrow chirped joyfully on the window ledge, hopping about. It seemed especially lively today. Outside, the peach and plum trees were dusted with frost. Tianwang hurriedly dressed and ran out the door.

“It snowed!” he shouted, dashing into the snowy yard.

“This child…” Xiao Chunxiu smiled with relief at her grandson. It seemed that his parents’ absence for the New Year hadn’t crushed his spirits.

Tianwang himself didn’t realize the changes already happening within his body. He only felt a strange closeness with the ice and snow.

Suddenly, an idea struck him, and he rushed toward the pond. The water was not yet frozen over, though it was bitterly cold, and loaches would normally be burrowed deep in the mud.

But when Tianwang dipped his hand into the water, a great school of fat, wriggling loaches swam over to him. In the past months, they had grown larger and multiplied. Whether from breeding in the pond or from more loaches entering, their numbers had increased. Despite the low temperature, they were lively and unaffected by the cold.

Tianwang was about to drop one of his usual droplets into the water when he noticed—this time, the liquid forming in his palm was blue.

“Huh?” The sight startled him. His consciousness slipped into his dantian, where he discovered two kinds of liquid had formed: a green pool and a small patch of blue. Suspended above each pool was a glowing character—one green, one blue.

“When did this blue character appear?” Tianwang was astonished.

On a whim, he released the blue character into the pond. Instantly, the loaches grew even more animated, leaping and darting in delight. But the most shocking thing was what happened next: the peach and plum trees by the pond sprouted fresh buds, and in the midst of the snow, blossoms unfurled. Peach and plum flowers bloomed in the freezing winter!

Even more astonishing, tender green shoots pushed through the snowy ground along the banks. After a while, the area around the pond had turned into a patch of spring.

Fearing his grandson would catch cold, Luo Baolin hurried over. When he saw the scene, he froze, his mouth agape, barely daring to breathe.

“Tianwang, what did you do?” He forced himself to ask.

“Grandpa, I got another blue character. I released it into the pond, and then the peach and plum trees bloomed, and the grass grew. The blue character is amazing!” Tianwang said innocently, without any sense of fear. Children were always quicker to accept the miraculous.

“Good, good. But you mustn’t tell anyone about this. Do you understand?” Baolin cautioned.

Yet sometimes, the more you wish to keep something secret, the sooner it spreads.