A Leisurely and Extravagant Life - Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Sleeping on the Back of a Yellow Ox
The ox at Luo Tianwang’s home was a strong, full-grown bull. This bull was fierce and unruly, no one could get close to it. During plowing season, only Luo Baolin could manage to keep it under control.
When Tianwang first started herding it, he had even been butted by the beast. Yet despite its temper, the bull was fiercely loyal—before Luo Baolin, it showed no stubbornness at all.
Luo Baolin held the rope in one hand and Tianwang in the other.
“Grandson, if you get sleepy, just tell Grandpa.”
“I’m not sleepy yet,” Tianwang replied.
Baolin sensed something was different about his grandson today. Not only had he woken up so early, but his energy seemed unusually good—quite unlike before. He wasn’t even distracted with thoughts of gathering pigweed as he usually was, but instead kept stealing glances at the boy.
“Grandpa, let me hold the rope. You can go cut pigweed,” Tianwang said.
“This beast is vicious. If you take the rope, it will surely butt you.” Baolin would never dare let Tianwang herd the bull alone. If the boy accidentally dozed off, he might get trampled before anyone noticed.
“Grandpa, trust me. I’m not the least bit sleepy right now.” Tianwang reached out and took the rope from his grandfather’s hands.
The yellow ox raised its head and gave Tianwang a malicious glance.
“You behave yourself, or I’ll butcher you for beef!” Tianwang gave the ox a slap on the head.
“Ah! Careful!” Baolin nearly lost his soul from fright. He knew this bull’s temper all too well—violent and hot-blooded. If it weren’t for its strength in the fields and its obedience to him, he would have sold it long ago. No one else could get anywhere near it.
To Baolin’s astonishment, the ox didn’t react at all. Instead, it lifted its head and looked at Tianwang in a daze, even shaking its head with an expression of enjoyment.
Not even when Baolin himself picked off its lice or swatted away flies did it show such a look.
“See, Grandpa? Old Yellow is obedient. Let me watch it alone,” Tianwang said.
“…All right.” Baolin didn’t even know why he agreed, but the words slipped out before he realized it. Immediately, regret filled him—what if something happened to the boy?
He busied himself gathering pigweed along the field’s edge, yet his eyes never left his grandson. To his relief, nothing happened. Slowly, he relaxed, thinking perhaps Tianwang’s illness truly was gone this time.
Every household in the village had to cut pigweed, but the grass by the paddies was tender and everyone kept an eye on it, so it was sparse. After a while, Baolin wandered farther and farther away without noticing.
When Tianwang woke up that morning, he had indeed felt full of energy, certain he would not nod off. Yet after walking a while along the field ridge, leading the ox, drowsiness welled up. He yawned, looked around, but the dew-soaked grass and cool air left no good place to nap. His gaze fell upon the ox’s back.
He walked toward it, patted its head—and to his surprise, the ox crouched down.
“No stealing bites!” Tianwang commanded, then clambered onto its back and promptly fell asleep.
The ox rose again, steady as a rock, and continued grazing along the ridge. The paddies were full of ripening rice—heavy with grain, ready for harvest in less than a month. To the bull, the green stalks were a great temptation.
Normally, if its master wasn’t watching, it would snatch a few mouthfuls. But today, perhaps because of Tianwang’s words, it behaved and didn’t touch a single stalk.
“Baolin! Your Tianwang’s asleep on the ox’s back!” called Luo Guangfu, an old villager.
Baolin turned, breaking into a sweat. He abandoned his basket of pigweed and dashed barefoot across the ridges. He expected disaster—the ox raiding someone’s field.
But when he arrived, he found it calmly grazing by the ridge, not a single rice stalk harmed. Baolin was baffled.
“Tianwang, oh Tianwang, how could you sleep on the ox’s back?” Baolin lifted the boy down. He was still fast asleep. “Sigh…” Baolin had thought his grandson’s illness was cured, but it was just false hope. His heart sank with disappointment.
He tied the ox to a tree in the woods and carried Tianwang home.
“Sleeping again?” asked Xiao Chunxiu, disheartened at the sight.
“Alas, looks like he’s still not rid of that strange malady. If this continues… what will become of him in the future?” Baolin fretted.
“I think Tianwang’s much better than before. He should recover soon,” Chunxiu said, taking the boy into her arms and laying him on the bed.
In his dreams, Tianwang was playing with those glowing specks again. More and more light dots clustered around him, even the mischievous golden ones began to multiply.
This time, he woke fairly quickly. Having eaten nothing all morning, his stomach growled fiercely as soon as he got up. The smell of food drifted from the kitchen, drawing him in.
Baolin had gone back out, and Chunxiu was in the garden picking garlic shoots. The firewood stove was still burning, the iron pot bubbling with fresh rice.
Hungry, Tianwang grabbed a pale cucumber from the table, rubbed it against his clothes, and crunched into it. A single cucumber filled his belly enough to ease the hunger.
In the kitchen corner, he found the tortoise shell he had fished out of the river days ago. Baolin had brought it home but couldn’t make sense of it. Even Luo Zengcai couldn’t tell what it was.
Baolin hadn’t thrown it away, thinking it might be linked to Tianwang’s condition, so he kept it hidden in the kitchen.
When Tianwang picked it up, the shell suddenly lit up as though a lamp had been switched on. A single character, made of green light dots, emerged on its surface. It resembled oracle bone script, though Tianwang had no idea what it meant. But the color felt familiar—yes, it was the very same green as the light dots in his dreams.
Tracing the character with his finger, he suddenly made it flare brighter, and then it vanished, as if it had never been there at all.