Traveling Through Those Years Of Farming (Quick Transmigration) - Chapter 4

At six o’clock in the morning, Sheng Baobao is woken by the smell of meat buns. Rubbing her eyes, she is about to push off the quilt when she sees the little black dog on her bed.

“Aw!”

The puppy has already woken up and, seeing Sheng Baobao stir, jumps up excitedly, its tail wagging so fast it seems like a propeller.

How did a dog get on her bed?

Sheng Baobao freezes for a moment, then is quickly captivated by the cute puppy.

It is small—about the size of her two palms—with a chubby black body. Sheng Baobao lifts it by its two front legs. The puppy’s all-black fur contrasts with its four soft pink paw pads, making it even more adorable.

“Dad! Mom!”

Sheng Baobao thinks the puppy must have been a surprise gift from Father Sheng and Mother Hua. Without bothering to put on shoes, she jumps off the bed and runs barefoot out of the room.

“Why aren’t you wearing shoes? Be careful not to catch a cold,” Hua Yingpo mutters as she carries a steaming bowl of meat buns into the room. “Bao’s father, twist a towel and help her wipe her feet,” she calls to her husband.

“Mom, mom, did you and dad catch this little black dog for me?”

Sheng Baobao feels her mind merging with the child’s persona every time she possesses a body. Now, she feels like a real eight-year-old girl, excited by the new pet.

“What little black dog?” Hua Yingpo glances at her daughter’s raised hand, seeing nothing but empty air. “Do you want a puppy? It might be a bit troublesome.”

She thinks her daughter just wants a dog, but with both parents usually busy, they aren’t eager to take on the responsibility. Naturally, since her daughter has school, they will end up caring for the dog.

“If you really want one, I’ll ask your dad to go to the village after dinner and see if any dog has had puppies. We can pick a nice one for you.”

Hua Yingpo rarely refuses her daughter, always wanting to give her the best.

“Mom, it’s the little black dog, the one in my hand.”

Sheng Baobao lifts the puppy higher, showing it to her mother.

“Okay, okay, I’ll ask your dad to get a black puppy if we find one,” Hua Yingpo replies distractedly, worried the millet porridge might burn.

At that moment, Sheng Baobao realizes that no matter how silly she seems, it looks like she is the only one who can see the puppy.

“Aw—”

The puppy looks up at her with innocent eyes, wagging its tail and trying to lick her nose with its soft pink tongue.

So cute!

Sheng Baobao can’t resist its cuteness, but she still wonders where the puppy has come from and why it stays with her. It is a mystery she needs to figure out.

As she washes her face, brushes her teeth, and wipes her feet, the puppy stays glued to her side, as if it thinks of her as its mother.

While eating breakfast, Sheng Baobao keeps an eye on her parents, verifying that she is the only one who can see the puppy.

“Lady Hua.”

As she chews on a bun, Third Grandma arrives with a few chickens and ducks in one hand and a large bag of cakes in the other.

“Two chickens and a duck, all plump, and these two chickens are Yunying chickens, their meat is very tender.” Third Grandma unties the ropes binding the wings of the chickens and ducks, then turns to Hua Yingpo. “I’ll put these in the chicken pen for you first.”

After finishing that, Third Grandma hands the bag she is carrying to Hua Yingpo. “Look, five portions of cakes, all bought by my husband in town early this morning, each one pound. And these two boxes of canned meat my son sent back last month. I remember your daughter likes them, so I brought two boxes for you.”

The old woman is very grateful to Lady Hua. Normally, the cakes offered to her only weigh half a pound each, but her husband has bought one pound each, clearly wanting to give her the extra portion.

“My grandson is perfectly normal after waking up from his nap, no confusion. The first thing he did when he got up was ask for food.” The old woman’s voice trembles with emotion as she speaks of her grandson’s recovery, nearly moved to tears.

“Don’t worry, after I perform the ritual to cleanse the stone of evil spirits, your little grandson will be completely safe.”

Seeing the generous believer before her, Hua Yingpo’s mood brightens, and she stops with the warnings.

“Thank you, Lady Hua. I’ll be asking you and Huang Xian to look after my grandson,” the old lady says gratefully, before leaving with a smile.

Sheng Baobao watches the old lady leave, her gaze lingering for a moment. She notices that the black mist that had surrounded her the night before has mostly disappeared.

She is puzzled. If the black mist had been something like miasma, ghostly energy, or an evil spirit, it shouldn’t have vanished so easily. According to the old lady, the child had been the most affected, yet now the child is fine, and the black mist has almost entirely dissipated. It is clear her mother’s method has been effective.

But if that is the case, why can’t her mother see the puppy that is currently chewing on her shoes?

For a moment, Sheng Baobao is uncertain, wondering if her mother is really a scammer.

As the Third Grandma walks along the road, someone notices her coming out of Lady Hua’s house and curiously asks her about it. The old lady, without hesitation, begins telling the story of what happened the previous night.

The main point is that she came to Lady Hua for help. Lady Hua immediately calculated that her grandson had ventured into a place he shouldn’t have, and when she saw him, she figured out that he had brought something back that he shouldn’t have taken.

Those two points alone make it clear that Lady Hua is very capable.

The old woman also mentions that her grandson had been so dazed the night before, talking nonsense. But after Lady Hua performed a ritual to restore him, his complexion has returned to normal, and he even asks for food when he wakes up this morning.

To country folks, a patient being able to eat means the problem is solved, and it is clear that the old lady’s grandson is completely fine now.

“Some people still don’t believe Lady Hua has real powers. My grandson had been chased by wild dogs and had a fever that night. My wife wouldn’t listen to me and refused to take him to Lady Hua. As a result, the child had to be given intravenous drips at the health station for nearly half a month. We spent a lot of money, and the child suffered too. He had needle marks on his hands and feet from the injections. In the end, it was Lady Hua who came, invited the soul back, and the child’s fever broke. What the hospital struggled to do for nearly half a month, Lady Hua managed to do in just one night.”

People with similar experiences also speak in Hua Yingpo’s favor.

As they express their admiration, Hua Yingpo’s reputation in the village grows once more.

Hua Yingxiu has risen early to scatter the medicine residue on the main road. When she returns, she overhears the conversation among the women, and she is somewhat moved.

After all, she and Hua Yingpo are somewhat related, which can be inferred from their names.

Hua Yingxiu’s father and Hua Yingpo’s adoptive father are cousins. By this connection, they are cousins as well. Unfortunately, Hua Yingpo’s adoptive father loses two wives to dystocia, which leads people in the village to gossip. They claim that her adoptive father has an unfortunate fate and anyone close to him will face misfortune, so the relatives of the Hua family start to distance themselves from him, and the two sides stop communicating.

After Hua Yingpo’s adoptive father passes away, his relatives are unwilling to take care of the child he adopted. Hua Yingpo flees to the mountains to survive. Strictly speaking, the relationship between the two families has long since been severed.

Now, Hua Yingpo is famous, but few people from the Hua family come to her for help, a direct result of the past grudges.

Hua Yingxiu has never believed her cousin has real abilities, but now, hearing so many people speak of her skills, her beliefs are starting to waver.

A few days ago, her young daughter falls into the river and develops a high fever after being rescued. Hua Yingxiu and her husband take their daughter to the health station, but she doesn’t improve after several days of treatment.

Moreover, Hua Yingxiu notices that her daughter, Jiang Runzhu, seems different after waking up. She seems to have matured suddenly, no longer playful, and has become unusually composed.

Yesterday, Hua Yingxiu and her husband took their daughter out of the health station and found a reliable old Chinese doctor, who prescribed some medicine. This morning, she fed her daughter a bowl of herbal medicine, then poured the leftover residue onto the road, hoping that the passing people and vehicles might help rid her daughter of her illness.

If her daughter still appears unwell after taking the medicine, she might have to consider seeking help from Hua Yingpo.

Hua Yingxiu pushes her thoughts aside and walks back toward the house, carrying the basin.

“Mom.”

When Hua Yingxiu returns home, she finds Jiang Runzhu resting in the yard.

“Why are you out here?” Hua Yingxiu scolds, “Don’t you know you’re still sick?”

“Mom, I feel much better, I just wanted to get some fresh air.”

In the morning, Jiang Runzhu struggled to drink the bowl of Chinese medicine, fighting back nausea. If she hadn’t forced herself to improve, the medicine might have made her worse.

“Feeling better?” Hua Yingxiu feels a little relieved. “Seems like the Chinese doctor knows what he’s doing. I’ll make you another dose tonight. If your illness is truly cured, we won’t need to go to Hua Yingpo.”

If it were up to her, Hua Yingxiu doesn’t want to have to deal with Hua Yingpo.

“Mom, all that stuff is a lie. Didn’t you used to disbelieve it too?” Jiang Runzhu frowns.

In her previous life, when Hua Yingpo and her husband were arrested, they had several million yuan seized from their home. Back in the early 2000s, that was considered a lot of money in their area.

That amount didn’t even include the cost of digging a large ice cellar under their home and keeping the air conditioning running nonstop. The couple might have had real mental issues—they had actually frozen their dead daughter in the ice cellar, without burying or cremating her.

When they were arrested, Hua Yingpo claimed that she could revive her daughter soon. She had been seriously crazy.

“By the way, Mom, did you hear any big news when you went out today?” Jiang Runzhu asks casually.

“What big news?” Hua Yingxiu pauses and looks confused.

Could it be that Hua Yingpo’s daughter isn’t dead yet? Jiang Runzhu can’t quite remember the exact time of her death, so she just thinks she might have gotten confused.

In her previous life, when Sheng Baobao died, Hua Yingpo and her husband fought bitterly. If the child had truly passed away, Hua Yingxiu would have heard about it this morning.

Thinking about it, Jiang Runzhu feels a pang of envy. Despite everything, Hua Yingpo and her husband always show an unreserved love for their daughter. On the other hand, her own parents had been reluctant to spend money when she had been on an IV drip at the health station for several days.

They may love her, but in their hearts, her brother will always be the most important.

Jiang Runzhu lowers her eyes, hiding the sadness that lingers in her heart.

Maybe it’s time to seriously consider whether she should remind Hua Yingpo and her husband to keep a closer eye on their daughter’s health during this period.

“Mom, are there really ghosts in the world?”

After the old lady leaves, Sheng Baobao finally can’t hold back the question that has been troubling her for some time.

“Haha—my silly baby,” Hua Yingpo laughs, reaching out to rub her daughter’s little head. “What does your school say? Reject superstition and believe in science. You have to listen to your teachers, or why would your dad and I send you to school?”

Sheng Baobao stares at her mother with wide, bright eyes, and the meat in her mouth suddenly loses its taste.

They are a Taoist witch and a Buddhist priest student, yet they tell her to believe in science!

From the looks on Hua Yingpo’s and Sheng Wukun’s faces, Sheng Baobao can’t tell if they are lying to her or genuinely believe that there are no ghosts in the world.

What they don’t know is that she knows the truth. Because… She can see the ghosts.

After breakfast, Hua Yingpo helps her daughter pack her lunchbox while Sheng Wukun carries her schoolbag and sends her off to school.

Sheng Baobao is still worried that the puppy will follow her to school, but it turns out she has been worrying for nothing. The invisible puppy stops at the edge of the yard and simply watches her leave.

Once father and daughter are gone, Hua Yingpo cleans up the table and heads to the kitchen to wash the dishes. The puppy, bored, wanders around the room before stopping at the door to the couple’s bedroom.

It trots into the room, and this time, the Bagua mirror doesn’t harm it.

The little black dog looks up at the beam where the iron box is placed, then slowly vanishes into the air.

This puppy is actually the spirit of the Black Jade. Last night, Sheng Baobao expelled all the evil spirits from the Black Jade, and the recently refined evil weapon transforms into a spiritual weapon.

Refining the Black Jade into a magic weapon is already rare, but having the spirit of the weapon ascend to a spiritual weapon is even rarer.

Fortunately, the refined evil weapon hasn’t gained the power to kill yet, or Sheng Baobao’s few blows would be enough to destroy it.

Because the magic weapon has been indirectly refined by Sheng Baobao, it has a natural connection to her. Additionally, since Sheng Baobao dreams of a cute little black dog at that time, the spirit of the weapon takes the form she likes.

And so, the cute puppy that Sheng Baobao sees upon waking up comes to be.

The spirit of the weapon can leave the weapon it originated from but can’t stray too far. Its activity is currently limited to the yard. Now that it has become a spiritual weapon, the Bagua mirror and the peach wood sword in the house no longer harm it.

Since the little master isn’t home, the puppy decides to return to its stone and take a nap. It will play with the little master again when she returns in the evening.

The little spirit hides itself back inside the black jade. If Hua Yingpo and Sheng Wukun take out the jade now, they will see it has become more transparent, radiating a faint aura. It is truly a priceless treasure.

In a bungalow in town, a young man in his early twenties lies on his bed, holding a coverless book in his hand, laughing lecherously.

“Hehehe.” He reaches under the quilt, touching around, and his face flushes deeper.

“What a pity.” After a moment, he sighs long and deep, though it is unclear what exactly he regrets.

“Let’s read it again, and then I’ll get Huangmao to bring me a new one.”

He flips the book open to the first page and buries himself in reading once more.

Behind him, a blurry ghostly figure clings to him, its hollow eyes staring intently at him. If he turns around now, he will see a pair of dark, empty eye sockets staring back at him, devoid of any eyeballs…