Of her generation, there were a total of eight children including her.
The twelve-year-old eldest brother Jiang Yujiang, the ten-year-old second brother Jiang Yuhe, and the nine-year-old fourth brother Jiang Yuhai were the children of the eldest branch.
The nine-year-old third brother Jiang Yuhu, the eight-year-old fifth brother Jiang Yuming, and the six-year-old sixth brother Jiang Yushan were of the second branch.
The third branch was the five-year-old seventh brother Jiang Yuchuan and her, the eight-month old baby.
Among the seven brothers of this generation, only the eldest brother Jiang Yujiang and the third brother Jiang Yuhu studied at Old Man Jiang's private school.
The other children could only wait for their elder brothers to teach them when they returned from school every day, or for their uncle to come back and give them some pointers during his rest days.
In ancient times, education was precious. Even though all the adults in the Jiang family were diligent, life was still hand to mouth with three children studying.
Even so, the Jiang family still planned to hold a lively full month celebration for the child.
As for the money for the celebratory dinner... The pomelos peeled off in the freak accident that night were all sold. Not only were they large and thin-skinned, the pulp was exceptionally sweet.
In this spring with scarce fruits, they were truly a rarity that allowed a traveling merchant to buy them all at once at a very good price.
In addition, the large fat pig raised in the backyard for over a year was just about ready.
Jiang Yuqing had heard the elders say that the pig was originally intended to be sold to raise travel funds when her father went to the prefectural city for the civil service exam. Killing it now meant they'd have to find another way to raise those funds.
Jiang Yuqing was unwilling to let her elders worry about money matters.
It was just a one month celebration, whether they held it or not she would still grow up all the same.
If they killed the pig now, where would they get the travel funds for father's exam later?
Alas, she was just a babbling baby who couldn't even speak, and it seemed there was nothing she could do.
The straitened circumstances of this family urgently needed improving.
There were many treasures in her spiritual space, if only she could take them out.
The tiny baby girl wrinkled her exquisite little brows and sighed.
Hmm, perhaps she could try! The baby immediately became excited. She decided to try using her mind to take things out after the adults fell asleep tonight.
Old Lady Hu happened to catch this cute change in expression as she was holding the baby.
Old Lady Hu immediately smiled and lightly poked the baby's chubby, tender little chin with her finger. "Oh, what's made my little darling sigh so soon? Tell me, who's made you unhappy!"
"Ah woo!" No one's made me unhappy, I just realized our family seems to be poor, and it's worrying!
Old Lady Hu couldn't understand her baby talk, and continued to tease her with a smile. "Are you happy or not? We're going to have a full month celebration for our good baby, you'll get to eat meat!"
"Ah woo" No! You all love me so much, I'm very happy. But let's forget about the full month celebration.
Save the money for father's exam and my brothers' education. This baby doesn't care about such formalities.
Old Lady Hu kept talking to herself. "Granny is going to kill a big fat pig for you, and make our good baby's full month celebration lively and bring lots of blessings."
"Ah woo woo!" As you say, I guess. A feeling of helplessness rose in her heart again.
As a baby, she had no say.
Lu looked at her adorable daughter with doting eyes. Hearing her tender baby babbling brought her endless joy. She happily said to the old woman, "Speaking of which, our good baby is truly easy to care for.
She eats her fill then sleeps, sleeps her fill then eats. Even if she wakes in the night she never cries or fusses. She only whimpers a little when she needs to pee or poop, she's very well-behaved."
Old Lady Hu was full of pride. "Of course, just look at whose child she is. Our children are all easy to care for!"
She had completely forgotten about how she had cursed those wretched grandchildren for coming to collect debts.
Old Jiang came back from working in the fields outside. He carefully washed the black mud from under his fingernails, changed into fresh clothes, then gently knocked on the door to the west wing and softly called out, "Wife, is our darling awake? If she's awake, bring the child out for me to kiss her."
"She's awake. What's an old geezer like you want to see her for, you'll scare her!" Old Lady Hu scolded in jest, but still wrapped the child snugly in a blanket and brought her out to the main hall.
Just in time, the rest of the Jiang family had returned too. They all surrounded the child, playing with her merrily. What a lively scene.
Jiang Yuqing managed to wake up halfway through the night and found her mother sleeping soundly next to her.
It was the dead of night, the perfect time to act. She closed her eyes again and sank her awareness into her spiritual space. She walked to the edge of the spiritual medicine field, picked the smallest plant, and pulled hard to uproot it.
She hugged the lingzhi tightly to her chest, repeatedly chanting in her heart, "I want to take the lingzhi out, I want to take the lingzhi out."
Then, a flash of white light, and she felt her body drop heavily as the lingzhi was actually brought out by her.
This thing was really heavy, and pressed on her tiny body until she could barely breathe. She just wanted to get it off quickly.
There were even some bits of wood debris on the mushroom's stem, as if it had just been picked.
Lu was a light sleeper. Hearing her child make a couple sounds beside her, she immediately woke up.
She thought the child needed to pee, and hurriedly rose, lit the lamp, and lifted the quilt to take a look. She was so shocked her eyes widened and her mouth gaped, but thankfully she covered her mouth in time to avoid screaming.
She saw an enormous crimson mushroom pressing down on her daughter's body. Looking closely, it resembled a lingzhi that she had seen before at the pharmacy.
The mushroom was about half the size of the child's body. Her little hands could only barely grasp the edge of the mushroom, trying to move the uncomfortable thing weighing her down off of her.
Lu thought she must be dreaming. She pinched her arm, and felt real pain. The giant red mushroom on her child was still there. Just then, her precious baby looked at her crying "Ah wo, ah ya ya", as if saying to quickly take it off of her.
Only then did Lu regain her senses. She hurriedly moved the mushroom aside, checked her daughter's little body again, and breathed a sigh of relief finding her unharmed.
Lu looked at the giant mushroom beside her and forcefully swallowed, her heart racing until it felt like it would jump out of her chest.
"Good baby, where did this come from!"
"Ah wo wo!" It's mine, mine. Please take it away quickly. This thing is heavy, it took me a lot of effort to get it out. I'm exhausted!
Lu didn't know if her daughter could understand her. She took a deep breath to calm herself, then solemnly said to the girl.
"Good baby, Mother knows you're different from others since birth.
No matter which immortal family you're from, to me you're just my daughter, the one I carried for ten months and gave birth to.
I don't know if taking out this treasure has hurt you. If it's bad for you, don't do this again, you hear?
Mother doesn't need you to do anything, I just want my good baby to grow up safe and healthy."
"Ah wo wo!" Don't worry Mother, I'm fine.
Jiang Yuqing was moved by a mother's selfless love for her. She babbled incomprehensibly while giving her a gummy smile.
Lu examined her from head to toe, confirming she was indeed unharmed. Only then did she carefully wrap the large mushroom in a piece of plain cloth.
She wetted a hot towel and carefully wiped her daughter's little hands clean, then swaddled her up snugly. Only then did she hurry out the door holding her daughter and the mushroom.
The Jiang family was poor, but with many children, all hardworking, so although it was a thatched cottage, they had built over ten rooms, quite spacious.
The main building had three sections. The central part was the main hall. The first room to the left was Old Jiang and Old Lady Hu's bedroom. The one to the right was Jiang Wenkang's bedroom.
To the left of the main building was a row of five side rooms, the dwellings of Jiang Wenxi's family and several of the young masters.
The five rooms on the right were Jiang Wenyuan and his wife's bedroom, a room split off to be a study, a guest room, the kitchen, and the bathing room.
The latrine was set several dozen meters behind the house.
Because there was a daughter-in-law recovering from childbirth in the family, Old Lady Hu was a very light sleeper at night. Almost as soon as Lu knocked on the door, she awoke.
"Is that Third Son's family?"
"Mother, it's me!" Lu's tone was a bit urgent. Old Lady Hu was shocked, assuming something had happened to the child. She immediately got out of bed and called for Old Jiang to wake up as well.
"Is our darling uncomfortable?" Old Lady Hu asked.
"Mother, the baby is fine, I'll explain after you open the door."
Old Lady Hu opened the door and let Lu in after seeing her outside holding the child.
She frowned, "In the dead of night, why did you bring my darling over too, you might interrupt her sleep."
By now, Old Jiang had also gotten up and put on clothes.
"Darling, little treasure is awake!" Lu gently handed her daughter to her mother-in-law, and spread out the things she had brought on the shabby little low table.
"Dad, mom, look!"
Under the dim oil lamp, a brightly colored, bright red large mushroom lay quietly on the plain white handkerchief, the bright red color piercing to the eyes.
"This, this is the Red Lingzhi mushroom! My goodness, where did it come from?" It took Old Jiang quite a while to find his voice again.
Qingzhou County was located south of Da Xia. With many mountains and dense forests, abundant waters and marshes, it was rich in medicinal materials. People often heard of others going into the mountains and gathering precious medicinal materials.
In the older generation of the village, some had also gathered Lingzhi mushrooms before. Old Jiang had seen them when he was young.
However, Old Jiang was seeing such a large Lingzhi mushroom for the first time. He felt his heart and liver trembling.
"Third son's family, where did this come from?"
Lu took a deep breath, trying to keep her tone as calm as possible. "Dad, mom, you may not believe me when I say this. Just now I heard little treasure humming, and thought she needed to pee again. But when I lit the lamp and looked, I saw the child hugging this.
My daughter-in-law thought it looked a bit like Lingzhi, but wasn't too sure. You two are more knowledgeable and widely experienced, so you should be able to recognize it."
Upon hearing this, Old Lady Hu lowered her head. Seeing her granddaughter looking at her with big, shiny, round eyes, her heart instantly softened into water.
She gently touched her little granddaughter's cheek with her face, and said somewhat choked up: "My darling baby is so sensible! She was afraid we didn't have money for her full month celebration banquet, so she brought money herself. We don't know which immortal family in heaven sent her to be born in our family. This is a blessing for our Old Jiang family."
Old Lady Hu tidied up the baby's quilt and said to Old Jiang, "Old man, go call our eldest and second son's families. Let's discuss this properly!"
"Alright!"
Soon, the main decision makers of the Jiang family's three households gathered, cramming the originally not very large room of the elderly couple full.
When Jiang's eldest and second son's families heard that the elders had called them over in the middle of the night, they thought something had happened. They didn't expect it to be such a joyous event.
The group looked at the huge Lingzhi mushroom on the table, truly shocked and delighted. The way they looked at Jiang Yuqing now held a hint of awe, in addition to the usual doting.
This impromptu family meeting lasted nearly half an hour.
Little Miss Jiang Yuqing, the baby, had long fallen deep asleep like a little pig.
When the meeting adjourned, Old Lady Hu once again solemnly instructed her sons and daughters-in-law: "Little treasure is definitely an immortal sent by the heavenly families to be born into our home.
Her matters must not be divulged to outsiders, including your natal families.
If anyone gossips and brings calamity to my little treasure, the men will be driven from the family, and the women sent back to their maternal homes. Did you hear that?"
"Yes, mother. We'll remember."
Jiang Family Eldest Household
Lin poked her husband beside her. "Master, do you think our family's little treasure is really an immortal sent down from heaven?"
Jiang Wenkang pillowed his hands behind his head and slowly said, "Who knows? Even if not, it's not far off.
You saw the omens when she was born, the golden light shining through the door and illuminating half the yard.
The pomelo tree in our yard clearly only had one bunch of flowers, yet in an instant it became a tree full of fruit. Right after the fruit was picked, it bloomed another bunch of flowers.
Then it brought a heavy rain. In my decades of life, I've never heard of any other family's child being born with such spectacular signs."
As Jiang Wenkang spoke, he became somewhat proud. "This kind of spectacular sign and fortune can only happen with our family's child!"
"Hypocrite!" Lin couldn't stand his arrogant manner and punched him, then turned away and ignored her husband.
But in her heart she agreed.
The same scene occurred in the second household.
That night, aside from the carefree children, the Jiang family adults were sleepless for the whole night.
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