Chapter 12: He Xi’s Sense of Loss

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Fang Mingxi fell to the ground, striking her head hard enough to raise a lump the size of a bowl. The impact left her dizzy, and she lay there for quite a while before her senses returned.

Was this what they called joy turning into sorrow? Ouch. The lump really did hurt.

Hearing the noise, Tang Yao came running in from outside. The moment she saw Fang Mingxi lying on the ground, without even a blanket covering her and with her head having struck the floor first, she went pale with fright.

“Little sister!”

She rushed forward in a single stride and carefully lifted Fang Mingxi onto the bed. Her eyes brimmed with tears of distress.

“Little sister, how are you? Are you hurt anywhere?”

Tang Yao’s voice trembled. With shaking hands, she undid Fang Mingxi’s clothes and examined her from head to toe, checking for any other injuries.

The height she had fallen from was nothing serious to Fang Mingxi. She did not feel pain anywhere else, but seeing how anxious Tang Yao was, she obediently moved her hands and feet to cooperate with the examination.

After a thorough check, Tang Yao, her eyes brimming with tears, found no other injuries. Apart from the bump on her forehead, Fang Mingxi was fine.

Tang Yao gently blew on the lump. “I’m sorry, Xixi. It’s all Sister’s fault. You wouldn’t have been hurt otherwise.”

Fang Mingxi reached out and touched Tang Yao’s cheek, then gave her a broad smile.

“Sis-ter, sis-ter.”

It wasn’t your fault. Don’t blame yourself so much. I was simply too pleased with myself.

Tang Yao laughed through her tears, comforted by Fang Mingxi. She wrapped the child tightly in a quilt, then hurried to boil an egg and roll it over Fang Mingxi’s head.

The egg had come from a nest of wild chicken eggs they had discovered by the roadside while coming down the mountain. They had not been in the designated forest, but on Red Leaf Mountain in the real world.

At the time, Tang Yao had heard a rustling sound and run over to pull apart the bushes. When she saw the nest of eggs inside, she could hardly believe her luck.

Her luck these past few days had truly been astonishing. Not only had she found mushrooms two days in a row, but today, on her way down the mountain, she had even found chicken eggs.

After thinking it over, she had nearly begun to suspect that her family members in heaven were protecting her. Otherwise, how could she possibly have been so lucky again and again?

Following the principle that something free should never be wasted, Tang Yao quickly gathered up the entire nest of eggs, still warm from the sun, and hurried home down the mountain.

There were exactly sixteen eggs. She had intended to wait until the family returned and discuss what to do with them, but for the moment, one was being put to good use on Fang Mingxi’s head.

Children had delicate skin, and Fang Mingxi was no exception. Perhaps it was because of her special ability, but after the egg had been rolled around her head once, she could clearly feel the bowl-sized lump shrinking a little.

Tang Yao was delighted. Seeing that the method worked so well, she hurried to boil another egg. Only after the swelling had almost completely subsided did she place Fang Mingxi at the innermost side of the bed. Even while cooking, she kept a close watch on her, determined not to let her fall off again.

.....

“Strange. Has Red Leaf Mountain become foggy? Why does it feel as though we’ve taken the wrong path?”

As He Lei walked, he gradually sensed that something was wrong. Holding He Xi’s hand, he stopped where he stood.

The path before them, marked by a crooked-necked tree, seemed oddly familiar. He clearly felt they had just walked along it, so why had they ended up back here again? Could they have encountered a ghostly maze?

He Tian clung nervously to his arm. “I think so too. Did the fog make us take the wrong path and circle back?”

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He Gao was not with them today. He Xin, who had been preparing to go ahead and scout the way, squatted before He Xi and rubbed her head.

“Little sister, you’ve always been the luckiest one. Take a look and see which path we should take next.”

He Xi lifted her eyes and looked around. Besides the road leading up the mountain in front of them, there were two narrow paths to the left and right.

Few people normally used these paths, however, and they were overgrown with weeds. There might even be snakes or other animals lurking in them.

Relying on instinct, He Xi casually pointed toward the path on the right.

“Second Cousin, let’s take this one.”

“All right. We’ll go this way.”

Without giving it much thought, He Xin broke off a branch and went ahead to clear the way.

He Tian and He Lei held He Xi’s hands and followed closely behind. Before long, the four of them reached the woods where He Lei had fallen the previous day.

Looking at the familiar place, they sighed.

“Xixi, you really are lucky. If not for you, who knows how far we would have wandered off.”

He Xi gave them a sweet smile. “Next time, Xixi will lead the way again.”

“All right. You lead the way.”

Only after they emerged did everyone realize that they had taken the wrong path almost from the very beginning. They had crossed from the southern side of Red Leaf Mountain to the west. If they had continued getting lost, they would nearly have reached the northern side, where no one ever set foot.

That side of the mountain was completely deserted, and no one went there to play. It also bordered the depths of the forest. If the four of them had wandered in, even with He Xi’s luck, they would never have made it back safely.

They were both frightened and relieved. No one wanted to continue searching for treasure, so they gathered a few bundles of firewood and prepared to head home.

As they passed the place where He Lei had fallen the day before, that strange feeling returned to He Xi’s heart.

She was too young to understand what it was. She only knew that something very important ought to be inside, just as she had somehow known that her mother had made her a little dress.

Now she seemed to want to cry, yet she did not know how.

He Xi wanted to stay there a little longer, but her three older cousins had been frightened by the place and refused to linger no matter what. They dragged her away with them.

Helpless, He Xi could only carry that strange feeling with her as they descended the mountain.

The four of them made it down safely. When they passed the place where they had encountered Tang Yao the previous day, He Xi’s sharp eyes spotted a chicken feather in the bushes ahead.

“Second Cousin, look. Is that a chicken feather?” she asked, tugging at He Xin’s clothes.

“A chicken feather?”

The other three immediately perked up and hurriedly followed her gaze.

A brilliantly red feather hung from the green bushes. Their hearts leaped with joy, and they ran over at once to pull the bushes apart.

The last time they had found a chicken feather, they had discovered a nest of wild chicken eggs inside the bushes—and quite a large number of them at that. Who knew how many eggs they would find this time?

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The moment the bushes were parted, the smiles on the three boys’ faces froze.

“What is it, Brothers? Did you find lots of eggs?”

He Xi followed them over and squeezed to the front. When she saw what was inside, her smile froze as well.

There was indeed a nest in the bushes, and it was quite a large one. But there were no eggs inside at all.

Unwilling to give up, He Lei squatted down and touched the nest with his hand.

The nest was still warm, proving that the wild chicken had left only a short while ago. But where were the eggs? Where could they have gone? It was impossible that a rooster had been sitting on the nest.

“It looks like someone picked up the eggs. We must have arrived too late.”

He Lei withdrew his hand in disappointment, wondering who could have taken the eggs before them.

It was the busiest part of the harvest season, and all the adults in the village were working in the fields. Apart from children, hardly anyone would come up the mountain at a time like this.

Could it have been that girl from yesterday?

Tang Yao’s face appeared in He Lei’s mind. When they had first met her yesterday, she had been gathering firewood here, and they had also seen her find some red bramble berries. Could she have picked up today’s eggs as well?

He Lei told the others his guess, and after thinking it over, they agreed that it was possible.

The people from the cattle sheds had never come to this side of Red Leaf Mountain. At most, they went to the northern side. It had already been strange enough for her to come up the mountain to gather firewood yesterday. Perhaps she had picked up the eggs today as well.

He Tian immediately pouted. “What? If we hadn’t taken the wrong path, those eggs would have been ours. Now we’ve just given them away for nothing.”

“Why don’t we find that older sister and ask for the eggs back? She’s a bad person. She probably won’t dare offend us.”

He Xin shook his head. “No. Red Leaf Mountain doesn’t belong to our family. Everyone has the right to come up here, and we have no proof that she was the one who picked them up.”

Unable to complain to anyone and unable to demand the eggs back, He Tian and He Lei were extremely unhappy. In the end, even He Xin was in a bad mood.

Which family wasn’t short of food these days? No one knew how many eggs there had been in that nest. Eaten sparingly, they could have lasted ten days or even half a month.

Having someone else pick them up first was no different from handing that person money.

With no eggs to be found, the four of them picked another large bundle of black fungus before heading down the mountain. The fresh, broad caps of the mushrooms helped ease their disappointment somewhat.

He Xi, however, could not cheer up at all. She walked along gloomily, unable to stop thinking about the empty nest she had just seen.

She seemed to understand what that feeling had been now.

It was disappointment.

She had been disappointed that someone else had taken the eggs, and she had felt the same disappointment on the mountain.

But why had she been disappointed? Had someone already picked up whatever was inside the pit?

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