Chapter 11 Full Bellies Bring a Multitude of Worries
A gigantic cabbage leaf fell from the sky!
Gao Yiye was startled at first, but quickly composed herself. It wasn't her first time being "fed" by the Heavenly Lord, and she no longer reacted with the same wide-eyed astonishment as when she'd first seen the gigantic eggs.
Overjoyed, she first knelt, kowtowing towards the sky, loudly thanking the "Heavenly Lord for his divine grace." Only then did she stand, cupping her hands around her mouth to shout: “Everyone, quickly! The Heavenly Lord has bestowed food upon us once again!”
The villagers, who had been carrying bamboo baskets and preparing to go foraging, swarmed around her in an instant.
The gigantic cabbage leaf left them momentarily stunned, but having been "baptized" by the giant eggs and Divine Rice, their bewilderment lasted only a short while. Then, with a command from the Village Chief, everyone began to divide the enormous leaf.
“One piece per family,” the Village Chief loudly instructed, “and set aside a few pieces for Gao Chuwu and the children who went to the county town.” The villagers obediently lined up to receive their portions, each cutting a generous piece of the cabbage leaf to take home.
Just as Li Daoxuan had anticipated, with food provided early in the morning, the villagers were no longer in a hurry to dig for wild vegetables.
When people are hungry, they have only one worry: eating.
But once basic sustenance is secured, a myriad of other troubles arise.
“Gao Sanwa, your trousers have been torn for days. Come here, your mother will mend them for you.”
Li Daoxuan noticed a middle-aged woman in the village who was highly skilled at needlework. Despite having no advanced tools, just a pair of scissors and a needle, she managed to sew a beautiful coarse linen garment for her child.
“La Ba, didn’t you say last time you’d teach me how to fire clay pots? I specifically dug up a big lump of yellow clay. Teach me, how do I turn it into a pot?”
Li Daoxuan watched two middle-aged men playing with clay. One of them, it turned out, knew how to make pottery jars—quite an impressive skill. In a short while, he molded a lump of yellow clay into a beautiful ceramic pot. The other, clumsy but eager to learn, also managed to shape a wobbly, crooked pot.
Shifting his gaze to another part of the village, Li Daoxuan saw that the Village Chief, surprisingly, also had a craft. He shaved a pile of bamboo strips and, in no time, wove a bamboo basket and two bamboo hampers. His handiwork was exceptionally beautiful.
“Gao Yiyi, my woodcutting knife has a dull edge. Could you sharpen it for me?”
Li Daoxuan’s gaze followed, and he saw a blacksmith named Gao Yiyi, who was helping a neighbor forge a woodcutting knife. After a series of rhythmic "ding-ding" sounds, the knife was finished, looking as good as new.
With this, the scenes visible in the diorama box became much richer, captivating him completely.
“Hmm? Wait a minute!” he murmured. “It seems something quite extraordinary is about to happen.”
Li Daoxuan suddenly noticed Gao Yiye fetching water.
She drew a bucket of water from the well, carried it back to her hut, poured it into a large wooden tub, then firmly closed the door and drew the curtain.
A sudden realization dawned on him. Wasn't this precisely what those bored netizens on the forums had talked about?
The young girl was about to bathe.
Li Daoxuan’s heart, for some unknown reason, began to pound.
He lowered his gaze to the magnifying glass in his hand, then looked at Gao Yiye’s dilapidated hut...
The hut had holes everywhere, especially the roof. Perhaps because there hadn’t been much rain during the three-year drought, no one had paid attention to whether the roof leaked. There was a visibly large hole, through which one could see inside.
If he aimed the magnifying glass at that hole...
he would be able to see...
Li Daoxuan began to agonize: “Should I be a decent human, or a wolf?”
Just as he was deeply conflicted, he suddenly noticed a face appear at the gaping hole.
It was Gao Yiye. She had stacked tables and stools, climbing precariously high, until she could reach the hole in the roof.
She looked up at the sky through the hole, and Li Daoxuan looked down through the hole from his "heavenly" perch.
Their gazes met once again.
A strange atmosphere passed between their eyes.
After several seconds, Gao Yiye averted her gaze. She wouldn't dare meet the Heavenly Lord’s eyes directly. Her grubby little face flushed instantly, so red that even the grime on her cheeks couldn’t hide it, turning her whole face a deep crimson.
However, she was so tiny, less than a centimeter tall in his perception.
Without the magnifying glass, Li Daoxuan couldn't discern her expression, much less the trace of shyness on her face.
Gao Yiye burst out of the door with a soft "thump" and ran.
She quickly ran to the Village Chief and, lowering her voice to a volume she was certain the Heavenly Lord couldn't hear, whispered: “Grandpa Village Chief, there’s something I want to ask you.”
The Village Chief: “Oh? What is it?”
Gao Yiye’s face was a deep crimson, like pig’s liver. “The Heavenly Lord, it seems... has been... watching me from the sky...”
The Village Chief: “This is your great fortune! The Heavenly Lord favors you, watching over you constantly from the sky. It is through your hands that he bestows food upon us, and through your mouth that he conveys his divine will. You should be grateful. Why do you look so strange?”
Gao Yiye: “I... I’ve been... constantly watched... How will I... change clothes? How will I... bathe?”
The Village Chief scoffed: “Hmph! So it’s just this trivial matter. Don’t you remember who gave you your life? What are changing clothes and bathing in comparison? If the Heavenly Lord ever requires your service, you should dutifully obey.”
In those times, many strange folk beliefs existed, and it was common for some sects to require women to "serve" their "deities." Of course, the deities themselves never tasted any "sweetness"; the women who offered their bodies were only serving monks, Daoist priests, or charlatans who claimed to "speak for the deities." (P.S. Don’t just laugh at the ancients; such things still happen today.)
Gao Yiye’s heart sank at the Village Chief’s words. So that was it? The Heavenly Lord saved her life and bestowed food upon her because he required her... service?
The Heavenly Lord’s young and handsome face flashed through her mind, but she immediately shook the thought away. Oh, what was she thinking? It was too disrespectful.
Back in her hut, she looked up at the hole in the roof, dismissing the thought of patching it up. Just as the Village Chief had said, if the Heavenly Lord wanted to watch, then he could watch. Her life, Gao Yiye’s life, was his to begin with; what could she possibly hide from him?
With trembling hands, she unfastened her clothes.
Her grimy body was revealed. She hadn’t bathed in so long that yellow sand had caked onto her skin.
Compounded by long-term malnutrition, her skin clung to her bones; her body was truly far from appealing.
She scoffed at herself inwardly: “This filthy, emaciated body, laid bare before the Heavenly Lord, he wouldn’t even deign to glance at it, would he? What was the point of hiding?”
She picked up a tattered cloth, wrung it out in the water bucket, then began to meticulously wipe herself clean...
She didn’t know that, at this very moment, Li Daoxuan had already put down the magnifying glass.
If the young girl hadn't caught him staring initially, he might have acted like a wolf.
But having been caught peeping once, no decent person would brazenly try to look a second time.
He averted his gaze, looking towards the edge of the diorama box. He wondered inwardly: “What was the situation with those little figures who had gone to the county town to find the strategist? Once they stepped out of the diorama box, he couldn’t see them or look after them. What if they died out there?”
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