Chapter 5: Let's Keep Them
Before long, all forty-two residents of the village had gathered around the enormous, plain boiled egg.
Forty-two pairs of bewildered eyes stared collectively at the colossal boiled egg.
Ten yards long, over three yards tall—it was an egg of unimaginable size.
Standing before it, people felt as though they were facing a small house.
Had a hole not been cracked in its shell, clearly revealing the yolk within, they wouldn't have dared believe it was a shelled, boiled egg at all.
The Village Chief of Gao Family Village stood at the forefront, his wrinkled face creased with doubt. "Yiye," he began, "did you say this massive boiled egg was a gift from the Heavenly Lord?"
Gao Yiye nodded, pointing skyward. "It's from the same Heavenly Lord who helped us eliminate the bandits yesterday."
The people of Gao Family Village exchanged bewildered glances.
The scene from yesterday still felt fresh in their minds: a gang of heinous brigands flattened into bloody pulp by an unseen, crushing force, blood spattering everywhere. The sight had been utterly terrifying.
But no one else had witnessed it.
The villagers weren't sure whether to believe her words.
Now, barely a day later, Gao Yiye had produced another enormous egg, again claiming it was a gift from the Heavenly Lord.
The Village Chief sighed. "Thinking about it carefully, who else but the Heavenly Lord could have accomplished yesterday's feat? And this enormous egg today? No one could have produced it save the Heavenly Lord. Even if such a colossal egg truly existed in this world, there wouldn't be a pot large enough to boil it."
Heads nodded in agreement all around.
The Village Chief continued, "Yiye, it seems the Heavenly Lord favors you especially, appearing only before you. The rest of us are simply too lacking in fortune to be blessed with a glimpse of His venerable presence."
Gao Yiye's eyes widened slightly. "The Heavenly Lord... favors me especially?"
The Village Chief nodded. "Did His venerable self have any other instructions?"
Gao Yiye thought hard. "He only told me to eat it... Oh, and he also said to invite all the villagers to eat."
Gao Chuwu smacked his lips beside her. He had just eaten a fist-sized chunk of yolk, and tiny flecks of egg still clung to his lips. He continuously licked at them, unwilling to waste even a speck. "I've already had a piece," he announced. "It's so good."
Seeing that the two youngsters had eaten without ill effect, the Village Chief no longer hesitated. He pointed to the massive egg before them, stating gravely, "Since the Heavenly Lord has bestowed this upon us to eat, then eat we shall. However, there will be no disorderly grabbing. That would only spill it everywhere and gravely waste food. Chuwu, go fetch a knife to cut it!"
"I reckon this egg weighs around fifty catties. With forty-two people in the village, each person shall receive one catty. Any remainder will belong to Yiye."
With the Village Chief's basic allocation complete, Gao Chuwu returned with a knife. Everyone carefully cut and weighed their portions, terrified of spilling even a speck of egg white or yolk. Each person received half a catty of yolk and half a catty of egg white, which they took in bowls and devoured ravenously.
As for the extra few catties, the villagers helped Gao Yiye place them in a large basin and carried it to her home, setting it in a cool spot. Boiled eggs didn't keep well in the summer heat, but when facing starvation, who cared if it might spoil? They would eat it regardless.
After eating their fill, the villagers knelt together on the ground, bowing toward the sky in worship. They thanked the Heavenly Lord for His grace, and implored Him for an end to the drought, for favorable weather, and for a bountiful harvest.
Inside the Diorama Box, tranquility returned. The little people resumed their usual labors, which invariably boiled down to one thing: finding food! Scouring hillsides, sifting through riverbeds, digging three feet deep for anything edible...
Despite having just eaten a full meal, they were already fretting about tomorrow's sustenance.
Gao Yiye, too, picked up her bamboo basket again, searching for roots across the sandy, barren land as she always did. Perhaps it was the full meal she'd just had, but her steps now held a touch more vigor, no longer appearing quite so pathetic.
Li Daoxuan sat outside the Diorama Box, silently observing the little people's actions, a complex mix of emotions swirling within him. He felt quite disturbed.
One egg wouldn't save them!
So, should he give them an egg every day?
Eating only eggs wouldn't provide enough nutrition, would it?
He'd need to get them some rice and vegetables, and meat occasionally.
Right, salt was essential too. Humans couldn't go without salt. And these little people were still human, weren't they?
As he considered this, the matter seemed to grow more complicated.
Li Daoxuan thought to himself: "Was he essentially raising a box full of miniature hamsters?"
Given the appetites of these forty-two little people, he'd need to spend at least one or two hundred yuan a month to feed them. It wasn't an unaffordable expense. *Fine, he'd commit to it.*
He opened Baidu and searched, "How to raise little people from a miniature world?"
Baidu offered no answers.
Then he opened his usual military history forum and posted anonymously: "If you had a group of little people from a miniature world, how would you raise them?"
Reply 1: "Are there any female little people? Grab one every day and lift her skirt."
Reply 2: "Watch them bathe every day."
Li Daoxuan muttered, "Damn morons, all of them."
There was no reasoning with such an unprincipled bunch.
It seemed he'd have to "cross the river by feeling for stones"—start from scratch and learn how to raise these little people.
Li Daoxuan walked into his kitchen and surveyed his food reserves...
Well, there were practically none!
Like most young city dwellers, he mostly ordered takeout. He rarely cooked anything more complex than noodles or a couple of eggs, so his fridge was bare. Apart from a few eggs, half a handful of dried noodles, and some cooking oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, there was virtually nothing else.
This clearly wouldn't do.
Li Daoxuan glanced at the Diorama Box, confirmed the little people didn't need his immediate attention, then rushed out. He dashed into the nearest supermarket, emerged with a sack of rice slung over his shoulder, two cuts of pork, a bag of vegetables, and a large packet of salt—spending well over a hundred yuan in total.
Back home, Li Daoxuan leaned close to the Diorama Box. He counted them: all forty-two little people were still there, diligently searching for food.
A mischievous idea suddenly struck him. He snipped open the rice sack and scooped out a handful of grains.
Pristine white Northeastern rice, exuding a rich, earthy aroma.
He located the young woman's house in the village and peered inside with a magnifying glass. Her home was utterly bare, devoid of almost any furniture.
Such an empty house; it would be a shame not to fill it with something.
Li Daoxuan cupped his hand like a scoop, aimed it at the young woman's window, and slowly, steadily poured the handful of rice into her house, filling half the room.
He clapped his hands, waiting happily. *She'll be so thrilled to come home and find all this rice, won't she?*
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