Lan Tian struck hard with all her might, causing such pain that she ’hissed’ and gasped for breath, with two teardrops welling up in her eyes, too agonizing to bear.
Could this really not be a dream?
At this moment, Lan Tian’s head was in a muddle, her mind a white blur; with her lack of worldly wisdom, she couldn’t fathom the outcome. Not bothering to think further, being able to see grandma again was a tremendous blessing, why fuss over anything else?
The current situation resembled her early days in Mo Village. While no one was around, Lan Tian sorted through her distant, jumbled memories. Considering her current tiny stature, it was hard to guess her age. Closing her eyes, her memories flashed by like a slideshow, rapidly reverting from her twilight years, stopping at when she was six.
That year when she was six, she had fled the famine to Mo Village, scrambling over the mountain from the other side, directionless and wandering aimlessly, settling wherever she ended up. At night perched in a tree, by day on the move. She only drank from a river twice on the journey, picking wild fruits from the mountains to fend off hunger. It had been seven days since she last drank, and she hadn’t eaten since, so dizzy with hunger that she sustained on sheer will. Barely making it down the mountain to see the village, she intended to beg for some water to drink, but her will gave out, and she collapsed at the entrance to the village...
Lan Tian lifted her arm and kicked her leg, feeling lighter than before. Peering through a corner of the window, she saw a tattered but clean cotton-padded jacket drying in the courtyard, proof that she truly returned to when she was six years old. Unfortunately, she didn’t know that in this world, there existed something called web novels, or words like ’rebirth’ or ’time-travel’, otherwise she would’ve known that she had been reborn.
Cultivators believe in causality, and Lan Tian understood this phenomenon as—time reversal.
For existence, there must be cause and effect. Regardless of why, as long as the outcome was good upon return, there was no need for further inquiry.
When she had fainted, someone had cleaned her body; the person could only be one of two people, either grandma or Fifth Aunt, given the fresh set of clean clothes she now wore. As she tried to sit up, her back stung scorchingly, biting the air in pain when her fingertips brushed against it.
Lan Tian remembered that she apparently had suffered from prickly heat, it was scorching, and in the blistering heat, wearing a cotton-padded jacket was bound to cause prickly heat. After Grandma Sun took her in, she heard from casual conversation that it was Fifth Aunt who had scraped the prickly heat off her back, enduring pain for over a month before it recovered.
There was still a foul odor in the room, irritating her senses. Lan Tian lifted her hand to her nose, detecting a faint smell, a bit less pungent than that in the room, and she fluttered her nostrils, searching for the source of the stench.
After circling around, she discovered the stench was pervasive, yet its exact location elusive. A thought struck her, and she reached to touch her head, recoiling at the greasy feel, repulsive to the point that Lan Tian wanted to retreat instantly. Glancing at her hand, it was smeared with a layer of black, greasy substance akin to oil sludge, blacker than the grime in a sewage ditch. Without even sniffing, a foul smell assaulted her, nearly causing Lan Tian to pass out, an intolerable torture to her senses.
"Child, does it hurt a lot?" Grandma Sun and Mo Yuanle entered, witnessing Lan Tian’s grimace and rolling white eyes, assuming the child was in pain. Grandma Sun hurriedly approached, endlessly checking, "Where does it hurt? Does your head still hurt? Is it your back? Tell grandma, your pain. Your Uncle is a doctor, grandma will have him prescribe you some painless herbs."
This is what a real grandma is like!
Overwhelmed by emotion, Lan Tian couldn’t care less about the dreadful smell. Even she was disgusted with herself, yet grandma, acting as if she smelled nothing, kept asking her questions. Lan Tian caught a glimpse of Uncle, and sure enough, as the fiercest man in Mo Village, he didn’t so much as wrinkle his brow at the stench (what did the smell have to do with being menacing?).
"I’m fine." Lan Tian reassured her grandma repeatedly with utmost seriousness, barely stopping short of swearing to the heavens, before grandma finally relented.
"If there’s anything, you must tell grandma, don’t keep it to yourself."
Lan Tian’s face was tangled with conflict; grandma had no intention to adopt her yet—it was through her own insistence that she stayed. Later, seeing that she was quite well-behaved, grandma then decided to take her in. They were still strangers, after all; wouldn’t it be too much to make requests?
"If there’s anything, tell grandma, don’t be afraid. Yuangle, you go outside and keep an eye out," said Grandma Sun, who hated to see the child feeling oppressed, thinking it was her nephew with his fierce expression that scared her, she turned to send Mo Yuanle away. Mo Yuanle felt like an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire, wanting to argue that he hadn’t frightened the child, but seeing his aunt’s determined look to drive him out, he left for the outside dejectedly.
What had he come in for again?
Once he left, Grandma Sun’s smile bloomed like a flower, her eyes full of encouragement. Lan Tian weighed her options: either suffocate from the stench, maintaining her shyness, or wash up clean and fresh to leave a good impression on grandma. Lan Tian decisively chose the latter. She wasn’t afraid to speak up; at worst, she’d cheekily beg to be adopted later.
"Grandma, I want to wash my hair." The child’s tender voice melted into Grandma Sun’s heart, her eyes crinkling with a smile, "Alright, alright, grandma has boiled water ready, just wait, I’ll fetch it for you now," helping Lan Tian towards the courtyard.
"Grandma, I can walk on my own." Lan Tian refused to be assisted, her body reeking terribly, not wanting to transfer the smell onto grandma. Grandma Sun wanted to say more, but Lan Tian supported herself on the bed frame and hopped down.
Lan Tian had forgotten she was still ill, her legs as weak as noodles; as soon as they touched the ground, she started to fall. Grandma Sun on the side reacted with horror, quickly catching her. Lan Tian’s face burned fiercely, speechless for a long while, unable to face anyone.
It was Grandma Sun who broke the silence and eased her granddaughter’s embarrassment, "It’s alright, grandma will support you. Once you’re better, you’ll walk on your own."