Yang Jiabo winced, not daring to move too much. He had been hit by branches while sliding down, and the pain was intense. The place where he had fallen was a small hollow covered in vines, with a thick layer of fallen leaves on the ground and a small pond about the size of a bathtub nearby.
When Yang Jiabo saw the lush green vines near the pond, he froze. Were those fleeceflower vines? The ones he had found before weren’t as healthy as these. The terrain here was hidden and hard to discover. If he hadn’t fallen, he would never have found it.
Yang Jiabo’s heart raced. A voice inside him kept telling him that this might be the human-shaped fleeceflower root he had been searching for. In an instant, his spirit overcame his physical pain. Forgetting his injuries, he eagerly rushed over.
He carefully cleared the weeds and stones around the fleeceflower vine and began digging with his small hoe. He was extra cautious, afraid of damaging the herb and ruining its appearance.
As a child, his hands were tender, and soon blisters formed on his palms. But he was too excited to care about the pain. He had already caught a glimpse of the fleeceflower root, still covered in soil but roughly resembling a human shape.
However, this fleeceflower was different from what his second uncle had described. It was much smaller than expected. Second uncle had described it as being as long as an adult’s arm but slightly thinner.
Yang Jiabo treated it like a piece of art, carefully digging out the fleeceflower root, which was only about the size of an adult’s palm. He gently cleaned off the soil, revealing its true form. It looked like a round, chubby child. Had he dug it up too early, before it could grow larger?
However such a drastic change couldn’t happen in such a short time. The only possibility was that this wasn’t the same fleeceflower root that his second uncle had seen. Naturally formed human-shaped fleeceflower root was rare, and it was unlikely there would be two in the same mountain. Suddenly, he wasn’t sure if what he had found was even fleeceflower root.
Yang Jiabo placed some soil in his small basket, carefully nestled the fleeceflower root inside, covered it with leaves, and hurried back.
When he returned to his grandmother’s house, disheveled and dirty, he startled h is grandmother who was preparing dinner. She pulled him aside to check him over and felt relieved to find only minor scrapes. Yang Jiabo begged her to help him find someone heading into town the next day so he could hitch a ride back. He had been at his grandmother’s for about ten days, so his grandmother thought he was homesick.
That night, after falling asleep, Yang Jiabo kept hearing a child’s crying. The sound was intermittent, sending chills down his spine. He opened his eyes, but aside from the occasional clinking of cowbells, there was no other noise.
Yang Jiabo thought he must have been dreaming and fell back asleep. But then he heard the crying again, this time clearer.
“Who are you?” Yang Jiabo asked.
The crying paused for a moment, and then a vague voice came through. [No, no, don’t, eat, eat me.]
Yang Jiabo was stunned. “I’m not a cannibal. Why would I eat you?”
[Lie, lie, lie to Tengteng…]
Tengteng? What the heck? “Who are you?”
The voice seemed to be thinking, taking a long time to respond. [Teng, Teng, just Tengteng. You, you brought Tengteng back.]
The only thing he had brought back was the fleeceflower root. Yang Jiabo shivered. Could it be that the fleeceflower root had become sentient?
[You, you want to sell, sell Tengteng?]
“Huh? How do you know?” Yang Jiabo frowned. Was he dreaming, or had the human-shaped fleeceflower root really become sentient? If it had, should he still sell it? If not, should he return it?
Yang Jiabo frowned, images of the future flashing through his mind, forest fires that burned the mountains bare, over-cultivated fields, and barren hillsides after three years of drought.
[Scary, scary, what to do, what to do…] Tengteng started crying again, radiating fear.
“You, you can read my thoughts?” Yang Jiabo was shocked.
[Teng, Tengteng, scared, fire…]
So, it really had become sentient and could read his thoughts. Yang Jiabo wasn’t scared. What could a crying, stuttering little thing do to him? But if he returned it, it would either be dug up by someone else or die in a fire.
[No, no, go back. Stay, stay with you. Don’t sell me.] Tengteng was desperate.
“I can’t sell you, but if you don’t want to go back, should I just keep you and worship you?” Yang Jiabo really hadn’t thought this through.
[Plant, plant Tengteng. Tengteng can take care of grass.]
Take care of grass? The weeds around him did seem to grow well, but what was the point of growing grass? To feed rabbits? Could he even raise a rabbit as big as a pig?
Since he had already brought it back, he might as well plant it at home. What else could he do?
The next day, Yang Jiabo woke up, jumped out of bed, and ran barefoot to the basket containing the fleeceflower. The palm-sized fleeceflower was still half-buried in the soil, its green vines slightly wilted. There was nothing unusual about it.
“Tengteng? Tengteng?” Yang Jiabo called out a couple of times, but there was no response. He couldn’t help but laugh at himself. Since his rebirth, he really had become more childish.
Yang Jiabo packed his things and returned to the city with someone from the village. Back home, he planted the small fleeceflower under the peach tree in front of his house. After all, he wasn’t sure if it had all been a dream, but keeping it for a few days wouldn’t hurt. Besides, he hadn’t figured out how to sell it yet.
That night, he dreamed of Tengteng crying again, calling him a liar for still wanting to sell it. It cried and cried until Yang Jiabo’s head felt like it was about to explode. He had to swear he wouldn’t sell it before Tengteng finally calmed down. It seemed he had brought home a little ancestor!
No comments:
Post a Comment