Four-Year-Old Manman Can Hear the Mountains, and Her Whole Family Gets Rich

[Adorable child + mountain foraging + farming + everyone's favorite + animal companions + healing family bonds + feel-good wish fulfillment + face-slapping and putting scumbags in their place + no romance]

When four-year-old Jiang Manman was thrown into the snowbound Cangwu Ridge by her biological father, everyone said she wouldn't survive the night.

But Xie Qingshan, a lame hunter, found her and took her home.

The Xie family was so poor you could see your reflection in the bottom of their pot. Her three older brothers were starving, and her fierce grandmother used the last half-bowl of rice to make porridge and fed every bit of it to Manman.

But the next day, Manman crouched in front of a tree hollow and called out in her sweet little voice, "Dad, there's lots of meat in here."

One swing of Xie Qingshan's hoe later, they dug up a nest of plump rabbits hibernating for the winter.

On the third day, Manman wrapped her arms around a boulder. "Granny, the ginseng grandpa underneath says he can't breathe."

The Xie family dug up a hundred-year-old ginseng root and replaced their shabby house with one built of gray bricks.

Later, Manman took the whole family into the mountains to forage. They gathered mushrooms, dug up wild ginseng, raised musk deer, and planted medicinal herbs, while also rescuing a golden snub-nosed monkey, a white wolf king, and a fat mountain bird that stole eggs every day.

The Jiang family, who once called her a jinx, came looking for her. "Manman, Dad's here to take you home."

Manman clung to Xie Qingshan's neck and shook her little head like a rattle drum. "Manman doesn't have a dad like that. Manman's dad saves the last bite of meat for her."

The beasts of Cangwu Mountain roared together, and everyone in Qingshi Valley grabbed a weapon.

"Want to take our little Manman? Ask the mountain if it'll let you!"