"Undeveloped area. Do not enter!"
At the Yayu Mountain Primitive Forest Scenic Area, Yang Ziqian, fearless of death, went a few steps too far and suddenly stepped into empty air.
When she woke up, that one step had taken her a long way:
The familiar apartment buildings were gone, replaced by walls of sorghum stalks. Gaps let the wind in from every direction, and the roof had no tiles, only layers of flying thatch. One rainstorm and the place would become a Water Curtain Cave.
She had a pregnant mother, who was wiping her down with tears streaming from her nose and eyes. The tears landing on Yang Ziqian's face proved this was no stepmother.
When she woke, her father ordered, "Make some white flour porridge."
Her mother gave birth to a little sister, but the family didn't have a single egg, let alone a chicken. Yang Ziqian figured her mother wouldn't see so much as a chicken feather during her confinement.
Her father still ordered, "Make some white flour porridge."
Was this really her own father?
Three meals a day consisted of porridge so thin you could see your reflection in it, and wild-vegetable cornbread without a single drop of oil.
White flour porridge was the best this family could afford.
In the Water Curtain Cave, Monkey King raised havoc in Heaven. In the thatched hut, Yang Ziqian turned the world upside down.
How much you reap depends on how boldly you dare to dream. She refused to believe a modern woman from the 21st century would starve to death in Xisong, a land forgotten by history.
Years later, every Yang man had a valuable skill. There were said to be seventy-two trades, and a top talent in every one. Whenever a Yang family member entered a trade, the top honor never went to anyone else.
Her lifelong singleness had built the Yang family's prosperity. With forty-eight grand houses and hundreds of family members, they stood proudly in the world, beyond anyone's contempt.
The Yang clan didn't provoke others, but no one dared provoke them. None of them entered officialdom, yet the whole court quaked, even more afraid of the Yang family matriarch: first the Fourth Miss, then Fourth Aunt, and finally the old woman everyone called Fourth Granny.
They sought a peaceful, untroubled life away from the world, and had the power to create it, the strength to protect it, and the time to enjoy it. With one person's wisdom and the whole family's strength, they would make their clan stand proudly above the rest.
That was more than enough!
At least Yang Ziqian hadn't crossed a thousand years just to end up with nothing!
