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墨書 Inktalez
"Hey!" Cui Xiaoman poked him in the back with a twig. "Are you still going to teach me or not?"
Lin Dahe snapped back to reality and noticed that the character for "farm" on the sand table had been transformed into a clawing figure, resembling a little person holding a pitchfork.
"What is this... a monster you drew?"
"What monster!" Cui Xiaoman rolled her eyes. "This is me, tilling the land!"
She jumped up and mimicked swinging a hoe, nearly knocking over the oil lamp. The dim light danced across her face, making her radiant smile even more vivid. Lin Dahe suddenly felt a warmth wash over his heart and quickly lowered his head to smooth out the sand table.
"Tomorrow, I'll help you with the land," Cui Xiaoman said suddenly as she was leaving. "So you won't even be able to pay back the interest."
As her figure disappeared into the moonlight, Lin Dahe rushed towards the pile of glowing kitchen scraps. He swung the hoe and stirred it up, the rotten smell making his eyes water. On the third swing, the hoe suddenly clanged against something hard.
Clearing away the decaying vegetable leaves, he uncovered a rusty iron box. The lid was deformed, revealing a yellowed stack of paper inside. Just as Lin Dahe reached to take it out, a red warning popped up from the system: [Land deed detected, related to main storyline, temporarily inaccessible.]
At that moment, he caught a glimpse of a shadow flitting past outside the fence—it looked just like Aunt Ma.
Before the morning mist had fully lifted, Lin Dahe was jolted awake by loud knocking at the door. Rubbing his eyes, he opened the creaky wooden door and nearly bumped into Aunt Ma's heavily powdered face.
"The Lin family brothers are up early!" she exclaimed as she pushed her way inside, cradling a pair of brand new cloth shoe insoles. "I rushed these out last night; try them on and see if they fit."
The strong scent of osmanthus oil made Lin Dahe step back two paces. Aunt Ma had already made herself at home, wandering around the room with her Balsam Flower-stained nails gliding across the table and stove edge before finally resting on a low cabinet in the corner—where Lin Dahe kept his birch bark notebook for recording hybridization notes.
"Auntie, you're too kind..." Lin Dahe said nonchalantly as he positioned himself in front of the cabinet. When he took the insoles from her, he intentionally brushed against her wrist. The deep brown sandalwood beads she wore dug into his palm painfully; each bead bore an identical strange pattern—just like the decorations on Zhou Liangzhang's abacus.
"Ouch!" Aunt Ma suddenly bent down to smooth her skirt. "My old cold legs..."
Taking advantage of this moment, Lin Dahe stuffed his notes into the stove and turned to help her when he noticed her eyes still darting around. He sighed casually, "Things have been going missing lately; half of my dried mushrooms from two days ago are gone, and yesterday even my salt jar..."
"Robbers?" Aunt Ma straightened up abruptly, her eyes gleaming unusually bright.
"Probably just mice," Lin Dahe said as he fetched her a ladle of water. "I heard Zhou Liangzhang's family has good rat catchers?"
The ladle clanged as it fell into the vat. Aunt Ma chuckled awkwardly and changed the subject: "Speaking of exterminating rats, you need to use Sichuan pepper... Oh! My niece is sixteen this year and is great with needlework; tomorrow..."
It wasn't until he sent off this unexpected guest that Lin Dahe's ears were still buzzing. He sifted through the ashes in the stove to check his notes and found several pages had clearly been flipped through—especially those detailing experiments on grafting potatoes with local Wild Yam.
The morning dew by the creek hadn't dried yet as Lin Dahe squatted on the bluestone slab washing clothes. In the distance came the sound of footsteps—Cui Xiaoman emerged from the reeds carrying two wild rabbits, her pant legs still dripping with water.
"Did Widow Ma come looking for you?" she asked right off the bat.
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