Chapter 155: Everyone understood without saying a word. That was fine.

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The next day, Wen Yao went to inspect the duck shed as usual. To her surprise, there were several more people in the fields. Besides the brothers Wang Yong and Wang Yuan, there were also a few old men about the same age as Old Man Wen.

The group moved cautiously among the rows, taking care not to step on even the tiniest seedling. Every touch was gentle, as though they feared damaging a single leaf.

The man walking in the middle was none other than Old Man Wen.

“Grandpa, what are you all doing?” Wen Yao was just about to step into the field when Old Man Wen abruptly raised a hand and shouted, “Stop! You stay right there!”

Wen Yao withdrew her foot and looked down. There was nothing beneath it.

Old Man Wen carefully zigzagged his way out without touching a single plant. He examined the ground beneath Wen Yao’s feet and only relaxed after confirming that she had not stepped down.

Wen Yao stared at him, utterly baffled.

“You careless girl. Don’t go trampling the plants,” Old Man Wen scolded.

Wen Yao was speechless.

After a moment, she burst into laughter. “Grandpa, aren’t you being a little too careful? They’ve grown well already. Stepping on one won’t kill it.”

Old Man Wen flushed at being teased by the girl. He knew he had overreacted, but when he thought of how valuable these plants were, he could not bear to lose even a single leaf.

“What brings you here?” he asked.

Wen Yao glanced toward the field. There was Old Wang, and another man they called Second Grandpa, who was Old Man Wen’s cousin. The third was another villager, known as Crooked Yang because of his slightly lame leg. All three were very close friends of Old Man Wen.

“Grandpa, what are you doing here? And why are Grandpa Wang and the others here too?” Wen Yao asked curiously.

Old Man Wen waved the tobacco pipe in his hand. “Your Grandpa Wang and the others came to have a look.”

“Oh.” Wen Yao did not ask anything further. Her grandmother had told her that these men had grown up with Old Man Wen and had been his childhood friends. Perhaps he had already told them about what was growing in the field.

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“Then you can keep looking around. I’m going home to find Grandma.”

After saying that, Wen Yao called toward the field and waved. “Grandpa Wang, Second Grandpa, Grandpa Yang, I’m leaving!”

The three men looked up from the field and waved back.

“All right. Take care, and don’t fall!”

Wen Yao answered cheerfully and skipped away.

Old Man Wen watched her leave, his eyes full of affection. Only after she had gone a considerable distance did he carefully return to the field and join his old friends.

“The plants in this field cannot be allowed to suffer the slightest mishap,” he said. “Others may have forgotten what happened that year, but I haven’t.”

At those words, the expressions of the other three men changed. Though their reactions differed, all their faces bore the same sorrow and fear.

“Very well. Don’t worry. We’ll come by more often these next few days and take good care of everything,” the three men promised.

Old Man Wen looked at them and hesitated before speaking. “The seeds were found by my eldest son. When the harvest comes, I’ll speak to him and have him save some seeds for each of your families.”

The three men brightened.

“Big Brother Wen, thank you so much.”

Old Man Wen waved a hand. “Of all the brothers who came here back then, only the few of us are left. You don’t want to go through anything like that again either. So you must keep what’s growing here a secret. Don’t tell anyone—not even your own families. If people find out and steal some, it wouldn’t be so bad if they managed to grow it. But if they couldn’t, then this is something that could save lives. It would be a terrible waste.”

The three men nodded repeatedly in agreement.

When Wen Yao returned home, she told Madam Luo what had happened.

Madam Luo was sorting her fermented bean paste as she sighed. “This has always been your grandfather’s deepest worry. Decades ago, he was only a child. A famine struck our region, and many people died. In your grandfather’s family, he was the eldest. Both of his younger brothers died, and he alone survived. Your Second Grandpa’s family suffered even more. The things your father said to him yesterday have clearly stayed with him.”

Wen Yao felt a pang in her heart. “Grandma, that really happened?”

She had always thought this was merely a world from a book, a place without a past or previous lives. She had never imagined that even a world within a book could become an independent world, where every person’s existence followed its own course.

Perhaps these events had never been written by the original author, but they were the lives of these people all the same.

Madam Luo told Wen Yao many more things, but when she turned around, she saw that Wen Yao had drifted into thought.

“What are you thinking about?” Madam Luo called.

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Wen Yao came back to herself. “Nothing. Grandma, what did you just say?”

Seeing that Wen Yao had not been listening, and knowing that those events were already in the past, Madam Luo decided there was no point in saying more. She shook her head.

“Nothing. I was saying that if your grandfather wants to keep watch over the field, let him. He won’t feel at ease otherwise. By the way, how is business at your roast-duck shop lately?”

At the mention of that, Wen Yao had plenty to say.

“We sell out of duck every day now. Sister Qiu even said there isn’t enough to meet demand and asked when the ducks at our house would be fully grown.” Wen Yao smiled.

Madam Luo was relieved to hear that business was doing well. She let out a breath and smiled more broadly.

“Your second and third aunts practically want to live in the duck shed now. Even at the fastest pace, it’ll still take a month or two. How could they grow up any sooner?”

Her fermented bean paste would take a month before the first batch was ready as well. In the end, making money was not something one could rush.

“And what exactly did you plant beneath the wall? I see it’s grown quite tall.”

Madam Luo had begun to feel that the entire eldest son’s household was peculiar. The eldest son and Wen Yao were forever acting mysterious, while only Little Jun and Datou seemed even remotely normal. She had no idea what those two were constantly tinkering with.

The sunflowers Wen Yao had planted were thriving. Perhaps it was because they came from her special space. Each one had grown thick and sturdy, and every seed had sprouted—not a single dud among them.

“Flowers,” Wen Yao replied. “Flowers you can eat.”

By now, she had more or less stopped bothering to hide things. After potatoes, corn, and sweet potatoes, followed by chilies and tomatoes, Wen Yao had realized that Old Man Wen and Madam Luo no longer asked many questions. There was no need for her to keep concealing everything.

They could simply be open about it while silently understanding one another. That worked perfectly well.

Madam Luo’s eyes widened. Could it be another unusual thing?

“Don’t tell me it’s something else that can fill your stomach?” she asked. If the old man found out, wouldn’t he start spending every day sitting at the eldest son’s house?

Wen Yao gave a little laugh. “Grandma, not everything can fill your stomach. I don’t really know how to describe it yet. Once it grows, I’ll show you. Actually, it’s something like our pumpkin seeds. It also produces edible seeds.”

A trace of disappointment appeared in Madam Luo’s eyes.

“So it’s just seeds?”

She had thought it might be another crop that could be sold for money. Since it was merely a snack, then Wen Yao could just grow it for the children to play with.