Otherworldly Space: A Tale of Love and Growth

Old Lady Song stared at the ginseng that Song Ci took out, her eyes lifeless and her expression dazed, as if she had been struck dumb.

If it had been just one or two plants, she wouldn’t have reacted so strongly.

But there, on the tattered cloth, was a whole pile of fresh ginseng, varying in thickness and shape, with their roots intertwined and still covered in soil. There were definitely no fewer than ten of them.

As time slowly passed, the first thing Old Lady Song did when she came to her senses was to grab the broom she usually used to sweep the kang and swing it at Song Ci.

Song Ci quickly dodged and, seizing the opportunity, restrained his mother’s hand.

“Mother, what are you doing?” Song Ci felt aggrieved.

Both his mother and his future young wife were quick to resort to violence at the slightest disagreement. Life was simply unbearable.

And he didn’t dare to fight back against either of them.

“I told you not to be a bad influence. Where did you steal this ginseng from? How dare you steal someone else’s ginseng? With so much ginseng, even your life and mine wouldn’t be enough to compensate,” Old Lady Song said fiercely, her voice tinged with tears.

Why couldn’t this child be more sensible?

Song Ci felt both amused and frustrated. This was his own mother, and she couldn’t even think of him in a positive light.

Alas.

He had been trying hard to change the impression left by his predecessor, but as soon as something happened, the trust between mother and son was so fragile.

“Return it quietly before anyone notices,” Old Lady Song said. She didn’t believe that Song Ergou could have the ability to obtain so much ginseng.

In all these decades, there hadn’t been many families who had found ginseng in the mountains. How could it be that Song Ergou just happened to find it, and in such large quantities?

“Mother, I didn’t steal it. I dug it up from the mountain.”

“Don’t try to deceive me. How could you possibly dig up so much ginseng at once?”

“Mother, I’m not lying. It’s not exactly accurate to say I dug it up. It was a gift from Father.”

“What? Your father?” Hearing Song Ci mention her long-dead husband, Old Lady Song momentarily forgot all her suspicions. Even the loud noise of the broom falling to the ground didn’t catch her attention.

“Yes, Father appeared to me in a dream last night. He said that he couldn’t rest in peace because I was not ambitious before. Now that I’ve changed for the better, he is very pleased and relieved. The only thing he couldn’t let go of was you, Mother. Father told me that he had buried some ginseng in a place in the mountains and asked me to go and retrieve it for you. I was afraid that it was just a dream, so I didn’t dare tell you during the day.”

“When I got to the place Father described and dug three zhang deep, I found the ginseng. Only then did I dare to believe that it was real.”

Before Song Ci could finish speaking, Old Lady Song was already in tears, her tears streaming down the wrinkles on her face and soaking her collar.

The women and Ge’er in the village all envied her good fortune in marrying such a capable man as Song the carpenter and living a life of comfort. She had often taken pride in this in her heart.

Now, she realized just how blessed she had been to marry him.

He was still thinking of her even after death.

If there was a next life, she would marry that man again and be his wife for another lifetime.

“Mother, why are you crying? This is a good thing,” Song Ci quickly embraced his mother and comforted her.

“Ergou, you really didn’t deceive me. These things really were sent by your father,” Old Lady Song wiped away her tears and confirmed once more.

“I didn’t deceive you. It’s true. Otherwise, where would I get so much ginseng?” Song Ci inwardly apologized to his adoptive father in heaven.

His ability to travel through time and space was, after all, an arrangement of fate.

Using such a pretext to change his and Old Lady Song’s lives and accumulate some capital for future business ventures seemed acceptable.

“Father also said that you should enjoy your old age well, not to skimp on food and clothing, and not to save everything for your descendants. He wants you to enjoy the blessings he didn’t get to fully experience,” Song Ci’s comforting words were very soothing to Old Lady Song.

After crying, Old Lady Song finally had the mood to examine the ginseng that Song Ci had brought.

There were thirteen ginseng roots of varying thickness and length, the largest of which was probably over a hundred years old, a genuine and extremely valuable item. The smallest one was still as thick as a finger.

Old Lady Song reached out to touch the ginseng but then hesitated, fearing that as a commoner, she might damage these precious items.

Then, remembering something, she turned to Song Ci sternly and warned, “Ergou, these are all life-saving treasures. You must not let slip a word about them outside. Don’t tell anyone, not even your uncle’s family.”

“Mother, you don’t have to tell me. I understand the gravity of the situation.”

“Then I’ll put these things away. Remember, don’t go around talking about them,” Old Lady Song took out a piece of brown cotton cloth from the bedside cabinet, intending to repackage the ginseng. That tattered white cloth was hardly a match for the value of the ginseng.

“Mother, with so much ginseng, we won’t be able to use it all in several lifetimes. For life-saving purposes, we only need to keep the thickest few. Let’s sell a few of the remaining ones,” Song Ci continued to persuade when he saw that Old Lady Song was reluctant.

“The roots of these two are already damaged. We don’t know how to properly preserve ginseng. If we wait too long and it loses its medicinal efficacy, wouldn’t that be a loss? I say it’s better to sell them. Remember what I just said? Father gave you these so that you could live a good life. How can he rest easy if you hoard them like this?”

“Our life is already good enough. Let’s keep the ginseng as a family heirloom,” Old Lady Song weakly defended herself. Who else in the village could afford meat occasionally and white steamed buns every few days like they could?

“Each generation has its own fortune. You can worry about your grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but you can’t worry about the ones to come. It will be their parents’ concern then.”

Old Lady Song stared strangely at her own Song Ergou, thinking that her son was still as selfish and heartless as ever. For his own pleasure, he didn’t even want to think about future generations.

She didn’t care about her great-grandchildren, but she did.

However, in the end, Old Lady Song still picked out one of the more severely damaged roots from the two and handed it to Song Ci, reluctantly telling him to sell it in the county town.

Song Ci looked at the small, thin ginseng root with a thirty-year age, feeling somewhat speechless. He had taken out so many ginseng roots from the spatial storage, but in the end, the one he could sell was the one with the worst overall quality. The other root was also damaged, after all.