Chapter 7 – Learning to Live (Patreon)

Xue Yong’s wife didn’t know what Lynn Naya was thinking. She was still waiting for her answer.

“I won’t take the hide,” Lynn Naya said. Not because she wasn’t cold, but because she didn’t want to have to explain where she got it from. “It takes a lot of effort to prepare the food, so you can keep the hide and the organs and things like that. I only want the meat.”

They were being generous to her, so she couldn’t be greedy.

Xue Yong’s wife waved her hands in refusal. “How can we do that? That’s too much. We should split it.” Animal hides were valuable. They could be used for clothes, and the Dao Palace was even buying them.

Lynn Naya smiled. “I don’t need the hide for now. If you feel bad about it, just give me some medicinal herbs or extra meat later on. We’re going to be neighbors for a long time, so don’t worry about it.”

The conversation was winding down.

After Xue Yong’s wife tried to refuse a few more times, Lynn Naya put her foot down, and she finally accepted. They chatted for a little while longer before Xue Yong’s wife went home.

When she returned, she told her husband everything they had talked about. When Xue Yong heard her say, “We’re going to be neighbors for a long time,” he said, “She really said that?”

“Yes. I think Lady Lynn is a very generous person. I don’t think we’ll have any problems continuing to work with her.” his wife replied.

“She was talking about our partnership. Fine, let’s do as she says. I’ve already checked around; she’s the only one who has this medicine. Since she’s so generous with us, we shouldn’t be stingy either. We’ll just give her more from our share from now on.”

“Okay.” his wife said. She wasn’t a petty person, so she readily agreed.

Lynn Naya, who had heard their entire conversation, waited until they blew out their candle and laid down before she began to enjoy the roasted rabbit on her table.

The rabbit meat was firm and came off the bone in large chunks. Even though it was only seasoned with salt, her body, which had been deprived of meat for so long, found it more fragrant the more she chewed it. The more she ate, the more satisfied she became.

That night, for the first time, Lynn Naya ate until she was full.

As she held her stomach and slowly ground the leftover bones to bury them in her herb pot, she had only one thought before falling asleep: I really hope it’s warm next time.

Cold meat just didn’t taste as good as hot, fragrant meat. And food that passed through other people’s hands was always a little less safe.

When Lynn Naya woke up the next day, it was a beautiful, clear day again.

Sunny weather always put her in a good mood. Thinking that her neighbors would probably return with a bigger haul, Lynn Naya felt a sense of anticipation.

Her good mood lasted until sunset. In the evening, her neighbors, just as she expected, returned with a full haul. But unlike last time, everyone looked unhappy.

Did something happen? Did they not divide the loot evenly?

Soon, after Xue Yong’s wife came to her door with a large bag of roasted rabbit jerky, Lynn Naya learned the whole story.

The neighbors weren’t unhappy about the division of goods, but because Xue Yong wouldn’t let them take more even though there was a treasure trove right in front of them.

“…There are so many rabbit holes on that farm. We smoked out ten rabbits in less than fifteen minutes. Fan Shi and the others wanted to catch more, but my husband wouldn’t let them, and they got into a big fight. They don’t think about it. If we catch too many, we can’t process them all, let alone explain how we got them.”

“The moment you’re back here, everyone is watching you. If we bring all those rabbits back, we won’t even be able to leave our houses. If we bring a little bit back at a time, we won’t attract attention, and we can make a steady income. They just can’t grasp that simple logic.”

Everyone’s thoughts were different. It wasn’t strange that in a time like this, people would feel that what they had in their hands was what truly belonged to them. Lynn Naya couldn’t just condemn their short-sightedness. “Maybe it’s because winter is coming soon, and they all want to have more food in their hands for security.”

“I know,” Xue Yong’s wife sighed. “In this world, no one knows what tomorrow will bring. But I still feel bad for my husband.”

Sensing she had said too much, Xue Yong’s wife quickly changed the subject. “Oh, right. The autumn harvest is about to begin. You can exchange all this jerky for some better grains.”

The reason you could exchange for better grains now was not because they were cheaper, but because this was the only time you could get them.

The worst grain in the mortal zone was bran. The next step up was coarse millet, followed by regular rice and flour. The best was refined rice and flour. She heard there was also spiritual rice, but that was only available at the Dao Palace, and a mortal would never get to see or eat it.

Lynn Naya had already planned to exchange for better grains. Bran cakes just weren’t nutritious enough.

She had thought about it. If she had a steady supply of meat, she could use all her contribution points to exchange for coarse rice instead of bran or millet.

“Okay, thank you for the reminder, Auntie.”

Xue Yong’s wife had come to return her wooden basin, and she wasn’t being secretive about it. Being secretive would only make her seem more suspicious. They chatted for a bit, and Lynn Naya smiled gratefully as she saw her out.

The courtyard was small, so the commotion didn’t go unnoticed.

The other two families had clearly gotten the wrong idea. After a while, Uncle Wang brought Lynn Naya a bowl of nuts, and then the last family in the courtyard, the Zhao family, brought her some of their homemade dried fruit.

Lynn Naya didn’t judge who gave her more or less. She smiled and thanked them all.

After that day, as long as the weather was good, Lynn Naya would occasionally receive some meat. When the amount was small, it was just roasted meat. When the amount was large, it was all jerky, which was easy to store and took up less space.

The relationship between the families in the courtyard was still a bit strained, but it didn’t seem to get any worse, probably because the autumn harvest was about to begin.

With the addition of meat to her diet, Lynn Naya’s complexion visibly improved. Her cheeks were fuller, and her hair, once dry and brittle, had a bit of a sheen to it.

Her changes didn’t go unnoticed, but since it was autumn and many people came to her for medical help, most people assumed she had been making a good living lately. It didn’t cause much of a stir.

With her body getting better, her cultivation speed did increase slightly, but only by a little. It used to take her five or six days to get a single experience point, but now it was consistently five days. She did the math. At this rate, it would take her at least a year to get to the second level of Qi Condensation.

So slow.

But Lynn Naya was helpless. She had no shortcuts. All she could do was continue to nourish her body.

First, get her body in good shape, then she could think about strengthening her bones and meridians.

As the weather began to turn from warm to cool, the autumn harvest at the foot of the Dao Palace officially began.

The autumn harvest was a happy occasion, but it was also a problem.

Perhaps because the human population had decreased, the animal population outside had grown. Every year during the harvest, birds would come to steal the grains. These birds weren’t the adorable ones from her old world. They were vicious and could peck a person until their head bled.

Grain was the foundation of human life. So at times like these, the Dao Palace would send disciples down the mountain to help.

This year, eight disciples came down.

To most people, the Dao Palace was just a majestic snow-capped mountain shrouded in clouds. Now that they could see real cultivators, everyone was filled with anticipation.

When the eight disciples came down the mountain, Lynn Naya saw her neighbors, who usually stayed indoors, all poking their heads out of their huts. Those who couldn’t go out sat on their roofs to watch, and those who could went with their kids to the fields to get a closer look.

No matter which world she was in, people loved a good show and admired the strong.

Lynn Naya hadn’t rented a field. The herbs she was responsible for only ripened every eight years, so the harvest had very little to do with her.

But that didn’t stop her from blending into the crowd to watch the Dao Palace disciples. She wanted to see for herself what the cultivators of this world were like.

Unfortunately, contrary to the vague memories of flying through the air and burrowing through the ground, these disciples were all very young. The oldest were in their teens, and the youngest was just a child. They couldn’t fly on swords; they had to walk down the mountain.

But even with their young age, they could use their spiritual energy to control their weapons and kill the birds.

Eight flying swords danced in the air, and one after another, the vicious birds fell from the sky, delighting the farmers below who were guarding their fields.

Lynn Naya stood at the edge of the crowd and watched for a long time. She asked herself if she could do what they were doing if her body was healthier. The answer was no.

Sigh.

There was a big difference between a cultivator with a proper lineage and a rogue one.

But that was okay. She had plenty of time to figure things out on her own.

After watching for a long time, she didn’t leave until there were no more birds in the sky, and the disciples sat down to meditate. She returned to her hut and began to cultivate.

Realizing that she couldn’t even compare to the children among the disciples, a sense of competition began to stir within her.

*

The autumn harvest lasted three days. After the three days were over, the Dao Palace disciples returned to the mountain, leaving behind the mortals to celebrate their harvest.

This year’s harvest must have been very good. New grains were in the market, and those who had some savings were happy to trade their old grain for new. Most of them didn’t exchange for much, just a handful or a small bag.

That little bit of grain was probably the reward for a year of hard work.

Lynn Naya also exchanged for some new grain. Since she had a lot of jerky, trading it in the open would attract too much attention. Xue Yong offered to be her middleman and privately exchanged the meat for her. As thanks, Lynn Naya gave him ten percent of the new grain.

Nothing was ever given for free. To have a long-lasting, friendly relationship, you couldn’t let the other person suffer a loss.

Besides the new grain, Lynn Naya also exchanged for a new straw mattress.

She hadn’t planned on getting a straw mattress. She already had a quilt and didn’t need one. But one day, on her way back from the medicinal fields, she saw a brother and sister in their teens selling straw mattresses by the side of the road. They were so emaciated their cheekbones jutted out like African refugees from her old world. She couldn’t help but stop.

In the end, she bought four extra-thick straw mattresses. One was for herself, and the other three she would give to her neighbors. The price was two pounds of bran and a handful of nuts as a delivery fee.

When the two kids left her courtyard, they were filled with gratitude, but Lynn Naya turned away so as not to accept their thanks.

After that incident, Lynn Naya often took the busiest road with the most vendors on her way home. She couldn’t afford expensive things, but she was happy to exchange her dried fruit or nuts for small trinkets. Sometimes, she would even trade bran for necessities like tung oil or soapberry.

She knew what she was doing wouldn’t change the world, but it made her feel good.

Yeah, as long as I’m happy, that’s all that matters.