The empire and government were strong, and price control was reasonable. The price of rice wasn’t costly. A bag of rice was only 40 cents, which was less than 5 cents per jar. The problem was that her family was broke, and they had five mouths to feed.
But no matter how poor they were, they had to rely only on themselves. Other people could help, but they would be in debt. Gongyu Mingxi agreed with Yan Lingsu’s reasoning. “You did the right thing. We already owe Granduncles and Grandmother Zuo a huge favor.”
Yan Lingsu let her mother rest on the bed. She then put away her things and asked Gongyu Hao to take off his coat. “I’ll go wash the clothes first. I will dry them out at night, and you can wear them tomorrow.
“Dinner is ready. Qixun was worried that you guys would be hungry, so she decided to cook some dry food. Second brother, are you hungry?
“There are still two pancakes leftover from when Grandmother Zuo brought them. I can warm them up while I cook.”
In the afternoon, Gongyu Hao had purchased four cakes while in town. They cost two yuan each, and his mother only ate one. He had eaten the three remaining cakes, so he wasn’t hungry.
Gongyu Hao waved his hand. “I’m not hungry. We can have dinner together later. Get a pillow for your mother. You can leave the clothes over here. I’ll wash them later.”
Yan Lingsu went to get some cakes and poured two bowls of water for her mother and brother. “Warm your bodies first. I washed the clothes while I was at it.”
When Yan Lingsu went to wash the clothes, Gongyu Mingxi asked Yan Qixun, “Do you still have a fever? Are you feeling better?”
Yan Qixun replied, “I’m feeling much better. I’m fine. You don’t have to worry. I helped Lingsu and Lingyu clean the house earlier.” Only then did Gongyu Mingxi feel at ease.
If Yan Qixun were still ill, she would have to spend money to treat her fever, and she did not have the money to get medicine to treat the fever.
Although Yan Lingsu had studied medicine with her grandfather at a young age, Gongyu Mingxi felt that her third daughter was not skilled enough to check someone’s pulse and give a prescription.
Gongyu Hao noticed that his two sisters, Yan Qixun and Yan Lingyu, were in good spirits. He then playfully asked them, “I just fell, and the both of you didn’t even feel sorry for me. You even mocked me. Now, how should I punish the two of you? I did mention that I would let you have a good taste of some fruit I bought, but not anymore.”
Yan Lingyu had a playful smile on her face. “It’s almost winter. How are you able to buy fruit? Even if they were available, we couldn’t afford them.”
Yan Qixun agreed. “That’s right. I’ve read about it in books. Don’t lie to us.”
Gongyu Mingxi laughed and said, “You can’t say that. You’ve only read very few books. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Although Gongyu Mingxi was not proficient in chess, calligraphy, and painting, she had learned about them. When she was young, her family was relatively wealthy. Her family had hired a female teacher to educate her personally. She was proud of her knowledge and talent. Hence why she said that to Yan Qixun.
Yan Qixun did not understand her mother’s thoughts. She thought to herself, ‘Isn’t she a scholar? I specialize in science, I can’t write poems or songs, but I can still appreciate them.’
‘My father is a scholar, and my father highly praises my elder brother’s studies. Yuhao, however, does not like studying. Instead, he is extremely talented in martial arts.’
The Gongyu family was a prestigious family with high social status. Gongyu Jin was the only male child of his generation. Although he had a son, his son passed away before getting married. He only had his daughter, Gongyu Mingxi. So, when Gongyu Hao was born, and after taking his grandfather’s surname, his grandfather doted on him to the extreme and had high hopes for him.
Gongyu Hao did not like to study, so his grandfather tried to teach him some medical skills. Unfortunately, Gongyu Hao was not very interested, but he was talented in martial arts, which he nurtured his body.
When his mother mentioned reading, Gongyu Hao immediately changed the subject. He did not know how he did it, but two large peaches appeared in his hands all of a sudden. He waved them in the air. “Who said that there are no fruits during the winter? Look here. Want a bite?”
This shocked his mother and his two sisters. They were astounded for a long while until Gongyu Mingxi asked, “How on earth? Where did you get those peaches?”
Gongyu Hao chuckled and stroked his hair. “Mother, you might not believe it, but something happened last night. I don’t know why, but I remembered something from my past life.
“It must have been Meng Po, who cut corners while making the Soup of Forgetfulness. This must be a side effect. I can remember things from my past life.
“I wanted to tell you when we went to town, but there were too many people around, so I didn’t mention it. These peaches are from my past life. There are many more. There are other fruits too. What would you like to eat? Let me see if I can get it.”
His mother and both his sisters were silent. It was all quite shocking.
“Wait a minute. Are the memories from my past life still available? Can I gain access to it?” Yan Qixun asked.
“So it isn’t just me? Second Brother also remembers things from his past life.”, Yan Lingsu added.
Gongyu Mingxi then said, “Son, I also remember things that happened in my past life.”
Something was not right. Was this a good omen or a bad omen? It was supposed to be a good omen.
Although Gongyu Mingxi was shocked to recall what had happened in her past life, she accepted it as she had almost a full day to process it. She was also worried about her family, so she didn’t have much time to think about it too much.
In her past life, Gongyu Mingxi was born into a prestigious family. She became famous at a young age. Her beauty and talent took the world by storm. She did not have any children in the latter part of her life. She was carefree and easy-going by nature. Although she felt sad, God had compensated her with both sons and daughters in her current life.
Making a living in the present was all she wanted to think about now. After all, she has several children to take care of. However, it was okay for her to have memories of her past life, but this weird thing happened to her son too, and this was strange. Gongyu Mingxi couldn’t help but think about it some more. However, it was pointless to worry about such a mysterious matter.
Before dwelling further about the past life, Gongyu Hao mentioned hiding this peach in his previous life. However, the peach mysteriously appeared out of thin air. Where could he have hidden it? Was it possible that things from her past life be brought over to her current life? The ancient legends have never mentioned something like this before.
After Yan Qixun’s shock, she was overjoyed. Since her second brother could bring over things from his past life, does that mean she could also access her pocket dimension? As she mentioned before, after working so hard the whole day, she still felt the existence of her pocket dimension.
As long as her pocket dimension was accessible, supporting her family wouldn’t be a problem. Back then, she was influenced by some space novels. She suddenly had a notion and wondered if she also transmigrated. If so, the equipment and things in her pocket dimension should be well-stocked up.
Apart from silver and jade, Yan Qixun also had gold bars. She was never short on money, so naturally, she stored a lot of it within the pocket dimension. Other than gold bars that were worth a few million dollars, just the broken pieces of silver alone were three to four dollars per gram. She had bought a total of three hundred thousand dollars worth into the pocket dimension.
One kati in her previous life was equivalent to one kati and six taels in this current life. Based on the current measurement system, the silver she had was close to two thousand and six hundred taels of silver in this life!
Now was not the time to think about these things. She was curious that her second brother had also recovered the memories of his past life.