Such a rare encounter must not be missed, and in his excitement, he couldn't wait to bind with it.
After binding, he realized that the owner of this soul was merely a baby.
But it only took a few days for him to accept this fact. A baby is like a blank piece of paper. As long as he guides her in secret and with her pure soul, she is bound to become a person of great virtue in the future.
Thinking about this, he didn't feel the urge anymore. After all, he could wait a thousand years, so why mind waiting a few more years?
——
In ancient farming households, there wasn't much night entertainment, and oil lamps were expensive, so once darkness fell, everyone just lay in bed.
Due to the shock of time travel, Zhao Zhitong didn't want to sleep alone these days and clung to Sun Mei to sleep together.
Sun Mei and Zhao Dong did not feel comfortable letting her sleep alone, so they agreed.
Sun Mei sprayed some floral water inside the mosquito net and fanned out the mosquitoes before letting down the net.
The freshly bathed little girl bounced in like a little ball, not forgetting to remind, "Mom, tomorrow I want to go to school with you. I want to play with Zhao Yue."
Sun Mei used to work as a cook in Landlord Wei's private school in the neighboring Xiaoyi Village, only cooking one meal a day, which was pretty easy. After Sun Mei's time travel, to avoid suspicion, she continued doing it.
Because there was no one at home to watch Zhao Zhitong, Sun Mei would take her along when going to cook at the private school.
Sun Mei pressed the edge of the mosquito net under the grass mat, then lay down beside Zhao Zhitong to coax her to sleep, "Alright, alright, hurry up and sleep."
Zhao Zhitong considered it arranged with her mom, snuggling into Sun Mei's embrace, closed her eyes, and fell asleep happily.
The next morning, not long after the roosters crowed, Zhao Dong and Sun Mei got out of bed. The movement seemed to wake the nearby Zhao Zhitong, who turned over and sat up: "Mom, are you going to school?"
"Not yet, it's still early. Sleep a bit more, I'll call you later."
Before Sun Mei finished speaking, Zhao Zhitong was already back under the quilt with her little butt sticking out, falling asleep again.
Farmers always got up early. By the time Sun Mei and Zhao Dong dressed and went to the yard, the village was alive with the sounds of barking dogs and people setting out.
Only when voices sounded in the courtyard did Zhao Zhitong climb out of bed, push open the door, and saw her mom seeing off Tian Cuixia: "Mom, are you leaving?"
"Oh my, why the hurry? It's still early."
After sending off Tian Cuixia, Sun Mei scooped Zhao Zhitong up as she returned, heading inside, "Let's get dressed first. How can you run outside wearing only a bellyband? Aren't you shy?"
"Eh, why is Dad pushing the cart?" Zhao Zhitong asked, watching Zhao Dong busy in the yard.
"Your dad is going to earn money."
Today was market day, so Zhao Dong was going to sell bamboo baskets and look for business opportunities.
In summer, the days were long, and farmers rose early. If they were going to the market, they'd get up even earlier, and so Zhao Dong planned to leave early.
By then, he had already piled the bamboo baskets onto the cart.
Sun Mei had made pancakes, boiled a pot of water, and brewed three bowls of egg tea with a spoonful of sugar. Zhao Dong quickly drank the egg tea, took the pancakes, and left in a hurry.
"Tongtong, come back and eat your egg."
Standing at the door, Zhao Zhitong watched longingly in the direction Zhao Dong left, only turning back and running to the kitchen when she heard Sun Mei call her.
"Mom, I also want to go to the market."
Sun Mei placed the egg tea on the dining table, turned to lift the little one onto a stool, gave her a spoon, and let her eat herself.
She laughed at Zhao Zhitong's words: "You want to go everywhere. Your dad is going to earn money, what would you do?"
Zhao Zhitong: "I want to earn money too."
"You? Haha, you're more likely to spend money than earn it." Sun Mei didn't take Zhao Zhitong's words seriously and turned to enter the kitchen.
She planned to knead some dough so that after returning from school, the dough would have risen enough to steam buns.
In ancient times, there was no yeast for steaming buns; they used old dough as the leavening agent. The old dough was from the last time buns were steamed, and it was left to ferment, so it was also called old dough or old yeast, which most farm households kept.
Having just split from the family, they didn't have any old dough and hence hadn't steamed buns, eating pancakes every day was tiresome.
And just now Tian Cuixia came to deliver old yeast. Yesterday during a chat, Sun Mei casually asked about it, unexpectedly, she brought it over today.
Sun Mei couldn't help but sigh in her heart, this Tian Cuixia is really a warm-hearted person.
——
Going to the private school to cook wasn't that early, so after kneading the dough, Sun Mei washed clothes in the courtyard because Zhao Zhitong had detergent in her space, so Sun Mei seldom washed clothes by the river.
Meanwhile, Zhao Zhitong squatted at the doorstep, playing by herself.
At this moment, she suddenly heard crying and noisy talking. She looked up, searching for the source, and saw several adults standing at the gate of her eldest uncle's courtyard.
Zhaozhai Village was the largest among several villages in the vicinity, with a total of sixty-nine households, and the houses were built closely together.
The courtyard Zhao Dong's family now lived in was near the village's edge, and the yard that Ms. Zhu and her children were assigned wasn't far from them, both on the same alley with just two households in between.
Sometimes, at home, they could hear Ms. Zhu yelling at or hitting her children, so Zhao Zhitong knew that this big aunt was very fierce.
At that moment, she assumed that aunt was hitting a child again, upon hearing the crying.
And indeed, the next second, she saw her aunt dragging a little girl out of the house with one hand, followed closely by two boys running out.
These three children were her aunt's ones. Zhao Zhitong recognized them; the girl was called Zhao Ya, and the boys were Zhao Cheng and Zhao Yu.
Zhao Ya clung tightly to Zhu Sanniang's arm, crying her heart out: "Mom, mom, don't sell me. I'll behave. I won't eat. Mom, sobbing, I beg you, mom."
Following behind, Zhao Cheng and Zhao Yu also cried, begging, "Mom, don't sell sister, don't sell sister."
"What are you crying for? Don't you want to eat meat? If sister gets sold, we'll have money for meat," Zhu Sanniang coldly pried Zhao Ya's hands apart and heartlessly shoved her towards the human trafficker in the lead.
Zhao Yu held onto Zhu Sanniang, looking at his helpless sister, crying and pleading, "We won't eat meat, mom, don't sell sister."
The human trafficker grasped Zhao Ya, glancing at the family, chuckled, and said, "Stop crying. Your sister can't have a good life here. Becoming a maid in a wealthy family is better than having your whole family starve."
Speaking, the trafficker checked Zhao Ya and, finding no physical defects, nodded contentedly and pulled out silver from her bosom, handing it to Zhu Sanniang: "Three taels of silver, keep it well. I'll take the person. If you have more to sell, come find me. Boys go for five taels each."
Saying this, she glanced at Zhao Cheng and Zhao Yu, scaring them into forgetting to cry.
Not far away, Zhao Zhitong, upon seeing the trafficker take her crying cousin away and hand over money to the aunt, was so scared that she stood up, yelled, and dashed back home.