In the village, children as young as three or four, as soon as they could walk, started helping their families with chores to some extent. This was especially true for girl children like Shuqi. But Shuqi was different. From the time she was two and could speak fluently, Granny Yu began teaching her to read and write. When it came to Shuqi's food and clothing, Granny Yu always did her absolute best to provide her with the finest, because she had said that she did not care for Shuqi to become a great person of extraordinary status, but only wished for the little child to understand principles and know people well.
Shuqi learned a wide variety of subjects: arithmetic, essays, medical pharmacology, cooking, and needlework. As long as Shuqi did not reject them, Granny Yu taught her everything she knew.
Learning medicine was Shuqi's own choice. Perhaps it was because she had been accompanying Granny Yu and handling medicinal herbs since her earliest memories, and besides, she seemed to have a natural affinity for plants. Thus, compared to arithmetic and essays, medical pharmacology was much easier for Shuqi to learn.
As for her natural affinity for plants, it was quite a coincidence. Remembered that one day, Granny Yu had taken a request from an apothecary's shopkeeper to gather a batch of top-grade herbs. Granny Yu managed to forage and bring them back, but sabotage by hostile people in the same village caused that batch of herbs to lose their original medicinal properties.
Just as Granny Yu was worrying over the herbs, Shuqi picked up a withered, drooping herb, and then Granny Yu watched with her own eyes as the herb, which was already beyond saving, actually came back to life bit by bit in Shuqi's hands.
With an innocent look, Shuqi said, "Granny, the medicine is all better, look!"
After recovering from her shock, Granny Yu grabbed Shuqi's hand and asked hastily, "Shushu, you... how did you do that?"
"I didn't do anything, it just got better by itself." Her expression was entirely matter-of-fact, as if this were the most ordinary thing in the world.
Granny Yu: "......"
When she originally found her on Tianyu Mountain, Granny Yu had actually had her doubts, because although Tianyu Mountain looked majestic in the distance and lush with greenery, year after year virtually no one could climb up it, and the villagers' usual activities were confined to the area at the foot of the mountain. Therefore, to suddenly find a child halfway up the mountain meant that the child's origins were bound to be extraordinary. Thus, after hesitating for a moment, she resolutely brought the child back to the village, yet she never expected this extraordinary nature to transcend the natural laws of humankind.
"The matter of the herbs coming back to life, Shushu must not speak of it to anyone, do you understand? Granny knows Shushu understands what Granny means, right?" Realizing that Shushu was not ordinary, Granny Yu gave her a solemn injunction. Seeing that the child agreed, Granny Yu finally let out a sigh of relief. She stroked Shushu's head and told her to go rest off to the side.
From that day on, Granny Yu strictly ordered Shuqi to stay at home and study diligently, and never let Shuqi follow her up the mountain again.
Shuqi did not quite understand Granny's decision, but she did not talk back to Granny. She knew that the decisions Granny made were for her own good, so she accepted them very obediently, doing only what she could within her power every day to help lighten Granny's burden.
Aside from going up the mountain every day to gather herbs, Granny Yu also taught Shuqi with even greater care.
Everyone in the village knew that Granny Yu was a capable person, but she had a rather aloof personality and preferred to walk alone. No one knew her past, save for a few elderly people in the village who knew that Granny Yu had arrived in the village one morning thirty years ago, and at that time had spent a huge sum of money to buy that patch of land at the foot of Tianyu Mountain, building a thatched cottage that caused a sensation throughout the village—there was no telling how many people looked on with envy and jealousy.
It was said that at the time, some good-for-nothings in the village saw that Granny Yu was alone and moreover a woman of great beauty, so they had plenty of designs on her, but each time they were mercilessly suppressed by Granny Yu's martial might. It was only from that time on that everyone learned that although the old woman was merely a woman, she was not someone to be trifled with.
Fortunately, although Granny Yu was difficult to get along with, she was also a person who observed propriety; otherwise, judging by the actions of those good-for-nothings in the village, Tianyu Village truly would not have known peace.
Granny Yu was someone who could match many men in the village combined. Therefore, back then, when Granny Yu decided to raise little Shuqi all by herself, the village chief readily agreed without a single objection.
How could he not agree? Even though Granny Yu spoke to you with a loving expression, the look in her eyes conveyed: "This old woman is informing you, not discussing it with you; weigh it yourself," and that oppressive aura felt as real as substance. Besides, people had already stated that she would raise the child herself and wouldn't spend a single cent from the village.
Furthermore, just looking at the thatched cottage where Granny Yu currently lived: although the roof was made of thatch, there were three main rooms, and the floors were paved entirely with uniform dark grey bricks; the kitchen on the left was larger than their own family's, and all kinds of seasonings were available inside. In the back courtyard, there was also a cleared plot of land where medicinal herbs he didn't recognize were planted. One could say that Granny Yu possessed more family wealth than anyone else in the village.
The villagers might even need to ask her for favors one day—what kind of objection could he possibly have?
Having figured this out, the village chief had Shuqi's household registration certificate and other documents processed the very next day and handed them over to Granny Yu. This was the epitome of knowing how to act in accordance with circumstances.