Chapter 144
Chapter 144
After calming the miners, Xiao Che sent Long Xia back to the estate to mobilize the guards and transport supplies.
Carrying Jin Bao, he prepared to inspect the stone building behind the barracks.
The scout had said all the gold smelted here was stored inside. Xiao Che would not rest easy until he saw it for himself.
Jin Bao, however, did not want to leave.
Her gaze remained fixed on the miners.
The hundreds of men looked like clay figures freshly dug from the earth.
Their ragged clothes had long since lost their original color. Sweat, gold dust, and black mud had hardened the fabric into stiff slabs.
Scars covered every patch of exposed skin. There were large burns, thin cuts, and, most of all, lash marks. Time had turned the wounds from bright red to dark crimson before dust buried them beneath another layer of grime.
Their straw sandals had worn through, leaving several toes exposed.
Every man was skin and bones, with sunken eyes and a numb, vacant expression. There was not a trace of greed for the gold in their eyes. They looked like nothing more than empty shells that happened to breathe.
Like walking corpses, they lived one day at a time, doing nothing but enduring.
They looked even more wretched than the Xiao Family had during last year’s exile.
Noticing something wrong with Jin Bao, Xiao Che gently rubbed her little head.
“What’s wrong, Daughter? What are you staring at?”
Jin Bao sniffled.
“Daddy, Baby wants to talk to them. Is that okay?”
Xiao Che looked in the direction of her gaze, unable to understand what had come over his daughter.
“Why do you want to talk to them?”
Jin Bao could not explain it. Her chest felt tight and heavy, and she was deeply unhappy. Somehow, she felt that talking to them would ease the ache in her heart.
“Please, Daddy?”
She did not know how to put her feelings into words, but she knew how to wheedle. She wanted to beg Daddy to let the miners leave and begin new lives. Yet she also knew he needed people to work the gold mine, so they could not go.
If they had to stay, she wanted to make it up to them in every way she could.
Xiao Che had no choice but to leave Ye Qi behind to watch over her while he went to the stone building alone.
The miners remained where they stood, not daring to approach Jin Bao.
In their hearts, she was a divine maiden. They were too filthy to risk soiling her.
Jin Bao slowly walked among them instead. She even reached out and took the hand of a man whose hair had already turned gray.
“Grandpa, can you tell Baby why you’re unhappy?”
In truth, the man was not as old as Xiao Che.
Hard labor in the mine, poor food, little sleep, and the overseers’ abuse had aged him long before his time. Even if the mine had not changed hands, he would not have had many days left to live.
Jin Bao’s words flowed into his heart like a clear mountain spring.
He had barely spoken since being captured and brought here to mine. All he heard were the overseers’ curses and beatings. Her question was the warmest thing anyone had said to him in the past year. Only now did he remember that he was still human.
A human being ought to feel joy and anger, sorrow and delight. But did he?
He no longer felt pain when the whip struck him, nor happiness when a coarse grain bun filled his stomach.
The man slowly knelt before Jin Bao.
From inside his clothes, he took out a polished wooden hairpin and offered it to her.
“Star Maiden, this belonged to my wife. It has been my only comfort this past year. Whenever I touch it, I remember that I still have people to care about in this world. But I don’t think I have much time left. Would you please keep this hairpin for me? If you happen to meet my wife one day, please give it to her and tell her I never forgot her or our children.”
The man did not know whether his wife and children were still alive. This was simply his final wish.
Jin Bao reached out and accepted the hairpin.
Its polished sheen made it obvious that someone had often held and rubbed it.
“Grandpa, Baby will. What’s your wife’s name? Where does she live?”
The man froze. Home? Did that home still exist?
After the tremendous snowfall last year, had their house collapsed? Even if it had survived, had refugees from elsewhere flooded into his village to burn, kill, and pillage?
In the end, he still gave Jin Bao his wife’s name and address.
She committed them firmly to memory.
“Grandpa, Baby will keep the hairpin safe for now. But Baby hopes you’ll get to give it back to Grandma yourself one day.”
Two streams of tears slid down the man’s face as he kowtowed to Jin Bao.
By now, being worshiped had become an ordinary part of Jin Bao’s life. She did not think there was anything strange about it. Whenever someone bowed to her, she felt comfortable all over, as if something warm were slowly flowing into her body.
Jin Bao could not figure out what it was, but she had no intention of dwelling on it.
“Grandpa, you still haven’t told Baby why you’re unhappy. What can Baby do to make all of you happy?”
The man wiped away his tears and rose from the ground.
“Thank you, Star Maiden. I am already very happy.”
Jin Bao tilted her little head, confused.
Daddy and Second Brother had said these poor people left their homes because they were hungry.
Shouldn’t eating their fill be what made them happy? Why had giving her a hairpin made this man happy?
Jin Bao did not understand. Grown-ups’ feelings were far too complicated.
What made her happiest was filling her belly and staying with the family she loved most.
With that thought, Jin Bao reached into her little satchel and pulled out a small potato.
She carried potatoes wherever she went.
That way, she would never go hungry.
Whenever she wanted to eat, she could simply find a place and grow more.
Now she would share her happiness with everyone here and make them happy too.
“Uncles, Baby is happy whenever Baby’s tummy is full. Will you be happy if your tummies are full too? Baby will grow potatoes for you now. Once you eat lots and get lots of sleep, you’ll be big and strong! Auntie Lu says you have to eat and drink your fill before you’ll have the strength to work.”
The miners had already surrounded Jin Bao.
They formed several rings around her, with men in the back standing on tiptoe to see. The space was limited, the crowd enormous, and there was only one Jin Bao. Many of them could not see the power she displayed.
Ye Qi shielded her at the center and refused to let anyone press too close.
Even so, many people watched with their own eyes as Jin Bao tossed the dirt-covered lump onto the ground, dug a hole, and buried it.
A cluster of lush green shoots immediately emerged from the spot.
In the blink of an eye, the greenery began turning yellow.
Jin Bao raised a small hand. The withered plant tore itself free of the earth, bringing a string of dirt-covered lumps with it.
Each was the size of a grown man’s fist, and some were even larger.
Cries of disbelief erupted from the crowd.
The people in the back did not know what had happened, but the commotion ahead made them push forward for a look. The scene nearly descended into chaos. If Ye Qi had not been protecting Jin Bao, the crowd might have trampled her.