The small courtyard house, or rather, a small courtyard with a single entrance, has the Spiritual Spring in the corner near the main hall. It's a round little pool with a spring in the middle, from which the spring water gushes out, forming a small fountain.
The first place Xiaomi went into was the main hall. Because she's so small, everything in the room seemed quite tall.
Luckily, she can still control herself to float up, and she successfully saw the plaque above the main hall.
"Serene Residence?" Xiaomi checked it several times to make sure she hadn't read it wrong. "Strange, isn't this a door plaque? Why is the door plaque not hanging above the door, but placed here?"
Not only that, but below the plaque was a long table, with two unnamed memorial tablets on it, along with an incense burner. Beside it, there was a bundle of incense and a fire starter.
Though she didn't know whose tablets they were, Xiaomi still controlled three sticks of incense to insert into the burner, lit them with the fire starter, and politely bowed three times.
Xiaomi left too quickly and didn't notice that the smoke rose and surprisingly drifted toward the unnamed tablets and got absorbed.
Besides the plaque and tablets, there was nothing else in the main hall. Xiaomi walked around briefly and went to other rooms.
Several bedrooms were fully furnished with beds and chairs, but since her body couldn't enter this space, even seeing these things didn't stir much feeling in Xiaomi.
There were also two empty rooms, which Xiaomi guessed might serve as storage.
However, what surprised Xiaomi the most was the medicine-like room near the entrance.
It had rows of cabinets, each with many small drawers, and there was a blank spot on each drawer.
"Could it be for storing things?" Xiaomi muttered to herself and then went outside to get a bag of seeds. She opened the package and poured the seeds into one of the drawers, and in the next moment, something miraculous happened.
The blank spot on the drawer slowly began to display a few words: Evening Primrose.
Xiaomi's eyes widened in disbelief, "Amazing, it can actually auto-identify!"
At the same time, the packaging bag in Xiaomi's hand slowly disappeared.
Xiaomi continued to stare, "It can even clear away trash!"
So magical, the changes in this space are incredible!
Just as Xiaomi was excitedly preparing to put all the seeds inside, she felt someone nudging her.
She had just exited the space when she heard her dad speaking, "Second Aunt, why does San Ni always sleep with no movement, even heavier than Iron Egg?"
She even felt both her hands being lifted.
Xiaomi, with eyes closed, swung a punch and then opened her eyes to glare at him: Silly Dad, interrupting my work!
As soon as Jiang Hu saw his daughter awake, he burst into laughter: "She's awake, she's awake. Look, Second Aunt, San Ni is awake."
Second Aunt held a bowl in her hand, and Xiaomi caught the scent of meat soup in the air. Turns out, quite a while had passed, and her dad had already cooked the sparrow meat.
Second Aunt glared at Jiang Hu reproachfully, "The child was sleeping well, why'd you wake her up?"
Jiang Hu picked Xiaomi up and showed her the bowl in Second Aunt's hand: "San Ni, look, dad made mom some meat soup. Now you and your brother can eat more too."
The bowl had half a bowl of meat, and after removing the head, innards, and claws of the sparrow, plucking the feathers, there might be half an ounce of meat at most, probably less.
The amount in Second Aunt's bowl was at least from three or four sparrows put together.
Despite the taste, seeing Second Aunt almost chew the bones shows that Jiang Hu had stewed it for quite a while.
Dad worked hard, Xiaomi loves you!
Xiaomi gleefully blew bubbles at Jiang Hu.
In her past life, she grew up in an orphanage; although the headmistress grandma treated them well, there were so many children that there wasn't much to go around.
To live anew, even in poverty, made her understand the sincerity of family affection even more.
Parents were loving, siblings were genuinely affectionate, she cherished this kind of family.
"Haha, Xiaomi wants to eat too, right? When Xiaomi grows up, dad will cook for you!" Jiang Hu laughed even louder.
Second Aunt watched the one-sided interaction between father and daughter, the warmth spilling over her face, then looked at the baby on the bed and reached out to touch him, showing that dad and mom didn't forget him.
It's not that they dislike the baby, rather, he spends most of the day sleeping with closed eyes, waking only when hungry or uncomfortable, hardly ever awake otherwise.
Compared to Xiaomi, who either looked around curiously with big eyes or blew bubbles and babbled as if talking.
This is why Second Aunt and Jiang Hu loved to tease her because whatever they said to Xiaomi brought amusing responses, almost as if she understood.
Jiang Hu waited until Second Aunt finished eating before taking the empty bowl out. Possibly because catching the sparrows eased his burdens, even his steps felt much lighter.
The eldest child and the second were eating in the kitchen as Jiang Hu returned, and they were just finishing the meat in their bowls.
There was still a small bowl on the table, similar in amount to theirs but less than what was in Second Aunt's bowl. However, after finishing their food, they didn't covet the bowl on the table at all.
Instead, they turned to Jiang Hu excitedly: "Dad, shall we catch more later? Catching sparrows was easy, and we can have meat more often!"
Jiang Hu nodded, "Yes!"
"But you stay home to catch, do it like I taught earlier, while dad takes some sparrows to the other villagers."
The eldest child's expression fell instantly, "Why, dad, we hardly caught them."
It's meat; he was reluctant to give it away.
Jiang Hu rubbed his head, "Eldest, the villagers gave us lots of wild vegetables these past few days, and before, they often took care of our family. We should remember their kindness, understand?"
The eldest seemed half-understanding, but he understood that if people treat us well, we must reciprocate.
"I get it, dad; you can take it to others. My sister and I will keep catching little birds at home!"
Second was still young and couldn't grasp these principles, but she knew what she needed to do, quickly nodded with her brother, indicating she would help.
Jiang Hu patted Second's head, "Good girl, we'll cook meat every day in the future."
The eldest and second chimed in unison, "Thank you, dad!"
Jiang Hu quickly finished his bowl. Today there was no rice mixed in, just sparrow meat with a bit of salt, boiled, with washed wild vegetables added in.
The taste was a bit gamey, but everyone ate contentedly.
Now the sparrows are back, it shouldn't be long before wild rabbits, wild chickens, and other small animals return from the mountains.
He'd learned hunting before, and when the time comes to catch some to sell in the town, he could trade them for money to buy warm clothes for the family.
Even though spring had just begun, Jiang Hu was already thinking about how to get through the winter this year.